Store Reporter

Retail & Restaurant news for Rockville & Potomac. We know it all. And we like to share.

North Bethesda Market

New spa and Tex-Mex on Rockville Pike; Two restaurant closings in one week

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New spa opens on Rockville Pike

The Woodhouse Day Spa, under construction for more than a year at North Bethesda Market on Rockville Pike, is officially open for business. This is the first Maryland location for the Texas-based chain, which offers massage, skin care and mani/pedis as well as specialty services like warm spiced mud wraps and aromatherapy sleep treatments. Not on the spa menu: Anything to do with hair. “We didn’t want any whir of hair dryers or smell of hair chemicals to take away from the experience at our spa,” says franchise owner Peter Dychkewich, a former investment banker. “We paid great attention to design details, right down to the eight-foot mahogany doors. We want this place to feel like you’re in an old European manor house.” The grand opening party is happening this Saturday (Sept. 24th); click here for details.

 

 

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Almost time for Tex-Mex on the Pike

Chuy’s is set to open its doors Oct. 4 at Federal Plaza on Rockville Pike, where construction crews have been working all summer to renovate the former Ruby Tuesday space. This is the first Maryland location for the Tex-Mex chain, known for its made-from-scratch menu, fresh margaritas and kitschy decor. We’ve been hearing good buzz from readers who have tried Chuy’s in Virginia. For a preview of the menu, click here.

 

 

Park Potomac Fall Festival: http://www.parkpotomac.com/#/

 

 

 

MET Bethesda

 

Goodbye MET Bethesda & Hooters

In case you missed our special edition earlier this week: MET Bethesda, the upscale restaurant across from the ArcLight Cinema at Westfield Montgomery Mall, made an unexpected exit last weekend after less than two years in business. Click here for more on the demise of MET, the fifth restaurant to close at Montgomery Mall since May. Hooters on Rockville Pike also closed its doors last weekend after losing its liquor license in the wake of a fatal drunk driving accident.

 

 

Toy Castle Annual Sale ad: https://www.facebook.com/toycastlepotomac/?fref=ts

 

 

 

 roast-chicken

 

Ready for Rosh Hashanah?

If you’re hosting a crowd for the Jewish holidays this year, Potomac Grocer makes it easy. On the menu for Rosh Hashanah: onion-braised brisket, pomegranate molasses-glazed salmon, lemon honey roasted chicken, sweet potato-carrot tzimmes, noodle pudding and much more. Pre-ordering is recommended, but some dishes will be available à la carte while they last. Potomac Grocer, 10107 River Road, 301-299-4200. For the catering menu, click here. 

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Softest store at the mall

Here’s a sure sign that cooler weather is on the way: Sheepskin Gifts & Alpaca Too, a seasonal tenant at Westfield Montgomery Mall, has returned for the winter in a new space next to Brookstone. The store carries a surprising variety of gifts and clothing, from sweaters, shawls and coats to hats, gloves and boots for adults and kids. (Biggest draw for men: the sheepskin moccasins with gel soles, priced at $69.99). The store’s owners manufacture many of their own products; click here to see what else they carry.

 

 

 

On Cloud 9 Fall Back-to-School ad: https://www.facebook.com/On-Cloud-9-252148152907/?hc_ref=SEARCH

 

 

 

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Fish Taco and Bethesda spa near opening — plus bubble tea, Lululemon and ArcLight tickets

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Fish Taco platters

 

Fish Taco is almost ready

If you’ve been waiting for the opening of Fish Taco at the Wildwood Shopping Center, the time is almost here: Owner Francis Namin says he hopes to be in business by early March. This will be the second location for Fish Taco, whose first restaurant on Macarthur Boulevard has been hugely popular since it opened in 2013. Namin, who also owns Food Wine & Co. in downtown Bethesda, says a third Fish Taco will open shortly afterwards in that area. To hear his description of the Wildwood restaurant, click here for our Oct. 8 edition.

 

 

Woodhouse Day Spa scrub

 

New spa in North Bethesda

Woodhouse Day Spa is planning a late February opening at North Bethesda Market on Rockville Pike, where it will target the health-conscious customer base from neighboring Whole Foods and Seasons 52. This will be the first Maryland location for Woodhouse, a Texas-based chain with a presence in 18 states. The spa menu includes facials, massage, mani/pedis and lavish skin treatments like the Wild Lavender and Seaweed Sugar Glow shown here. For more on Woodhouse, click here.

 

 

Chouquette Chocolates www.chouquette.com

 

 

 

Tea-Do bubble teas

 

New place for bubble tea

A new bubble tea shop opened on Rockville Pike this week, in the former home of Yocake across from Wintergreen Plaza. Tea-Do, which has another location in Philadelphia, features a menu of light Japanese food as well as smoothies, specialty coffees and custom drinks with ingredients like lychee jelly, aloe, red guava, kumquat and Thai coconut. Yocake, a small family-run chain that specialized in cake and ice cream mash-ups, went out of business last summer.

