Robbery at Rockville bus stop

Rockville City police responded to a report of a robbery at a bus stop in broad daylight on February 25, 2025. The robbery was reported at a bus stop in the 700 block of Rockville Pike at 1:30 PM. Police have not released a description of the suspect, but identified the getaway car used as "a white passenger car." If you have any information that could help detectives solve this case, call 240-314-8900.

Assault in Rockville parking lot

Rockville City police responded to a report of an aggravated assault on Rockville Pike yesterday afternoon, February 23, 2025. The assault was reported at 4:35 PM Sunday. It took place in a commercial parking lot in the 1000 block of Rockville Pike.

Buy Buy Baby's last day in Rockville is Tuesday

Buy Buy Baby is saying Bye Bye to Rockville this week at 1683 Rockville Pike at Congressional Plaza. And this time, it's likely for good. Tuesday, February 25, 2025 will be the last day at this location, and your last chance to take advantage of the closing sale. 

Buy Buy Baby tried closing for good in the summer of 2023, when the oddly-named and unknown New Jersey company Dream on Me acquired the struggling chain, and planned to make it an online-only retail operation. It abruptly changed course that fall, and reopened some of the bricks-and-mortar locations, including this one. 

Closing time tomorrow night will truly be the end of an era, as the very first Buy Buy Baby store in America opened here in Rockville in 1996. You may almost be able to see Tower Records through your tears as you exit the store for the last time. He's reaching for "Crash," but - oh, last minute save! - he's wisely picking up "Pinkerton" instead. Into the yellow bag it goes! Buy Buy!

Electric Dodge Charger EV arrives in Rockville (Photos)

The dawn of the electric muscle car age is upon us in Rockville. DARCARS Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram of Rockville at 755 Rockville Pike has just received one of the first Dodge Charger EV coupes. It arrived a few days ago, according to a salesperson at the dealership. This is the Daytona Scat Pack Track version. While parent company Stellantis has expressed regret for its attempt to boost revenue via high prices in recent years, the $85,965 sticker price on this car will still induce shock to the faint of heart.

DARCARS says gasoline-powered V6 coupe and 4-door sedan versions will arrive later this year. Personally, I am thrilled with the new design that recalls the iconic 2-door 1969 Charger. Dodge has wisely made it available in orange. No word if "01" door numerals are an option.

TGI Fridays closes in Rockville (Video + Photos)

TGI Fridays has closed at 12147 Rockville Pike at the Pike Center in Rockville. The American restaurant chain that was founded on March 15, 1965 in New York City has filed for bankruptcy. Even dropping the "TGI" from the brand name - a memo few Americans ever got, and likely would have confused with a defunct Saturday Night Live knock-off that aired in the dawning years of the 1980s on ABC anyway - couldn't turn the chain's fortunes around. TGI Fridays closed 60 restaurants last fall, and it looks like another round of closures is quietly playing out now. Let's take a last look at Rockville's TGI Fridays:

The flagship TGI Fridays location that started it all at First Avenue and 63rd Street in the Big Apple has been considered by many recent business writers to have been America's "first singles bar." Only in the occasional creepy and awkward moment has the Rockville location been considered as such. But it was a reliable destination on the Pike for above-average creative cocktails, the famous Fridays Loaded Potato Skins, and just about any sports bar appetizer or entree you can imagine with a whiskey glaze applied to it. Now, unless you are up for a long drive to Tysons or Hanover, Maryland, you'll just have to hope that somewhere in the back of your freezer is a box of frozen Fridays delights you had bought from the freezer aisle at your supermarket.

An insider at the Montgomery County Council building reports that several councilmembers were exultant upon hearing the news of TGI Fridays closure. Having banned several ubiquitous American chains from the County, including Olive Garden, Texas Roadhouse, Cracker Barrel, and Waffle House, the existence of other big names like TGI Fridays, The Cheesecake Factory, Buffalo Wild Wings, Red Robin, and LongHorn Steakhouse has been one of the banes of the Council's existence this century.

Ironically, the departure of TGI Fridays from Pike Center refocuses attention on how the County Council was directly responsible for the shopping center's struggles in recent years. It was the Council's action to ban Walmart from opening any new stores in the County that tanked Pike Center's plan to reinvent itself with a super-high-traffic Superstore as anchor, after the moribund Montgomery County economy had left the property with empty storefronts. Upon learning that many more of their constituents - whom they privately refer to as "losers" and "suckers" - might soon be saving $21 a week on groceries, the Council swiftly moved to block the proposed Pike Center and Aspen Hill Walmarts by banning the chain altogether. Heckuva job, Brownie!

Chateau de Rockville bakery cafe update (Photos)

Here's an update on the Chateau de Rockville bakery and cafe, currently under construction at 1701 Rockville Pike at The Shops at Congressional Village. Permanent signage has just been installed above the storefront. They are hoping to open in February or March 2025. Yes, this is a sister location to the existing Chateau de Chantilly in Virginia. It will be right next door to another recent addition to the property, the Teso Life store.

Nothing Bundt Cakes opens in Rockville

Nothing Bundt Cakes is now open at 1032 Rockville Pike at Edmonston Crossing. The popular cake appeared in America back in the 1950s, but the innovation was really the pan that molds the cake's shape. Nordic Ware added a "t" to the German word "bund" for a pan that was designed to help a Jewish women's group in Minneapolis replicate a traditional, ring-shaped kugelhopf cake. Success on that effort was followed by wider adoption of the shape and recipe after a Bundt cake won the Pillsbury Bake-Off competition in 1966.

