Community Corner

Foodie News: NYC Praises DC Food, 'Bethesda Hooters' No More, Magruder's Says Goodbye

Food and restaurant news from around Montgomery County and adjacent Washington, DC, neighborhoods.

Get caught up with the food scene in Montgomery County and Washington, DC, neighborhoods with "1 Meat, 3 Sides." This week, DC gets a pat on the head from NYC, a Bethesda Hooters-style restaurant gets a strange makeover and locals say goodbye to a decades-old local grocery chain.

Washington, DC, finally may have the cultural acknowledgments it has so longed for from New York City.

The New York Times recently released its list of the top 46 places to visit in 2013 worldwide, and sitting among tropical getaways and exotic locales is Washington, DC—but the reason DC makes the list might surprise you.

Find out what's happening in Potomacwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The area’s food scene, not its world-class museums, placed DC at No. 44 on The Times' list. “A new food scene to welcome a renewed administration,” reads the title on DC’s listing. After years of snarky restaurant competition between the cultural capital of the United States and the country’s actual capital city, has an olive branch been extended?

Times writer Ann Mah points out several DC establishments, including Northeast’s new Union Market, Mike Isabella’s Italian restaurant Graffito, H Street’s Toki Underground and Dupont Circle’s Little Serow.

Find out what's happening in Potomacwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Read more on Potomac Patch.

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A strange change to the Bethesda restaurant scene has come along with the New Year and the sort-of-new administration:

A restaurant re-launch has turned the former Hooters-style home of “The Sexiest Wings in Bethesda” into what is apparently a choice venue for state officials and civil rights leaders to host a Civil Rights event.

Bethesda Patch has the story.

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Bethesda-Chevy Chase Restaurant Week starts Thursday, and diners will notice a few changes to the semi-annual event this year: more varied price points and a new sponsor. Meals begin at $12 or $16 for two courses at lunch. For dinner, customers may spend $22 for two courses or $33 for three courses.

Check out a list of participating restaurants here.

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Sad news for home cooks: A local 138-year-old grocery chain is closing all of its locations throughout the Washington area. 

Large signs promoting a 50-percent-off sale lined the windows of the Gaithersburg Magruder’s after the supermarket announced the closure of all of its store locations.

A letter available at the customer service desks of Magruder's locations said the Connecticut Avenue Magruder's liquor store in DC has been sold and will continue to operate under the Magruder's name. 

"We are currently in negotiations to sell the remaining four locations to a group who wishes to purchase the individual stores and reopen them as quickly as possible and we are working diligently with all parties involved," Magruder's Vice President Gary Bortnick wrote in the letter, according to the Gaithersburg Patch report.

For more about the closure and how individual locations are affected, check out the Patch story here.


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