Bethesda Magazine: January-February 2016 by MoCo360

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BEST of

January/february 2016

January/february 2016 $4.95

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Best of Bethesda

150

Editorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; & Readersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Picks Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky

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BETHESDA, MARYLAND

STAY CLOSE. MOVE UP. BEAUTIFULLY SITUATED in a wooded oasis, Grosvenor Heights is Bethesda’s newest neighborhood. Come discover this distinctive community within walking distance to Metro, the Shops at Wildwood, Rock Creek Park, and moments from so much more. Sales Centers Open Daily 11AM–6PM | 5430 Grosvenor Lane, Bethesda, MD 20814

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A House Is Made Of Walls & Beams... A “Financial Home” Is Made Of Hopes & Dreams! What is your financial home made of? Is it constructed with sugar & spice and everything nice, along with wealth preservation beams supporting your multi-generational goals & lifestyle themes… or are your financial walls bearing the stress & weight of your hopes & dreams? If you’re in need of a financial portfolio home renovation, allow our design-build team of CFP® practitioners & CPA professionals the opportunity to help you remodel & frame your financial home with a concrete Wealth Management & Tax*

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Pictured (L to R): Stephen Clagett, Portfolio Administrator; Sally Mullen, Client Services Specialist; David Clark, Vice President, Financial Advisor; Stefanie Krzeminski, Client Services Specialist; Robert Collins, Managing Director; Steve Cimino, Client Services Specialist; Kristian Price, Chief Operating Ofﬁcer; Jordan VanOort, CFA®, CFP®, Vice President - Investments; Frank Byskov, CFA®, CFP®, Portfolio Administrator

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welcome to the

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HEREâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S TO THE BEST OF BETHESDA. WINNERS Best Movie Theater: iPic Best New Restaurant: Summer House Best New Luxury Apartment: Pallas TOP VOTE GETTERS Best New Restaurant: City Perch Best Restaurant in Rockville: Summer House Best Pizza: Stella Barra and &pizza Best Boutique and Best New Store: Yogaso Best Shopping Center: Pike & Rose Best Venue for Live Music: AMP Best New Luxury Apartment: PerSei Best Gym Over 40 and Best Gym Under 40: Sport & Health

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THE FINISHING TOUCH ON BETHESDA

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Readers’ Pick, A Top Vote Getter, Best New Luxury Apartments

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January/February 2016 | Volume 13 Issue 1

contents best of bethesda 92 From fabulous fried chicken and perfect hot chocolate to cures for kids’ cabin fever and a cool new boutique, we share some of our favorite things about the Bethesda area. Plus—readers’ picks for dining, shopping and more.

Hot chocolate at Aroma Espresso Bar

by Edgar Artiga; hair and makeup styling by Jacqueline Hannan; shot on location in the Chesapeake Room at PassionFish Bethesda Special thanks to Tough Temple CrossFit, Bethesda, for providing jump boxes for the photo stage

photo by darren higgins

cover: photo of Katie Ledecky

14 january/february 2016 | BethesdaMagazine.com

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F INE PRO PE RTIE S I N T E R N A T I O N A L

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contents

features 150 | van hollen rising

U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen’s willingness to take risks has helped him become an influential figure on the national political scene. Now the Kensington resident is taking on his biggest challenge yet: a race for the Senate. By louis peck

162 | the other survivors

Montgomery County is home to hundreds of Soviet Jews who lived through World War II. Their stories aren’t as well-known as those of other Holocaust survivors, but the hardships they faced were unimaginable. By eugene L. meyer

173 | weddings of the year Four couples who created events to remember—from a ceremony on a Hungarian mountaintop to a barnyard bash on a working farm

198 | bethesda interview

Veteran local actor Edward Gero on catching the drama bug, playing Antonin Scalia and how the stage is different from Hollywood

p. 150

U.S. Rep. Chris Van Hollen

photo by liz lynch

By richard harris

16 january/february 2016 | BethesdaMagazine.com

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Ranked in the

IF YOU WANT TO ASK MORE FOR YOUR HOME

TOP 25

N AT I O N W I D E

A S K M O R E F R O M Y O U R R E A LT O R

Out of 1.1 Million RealtorsÂ® by THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

STEVE & HANS WYDLER ASSOCIATE BROKERS

OM ST CU D W IL NE BU

Custom Home by award winning Laurence Cafritz Builders, designed by GTM Architects. This exquisite 6 bedroom, 6.5 bath home is ideally situated in the Palisades neighborhood and offers 6,605 square feet of ideal living space on a rare large level lot. Short walk to the local shops and restaurants and a short drive to Georgetown and Downtown. Still time to select final finishes. Delivery Spring, 2016. Offered at $3,750,000. Hans Wydler, 301.640.5701

Cleveland Park, DC Hans Wydler

T ON

$930,000 Bethesda, MD 301.640.5701 Hans Wydler

Bethesda, MD Hans Wydler

$3,100,000 Chevy Chase, DC 301.640.5701 Kathryn Schwartz

$1,565,000 202.320.8058

Bethesda, MD Hans Wydler

$1,395,000 Bethesda, MD 301.640.5701 Hans Wydler

$1,275,000 301.640.5701

$499,000 Logan Circle, DC 301.787.4147 Elysia Casaday

$325,000 301.787.4147

$899,000 Columbia Heights, DC 301.640.5701 Elysia Casaday

T ON

Kent, DC Hans Wydler

$1,295,000 Bethesda, MD 301.640.5701 Lauren Heyman

T ON

$1,200,000 Chevy Chase, MD 301.704.6550 Hans Wydler

T ON

$1,095,000 Bethesda, MD 301.640.5701 Laurie Muir

$1,025,000 202.320.9395

At Wydler Brothers, we care deeply about our clients and will go the extra mile to deliver outstanding results. If you want more for your home, you should expect more from your Realtor. Give us a call and see what we can do for you. Wydler Brothers of Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc. MD 301.640.5701 | DC 202.600.2727 | VA 703.457.9000 | WydlerBrothers.com

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contents

p. 288

Matt Cimino offers tastes of his hard ciders in Silver Spring

departments home

22 | To Our Readers

217

24 | Contributors

218 | house appropriations

30 | From Our Readers

Tile with style

220 | Child’s play

art. festivals. day trips. hidden gems.

How a local artist used bold colors and whimsical touches to create unique spaces for her two young daughters

42 | Best Bets

228 | bathing beauties

good life

11 can’t-miss arts events

46 | ARTS Calendar Where to go, what to see

Inside three gorgeous master bathroom renovations

236 | home sales by the numbers

banter

people. politics. books. columns.

54 | Figuratively Speaking

245

283

dine

284 | dine review PassionFish Bethesda is still finding its way

288 | Table Talk What’s happening on the local food scene

health

292 | Cooking Class

How to make a great oyster chowder

Philanthropy by the numbers

246 | Be Well

64 | Neighborhood NOTES

After seeing massage therapy help her mother, Saya Barkdoll made it her career

294 | Dining Guide

248 | confusion in the classroom

325 etc.

News you may have missed

66 | Book Report New books by local authors, literary events and more

70 | suburbanology Ironing just isn’t what it used to be By april witt

74 | Hometown Bethesda’s Doro Bush Koch has turned to mindfulness to cope with the stress of having a father and brother who were president—and another brother who wants to be By Steve Roberts

When student-athletes sustain a concussion, strict rules govern their return to play, but not their return to school. Some experts and parents say that needs to change.

256 | what happened to my child? Strep throat is usually an easy thing to treat. But some parents say a debilitating psychological disorder associated with strep infections caused their children to change overnight—and turned their families’ lives upside down.

326 | Shop Talk Upgrade your wardrobe with oversized scarves in dramatic patterns. Plus, winter hair tips from a local stylist.

330 | Get Away Your cheat sheet for a weekend getaway

332 | Driving Range A food and cocktail tour of Philly

344 | Family Portrait

268 | wellness Calendar

Snapshot of local lives

AD SECTions financial professionals profiles 77

wedding resource guide 190

long & Foster ad section 205

dentist finder 270

featured dentists 272

summer Camp ad section 310

private schools ad section 338

photo by michael ventura

18 january/february 2016 | BethesdaMagazine.com

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Model Home Grand Opening!

Introducing Bethesda Mews, an enclave of 29 exquisite single-family homes near the heart of Bethesda. You know the right opportunity when you see it. TIMELESS ARCHITECTURE

UNCOMPROMISED LUXURY

3 ACRES OF FORESTED OPEN SPACE

INTERIOR GARDENS AND MEWS

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From $1.45 million ViP l ist: l iVe AtBethesdA mewsBt.com 301.978.3618 | our new model home is locAted At: 5518 A ltA VistA roAd, BethesdA, md 20814 r egister For our

Subject to errors, omissions and change without notice. See Sales Manager for details.

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What’s online @ bethesdamagazine.com enter our

Our daily news briefing features stories about the community, restaurants, Montgomery County politics and more. Get the Bethesda Beat daily newsletter in your inbox by signing up at BethesdaMagazine.com.

GIVEAWAY STARTING

january 1

MAGAZINE.COM

❱❱web exclusive

Check out the time-lapse video of the Katie Ledecky cover shoot.

❱❱ digital edition

Subscribers get free access to the digital edition of Bethesda Magazine at BethesdaMagazine.com/digital. Use your email address as your log-in. To purchase digital issues or a subscription, download the free Bethesda Magazine app on iTunes or Amazon.

❱❱ online Extras

Check out photos from the wedding of Montgomery County natives Jena Belinkie and Chris Riley, who got married in Cambridge, Maryland. An online exclusive, the wedding description and photos will go up on BethesdaMagazine.com on Dec. 30.

❱❱ archives

Explore past issues and stories using our searchable archives.

❱❱ social scene

Share photos from community events by emailing them to website@BethesdaMagazine.com, and we’ll post them to our gallery page.

Win $300 in Cosmetic Services

From Botox and dermal fillers to lasers and clinical facial treatments, the Rockledge Med Spa has everything you need to look your best in 2016. This gift certificate is redeemable at any of our three locations: Bethesda, Germantown and D.C.

❱❱social media

Find us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to learn about community news, special offers, local happenings and contests.

❱❱ newsletters

To enter, go to BethesdaMagazine.com/giveaways

Sign up to receive emails from Bethesda Beat and to receive special offers from local businesses. Gmail users: Make sure to add Bethesda Magazine as a contact to ensure that you receive our emails.

20 january/february 2016 | BethesdaMagazine.com

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Justin S. Liberti

Spencer C. Smith

Amy P. Raskin

Kayode O. Aje

Robert Eubank

Michael Gildenhorn

The only constant is change. That, and our investment strategy. Our investment professionals know the best way to react to change is to avoid over-reacting. That’s how our commitment to thematic investing and secular trends helps keep us balanced and focused during volatile times. After all, it isn’t change that’s good or bad — it’s the response to change that matters. To learn more, contact Stacy Murchison at 240.497.5008 or visit ChevyChaseTrust.com

INV E ST M E N T MA N AGEMEN T

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F I N A N C I A L & E STATE PLAN N I N G

F I D UCI ARY & TRUST

FAM I LY W E ALTH S ERVIC ES

12/2/15 4:24 PM

to our readers

inside the ‘best of’

From left to right: photo assistant Denny Henry, photographer Edgar Artiga, Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky, design director Maire McArdle, stylist Jacqueline Hannan and photo assistant Jesse Snyder

In addition to posing for hundreds of photos, she allowed stylist Jacqueline Hannan to spray her with water so she looked like she had just come out of a pool. (You can see a web-exclusive time-lapse video from the shoot at BethesdaMagazine.com.) “I can honestly say this was my alltime favorite cover photo shoot,” says McArdle, who is chalking up cover number 70. “When Katie and her mom walked into the restaurant all I could see was Katie’s smile. And she smiled

the entire time, even when we asked her not to! She couldn’t help it. As she was leaving, I told her how proud I was of her. I had a lump in my throat.” I’m thrilled with the cover and grateful to Ledecky for being our cover model, and to PassionFish for being such gracious hosts. Our Best of Bethesda section, featuring more than 150 editors’ and readers’ picks, begins on page 92. I hope you enjoy this issue of Bethesda Magazine.

Steve Hull Editor-in-Chief & Publisher

photo by mary gen ledecky

It usually takes us a while to come up with a cover concept for our Best of Bethesda issue. Unlike other cover stories that focus on a specific subject (e.g., restaurants or schools), the Best of Bethesda feature contains short items on scores of subjects, which makes it challenging to create an original and compelling cover idea year after year. Things were different this year. In our first planning meeting, Managing Editor Mary Clare Glover suggested that we put swimming sensation Katie Ledecky on the cover. We all thought it was a great idea. Ledecky is, indeed, the Best of Bethesda. The 18-year-old Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart graduate is currently the most dominant swimmer in the world and is a favorite to win multiple gold medals at the 2016 Summer Olympics. Then Maire McArdle, our design director, had the idea to shoot Ledecky in front of the mural in the private dining room at the new PassionFish restaurant in Bethesda. The mural depicts a swirling school of fish. The deep blue hue of the water and the motion of the fish provided an ideal background for the photo shoot. On a Sunday morning in November, Ledecky, her mother, Mary Gen, McArdle and photographer Edgar Artiga spent several hours shooting the cover. Ledecky was a great sport.

22 january/february 2016 | BethesdaMagazine.com

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Anslie Stokes 202.270.1081 www.StokesRealtor.com

Joan Caton Cromwell 202.441.8912 www.JoanCromwell.com

PREFERRED LENDER

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contributors

Jennifer Barger Lives in: Adams Morgan, D.C. Hometown: San Antonio, Texas In this issue: Wrote about great bathroom remodeling projects and the best places to shop for dresses in the area. “It was fascinating to see how many different styles—Anthropologie-ish retro, French glamorous, contempo-cool—local homeowners craved in their bathrooms. I’m about to remodel one of mine, and I’m now inspired.”

Lives in: Gaithersburg Hometown: Carlisle, Pennsylvania In this issue: Wrote about PANDAS, a controversial pediatric disorder associated with strep throat. “As a stepfather, I can’t imagine going through what these families have experienced as they watched the children they love transform overnight. The doctors are so courageous—they’ve really had to challenge the status quo to bring attention to this disease.”

Favorite dress she’s ever owned: “It’s a tie between my 1990-something wedding dress (kind of minimalist à la Carolyn Bessette) and a maroon Tibi number with a caped back I’ve been rocking this winter—it’s slightly Game of Thrones in mood.” Dream bathroom: Hexagon wall tiles, a vintage claw-foot tub and a sheepskin rug on the floor.

What he does: He’s a freelance writer whose work has appeared in Sunset magazine, the Los Angeles Times and The Denver Post. How he likes to spend snow days: Skiing at Liberty Mountain or Whitetail Resort with his wife, Cristina, and 15-yearold twin stepsons, Andres and Luis. Most unforgettable trip: Tracking down his wife’s family origins in Toledo, Spain. “It was so moving to take the kids to explore the cobblestone streets their ancestors traveled every day. I could lose myself in those beautiful alleyways. In fact, I did lose myself. Several times, actually.”

Mary Ann Smith Lives in: New York City Hometown: Oriskany, New York In this issue: Illustrated the Trending column, as well as the map of Philly in Driving Range How she got her start: Smith came to New York City to attend Parsons The New School for Design, and she’s been illustrating professionally ever since. Her clients include The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the International Herald Tribune, GQ, BusinessWeek, Security Management magazine, Penguin Books and Simon & Schuster. How she illustrates: Smith does preliminary sketches on paper with a pencil, then scans the drawings, opens them in Adobe Photoshop and re-creates them. She also paints textures and layers them into the image and may snap a photo and use an element from that as well. Her favorite thing about New York City: Smith, her husband, Rob, and their 14-year-old daughter, Jessie, love living in NYC with their pug, Cookie. “With the city’s diversity and energy, even a walk is an amazing experience.”

all images courtesy

David Frey

What she does: Barger writes about design, travel and fashion for publications including The Washington Post, Washingtonian and National Geographic Traveler. She’s also a personal shopper for DC Style Factory, where she gets to organize a lot of chic closets.

24 january/february 2016 | BethesdaMagazine.com

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editorial Editor-in- Chief

Steve Hull

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managing Editor

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Bethesda beat Writers

Aaron Kraut, Andrew Metcalf Web producer

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26 january/february 2016 | BethesdaMagazine.com

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Subscription price: $19.95 To subscribe: Fill out the card between pages 224 and 225 or go to BethesdaMagazine.com. For customer service: Call 301-718-7787, ext. 205, or send an email to customerservice@bethesdamagazine.com. For advertising information: Call 301-718-7787, ext. 220; send an email to advertising@bethesdamagazine.com; or go to BethesdaMagazine.com. For information on events and reprints: Call 301-718-7787, ext. 207; or send an email to marketing@bethesdamagazine.com. Bethesda Magazine 7768 Woodmont Ave., #204 Bethesda, MD 20814 Phone: 301-718-7787 Fax: 301-718-1875 BethesdaMagazine.com

28 january/february 2016 | BethesdaMagazine.com

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This is a devastating but important article on a subject I learned about only recently. Because of our high school reunion in my hometown of Washington, Pennsylvania, we classmates became aware of the high number of overdoses and deaths from heroin occurring there. “Little Washington,” as it is known, is at

A MOT HER

I just want to thank you, and the families, for writing an article that is so impactful. While I do not have any friends or family members who are addicted to an opioid, it’s a topic that I’ve been working on over the past year. I work for the Department of Health and Human Services’ Federal Office of Rural Health Policy, which recently implemented an opioid overdose reversal program in rural communities. As the article mentioned, this disease cuts across both rural and urban areas and across all socioeconomic statuses, and as a mother of two from the Olney area, this article just hit home. It scares me as my children continue to grow, and at the same time, it pushes me to get more engaged in the community and do what I can to help raise awareness and discuss the challenges, including the availability of Naloxone and long wait time at rehab centers. We face a long battle ahead of us, and your article was one step toward raising awareness. Nisha Patel Director, Community-Based Division, Federal Office of Rural Health Policy

Heroin and pres cription narcotic s young ad are killing ul Montgom ts all over ery Coun leaving ty, de families vastated behind.

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the intersection of routes 70 and 79, which is said to have something to do with it. In any event, my greatgrandfather, Ernest Francis Acheson (a U.S. representative from Pennsylvania for seven consecutive terms), is said to have put the first prohibition bill before Congress. I never understood why until my cousin explained that he’d had five brothers in the Civil War, and, consequently, was very much aware of addiction to painkillers. What goes around comes around, and now we are faced with a similar problem with painkillers. Any mother of a teenager (past or present)—whether the child has ever used drugs or not—will suffer reading this article. Marion Donnan Mahoney Potomac “I had an appendectomy when I was 16 and had no painkillers after the anesthesia other than Tylenol. In the past 10 years I have had three wisdom teeth out and three porcelain crowns. All with ibuprofen afterwards—I was never offered anything else. We are letting physicians overprescribe dangerous medications for minor pains. More than contributing to addiction, it is creating a generation of wimpy kids who have no tolerance for pain or difficulty, and learn to run to some kind of crutch for every difficulty in life.” —posted by Tom

“As the parent of an autistic child, I understand only too well how much pure luck (good and bad) plays a role in the outcomes so many of us imagine are within our control. I feel grateful to the women in this article, whose stories took my breath away. I appreciate their candor because I have a much greater understanding of addiction, gateways and obstacles than I did before reading this piece. I believe most of us have the capacity to develop addiction, either to escape the stresses of life or because of exposure to something new and unexpected that takes hold of us. I applaud Bethesda Magazine for exposing what has become a nationwide epidemic, and these mothers for so courageously stepping up and telling their stories— stories far more common than many of us parents want to accept, but which we cannot deny could happen to any of our children at any time.” —posted by Whitney Ellenby NOT A FARE GAME Leftist values are obliterating American ones in our county. Your interesting and well-written story (“Fare Game,” November/December 2015) describes that Democrats on the [Montgomery County] Council have ordered the owners of Barwood Taxi to accept a certain payment rate. The Council also limits the number of private vehicle permits given to citizens. They are antithetical American values. Such values are destructive to our way of life, our character and economy. Who in the world gives these politicians the moral right to deny the freedom of a private citizen to lease his cars at the rate he negotiates with another free adult American citizen? It all sounds so nice to those on the left—“I will spread social justice

cover photo by michael ventura

NOV EMB ER/D ECE MBE

a mother’s heartbreak Readers reacted to Cindy Rich’s story about heroin and prescription narcotics (“Please God, Make It Stop,” November/December 2015) in letters and in comments posted on BethesdaMagazine.com.

A Mot Heartbhrer’s eak

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about and tell John what to pay Mary because, I, enlightened one in government, know how to distribute scarce goods and services about the world in a proper manner.” No, you don’t. What they also don’t recognize or don’t tell you is that such soft tyranny harms everyone. Citizens cannot get the lowest cost for the best service. Resources are severely wasted in society because government fiats like this harm productivity, efficiency, excellence, employment opportunities and wages. And to top it all, corruption ensues. You certainly won’t see our dear Leftist Democrats ordering a limitation of lawyers or teacher union executives in the county or capping their salaries, will you? That would certainly not be part of their idea of “social justice” and definitely not good for Democratic votes. Our state now is a bastion of loss of liberty, loss of property rights, loss of free-market capitalism, all brought to you by a big, powerful, controlling leftist Democratic Party. This is why Maryland is viewed by millions across America as a state not to come to and do business in—a state not to come to for American values and freedom. Howard Sachs Chevy Chase correction In the November/December 2015 issue, the credit for the photo of the Christmas in Middleburg parade (page 391) should have read: Photo by Middleburg Eccentric.

Bethesda Magazine welcomes letters to the editor. Please email your letter to letters@bethesda magazine.com and include your daytime phone number. Bethesda Magazine reserves the right to edit letters for length and clarity.

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The future of real estate has arrived in Maryland.

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art. festivals. culture. day trips. hidden gems.

good life

photo by michael ventura

escape to istanbul It may not be as chaotic or exotic, but Rumi Tea & Spice at Westfield Montgomery mall offers the closest thing you’ll find to a Turkish bazaar in the Bethesda area. The small shop sells more than 250 herbs, seasonings and spices, plus 65 loose teas. You can smell your way through pungent samples of cumin and coriander, Sri Lankan cinnamon and smoked paprika, or choose among two dozen kinds of infused salts. In the front of the store, owner Darius Zolfaghari constructed a display compartment filled with colorful mounds of herbs and spices that’s meant to mimic the scents and sights of a Middle Eastern bazaar. Born in Iran, he has lived in the

United States for 45 years, while periodically traveling to Turkey, where he enjoys that country’s culture, history and lively marketplaces. Zolfaghari previously owned a computer service shop in Bethesda, and long ago worked as a cook at the old O’Donnell’s restaurant on Wisconsin Avenue. His latest venture, opened in May, shows that variety really is the spice of life. Rumi Tea & Spice, 7101 Democracy Blvd. (Westfield Montgomery mall), Bethesda, 301-767-0008, www.rumiteaandspice.com —Carole Sugarman BethesdaMagazine.com | january/february 2016 35

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Spot a Bald Eagle

Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, 2145 Key Wallace Drive, Cambridge; 410-228-2677; www.fws.gov/refuge/ blackwater —Kathleen Seiler Neary

Photo by Jon McRay

If a pair of bald eagles ever went on HGTV’s House Hunters, a show that follows buyers through their search for a new home, they probably would decide to settle in Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Cambridge, about two hours from Bethesda. There’s a wide river full of fish and ducks to feed on, and lots of woods with sticks for building a nest. And they would make fast friends—at last count, 200 bald eagles were already living there, according to Ray Paterra, Blackwater’s visitor services manager. Blackwater is an ideal spot to lay eyes on the national bird any time of year, but especially during winter, when the eagles are in nesting mode. Paterra says eggs are usually laid in January, hatched in February. Silver Spring resident Don Messersmith, a retired University of Maryland professor of entomology and ornithology who has led bird trips all over the world, often takes groups to Blackwater. “It’s the best place in the eastern United States to spot eagles,” he says. He recommends looking up 30 feet to 40 feet into the loblolly pine trees as you drive on 4-mile-long Wildlife Drive. (You can stop the car and get out.) It’s free to enter the refuge, and $3 per vehicle to cruise Wildlife Drive.

36 january/february 2016 | BethesdaMagazine.com

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POTOMAC $7,995,000

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MAGGIE SHANNON +1 202 342 1635 MICHAEL RANKIN +1 202 271 3344

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Extraordinary 52-acre private estate features a breathtaking contemporary residence, heated pool, separate pool house, extensive rear terraces and mature gardens, grass tennis court, 5-car garage, and service and run in barns. The residence has numerous large-scale entertaining rooms.

BETHESDA $2,795,000

Modern masterpiece on two landscaped acres close to downtown DC. Large living and family rooms with dramatic 12 ft floor to ceiling windows. Master suite with jacuzzi and sauna, plus four additional suites with sitting and dressing areas. Grand loggia for al fresco dining. Ideal for entertaining and family comfort.

Built in 2015, this Greek Revival is an original Phillips Park home designed by Jones & Boer Architects. Encompassing more than 6,500 square feet, this home offers six bedrooms, a chef’s kitchen with La Cornue range, and generously proportioned public rooms with high ceilings.

BETHESDA $2,649,000

GREG GADDY +1 202 421 4734 CARROLL DEY +1 202 320 0441

Spectacular renovated Avenel home on 2+ acres with almost 8,000 sq ft, 5 BR, 4.5 BA plus guest house. Main home features separate living, dining, and family rooms with hardwood throughout, plus a handsome library with inviting fireplace. Finished walk-out lower level with home theatre, exercise room, custom wet bar and a welcoming stone hearth and fireplace. Stone tiered patio and pool, perfect for entertaining.

GIBSON ISLAND $1,795,000

BETHESDA $1,695,000

Superb, shingle-style house sitting high above the street. Features 3 levels, large, open living/dining room area opening to wraparound porch, gourmet kitchen with island, screened porch, 4 BR, 3 BA, finished lower level with BR, BA, and media room, 2-car oversized garage, and professional landscaping.

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BETHESDA From $1.5M

The Lauren is a one-of-a-kind luxury residential condo. Floor plans ranging from 1,444 sq ft to more than 6,000 sq ft. Features direct access elevators, nine- and ten-foot ceilings, private roof top terraces (select units), Home Automation System with iPad control, vented fireplaces, and private wine storage.

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BETHESDA $2,950,000

6 BR, 5.5 BA home with hardwood and marble floors, luxurious formal rooms, paneled library, gourmet kitchen with island and stainless steel appliances, 2 wine coolers, and 4 fireplaces. Complete with finished basement, pool, and 3-car garage.

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BETHESDA $1,798,800

Beautiful colonial, set among mature trees, on quiet, park-like setting on dead-end street. Minutes to commuter routes, shops, and restaurants. Custom solid wood cabinetry, and granite tops in baths and kitchen. Toto toilets in all baths. Spectacular master suite. Includes adjacent lot.

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Private Exclusive: Beautiful remodeled home with 4 BR, 4.5 BA in sought-after Bradley Hills. New gourmet eat-in kitchen with stone wood-burning fireplace, separate living, dining, family, sunrooms and home office. Finished lower level with wet bar. Huge master bedroom and new en-suite bath overlooking the lush gardens, terraced stone patio and pool.

BETHESDA $1,650,000 Rare new home opportunity in close-in Bethesda designed by Hayden Design & Build. Classic 6 BR, 4.5 BA colonial home with incredible detail throughout. High walk score with convenient access to Walter Reed Military Hospital, NIH, and Metro. TOM RILEY +1 301 351 3897

JAN M. EVANS +1 301 873 3596

BETHESDA $1,495,000 Gorgeous custom built Glen Echo Heights home, approximately 5,000 finished sq ft, 6 BR, 5.5 BA on 4 finished levels. Large rooms, high ceilings, kitchen with breakfast and family rooms, formal living and dining rooms, office on the main level. Huge master suite. Lower level rec room. 2-car garage and driveway. JONATHAN TAYLOR +1 202 276 3344

GIBSON ISLAND $1,094,000

Welcoming 3 BR, 2 BA cottage on quiet street. Features spectacular kitchen renovation with island, dining area and adjoining sitting room, huge 38 ft living room with wood-burning fireplace, private back yard with water fountain and mature plantings, lower level with 2 BRs, family room, storage and oversized, 1-car garage.

