Rockville restaurants hit hard by new Montgomery County Covid-19 restrictions as cases, hospitalizations spike

Rockville restaurants already struggling through the coronavirus pandemic are facing another financial blow, as Covid-19 cases spike in Montgomery County ahead of what is expected to be a difficult winter. Many mom-and-pop restaurants, and even operators of chain businesses, have said they are struggling to turn a profit while surviving month-to-month with various government assistance programs. On Tuesday, the Montgomery County Council unanimously approved tougher Covid-19 restrictions, including the reduction of restaurant capacity to 25% effective yesterday at 5:00 PM.

The new restrictions limit gatherings to 25 people or less. 25% capacity restrictions will also apply to houses of worship, retail stores, museums and galleries, and gyms. Restaurants will now be required to maintain a record of all indoor and outdoor patrons, for at least 30 days, to assist with contact tracing. Information collected must include date, time, name of each patron and contact information.

Loss of indoor dining capacity comes just as plummeting temperatures make outdoor dining much less practical. Whether heaters and tents will in any way reduce that impact will be determined for the first time this winter. We are in uncharted waters in an industry that already has razor-thin profit margins in high-rent, high-tax, high-operating-cost, liquor-monopoly-controlled Montgomery County.

At the same time, there is no doubt the pandemic is taking a turn for the worse as winter approaches, as many had predicted. Maryland hospital beds are currently filled at a higher rate than during the summer coronavirus spike. All County hospitals were under Blue Alert Monday night, and at least one went to a full Red Alert Tuesday, forcing rerouting of emergency patients who require electrocardiogram-monitored beds. Yesterday, Covid-related hospitalizations in America reached a record high.

Simply Nutrition store sets grand opening date in Rockville

Simply Nutrition is set to celebrate the opening of its first bricks and mortar store in Rockville at 1098 Taft Street. A grand opening has now been scheduled for Thursday, November 12, 2020 at 9:00 AM, until 5:00 PM. An outdoor tent will be used, and social distancing protocols will be observed. The number of customers allowed into the store at one time will be limited due to Montgomery County Covid-19 regulations, and masks must be worn at all times on the premises.

A ribbon-cutting will be held at 12:00 PM that day. Participating will be representatives of the Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce and Rockville Economic Development, Inc. (REDI). Food trucks will be on-site between 11:00 AM and 4:30 PM. There will also be giveaways and raffles.

Simply Nutrition was founded by brothers Ryan Terko and Brandon Owens as Vitamins2You. After expanding beyond vitamins and supplements to other natural product categories like beauty and personal care, they rebranded as Simply Nutrition. A portion of their sales goes to help victims of opioid addiction.

You can RSVP for the grand opening online.

Gyuzo Japanese BBQ opens in Rockville

Gyuzo Japanese BBQ held a soft opening that completely sold out this past weekend at 33-B Maryland Avenue at Rockville Town Square. They are closed Mondays, but their initial operating hours will be Tuesday-Sunday 5:00-10:00 PM. Due to the high demand, the restaurant says reservations are highly recommended, and can be made online.

Montgomery Mall Apple Store to get facelift

The Apple Store at Westfield Montgomery Mall is getting some work done. A new illuminated logo sign will be added to the storefront, as well as new quartz exterior wall panels. It's not confirmed yet if the changes will be in place by Black Friday, or after the holiday shopping season.

MD Furniture to open Rockville store

Montrose Crossing is solidifying itself as an interior design and home furnishings destination on Rockville Pike. Recent tenant additions Home Depot Design Center and Value City Furniture will now be joined by MD Furniture. 

MD Furniture, which recently opened a store in Laurel, will take over the other half of the former Barnes & Noble building that Home Depot Design Center is in. The chain carries home furnishings, mattresses, bedroom furniture, chandeliers and accessories. 

