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!

Rockville construction update: The Pinnacle (Photos)

The Pinnacle, a senior living apartment complex, is now about four stories above street level in White Flint. Located at 11565 Old Georgetown Road, it will eventually rise to 17 stories. Inside will be 113 independent living apartments, 40 assisted-living units, and 48 units reserved for memory care and early-stage-dementia Bridge patients. Residents who are still independent will be right across the road from dining, shopping, and entertainment at Pike & Rose, and walking distance to the White Flint Metro station. The building itself will have its own 15,000-square-feet of restaurant and retail space, and will appear outwardly as a luxury apartment building, rather than a retirement or nursing facility. Developer Silverstone Senior Living anticipates a Q2 2026 delivery for the project.

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.

Rockville police apprehend alleged hit-and-run driver who struck 3 pedestrians in 2023

Rockville City police, in cooperation with other local law enforcement agencies, have located and arrested a Gaithersburg man they allege struck 3 pedestrians with his vehicle outside of 199 E. Montgomery Avenue in Rockville on December 14, 2023. The driver of the dark SUV that struck the victims drove away after what detectives determined was a deliberate vehicular attack. Police identified Walter Giovanni Marquez-Aviles, 44, of Gaithersburg as the suspect in the attack.

Yesterday at 10:15 AM, police located and arrested Marquez-Aviles in Hyattsville, Maryland. He has been charged with three counts of attempted murder and three counts of 1st-degree assault.

Rockville police thanked the public for their many tips that assisted with the investigation, and successful apprehension of the suspect. They also thanked the agencies that assisted, including the Montgomery County Police Department Repeat Offender Unit, and the U.S. Marshals Capital Area Regional Task Force.

Bartaco opening Rockville restaurant

Tacos will soon be back on the menu at Pike & Rose on Rockville Pike. Bartaco has just signed to open its first Maryland location in the former Nada space at 11886 Grand Park Avenue, according to signage posted in the windows. The national chain currently has restaurants in our region in Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia. A mostly-Mexican menu will have a few Korean dishes mixed in.

"With a white-washed interior, wanderlust-inspiring photography on the walls, woven basket light fixtures, and a sprawling bar at the center, [Bartaco] feels like it might belong on a beach in South America," Nashville Lifestyles wrote of its dining experience. The Reston Bartaco has a 4.2 out of 5 stars rating on Yelp, and the Bartaco at The Wharf holds a 3.8 star average.

Maryland legislature blocks public from testifying at hearing on Fairness in Girls' Sports Act

Maryland Del. Kathy Szeliga (R)

When is a public hearing not a public hearing? When the public is not allowed to testify at the hearing. That's going to be the case in Room 130 of the House Office Building in Annapolis on January 29, 2025 at 1:00 PM, when the Maryland House Ways and Means Committee holds a hearing on House Bill HB156, the Fairness in Girls' Sports Act. The hearing is one of several at which the committee has barred the public from being able to offer oral testimony. Only the sponsor of the bill, Del. Kathy Szeliga (R), will be allowed to testify during the hearing.

"I’m disappointed to inform you that the Committee has decided to NOT ALLOW oral testimony from citizens during the hearing," Szeliga wrote in an email to constituents yesterday. "This means I will be the sole voice presenting the overwhelming support this issue has garnered across Maryland. The positive response to my recent op-ed in The Baltimore Sun—spanning all demographics and party lines—demonstrates how much this common-sense legislation resonates with Marylanders."

If passed, HB156 would require "certain interscholastic and intramural junior varsity and varsity athletic teams or sports sponsored by certain schools to be expressly designated based on biological sex; prohibiting certain entities from taking certain adverse actions against a school for maintaining separate interscholastic and intramural junior varsity and varsity athletic teams and sports for students of the female sex; and providing that certain individuals have the right to bring a civil action under certain circumstances."

This proposal might delight or enrage you. Either way, your voice will not be heard during the hearing, 

We've seen in recent years that, as more citizens become engaged on certain issues like zoning and school curriculums, governing bodies put greater and greater restrictions on speech and participation in public hearings. The Montgomery County Council began to place a limit on the number of citizens who could speak during public hearings, for example, when this was never done in the past. In contrast, public hearings before the Washington, D.C. City Council and some jurisdictions in Northern Virginia literally continue into the night, until every person who wished to speak has been heard. Across the country, citizens have been given less time to speak, and even face eviction or arrest if their 1st Amendment-protected speech triggers megalomaniacal elected officials.

Those who wish to submit written testimony on HB156 can still use these instructions, and register to submit their comments, or to simply check a box that indicates support or opposition. But as any experienced activist can tell you, there is no substitute for the power of - and greater public and media attention to - oral testimony at hearings. Which is why your elected officials are trying to silence your voice - literally.