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©MMXV TTR Sotheby’s International Realty, licensed real estate broker. Sotheby’s International Realty and the Sotheby’s International Realty logo are registered service marks used with permission. Each Office Is Independently Owned And Operated. Equal housing opportunity. All information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Price and availability subject to change. Date Source: MRIS (Sales, 12/1/12+, Legal Subdivision: Georgetown)

12/9/15 11:34 AM

good life

Some winters the temps dip low enough to transform the 6-foot- to 15-foot-deep C&O Canal into a long sheet of skating ice. Sure, you might have to brush aside some twigs and bring a shovel as a makeshift Zamboni, but it’s just about the only place in the area where skating in a natural setting is permitted. You’re most likely to run into other ice-hungry gliders wherever there’s parking, including across from Old Angler’s Inn, next to Chain Bridge, and where MacArthur Boulevard meets Brickyard Road. (The one section of the canal where you can’t skate is Widewater—mile area 12.6 to 13.4—a lakelike expanse not far from Old Angler’s Inn.) The thickness of

the ice along the canal isn’t monitored by park staff—there’s a “skate at your own risk” policy—so you’ll need to check it yourself or look for a hole someone else has made. Four inches thick is the rule of thumb, which doesn’t happen every winter, says park ranger Jason Gaskin. He cautions visitors to never skate alone. Rockville resident Paula Reichard-Soler brings her hockey-obsessed kids, 8-year-old Drew and 11-year-old Sydney, to meet up with teammates or to just glide around for a few hours: “It’s free ice time, and it feels like you’re away from the city, in another part of the country where people skate on ponds and lakes all winter.” —Kathleen Seiler Neary

Photo by skip brown

GO SKATING ON THE CANAL

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Find your inner artist as artists. Others feel they were shortchanged in the creative gene department. People of all skill levels—on a date, with a group of friends or solo—sign up for Cocktails and Canvas, a painting class offered several times each week at VisArts in Rockville Town Square. Each artist or artist wannabe starts the three-hour class with a 16-by-20-inch canvas that’s been partially sketched with a knockoff of a masterpiece, such as van

Gogh’s “Starry Night” or flowers by Georgia O’Keeffe. The instructor paints in front, explaining each step, technique and which brush to use. The participants—up to 35 per class—follow along, using the acrylics squeezed out for mixing in front of their easels, occasionally milling around to get a glass of wine or socialize. Amy Alonso, the assistant principal at Twinbrook Elementary School in Rockville, has taken more than a dozen classes. “It’s a great way to explore that

other side of yourself,” says Alonso, who was prompted to try something new after turning 40 recently. “It can be stress relieving or it can just be uplifting.” Cocktails and Canvas classes are $40 and include one project, packaged snacks and one glass of wine, beer, soda or sparkling water (additional drinks are for sale). VisArts at Rockville, 155 Gibbs St., Rockville; 301-315-8200; www.visartsatrockville.org —Caralee Adams

photo by michael ventura

Some people fancy themselves

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best bets

Our picks for the best things to see and do in January and February By Stephanie Siegel Burke

Material World Jan. 2-29

Art in the family Judging by her colorful paintings, March Avery was inspired by abstract expressionists, such as her father, the late New York artist Milton Avery. Eighty-threeyear-old March Avery, who lives in New York City, grew up around some of the 20th century’s most famous American artists. Her paintings feature landscapes, figures and animals. 10:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday-Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. Sunday; Marin-Price Galleries, free, www.marin-price.com

For two artists with pieces on view at Artists & Makers Studios in Rockville, the process of working with materials to create art is as important as the final product. Washington, D.C., artist Sondra N. Arkin uses hot wax and ink to make images that often resemble something biological, such as mold stains. But in her exhibit In My Mind It Is Always Summer, the effect evokes sensations of summer: vibrant color, steamy pools and lazy rivers. Also on view is In With the Old by Silver Spring’s Bob Bradford, who turns wood scraps, corks and even gum into art with a midcentury feel. 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Friday, by appointment on weekends; Artists & Makers Studios, free, www.artistsand makersstudios.com

Jan. 27-Feb. 21

the path to Freedom Father Comes Home From the Wars (Parts 1, 2 & 3) garnered huge critical acclaim, not to mention the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for a play inspired by American history, when it debuted in New York in 2014. Written by Pulitzer Prize-winner SuzanLori Parks, the play is set during the Civil War and tells the story of a slave named Hero who fights for the Confederacy. Loosely based on Homer’s Odyssey, the show, which is actually a trilogy of three one-hour plays, explores notions of freedom, betrayal and heroism. And that’s just the beginning. Parks is currently working on the next parts of what eventually will be a nine-play cycle, a truly epic undertaking. Round House Theatre, $41-$56, www.roundhousetheatre.org

Jan. 29

A Good Witch Kristin Chenoweth has done it all. A Tony and Emmy Award winner, she sings, dances and has acted in roles both comic and serious. A classically trained opera singer, she is perhaps best known for originating the role of Glinda in the Broadway musical Wicked. She has appeared in movies, such as Running With Scissors, and TV shows including Glee, Pushing Daisies and The West Wing. But to truly appreciate the big voice that comes out of that little (4-foot-11-inch) body, you’ve got to see her live. And luckily, you’ll have a chance to do just that at Strathmore, when the multitalented singer and actress performs songs and tells stories about her life and career. 8 p.m. at The Music Center at Strathmore, $58-$155, www.strathmore.org

avery painting courtesy of Marin-Price Galleries; chenoweth courtesy of strathmore; father comes home from the wars courtesy of round house

Jan. 8-29

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good life

best bets Feb. 14

My Sappy Valentine

8 p.m. at The Music Center at Strathmore, $35-$85, www.strathmore.org

Feb. 20

24 Hours ’Til Showtime It’s a race against the clock for six local theater companies in the annual Play in a Day event, a competition to create and perform an original 10-minute play in 24 hours. The troupes, which this year include Adventure Theatre, American Ensemble Theater, Flying V, Imagination Stage, Olney Theatre Center’s National Players and Round House Theatre, are each given a theme, a line of dialogue and a prop at the Friday night kickoff. They then work through the night and into the next day to write, rehearse and perform their creation by the 8 p.m. performance deadline on Saturday. 8 p.m. at Imagination Stage, $15, www.bethesda.org

Feb. 19

Blues Brother Acoustic blues artist John Hammond has been playing the blues for more than 50 years and has won a Grammy in addition to a dozen Blues Music Awards, including Best Acoustic Artist and Best Acoustic Album for Timeless, his latest album. He’s played with some of the most famous artists in the genre, including Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Muddy Waters, Tom Waits, John Lee Hooker and Dr. John. He’ll share songs and stories from his long career. 8 p.m. at AMP by Strathmore, $30$40, www.ampbystrathmore.com

Feb. 26-27

Having a Ball What happens when thousands of pingpong balls drop onto the stage in the middle of a dance performance? Find out in Why Patterns, a piece by choreographer Jonah Bokaer, who aims to transform how people think about dance by combining it with visual art and design. He often collaborates with artist and architect Daniel Arsham, and two of their collaborative works will be featured in one evening at Rockville’s American Dance Institute. In Why Patterns, designed by Bokaer and Snarkitecture, Arsham’s design firm, four dancers trigger pingpong balls onstage. In the second collaboration, RECESS, Bokaer transforms a sheet of photographic paper 30 times in an exploration of space, movement and design. 8 p.m. at American Dance Institute, $30, www.americandance.org

cumming photo by steve vaccariello; hammond courtesy photo; dancing courtesy of American dance institute

Looking for something special to do this Valentine’s Day? Grab your date and see Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs. You may recognize the prolific actor from his roles as Eli Gold on television’s The Good Wife or as high-school-geek-turned-millionaire Sandy Frink in the movie Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion. But he’s also an award-winning stage actor, garnering a Tony for his performance as Master of Ceremonies in Cabaret on Broadway. He’s been blowing critics away lately with this show, a collection of emotional tales and tunes—including numbers made popular by Annie Lennox, Keane, Adele and Lady Gaga—delivered with raw feeling and theatricality.

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Flashback to the 1960s Take a trip back in time to the era of hippies, bell-bottoms and miniskirts courtesy of one of these throwback musical groups. No psychedelics needed.

Born to be Wild Los Angeles-based Doors tribute band Wild Child re-creates a 1960s-era Doors concert at The Fillmore Silver Spring. Jan. 9, 9 p.m., The Fillmore Silver Spring, $17, www.fillmoresilverspring.com

Lounge Act Though they weren’t actually around then, Washington, D.C., jazz sextet Chaise Lounge plays hip jazz and pop that harks back to the 1950s and ’60s. Jan. 17, 7 p.m., Villain & Saint, $20, www.villainandsaint.com

All photos courtesy

Return to the Restaurant Folk singer Arlo Guthrie celebrates the 50th anniversary of his famous protest song, “Alice’s Restaurant,” by performing it in its 18-minute entirety, along with his other wellknown tunes. Feb. 3, 8 p.m., The Music Center at Strathmore, $38-$68, www.strathmore.org BethesdaMagazine.com | January/february 2016 45

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good life

arts & entertainment

calendar Compiled by Cindy Murphy-Tofig

$29-$89. Children 7-17 attend free with a paying adult. The Music Center at Strathmore, North Bethesda. 301-581-5100, www. strathmore.org.

The Music Center at Strathmore hosts Viennese music, singing and dancing on Jan. 3.

Jan. 17 ATLANTIC STRING QUARTET. The quartet, made up of members of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, performs chamber music. 4 p.m. $30. The Mansion at Strathmore, North Bethesda. 301-581-5100, www.strathmore.org. Jan. 18 PETER AND THE WOLF. Prokofiev’s tale comes to life in this family-friendly concert. 11 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. $10. Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington, Rockville. 301-348-3779, www.jccgw.org. Jan. 23 ZORAN DUKIC. The classical guitarist’s program will include works by J.S. Bach and Astor Piazzolla. Part of the John E. Marlow Guitar Series. 8 p.m. $28. Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ, Bethesda. 301-654-6403, www.marlowguitar.org.

Jan. 3 SALUTE TO VIENNA NEW YEAR’S PARTY. The annual celebration features Viennese music performed by the Strauss Symphony of America, plus singers and ballet and ballroom dancers. Presented by Attila Glatz Concert Productions. 3 p.m. $49-$95. The Music Center at Strathmore, North Bethesda. 301581-5100, www.strathmore.org. Jan. 9 BRIAN GANZ PLAYS CHOPIN. In his latest recital in his quest to perform all of Chopin’s works, Ganz will include a selection of nocturnes and Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58, among other works. Presented by the National Philharmonic. 8 p.m. $29$89. Children 7-17 attend free with a paying adult. The Music Center at Strathmore, North Bethesda. 301-581-5100, www. strathmore.org.

Jan. 10 RACHMANINOFF’S SYMPHONY NO. 3. The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra performs the Russian composer’s expressive work. 3 p.m. $35-$99. The Music Center at Strathmore, North Bethesda. 301-581-5100, www.bsomusic.org. Jan. 14 “EROICA.” The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra performs Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3, “Eroica,” which tells the tale of struggle and triumph, along with other works. 8 p.m. $35-$99. The Music Center at Strathmore, North Bethesda. 301-581-5100, www.bsomusic.org.

Jan. 29 RONNIE SPECTOR SINGS THE FABULOUS RONETTES. Catch legendary singer Ronnie Spector, who sang the 1960s hits “Be My Baby” and “Do I Love You” as part of the group the Ronettes, plus the 1980s hit “Take Me Home Tonight” with Eddie Money. 8 p.m. $35; $30 seniors; $15 students. The Robert E. Parilla Performing Arts Center, Montgomery College, Rockville. 240-567-5301, www. montgomerycollege.edu/pac.

Jan. 16 BACH VIOLIN CONCERTO NO. 2. National Philharmonic Concertmaster Colin Sorgi performs Bach’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in a program that also includes Grieg’s Holberg Suite, Mozart’s Divertimento K. 136 and Britten’s Simple Symphony for strings, Op. 4. Presented by the National Philharmonic. 8 p.m.

Feb. 6 ALEXANDER PALEY. Pianist Alexander Paley has performed with the National Symphony Orchestra, plus symphony orchestras through the United States and Europe. Presented by the Washington Conservatory of Music. 8 p.m. Free; donations accepted. Westmoreland Congregational United

Photo by Wilhelm Denk

MUSIC

Jan. 24 ARIEL HOROWITZ. The violinist’s recital will include works by Mozart, Brahms and Dvořák. 3 p.m. $15. Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington, Rockville. 301348-3779, www.jccgw.org.

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Church of Christ, Bethesda. 301-320-2770, www.washingtonconservatory.org. Feb. 12-14 MID -ATLANTIC JAZZ FESTIVAL. The annual festival attracts both established and emerging artists, plus student ensembles. Presented by the Jazz Academy of Music. $20-$50 for single tickets. Free for children 10 and younger with a paying adult. Hilton Washington, D.C./Rockville Hotel & Executive Meeting Center, Rockville. 301-5639330, www.midatlanticjazzfestival.org. Feb. 20 BRAHMS AND BUNCH. Karin Brown, a violist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, will perform music by Brahms and composer/ violist Kenji Bunch, who creates “New American” works. 7:30 p.m. $25; $12 for 18 and younger. Kentlands Mansion, Gaithersburg. 301-258-6394, www.gaithersburgmd.gov. Feb. 20 XUEFEI YANG. Yang performs works by Isaac Albéniz, Claude Debussy and Heitor Villa-Lobos. Part of the John E. Marlow Guitar Series. 8 p.m. $33.50. Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ, Bethesda. 301-654-6403, www.marlowguitar.org. Feb. 24 ANDRÁS SCHIFF. The pianist performs the final sonatas written by Mozart, Haydn, Schubert and Beethoven. Presented by Washington Performing Arts. 8 p.m. $45-$85. The Music Center at Strathmore, North Bethesda. 301-581-5100, www.strathmore.org.

photo by liz lynch/courtesy of strathmore

Photo by Wilhelm Denk

Percussive dance troupe Step Afrika! performs on Jan. 17 at The Music Center at Strathmore.

DANCE Jan. 17 STEP AFRIKA! STEP XPLOSION. The percussive dance troupe blends music, dance and storytelling. 4 p.m. $25-$40. The Music Center at Strathmore, North Bethesda. 301581-5100, www.strathmore.org. Feb. 14 TAMBURITZANS—NEW HORIZONS. Members of the Duquesne University Tamburitzans will sing, play and dance to the music of Eastern Europe. 2 p.m. $35-$38. F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre, Rockville. 240-314-8690, rockvillemd.gov/index.aspx?nid=382.

THEATER

Secret Society {Feel-good urban jams}

Fri, Jan 15

CHRISTIAN SCOTT {Bold jazz trumpet}

Jan. 8-24 A CHANGE GON’ COME. Delve into the life of Harriet Tubman and the front lines of the Underground Railroad in this multimedia stage production. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. $20; $12 for ages 14 and younger. The Arts Barn, Gaithersburg. 301-258-6394, www.gaithersburg md.gov/leisure/arts/theater-at-the-arts-barn. Jan. 15-24 LEND ME A TENOR. In this comedy filled with deception and confusion, renowned tenor Tito Merelli passes out before the curtain opens, and the opera company stands to lose a lot of money in ticket sales. That is until Max, the opera manager’s assistant, steps in. Presented by Rockville Little

Sun, Jan 17

Big Pants & Hot Flashes Julia Scotti & Kevin Meaney

Co-Presented with Cool Cow Comedy

{OUTstanding comedy}

Fri, Jan 22

Marcus Johnson {Urban jazz, local favorite}

Fri, Jan 29

The Crawdaddies {Zydeco, ska, & bayou beats}

Sat, Jan 30

Chaise Lounge

{A swingin’ Valentine’s concert}

Sun, Feb 14

JOHN HAMMOND {Songs from a blues legend}

Fri, Feb 19

Full schedule of shows online! 11810 Grand Park Ave, N. Bethesda, MD Red Line–White Flint Metro

www.AMPbyStrathmore.com BethesdaMagazine.com | January/february 2016 47

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good life Theatre. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. $22; $20 seniors and students. F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre, Rockville. 240314-8690, www.rlt-online.org. Jan. 17 and Feb. 14 THE WORLD OF FILM. The film series showcases foreign and independent films and includes discussions with film experts. Upcoming films are The Hunt, a Danish film about a teacher whose life seems to be improving before a small lie shatters it (Jan. 17); and The Mystery of Happiness, a film from Argentina about friends-business partners Santiago and Eugenio and Eugenio’s sudden disappearance (Feb. 14). Presented by Cinema Art Bethesda. 10 a.m.; doors open 9:30 a.m. $15. Bethesda Row Cinema, Bethesda. 240-395-0042, www.cinemaart bethesda.org. Feb. 5-20 THE LARAMIE PROJECT. The work explores the kidnapping, beating and death of Matthew Shepard, who was victimized because he was gay and left to die in a prairie outside Laramie, Wyoming. Performed by Kensington Arts Theatre. 8:15 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m.

Sundays. $25; $20 seniors and students; $17 Kensington residents and children. Kensington Town Hall, Kensington. 240621-0528, www.katonline.org. Feb. 12-27 A GRAND NIGHT FOR SINGING. Celebrate the musical genius of Rodgers & Hammerstein, the duo behind the Broadway tunes “Shall We Dance?” “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?” and many more, at this musical revue. Presented by Montgomery Playhouse and Arts on the Green. 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. Also 2 p.m. Feb. 20. $22; $12 for ages 14 and younger. The Arts Barn, Gaithersburg. 301258-6394, www.gaithersburgmd.gov/leisure/ arts/theater-at-the-arts-barn. Feb. 25-March 6 ROBIN HOOD. The classic tale of a man who stole from the rich and gave to the poor is presented by Victorian Lyric Opera Company. 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays. $28; $24 seniors; $20 students; $12 for preview performance Feb. 25. F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre, Rockville. 240-314-8690, www.vloc.org.

ART Through Jan. 10 BRIAN DAVIS: UNCOUPLED. In his exhibit, Davis combines sculpture, new media and installation. Noon-4 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, noon8 p.m. Fridays, noon-4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. Free. VisArts at Rockville, Rockville. 301-315-8200, www. visartsatrockville.org. Jan. 8 and Feb. 12 BETHESDA ART WALK. Various galleries in downtown Bethesda open their doors on the second Friday of every month. 6-9 p.m. Free. 301-215-6660, www.bethesda.org. Jan. 10-29 BALTIMORE WATERCOLOR SOCIETY. Members of the society exhibit their work. Gallery hours are 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays; 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. Free. Glenview Mansion Art Gallery, Rockville Civic Center Park, Rockville. 240-314-8660, www. rockvillemd.gov.

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Feb. 6-27 THE MODERNISTS. The show will include abstract artwork, landscapes and works created in an Impressionist style by Jamie Marin-Price, Leon Berkowitz, Sally Michel, Howard Mehring, Joseph Holston, Reagan Lake and March Avery. 10:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays, noon-5 p.m. Sundays. Free. Marin-Price Galleries, Chevy Chase. 301-718-0622, www.marin-price.com. Feb. 7-26 CHRISTOPHER MANGAN AND MICHAEL AUGER. Mangan uses texture and hues to capture a subject’s complexities in his oil paintings. Auger’s colorful, fun paintings portray animals, mythical monsters and other creatures. 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays; 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. Free. Glenview Mansion Art Gallery, Rockville Civic Center Park, Rockville. 240-314-8660, www.rockvillemd.gov.

CHILDREN AND FAMILIES Through Jan. 10 A YEAR WITH FROG AND TOAD. The two friends, with very different personalities, wake up from hibernation and have a year of fun adventures. The musical is based on the books by Arnold Lobel. Recommended for ages 4 and older. 1:30 and 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. $12-$35. Imagination Stage, Bethesda. 301-280-1660, www.imagination stage.org.

photo by lance curran

Jan. 16 AESOP’S FABLES. “The Tortoise and the Hare,” “The Lion and the Mouse” and other tales come to life with large-scale puppets. Presented by TheatreworksUSA. Recommended for ages 5 and older. 11 a.m. $7; $6 seniors; $4 students and children. The Robert E. Parilla Performing Arts Center, Montgomery College, Rockville. 240-567-5301, www.montgomerycollege.edu/pac. Jan. 21-Feb. 21 LEN PIPER’S PINOCCHIO. This version of the classic tale, featuring a life-size marionette, was created in the 1960s by Len Piper, father of Puppet Co. co-founder Christopher Piper. Suitable for ages 5 and older. 10:30 a.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. $12. The Puppet Co. Playhouse, Glen Echo. 301-6345380, www.thepuppetco.org. Jan. 30 CELTIC DANCE & FAMILY TEA. Head to the Arts Barn for a performance by members of the Duffy School of Irish Dance, then walk

down Kent Square Road to Kentlands Mansion for sweets, little sandwiches, tea and lemonade. 3 p.m. $8 (dance only); $20 (dance and tea). The Arts Barn and Kentlands Mansion, Gaithersburg. 301-258-6394, www.gaithersburgmd.gov.

The outdoor skating rink in Silver Spring stays open through March 25.

Feb. 3-March 13 JACK AND PHIL, GIANT-SLAYERS, INC. In this contemporary spin on Jack in the Beanstalk, Jack enlists his friend Phil on a trip to the pawnshop to trade in Jack’s grandfather’s watch. The boys get magic beans, and the adventure begins. Suitable for ages 5 and older. 1:30 and 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. $12-$35. Imagination Stage, Bethesda. 301-280-1660, www. imaginationstage.org. Feb. 6 NOAA OPEN HOUSE. Meet scientists and weather forecasters with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and engage with interactive exhibits and other activities. Recommended for ages 5 and older. Adults need to bring a photo ID to enter the facility. 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Free. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Silver Spring. 301-713-7258, www.noaa.gov/openhouse. Feb. 25-April 10 BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. The romantic tale of a beauty and her true love comes to life in a great forest in Russia. Suitable for ages 5 and older. 10:30 a.m. Thursdays and Fridays, 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. $12. The Puppet Co. Playhouse, Glen Echo. 301-634-5380, www.thepuppetco.org.

SEASONAL

rink. 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Sundays, noon-10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, noon-midnight Fridays and 10 a.m.-midnight Saturdays. $9 for a two-hour session; $8 children and seniors; $4 skate rental. Veterans Plaza, Silver Spring. 301-588-1221, www. silverspringiceskating.com. Jan. 18 MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY CELEBRATION. A highlight of the event, which will include multicultural performances and a recognition of Rockville community members, will be a keynote address by David Ragland. Ragland is co-founder of the Truth Telling Project in St. Louis and an assistant professor of peace and conflict studies at Juniata College in Pennsylvania. Sponsored by the City of Rockville. 10 a.m. Free. Richard Montgomery High School, Rockville. 240314-8316, www.rockvillemd.gov.

Through mid-March SKATING AT THE SQUARE. Lace up and glide across the outdoor rink in Rockville Town Square. 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Sundays, noon-10 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, noon-11 p.m. Fridays and 10 a.m.-11 p.m. Saturdays. Open New Year’s Day 10 a.m.11 p.m. $9 for a two-hour session; $8 children and seniors; $4 skate rental. Rockville Town Square, Rockville. 301-545-1999, www.rockvilleiceskating.com.

Jan. 18 MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY OF SERVICE. Use your day off from work—and the kids’ day off from school—to volunteer at various locations throughout Montgomery County. For more information on locations, service opportunities and specific hours, call the Montgomery County Volunteer Center at 240-7772600 or go to montgomeryserves.org. n

Through March 25 ICE SKATING AT VETERANS PLAZA. Take a spin around the outdoor skating

To submit calendar items, or to see a complete listing, go to BethesdaMagazine.com.

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banter

The Ninja Next Door Olney’s Geoff Britten came within seconds of winning $1 million on TV’s American Ninja Warrior

photo by Edgar Artiga

By Maura Mahoney

At Alternate Routes in White Marsh, Geoff Britten practices the type of moves that earned him the title of “American Ninja Warrior.”

One day last summer, an exhausted 36-year-old Geoff Britten of Olney stood in a dirt lot behind a Las Vegas hotel at 5:30 a.m., staring up at a 75-foot rope dangling from an immense scaffold. A finalist on American Ninja Warrior, the hit TV show from NBC and the Esquire Network, Britten had just completed the third stage—a grueling series of climbing, swinging and leaping challenges—of a four-stage obstacle course. BethesdaMagazine.com | january/february 2016 51

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banter

“I had to give everything I had,” Britten recalls. And now, only 35 minutes later, he faced the final challenge—the rope climb—which he would have to complete in less than 30 seconds in order to achieve “Total Victory” on the obstacle course. In the show’s seven seasons, no other competitors had ever made it past the third stage. This time, only one other contestant out of 100 finalists, Isaac Caldiero, had made it as far as Britten had. “I was just hoping I could make it halfway up and not embarrass myself,” Britten says. He took off, shimmying all the way to the top in 29.65 seconds. Caldiero went next and made it to the top about three seconds faster to beat Britten and win the $1 million prize, sparking a controversy among viewers when the show aired in September.

Britten was the first contestant ever to conquer all of the course’s obstacles, and also the first and only contestant to have a perfect season—he had not fallen in the qualifying rounds or in the finals. Though Caldiero had fallen in an earlier stage of the competition, he won the $1 million based on his climbing time. Britten lost out on the money, but he shares the title of “American Ninja Warrior” with Caldiero. “It’s all good,” Britten says. “I understood the rules. The fastest got the money. I’m happy to have the title.” A freelance cameraman who works for the Orioles, Nationals, Capitals and Wizards, Britten developed his athletic skills during 21 years of rock climbing. He trains six to seven hours a week at Earth Treks Climbing Center in Rockville and at Alternate Routes, a gym that offers ninja competition training in

White Marsh, outside of Baltimore. Since the show aired, life has returned to normal for Britten, his wife, Jessica, and their 6-year-old daughter, Allison, though Britten’s participation has led to other ventures. He competed on Team Ninja Warrior, a spinoff that is scheduled to air in January, in which teams of two men and one woman compete together, and he and Jessica both plan to compete in the upcoming season of American Ninja Warrior. Given that 6 million people watched the show’s finale, it’s not surprising that Britten is often recognized, both at home and when he’s traveling. “People used to tap me on the shoulder while I was working as a cameraman and ask if I’d put them on TV,” he says. “Now they tap me and say, ‘Are you Geoff? Can we get a picture with you?’ ”

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By David Frey

Figuratively Speaking philanthropy by the numbers

Numerous charitable organizations call Montgomery County home, from theater troupes to food banks to national foundations that have their headquarters here. The county is also home to several well-known philanthropists. Chief among them is Bethesda’s David Rubenstein, co-CEO and co-founder of The Carlyle Group. Estimated to be worth $2.5 billion, he has pledged to give most of his wealth to charity. He’s already given away an estimated $250 million. Here’s how giving in the county stacks up, according to the latest available data from The Chronicle of Philanthropy and other sources.

Average share of

Montgomery County residents’

“If I make more money, then I will have more money to give away. And I’ll be happy to do it.”

income given to charity annually in 2012:

2.69% Neighboring Counties:

Frederick County:

—David Rubenstein, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 2011

2.31%

Howard County:

Montgomery County ZIP code that gave the most to charity in 2012: Potomac 20854:

Total annual charitable contributions by Montgomery County residents in 2012:

$1.2 billion

$160 million Top-grossing charity based in Montgomery County in 2013:

Median contribution:

3.87%

Loudoun County:

1.98%

Fairfax County:

District of Columbia:

Arlington COunty:

Bethesda

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Chevy Chase 20815:

2.4%

$3,353

2.71%

Montgomery County ZIP code with the highest giving ratio in 2012:

2.09%

Prince George’s County:

5.24%

Sources: The Chronicle of Philanthropy, www.guidestar.org, Maryland Secretary of State, Inside Philanthropy, Forbes, Maryland Nonprofits

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The Palka Network Fox 5 DC Weather Forecaster Sue Palka’s daughter follows her into broadcast news

Viewers who have watched reporter Liz Palka wade through kneehigh water to interview residents of a flooded Virginia neighborhood or talk with tornado victims as they’re sifting through rubble would not be surprised to hear her say that she grew up around the TV news business. After all, Liz’s mother, Sue Palka, has been a weather forecaster for Fox 5 DC in Washington, D.C., for the past 30 years. Growing up in Gaithersburg, Liz, now 29, remembers that she and her younger sister, Nora, would stop what they were doing every weekday to tune in to their mom’s weather report. “It was exciting,” Liz says, “but at the same time, it was normal, because it was all we ever knew.” She’d watch her mom, a six-time Emmy Award winner, cover storms on the ground and from the air, chase tornadoes, predict snowfalls and fly into the eye of hurricanes. And sometimes Liz and her sister would find themselves in front of the camera. “Every year we’d do a live shot on Halloween at my house, so I could see my girls trick-or-treating,” Sue says. “Halloween falls during sweeps

months, which means no time off, so my colleagues would come with their children and we’d do silly antics, like pretend the backyard was haunted by TV weathermen, or that my daughter Nora’s room was a haunted house. I’d then do a full weather report.” One year, Sue delivered the weather report from home on Christmas Eve, which allowed her to go to church and also have dinner with her daughters and husband, Joe (now a part-time broadcaster for Voice of America). “We had the kids around the tree and acted out a scene from It’s a Wonderful Life,” she recalls. Despite Sue’s creative juggling of her work and home life—and the fact that working an evening shift meant that she was available to volunteer at the girls’ elementary school and to attend activities—Liz was not a fan of her mom’s schedule. “As a mama’s girl, I couldn’t understand why she had to leave to go to work at night,” Liz says. To spend more time together, the family created a tradition of traveling to D.C. every Thursday night to have dinner at a favorite restaurant near the

news station. But work demands occasionally prevailed over family plans. During the Blizzard of 1996, Sue left for the station on a Friday and couldn’t get home until the following Wednesday— she didn’t have a car with four-wheel drive. “I got a Jeep after that,” Sue says. By middle school, the news bug had bitten Liz, too. While watching Katie Couric on the Today show one morning in eighth grade, Liz recalls thinking that she’d love to have such a fun job, and then realized, “Oh, wait, that’s kind of like what my mom does!” After graduating from Potomac’s Connelly School of the Holy Child in 2004, she attended Elon University’s School of Communications in North Carolina

Photo by Jordan silverman

By Maura Mahoney

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Sue Palka in the Fox 5 DC newsroom, with daughter Liz reporting onscreen for WAVY-TV in Hampton Roads, Virginia

and after graduation began following her mother’s footsteps into broadcast journalism—albeit on her own path. “I followed my heart to the news side,” she says. Her first job was at the Charlottesville Newsplex in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she reported stories including the 2009 disappearance of Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington and the 2010 murder of University of Virginia student Yeardley Love. After a stint at a station in Greensboro, North Carolina, she moved back to Virginia in 2011 to join the team at WAVY-TV in Hampton Roads. She covers crime and homicide investigations, city government

and politics, and, occasionally, major weather events such as last fall’s coastal flooding in Hampton Roads. “Broadcast journalism has always been second nature to me,” Liz says, “although I did really have to work on it…to learn to loosen up in front of the cameras.” While Sue admits that she watched Liz “obsessively” in the early days of her career and advised her to try to relax more (mother and daughter watch each other online), she says Liz has grown so much professionally that she no longer needs her mom’s help. In fact, according to Sue, one of the proudest moments of her career was when she emceed the National Capital Chesapeake Bay

Chapter of The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Emmy Awards last summer—and announced Liz as one of the nominees. Sue and Liz say they share traits that have helped them succeed: a strong work ethic, a desire to be stellar employees, and a genuine passion for talking to people. “I think we are natural storytellers and good listeners,” Sue explains. That may be true, but it also may have been inevitable that Liz would take after her mom when it came time to choose a career: Sue was nearly six months pregnant with Liz when she was hired by Fox 5. Says Sue: “I like to say she was born into television.”