Rockville funeral home converted into mini-mall signs another tenant

After a slow start, there's lease-up momentum at the Rockville funeral home-turned-mini-mall at 1170 Rockville Pike. Ironically, while it sat vacant for 19 months, tenants began signing on in the midst of the pandemic-related economic downturn this year. Architectural Ceramics is the latest to come onboard. It will join a GEICO agent office and Salon Lofts at the new retail center.

2020 Montgomery County election results show local political machine in full control

Montgomery County Election Results 2020

100% of Election Day-cast voting results were released by the Montgomery County Board of Elections as of 1:53 AM this morning, as well as some early voting tabulations. Analysis of the results follows below. No election-related unrest has impacted Montgomery County so far, as both Joe Biden and Donald Trump retained pathways to victory in the presidential race overnight, with Biden winning Maryland and holding the lead in electoral votes nationally as of this hour. 

Amazon Books boarded up
at Bethesda Row on election night

Amazon Books boarded up its windows at Bethesda Row Tuesday, and additional Friendship Heights businesses did the same. The 24-hour CVS Pharmacy at 7809 Wisconsin Avenue simply closed without explanation or boards. While police maintained a heavy presence around those key retail hubs, no additional businesses have followed in boarding up their windows.

CVS Pharmacy unexpectedly closes
election night in downtown Bethesda

Election results analysis

Montgomery County 2020 election results so far show the county's political machine in full control, with a majority of voters rejecting citizen-petitioned ballot questions, and endorsing a County Council ballot question that would allow their taxes to be raised higher than ever. It's unclear if voters knew approving Question A would end up giving them more and larger tax hikes, as the text of the question falsely made it appear to be a limit on taxation. But voters rejected Question B that would have actually placed a new limit on tax increases, despite having supported Robin Ficker's other tax cap ballot questions in the past.

Boarded-up businesses in
Friendship Heights

Also failing so far on the ballot is Question D, which would have eliminated the At-Large seats on the County Council, and realigned the body's structure into nine more-compact districts. Voters approved a competing measure by the County Council, Question C, which will keep the Council as-is, while adding two new district seats. 

Friendship Heights

It's unclear how Question C's approval will actually change the dynamics of leadership and representation for three reasons: First, by only adding two new districts instead of four, all seven districts will be larger than nine smaller ones. Second, the At-Large seats remain to counterbalance parochial interests, while likely remaining in the same geographical area downcounty, retaining a solid control over policy by downcounty politicians and their financial backers. Finally, the Council could choose to ignore the vote, and keep the status quo as it did when it overturned the will of the voters on the Ambulance Fee a decade ago.

Police cruiser parked inside the
Maryland-D.C. border in Chevy Chase

What is clear is that the Washington Post editorial board continues to hold increasingly-outsize sway over regional voting decisions. The Post has scored win after win in recent years, after a period when Montgomery County voters for a time exercised more independence in their decisions. Results so far show a majority of voters precisely following the advice of the Post and the County Democratic Party sample ballot in 2020.

Jeff Bezos taking no chances

The lone resistance to the Post's marching orders came in the District 2 Board of Education race, where results so far show voters returning Rebecca Smondrowski to her seat by a twenty-point margin. Smondrowski is the only candidate to survive the primary and general election this year while not wholeheartedly endorsing a controversial push to redistrict school boundaries. Post endorsees Lynne Harris (BOE At-Large) and Shebra Evans (BOE District 4) are coasting to victory at the moment.

With the Post's increasingly-heavy thumb on the voting scales in Montgomery County, change in a declining and stagnant county remains unlikely. There is a clear partnership between the paper and the Montgomery County cartel on dystopian talking points and objectives: dismantling existing single-family-home neighborhoods, reducing the quality of all schools rather than fixing the failing ones, squashing any effort to elect independent community-focused officials (even if they are Democrats), maintaining developer dominance of County politics and land-use decisions, and an Ahab-like quest to boot Marc Elrich from office in 2022.

The Post dedicated several pages to high-quality coverage of the D.C. City Council races this year. It glaringly did not in the 2018 Montgomery County Council races, a clear indication of its role in stifling any voices of dissent or change in Montgomery County.