Goldfish Swim School opening on Rockville Pike

Goldfish Swim School, a swimming education program for kids, is opening a location at 1701 Rockville Pike. It will be in the Shops at Congressional Village. Goldfish promises "shiver-free pools that are a pleasant 90° all year long," snacks and necessary gear. A swim school is an interesting retail tenant, given the infrastructure commitment for both the school and the landlord.

IQ Tech opens at Montgomery Mall

IQ Tech has opened a kiosk for the holidays on Level 1 at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda. It is a hi-tech accessory you can attach to clothing, hats, etc., that displays images that change based on music and sounds around you.. See the video for a sample.

Kyoto Matcha opening today in Rockville

Kyoto Matcha Dessert is opening today at 33 Maryland Avenue at Rockville Town Square. This is a soft opening for Black Friday, for a special treat in-between doorbuster missions. Kyoto Matcha's desserts promote both matcha tea culture and traditional Japanese tea culture, the company says.

Their matcha tea is sourced from the Uji Matcha Supply Factory in Japan. Their philosophy is that of the modern expert on matcha, Mr. Matsushita, who advocates we "Let the tea return to the forest" - experiencing the beauty of the forest through the flavor of fine matcha tea.

Rockville gas station to be replaced with a new gas station, convenience store

The owner of the Gulf gas station at 801 Hungerford Drive, Petroleum Marketing Group, is proposing to demolish the station and redevelop the site. A new gas station with a convenience store has been proposed for the site by PMG.

Site plan

Site plan renderings show a 6-pump gas station with canopy, and a convenience store structure. The convenience store would be on currently-forested land on the property. No brand for the new station is indicated. With very limited parking, it does not appear to be a Wawa/Sheetz-scale operation. A community meeting on the project is scheduled for December 4, 2019, but no location or time information is currently given by the developer.

Rockville Baskin Robbins closing

This entire counter display at the
Baskin Robbins at Congressional Plaza
is up for bid when the store closes

Baskin Robbins is closing at Congressional Plaza on Rockville Pike. The contents of the ice cream shop are scheduled to be auctioned off after the closure. This is sad news, as this was the best Baskin Robbins location in the county, in my opinion, since the old Bethesda one on Arlington Road closed many years ago. If you're a big 31 Flavors fan like me, you can even buy the entire counter display and recreate it in your basement recreation room. It's a puzzling closure, as there always seemed to be customers whenever I stopped in to buy something here.

Photo courtesy Capitol Online Auctions

Robin Ficker leading Republican race for MD governor in 2022, poll says

Robin Ficker (center) is mobbed by
supporters after a 2017 speech in Rockville

Montgomery County attorney and activist Robin Ficker has won a Red Maryland poll that asked participants which potential Republican gubernatorial candidate they would vote for, if the 2022 GOP primary were held today. Ficker received 23.8% of the votes cast, beating current Lt. Gov. Boyd Rutherford, former Lt. Gov. Michael Steele and Congressman Andy Harris in the conservative website's poll.

Among other intriguing names on the ballot was Baltimore Orioles baseball legend Cal Ripken, Jr., who received only 0.3% as a write-in candidate. Other prominent potential candidates included State Senator Michael Hough, a highly-respected conservative who has raised his statewide profile with bipartisan efforts on sentencing and prison conditions; Brian Murphy, who excited many in the base with conservative bonafides on social issues when he challenged Gov. Bob Ehrlich in the 2010 primary - picking up a Sarah Palin endorsement in the process; and Maryland Commerce Secretary Kelly Schulz, a former state delegate who has been seen as a promising statewide candidate by many in the party for over a decade. Schulz managed a strong showing at 5.6% among a list of dozens.

Prominent names missing from the poll included Wheel of Fortune host - and Annapolis resident - Pat Sajak, former Maryland First Lady Kendel Ehrlich, and 2014 gubernatorial candidate Charles Lollar. Lollar, of Charles County, has a resume from central casting as a successful businessman and Marine veteran. One of the relatively few Maryland Republicans who can deliver a stemwinder of a speech, Lollar is one of several African-American GOP stars in the state who haven't received the support they should have from the party during election season.

Obviously, if Ripken or Sajak were to enter the race, they would instantly be frontrunners. Ripken in particular would have tremendous bipartisan appeal, but there's no indication he's even considering a run.

Ficker remains a force in Montgomery County politics, as the only figure to repeatedly defeat the MoCo political cartel in recent times, with ballot measures that have capped property tax increases and established term limits for County Executive and County Council. The Washington Post damaged Ficker's fortunes by entirely ignoring those triumphs. Instead of giving Ficker his fair paragraphs as a seasoned politician who would bring that same skill to addressing the County's many crises, and who had more impact on the County than his opponents, the Post bizarrely described him as a "heckler" through the entire campaign year.

Shooting gallery opens at Montgomery Mall

A new shooting range has opened at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda. Located on Level 2 at the Dining Terrace, Aim Point allows players to shoot at knock-down targets with guns that resemble assault weapons. This looks like a fun addition to the entertainment options at the mall, just in time for holiday shopping. It's also much more affordable than the flight simulator that just opened upstairs. As the range's motto exhorts, "Never give up!"