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Taking on a Classic Round House Theatre taps Silver Spring’s Mitchell Hébert to direct Tennessee Williams play By Stephanie Siegel Burke

Mitchell Hébert at Round House Theatre, where he will direct Cat on a Hot Tin Roof this spring

and graduate school. He moved to Maryland in 1986 after landing a job teaching acting and directing at the University of Maryland, where he remains a faculty professor. It’s also where he started directing. “I became a director by default

when I took the job at the University of Maryland,” he says. “Part of the requirement was that you had to direct plays.” A professional actor for 30 years, Hébert found a home in the Washington, D.C., theater community, where

photo by mike olliver

Before award -winning actor and director Mitchell Hébert agreed to direct Round House Theatre’s production of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof this spring, he asked himself, “Why?” Why take on one of the most iconic plays in American theater? The answer, he says, can be found in one of the play’s central themes: the search for identity. “All the characters are asking that question,” he says. “Who are they today and who do they want to be? Am I the person who I want to be? Did I dream of being something else?” In some ways, they are questions that Hébert is answering for himself. The Silver Spring resident wanted to be an actor since his childhood in Kenosha, Wisconsin. “I was drawn to it,” he says. “I was the typical kid running around the neighborhood dressed like Zorro, and I was the one directing everyone else. I didn’t see a professional play until college. I was just this oddity. It’s just what I wanted to do.” Hébert studied theater at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and got his master’s degree in acting at the University of Washington in Seattle. He also performed in many productions while attending college

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he’s also found support and inclusiveness, as opposed to the cutthroat competitiveness of a theater mecca such as New York City. “This was the right place for me,” he says. “I’ve never regretted it.” Hébert has acted in more than 35 professional productions, winning a local Helen Hayes Award—The Robert Prosky Award for Outstanding Lead Actor—for his performance in a 2012 production of After the Fall at Theater J in Washington, D.C. He also has directed a half-dozen shows in the D.C. area, including Round House Theatre’s 2014 production of Glengarry Glen Ross, which earned him a Helen Hayes Award for outstanding director. That production led to Hébert being tapped to direct Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Ryan Rilette, the producing artistic director at Round House, was so impressed with Hébert’s direction of Glengarry Glen Ross that he wanted to see more. “The quality that [Hébert] brings as a director is that he is a phenomenal actor as well as a great director. And Cat is the type of play where the acting is so important. It’s an actors’ play,” Rilette says. For Hébert, directing Cat on a Hot Tin Roof—a well-known Williams play that became even more famous thanks to the 1958 film starring Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor—is a challenge that is both daunting and inspiring. “It took me a long time to get over being intimidated by it,” he says. “I finally realized that playwrights do not write to intimidate, but to challenge both artists and audiences.” Cat on a Hot Tin Roof runs March 30 through April 24 at Round House Theatre. Tickets are $41-$56. www. roundhousetheatre.org

New Westat Scholarship Will Help More Students Complete College The Montgomery College Foundation would like to thank Westat for the company’s leadership gift establishing a scholarship for students in the Achieving Collegiate Excellence and Success (ACES) program. This need-based scholarship will aid as many as 10 students each year and is focused on those who plan to pursue a bachelor’s degree at The Universities at Shady Grove (USG) after graduating from Montgomery College. We are very grateful to Westat for envisioning a brighter future for students who are most often underrepresented in college classrooms. Their scholarship will provide young people in our community with the educational opportunities needed to ensure they have access to endless opportunities. To learn more about our ACES collaboration with USG and Montgomery County Public Schools, please visit cms.montgomerycollege.edu/ACES.

montgomerycollege.edu/foundation Carol Rognrud Executive Director of the Montgomery College Foundation 240-567-7493 BethesdaMagazine.com | january/february 2016 59

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Public school students in Montgomery County will likely get a day off next September with the Board of Education’s decision to close schools on Sept. 12 for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. While advocates celebrated, the decision only seemed to further muddle the board’s rationale on when to close schools for religious holidays.

Bethesda-area residents are pushing for safer streets following the deaths of bicyclist Tim Holden, 64, who was struck by a vehicle on Massachusetts Avenue in August, and Marge Wydro, 95, who was hit by a vehicle in October while crossing River Road to go bowling at Kenwood Golf & Country Club.

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“Savoir Faire”

Good news for visitors to Pike & Rose in North Bethesda: The opening of a seven-level, 566-space garage means no more fighting over one of 400 spaces in the White Flint neighborhood’s only other garage.

Members of the antigay Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas may think twice about returning to Potomac’s Winston Churchill High School after their November picketing fizzled when students staged a counterprotest, marked by colorful clothing and signs declaring the school a “Hate Free Zone.”

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Potomac native Bryan Cogman describes his time in middle school as “magical.”

Switching roles Game of Thrones writer started out as an actor in local school dramas By Aaron Kraut

acting and set him on a path to New York City’s prestigious Juilliard School, a friendship with Game of Thrones co-creator David Benioff and a prime writing gig for the Emmywinning HBO fantasy drama. “Those were magical years for me, truly some of the fondest memories of my childhood,” Cogman, 36, says of his time at Hoover. “I have no idea where I’d be or who I’d be now if I hadn’t

had those opportunities during those formative years.” HIS LUCKY BREAK: Cogman became a writer on Game of Thrones by accident. “I was in a bit of a dry spell in my acting career a few years ago and, as many actors do, started writing to keep sane,” he says. While living in New York City, he met Benioff through his wife, who worked as a nanny for Benioff’s family.

Photo by riley stearns

Game of Thrones writer Bryan Cogman credits Pamela Bilik, his drama teacher at Herbert Hoover Middle School in Potomac, with helping him develop skills that later led to a job on one of television’s most popular shows. Bilik cast Cogman in plays that included Witness for the Prosecution and Arsenic and Old Lace, experiences that sparked his interest in

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Our New Location Benioff read some of Cogman’s writing and invited him to be an assistant for the show’s first episode in 2011. “The whole thing snowballed from there, and here we are,” Cogman says. ON WRITING PRESSURE: Thanks to the popularity of the novels by author George R.R. Martin that inspired the show, fans and television critics scrutinize each plot twist, camera shot and line of dialogue. “It’s difficult to shut all that out completely,” Cogman says. For Season Five of the show, he wrote a particularly controversial episode involving a rape that first aired last May. “Some of it was personal and nasty. But hey, I’d rather be part of something that people are talking about and elicits a strong response than some by-the-numbers, middle-of-theroad thing,” he says.

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WHERE IT ALL BEGAN: In addition to Hoover’s Bilik, Winston Churchill High School drama director Tom Bogar played a big role in Cogman’s future. “He set up an environment where me and my friends were always doing a production of some kind, everything from Albee to Beckett to Bogosian,” Cogman says, adding that Bogar remains a friend. “Exposing young people to that kind of variety of material can’t help but broaden their horizons. It can’t help but enrich their lives.” HOW ACTING TRANSLATES TO SCREENWRITING: Cogman hopes to

get back to acting. But for now he’s busy with the show and other writing projects, including Magic: The Gathering, a film based on a popular trading card game involving wizards and spells. Though he has no formal training as a writer, Cogman says actors and writers share “a grasp of storytelling, a desire to entertain and an interest in exploring the human condition. I’ve learned how to do it and continue to learn on the job.”

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By Aaron Kraut and andrew metcalf

Neighborhood NOTES News you may have missed

4 5 1

Swooping down from above, an aggressive owl defended its territory last fall by attacking several people on the Capital Crescent Trail in Bethesda. The owl may have been mistaking runners’ headlamps or ponytails for prey, said wildlife officials, who were considering relocating the bird.

2. Roadside Assistance

In early October, Montgomery County police officer James Herman was conducting a routine traffic stop along Interstate 270 northbound in Gaithersburg when another car pulled up behind him and a frantic couple got out, pleading for help—their 9-monthold granddaughter had stopped breathing. Herman performed CPR, helping to save the baby’s life, before firefighters arrived.

3. Mango Man

As a thief who was stealing laundry detergent ran through a Rockville Safeway store one day in October, a quick-thinking manager tried to stop the man by pelting him with mangoes from a nearby display. But the manager’s efforts proved fruitless and the thief escaped. County police later arrested a suspect.

4. Offense vs. Defense

A Native American parent asked the Montgomery County Board of Education in October to ban the Washington Redskins name and logo after he was offended to see the principal of his child’s Silver Spring elementary school wearing a Redskins polo shirt. Other parents told the board that people wear Redskins gear at schools in support of the football team, not to “dehumanize” Native Americans.

5. gotcha

The man with a sign standing in the River Road median in Bethesda one October morning wasn’t looking for donations—he was a Montgomery County police officer on the lookout for motorists violating the law by using their cellphones while driving. When he spotted distracted drivers, he radioed nearby officers, who issued 56 tickets and 22 warnings.

illustration by mary ann smith

1. Sneak Attack

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book Report By Maura Mahoney

Veteran reporter Daniel de Visé’s book, Andy & Don: The Making of a Friendship and a Classic American TV Show (Simon & Schuster) about The Andy Griffith Show starring Andy Griffith and Don Knotts, was published in November. De Visé, a resident of Garrett Park who was Knotts’ brother-in-law, interviewed friends, associates and family members of the two men, including actors Ron Howard, Jim Nabors, Tim Conway and Billy Bob Thornton, for his definitive account of the classic TV series. Griffith and Knotts, both now deceased, worked together on the show from 1960 to 1965, and remained best friends for the rest of their lives. According to de Visé, the show still airs regularly as reruns, has a fan club with more than 1,000 chapters and is celebrated at an annual festival that draws 30,000 fans. “Like all the best comedy teams,” de Visé says, “Andy and Don were better together than apart.”

Bethesda’s Todd Moss drew on his experience as deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of African Affairs for both his first novel, The Golden Hour (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2014), and his new release, Minute Zero (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2015). According to Moss, Minute Zero refers to the brief period during a crisis when events can still be shaped for a positive outcome. In Minute Zero, State Department crisis manager Judd Ryker is thrown into a rapidly escalating crisis in Zimbabwe. Moss, now chief operating officer and senior fellow at Washington, D.C.’s Center for Global Development, says he turned to writing fiction because “I could give better insight into what it’s really like in these situations without worrying about disclosing classified information or upsetting former colleagues, and it’s more fun for me and more interesting for regular readers.”

Kensington resident Ann McCallum has whipped up more educational recipes in her third cookbook for elementary students, Eat Your U.S. History Homework: Recipes for Revolutionary Minds (Charlesbridge, 2015). The whimsically illustrated book is a follow-up to Eat Your Science Homework: Recipes for Inquiring Minds (Charlesbridge, 2014) and Eat Your Math Homework: Recipes for Hungry Minds (Charlesbridge, 2011). Recipes span the period from the Pilgrims’ arrival in Plymouth in 1620 to George Washington’s presidential inauguration in 1789 and include such names as “Colonial Cherry-Berry Grunt” and “Independence Ice Cream.” McCallum, head of the English for Speakers of Other Languages Department at Rockville’s Richard Montgomery High School, says the recipes are inspired by history rather than being completely authentic. “Did you really want to use bear grease instead of a stick of butter?” McCallum explains. “Or skin a squirrel for that casserole?”

In My Year of Running Dangerously: A Dad, a Daughter, and a Ridiculous Plan (Blue Rider Press, 2015), Emmy Award-winning CNN correspondent Tom Foreman chronicles his transformation from a self-described couch potato into an ultramarathoner who has clocked 2,000 miles of training along with completing four half-marathons, three marathons and one 55-mile race. It all began in late 2011, when his daughter Ronnie, then a college freshman, asked him to train for a marathon with her. The book tackles more than running: The Bethesda resident also writes about family life, parenting grown children, finding balance and dealing with change. “That year brought insights to me. ...I have no interest in the second half of my life just being a pale echo of the first half,” Foreman says. “I want the second half to include new adventures and new ways of looking at the world.”

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Eddie Fernandez, MD

Khanh Q. Nguyen, DO, RPVI Corporate Medical Officer

What’s on your bedside table?

michael dirda courtesy photo; all Book covers courtesy

Called the “best-read man in

America” by The Paris Review, Silver Spring’s Michael Dirda is a Pulitzer Prize-winning critic and longtime book reviewer for The Washington Post. His latest book, Browsings: A Year of Reading, Collecting, and Living with Books (Pegasus Books, 2015), is a collection of 50 essays on literary journalism, book collecting and writers. So we figured he’d be a good person to ask, “What’s on your bedside table?” “I do have a nightstand, but I’m afraid I also have a heap of books on the floor by my bed. One that I was just rereading is called Memorable Days: The Selected Letters of James Salter and Robert Phelps [Counterpoint, 2010]. Jim Salter was one of the greatest American novelists. His close friend, Robert Phelps, was a columnist for the Herald Tribune and wrote a wonderful book about [the French writer] Colette called Earthly Paradise. These are the best letters I know about what it’s like to be two writers, talking about life as a literary person in the 1960s—describing the people they know, the books they love, their own passions for writing, their hopes, their fears. It’s just a terrific book.”

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What Bethesda’s Reading Top - selling books as of Nov. 30 at the Barnes & Noble Bethesda, 4801 Bethesda Ave., compared with Barnes & Noble stores nationwide and at www.bn.com

Jan. 17 CHRIS BOHJALIAN. In The Guest Room (Doubleday Books, 2016), a married couple’s life spirals out of control after the husband throws a bachelor party in their home and two men are killed. Bohjalian will read from and sign copies of his latest novel. 5 p.m. Free. Politics & Prose, Washington, D.C. 202-364-1919, www. politics-prose.com.

Feb. 18 VERONICA ROSSI. The bestselling author, who writes fiction for young adults, will discuss her new book, Riders (Tor Teen, 2016). 7 p.m. Free. Montgomery County Public Libraries, Bethesda branch. 240-777-0970, www.mont gomerycountymd.gov/library.

Hardcover Fiction

DAVID GREGORY. Hear how the former Meet the Press moderator explores religious traditions in order to understand his own faith as he reads from his book, How’s Your Faith? An Unlikely Spiritual Journey (Simon & Schuster, 2015). 7 p.m. Free. Politics & Prose, Washington, D.C. 202-364-1919, www. politics-prose.com.

Hardcover Nonfiction

Jan. 7

Barnes & Noble Nationwide/www.bn.com

Barnes & Noble Bethesda

Paperback (Fiction and Nonfiction)

LITERARY events CALENDAR

1. Rogue Lawyer, John Grisham 2. The Crossing (Harry Bosch Series, #20), Michael Connelly 3. Avenue of Mysteries, John Irving 4. Career of Evil (Cormoran Strike Series, #3), Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling) 5. Fates and Furies, Lauren Groff 6. The Japanese Lover, Isabel Allende 7. All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr 8. The Guilty (Will Robie Series, #4), David Baldacci 9. The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins 10. Purity, Jonathan Franzen

Data provided by:

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Cross Justice, James Patterson The Guilty (Will Robie Series, #4), David Baldacci Tricky Twenty-Two, Janet Evanovich Rogue Lawyer, John Grisham The Crossing (Harry Bosch Series, #20), Michael Connelly The Bazaar of Bad Dreams: Stories, Stephen King See Me, Nicholas Sparks The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto, Mitch Albom All Dressed in White, Mary Higgins Clark, Alafair Burke Crimson Shore, Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child

1. Days of Our Lives: 50 Years, Greg Meng 2. Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush, Jon Meacham 3. The Witches: Salem, 1692, Stacy Schiff 4. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, Marie Kondo 5. Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates 6. The Art of Grace: On Moving Well Through Life, Sarah L. Kaufman 7. Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War That Changed American History, Brian Kilmeade, Don Yaeger 8. Lights Out: A Cyberattack, A Nation Unprepared, Surviving the Aftermath, Ted Koppel 9. The Last of the President’s Men, Bob Woodward 10. Binge, Tyler Oakley

1. Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War That Changed American History, Brian Kilmeade, Don Yaeger 2. Killing Reagan, Bill O’Reilly, Martin Dugard 3. Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush, Jon Meacham 4. The Witches: Salem, 1692, Stacy Schiff 5. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, Marie Kondo 6. Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology, Leah Remini, Rebecca Paley 7. The Power of I Am, Joel Osteen 8. The Pioneer Woman Cooks, Ree Drummond 9. Binge, Tyler Oakley 10. Strong Looks Better Naked, Khloé Kardashian

1. Fantastic Cities: A Coloring Book of Amazing Places Real and Imagined, Steve McDonald 2. The Martian (Movie Tie-In), Andy Weir 3. The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Daniel James Brown 4. Brooklyn, Colm Toibin 5. I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban, Malala Yousafzai, Christina Lamb 6. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, Bryan Stevenson 7. Animal Kingdom: Color Me, Draw Me (A Millie Marotta Adult Coloring Book Series), Millie Marotta 8. A Man Called Ove, Fredrik Backman 9. Yes Please, Amy Poehler 10. Gray Mountain, John Grisham

1. Harry Potter Paperback Boxed Set, Books 1-7, J.K. Rowling 2. Secret Garden: An Inky Treasure Hunt and Coloring Book, Johanna Basford 3. The Maze Runner Series - Complete Collection, James Dashner 4. The Martian, Andy Weir 5. A Game of Thrones Leather-Cloth Boxed Set (Song of Ice and Fire series), George R.R. Martin 6. Animal Kingdom: Color Me, Draw Me (A Millie Marotta Adult Coloring Book Series), Millie Marotta 7. Percy Jackson & the Olympians – 5-Book Paperback Boxed Set, Rick Riordan 8. Alexander Hamilton, Ron Chernow 9. The Walking Dead Compendium, Vol. 1, Robert Kirkman 10. The Chronicles of Narnia Boxed Set (Collector’s Edition), C.S. Lewis

Courtesy photo

David Gregory

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banter | suburbanology

by april witt

a wrinkle in time I was rooting around my linen closet recently, looking for a folded stack of holiday tablecloths, when I was surprised by a memory. I wasn’t visited by a ghost of Christmas past. I just remembered how much I detest ironing. I realized that I probably hadn’t ironed anything since Christmas 2014—a new record. I paused, head in closet, and tried to recall when and why my ironing aversion began. During my suburban childhood in the Midwest, an iron and ironing board stood always at the ready in our basement laundry room. Somebody in the family ironed something every day. No family road trip launched without someone in our jammed station wagon admitting—usually when we were miles from home in heavy traffic—“I think I forgot to unplug the iron.” Later, as a busy young professional, I enjoyed the mindless simplicity of starching and ironing a week’s worth of shirts or a stack of napkins for a dinner party. These days, I think of my iron like the fire extinguisher under my kitchen sink: to be used only in case of an emergency. I’m not alone. Gabrielle Duvall, 40, hasn’t ironed since she graduated from

law school 15 years ago. “I spend so much time ironing my hair with a flat iron that I don’t have time to iron my clothes,” quips Duvall, a business attorney who commutes to her Bethesda office from Olney. A few months ago, Duvall briefly debated lifting her ironing ban long enough to press nice napkins for Thanksgiving. She couldn’t bring herself to do it, so she sent the napkins to the dry cleaners. “If something needs to be ironed, I always send it to the dry cleaners,” the busy mother of two says. “Ironing is one of those problems you can throw a little money at and it goes away.” As two-career families have become more egalitarian and time-starved—and household chores are shared, jointly ignored or outsourced—many people have come to believe that ironing is as archaic and unnecessarily laborious as, say, churning their own butter. (I’m in that camp.) Not coincidentally, this happened as options for attractive wrinkle-resistant clothing expanded. Brooks Brothers began selling non-iron dress shirts in the late 1990s. In 2006, a Brooks Brothers representative was quoted in The New York Times as saying that 70

percent of the shirts it sold were noniron. Last year, 90 percent of the shirts sold by Brooks Brothers were non-iron. Derrick Jacobs, a 33-year-old financial planner and father of a 4-year-old, estimates that he hasn’t ironed much of anything in eight years. He dry-cleans his clothes and buys non-iron shirts. And because no fabric is completely wrinkle-free, he often throws a shirt in the dryer for five minutes to relax any creases before he leaves for work. “My wife hates that because she thinks the dryer is beating up my clothes,” says Jacobs, who lives in Rockville. “But I’m not going to iron them—and neither is she.” Katie Burke, 39, a Chevy Chase, D.C., mother of four, says she almost never irons unless she has to affix an iron-on badge to her daughter’s Girl Scout uniform. “If something needs to be ironed, I won’t buy it,” she says. She tugs at the white pullover top she’s wearing, which is made of a crinkled fabric. “Not wanting to iron is why I bought this—it’s meant to be wrinkled.” Asked whether her husband irons his shirts, she laughs and says: “I have no idea. I take care of the kids’ clothes and mine. He’s on his own.”

illustration by claudine hellmuth

Ironing just isn’t what it used to be

70 January/february 2016 | BethesdaMagazine.com

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banter | Suburbanology In 2009, a survey paid for by the Washington, D.C.-based Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers showed that 87 percent of households nationwide owned or had access to an iron. But only 9 percent of the people surveyed said they use their iron daily. Forty-one percent used the iron once a month or less. The association hasn’t repeated the survey since, a spokesman said. So I did my own informal polling in downtown Bethesda. In a day spent accosting strangers to ask about their ironing habits, I found just one person—Lee Roeder, 52—who said that he not only irons regularly, but enjoys it. “I love ironing,” Roeder said. “It’s kind of therapy.” Roeder is something of an ironing expert. His father, who was in the military, taught him how to iron with pride. Now he runs the housewares department at Strosniders Hardware in Bethesda, which stocks a large selection of irons and ironing boards. Sales of irons, including a fancy Rowenta that costs $299, remain

strong, he says. Cultural knowledge of how to iron properly, however, may be slipping away. Many customers don’t know that filling the water tank of an iron that is already hot might break it, he says. Talking with customers about ironing best practices, Roeder has come to realize that many of the buyers have no intention of ironing. They are getting an iron for their maid or nanny to use. In other words, people who can pawn off their ironing on someone else often do. The rest of us develop ironing avoidance coping mechanisms. We buy knits or favor dark colors, which hide wrinkles better than lighter shades. We use our dryers as hands-free irons. We leave the house in slightly rumpled outfits knowing that by the time we get where we’re going our body heat will have caused the residual wrinkles in our jeans or shirts to relax. A few months ago, I traveled to my college reunion at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Getting ready

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in my hotel room, I planned to hang my black knit dress inside the shower to steam. But the hotel had those annoying anti-theft hangers that have no hook at the top once you remove them from the closet rod. There was no easy way to hang my dress in the shower. Sure, an iron and an ironing board were in the hotel room, but using them would have meant, you know, ironing. Instead, I looped a big towel through a wooden hanger, then tied two corners of the towel together to make a sling. I tossed that towel-sling over one corner of the shower door so I could hang my dress to steam. It was an imperfect solution. The sling slipped a few times and my dress hit the shower floor. By the time I left for the party my dress was still a bit damp. At least I didn’t have to iron. n April Witt (aprilwitt@hotmail.com) is a former Washington Post writer who lives in Bethesda.

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banter | hometown

by steve roberts

Doro Bush Koch is a devoted practitioner of “mindfulness.”

caption

under the radar When Doro Bush Koch heard her brother Jeb was running for president, she had to take a deep breath. Literally. “Honestly, it felt jarring,” she says. “It was hard to believe. Like, whoa! Another person in my family running for president? That’s really unusual.” Koch is a devoted practitioner of “mindfulness,” a mental discipline with roots in Buddhist meditation. When I

ask her to define the concept, she replies, “My favorite definition is: paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally.” Mindfulness has been a “huge lifesaver” for Koch over the years. And she turned to it again last June, when Jeb launched the Bush family’s seventh national campaign since 1980. “I knew it was a possibility, but when I heard it was definite I had to breathe

a little bit,” Koch recalls. “The whole reason we want to be mindful is that we want to reduce stress. Stress kills us.” Koch tries to avoid stress by “flying under the radar.” Now 56, she’s been married for 23 years to Bobby Koch, a former aide to House Democratic leaders who is president of the Wine Institute, the lobbying arm of the California wine industry. They’ve lived for 19 years in the same house on a wooded cul-de-sac off Seven

Photo by michael ventura

Bethesda’s Doro Bush Koch has turned to mindfulness to cope with the stress of having a father and brother who were president—and another brother who wants to be

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banter | hometown

Locks Road in Bethesda. As we talk in her cozy living room, her dog Tess, a silky Maltese-poodle mix, curls up next to me. It’s a placid private space, but the public side of being a Bush is never far away. Koch is the first American since Abigail Adams Smith, who died in 1813, to be both the daughter and sister of a president. A sketch of her father, Bush 41, dominates the front hallway. Two paintings by her brother, Bush 43, depict her dogs and her garden. Framed White House Christmas cards line the walls. When her father was elected to Congress from Texas in 1966, the family moved to Washington and Koch attended National Cathedral School. Then came boarding school in Connecticut, college in Boston, young married life in Maine. After a divorce in 1990, she returned to Washington with two small children, and found a job raising funds for the National Rehabilitation Hospital. Her parents would occasionally babysit, taking the kids to Camp David for the weekend or to Maine for summer vacations. A co-worker introduced her to Bobby, who grew up in Potomac, attended Landon School and learned about politics from his father, a prominent lobbyist for the grocery manufacturers. “We didn’t connect at all,” Koch recalls. “I thought he was a little arrogant, very sure of himself. He was very handsome though, I did give him that.” Her mother worried that the budding romance would be squelched by her daughter’s family obligations. “When we started dating, she would say things to me like, ‘Do not take the children. It will kill it!’ ” Koch says now with a laugh. “And I’m like, ‘Mom, he likes the children.’ ” They were married in 1992, the only wedding ever held at Camp David, and had two more children together. Both are now in college and their absence gives Koch more time to pursue her passions: books, health and faith. Her brother Neil struggled with a learning disability that helped inspire

Mindfulness has been a “huge lifesaver” for Koch over the years. And she turned to it again last June, when Jeb launched the Bush family’s seventh national campaign since 1980. “I knew it was a possibility, but when I heard it was definite I had to breathe a little bit,” Koch recalls. her mother’s devotion to literacy, “so by osmosis, I wanted to be part of that,” Koch says. For years, she headed the Maryland arm of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, giving grants to local programs that encourage reading. When the foundation expanded, she became the national co-chair with her brother Jeb. “That didn’t work out; he decided to do something else,” she laughs. But she’s still deeply involved and cherishes a 12-volume set called My Book House, a collection of stories and poems that her mother read to her as a child. She yearns for grandchildren, and with her older daughter recently married, “I have [the books] there, just waiting for someone to read them to.” Koch’s older sister, Robin, died of leukemia at age 3 before Koch was born, so she’s the only surviving daughter. When I ask if she’s close to her mother, she answers: “I had a special relationship with my dad. When I was born, he wept when he saw that it was a little girl. I’m close to my mom, too, but you know my mom, she’s very direct. My dad’s the softy.” Koch was introduced to “mindfulness” by her sister-in-law, Tricia Reilly Koch, a nutritionist and health counselor. On long walks through Great Falls Park, the women discussed how Doro could cope with the pain of hearing her family criticized. “Politics for me is personal,” she explains. “I’m not political, but I don’t like seeing my family hurt. Mindfulness

was a way to be able to breathe. When my mind would get all upset and angry and tangled up, I learned to become a loving observer of my thoughts, and say, that’s just a thought, it’s not true, let it go.” Eventually the sisters-in-law created a consulting business that trains clients in the practice of mindfulness. But profit is only part of their motive. Koch sees a direct link between her secular and spiritual lives. Mindfulness, she says, “goes hand in hand with my faith.” An Episcopalian, Koch took classes at the Wesley Theological Seminary but left during her brother’s presidential campaign in 2000: “Some of the professors were a little negative about George, it was not pleasant. I just felt, I’m too sensitive, it’s not a good fit for me right now.” Once her children left home, she “gravitated” back to the National Cathedral, where she once attended school. “It’s just a warm feeling to be there, even though it’s big and vast,” she says. Today, she’s a regular at Sunday morning services and a trained Eucharistic minister. “I’m a chalice bearer,” she says proudly. At those moments, Doro Bush Koch is nobody’s daughter or sister, wife or mother. She is simply a server, a believer, bearing wine and bearing witness. And she is at peace. n Steve Roberts teaches politics and journalism at George Washington University. Send ideas for future columns to sroberts@ gwu.edu.

