Pedestrian plaza opens between Sophia and Bainbridge Bethesda apartments (Photos)

The pedestrian plaza between the Sophia Bethesda and Bainbridge Bethesda apartment towers has opened to the public. It is technically a reopening of the public space that was first created via the Bainbridge project, but the plaza has been revamped with new features by the Sophia contractors, including a new art installation and new lighting. Lighting is still of the stringed variety, but utilizes larger, cylindrical fixtures rather than tiny bulbs. 

The plaza also provides a pedestrian cut-through between St. Elmo and Fairmont Avenues. There is still a hope that the plaza can be activated by future tenants in the ground floors of both buildings, such as the Paris Baguette Bakery Cafe that has already signed a lease at the Sophia. In its previous life at the Bainbridge, the plaza has been a well-lit but lonesome path after business hours.

French Press sets opening date in Bethesda

French Press, a new coffee shop at 4918 St. Elmo Avenue in the Bainbridge Bethesda apartment tower, has set an opening date. The cafe will open tomorrow morning, Tuesday, March 26, 2024. Final preparations are being made inside the space, which was previously home to Clove & Cedar Coffeebar. Complimentary drip coffee will be served all day Tuesday for the grand opening. The French Press menu includes breakfast items in the morning, as well as soups, salads and sandwiches later for lunch and the afternoon.

Update on new French Press coffee shop in Bethesda (Photos)

Permanent signage has been installed over the storefront at French Press, the new coffee shop opening soon at 4918 St. Elmo Avenue, in the Bainbridge Bethesda apartments. The logo presents an interesting juxtaposition of a coffee invention that is over 100 years old with the modern takeaway coffee cup of more recent times. It's a clever way of appealing to both the coffee purist and the Starbucks crowd at once. In addition to morning coffee, breakfast items and baked goods, French Press will also serve the lunch crowd with soup, salads, and sandwiches. It will certainly be a new perk for residents of the apartment tower.

French Press opening in downtown Bethesda

French Press, a coffee shop and bakery, has leased the storefront at 4918 St. Elmo Avenue in downtown Bethesda. The space has sat vacant for over two years, since the closure of the previous coffee shop tenant, Clove & Cedar Coffeebar. In addition to the breakfast coffee and baked goods standards, French Press will also aim for the lunch hour crowd with soup, salads and sandwiches. The coffee shop will be the third enterprise to make a go of the apartment tower's St. Elmo Avenue ground floor space since the building opened in 2014.

Bainbridge Bethesda giving up on ground floor retail?

A prime St. Elmo Avenue retail space at the Bainbridge Bethesda apartment tower hasn't been a lucky spot for the short-lived bakery and coffee shop that have leased it so far. Perhaps the rent being asked for is too high, but there haven't been any takers since the coffee shop closed in August 2021. Now the space has been turned into a billboard for the rental apartments above. 

Bainbridge has fared better with its retail spaces that front onto Fairmont Avenue, holding onto pet store and gadget repair tenants there. But dreams of sidewalk cafe activity, or something that might animate the area around the building after dark, have failed to materialize almost a decade after the building opened. There's plenty of potential here on St. Elmo, but something is standing in the way of realizing it, and it should be diagnosed soon.

What's the problem here? It's not a good look for downtown retail, particularly when JBG Smith was able to attract A-list tenants like Trader Joe's and Orangetheory Fitness to an even-lower traffic area at 8001 Woodmont. Perhaps the arrival of the future St. Elmo Apartments next door will help boost the fortunes of the Bainbridge.

Experimax becomes Once Again Tech in Bethesda

Experimax, the Apple device service and sales store at 4915 Fairmont Avenue in the Bainbridge Bethesda, has a new name. Once Again Tech still offers sales and service of new and certified pre-owned computers, phones, gaming PCs, graphics cards, TVs and monitors, printers and video routers, and with the same staff you already know. The store opened as Experimac in 2017, so this is technically the second name change for the business.

Public plaza at Bainbridge Bethesda closes to the public

The public plaza at the Bainbridge Bethesda apartment tower that provides a pedestrian cut-through between St. Elmo Avenue and Fairmont Avenue is now closed off. Construction fencing was erected that blocks passage through the plaza. The new St. Elmo Apartments development will begin construction soon directly next door, and will share this plaza, which will get updated in the process. It never quite reached its potential, as empty storefronts failed to activate it as a gathering spot, but it was a handy mid-block short cut.

