Sheepskin Gifts & Alpaca Too opens at Montgomery Mall in Bethesda

Sheepskin Gifts & Alpaca Too has opened at Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda for its annual extended seasonal run. There's a chill in the air these nights, and this store's arrival every year reminds us that Black Friday and the holidays are just around the corner. That's the store's prime time, along with the frostier early months of the year - and believe it or not, we're less than two months from the start of the Christmas season at 12:00 AM on November 1. Look for Sheepskin Gifts and Alpaca Too on Level 1 of the mall, in the former Tesla space.

Parent company of Rockville bowling alley files for bankruptcy

The parent company of Rockville Pike bowling alley Pinstripes has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, it announced yesterday. Located at Pike & Rose in the White Flint area, Pinstripes opened in 2017. The national Pinstripes chain closed several locations across the country as it made the bankruptcy announcement. But the Pike & Rose location is one that is among those that will continue operating for now.

"We will keep operating as usual - welcoming guests, hosting events, and supporting our remaining team members," Pinstripes said in an online message. "Your gift cards and event deposits remain valid at continuing locations, and this process will allow us to emerge stronger and continuously focused on providing exceptional experiences for our guests and partners." Pinstripes went public as a company just two years ago, but has run into fiscal difficulties since that time. According to Nation's Restaurant News, the company's liabilities to creditors are currently as much as $500 million.

Shiki Bistro "coming soon" to Montgomery Mall in Bethesda

Shiki Bistro is "coming soon" to Westfield Montgomery Mall in Bethesda. It will be located on Level 3 of the mall, across from the AMC Theatres Montgomery 16 cineplex. Shiki Bistro describes itself as "An Exquisite Culinary Symphony of Japan and Thailand. Shiki is not just a restaurant—it’s a celebration of two of Asia’s most beloved cuisines. We seamlessly blend the refined artistry of Japanese culinary traditions with the vibrant, spice-forward soul of Thai cooking, creating a dining experience that is both familiar and thrillingly unexpected."

The restaurant will offer an optional omakase experience for the adventurous diner, where the chef serves a tasting menu of his or her choice.  It will also host a happy hour and "Late Night Bites," with discounted signature sushi rolls and cocktails. Shiki Bistro will open this winter.

Human BioSciences fleeing Montgomery County for West Virginia

The hits just keep on coming for Montgomery County. Its moribund economy took another cannonball to the gut yesterday. Human BioSciences announced it will be the latest company to move its corporate headquarters out of Montgomery County to a lower-tax jurisdiction in the region. It will move its current HQ from 940 Clopper Road in Gaithersburg to wild, wonderful West Virginia. 

The blow is an especially painful one for the County, as the biotech industry is the only bright spot in MoCo's private sector economy. According to the Maryland Department of Labor, all Human BioSciences employees are being offered positions at the new West Virginia facility, meaning that the taxable revenue of any MoCo residents leaving with the company will also be lost to the County's coffers.

It says quite a bit about the state of business in Montgomery County and Maryland that a biotech firm would leave. Remember, the County and State both provide financial incentives and tax breaks to the biotech sector, decisions made decades ago by smarter leaders that allowed for the creation of a strong life sciences presence in the I-270 corridor. In recent years, that strength has begun to weaken. It hasn't been helped when you have the state legislature and Governor Wes Moore wallop firms that are immersed in technology with a new 3% tech tax, as of July 1 this year. 

The tech tax is piled on top of the fact that Montgomery County already suffers from the highest tax and fee burden in the region. We've seen the results over this century, as companies like Discovery Communications have fled. Only a week ago, Rocket Money announced it was moving its HQ from Silver Spring to Washington, D.C. 

Meanwhile, Northern Virginia has been cleaning our clock, Hoovering up the corporate HQs of Northrop Grumman, Amazon HQ 2, Nestle, Corporate Executive Board, Hilton Hotels, Lidl, Gerber, Lego, Intelsat, CoStar, Volkswagen, Blackboard, and General Dynamics. This is the direct result of decisions made by failed leaders who have no clue about the world of international business circa 2025. Heckuva job, Brownie!

Thief trolls for valuables in Rockville parking garage

Rockville City police are on the lookout for a man who allegedly spent the night in a parking garage seeking to steal valuables from inside the vehicles parked there. The suspect was in the garage between 6:45 PM on August 26, 2025, and 7:00 AM the next morning. Surveillance camera footage allegedly shows him checking the door handles of vehicles in the garage, and taking property from inside of them. Some of the vehicles were unlocked.

Police describe the suspect as a Black male of unspecified age, with a medium build, tall, thick hair and a thick goatee. He was wearing black pants, a black shirt, and a green hat, and carrying a black backpack. If you can identify the suspect, or have any other information about this incident, call police at 240-314-8900.

Jaws 50th Anniversary screening at Regal Rockville Center this Saturday

Jaws, the summer blockbuster that created the summer blockbuster, turned 50 this year. To celebrate, many theaters around the country are bringing the Steven Spielberg classic back to the big screen. Regal Cinemas Rockville Center at 199 E. Montgomery Avenue will be screening the film this Saturday, September 13, 2025, at 1:00 PM. Tickets are limited, and available online. I'm not sure I understand why many of these screenings have been scheduled for the fall, though; Jaws was and is very much a summer movie.

Assault at apartment complex in Rockville

Montgomery County police responded to a report of a 2nd-degree assault in the Twinbrook area of Rockville on September 5, 2025. The assault was reported in the 12900 block of Twinbrook Parkway at 4:14 PM last Friday. It took place in the parking lot of a garden apartment complex on that block.