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Profiles | Financial Professionals

Edward Geoffrey Sella

CPA, PFS / CFPÂ®, President & CEO

tony lewis jr

SPC Financial, Inc. See profile page 85

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Profiles | Financial Professionals

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What services do you or your firm provide? Our firm provides wealth management, portfolio management, insurance/ risk management, retirement planning, education planning, tax planning, estate planning and benefits analysis.

Bernard R. Wolfe Bernard R. Wolfe & Associates 5550 Friendship Blvd., Suite 570 Chevy Chase, MD 20815 301-652-9677 www.wolfefinancial.com

What type of client do you specialize in? We work with a diverse range of clients from corporations to retired corporate heads of business, young professionals to professional athletes. With demanding professions and, often complex, financial situations, our clients value our collaborative style and process that helps and allows them make informed decisions. What do you find most satisfying about your job? The postcards we receive from vacationing retired clients. The two words written say it all: “Thank You!” With our help, our clients can reach financial milestones

by remaining disciplined and avoiding major investment pitfalls. We consider ourselves “professional hand holders,” which is especially important during tumultuous times. Our greatest satisfaction is when we see our clients reach their goals (and of course, the vacation postcards proving they’ve made it!). What makes your client experience unique? We believe clients deserve an in-depth discovery process before recommendations can be made. And we believe that trust is paramount. We understand and take seriously the emotional and financial trust our clients put in us and the long-term relationship that we foster guiding them financially and personally through the various stages of their financial lives. People do business with people they like and trust. Our success is because of our clients. We pride ourselves on making sure each client experience is more memorable than the one before.

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“We believe clients deserve an in-depth discovery process before recommendations can be made.”

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“We believe financial advisors thrive in our environment because integrity and professionalism are evident in every relationship, both within the office and with our clients.” What services do you or your firm provide? For over 80 years, we have worked with individuals, families, businesses and institutions delivering services and solutions that help build, preserve and manage wealth. We strive to understand our clients’ aspirations and we are devoted to them. Morgan Stanley continually leverages its intellectual capital and global resources to create and deliver targeted strategies.

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What do you find most satisfying about your job? Inside the office, I find most satisfying the interaction with clients while working with our advisors to help clients turn goals into realities. Outside the office, I am proud of the remarkable ways my colleagues represent our firm through community efforts that include everything from volunteering at The Children’s Inn at NIH to assisting at local food banks. What is your investment approach? At the forefront of everything we do, from

client interaction to colleague interaction, are Morgan Stanley’s four core values: 1. Putting Clients First; 2. Doing the Right Thing 3. Leading with Exceptional Ideas 4. Giving Back We represent our clients, we represent ourselves and we represent our company. We take this very seriously. What is your client’s experience? Our goal is to remain the place to work. We have set the bar high by delivering to our clients our four core values within a network of highly proficient financial advisors, one of the industry’s strongest platforms and our commitment to discovery and planning. We value collaboration and entrepreneurship firmly believing that financial advisors thrive in an environment where integrity and professionalism are evident both within the office and with our clients. No less important, we are dedicated to promoting diversity, relationships and leadership.

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What type of client do you specialize in? I specialize in clients who are preparing themselves for retirement or currently in retirement with a typical account size between $500,000—$5,000,000. These are often Baby Boomers looking for a straightforward framework to create a sound retirement plan. My professional designations are specific to the planning needs surrounding retirement: strategies for creating retirement income, wealth management and estate planning. What makes you different than others in your profession? I believe I have a unique ability to present information to clients in a way that they can easily understand and that allows them to confidently take action. I carefully listen to their specific issues and concerns and recommend solutions tailored to their goals and preferences. I take a comprehensive approach to financial planning and have an ongoing service model to help ensure I am adapting to the changing needs of my clients and the market.

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David B. Hurwitz, CFP®, CRPC®, CRPS®, RICP®

Private Wealth Advisor Ameriprise Financial 6400 Goldsboro Road, Suite 550 Bethesda, MD 20817 301-263-8509 www.davidbhurwitz.com Investment advisory services and products are made available through Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc., a registered investment adviser. Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc., Member FINRA and SIPC. © 2015 Ameriprise Financial, Inc., All rights reserved.

tony lewis jr

Profiles | Financial Professionals

From left: Client Coordinator Deanna Tomasetti; Group Retirement Services Director Jay Hunt; Regional Managing Director Brian Lipton, CFP®, CPA; President/Managing Director David McKinley, CFP®; Nonprofit Advisory Services Director Kathleen McDermott; Director of Investments Fred Tipper; and Financial Strategist Dave Walker, AIF®.

Brian R. Lipton,

CFP®, CPA

McKinley Carter Wealth Services by clients and helping them address economic stressors, like how to retire comfortably, invest wisely, reject bad ideas, leave a legacy and more. What do you find most satisfying about your job? Helping my clients live the life they imagine and achieve their financial goals is important to me. It’s incredibly satisfying to help clients navigate through a web of financial decisions, much more so than untangling the IRS code!

9841 Washingtonian Blvd., Suite 380 Gaithersburg, MD 20878 240-813-1300 www.mckinleycarter.com McKinley Carter Wealth Services, Inc. (“McKinley Carter”) is an SEC-registered investment adviser. For additional information about McKinley Carter, including fees and services, send for our disclosure brochure as set forth on Form ADV using the contact information herein. Please read the disclosure brochure carefully before you invest or send money.

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What made you want to become a professional advisor? When I started my career as a CPA, I realized that most people were “winging it” with their finances. Their plans consisted of buying annuities, picking random stocks and using a broker. Rarely was there a strategy. As a wealth manager, I believe that a well-devised plan can make a positive financial difference. As a Certified Financial Planner at McKinley Carter, I put those beliefs to work, filling financial voids faced

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Profiles | Financial Professionals

“Everything we do is designed to put our clients’ minds at ease and to help them create a legacy for the next generation.”

Jeff Leventhal & Stephen Rosen hilary schwab

hilary schwab

HighTower Bethesda 7200 Wisconsin Ave., Suite 910 Bethesda, MD 20814 301-202-3585 www.hightowerbethesda.com

What type of client do you specialize in? HighTower Bethesda caters to high net worth business owners, entrepreneurs and executives. As business owners and entrepreneurs ourselves, we have a unique ability to understand our clients’ day-to-day needs, as well as their long-term goals. Focused on their own businesses, our clients appreciate having like-minded advisors, such as ourselves, providing financial counsel and oversight. What services does your firm provide? Our wide array of services include financial/estate/insurance planning, investment advice and specialized business exit consulting that help clients monetize their largest asset and formulate a “Life After” plan. What is your investment approach? For over 15 years we have utilized al-

ternative investments such as private real estate, private equity, and hedge funds to complement our equity and fixed Income portfolios. We feel that if these investments can provide significant value for the endowments of universities such as Harvard and Yale, as well as various state pensions, then they can most certainly do the same for our clients. What do you find most satisfying about your job? Everything we do is designed to put our clients’ minds at ease and to help them create a legacy for the next generation. Our clients appreciate what we do for them and express their gratitude. But, when you receive a call from a client’s friend, or when a client asks you to help their children, we have succeeded in gaining their trust and respect in a manner that goes far beyond dollars and cents.

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Profiles | Financial Professionals

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What services do you or your firm provide? We create and manage customized, wealthbuilding financial plans tailored to our clients’ unique goals, timelines and evolving life circumstances. We have a particular focus on Gen X, Gen Y and Millennials, as well as anyone in a wealth accumulation stage. As a registered investment advisory firm (RIA), we are held to a Fiduciary Standard, so our clients’ best interests are our firm’s best interests. We provide the same customized service to all of our clients without consideration of a minimum initial investment and irrespective of the size of their account. What made you want to become a professional adviser? When I was in the first grade, I wanted to be Alex P. Keaton, the money-savvy kid play by Michael J. Fox on the sitcom, “Family Ties.” It was clear early on that I had an affinity for sound saving, investing and growing money. When I was seven, my grandmother gave me a dollar; I turned it into $5 then $50. I am thrilled by the challenge and success of helping people reach their financial goals at all stages of their lives. What is your investment approach? Each client is an individual, not a demographic. We don’t fit clients into a formula or feed them into an algorithm. We create customized, cost-effective, tax-efficient portfolio models for each client that I design myself. What makes your client experience unique? Everything starts with financial literacy: I want our clients to understand and feel comfortable with their financial plan, investment choices and level of risk, whether experienced with money management or just getting started. I incorporate innovative technology into the models I build and combine those targeted tech solutions with personalized service.

Sherman Wealth Management LLC 9841 Washingtonian Blvd., Suite 247 Gaithersburg, MD 20878 240-428-1622 www.shermanwealth.com @shermanwealth Disclaimer: Sherman Wealth Management LLC is a registered investment advisor. Please visit our website www.shermanwealth.com for important disclosures.

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“I want our clients to understand and feel comfortable with their financial plan, investment choices and level of risk, whether experienced with money management or just getting started.”

Brad Sherman

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Profiles | Financial Professionals

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“We simplify our clients’ financial lives and provide peace of mind.”

What services do you or your firm provide? Burt Wealth Advisors is an independent, fee-only wealth management firm. Specialized as a single source of advice for all financial concerns, we simplify our clients’ financial lives and provide peace of mind. We offer prudent and sophisticated financial, estate and tax planning as well as investment portfolio construction and management.

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Burt Wealth Advisors 6010 Executive Blvd., Suite 900 Rockville, MD 20852 301-770-9880 www.burtwealth.com

What makes you different from others in your profession? Our intense focus on client matters and solutions has earned the firm recognition in numerous leading regional and national media including CNBC’s list of top 100 fee-only wealth management firms in 2014 and 2015 (see website for inclusion criteria). Each of our advisors is a Certified Financial Planner® and is personally committed to the profession as well as his/her clients. Finally, as Registered Investment Advisors we hold ourselves to the highest standards of fiduciary responsibility to act in our clients’ best interests. Not all

financial professionals adhere to the fiduciary standard. What piece of advice do you most frequently get asked and what’s your answer? Most of our clients want to know whether their assets will sufficiently meet their financial goals. We prepare realistic, detailed plans to help individuals and families reach their goals. Our financial management expertise includes retirement planning, tax reduction strategies, business planning, education planning and the development of strategies to help clients provide for their children and heirs. What brings you the most satisfaction in your work? It’s satisfying to create resource-based plans that help clients reach their goals. But, the reward is not only in helping our clients’ achieve their dreams, it’s also in the bonds and relationships that are born out of a committed financial process.

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What makes you different than others in your profession? First, our firm is independent, privatelyowned and not subject to quarter-to-quarter profitability or profit margin concerns. Second, we’re thematic investors and, under Spencer’s leadership as head of research, we orient our process around investing in global themes rather than sectors, styles, industries or geography. Third, Craig, as head of fixed income, uses un-conflicted research to build customized, diversified bond portfolios, finding value in complicated markets. Fourth, we build portfolios with individual stocks and bonds rather than funds for greater tax-efficiency, transparency and lower fees. What is the one thing that your clients should know about you? We’re just the right size to take care of client needs on a personal basis. We’re large enough to have the depth, experience, resources and research to do an outstanding job. But we’re small enough to maintain individual relationships with clients, meet with them face to face and know them well.

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Craig Pernick & Spencer C. Smith Portfolio Managers

Chevy Chase Trust 7501 Wisconsin Ave., Suite 1500W Bethesda, MD 20814 240-497-5092 cpernick@chevychasetrust.com 240-497-5095 ssmith@chevychasetrust.com www.chevychasetrust.com

tony lewis jr

Profiles | Financial Professionals

What is your professional and educational background? In 2014, I moved from NYC to join Chevy Chase Trust as Chief Investment Officer. Previously, at AllianceBernstein, I served as Director of Thematic Research, head of US & Global Growth Equity Research and Chief Investment Officer of AllianceBernstein Venture Capital Fund. I also led AllianceBernstein’s Research on Strategic Change group. Earlier, I worked as an investment banker at Lehman Brothers and as a research analyst at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied Science.

Amy P. Raskin Chief Investment Officer Chevy Chase Trust 7501 Wisconsin Ave., Suite 1500W Bethesda, MD 20814 240-497-5034 araskin@chevychasetrust.com www.chevychasetrust.com

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What is your investment approach? We are global thematic investors. Our portfolios don’t look like most others. We identify powerful trends, disruptive ideas, innovations and economic forces that are reshaping our world and build portfolios positioned to exploit these changes. We invest in individual stocks, not funds. Some of our current themes include genomics, big data, U.S. urbanization, aging populations and robotics. 84 January/February 2016 | BethesdaMagazine.com

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Profiles | Financial Professionals

“We believe that it is important to integrate financial planning and investment management into a tax efficient plan.”

SPC Financial, Inc.

Independent Registered Investment Advisor / SEC

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3202 Tower Oaks Blvd., Suite 400 Rockville, MD 20852 301-770-6800 www.spcfinancial.com Securities offered through Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. / Member FINRA/SIPC. RJFS & SPC Financial® do not provide tax or legal advice. Financial advice provided by SPC Financial®. Tax services & analysis provided by Sella & Martinic, LLC through a separate engagement letter with clients. Sella & Martinic, LLC is independent of RJFS.

What makes your client experience unique? We believe that it is important to integrate financial planning and investment management into a tax efficient plan. There is not a boilerplate or standardized plan that fits all, or even most, situations. Our clients come to us with complex personal financial goals ranging from the financial and emotional loss of a significant other, parent or child, to the excitement of a family addition or marriage. Their hopes and dreams need to be combined with their goals, which may include investment allocation, child care, college funding, survivor planning, retirement options, eldercare choices, multi-generational strategies for family members and wealth management plans. What licenses, credentials, and other certifications do you hold and why do they matter to your clients? Over the last 40 years, over 1,900

clients have come to us with their personal stories, unique challenges and financial resources. Our team of nine Certified Financial Planner™ Professionals and five CPAs is honored to have been able to listen, learn and provide customized financial solutions throughout our clients’ life journeys. What piece of advice do you most frequently get asked and what is your answer? Clients seek our insight when there is a change that may impact their financial life. For example, recent rule changes to the Social Security Claiming Strategies have forced clients to reevaluate their retirement plans. Montgomery County Public School System (MCPS) employees affected by recent changes in their 403(b) & 457 plans have sought clarification from us and our opinion about which tiers and funds they should choose.

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Profiles | Financial Professionals

Special Advertising Section

Left to right: Cheryl Vample, Branch Administrator; Frederick Bohlander, CFP®; Brian Salcetti, CIMA®

Fred Bohlander, CFP® - Managing Principal

Brian Salcetti,

CIMA® - Financial Advisor Salcetti Bohlander Wealth Advisors Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network LLC 6903 Rockledge Drive, Suite 1200 Bethesda, MD 20817 301-214-4190 www.sbwealthadvisors.com Investment products and services are offered through Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, LLC (WFAFN), Member SIPC, a registered broker-dealer and a separate non-bank affiliate of Wells Fargo & Company. Salcetti Bohlander Wealth Advisors is a separate entity from WFAFN. Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network is not a legal or tax advisor.

What makes your client experience unique? We bring simplicity and consolidation to our clients’ financial lives, by teaming with accounting and estate planning specialists to provide a robust portfolio of private wealth services. Our approach is unique in that we fully integrate investments, tax, estate, insurance, trust and legacy planning into a comprehensive wealth plan. We are constantly communicating with our clients as we develop customized plans to help them achieve their personal and business goals. In a world filled with economic uncertainty, market volatility and changing goals, we offer a dynamic approach to investing and wealth planning to meet multiple client objectives. What makes you different than others in your profession? As Baby Boomers age, so do many of

their financial advisors. This leaves many investors with a challenge and a dilemma: how to keep their trusted advisors guiding them financially as they both age into retirement. Our solution is an experienced team of financial professionals who boast depth of knowledge, diversity and generational longevity. We can personally relate to different members of our clients’ family or their business and bring decades of experience, deep community ties and a passion to helping our clients achieve their goals. We are a multigenerational team for multigenerational clients. What brings the most satisfaction in your work? We develop a family-like bond with our clients and are committed to helping them achieve their goals. We take great pride in helping to make a difference in their financial and personal lives.

Tamzin B. Smith Portrait Photography

“We bring decades of experience, deep community ties and a passion to helping our clients achieve their goals. We are a multigenerational team for multigenerational clients.”

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Special Advertising Section

Profiles | Financial Professionals

“Our team has the experience and knowledge to help executives of publicly traded companies understand and help with compliance of the complex rules and regulations that govern their stock holdings.”

Stephen Lucas & Sumitro Pal Financial Advisors

The Lucas and Pal Group at Morgan Stanley

Courtesy Photo

7500 Old Georgetown Road, 10th Floor Bethesda, MD 20814 301-961-2643 www.morganstanleyfa.com/lucasandpal/ Disclaimer: Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC (“Morgan Stanley”), its affiliates and Morgan Stanley Financial Advisors or Private Wealth Advisors do not provide tax or legal advice. Clients should consult their tax advisor for matters involving taxation and tax planning and their attorney for matters involving trust and estate planning and other legal matters. Morgan Stanley Smith Barney LLC. Member SIPC.

What type of client is your focus? Our team has the experience and knowledge to help executives of publicly traded companies understand and ensure compliance with the complex rules and regulations that govern their stock holdings and insider trading policies. At the same time we are dedicated to helping executives manage all aspects of their company as well as their personal investment portfolios. What licenses, credentials or other certifications do you hold – and why do they matter to your clients? Stephen Lucas is an Executive Financial Service Director. This title issued by Morgan Stanley is awarded after an advanced, in-depth study and training in SEC Rules 144, 10b5-1 and the rules and practices concerning stock options. Lucas’ advanced knowledge allows him to focus for his clients on the rules and regulations that

govern corporate executives helping them to ensure compliance with corporate and regulatory governance practices. What services do you or your firm provide? We help executives manage all aspects of their investment portfolios by providing • Observance of applicable regulations for sales of restricted, control and concentrated securities. • Creation, administration and execution of a customized 10b5-1 Trading Plans. • Compliance with open market repurchases by executives or affiliated re-purchasers under Rule 10b-18. • Diversification strategies through the exercise of employee stock options. • Guidance on gifting of restricted or control stock.

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Profiles | Financial Professionals

Special Advertising Section

“Helping people realize their dreams of a better life for themselves, their children and their community.”

Sandy Spring Private Client Group 7550 Wisconsin Ave. Bethesda, MD 20814 800-770-5417 sandyspringbank.com/pcg

What licenses, credentials or other certifications do you hold – and why do they matter to your clients? At all times our professionals are committed to our clients’ best interests. From our attorneys—with specialties in taxation, estate planning, elder care and trusts—to our Certified Financial Analysts,

Certified Financial Planners, Certified Trust Analysts, Chartered Financial Analysts, Commercial Lending, Certified Treasury Professionals and Certified Public Accountants, our clients are our top priorities. What makes your client experience unique? Sandy Spring Bank’s commitment to client experience is part of our ethos. It is not new but rather the continuation of our Founders’ philosophy regarding the responsible stewardship of client finances, the local communities and our employees’ development— helping people realize their dreams of a better life for themselves, their children and their community. Specific to the Private Client Group, that stewardship involves our team of specialists – often working with our clients’ outside advisors – working to ensure our clients’ and their families’ financial well-being. It is unique in scope because we are able to deliver scale and sophistication in a highly personal way.

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What makes you different than others in your profession? Sandy Spring Bank has been serving clients in our community for nearly 150 years and our Private Client Group’s commitment to the wealth, trust and private banking needs of our clients is unique in our market. Our scope is broader than standard investment management services. Our team of specialists delivers financial planning, private banking, wealth management and trust and estate administration services to clients. This interdisciplinary approach is how we add a new dimension to our clients’ financial goals and dreams.

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Special Advertising Section

Profiles | Financial Professionals

What made you want to become a professional adviser? As financial advisors, we enjoy the challenge of numbers and see each person’s financial picture as a “puzzle” with different pieces that must be assessed, researched and strategized so we can design the best and most successful financial plan. Digging into the math and creating a solution that matches our clients’ particular needs is why we chose to become professional advisors and the reason we love what we do. What is the one thing that your clients should know about you? We really do love what we do. We consider it an honor to be our clients’ advisors and strive to never take those relationships for granted. What do you find most satisfying about your job? Partnering with our clients and having a meaningful impact on helping them achieve their goals is extremely satisfying. It’s personal. It’s mathematical. It’s relationships. It’s truly priceless. What are your interests outside of work? Our families are extremely important to us and they help us understand the financial juggles many of our clients face — including those just starting out and those heading into retirement. Katie and her husband have six grown children. Melanie and her husband have three children. We are both committed to our community and volunteer with several wonderful, local non-profits. Katie is the chair for the Excel Institute, as well as president of the Potomac United Methodist Women’s Group. Melanie is on the board of the Bethesda Chevy Chase High School Educational Foundation and is chair-elect of the Greater Bethesda Chevy Chase Chamber of Commerce.

Melanie Folstad & Katie Clark RBC Wealth Management

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5425 Wisconsin Ave., Suite 301 Chevy Chase, MD 20815 301-907-2726 (Katie) www.rbcwmfa.com/katie.clark/ 301-907-2729 (Melanie) www.rbcwmfa.com/melanie.folstad/

“Partnering with our clients and having a meaningful impact on helping them achieve their goals is extremely satisfying. It’s personal. It’s mathematical. It’s relationships. It’s truly priceless.” BethesdaMagazine.com | January/February 2016 89

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Special Advertising Section

What makes your client experience unique? We recommend financial strategies specifically appropriate for you and your family. We are your guide, your sounding board, your financial analyst, your coach. Every client is personally teamed up with two certified financial planners, the director of investments and support staff with the expectation that we will build with you a committed relationship. Since 1984, we have been a fee-only firm, providing comprehensive financial planning and wealth management services. This longevity and experience matched with our highly personalized approach to financial management allows us to formulate family-focused investment plans incorporating retirement, estate, insurance and tax planning concerns. With racial, age and gender diversity, our staffâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s varied life and professional experiences help us to understand and analyze your unique circumstances.

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WHEN BUSINESSES DO GOOD, THE COMMUNITY PROFITS. As members of Community Profits Montgomery, the following businesses have committed to give at least 2% of their pre-tax earnings back to the community or $100,000 to nonprofits serving Montgomery County. To learn more, or to join in our pledge, visit CommunityProfitsMontgomery.org Welcome New members:

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Bethesdaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Katie Ledecky shares her favorites ahead of the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

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best of Bethesda

More than 150 great places to go, people to know & things to do photo by edgar Artiga

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editors’ picks [best of the best]

Katie Ledecky

Who better epitomizes the “Best” of Bethesda than Katie Ledecky? We checked in with the swimmer as she prepares for the 2016 Summer Olympics—and asked her what’s on her personal favorites list. Ever since she swam onto the international scene as a relatively unknown Olympian in London in 2012, we haven’t been able to get enough of Katie Ledecky. The Bethesda resident was instantly propelled to “America’s sweetheart” status after defeating event-favorite Rebecca Adlington of Great Britain in the women’s 800-meter freestyle to capture a gold medal. Ledecky, who attended Little Flower School and Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart, both in Bethesda, was only 15. Since then, Ledecky has been busy. Really busy. She’s set 10 world records. At the FINA World Swimming Championships in Russia last summer, she became the first swimmer to win the 200-, 400-, 800- and 1,500-meter freestyles in a major competition, a feat now known as “the Ledecky slam.” We chatted with Ledecky, now 18, who heads off to the Olympic Trials in Omaha, Nebraska, this summer in preparation for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. What are your favorite memories of growing up swimming here?

I started swimming for the Palisades Porpoises when I was 6 years old. The coaches were only 15, 16, 17 or 18 themselves, and they just really created a fun atmosphere for us in practice and at the meets. The team spirit and sense of community at those meets are some of my best memories from growing up. I like that this area is big for swimming. Between Potomac Valley Swimming and the Montgomery County Swim League, the level of swimming here is something you don’t see everywhere. A lot of swimmers in this area go

on to compete in college, which is a special thing.

What’s your schedule like these days?

I’m taking a gap year to maintain my coaching and training going into the Olympic Trials before I head to Stanford next fall. This semester I’m taking two classes at Georgetown as a visiting student. I train nine times a week in the pool, about two hours each time. I do three dryland training sessions each week, about an hour each time. Most of my practices are at Georgetown Prep with my coach, Bruce Gemmell. I do dryland with Lee Sommers at Bethesda Sport&Health. Most of what I do is core work, and things so I don’t get injured, like protective shoulder exercises. I do some weights, too.

What’s your favorite event to swim?

The 400 and 800 free. The 800 is the event I swam in the Olympics, and I was really happy with my 800 this past summer at world championships. I really like the 400, too, because it’s a mix of sprinting and endurance. Most people see the 800 as a distance race. But my approach is that every race is a sprint—some are just longer sprints than others.

Do you have a favorite restaurant in Bethesda?

There’s a place I have breakfast two or three times a week after practice in the morning: Ize’s. It’s a little deli up on Rockville Pike, just past Georgetown Prep. It’s a great breakfast spot. It’s kind of a hot spot for swimmers, since Georgetown Prep and the Kennedy Shriver Aquatic Center are both nearby. I usually get an omelet with tomato, cheese and bacon. It’s funny—after London, they actually named that omelet after me, “Katie’s Gold Medal Omelet.” — Amy Reinink

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photo by liz lynch

Ize’s in Rockville named “Katie’s Gold Medal Omelet” for Katie Ledecky.

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editors’ picks [food & dining]

Carole’s Picks

Food Editor Carole Sugarman names her favorite dishes of 2015

Barrel and Crow, 4867 Cordell Ave., Bethesda; 240-800-3253; www.barrelandcrow.com

Cauliflower

Urban Heights’ roasted cauliflower with kimchee cream

Cauliflower is the new Brussels sprouts. Or so it would seem, as area restaurants are increasingly featuring the roasted florets as an appetizer or side dish, or even as a main course, served whole or sliced into a “steak.” Some of the best vegetables I had last year included Macon Bistro & Larder’s crispy cauliflower with peanuts, lemon, coriander and cumin; Urban Heights’ roasted cauliflower with kimchee cream; and Range’s marinated, flash-fried cauliflower served with eggplant caponata and crispy fried spinach. Brussels sprouts haven’t left the scene, which is good news. When it comes to eating more vegetables, two heads are better than one. Macon Bistro & Larder, 5520 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, D.C.; 202-248-7807;

maconbistro.com. Urban Heights, 7940 Norfolk Ave., Bethesda; 301-312-8282; urbanheights bethesda.com. Range, 5335 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Washington, D.C., Suite 201; 202-803-8020; www.voltrange.com

Crispy Pork Belly

While fried pork belly is not on my usual go-to list, I went hog wild over the version at Peter Chang, the Rockville restaurant opened in April 2015 by the well-known Chinese chef. Served in a pretty bamboo cornucopia with accents of green scallions and cilantro, the irregular-shaped sections of lightly battered pork belly set off a shattering crunch after each bite. Note to self: This crispy pigout is seriously better than a potato chip binge. Peter Chang, 20A Maryland Ave., Rockville (in Rockville Town Square); 301-838-9188; www. peterchangarlington.com

Ahi Tuna Tostadas

Ahi tuna is turning up everywhere these days; even the café at ArcLight Cinemas does a respectable poke. But the most creative and successful take on tuna I had this year was at Summer House Santa Monica, where diced raw ahi and watermelon—tossed in a Thai chili sauce—share space on a guacamole-schmeared tortilla chip. A dollop of sour cream, sprinkle of lime salt, sprig of cilantro and garnish of lime wedges complete the presentation. The cubes of reddish-pink tuna and watermelon, looking like identical twins, are surprisingly compatible. Summer House Santa Monica, 11825 Grand Park Ave., North Bethesda (in Pike & Rose); 301-881-2381; www.summerhousesm.com

photos by stacy zarin-goldberg

Mackerel

Holy mackerel. Chef Nick Palermo’s sautéed, crispy-skinned fish makes for one divine dish. Palermo, whose kitchen has made the new Barrel and Crow a destination dining spot, was pairing this un-fishy East Coast species of mackerel with a salsa of sweet corn, peppers and pickled ramps when I first had it. But the seasonal-minded toque is always looking to change things up, and at press time was serving it at lunch with spaghetti squash, bell peppers, cilantro, ginger confit and citrus sauce. The chef didn’t know if his supplier would have the fish come winter, but whatever the accompaniments or availability, the misunderstood mackerel has been blessed with positive PR, courtesy of Palermo.