Thirty-one years later, Dena Tripp and Debbie Shwetz founded Nothing Bundt Cakes in Las Vegas. Today, it is the top specialty cake company in America, with over 600 locations. The Rockville location is open from 9:30 AM to 7:30 PM from Monday through Saturday, and from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM on Sundays. The opening here is great timing, as the chain is currently featuring a Reese's Chocolate Peanut Butter cake "while supplies last." It doesn't get any better than that!

Assault inside Rockville parking garage

Montgomery County police responded to a report of a 2nd-degree assault inside a parking garage at Pike & Rose on Rockville Pike last night, January 23, 2025. The assault was reported at 8:37 PM. Police were called to the Trade Street garage at 11860 Trade Street at the property.

White Flint McDonald's closes on Rockville Pike (Video + Photos)

McDonald's has closed at 11564 Rockville Pike in White Flint. The loss is not permanent, however. McDonald's is relocating into a new restaurant building on the former Arby's site just up the Pike at 11710 Rockvile Pike. I had expected they might make an overnight switchover, but it looks like the transition won't be as seamless as I thought. The new McDonald's will have something this one never did: a drive-thru.

Party City closing in Rockville

Party City is closing at 1500 Rockville Pike in Rockville. A closing sale is now underway at the store. Savings range from 10-50% off. Party City is closing all stores nationwide after four decades of operation. An auction will be held for the leases of almost 700 Party City stores next month, the company announced last Friday.

Rockville Wegmans now opening "late summer 2025"

The Wegmans store in Rockville is now anticipated to open in "late summer 2025," the company said in a job announcement linked to an online banner ad Friday. It is one of three Wegmans stores expected to open in the United States in 2025. Rockville's will be the smallest of the three at 80,000-square-feet, but will serve as the retail anchor of the new Twinbrook Quarter development. It appears it will not have the Market Cafe found in other, larger Wegmans locations, including the other two opening this year on Long Island and in Norwalk, Connecticut. 

Wegmans also announced that Rockville Wegmans customers will receive 90 minutes of free parking in the underground parking garage. Signage for the garage has already been installed.

Training for the more than 500 positions at the store is apparently quite intensive. It will begin long before the store opens, and will be conducted at an off-site location through June 2025. Some potential training locations for prospective Rockville Wegmans employees include the Wegmans stores in Frederick, Germantown, Woodmore, Washington, D.C., and Tysons, the company said. The Rockville Wegmans will be located at 1590 Rockville Pike, near the Twinbrook Metro station.

L&L Hawaiian Barbecue opens in Rockville

L&L Hawaiian Barbecue is now open at 785-G Rockville Pike, at the Ritchie Center shopping center. "Hawaii's Favorite Plate Lunch" invites you to "slither into 2025" here during the Year of the Snake. In 1999, the founders of L&L called their restaurant "Hawaiian Barbecue," assuming their future patrons on the mainland United States would be unfamiliar with the culinary history of the Hawaiian Plate Lunch. You, dear readers, won't suffer that ignorance, as you will be armed with this knowledge before visiting.

The Hawaiian Plate Lunch was an improvised invention of the islands' plantation workers during the 1800s, using leftovers packed into tins that had multiple compartments. Because the workers were of a diverse background, and tended to share their midday meals with their colleagues, the Plate Lunch evolved into a meal that usually contained the following elements: Rice, macaroni salad, and fish or chicken. 

Other dishes available on the menu include an L&L House Special BBQ Cheeseburger, the aptly-named Loco Moco with fried egg-topped beef burger patties, and a BBQ Beef Bowl. Hawaiians' love for SPAM is also well-represented, with the sushi-like SPAM Musabi and hearty SPAM Saimin noodle soup. Perfect for this weekend's weather. Another great addition to the dining lineup at Ritchie Center!

7-Eleven closes in Rockville

7-Eleven has closed at 1701 A-16 Rockville Pike, at The Shops at Congressional Village in Rockville. Windows are covered, and signage has been removed from the storefront. 7-Eleven opened at this location ten years ago. Can we blame this closure on Montgomery County's moribund economy? Yes. 

This past fall, 7-Eleven announced it would be closing 444 stores nationwide. However, it also stated that the locations getting the axe would be "underperforming" stores. So business at this location must have been below expectations, which would certainly reflect Montgomery County's stagnant economy and declining income levels. 

Inflation continues to hit those of lower incomes the hardest, and that is now the fastest-growing demographic in Montgomery County. The combination of moribundity and inflation has created stagflation in MoCo, and a longer drive to the remaining 7-Elevens north and south of here on the Pike.

Chateau de Rockville "coming soon" to Rockville Pike

Chateau de Rockville is "coming soon" to The Shops at Congressional Village at 1701 Rockville Pike. Signage posted in its future storefront describes the business as a bakery, and a dessert and coffee shop. Property owner IVEA had promised a new focus on attracting overseas restaurant chains to the shopping center, with the initial group largely representing Asian cuisines. Now Francophiles may also find themselves lured to the retail center, to visit the Chateau de Rockville. Incroyable!

Nothing Bundt Cakes sets opening date in Rockville

Signage has been installed over the future storefront of Nothing Bundt Cakes at 1032 Rockville Pike in Rockville. The bakery is now scheduled to open on January 6, 2024, according to Google. Nothing Bundt Cakes is currently featuring a candy-inspired Andes Peppermint Chocolate Chip cake for the holiday season. The shop will be located next to Uptown Cheapskate at the Edmonston Crossing shopping center.

PayMore opens in Rockville

PayMore has opened at 800 Rockville Pike, at the Golden Arcade shopping center. PayMore is a retail business that buys your old electronics - even if they are damaged - for cash. They will also wipe your data from the device to protect your security. This is PayMore's first Montgomery County location.