 

 

Wills Decorating www.decoratemaryland.com

 

 

 

Girls playing dress-up

 

Tell us about your family’s favorites — and win FREE ArcLight tickets

For our upcoming Store Reporter Kids Issue, we’re asking readers to help us choose the best kid-friendly businesses in the greater Rockville/Potomac area. We want to hear about your favorite restaurants, toy stores, children’s clothing stores, after-school classes… all the local places that you and your kids enjoy. Send us your suggestions, and we’ll also enter you into this month’s drawing for FREE tickets to the ArcLight Cinema! To post your comments on our Facebook page, click here. To email them to us directly, click here. Update: We’ve already named the winners for this contest, but stay tuned to Store Reporter for more great giveaways.

 

 

Lululemon striped pants

 

On the Lululemon beat

Haven’t read anything interesting about Lululemon in awhile? We’re on it. In The New York Times this week, company founder Chip Wilson offers his views on punctuality, the Landmark leadership program, and also that time in 2013 when he blamed women’s thighs for those transparent Lululemon yoga pants. Wilson is no longer running Lululemon. But his family has a new clothing chain, Kit and Ace, that opened a store in downtown Bethesda last November. To hear what he has to say, click here.

 

 

Target CVS pharmacy

 

CVS starts Target takeover

This week CVS began its takeover of the pharmacy departments at Target stores nationwide. By the end of this summer, our local Targets will be sporting CVS signage (conveniently red, just like the Target logo) and staffed by CVS employees. If you’ve ever been stuck in that ridiculously long line at a CVS pharmacy — particularly the one at Cabin John Shopping Center — this may not necessarily be good news.

 

Peapod by Giant

 

Peapod pickup on the Metro

This week Peapod by Giant started testing a grocery delivery service at three D.C.-area Metro stations: Fort Totten, Glenmont and Vienna. Shoppers can order their groceries online, then pick them up as they exit the Metro between 4 and 7 p.m. Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays. The three participating stations have lockers to store the groceries and staffers available to help shoppers to their cars. If things go well with this six-month test, more stations will be added to the program.

 

 

New spa on the way to North Bethesda, Potomac jeweler returns, and another Asian market for Rockville — plus a Leila Jewels discount

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Woodhouse Spa massage

 

New spa on the way to North Bethesda

The Red Door Spa at Wildwood is about to get some serious competition: Woodhouse Day Spa, a Texas-based chain with more than three dozen locations nationwide, is on its way to the North Bethesda Market on Rockville Pike. The 6,000-square-foot spa will open this fall with a wide range of services from massages and mani/pedis to facials and “sleep treatments” (guided naps with aromatherapy and heated herbal compresses). The spa should mix well with some of the other health-oriented tenants at North Bethesda Market, including Whole Foods and Seasons 52. Click here to check out the Woodhouse website.

 

 

Robert Bernard Jewelers

 

Robert Bernard Jewelers partner to open new store

George Kaufmann, former co-owner of the Robert Bernard jewelry store at Potomac Woods Plaza, will soon be back in the jewelry biz. His new venture, Kaufmann Jewelers, is set to open in August on the ground floor of a condo building at Park Potomac — just around the corner from his former digs. Kaufmann, who closed Robert Bernard Jewelers last December after his business partner retired to California, says he wanted a fresh start as he brings son Corey into the business. “My own father, Herbert Kaufmann, had a store in D.C. from the 1940s on,” he says. “When I started doing business in Potomac in 2004,  I still had customers coming in who had gotten their engagement rings and bar mitzvah rings from my father. He would have been very happy that I’m bringing back the name in this new business.”

 

 

Leila gemstone necklace

 

Join us for some Pre-Mother’s Day shopping at Leila Jewels


Would you like some Mother’s Day gift inspiration — plus a chance to talk shop with the Store Reporter? Join us on Sunday, May 3rd from 2:00-4:00 p.m. for our Pre-Mother’s Day shopping event at Leila Fine Gifts & Jewels in the Cabin John Shopping Center. Say hello to the Store Reporter, enter a jewelry raffle, and take 15 percent off everything you buy — or 25 percent off a single item (like this gold vermeil “shaker” necklace with ruby crystals, $135). Use the discount for your mom, or buy something for yourself — we won’t tell. 

 

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New York Mart storefront

 

Asian market replaces Magruder’s in Rockville

New York Mart, an Asian grocery store based in Manhattan’s Chinatown, is scheduled to open this spring in the former Magruder’s space at College Plaza on Rockville Pike. We couldn’t find out much about New York Mart — their website is written entirely in Chinese, and no one answers the phones —  but the flagship store gets mixed reviews on Yelp, and it could be tough to win over new customers in an area that already has several Asian markets. Magruder’s, a family-owned grocery chain with a long history in the D.C. area, closed its last remaining stores in 2013. There’s still one store with the Magruder’s name in Washington, but it has new owners and sells only beer and wine.

 

 

ArcLight snacks

 

Congrats to the winners of our ArcLight Cinema ticket giveaway

Congratulations to Store Reporter readers Benjamin Alpert, David Chu and Andrea Savada, who won last week’s ticket giveaway to Beyond the Reach at the ArcLight Cinema at Westfield Montgomery Mall. Stay tuned for more great giveaways in upcoming issues of Store Reporter.

 

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