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Sautéed mackerel at Barrel and Crow

Peter Chang’s crispy pork belly

Summer House Santa Monica’s ahi tuna tostadas

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editors’ picks [food & dining] Best Hot Chocolate

Aroma’s hot chocolate literally tastes like liquid candy. And no wonder—to make it, baristas at the espresso bar pour hot, steamed whole milk over sections of milk chocolate bars. But don’t worry if all the chocolate doesn’t melt completely after you stir it—the best part may be the warm gooey remains at the bottom of the cup. Aroma Espresso Bar, 7101 Democracy Blvd., Bethesda (in Westfield Montgomery mall); 301-312-6216; www.aroma.us

Best News For Croissant Lovers

There are now three places to buy great croissants in the space of a little more than two blocks in downtown Bethesda. Thanks to Fresh Baguette and PAUL on Bethesda Avenue, and La Bohemia Bakery at the Farm Women’s Market, buttery breakfasts abound. Each shop’s pastry differs in appearance, taste and texture, and it takes only a short walk to compare them. Our pick: Fresh Baguette’s, for its flaky, crisp crust and intricate labyrinth of layered dough. Fresh Baguette, 4919 Bethesda Ave., Bethesda; 301-656-0000; www.freshbaguette.net PAUL, 4760 Bethesda Ave., Bethesda; 301-656-3285; www.paul-usa.com La Bohemia Bakery at the Farm Women’s Market, 7155 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda (on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays); 240-360-3697; labohemiabakery.com

croissant photo by liz lynch; hot chocolate photo by darren higgins

Flaky croissants at Fresh Baguette

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editors’ picks [food & dining]

Best Cure For The Wintertime Blues

Soup Up, 5001 Wilson Lane, Bethesda; 301-986-4744; soupup.us

Best New Bar Scene

Even at 5:30 p.m. on a Tuesday night in November, the four-sided bar at PassionFish is packed. And no wonder. The snazzy new seafood restaurant, which opened this past fall, hosts a helluva happy hour, with cocktails, beer, wine and appealing bar bites such as “Chesapeake Fish Fry,” crabcake sliders and Peruvian ceviche going for $5 each. The action doesn’t dissipate at 6:30 after the deal is done, as the comfortable seating, friendly bartenders, good food and lively atmosphere keep this posh party barge afloat ’til closing. PassionFish Bethesda, 7187 Woodmont Ave., Bethesda; 301-358-6116; www.passionfishbethesda.com

Soup photo by jordan silverman; passionfish photo by laura chase McGehee

Menu descriptions can be heavy on hyperbole, but not when it comes to the chicken soup at Soup Up, which notes that “customers liken it to a warming hug from grandma.” Indeed, with an extraordinary broth that’s chock-full of chicken and vegetables, this rendition is guaranteed to leave you feeling warm and fuzzy. And it’s just one of several comforting options at the restaurant and carryout, which opened in Bethesda in October. Packed with fresh, wholesome ingredients (no dairy, oil, butter, additives or preservatives), these meals-in-a-bowl will take the chill off any winter day.

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Exquisite Jewelry Exceptional Prices

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editors’ picks [food & dining]

Best Fried Chicken

What’s old is always new again, as witnessed by the spike in fried chicken on area menus. Here are two of the best. Classic fried chicken at Hershey’s Restaurant & Bar

Modern

Crunchy, spicy, salty, sweet; Barrel and Crow’s fried chicken with collards, waffles, maple syrup and apple-pear compote has it all. To achieve the uniquely flavored crust and juicy interior, the Amish chicken parts are seasoned with a mixture of onion and garlic powders, cayenne, salt, sugar, smoked paprika, dry mustard and a small amount of curry powder, and cooked sous vide-style (sealed in a bag and immersed in a warm water bath). Then the pieces get dipped in buttermilk, dredged in flour, deep-fried in hot canola oil, and finally sprinkled with a mix of the same spices, giving the crackly skin an auburn tinge. Insider tip: The dish is only listed on the lunch menu, but you can ask for it at dinner.

Hershey’s Restaurant & Bar, 17030 Oakmont Ave., Gaithersburg; 301-948-9893; www.hersheysatthegrove.com

Barrel and Crow, 4867 Cordell Ave., Bethesda; 240-800-3253; www.barrelandcrow.com

photo by stacy zarin-goldberg

Old Fashioned

Hershey’s Restaurant & Bar seems out of another time—and it is. Housed in a clapboard building constructed in 1889, it was bought in 1952 by the Hershey family, who sold “Grandma’s Fried Chicken” out of their general store and carryout. The Hersheys closed the store and opened the restaurant in 1969, and Bethesda-raised Lisa Gorman bought it 11 years ago. While grandma isn’t in the kitchen anymore, the fried chicken tastes like it was made by an aproned elder. Marinated poultry parts emerge from their hot oil bath moist inside and with a light, lacy coating—we guarantee you’ll be nibbling off every crunchy bit stuck to the bones. Besides the fab fried chicken, Hershey’s serves up warm rolls, inexpensive prices and live music.

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editors’ picks [food & dining]

Fried onion straws top sliders at Matchbox Vintage Pizza Bistro.

Best Sliders

Over the last few years, there’s been a big showing in the small sandwiches known as sliders, as restaurants find new ideas to fill the gap

Silver, 7150 Woodmont Ave., Bethesda; 301-652-9780; www.eatatsilver.com

Best traditional

Over time, signature dishes can get jaded and overrated. Not so for the sliders at Matchbox, which feature the standard combination (ground beef, cheese) but keep setting a superior example. With high-quality ingredients and the perfect proportion of bread to meat, these baby Angus burgers sport a smoky, char-grilled flavor, creating a rustic contrast to their soft brioche bedding. A massive tangle of wispy fried onion straws, looking like a head of blond ringlets, gives the dish visual drama, and if you’re not careful, you’ll polish off the entire curly lot. Sliders can be ordered in quantities of three, and you can choose from three cheeses. Go for the Gorgonzola. Matchbox Vintage Pizza Bistro, 1699 Rockville Pike, Rockville (in Congressional Plaza); 301816-0369; www.matchboxrestaurants.com

Best doubleheader

Decisions, decisions. The two lunchtime sliders at Cava Mezze are so different from one another but both so good that it’s a tough call. Hotheads should opt for the ground lamb sliders with their fiery harissa and peppery arugula, calmed with a slather of tzatziki. Meeker mouths will find comfort in the halloumi cheese sliders—thin, grilled slices of the stretchy Greek cheese accompanied by tzatziki and chopped red onions and tomatoes. The spicy lamb sliders are also available at dinner, so the decision then is easier. Cava Mezze, 9713 Traville Gateway Drive, Rockville; 301-309-9090; www.cavamezze.com

photo by stacy zarin-goldberg

Best Buns

For one of the cutest, most agreeable wake-up calls in town (no offense to your bedmate), head to breakfast at Silver for the “Uptown Western Sliders.” Wedged inside three sesame challah rolls come folded sections of a western omelet flecked with chopped prosciutto, yellow and red pepper, scallions and cheddar cheese. If you’re not a morning person, the sliders are also on the late-night menu, which is available from 10 p.m. to midnight on weekdays and until 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday.

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editors’ picks

View-Masters give diners a glimpse of desserts at A.G. Kitchen.

[food & dining] Most Creative Menu

When it opened in late June, A.G. Kitchen had 100 red plastic View-Masters, those retro toys that project 3-D images on a cardboard reel. In this case, with the flick of the lever, pictures appeared of chocolate empanadas, milkshakes and other items on the restaurant’s dessert menu. The brainchild of chef and partner Alex Garcia, it was a clever idea, but an irresistible temptation for area kleptomaniacs. All of the 100 View-Masters were gone by August, and a second shipment had to be ordered. About the latest batch, restaurant spokeswoman Jill Collins says: “If someone wants to buy one for $15, Alex will autograph it.” A.G. Kitchen, 931 Ellsworth Drive, Silver Spring; 301-588-9400; www.agkitchen.com

Best Homemade Granola

There are a number of good, locally made granolas, but the version at Breads Unlimited stands out for its toasty taste, golden hue and honey-vanilla aroma that should be patented as a room freshener. The packaging—an unmarked white bag—is as straightforward as the granola, which incorporates oats, raisins, cranberries and apricots. “Simple works, doesn’t it?” says bakery owner Steve Raab. Yes, indeed.

A.g. kitchen photo courtesy; Granola photo by liz lynch

Breads Unlimited, 6914 Arlington Road, Bethesda (in Bradley Shopping Center); 301-656-2340; www.breadsunlimited.com

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best menu for kids

Chef Geoff Tracy says he occasionally got requests from parents at his first two restaurants—Chef Geoff’s and Chef Geoff’s Downtown—for a more interesting children’s menu, but he always thought, Aren’t kids’ menus all the same? It’s fill in the blank and french fries. In 2006, Tracy opened Lia’s in Chevy Chase, and within a year, twins Grace and Henry were born, with daughter Riley fast on their heels in 2008. Tracy, who is married to CBS This Morning co-host Norah O’Donnell, decided he wanted to offer a creative, healthy kids’ menu. So where buttered pasta and fried chicken nuggets dominate the offerings at most establishments, Lia’s has entrées such as grilled salmon, hanger steak, gulf shrimp and basil chicken breast on its children’s menu. Even the more familiar items are not run-of-the-mill: The cheese pizza is made with fresh dough, fresh tomato sauce and mozzarella that’s made in the restaurant. Lia’s, 4435 Willard Ave., Chevy Chase; 240-223-5427; www.chefgeoff.com

Best Restaurant T- Shirt

If you’re under 30, you’ve probably already seen this T-shirt, and maybe even have one. But for those of us catching up with the trends, Sweetgreen’s “Beets Don’t Kale My Vibe” riff on hip-hop artist Kendrick Lamar’s 2013 top-40 song “Bitch, Don’t Kill My Vibe” is an original. In addition to his groundbreaking October concert at the Kennedy Center with the National Symphony Orchestra, Lamar performed at the salad chain’s Sweetlife Festival at the Merriweather Post Pavilion last May, a month when the fast-casual restaurant offered a beet and kale salad. Order at shop.sweetgreen.com.

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editors’ picks [food & dining] worthy presentation, as well. He sprinkles a mixture of cinnamon and confectioners’ sugar over a fork on the dessert plate and then removes it, creating an outline of the tableware. Then, to prevent milk from the cake from running into the invisible fork, Turner erects an edible barrier: a streak of caramel sauce. The visual tricks prove delicious—and thankfully the dessert comes with a real fork. Blue 44, 5507 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, D.C.; 202-362-2583; www.blue44dc.com

Best Thing With Peanut Butter

That would be the aptly titled “Peanut Butter Thing” at Not Your Average Joe’s, which came up with this decidedly above-average dessert. Swaths of peanut butter and chunks of chocolate are folded into vanilla ice cream to form a high-rise slice of pie, while Oreo crumbs blanket the top and a pillow of freshly whipped cream nestles alongside. And if that weren’t decadent enough, the server drizzles hot chocolate and caramel sauce over the whole Thing.

Please Your Sweet Tooth From handcrafted baklava to a rich peanut butter pie, here are four of the area’s best treats

Best Specialty Bread

After each slice of Spring Mill Bread Co.’s apple streusel round, you’ll vow it will be your last. Good luck, as resistance is likely to be low for this highly addictive half bread, half pastry. Steve Rurka, the late husband of Spring Mill owner Katherine Rurka, came up with the idea, inspired by an apple dessert made by his Polish grandmother. Chunks of Granny Smith apples dot a chewy, yeasty round of white bread, while a crusty dome of brown and white sugars, butter and flour caps the top. Great with a strong cup of morning coffee, a

slice (or more) will keep you happy all day. Spring Mill Bread Co., locations include Bethesda, Rockville, Gaithersburg and Takoma Park; www.springmillbread.com

Best Dessert Presentation

Tres leches cake—that creamy Latino confection soaked in three kinds of milk—is hard to find on area dessert menus. But Blue 44 chef James Turner devised a welcome, spot-on rendition, and came up with an Instagram-

Not Your Average Joe’s, 10400 Old Georgetown Road, Bethesda; 240-316-4555; and 245 Kentlands Blvd., Gaithersburg (in Kentlands Square Shopping Center); 240-477-1040; www.notyouraveragejoes.com

Best Ethnic Bakery

If you’re lucky enough to arrive at Baklava Couture when the homemade pita comes hot out of the oven, it probably won’t last the car ride home. But the smooth, puffy rounds are only one reason to check out Katerina Georgallas’ new brick-and-mortar bakery, which opened in Kensington in October. The former Silver Spring interior designer, who started selling her not-too-sweet Greek goodies at area farmers markets (and still does), turns out beautifully handcrafted baklava, cookies, cakes and breads that taste as good as they look. Baklava Couture, 10560 Metropolitan Ave., Kensington; 240-372-3308; www.baklava couture.com

photo by jordan silverman

Blue 44’s tres leches cake is Instagram-worthy.

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editors’ picks [shopping] Little black dress by Rebecca Taylor at Emily Grace

The Right Fit

We went searching for the best dress stores for each age group. Here are our picks for where to dress shop if you’re in your...

❱❱ Teens

Current Boutique, 7220 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda; 301-222-1114; www.currentboutique.com

❱❱ 20s

Soaring ceilings, girly dressing rooms and clothing racks made from vintage doors make boutique Emily Grace feel like a hip loft apartment in Paris or Brooklyn. The work-to-weekend stock by names such as Vince, Rory Beca and Parker is edgy cool and includes a tightly curated selection of LBDs and colorful dresses: On a recent visit we found a black lace dress by Rebecca Taylor for $425. Need advice on what to wear on a hot date? Co-owner Morgan Feldman is an ace stylist. Emily Grace, 12525 Park Potomac Ave., Potomac; 301-251-4184; www.shopemilygrace.com

❱❱ 40s

When big-name 40-somethings such as CNN’s Dana Bash want to make a big impression, they head to Julia Farr, a tiny, 5-yearold boutique in half of a cottage on the D.C. side of Chevy Chase. Owner Farr, a slender glamazon (and recovering lawyer), knows her high-profile professional customers and caters to them with tasteful cocktail dresses, including a full-skirted Audrey Hepburnesque number in dusty pink by Halston ($595) and a Sachin & Babi Noir strapless stunner in an orange-and-white floral print ($950). You’ll also find a range of event-ready accessories, such as beaded clutches and unique wraps. Julia Farr, 5232 44th St. NW, Washington, D.C.; 202-364-3277; www.juliafarrdc.com

❱❱ 50s

The downtown Bethesda outpost of Caribbean-chic chain Calypso St. Barth excels at maxidresses and shifts in materials that would work as well at a beach wedding as they do at a Chevy Chase cocktail bash—think lots of subtle sequins and natural fabrics. Flowy silhouettes (a hippie-cool embellished minidress crying out for platform sandals, $425) can often accommodate baby bumps or post-pregnancy figures. Don’t miss the exotic-looking jewelry (e.g., Samantha Wills’ chainmail mesh collar necklace, $385), which can add personality to the simplest of evening gowns.

Saks Jandel, the longtime luxury destination on Wisconsin Avenue, sits near the intersection with Park Avenue in Chevy Chase, an apt location for a spot that sells big-ticket American and European designers such as Oscar de la Renta and Peter Pilotto. The familyrun mini-department store deals in dazzling evening styles that accommodate a variety of body types (and large budgets). Wowworthy numbers on a recent visit included a fashion-forward midnight-blue Grecian gown with brass and rope accents by Lanvin ($2,895), and a feather-trimmed cocktail sheath by Canadian designer Catherine Regehr ($1,580). The staff helps with on-site tailoring, and there’s an array of accessories, such as glittery shoes and shoulder-dusting earrings.

Calypso St. Barth, 4810 Bethesda Ave., #24, Bethesda; 301-652-1219; www.calypsostbarth.com

Saks Jandel, 5510 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Washington, D.C.; 301-652-2250; www.thebridalsalonatsaksjandel.com

❱❱ 30s

photo courtesy of emily grace

Yellow walls, black-and-white-striped dressing room curtains and a pop sound track summon a young crowd to the resale shop Current Boutique. This branch of the local chainlet carries inexpensive new frocks (think $87 for a pink metallic cocktail style) and wayless-than-retail designer consignment pieces ($85 for a red BCBG minidress that originally cost $200-plus). Party-ready jewelry (both new and gently used), bags (a silvery Kooba clutch runs $60) and shoes also shine, making it a good one-stop shop before, say, a homecoming dance.

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editors’ picks [shopping]

best news for fashionable Men Dapper dudes looking to escape mainstream assembly-line-like hair salons packed with children, moms and Vogue magazines, can go to a couple of places in Bethesda to be pampered. Roosters Men’s Grooming Center is an upscale, testosterone-filled barbershop that features cozy hardwood booths and the background sounds of buzzing hair clippers and talking heads on ESPN’s SportsCenter. The barbers—not stylists—offer sharp styles ranging from the trendy pompadour fade to the crew cut. Cuts cost $46 and come with a hot-towel facial treatment and

shampoo—along with a mini massage of the neck, shoulders and temples. A branch of 18/8 Fine Men’s Salons that’s scheduled to open early this year less than a mile from Roosters will offer similar male grooming services. Along with haircuts— one of which will include a hot-towel facial treatment and a five-minute neck and shoulder massage—the salon will provide

hair-dyeing, waxing, shaves, and scalp and nail treatments. Roosters Men’s Grooming Center, 7135 Arlington Road, Bethesda; 301-951-4247; www.roostersmgc.com 18/8 Fine Men’s Salons, 7550 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda; 301-830-8338; eighteeneight.com

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In 2009, Bethesda’s Candace Ourisman, who was working in marketing at the time, started Secretly Fancy (www.secretlyfancy.com) as a creative outlet to write about fashion and home decor. Today, the popular lifestyle blog, which gets 2,000 hits daily, is updated weekly and features Pinterest-worthy interiors, trend roundups (such as her favorite leather jackets) and snapshots of local events. Ourisman, who describes her style as “all-American with a modern edge,” also updates her Instagram account (@secretlyfancy) frequently. Check it out for photos of everything from horses (she’s an avid equestrian) to designer shoes to her adorable toddler son.

courtesy photos

Bethesda Magazine Readers’ Pick

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Why did all of these people move to Riderwood?

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editors’ picks [shopping]

best new boutique

With just $500 in startup capital, Texas-based jewelry designer Kendra Scott launched her first collection in 2002. Now her bold designs (think colorful drop earrings and crystal-laden bracelets) are sold at retailers around the world, and have been spotted on style icons Jessica Alba and Molly Sims. In July, the designer opened her first Washingtonarea boutique in downtown Bethesda. The pretty shop features a “Color Bar” where you can create your own pieces from more than 30 stone colors and silhouettes. Looking for a unique place to host a bridal shower or mother-daughter outing? The Bethesda store will play host—and even provide drinks and sweets. Kendra Scott, 4835 Bethesda Ave., Bethesda; 240-743-2428; www.kendrascott.com

Whether you’re planning a bridal shower or a spa day with friends, Varnish Lane has become one of our favorite spots to get pampered. The Friendship Heights nail salon, which opened last February, offers waterless treatments to help curb infection and prolong your manicure. As a former wedding planner, co-owner Lauren Dunne knows that small touches can make all the difference. That’s why the salon offers complimentary mimosas, leather armchairs equipped with iPads, and hundreds of chemical-free polishes from brands such as Deborah Lippmann and D.C.-based Mischo Beauty. Varnish Lane, 5236 44th St. NW, Washington, D.C.; 202-506-5308; www.varnishlane.com

courtesy photos

best new place for a girls’ day out

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Caption

editorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; picks [nightlife & the arts]

Before opening in 2014, Denizens Brewing Co. in Silver Spring successfully lobbied the General Assembly to make changes in state law, which eased local regulations on breweries. The changes have opened the proverbial tap, and breweries are now flowing into the county. In November, 7 Locks Brewing started making beer out of a warehouse in Rockville. Just down the street, Suspended Brewing Co. is now offering unique beers and coffee. And a couple from Atlanta is scouring the area for investors to help set up their own brewery, True Respite Brewing Co., in downtown Bethesda. The boom in breweries here and elsewhere, including the District, comes as craft beer sales are growing nationwide. Rockvilleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 7 Locks Brewing

photo by darren higgins

Best News for Beer Lovers

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editors’ picks

BEST NIGHTLIFE agenda Friday and Saturday aren’t the only nights to hit the town. We tracked down something fun to do every night of the week.

POKER ON

IRISH MUSIC ON

Anywhere from 10 to 30 people typically show up for Sunday poker night at Flanagan’s Harp & Fiddle. Everyone starts with $15,000 in fake chips. If you run out of “money,” there’s also live music. Poker is from 7:30 to 11:30 p.m.; live music begins at 8 p.m.

Every Monday night, The Irish Inn at Glen Echo presents The Irish Inn Mates, a traditional Irish trio that uses such instruments as the bodhran, bouzouki, harmonica, fiddle, guitar, flute and tin whistle. 7 to 10 p.m.

Tuesday trivia night at Growlers Brew Pub typically draws between 60 and 70 players. Contestants compete for gift certificates (and bragging rights) and enjoy half-price drafts and $2 off appetizers. 7:30 p.m.

6119 Tulane Ave., Glen Echo; 301-229-6600; www.irishinnglenecho.com

227 E. Diamond Ave., Gaithersburg; 301-519-9400; www.growlersrestaurant.com

SUnday

4844 Cordell Ave., Bethesda; 301-951-0115; www.flanagansharpandfiddle.com

monday

STAND-UP ON

OPEN MIC ON

Even if the jokes aren’t always funny, the beer is still a draw. Every Wednesday night, Union Jack’s hosts an open mic for stand-up comics and takes $2 off all of its craft beers. Beer specials run all day; open mic starts at 8:30 p.m.

Open mic night on Thursdays at the Outta the Way Cafe in Rockville draws both upand-comers and seasoned performers—Jack Worthington, a Montgomery County resident who has played tambourine alongside Jon Bon Jovi and Tom Petty, recently graced the stage. Performances begin around 8:30 p.m.

wednesdAY thursday

4915 St. Elmo Ave., Bethesda; 301-652-2561; www.unionjacksbethesda.com

17503 Redland Road, Rockville; 301-963-6895; www.outta.com

TRIVIA ON

tuesday

TASTE WINE ON

friday

COMEDY ON

saturday

The Friday wine tastings and happy hour at Grapeseed Bistro + American Wine Bar pair three 2½-ounce tastings of different wines with bar snacks for $3. A recent pairing included three full-bodied reds with a lamb BLT. Tastings are first come, first served and take place from 5 to 7 p.m. Participants get a 50 percent discount on food after the tastings.

A meeting room in a Hyatt hotel may be the last place you’d expect to find a good laugh, but don’t overlook the Laugh Riot at the Hyatt, which brings in three comics every Saturday. Past performers have included Rory Scovel from the TBS sitcom Ground Floor and Gary Vider, who was a finalist on America’s Got Talent. 8 to 10 p.m. $10 cover charge; cash bar available.

4865 Cordell Ave., Bethesda; 301-986-9592; www.grapeseedbistro.com

7400 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda; 301-657-1234; www.standupcomedytogo.com

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editors’ picks [nightlife & the arts]

Theater Company to Watch

Do you like wrestling, comic books or indie music? You may be a Flying V fan and not even know it. The Bethesda theater company, which was co-founded in 2011 by Bethesda resident Jason Schlafstein, is gaining recognition for innovative, energetic performances built on pop-culture references and intimate stories. Winner of the 2015 Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Emerging Theatre Company, Flying V offers shows that stretch typical theatrical genres and formats. For example, last year’s Flying V Fights: Heroes & Monsters featured an ensemble cast performing an “album” of vignettes tied together by a common theme: Who do we admire and why? It used vampires and iconic characters such as Superman and Little Red Riding Hood. Most shows are performed at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda. For more information, visit www.flyingvtheatre.com.

Flying V’s staging of The Oregon Trail

mural photo by jordan silverman; theater photo by ryan maxwell

Most Colorful Addition to Downtown Bethesda

How do you know you’ve reached downtown Bethesda? For those traveling on Arlington Road, Bethesda’s newest piece of public art practically shouts “You’ve arrived.” Over 10 days in September, Baltimore artists Jessie Unterhalter and Katey Truhn transformed the 400-foot-long concrete retaining wall near the Bradley Boulevard Safeway from blank slab to vibrant mural. The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District chose the pair, who are known for their colorful, large-scale public art murals in cities such as Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York, from more than 50 artists who applied for the project. Bright and playful, the abstract design is a whimsical welcome to downtown.

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The live music scene at Villian & Saint has a bohemian gastro-pub vibe.

Best News for Music Lovers

amp photo by jason hornick; villain & Saint by michael ventura

The 2015 opening of two new venues in the Bethesda area is music to the ears of audiences and bands alike. AMP, operated by Strathmore, opened at Pike & Rose in March, and Villain & Saint, owned by Robert Wiedmaierâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s RW Restaurant Group, opened on Wisconsin Avenue in April. Both offer intimate, thoughtfully designed performance spaces, each accommodating about 200 people. AMP focuses on the music, with nationally touring lounge, jazz, blues, rock and folk acts. Among the most popular shows last year were alt-country singer-songwriter Jay Farrar and cabaret-style tributes to vocal greats such as Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday. Villain & Saint strives for a bohemian gastro-pub vibe and draws local bands (such as Cravinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Dogs and Lloyd Dobler Effect) and an occasional national act (such as Steve Lauri of The Hollies, who stopped in for a recent show).

g Nationally tourin at acts hit the stage re. AMP by Strathmo

AMP by Strathmore, 11810 Grand Park Ave., North Bethesda; 301-581-5100; www.ampbystrathmore.com Villain & Saint, 7141 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda; 240-800-4700; www.villainandsaint.com

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editors’ picks [fitness]

Try Something New Whether you’re a fitness fanatic or a serial New Year’s resolver, workout ruts happen to everyone. Luckily, the Bethesda area offers plenty of unique, offbeat classes that can add excitement and variety to any exercise regimen. Here are four creative ideas for how to bust out of a rut.

Channel your inner rock star Crunch is known for its out-of-the-box group classes (ballet with a stability ball, and weight training on a surfboard to name a couple). But “Pound” might be its wackiest yet: The class uses quarter-pound “drumsticks” instead of weights to strength train. Participants get the cathartic pleasure of banging on the floor or beating the sticks together as they do squats, lunges and crunches. $20 per class for nonmembers. Crunch Chevy Chase, 5100 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Washington, D.C.; 202-621-7622; www.crunch.com

Take interval training to the next level Almost every class at PULSE Fitness, a boutique gym started by local trainer Lisa Platnik in 2012, moves throughout the gym, bouncing from the Pilates studio to weight machines to the group exercise room. The “Triple Threat” class incorporates short bursts (about a minute each) of five different exercises: rowing, running on a treadmill, cycling, core exercises with suspension straps, and Pilates using a machine called a jump board. The changes in scenery make the hour-long workout fly by, and the short intervals make even an all-out sprint feel doable. $20 per class for nonmembers. PULSE Fitness, 5110 Ridgefield Road, Suite 410, Bethesda; 301-656-0500; www.pulsefitnessbethesda.com

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Feel like a kid again Parkour looks like something your kids might watch on YouTube. The workout, which is inspired by French military training, is the art of running, jumping, spinning and otherwise playing your way from point A to point B, using obstacles to increase, rather than decrease, your efficiency. In an intro class at Dynamite Parkour, which opened in the fall, you’ll learn basic jumps and rolls, and spend time on a trampoline to get used to the feeling of being in the air. $35 per class. Dynamite Parkour, 4950 Boiling Brook Parkway, Rockville; 301-770-2710; www.dynamiteparkour.com

photos by skip brown

Learn to fly If you’ve ever fantasized about ditching your day job to join Cirque du Soleil, then Level Fitness’ 75-minute “Aerial Yoga” class may be for you. You’ll feel like you’re flying as you move from one posture to the next while being supported by a polyester hammock. Participants place the hammock under their armpits for support in standing postures or wrap it around their hips or feet for inversions. $30 per class (first demo class is free). Level Fitness, 7687 MacArthur Blvd., Cabin John; 301-229-0080; www.levelfitness.com BethesdaMagazine.com | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016 123

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editors’ picks [fitness]

Runners compete in the Piece of Cake race.

In an era of themed runs—from zombie 5Ks to warrior dashes—that can demand a large chunk of your paycheck and include thousands of runners, the Montgomery County Road Runners Club’s low-key races are refreshingly simple. There are no finishline parties or swag bags, and most of its roughly 20 annual races, such as the Jingle Bell Jog and the Piece of Cake, have only a few hundred entrants. Races take place throughout the county, and range from road races such as the Country Road Run in Olney to cross-country races in Black Hill Regional Park. The lack of gifts and gimmicks leaves the focus where it should be: on the sense of community, the friendly volunteers and participants, and the joy of the run itself. Races are free to members (individual annual membership is $40); $10 for nonmembers. For a race calendar, visit www.mcrrc.org.