Public art installations along
the west side of the plaza have been
removed

These newer public plazas and promenades have been a fixture of the post-Great Recession developments like Gallery Bethesda I&II, Flats at Bethesda Avenue, 8001 Woodmont and the Bainbridge. 8001 Woodmont will be an excellent test to see if having Trader Joe's and Orangetheory Fitness alongside its plaza will make it a more active space than the others have become so far. Donohoe's Gallery Lane-branded plaza shared by the Gallery I and II on Auburn Avenue has tremendous potential, if some dining or nightlife tenants can be brought in to the ground-level retail spaces. We'll see what St. Elmo developers Duball, LLC and Lenkin and the owners of Bainbridge Bethesda can work out here, to give this plaza a boost by the middle of the decade.

Clove & Cedar to hold grand opening this weekend in Bethesda

Clove & Cedar Coffeebar will host a grand opening this weekend at 4918 St. Elmo Avenue in downtown Bethesda. They will be having Grand Opening hours June 8 and 9, 2019 from 7:30 AM to 3:00 PM. 

There will be hourly prize drawings during the grand opening, and free samples. The coffee shop will officially open next Wednesday, June 12. Clove & Cedar is located in the ground floor of the Bainbridge Bethesda apartment tower.

Sign installed at Clove & Cedar coffee bar in Bethesda

One of the permanent signs has been installed at Clove & Cedar, a new coffee bar opening soon at 4918 St. Elmo Avenue. It is a blade sign, which faces pedestrians passing by on the sidewalk in both directions. Clove & Cedar is located in the former Gold Leaf Bakery space in the ground floor of the Bainbridge Bethesda luxury apartment tower.

Clove & Cedar Coffee Bar coming to Bainbridge Bethesda

Clove & Cedar Coffee Bar is taking over the vacant Gold Leaf Bakery space in the Bainbridge Bethesda luxury apartment tower at 4918 St. Elmo Avenue. Wednesday was a big day for signs in downtown Bethesda, and Clove & Cedar was one of the businesses that put up some "Coming Soon" signage yesterday. Construction is underway inside, but still in the early phases. I can see the actual coffee "bar" is starting to take shape.

Gold Leaf Bakery holding liquidating auction next month

Gold Leaf Bakery at 4918 St. Elmo Avenue is holding a "complete liquidation" auction on September 11, according to an online auction listing. The bakery is unnamed, but the photographs and description match Gold Leaf, which the announcement states is "shutting the doors" next month.

Available for bidding will be everything from a 140 quart Hobart mixer to the bakery cases to the walk-in refrigerator and Bakers' Pride baking ovens. Gold Leaf Bakery opened in May 2016 in the new Bainbridge Bethesda apartment tower.

WSSC delivers emergency water to Bethesda apartment tower with outage (Photos)

A water outage has impacted some residents and businesses in the Woodmont Triangle tonight. The Bainbridge Bethesda apartment tower has no water. Water utility WSSC is delivering emergency Deer Park bottled water supplies to residents there tonight. It's unclear if tonight's outage is related to Tuesday night's water main break on the next block of St. Elmo.

WSSC truck on-scene

WSSC representatives are saying they hope service will be restored to the Bainbridge by morning. Plaza Art on Old Georgetown Road had to close early due to the outage, but no other business closures were immediately evident. If your home or business is currently affected by the outage, let me know in the comments below.

Cartons of Deer Park bottled water
in the Bainbridge lobby

Plaza Art on Old Georgetown Road
had to close early

Pet Parents preview (Photos)

Pet Parents looks just about fully stocked at 4913 Fairmont Avenue, in the ground floor of the Bainbridge Bethesda apartment tower. The store will offer pet foods and snacks, pet toys, accessories and a dog-walking service.

Car fire in Bethesda apartment tower garage damages several vehicles

A Jeep caught fire on the lowest level of the Bainbridge Bethesda parking garage after 7:00 AM Sunday morning. Several vehicles were damaged, but the fire was contained by the garage sprinkler system, Montgomery County Fire and Rescue spokesperson Pete Piringer said. Firefighters were able to quickly extinguish the remaining blaze after arriving on-scene.

According to a resident of the building, smoke rose up through the stairwells from the garage. That resident said fire alarms did not sound inside the actual building. This is one of several recent garage vehicle fires in this part of the county. The cause of yesterday's fire has not yet been stated, but Piringer said it was ruled accidental.

Photo: Pete Piringer/MCFRS

Bethesda's craziest driveway finally getting fixed (Photos)

Remember the driveway at the Bainbridge Bethesda apartment tower loading dock, which resembled a curb more than a graded driveway? They must have finally found enough coins in the sofa cushions to get it fixed. The transformation is now underway on Fairmont Avenue. A crazy driveway was just one of several errors in construction that resulted from the building level being 5-6" higher than the existing sidewalk.

Sign installed at Pet Parents in Bethesda (Photos)

Tbe permanent sign is up at Pet Parents, the new upscale pet store at 4907 Fairmont Avenue, in the ground floor of the Bainbridge Bethesda apartment tower. Pet Parents is scheduled for an early fall opening.