Best Way to Experience the Boutique Fitness Studio Trend One day you’re cycling at Zengo Cycle, the next you’re training at Tough Temple CrossFit, and the next you’re throwing jabs at a punching bag at Bethesda Boxing & Kickboxing Academy. That’s the idea behind ClassPass, a pay-by-the-month ($109), cancel-anytime membership that gives participants unlimited workouts at thousands of gyms across the nation, including 30-plus in Montgomery County. Use the website to sign up for classes—yoga, Pilates, cardio kickboxing, strength training and more. The only restriction is that you can’t go to the same gym more than three times a month. Otherwise, the program is an exercise in flexibility, enabling easy access to often pricey, commitment-required studios. ClassPass, classpass.com

Photo by ken trombatore/courtesy of Mcrrc; Hand photo from Istock; classpass screenshot courtesy

Best Race Series

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A 2016 Top Vote Getter

2016

Winner

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editors’ picks [kids]

It’s cold and gray outside. Inside, your kids have given up on toys and board games and are either climbing the walls or sitting in isolated silence, glued to the screens of various devices. We came up with seven ideas for getting everyone from toddlers to teens out of the house.

1 Go sledding Lots of parents say the best sledding hill is one that their children can get to on their own. But some snow days call for a special outing. There are several popular hills in the area, but the slope behind Takoma Park Middle School is guaranteed to produce a rush. The hill is long, steep and wide—and there’s plenty of parking, so everyone can head home quickly once the mittens get wet and the toes get cold. Takoma Park Middle School, 7611 Piney Branch Road, Silver Spring

3 2 Play a round of miniature golf Putt-putt golf may feel like a distant memory from last summer’s vacation, but it’s a year-round activity at Monster Mini Golf in Gaithersburg. The indoor, glow-inthe-dark, 18-hole miniature golf course features moving monsters, black lights and a live DJ. The course charges by height, so admission is $8.99 for “little monsters” (under 59 inches) and $9.99 for “big monsters” (over 59 inches). There is also an arcade and two private party rooms. Monster Mini Golf, 9116 Gaither Road, Gaithersburg; 301-330-6464; www.monsterminigolf.com

4 See a play Round House Theatre sets aside free tickets for high school students who live in Montgomery County and the District as part of its “Play It Forward” program. High school students can reserve one free ticket for any play in the 2015-2016 season. A school ID is required at the box office. Parents, other adults or students who are not eligible but wish to accompany the teen receive a $5 discount per ticket. Round House Theatre, 4545 East West Highway, Bethesda; 240-644-1100; www.roundhousetheatre.org

Whip up a gourmet meal At L’Academie de Cuisine’s recreational cooking school in Bethesda, kids can learn how to make Nutella crepes and sticky buns, or how to steam a fish in banana leaves. The school offers cooking classes for parents with kids (ages 5-8), parents with older kids (ages 9-12), older kids alone, parents and teens, and teens alone. Taught by professional chefs—many of whom graduated from L’Academie de Cuisine’s culinary school in Gaithersburg—the classes range in price from $75 to $135. L’Academie de Cuisine, 5021 Wilson Lane, Bethesda; 301-986-9490; www.lacademie.com

Mini Golf photo by erick gibson; theater photo courtesy of round house theatre; sledding and cooking photos from istock

Best Cures for Cabin Fever

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rock climbing photo © Earth Treks Climbing Centers; haircut photo by stacy zarin-goldberg; gym photo courtesy of sport&Health

Go rock climbing With more than 38,500 square feet of climbing walls, some of which tower 40 feet high, Earth Treks Climbing Center in Rockville is a good spot to burn off some energy. But it’s not only for the teenage set: The center also has shorter walls that aren’t as steep, which are ideal for younger kids and novice climbers. Kids need to weigh 40 pounds to participate, and the smaller ones wear a full body harness. “Open Climbs” every Saturday and Sunday ($30) don’t require reservations or experience and include three climbs, a harness rental and supervision from an Earth Treks instructor. Earth Treks Climbing Center, 725 Rockville Pike, Rockville; 240-283-9942; www.earthtreksclimbing.com

5 Hit the gym Sometimes, parents need their own outing. At least that’s the idea behind “Parents’ Night Out” at Sport&Health in Rockville. Two or three times a month, the gym hosts themed evenings (think ice cream and pajama parties) where parents can drop the kids while they have their own excursion. In addition to toys, arts and crafts, and board games, there are high-tech video game systems such as an Xbox 360 Kinect and an EyePlay Interactive Floor. The service is available for kids 11 and younger (very young children must be potty trained). The cost is $42 for one child ($35 for members), and $15 for each additional child ($10 for members). Sport&Health, 11594 Old Georgetown Road, Rockville (in Pike & Rose); 301-245-3908; www.sportandhealth.com

7 6 Get a haircut Even the squirmiest toddlers get distracted by the Bethesda Kidville’s shiny airplane and fire truck seats, where they can sit and watch DVDs as stylists work on their hair. A child’s haircut is $22, a bang trim is $10, and haircuts for adults (they have conventional seats, too) are $30. The salon will also do a doll’s hair in an updo or braid, and create a matching style for the child ($22 for both; haircut priced separately). Kidville, 4825 Bethesda Ave., Bethesda; 301-656-5030; www.kidville.com BethesdaMagazine.com | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016 127

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editors’ picks [neighborhood]

the fillmore

Silver Spring Library

The local offshoot of the iconic San Francisco music venue is fast becoming a legend in its own right. The 2,000-capacity double-decker club with blingy chandeliers and walls covered in red curtains has hosted high-profile headliners galore— from the alt-rock band Paramore and pop sensation Ellie Goulding to Mary J. Blige, who anointed the stage with its debut performance in September 2011. Ecominded concertgoers can feel good about attending shows at the LEED-certified venue, which meets rigorous standards for environmental friendliness.

Identify strongly with the movie Rushmore’s extracurricular-obsessed Max Fischer? Always on the hunt for a new hobby? The new five-story, glass-and-steel, 90,000-square-foot Silver Spring Library hosts a bounty of activities, including a chess club, a nontraditional games meet-up (Anyone up for a round of Battle Sheep?) and a support group for novelists. Patrons will also find a high-tech media lab, free Wi-Fi, study rooms and organic coffees from Kefa Cafe on the ground floor. 900 Wayne Ave.; 240-773-9420; www.montgomery countymd.gov/library/branches/silverspring.html

8656 Colesville Road; 301-960-9999; www.fillmoresilverspring.com

Hipster Heaven By Nevin Martell

Over the last several years, downtown Silver Spring has morphed into Montgomery County’s version of Brooklyn. New hot spots have popped up alongside cool neighborhood institutions, giving the area a unique character and hip vibe that’s hard to find among the many town squares and planned developments that dot the rest of the county. Here are some of the highlights—no beard or plaid shirt required.

The Record Exchange

quarry house tavern

This mecca for music lovers features a floor that’s inlaid with old records, and a 1980s-era boom box jazzed up with pops of day-glo paint. The shop attracts vinyl junkies who appreciate the ever-changing selection of limited-edition new releases and near-impossible-to-find older titles— from recent reissues by Led Zeppelin to rare Sun Ra albums. Open in this location since last April, the store also carries CDs, DVDs, video games and pop-culture memorabilia.

After a fire ravaged this beloved subterranean dive bar last March, owner Jackie Greenbaum moved the operation across the street and into the former Piratz Tavern space (she says she hopes to reopen the original location at 8401 Georgia Ave. in March). Don’t worry, half-price burger Mondays are still in effect, the addictive tater tots are still on the menu, and the beer selection is just as robust.

8642 Colesville Road; 301-495-0766; www.facebook.com/recordexchangeofmd

8402 Georgia Ave.; 301-587-8350; www.facebook.com/quarryhouse

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Urban Winery

Kaldi’s Coffee

Denizens Brewing Co.

Damon and Georgia Callis spent a decade and a half making wine at home, continuing her Greek family’s tradition, before they opened the county’s first, well, urban winery in June. Sourcing grapes from around the globe, the couple crafts everything from dry white viognier to a rich red zinfandel onsite, as well as fruit-forward sweet wines. Vino fiends can even take workshops on how to make their own varietal.

Whether you want to deep dive into a work project or catch up with friends, this 2-yearold coffee shop is happy to play host. Last year’s expansion more than doubled the indoor space, where you’ll find a smattering of comfy couches and chairs, as well as a dining room (a roof deck is set to debut this spring). Bonus: The baristas here create Instagram-ready foam art so fetching that you almost won’t want to take a sip of your latte. Almost.

Boasting a two-story taproom and a beer garden crisscrossed with white lights, this year-old craft brewery is a haven for hop heads. Jeff Ramirez, the director of brewing operations, stocks the lines with a mix of always-available standards—including red ale, pilsner and India pale ale—and seasonal specials, such as the “Bocho Bandido,” a tripel-meets-wheat beer aged in mescal barrels.

949 Bonifant St.; 301-585-4100; www.theurbanwinery.com

illustration by peter donnelly

Urban Butcher

918 Silver Spring Ave.; 800-607-1324; m.mainstreethub.com/kaldisocial

Joe’s Record Paradise

1115 East West Highway; 301-557-9818; denizensbrewingco.com

Bump ‘n Grind

Calling all carnivores. This combination restaurant, bar, lounge, meat shop and curing room, which opened in late 2013, is best known for its creative house-made charcuterie—think lamb bacon, smoked duck breast and Berkshire pork prosciutto. From there, you move on to small plates (the foie gras mousse shrouded in a layer of salted caramel is a favorite) and entrées, such as slow-cooked ox brisket. Cocktails (including a spot-on Old Fashioned) are good, too.

Over the course of four decades and five locations, this family-owned business has been helping record collectors stock up on vintage vinyl. The 6,000-square-foot shop houses nearly 100,000 records, including plenty of titles priced to move. Plan on rolling up your sleeves and spending some time browsing the genre-spanning collection—from African tribal music to zydeco. The inventory is constantly in flux, so you never know what gem you might find.

The baristas at this coffee shop/record store hybrid work with locally roasted beans from Vigilante Coffee Co. in Hyattsville and Ceremony Coffee Roasters in Annapolis, transforming them into hair-raising espressos, silky lattes and a bracing cold brew. The carefully curated selection of nearly 700 records includes lots of local artists and labels, and the communal record player is stocked with perennial favorites from the likes of the Beatles and John Coltrane.

8226 Georgia Ave.; 301-585-5800; www.urbanbutcher.com

8216 Georgia Ave.; 301-585-3269; joesrecordparadise.com

1200 East West Highway; 301-588-8000; bumpngrind.co

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editors’ picks [social media]

Best Local Twitter Feeds Check out

Want to be in the know? These five highly addictive local Twitter feeds offer everything from snow day predictions to information on parking restrictions.

Bethesda Beat’s new weekly ARTS PREVIEW highlighting the best of the area’s Arts & Entertainment.

MoCo Snow @MCPSsnow Wildly popular snow day predictions from a physical education teacher in Montgomery County Public Schools.

Pete Piringer @mcfrsPIO If you hear a siren blaring in the distance, there’s a good chance that the spokesman for the Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service has already tweeted about it.

Posted every Tuesday online, in the Bethesda Beat newsletter and on Facebook.

BETHESDA

Ken Hartman @kenatwork The county government’s point man in downtown Bethesda has answers about that sudden sidewalk closure or new parking rules in your neighborhood.

Wildwood Kitchen @WildwoodKitchen Few Bethesda restaurants tweet out glamorized shots of their special dishes as well or as often as this one.

photos courtesy of respective twitter profiles

MoCo Owl @moco_owl Warnings to joggers and philosophical musings from an anonymous person pretending to be the owl known for attacking people on the Capital Crescent Trail.

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editors’ picks [year in review] Biggest Potential Loss Marriott International, one of the county’s largest employers, dropped a bombshell last spring when its President and CEO Arne Sorenson announced the company is likely to leave its Bethesda offices when its lease ends in 2022. Approximately 2,500 employees currently work at the suburban office park headquartered on Fernwood Road, and local and state leaders have already initiated efforts to convince the company to remain in the county. The county faces competition from the District and Northern Virginia. Sorenson said Marriott plans to move to an area that’s more urban and accessible to the Metro—local proponents of the expanding White Flint area are hoping they can woo Marriott to the Pike District.

A month after his upset victory in November 2014, Republican Gov. Larry Hogan muffed an opportunity to make political peace with the Montgomery County power structure. During a speech before the annual Committee for Montgomery breakfast, Hogan deadpanned, “Now, I realize that Montgomery County was one of the three lonely counties that unfortunately voted the wrong way from the entire rest of the state.” The clumsy attempt at humor was widely viewed by the gathering of nearly 800 local leaders as a veiled threat of political payback. Then, following the annual legislative session, Hogan refused to spend about $68 million approved by the General Assembly for school districts in high-cost areas. The move fell most heavily on Montgomery County, Prince George’s County and the city of Baltimore— heavily Democratic jurisdictions that had voted the “wrong way” on Election Day. Some wondered: Was this evidence of the governor’s dark humor of December coming home to roost?

And You Thought Presidential Campaigns Were Endless... When Rep. Chris Van Hollen announced his candidacy for an open U.S. Senate seat in early 2015, a slew of Democratic contenders quickly signaled their intention to run for the House seat he’s leaving—more than a year before the April 2016 primary election. By August, candidate Kathleen Matthews had already hit the TV airwaves, plunking down $14,000 for an ad that ran during the first Republican presidential debate. The same month, literature on behalf of another congressional hopeful, state Sen. Jamie Raskin, began arriving in residential mail. The best (or perhaps worst, if you’re not a political junkie) is yet to come: It is estimated that the cost of a winning campaign in the Montgomery County congressional district will range from $1 million to $3 million. That kind of money will guarantee a steady stream of paid spots on TV—to say nothing of the glossy fliers in your mailbox—between now and the end of April.

larry hogan photo supplied; kathleen mat thews screenshot from commercial

Clumsiest Political Peace Offering

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editors’ picks [year in review] Best Political Melodrama The tony Town of Chevy Chase (population about 2,800, median household income more than $250,000) exhibited a taste for political hardball last year. On May 5, the day of what had been advertised as an uncontested town election, an email went out urging a previously unpublicized write-in campaign on behalf of Fred Cecere for town council. Share only with “those you feel 100% certain are like minded,” the email cautioned. When the votes were counted, Cecere had won, 168-119, over incumbent Pat Burda, who was unaware of the opposition campaign until an hour before the polls closed. The people behind the stealth effort (Cecere preferred to call it “spontaneous”) claimed it illustrated voter dissatisfaction with the way things were being run. Those on the losing side decried a lack of transparency. Fingerpointing and threats of lawsuits led to a raucous September council meeting. “My recollection of [councilmembers] was that they were polite, they were dignified, they liked each other,” Election Board Chairman Steve Lawton said during the session, before telling the current councilmembers, “You sure yell at each other a lot.”

Tammy Darvish, the longtime face of the Darcars Automotive Group, thought that more than 30 years of service to her father’s company would one day pay off with an ownership stake. She says her father, John Darvish Sr., promised her that would be the case. But earlier this year she was forced out of the company and cut from the succession plan after a dispute with her father and brothers. After the shakedown, she sued her father, brothers and the company in an attempt to get what she says her father promised her—a one-third stake in the business. A trial is scheduled for July.

Best News for High School Kids Based on recent high failure rates, it appears that plenty of students in Montgomery County’s public schools weren’t putting much effort into their final exams. But for those who were, the school system’s September decision to ditch all final exams starting in the 2016-2017 school year will come as a relief. School officials pointed to statewide assessments and standardized tests for college admissions as evidence that county students are already tested enough, taking away from valuable classroom time.

Worst Break Montgomery County councilmember Hans Riemer’s toughest moment in 2015 occurred a long way from the council chambers in Rockville. In August, Riemer was playing with his kids while on vacation in upstate New York when he slipped and landed awkwardly on a trampoline, resulting in a fractured femur just inside his hip. After a painful two-hour ambulance ride to the nearest trauma center, Riemer underwent successful surgery. With the help of crutches, Riemer was able to carry out his duties at council meetings and other public events. “I guess a 42-year-old man has no business on a trampoline,” Riemer said.

Best Move By the State Legislature ( For MONTGOMERY COUNTY ) In 2014, the Montgomery County delegation in Annapolis asked for construction money to help accommodate the county’s mushrooming school population. Members came away grumbling that all they got was a study—the legislative equivalent of the proverbial lousy T-shirt. The 2015 session of the General Assembly brought some happier developments. A $20 million

fund was enacted into law that was aimed at counties where annual growth rates for student enrollment exceeded the statewide average by 150 percent and/or where at least 300 portable classrooms were in use. Five counties qualified for the money, but Montgomery was the only jurisdiction to hit the bull’s-eye on both, coming away with nearly $6 million of the $20 million.

darvish photo courtesy; Riemer photo by Eli Turner; all others from istock

Biggest Family Feud

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editors’ picks [year in review]

Worst Political Oops

Biggest Loss for the Community

Biggest Opponents of Development Award Neighborhood resident Dennis Collins calls the planned redevelopment of the Westwood Shopping Center “Stupid Growth,” an obvious reference to the “Smart Growth” philosophy Montgomery County officials have long endorsed. Collins is not alone. He and many of his neighbors who live near the shopping center are vehemently against the plan, which is slated to bring new retail and housing to the quiet suburban strip mall near the intersection of Westbard Avenue and Ridgefield Road in Bethesda. Many approvals remain, making the start of actual construction a down-the-road proposition. But that hasn’t stopped some of the residents from turning public meetings hosted by the planning department into shouting matches.

It became clear that Wootton High School Principal Michael Doran had touched the hearts of his students when so many of them took to social media to post remembrances after his unexpected death in August. A native of Ireland, Doran, 64, had served as principal of the Rockville school for 12 years. He was remembered as a caring administrator with an affable nature and witty sense of humor, a man who was able to connect with his students through his boundless energy. “I can’t sum up everything you’ve done for us in the Wootton community in one tweet, so I’ll just say thank you for everything,” Mason Schalk wrote on Twitter shortly after Doran’s death. The following writers contributed to this section: Jennifer Barger, Stephanie Siegel Burke, Brooke Evans, Aaron Kraut, Maura Mahoney, Nevin Martell, Andrew Metcalf, Samantha Miller, Lou Peck, Amy Reinink, Carole Sugarman and Eric Sumner.

development illustration courtesy of equity one; doran photo by michael ventura

Early in 2015, the Montgomery County Board of Education declined to renew the contract of then-Superintendent of Schools Joshua Starr, refusing to offer a public explanation and expressing confidence that it would have a permanent replacement before the next school year. In May, the board announced that it had its “preferred” candidate: Andrew Houlihan, the 36-year-old chief academic officer of the Houston schools district who had never served as a superintendent. Board President Patricia O’Neill likened Houlihan to a young Joe Gibbs, who was hired by the Washington Redskins at the age of 40 and led them to three Super Bowl victories in a decade. But just three days after the board announced its choice, Houlihan abruptly withdrew his candidacy amid questions from Montgomery County leaders about whether he was ready for the role. That left the board with little choice but to appoint an interim superintendent and to fall back on the plaintive hope of many a Redskins fan: Wait ’til next year.

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readers’ picks Nearly 8,000 people voted in our online readers’ poll. Here are the winners and runners-up for everything from the best new restaurant to the best veterinarian.

[food & drink] Summer House Santa Monica Not Your Average Joe’s Barrel and Crow Coastal Flats Gringos & Mariachis Urban Heights City Perch Kitchen + Bar

Restaurant in Bethesda Mon Ami Gabi

Raku Woodmont Grill Black’s Bar & Kitchen Jaleo Gringos & Mariachis

Restaurant in Chevy Chase La Ferme

Lia’s Clyde’s Range The Capital Grille Sushiko

Restaurant in Gaithersburg/N. Potomac Coastal Flats

il Porto Restaurant Not Your Average Joe’s Boulevard Tavern

Restaurant in Garrett Park/ Kensington Black Market Bistro

Frankly...Pizza! K Town Bistro

Restaurant in Potomac MoCo’s Founding Farmers

Caddies on Cordell Paladar Latin Kitchen & Rum Bar Ruth’s Chris Steak House

River Falls Tavern The Grilled Oyster Co. Renato at River Falls Mix Bar and Grille Old Angler’s Inn Normandie Farm Hunter’s Bar and Grill

Romantic Restaurant

Restaurant in Rockville

Olazzo

Matchbox Vintage Pizza Bistro Summer House Santa Monica Cava Mezze Il Pizzico

Restaurant in Silver Spring

La Ferme

Old Angler’s Inn Mon Ami Gabi Bistro Provence Olazzo

Italian Il Pizzico Mamma Lucia Pines of Rome

Indian

Passage to India Kadhai

Bombay Bistro Tandoori Nights

Mexican

Uncle Julio’s Rio Grande Café Gringos & Mariachis Guapo’s

Middle Eastern Lebanese Taverna

Cava Mezze Moby Dick House of Kabob Bacchus of Lebanon

Sushi Raku

Sushiko Sushi Damo Yuraku Tako Grill Niwano Hana

Urban Butcher

Jackie’s Restaurant Olazzo The Classics 8407 Kitchen Bar Mi Rancho All Set Restaurant & Bar

Restaurant in Upper NW Macon Bistro & Larder Range Blue 44

Happy Hour

Black’s Bar & Kitchen

Bento boxes at Raku include sushi.

raku photo courtesy

New Restaurant

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“Best Chef” Robert Wiedmaier’s eateries include Mussel Bar, Wildwood Kitchen and Urban Heights.

crab cake photo by jill trone; wiedmaier photo by skip brown; BGR photo by jill trone

raku photo courtesy

The Market at River Falls got top marks for crab cakes.

Chef/Restaurateur

Thai

Pizza

Bangkok Garden Sala Thai Ruan Thai Thai Pavilion

&pizza Pete’s New Haven Style Apizza Mia’s Pizzas Pizzeria Da Marco Mamma Lucia Matchbox Vintage Pizza Bistro Potomac Pizza Frankly...Pizza! Stella Barra Pizzeria

Tara Thai

BBQ

Urban Bar-B-Que Company Rocklands Barbecue and Grilling Company Smoke BBQ Bethesda

Burger

BGR The Burger Joint

Ledo Pizza

Deli

José Andrés Geoff Tracy Ashish Alfred Jeff Black Dan Simons Bryan Voltaggio Jeff Heineman Alain Roussel

Yannick Cam Damian Salvatore

Store to Buy Healthy Food

Whole Foods Market MOM’s Organic Market Trader Joe’s Dawson’s Market Balducci’s The Market at River Falls

BGR’s local burger spots include Bethesda’s Woodmont Triangle.

Parkway Deli & Restaurant

Five Guys Smashburger Bobby’s Burger Palace

Brooklyn’s Deli &Catering Heckman’s Delicatessen & Bar The Woodside Deli Attman’s Delicatessen

Crab Cake

Sandwich Shop

Clyde’s Tower Oaks Lodge Woodmont Grill Bethesda Crab House

Taylor Gourmet Heckman’s Delicatessen & Bar

The Market at River Falls

Robert Wiedmaier

Jetties

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readersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; picks [home] Kentlands

East Bethesda Wood Acres Wyngate Carderock Springs River Falls King Farm

Walkable Neighborhood Edgemoor

Kentlands East Bethesda King Farm Friendship Heights Downtown Bethesda Avenel

Hidden Gem Neighborhood Garrett Park

New Luxury Condo The Darcy

The Lauren Quarry Springs Lionsgate

New Luxury Apartment Pallas at Pike & Rose

Flats at Bethesda Avenue PerSei at Pike & Rose Bainbridge Bethesda Gallery Bethesda

New Townhome Community

EYA: Grosvenor Heights Crown Park Potomac Symphony Park

Architect for Custom Homes GTM Architects

Anthony Wilder Design/Build Claude C. Lapp Architects Studio Z Design Concepts Archaeon Architects

Builder for Custom Homes Sandy Spring Builders

Douglas Construction Group Anthony Wilder Design/Build Meridian Homes Edgemoor Custom Builders

Remodeling Firm BOWA Builders

A project completed by design firm Jack Rosen Custom Kitchens

Smiley Renovations Sandy Spring Builders Case Design/Remodeling Anthony Wilder Design/Build Meridian Homes Glickman Design Build

Kitchen Design Firm

Jack Rosen Custom Kitchens Smiley Renovations Anthony Wilder Design/Build Case Design/Remodeling Glickman Design Build

Furniture Store Urban Country Arhaus

Ikea Havertyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Furniture Crate & Barrel Pottery Barn

Place to Buy Outdoor Furniture Country Casual

Offenbachers Spring Valley Patio

Place to Buy a Second Home Bethany Beach Rehoboth Beach Deep Creek Lake Ocean City Lewes Outer Banks

courtesy photos

Neighborhood for Young Families

Pallas at Pike & Rose offers concierge services and a resort-style pool.

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Reader’s Pick Best Salon in Potomac BethesdaMagazine.com | JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2016 141

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readersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; picks

Dr. Timothy Johnson with patients at orthodontia practice Ensor, Johnson & Lewis

[health] Dermatology Practice

Sibley Memorial Hospital Shady Grove Medical Center Holy Cross Hospital

Derm-Esthetics Kaiser Permanente DermAssociates Tamjidi Skin Institute

Suburban Hospital

Primary Care Physicians

Potomac Physicians Associates Kaiser Permanente Rockville Internal Medicine Group Premier Senior Care MDVIP Johns Hopkins Community Physicians Cullen Umosella Cullen & Cullen

The Dermatology Center

Podiatry Practice

Foot & Ankle Specialists of the Mid-Atlantic The Podiatry Center Kaiser Permanente National Capital Foot & Ankle Center Shady Grove Podiatry

The Bar Methodâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s locations include Bethesda and Gaithersburg.

Audiologist

Byrdsmiles Orthodontics

The Feldman E.N.T. Group Carolyn Wyatt & Aurion Dwyer

Senior Community

Potomac Audiology

Orthodontia Practice

Ensor, Johnson & Lewis Amy Light and Associates Frederick S. Fritz Bethesda Orthodontics (Dr. Coccaro) Rad Orthodontics Carmine Petrarca John & Bob Gillespie Gerlein Orthodontics

Maplewood Park Place Charles E. Smith Life Communities Leisure World Asbury Methodist Village Riderwood Fox Hill

Home Nursing Provider Family & Nursing Care Capital City Nurses Comfort Home Care

[fitness] Physical Therapist

Gym Over 40

Restore Motion Sports and Orthopaedic Therapy Services ProAction Physical Therapy

PULSE Fitness Sport&Health Equinox Jewish Community Center of Greater Washington

ISSA Physical Therapy

Massage Therapist Ohana Wellness

Life Time Athletic

Spinning Studio

Ninotch

Zengo Cycle

Gym Under 40

SoulCycle PULSE Fitness

Equinox

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Bar Studio

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Chris Van Hollen hopes to become the first U.S. senator from Montgomery County in a century.

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Van Hollen

Rising Rep. Chris Van Hollen's willingness to take risks has helped him become an influential figure on the national political scene. Now the Kensington resident is taking on his biggest challenge yet: a race for the Senate. by louis peck

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In late 1988, Peter Galbraith, then a senior staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was tasked with heading an overseas staff mission to Turkey to gather proof that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was using chemical weapons against his country’s Kurdish minority. Galbraith wasted no time in deciding on who he wanted to take along on a journey fraught with possible hazards: It was fellow committee staffer Chris Van Hollen. Then 29, Van Hollen was nearly a decade Galbraith’s junior. “Chris was the immediate choice because he’s smart, and because we would be interviewing people along the Iraq/Turkey border, and Chris had lived in Turkey,” says Galbraith, alluding to the period in the mid-1960s when Van Hollen’s father, Christopher Sr., had been stationed in that country as a member of the Foreign Service. “Most importantly, he was brave. He was willing to take risks. This trip was going to be potentially dangerous and uncomfortable. And there weren’t other staffers who really were willing to do that.” Van Hollen had exhibited a penchant for risk-taking dating back to his teenage years, when his father was posted as ambassador to Sri Lanka. The family would take trips into the jungle, and Van Hollen would insist on riding atop the Jeep in which they were traveling. “It was dangerous because sometimes we would be confronted and charged by elephants,” Van Hollen’s youngest sister, Cecilia, recalls. “But he always liked to ride on the top, and when the elephants came after us, he had to scramble down as fast as possible.” More recently, Van Hollen has confronted the political variety of elephants—to say nothing of a few donkeys—in a series of high-stakes career gambles. Starting out as the underdog in elections for the state legislature and Congress, he overcame the odds to rise to the position he has held for the past

Van Hollen was elected to the Maryland Senate in 1994, where he served for eight years.

13 years—member of the U.S. House of Representatives from the Montgomery County-based 8th District. Now, as he seeks to become the first U.S. senator from Montgomery County in a century, Van Hollen is rolling the dice again. He is giving up a safe House seat, as well as the prospect of becoming the leader of the House Democrats—and perhaps House speaker one day—to seek a position where, despite widespread support from the Democratic Party establishment, success is by no means assured. In the April primary, he faces his House colleague, Prince George’s County Rep. Donna Edwards, an African-American in a state where an estimated 40 percent of registered Democrats are black. Does he perceive himself as a risktaker? “Not a reckless risk-taker,” Van Hollen says with a smile during an interview over breakfast. “I always think it’s risky when people get stuck in ruts. So I like to explore new terrain. And that comes with some risks.”

Another smile crosses his face as he munches on a bowl of granola just blocks from where he hopes to be working come January 2017: the Senate side of Capitol Hill. “But I would still jump with a parachute,” he adds—recalling how he had done exactly that at the request of his daughter, Anna, to celebrate her 18th birthday. Those who know him well say Van Hollen possesses a strategic sense that has functioned as a figurative parachute throughout his career. “He’s been successful at every attempt at office that he’s run for—he doesn’t see why this should be any different,” says Thomas V. Mike Miller, the longtime president of the Maryland Senate, where Van Hollen served for eight years. “He measures the odds before he jumps in the race, and then jumps in full blast.”

C h r i s Va n H o l l e n and Rahm Emanuel both arrived in Congress as freshmen following the 2002 election, and between them chaired the

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photos supplied

Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC), the political arm of the House Democratic Caucus, for six years. By all accounts, they developed a close relationship despite an Oscar-andFelix personality contrast: If Emanuel, later the White House chief of staff and now the mayor of Chicago, rarely finishes a sentence in private without employing the f-word, Van Hollen has a reputation, both publicly and privately, for Boy Scout-like courtesy. “The reputation of Chris that he’s a nice guy and he’s very smart—I think those things are totally true,” says CR Wooters, a Washington lobbyist who is a former chief of staff to Van Hollen. “I think what people don’t fully understand is how passionate he is and how hard he works. Most of the staff has to spend a lot of time running as fast as they can to keep up with him.” Van Hollen, who turns 57 this January, regularly works 15- to 16-hour days, and appears to function well on limited sleep. “I usually cut off the email by midnight,” he says. “I cannot survive for a sustained period of time on three to four hours of sleep, but I can do it in bursts.” He exhibits a similar drive in his approach to life outside the office. “In our household, he’s the one who instigates the outings. He’s always the one who says, ‘We have to take this vacation, we have to climb this mountain,’ ” says Katherine Van Hollen, his wife of nearly three decades. Even when relaxing at home, Risk—in the form of the board game—is close at hand. As their children were growing up, he would lead “massive Risk games that would go on for days,” she recalls. Since shortly after they were married, home for the couple has been Kensington—where Chris Van Hollen used to take their Labrador/golden retriever mix, Chesapeake, who died in 2014, for swims along Beach Drive. “She would come out of the creek and smell for

days, and I would be so upset,” Katherine recalls with a laugh. “But he thought it was so unfair not to allow her to enjoy swimming. That is sort of how he views [life]: He works hard and he plays hard.” Their three children are grown now—Anna, 25, works for Instagram in Palo Alto, California; Nicholas, 23, works for a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm, and Alexander, 20, is a sophomore at Georgetown University. When the kids were younger, their father was often gone for days at a time. “He made a great effort to bundle his trips, and to always be around for the important things,” Katherine says. “He was able to do his stuff—and remain heavily involved in the children’s day-to-day lives.” On Capitol Hill, Van Hollen manages his duties as a member of his party’s leadership while also keeping a close eye on virtually all aspects of his congressional office. Notwithstanding a frequently messy desk, he is said to be a perfectionist, and regularly involves himself in details—such as reviewing outgoing mail—that other members of Congress leave to staffers. His desk is often piled high with briefing books. “I think he is more of a policy wonk,” observes one person who has known and worked with Van Hollen for

When Van Hollen's children— Nicholas (left), Alexander (center) and Anna—were younger, he made an effort to bundle his work trips so he wouldn't miss out on their lives. All of his kids helped out on his campaigns, and still do.

many years. “But he has learned over the years—probably starting before he was in the state legislature—that you can’t take good ideas from inception to fruition without having a political strategy and a communications strategy.” That combination of policy intellect and strategic savvy prompted a number of colleagues to prod Van Hollen at the end of 2010 to seek the key post of ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee, even though he had not previously served on that panel. Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, a fellow Marylander, urged Van Hollen to seek the slot as the House Democrats’ leading spokesman on fiscal matters. “I perceived Chris as

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having the capability to represent our party vis-à-vis Paul Ryan, who himself is very able and very articulate,” Hoyer says. Ryan, then the incoming chairman of the House Budget Committee, became House speaker this past October. Despite wide ideological differences, Van Hollen and the cerebral Ryan are said to have developed a close friendship. Not long after the two had assumed their respective parties’ top positions on the budget committee, the Van Hollens hosted Ryan and his wife for dinner at their modified rambler in Kensington, and Katherine Van Hollen gave the avidly conservative Ryan a gift for his children: a puzzle highlighting the nationwide impact of the programs created by the liberal New Deal of the 1930s. Several who know him see an introverted side to Van Hollen’s sunny exterior. “Look, I love people, but I’m not sort of a glad-hander,” says Van Hollen, who tends to preface a sentence with “look” whenever he is seeking to drive home a point. “But I do enjoy getting out and talking to people about things that are important to them. “When constituents come down to Capitol Hill, a lot of people hide out in their offices,” Van Hollen says of some of his colleagues. “I always make a point of meeting them. … I learn an awful lot from my constituents.” “He’s a complex guy,” Wooters says. “He’s a tough guy, too. He’s been through a lot of battles at this point, be they policy or campaign battles, and I think you become tougher as a result of that.”

Christopher Van Hollen Jr. was born in Karachi, Pakistan, in 1959, while his father, Christopher Van Hollen Sr., was stationed at the U.S. Embassy there. The congressman’s mother, Edith Eliza (who often went by her middle name), was among the first women hired by the Central Intelligence Agency as a research analyst following her

Notwithstanding a frequently messy desk, he is said to be a perfectionist, and regularly involves himself in details—such as reviewing outgoing mail—that other members of Congress leave to staffers. graduation from Harvard with a master’s degree in Russian studies in the early 1950s. After Van Hollen’s father retired from the Foreign Service in 1978, Eliza went to work at the State Department in Washington, D.C.—eventually rising to chief of the South Asia division of the department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research. Between foreign postings, the family resided in McLean, Virginia, often vacationing at a Vermont farmhouse owned by Eliza’s father—a structure that lacked electricity or indoor plumbing until recent years. “He used to love to go completely off-trail with my father, and sort of get lost and bushwhack his way back,” Cecilia Van Hollen, now an associate professor of anthropology at Syracuse University, says of her brother. “They’d sometimes arrive home very late at night, with my mother worrying about them.” The Vermont house remains in the family. Over the years, Van Hollen has relived his boyhood adventures there with his two sons. “Whenever I got out with my boys on major expeditions, we’d always find a way to get lost for a little while,” he says. “At least there’s the moment when you don’t know where you are, and you’re panicked—and you have to find your way back.” Van Hollen was a teenager when the family arrived in Sri Lanka. “He was old enough to understand and appreciate what it was that our family was doing there, the notion that diplomacy could be a positive force,” Cecilia says. “It also made him think carefully and critically about the extent to which America

measured up. From that point on, it became clear that was the direction he was going to move in.” At Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, Van Hollen became involved in advocating for the nuclear freeze movement of that era, among other causes. He spent a couple of summers hitchhiking around Alaska with a college roommate, taking advantage of the relatively high wages paid by fish processing plants along the state’s Kenai Peninsula. After graduating from Swarthmore in 1982, he went to Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government to pursue a master’s degree in public policy. His classmates included his future wife. They met at a party during orientation week. “We started talking about different things and ended up having this big disagreement over the nuclear freeze issue,” Katherine says. They began meeting regularly at a local pancake house. “We were both deeply committed to the idea of changing the world. We spent a lot of time getting to know each other, first in these discussions over big issues.” A native of Washington, D.C., Katherine (professionally, she uses her maiden name, Katherine Wilkens) is now deputy director of the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and her resume includes stints at the Energy Department and as a top aide at the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Some who know the Van Hollens characterize her as his top political adviser; several in local political circles also describe her as having

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photo by joshua landau

Van Hollen and then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, with whom he has close ties, at a press conference in 2009. At the time, Van Hollen held the title of assistant to the speaker, while also chairing the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

a sharper-edged personality than her genial husband. “He has the good fortune of having a wife who is equally talented and equally ambitious—and I don’t mean that in a negative way,” Miller says. “It’s just that they have a common goal. ...It’s a team.” The couple married in 1987, two years after Van Hollen arrived on Capitol Hill as an aide to Sen. Charles Mathias, the now deceased liberal Republican who held the Maryland seat that Van Hollen hopes to capture this year. On the recommendation of Galbraith, with whom he was attending Georgetown University Law Center in the evenings, Van Hollen moved to the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and appeared to be headed for a career in the family business of overseas diplomacy. But in 1989, Van Hollen left the committee for a job in Maryland’s federal affairs office under then-Gov. William Donald Schaefer. To both Galbraith, later the ambassador to Croatia during the Clinton

administration, and another fellow foreign relations staffer, Gerald Connolly, now a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Northern Virginia, the reason for the switch was readily apparent. “I think Chris wanted a political career, and he understood that, generally speaking, people aren’t going to elect you to office from the foreign relations committee,” Connolly says. Van Hollen’s change of direction also came as the collapse of the Soviet Union put foreign policy on a political back burner. All of a sudden, the Cold War was over, “which was obviously a good thing,” he says. “But my emphasis had been on arms control and the U.S.Soviet strategic [relationship].” Van Hollen grew up in the Virginia suburbs between foreign postings, but he and Katherine opted to settle on the Maryland side of the Potomac, a choice he attributes to his family’s roots. “My father’s family goes back generations in Baltimore,” Van Hollen

says. The family helped to settle a north Baltimore neighborhood, the site today of a “Hollen Road.” Van Hollen’s great-grandfather was the head of a Baltimore-based oyster packing company. His grandfather aspired to be a lawyer, but lost his hearing while fighting in World War I and worked as account clerk for Baltimore Gas and Electric. The family’s political values were shaped significantly by Van Hollen’s grandfather, an ardent supporter of Franklin Roosevelt, Cecilia says. Van Hollen’s introduction to Maryland politics came in 1986, when he was active in the campaign to elect Schaefer, then Baltimore’s mayor, as governor. In early 1989, a midterm vacancy occurred in the state legislative delegation from Kensington/Chevy Chase-based District 18, and Van Hollen sought appointment to the slot through a vote of the district’s Democratic caucus. He lost—the only loss so far in his long political career. A year later, when then-Del. Patricia

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Van Hollen rising

Sher successfully challenged incumbent state Sen. Margaret Schweinhaut over abortion rights, Sher organized the “Choice Team,” and asked Van Hollen to be a part of it. In January 1991, Van Hollen was sworn in as a member of the state House of Delegates, just as he turned 32.

Van Hollen laughs off a widely held notion that he is following a carefully crafted script of where he wants to go and how to get there. “I don’t think anyone,” he says, suddenly stopping himself. “Well, I shouldn’t say that. I guess Bill Clinton knew from age 5 that he wanted to be president.” He goes on: “I wasn’t thinking about getting into elective politics when I got interested in foreign policy and defense. I then got much more focused on other issues and saw the capacity of the political process to change things through grassroots movements. So, no, I don’t think anyone can have such a clear,

planned path. You have to make decisions as you go as to where you think you can make the greatest difference.” Van Hollen says he was trying to make such a difference in 1994, when he decided to mount a primary challenge to Sher, the state senator who had helped launch Van Hollen’s political career just four years earlier. It remains one of the more controversial chapters of Van Hollen’s political ascent. “While we agreed on the issue of choice, we had very big differences on other issues that were of importance to working families,” Van Hollen says, pointing in particular to Sher’s opposition to legislation at the time that mandated unpaid family leave. “There were people in the consumer protection area, people in the environmental movement and others who were looking at [her] record, and we all agreed we needed somebody who was more progressive.” Some, however, saw it as a lack of loyalty and, perhaps, a demonstration

of raw ambition on Van Hollen’s part. “I told him that he had been selected as essentially the fourth person on that [1990] ticket by Patty [Sher], and that he had some obligation to be loyal to the ticket,” says then-Del. Leon Billings. “Let me just say that we had a series of unpleasant exchanges.” Sher, who died in 2001, was quoted at the time as saying that Van Hollen’s challenge made her feel “like one of my sons had kicked me in the mouth with a boot.” Billings and Van Hollen later became good friends. “[Chris] worked extraordinarily hard after that Senate election to heal the bruises,” Billings says. “I’m sure it never healed with Patty or Bill [Sher’s husband, a former Montgomery County Council member], but I know it healed with other members of the delegation who were not terribly happy with Chris’ initial decision.” It was the first big risk of Van Hollen’s political career. By most accounts, Van Hollen ran a virtually flawless primary

photo by liz lynch

Van Hollen and his wife, Katherine, pictured at the Kensington train station near their home, met when they were classmates at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

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campaign, fueled by support from the grassroots progressive groups that would also be key in his run for Congress eight years later. Toward the end of the campaign, Sher damaged herself with a comment that was considered racially insensitive. On primary day, it was a 75-25 percent blowout for Van Hollen, who easily won the general election to advance to the state Senate. If Van Hollen was on an inside track to move up within the congressional leadership almost from the day he arrived on Capitol Hill, he found himself in a very different position at the beginning of his tenure in Annapolis. “I think Chris, for his years in the House [of Delegates], was sort of an outsider,” says former Del. John Hurson, who shared representation of District 18 with Van Hollen. “And when he got to the Senate, he was still sort of an outsider.” Van Hollen campaigned as an outsider when he challenged Sher, who had been close to the Senate leadership. Initially, his election was hardly welcomed by Miller, the powerful Senate president. But he and Van Hollen quickly mended fences, and Miller later appointed him to an influential post as vice chairman of the Budget and Taxation Committee. Says Hurson: “I think Mike Miller ultimately realized how smart and how capable Chris was, and wanted to capture and use it.”

T h r e e y e a r s a f t e r being reelected without opposition in 1998, Van Hollen was preparing to give up his safe seat in another gamble. Redistricting had made the 8th District congressional seat held for 16 years by Republican Connie Morella a leading target for national Democrats. But with a 75 percent favorability rating and a voting record that had put distance between herself and national Republicans, Morella’s ouster was hardly assured. To get the chance to take on Morella,

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Van Hollen rising

Van Hollen first needed to find a way to defeat then-Del. Mark Shriver of Potomac, a nephew of former President John F. Kennedy who brought the family’s money and aura to the contest. At the outset of the 2002 election cycle, Shriver’s nomination in the Democratic primary was widely regarded as inevitable. “That was a big step into the unknown,” Van Hollen says. “It was clear the odds were against me, at least in most people’s perception. But look, I had worked with these coalitions of people who were interested in bringing about change in the state legislature. Mark and I had very similar voting records. The difference was actually working with these grassroots coalitions to move these issues from ideas to law. So I had some faith that these grassroots groups would

get behind the effort—and that’s exactly what happened.” At the outset of the campaign, “Chris was quite provincial in many ways,” says former Montgomery County Planning Board Chairman Gus Bauman, who got behind the Van Hollen effort. “…It was amazing who he didn’t know. But Chris was out there, going to all kinds of people saying, ‘I need your help,’ because he knew who he didn’t know. Mark just assumed that, ‘Of course I’ve got their support.’ ” Years later, a widespread view of the contest is that Shriver was overconfident and Van Hollen outhustled him, that Shriver was perceived as the show horse and Van Hollen as the workhorse, particularly among people in the local Democratic precinct organization.

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(Shriver declined two requests to be interviewed for this story.) But several who played roles in the 2002 election say this hindsight perspective underplays the potency of the Shriver campaign, whose consultants included David Axelrod, a key player in Barack Obama’s campaign for the White House. “It was one of the toughest campaigns I’ve ever seen,” says Miller, who endorsed Van Hollen that year. “This became a family event for the Kennedys, and people who weren’t with Mark were persona non grata. So people had to make some tough choices.” Van Hollen announced his candidacy for Congress in March 2001, 18 months before the primary. For more than a year, it was largely a volunteer effort. Katherine took a leave of absence from

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her job to oversee the campaign’s direct mail operation, and Van Hollen’s sister Caroline was in charge of the campaign phone bank. Anna Van Hollen, then in sixth grade, formed “Kids for Chris,” as her two younger brothers marched in parades and helped adults work the polling places. (In the current Senate race, Katherine has been working with the campaign on a “Women for Van Hollen” effort, and Anna often flies in from California on weekends to join her brothers in helping out.) Van Hollen still trailed in the polls in late spring of 2002, when he brought in seasoned consultant Tom O’Donnell, a former political director of the DCCC, the entity that Van Hollen would later chair. Initially, O’Donnell didn’t want to get involved. “I said, ‘I’m not really

interested. I know a lot of the Kennedys. They’re friends,’ ” he recalls. O’Donnell eventually relented and agreed to meet with Van Hollen. “In my prior career [at the DCCC], I had recruited candidates to run for the House,” O’Donnell says. “So I had a pretty good sense of the type of people you recruit. After spending an hour with [Van Hollen], I said to myself, ‘This guy is as good as anyone I’ve ever seen run for Congress.’ ” A third candidate in the race saw a sharpening of Van Hollen’s message after O’Donnell’s arrival. “In the closing weeks, Chris essentially began to present himself as ‘the only one who has worked for you in Annapolis and in Washington,’ ” recalls Ira Shapiro, a former congressional aide and trade negotiator. “Until

then, he hadn’t emphasized his work for Mac Mathias and on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff. But he made it a major campaign theme. … It was very credible, particularly in the aftermath of 9/11.” On primary day, Van Hollen squeezed out a 44-41 percent win over Shriver, and, with just two months to go until the general election, faced Morella, who was running the first attack ads of her career. Van Hollen came under pressure from supporters to respond in kind, but resisted the advice in view of Morella’s high favorability ratings. “Chris had the discipline not to get into it with her,” O’Donnell says. “You basically had to run against the Republican agenda, so the whole thing became: ‘Did you or did you not support the Republican

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Van Hollen rising

agenda?’ not ‘Did you or did you not support Connie Morella?’ ” That strategy, coupled with a redrawing of the district that had added a slice of heavily Democratic districts in Prince George’s County, yielded a 52-47 percent general election victory for Van Hollen, making him one of just two Democrats to oust sitting House Republicans nationwide in 2002. “Chris has an exquisite sense of timing and opportunity, and that has served him very well,” says old friend and current colleague Gerry Connolly. “Even when conventional wisdom told him not to, his instincts were better, his timing was superior.”

It is clear that Van Hollen has long eyed a Senate seat. In 2005, a little

more than two years after Van Hollen first won election to Congress, veteran Sen. Paul Sarbanes announced that he planned to retire, and Van Hollen spent the better part of four months exploring a Senate run. He ultimately decided not to run, a rare instance of opting against an electoral gamble, as much of the state’s Democratic establishment had coalesced around nowSen. Ben Cardin. Publicly, Van Hollen cited family—his children were still young—and the fact that he been through a grueling 19-month campaign for the House. In 2010, even while serving as chairman of the DCCC, Van Hollen pointedly declined to rule out a Senate run if incumbent Barbara Mikulski decided to retire. Last March, when Mikulski said she would not seek re-election, it took

Van Hollen just days to announce that he would run for the Senate, despite efforts by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, with whom Van Hollen has close ties, to convince him to stay where he was. According to numerous sources, Van Hollen enjoys a far closer relationship with Pelosi than with Hoyer—even though the two Marylanders go out of their way to publicly praise each other. In fact, when Mikulski announced her plans to retire, Van Hollen was participating in discussions—first reported by The New York Times—that some interpreted as Van Hollen contemplating a challenge to a Hoyer bid to replace Pelosi as minority leader if she decided to retire. Both men have since sought to deny that the prospect of such a collision ever existed. “Chris has indicated to me

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that was never his intent,” Hoyer says. Says Van Hollen: “This was a group of members who were trying to figure out ‘What would the future of the House be in the event that leader Pelosi would decide not to run for re-election, and people like Steny and the current leadership were to decide to [retire]?’ ” Behind this under-the-dome jockeying is the fact that Pelosi and Hoyer are both in their mid-70s, and in recent years, as Hoyer puts it, “Chris was almost always in the group of five or six people” mentioned as a future House Democratic leader. But that clearly begs the question of whether the Democrats will be in a position anytime soon to recapture a majority and enable whoever is leader to become House speaker. Few see it happening until at least the

next redistricting, which is six years away. By then, Van Hollen would be approaching his mid-60s. At the end of a long breakfast conversation, Van Hollen is asked if he would have considered staying in the House if he thought there was the prospect of a Democratic majority in the foreseeable future. Without answering directly, he replies, “I think the Senate is a place where I have a larger opportunity to make a difference. In addition to making a difference for the entire state, I think it is a place where there are more opportunities to advance a lot of the issues I’ve been working on.” He adds, “Look, I’m not under any illusion that the Senate is a place of great productivity these days. But I only have

to ask you to look at what is happening in the House right now to see that the place is, unfortunately, dysfunctional.” He is speaking on an early October day as, several blocks away, House Republicans are struggling to find someone willing to become speaker of their fractious caucus—a process that ultimately will culminate with the selection of Paul Ryan. Says Van Hollen, “I think I have done what I can in the House, both in terms of advancing a positive agenda and stopping an agenda that I think is dangerous to the country. So it was time to try to make a difference somewhere else.” n Louis Peck (louis.peck@bethesda magazine.com) has covered politics extensively at the local, state and national levels for four decades.

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Yuri Tiraspolskiy, 85, lives in Gaithersburg.

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The Other Survivors Montgomery County is home to hundreds of Soviet Jews who lived through World War II. Their stories arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t as well-known as those of other Holocaust survivors, but the hardships they faced were unimaginable. By Eugene L. Meyer PHOTOS BY benjamin tankersley

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They live under the radar, 330 Russian-speaking Jews who survived World War II and ended up in Montgomery County. They range in age from 72 to 94; three were in utero when their pregnant mothers fled the Nazi armies. Technically, they are all considered Holocaust survivors, though they escaped the most infamous death camps and shooting squads by traveling east, away from the front lines, where the Nazi war machine tried and failed to conquer the Soviet Union. They were children then. Today they are elders. They live among us, mostly in modest subsidized apartments: on East West Highway next to the Round House Theatre in Bethesda; in a highrise off Route 29 in Silver Spring; in an apartment building for seniors near downtown Gaithersburg. At least one survivor lives in a subsidized apartment in a high-end building off Rockville Pike. Another has a town house in Potomac, near large mansions and gated communities. Watching over them is the Rockvillebased Jewish Social Services Agency (JSSA). Of the 425 Holocaust survivors under JSSA’s care, most are from the former Soviet Union. Some have received regular reparations from Germany for years. Others have received a one-time payment of about $2,500 under a 2012 agreement that classified as Holocaust survivors those individuals who had lived

in unoccupied areas within 60 miles of the front lines. In 2008, reparations had been extended specifically to survivors of the Nazi siege of Leningrad. After the war, many of the survivors now living in Montgomery County returned to their former hometowns. But faced with new anti-Semitism decades later, and aided by a global campaign to “Free Soviet Jewry,” they immigrated to the United States. Now naturalized U.S. citizens, they are patriotic Americans, grateful to be in the country where their children and grandchildren have assimilated. For the most part, they have not: They speak limited English, watch Russian television channels and socialize with other Russian speakers of their generation at Rainbow, an adult day care program operating in the Magen David Sephardic Congregation building near White Flint and in an industrial area off Interstate 270 in Gaithersburg. Marina Kositsyna and Inna Lyubimova are among JSSA’s six Russian-speaking case managers. Kositsyna, 50, has 80 clients, all elderly Russian speakers. College-educated and Jewish, she came to the United States in 1992 from Moscow, where she says she was “told to my face we cannot accept you [for a job] because you are Jewish.” Lyubimova, 44, who is not Jewish, works with 61 clients. “It is very encouraging to be around them,” she says. “They have a

good life, they enjoy their grandchildren here. They feel safe in this country.” JSSA’s clients are all on fixed incomes, recipients of food stamps, housing vouchers and Medicaid. Most receive SSI (Supplemental Security Income); a few get Social Security. When they first immigrated here, JSSA helped them resettle, providing some financial aid and workshops on how to live in America. Now, JSSA provides each of them with a $125 gift card for Giant every month, as well as free eyeglasses and free dental care. Caseworkers help them arrange transportation for doctor visits and grocery shopping. Clients also receive personal home care, including help taking showers or getting dressed, according to Ellen Blalock, director of JSSA’s Holocaust Survivor Program, which receives funding from The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. Blalock says survivors learn about the program largely through word of mouth, then contact JSSA for help. They are among the 7,834 people in Montgomery County who primarily speak Russian, a number that’s higher than in any other jurisdiction in the state, according to the 2009-2013 U.S. Census American Community Survey. In their twilight years, they have stories to tell that they think you should know. Told largely with their caseworkers acting as translators, here are four of them.

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Fenya Gelfer, 90, survived the mass killings by pretending to be a non-Jewish orphan. She immigrated to America in 1992 and now lives in downtown Bethesda.

Fenya Gelfer For 20 years, Fenya Gelfer has lived in a one-bedroom, 9th-floor apartment next to Round House Theatre in downtown Bethesda. Her home is filled with photographs, including a family picture taken in 1936, before the war. Ceramic dogs decorate a bookcase. A picture of Yosemite National Park hangs above a couch. There are souvenir plates on the wall, given to her as gifts, from San Francisco, St. Maarten and Disneyland—places she’s never been. Though she’ll proudly tell you that she’s made two trips to Israel,

where her son lives, her heart is here. “Oh, thank you, America,” says Gelfer, now 90. “Thank you, God. God bless America.” Gelfer is originally from Mogilev, a city near Minsk, now the capital of Belarus. She was born into a middleclass family and went to public school. Her father, David Rabinovich, born in 1898, joined the Soviet army before the war, which assured the family certain privileges, including the one-story home in which they lived. The house had no yard, but did have views of

the nearby Dnieper River. “We didn’t starve. We had enough clothes. My mother didn’t work,” Gelfer recalls. Her family was not religious. “Nobody believed in any God. Everybody believed in Lenin and Stalin,” she says. “All the synagogues and churches were destroyed before the war.” They didn’t keep kosher— only in America would Gelfer learn about such strict dietary laws. They knew they were Jewish, but they weren’t defined by it, she says, and they lived harmoniously in a mixed neighborhood with their gentile neighbors.

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Gelfer’s mother told her to run away, to tell the Germans she was not Jewish and had come there by mistake. With that ruse, she left the ghetto. That night, the Germans carried out mass killings there. Their world changed on June 22, 1941, the day Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union under the code name Operation Barbarossa. Gelfer’s father had planned a family picnic at his army base across the river, but it was abruptly canceled. They learned from a 5 a.m. radio broadcast that the war had begun. That night, Gelfer’s father came to say goodbye, and that was the last time she saw him. He was killed in combat. Within two or three days of the invasion, Germans occupied Mogilev. That August, the occupiers promulgated an order in Russian—Gelfer still has a copy. “All people of Jewish nationality both male and female during 24 hours should leave the city and relocate to area of ghetto,” it reads. “People who do not fulfill this order will be forced to do that and all their belongings will be confiscated.” She says the notice was posted on houses everywhere. On Sept. 25, 1941, Jews were given 24 hours to relocate to the ghetto, after which those still on the street—forced to wear yellow Stars of David both front and back—would be arrested, Gelfer says. The non-Jewish Belarusians displaced by the ghetto were moved into the Jews’ former homes, and the Jews moved into the gentiles’ homes. Non-Jewish friends brought potatoes to her mother. Gelfer becomes very animated as she talks about how she survived. “It’s a long story. Oh, my God,” she says more than once. Her non-Jewish friends instructed

her to go to the city office of records claiming to be an orphan, she says. There, she took the name of a Russian classmate who had relocated before the Germans came. So she now had a birth certificate stating that she was Russian, with the name of her classmate, Lida Belousova, written on it. Later that fall, the weather got very cold. Germans came with dogs and ordered the Jews in the ghetto to leave their homes. Gelfer’s mother told her to run away, to tell the Germans she was not Jewish and had come there by mistake. With that ruse, she left the ghetto. That night, the Germans carried out mass killings there. Gelfer went to a former neighbor, who took her in. Because she was still known in that neighborhood, Gelfer, then 15, realized she had to leave, and she went to an orphanage. In need of work, she went to a bakery, where she was recognized and reported to police. After about six months in jail, a tall German asked for Lida Belousova. “That’s me,” Gelfer said. He got her out of jail, gave her a purse as a gift and said, “You are free now.” Gelfer presumes the German thought she was Russian. Not knowing where to go next, she returned to the orphanage, where she bathed, ate and soon developed a high fever that landed her in the hospital. After her release, the orphanage declined to take her back. It was the summer of 1942 when she pleaded with her former neighbors to keep her, which

they did, briefly. “Fenya, you should leave Mogilev,” a neighbor advised. “Go to any village. You do not look Jewish, you have a Russian birth certificate.” She went from one village to another, she says, babysitting and doing yard work just to earn money to survive, fearing her presence would eventually raise suspicions. She lived like this for a few years, until the war was over. She presumed that her younger sister, Rezita, had been killed. But when the Nazis shot all the Jews in the Mogilev ghetto, their mother covered Rezita’s body with her own. The next night, Rezita extricated herself from the pile of dead bodies and escaped. (She and Gelfer met up several years after the war, and she also immigrated to America and lived in Silver Spring. Rezita died nearly two years ago.) Returning to Mogilev, Gelfer found her family home in ruins, but her grandparents’ house was still standing. It was there, at a party, that she met her husband, Isaac Gelfer, strikingly handsome in his Soviet army uniform with medals from the Battle of Stalingrad. She was 19, he was 25 when they married in 1946. The couple had two children, a son and a daughter, before Isaac Gelfer died in 1959, at the age of 38. Thirty-three years later, in 1992, she immigrated to America with her daughter’s family. At first, they all shared an apartment in Silver Spring, then Gelfer moved out on her own. Gelfer had no friends and couldn’t speak English, she says, but she took language classes and studied American history. She passed the test for citizenship and took the oath of allegiance in 1995. She now receives about $300 a month in reparations from Germany, along with Medicaid, food stamps and SSI. Twice a week she goes to Rainbow, where she socializes with other elderly Jews who are Russian speakers. But make no mistake about it: Her allegiance is to her adopted country. “America is better than Russia,” she declares.

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Ida Zusin and her family came to the United States in 1989, mostly because of discrimination against Jews. Zusin, a widow, lives in a modest Cape Cod in Potomac's Avenel neighborhood.

Ida Aranzon Zusin Ida Aranzon Zusin remembers the noise and the fear as she and her family sought safety from the German bombs, first in her hometown of Mogilev, then as they fled eastward on trains that Nazi planes attacked. She was just 8 when her train was bombed, but she still recalls hiding in the woods near the tracks until the danger passed. Other passenger cars had been destroyed, but

not hers, and her family managed to escape with their lives. Though she has been in America for a quarter century, Zusin, 83, speaks almost no English. Widowed since 2012, she lives with her 60-year-old daughter, Bela Shmirkin, and her sonin-law, Michael, in a modest Cape Cod in Potomac’s Avenel neighborhood; her home is one of the affordable units

builders were required to include in the high-end subdivision. She watches Russian television, reads Russian books and goes to see friends at Rainbow, though not as often as she once did. These days, she complains of leg pain and uses a walker. “Right now, it’s hard for her to go anywhere,” Shmirkin says. Life for Zusin was better in many ways before the war, when she lived with her

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Zusin was just 8 when her train was bombed, but she still recalls hiding in the woods near the tracks until the danger passed. Other passenger cars had been destroyed, but not hers, and her family managed to escape with their lives. parents and three siblings in an apartment in the industrial city of Mogilev, in what was then part of the Soviet Union and is today Belarus. Like most Jews under Soviet rule, they were not religious and attended secular schools. Their father was in charge of security at a leather factory. Then, on June 22, 1941, Hitler reneged on his nonaggression pact with Stalin and invaded the Soviet Union. As German bombs fell on the city, the children were sheltered in a building next to the leather factory. Zusin was old enough to know that she could be killed. She remembers the ground shaking from the blasts. As German troops drew closer, evacuation plans were hastily made at the factory for all the families, Jews and non-Jews alike. The government-provided train that Zusin rode on was packed with military personnel and families fleeing the war. Passengers didn’t know where they were going. It was a summer morning when the train left at 11 a.m., stopping at villages along the way so the passengers could use bathrooms. It took a month to reach the final stop, a village named Serpeevka in the Ural Mountains. Zusin’s father was not with her family. He had been drafted into the Soviet army and, they would learn later, was killed in combat in 1943, as was her Uncle Boris. Zusin and her family found out that Boris and three others were captured by the Germans, who made them dig their own graves and then shot them. Zusin,

her siblings and her mother all managed to survive. Altogether, 18 Mogilev families made it to Serpeevka, and all but Zusin’s family left to find work in other communities. The mayor, a man named Alex, provided her family with lodging. Villagers stored vegetables underground in an adjoining barn during winter, so the Zusin family did not lack for food. The mayor’s wife had a sewing machine she didn’t use and gave it to Zusin’s mother, who sewed for the villagers. Zusin went to school but was older than her peers, who called her names. “The kids were mean,” she says. She dropped out and picked cherries, which she sold twice a week in nearby towns for money to buy sugar, salt and other necessities. She often walked 20 miles each day, she says, returning late at night. The family learned about the liberation of Mogilev on the radio and prepared to take a train home. “All the villagers came to say goodbye,” Zusin recalls. “They were crying.” Back home, they found nothing left of their apartment, which had been bombed. But the leather factory was still standing, and in return for working there, they were given a new place to live, which was shared with three other families and lacked indoor plumbing. Zusin resumed her schooling in Mogilev, then went to work in a knitting factory because she couldn’t afford

college. After she married Reuvan Zusin, another survivor from Mogilev, and had her first child, a son, in 1953, she stopped working. Eventually, when her fourth child was in seventh grade, she got a job as an elevator operator. Shmirkin says the family left Belarus in 1989, mostly because of discrimination against Jews: “It’s like a quota. You cannot go to university, even if you are the smartest. We were thinking about our children. We also couldn’t practice our religion,” Shmirkin says. After moving to America, the whole family lived in a three-bedroom apartment in Silver Spring for nine months, after which Zusin and her husband moved into a subsidized apartment in downtown Bethesda, where they lived for 20 years until his death. Zusin’s grandchildren attended the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville for two years on full scholarships, then transferred to public schools. Both graduated from the University of Maryland, got married, and are doing well professionally. But for Zusin and her husband, the adjustment to life in America was much harder. “At their age, it was very difficult for them to study English and accept a new culture. They couldn’t find jobs here,” Shmirkin says. “My mom was babysitting for families in the [Congregation Beth El] synagogue.” Shmirkin's father, a shoemaker in Mogilev, had heart surgery and wasn’t able to work. Today, Zusin’s older sister, Nina, lives in Boyds with her daughter; another sister, Faina, lives in Derwood, and her brother, Arkadi, the youngest, lives in Israel. Zusin has eight grandchildren; seven are in the Washington, D.C., area and one is serving in the Israel Defense Forces. She has 10 great-grandchildren, five nearby and five in Israel. Her home is indistinguishable from most of the others on Potomac’s Pleasant Gate Lane, except for the mezuzah—a piece of paper inscribed with Hebrew from the Torah and contained inside a decorative case—affixed to the front door.

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When Yuri Tiraspolskiy was 11, he and his family members were ordered to wear the yellow Star of David on their clothes, a mark of their Jewishness, or be shot.

Yuri Yakovlevich Tiraspolskiy F o r A m e r i ca n s, D e c. 7, 1941, is a date that will live in infamy—the day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. But for Yuri Yakovlevich Tiraspolskiy, 85, that day is unforgettable for a different reason: That’s when Tiraspolskiy, then 11, and his family were rounded up by Nazis who had occupied their hometown of Tulchyn in western Ukraine. Before the war, Tiraspolskiy’s father was a respected shoemaker, and Jews and non-Jews mingled freely in their town. There had been rumors of an imminent invasion, but the population was largely unprepared, and the Germans met little resistance as they entered. Tiraspolskiy’s family had almost escaped. Before the Nazis arrived, his parents were offered a horse-drawn cart and advised to go 100 miles east to another town. Almost there, they could see their destination aflame from Nazi bombings, so they decided to turn back. Nazi troops they encountered on their return trip shouted anti-Jewish slurs. Back in Tulchyn, they were ordered to wear the yellow Star of David on their clothes, a mark of their Jewishness, or be shot. Then, on Dec. 7, Nazis with dogs came for the Jews. Tiraspolskiy remembers that they were all herded barefoot in their underwear into a Jewish school and locked up without food or water for two days. On the third day, they were driven 14 miles to a concentration camp in the village of Pechora. On the way, they

were tortured in a horse barn. Old men with beards were fair game, Tiraspolskiy says—the Nazis pulled their beards, then took them into the woods and shot them. The family made it to Pechora the next day. Tiraspolskiy, his 13-year-old brother, Aron, and their mother and father, Tuba and Yankel, were assigned to a second floor room with 50 to 60 others. “We were worn out by tortures and starvation,” Tiraspolskiy recalls. Camp prisoners were dying at the rate of 150 to 200 a day. “The corpses were collected on carts and dumped into big pits. Besides, the Nazis were checking the rooms regularly and killing anybody they disliked. Every day, people were taken to be killed. They were told they were being taken to be let go, but it was a lie. For days, we could hear the screams coming from the pit.” After three months, typhus spread through the camp, resulting in more deaths. Healthy prisoners were put to work in labor camps. “It was a beginning of even worse hell,” Tiraspolskiy says. “I was heavily beaten because I was a Jew.” The Pechora camp was known as “the dead loop.” Non-Jews who lived nearby would try to help, throwing food over the fence. Somehow, Tiraspolskiy says, Aron escaped. Aron wandered around nearby villages begging for food, and was caught and “cut into pieces, as witnesses told me after the war.” The camp was in the occupied zone administered by Romanians, who were

German allies but less anti-Semitic. As the Soviets were getting closer, Tiraspolskiy says, the Germans gathered the Jewish prisoners: “They were sitting in a big truck to be taken away and be executed, but the Romanian soldiers stopped the Germans from taking them, and that’s how they survived.” Tiraspolskiy says Pechora was liberated by the Red Army on March 14, 1944. The family returned to Tulchyn to find their little house destroyed. (Before the war, in 1939, Tulchyn’s 5,607 Jews had comprised 42 percent of the population. In 2012, there were about 150 Jews living there, less than 1 percent of the population, according to the Jewish Cemetery Project.) Officials found them an apartment without running water, but they were grateful. Tiraspolskiy was drafted into the Soviet army in 1948, served two years and went back to Tulchyn, where he, like his father, became a shoemaker. He and his wife had two children, then she became ill and died. Two years later, Tiraspolskiy married a non-Jewish woman named Luba, 20 years his junior. They have been together since 1995. After his son and daughter immigrated to the United States, Tiraspolskiy and Luba followed in November 1997. They became U.S. citizens six years later. Their subsidized, one-bedroom apartment in Gaithersburg is not fancy; it’s in a building for the low-income elderly. But they have no complaints. “The United States gave us everything to have a happy and comfortable life,” Tiraspolskiy says. Prominently displayed in the living room is a 1945 picture of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe, with Marshal Georgy Zhukov, leader of the Red Army in World War II, both saluting. Tiraspolskiy stays in shape by walking and by lifting hand weights, which he happily demonstrates, and going to Rainbow to socialize with other elderly Jewish Russian speakers. When he’s home, his wife says, “He just watches Russian TV, speaks Russian, Russian, Russian. It’s OK, it’s good for him.”

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Zachar and Alla Rubinchik Zakhar and Alla Rubinchik As is the custom among Russian hosts, Zakhar Rubinchik has placed assorted candies, cakes and cookies on the dining room table. He offers a visitor coffee and urges the guest to eat. “That’s how it is every time you come,” says Nina Sznurman, his caseworker. “You won’t starve.” This cornucopia stands in marked contrast to the lack of food Rubinchik and his family struggled with during the German siege of Leningrad, a city of 3 million where he was born on Feb. 2, 1938. The spacious 14th-floor apartment at White Oak Towers in Silver Spring, where Rubinchik lives with his wife, Alla, is far removed from that place and time so seared in his memory. Yet the war is palpable still. “I’m sorry, very nervous, the blockade,” he says as he speaks of it, tears welling in his eyes. “They were bombing every day.” Rubinchik was little more than a toddler when the siege began. But he cries easily when sharing the little he remembers, and what he was told about his family members’ lives—and deaths— during the siege that lasted 872 days. Rubinchik was the fifth of six children. They lived well, thanks to their father’s job sewing mink coats. When the war started, the oldest brother went into the army; their father was drafted to do hard physical labor, something with a shovel is all Rubinchik remembers. During the siege, which began in September 1941 and ended in January 1944, Rubinchik and his family stayed in their apartment. There was no electricity, no toilet and no heat. “Nothing worked,” Rubinchik says. Food was rationed. Their father starved to death, then a brother died in his sleep from hunger. They were just two among about a million Leningrad residents who died of hunger or the cold during the blockade. Jews in the occupied outskirts of

Leningrad were simply murdered. In the suburb of Pushkin, hundreds of Jews were marched to a palatial garden in September 1941 and shot to death by the Nazis. Iosif, another Rubinchik brother, died on a train that was bombarded by German planes as he tried to flee Leningrad. Zakhar Rubinchik’s wife, Alla, was born in 1936 in Gomel, in what is now Belarus, where Jews comprised nearly a third of the population of some 40,000. When the Germans occupied Gomel on Aug. 19, 1941, Jews were forced into four crowded ghettos. By December, 4,000 had been killed, including women and children gassed in vans. But many Jews managed to escape by moving back to Leningrad, and Alla and her family were among them. Her father, Yevsey, joined the Red Army and was killed in 1943. To escape the still-advancing Nazi army, they moved east again, to Kirisovskaya in the Ural Mountains. Alla, who was 5, went to school there with her older sister. After the war, they returned to Leningrad, and Alla trained to become a nurse. She was 25 and single when a matchmaker her mother knew introduced her to Zakhar, who sold refrigerators to restaurants. They married a month later, in 1961. They had, Zakhar says, a good apartment, a car, a garage. But even though they were not religious, they were marked as Jews. They wanted to go to synagogue on Simchas Torah, a joyous holiday when worshippers march around with Torah scrolls to mark the start of a new reading cycle, but were afraid to be seen there. Coming home from work one day, Alla heard a group of people complaining that everyone being selected for political office was Jewish. When she confronted them, they turned on her and started pulling her hair. “After that incident, I said enough, I’m going to move to America

"I’m sorry, very nervous, the blockade,” Zakhar Rubinchik says as he speaks of the war, tears welling in his eyes. “They were bombing every day.”

and live in peace,” she says. The couple immigrated to the United States on March 22, 1990. Zakhar worked as a janitor at two synagogues and as an HVAC repairman. For 10 years, he moved inventory for the Shoppers Food Warehouse chain. The couple has one son, Alex, who lives in Baltimore and drives a school

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Alla and Zakhar Rubinchik, who met through a matchmaker and were married in 1961, have a one-bedroom apartment in Silver Spring. Their son drives a school bus for Montgomery County.

bus for Montgomery County. The 2005 Toyota Camry parked in the basement garage was a gift from him. Zakhar and Alla moved into their onebedroom Silver Spring apartment in 1995, the same year they became American citizens. It overlooks treetops as far as the eye can see. The kitchen is small, but the ample

dining room opens into a large living area and the room where Zakhar keeps his art books and classical music CDs, which he shows with great pride. Among all that is a picture book of Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, as it was before the Russian Revolution of 1917, which culminated in Communist rule. “If I been Russian, not

Jewish, I not go to America,” he says, wistfully. Still, he adds, “Every day I get up, God bless America.” n Eugene L. Meyer is a contributing editor for Bethesda Magazine. To comment on this story, e-mail comments@bethesda magazine.com.

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cake photo by rob korb photography; rings photo by sarah williams; cookie photo by Michael Bennett Kress; bridge photo by Tracey Buyce photography

WeddIngs of the Year A ceremony on a Hungarian mountaintop. A barnyard bash on a working farm. A lunchtime celebration in a restaurant. A reception in a former bank. These four local couples, who all recently got married, created events to remember.

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Banking on Love

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College sweethearts Kate Sperber and Daniel Fleishman hosted their New York wedding reception in a former bank, where they treated guests to a night that was rich with personal details The couple: Daniel Fleishman, 28, grew up in Potomac and graduated from Winston Churchill High School. He now runs his family’s business, Bethesda Bagels. Kate Sperber, 26, grew up in Slingerlands, New York, a suburb of Albany, and works as an account associate for WeddingWire in Chevy Chase. They moved to a townhouse in Potomac in June 2015. The wedding: Kate and Daniel tied the knot on Oct. 18, 2014, in a ceremony at Kate’s childhood temple, Congregation Beth Emeth in Slingerlands. The reception followed at Sixty

State Place, a former bank that’s now used as an event venue. When they met: In 2007, while they were both students at the University of Maryland. The following year they lived in the same apartment building and he asked her out. First date: “He knew I liked baseball,” Kate says. When Daniel invited her to a Nationals-Mets game, she said yes, waiting until midway through the game to tell him that she’s a fan of the other New York team, the Yankees. “It was the thought that counted,” she says. BethesdaMagazine.com | january/february 2016 175

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Number of guests: 150

Getting personal: Kate and Daniel gave guests a bag when they checked into the hotel that included New York apples and a fake newspaper they created with articles about how they met and their dog. At the reception, cocktail napkins had facts about the couple printed on them, such as their favorite food (Daniel’s was bagels) and their celebrity crush. “We knew we wouldn’t get to spend a lot of time with each person at the wedding,” Kate says. So the couple spent the two weeks prior to the big day writing notes to each guest. Waitstaff delivered the notes between the first and second courses.

What made the event special: “They kept a lot of the bank’s charm,” Kate says of the reception venue. The bathroom floors are covered in adhered-on pennies and there’s a chandelier made of safe-deposit box keys. The cocktail hour took place in what had been the bank’s vault.

Fun touches: Cocktail hour included a grilled-cheese bar and a custom drink that the couple had enjoyed on a trip to Mexico: a “royal” mojito made with champagne instead of soda water. Guests were given cotton candy as they left the reception, a nod to the amusement park Kate’s father owns.

Favorite moment: The first look, outside before the ceremony. “It’s such a surreal feeling—the day of your wedding,” Kate says. “Seeing Danny really calmed me down.”

Special details: “Pearl is my birthstone, so we used a lot of pearls throughout,” Kate says. The escort card table had a gold oyster shell filled with pearls and a sign reading, “The world

Wedding colors: Gold and slate gray, accented with deep purples and pinks. “Raspberry and sangria, I called them,” Kate says.

is our oyster but you are our pearls.” A small pearl bead was affixed to each escort card. Pearls were also incorporated in the cake and Kate’s dress. Cost-cutting tips: “Do a lot of research—everything’s online,” says Kate, who found a cake she liked on Pinterest and had a bakery re-create it. Gown: A Monique Lhuillier lace gown with champagne underlay, a keyhole back and pearl buttons, purchased at Betsy Robinson’s Bridal Collection in Baltimore The honeymoon: A trip to Thailand The details: Cake was provided by Make Me a Cake Next Door; calligraphy, Ink Revival; catering, Mazzone Catering; event planner, Katie O. Weddings and Events; flowers, Fleurtatious Designs; invitations, Jenny C. Designs; music, John Charles Cook (ceremony) and Nonstop Music (reception); photography, Tracey Buyce Photography; videography, Clark+Walker Studio.

photos by Tracey Buyce photography

The proposal: Daniel planned to propose at a spot on the University of Maryland campus where the two often ate lunch outside. But the forecast for the intended day included torrential downpours. Instead, he covered the apartment where they lived with rose petals and candles, made a special breakfast and woke her up early to propose.

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Lauren Wetherell (left) and Valeria Carranza got married at Jackieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Restaurant in Silver Spring.

photos by Sarah Williams

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Valeria Carranza and Lauren Wetherell put their own twist on traditions when they got married at a Silver Spring restaurant. Who would get cake in their face? They put it to a vote.

photos by Sarah Williams

The couple: Valeria Carranza and Lauren Wetherell, both 28, moved to the Washington area in 2009. Valeria is the executive director of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Lauren is a social worker with Montgomery County Child Welfare Services. They live in Silver Spring. The wedding: Aug. 8, 2015, at Jackie’s Restaurant in Silver Spring. The couple felt connected to Jackie’s since it was where Valeria had organized a meeting in 2011 with LGBT leaders in Montgomery County to focus on marriage equality at the state level. When they met: The pair met in 2005 during their first week at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania and exchanged numbers. Though they never called each other, they

were friendly throughout college. The second semester of their senior year, they were out with friends at a bar. “I leaned in and I kissed her and that was it,” Lauren says. “That kiss sealed everything.” First date: Lauren took Valeria to a state park in central Pennsylvania for a hike. She knew Valeria liked peanut butter, jelly and banana sandwiches so she made her one the night before, not realizing the bananas would spoil. “They were pretty gross,” Lauren says. The proposal: The couple each wanted to propose to the other. They invited 40 friends to their house for brunch. “Some of our friends thought we were getting married that day,” Lauren says. An hour in, Valeria proposed and Lauren proposed BethesdaMagazine.com | january/february 2016 179

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immediately after. “There were still elements of surprise,” Valeria says. “We hadn’t seen each other’s rings.” Wedding theme: An interactive, retro modern party Number of guests: 75 What made the event special: The ceremony incorporated a ring warming, where their wedding rings were passed around in a pouch and guests could offer a silent wish or prayer. The poem “Resignation” by Nikki Giovanni, an activist whose work they admire, was recited, and seven blessings were read by friends and family. “We referenced the marriage equality decision in Maryland and the Supreme Court decision,” Lauren says. “We acknowledged the fact that we have very loving family and friends and not all LGBT couples have that. We spent a moment where we sent positive energy their way.” strong connections with vendors they met. “People are willing to help you if you ask,” Valeria says. Through Valeria’s connections, they arranged a rehearsal dinner at the White House bowling alley and brought in food from Corner Bakery.

Favorite moment: Both women say their first look—when they each held a giant hot-pink balloon to block their views, then released the balloons to reveal their dresses, hair and makeup— was their favorite part of the day. “We wanted an element of tradition so we didn’t see each other’s dresses until the day of the wedding,” Valeria says.

Casting cake votes: The couple set up a table where guests could vote for who would get cake in their face. Lauren ended up with more votes—and cake smooshed in her face.

Cost-cutting tips: “Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate,” says Lauren. “What’s the worst someone’s going to say? No?” They turned to people they knew whenever possible and formed

Elements of surprise: During wedding planning, Valeria wanted to have karaoke at the event but Lauren nixed it. Lauren arranged to have the DJ surprise Valeria with a karaoke machine. Valeria belted out Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin.’ ” The DJ brought out a limbo stick, which was an unexpected hit. “Everyone was dancing the

entire time, including family members I didn’t know could dance,” Lauren says. Gowns: Lauren wore an A-line gown with satin on the bottom, lace on top, by Allure Romance; Valeria’s dress was a strapless ruched fit-and-flare gown by Modeca Collection. The honeymoon: A trip to Portugal The details: Cake was provided by La Baguette de Paris; event planner, Anjie Henry of Blue Canary Events; flowers, Jason Gedeik; hair, Dry-onthe-Fly by Drybar; lighting and master of ceremonies, Miguel Castaneda of Extreme Events & Entertainment; makeup, Christina Suh of Suhreal Artistry; music, DJ Freedom Ortiz; photography, Sarah Williams of This Rad Love; tailoring, Anytime Alterations; videography, Carol Havelka.

photos by Sarah Williams

Twist on tradition: The women each walked halfway down the aisle with their parents and then walked together the rest of the way. “I didn’t see it as our parents giving us away so much as having our parents by our side to show their support,” Valeria says.

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Village Charm

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When Andrew Fremming wed Tarina Szemzo on a mountaintop in a Hungarian village, the couple incorporated elements from her culture, including fruit brandy, a folk band and even a horse The couple: Tarina Szemzo, 32, and Andrew Fremming, 33, both grew up in Takoma Park. Tarina graduated from Montgomery Blair High School and works in marketing for Michael Bennett Kress Photography. Andrew graduated from the Barrie School and owns The Suite Barbershop in Silver Spring. They live in Takoma Park. The wedding: Aug. 22, 2015, in Budajeno, Hungary How they met: Tarina and Andrew attended the same elementary school, but Andrew was a grade ahead. Though they went to separate high schools,

they knew of each other and had many friends in common. But it wasn’t until 2010, during a mutual friend’s wedding weekend, that the pair got to talking and felt a strong connection. First date: Andrew picked Tarina up on his motorcycle and they ate at Lauriol Plaza in D.C. “I had never ridden on a motorcycle before and it was the best feeling,” Tarina says. The proposal: Tarina’s relatives all live in Hungary, except for her parents, who split their time between the U.S. and Hungary. She travels there frequently, and Andrew had come BethesdaMagazine.com | january/february 2016 183

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both singers and wanted to incorporate singing into the day. They decided on a duet of “You+Me” by Alecia Moore and Dallas Green. “We pulled my grandma and my parents up and thanked them, then sang the song,” Tarina says. She also surprised Andrew by singing a song she wrote herself called “I Do.”

along on three trips. He knew proposing to her there would be meaningful. In September 2014, while they were walking across the Chain Bridge over the Danube River in Budapest, Andrew pulled out a ring and proposed. He later told her he was terrified the ring would fall in the water.

Cost- cutting tips: “Get married in another country—everything’s cheaper,” Tarina says. The couple also found that using native wildflowers rather than importing out-of-season rarities saved money.

Number of guests: 85 What made the event special: The location. Their wedding was in a tiny Hungarian village. The ceremony was on a mountaintop, outside of a 1,000-year-old church. Horses are revered in Hungary, so Andrew rode in on a white horse. Following the ceremony, a three-piece Hungarian folk band led everyone through the village to Tarina’s parents’ property for a cocktail hour in their wine cellar. “All these strangers came out of their houses as we walked by to see us,” Tarina says. The reception was held around the corner, in a restaurant’s outdoor garden. Showing her Hungarian roots: At the reception, guests drank a Hungarian fruit brandy called pálinka

from handmade shot glasses they could take home as favors. Food at the reception included goose leg, cabbage and potatoes, all flavored with paprika. Favorite moment: “Standing under a flower arch at our ceremony, looking at Andrew’s face as we were taking this new step together,” Tarina says. Combining cultures: Though Andrew is German and Norwegian, he speaks Spanish and decided to include a mojito bar at the cocktail hour and a salsa band at the reception. A DJ and the Hungarian folk band also played at the reception. Love songs: Tarina and Andrew are

Something to laugh about: They learned the day of their flight to Hungary that because Andrew’s passport had less than three months until it expired, he wouldn’t be able to enter the country. He got an emergency passport, and they flew out the following day. “Can you imagine being told you can’t go to your own wedding?” Tarina says, laughing about it now. Gown: An ivory A-line dress with a deep sweetheart neckline and an embroidered rose-gold underlay made by Watters and purchased at Betsy Robinson’s Bridal Collection in Baltimore The honeymoon: A trip to the Riviera Maya in Mexico The details: Groom’s apparel, Enzo Custom Suits; photography, Michael Bennett Kress.

photos by Michael Bennett Kress

Wedding theme: A Hungarian wedding mixed with modern American traditions

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www.HerringtonOnTheBay.com ď Ł 410-741-5101

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Homegrown Happiness

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For Jill Minchoff and Brian Lizzi, it was a labor of love to transform her family’s working farm into an event venue. They capped off the barnyard bash with a blast of fireworks. The couple: Brian Lizzi, 34, grew up in Burtonsville, Maryland, and graduated from Paint Branch High School. He works as a 401(k) plan consultant for TriBridge Partners in Bethesda. Jill Minchoff, 30, was raised in Middletown, Maryland, roughly 15 minutes outside of Frederick, and now works in Rockville as a wealth adviser for Bronfman E.L. Rothschild. The couple moved from Bethesda to a town house in Olney in July 2015. The wedding: Jill and Brian were married at Zion Lutheran Church in

Middletown, the same church where her grandparents and parents were married, on May 30, 2015. The reception followed nearby on the working family farm where Jill’s maternal grandfather lives. How they met: Jill and Brian were each out with friends at Caddies on Cordell in Bethesda in 2010. Jill recognized a company name printed on Brian’s shirt and asked him about it. “I’m a pretty friendly person,” says Jill, who wasn’t intending to pick him up. It turned out they both knew the BethesdaMagazine.com | january/february 2016 187

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First date: Brian meant to ask Jill to meet him at Black’s Bar & Kitchen in Bethesda but accidentally invited her to the now-shuttered BlackFinn. When they got there, he apologized for choosing a place that was more bar than restaurant. The pair celebrated their third anniversary at Black’s. The proposal: “He had done this whole façade about how he wasn’t ready to get married,” Jill says. Brian was actually setting up to make the proposal a surprise. When Jill suggested they hike the Billy Goat Trail one weekend, he saw his chance. At a scenic spot, he said they should take a picture. He handed his phone to some hikers with a note saying that he was about to propose and asking them to photograph the moment. Then, he gave Jill a sweet letter, and when she finished it and looked up, he was holding a box with a ring. Wedding theme: A homegrown, rustic and colorful farm wedding Number of guests: 120 What made the event special: Jill says having the reception at her

family’s 180-acre dairy-and-crop farm was “amazing.” The couple and other family members spent several weekends power-washing, gardening and painting—including applying 100 gallons of red paint to the tin-roof barn that served as the main reception area. “It’s a working farm,” Jill says. “There are chickens running around. It’s not normally a wedding venue.” Favorite moment: “Standing on the dock looking up at the fireworks,” Jill says of the seven-minute show that exploded over the farm’s pond. The food: Pulled pork, pulled chicken, brisket and family-style sides. “We wanted guests to feel like they were having a meal at our home,” Jill says. Brian really wanted ice cream cake but they were worried it would be difficult to serve, so they had ice cream cupcakes from Cold Stone Creamery instead. From the farm: The couple used items from around the family’s property as décor, including some of her grandmother’s old perfume bottles. They also created a map of the farm and placed signs with more information at key spots. During the cocktail hour, guests were encouraged to tour the farm. “We had a milk-and-cookie table at the milking parlor,” Jill says.

Cost-cutting tips: Instead of catered hors d’oeuvres, Brian and Jill put together trail mix and popcorn bars themselves. They also made lawn games—cornhole, giant Jenga and ladder golf—with materials from Home Depot. Something to laugh about: “We have swans on the pond, and when the fireworks went off, the swans freaked out,” Jill says. Gown: A strapless gown by Wtoo purchased from Love Couture Bridal in Potomac; Jill bought a lace jacket online to wear during the ceremony. The honeymoon: A trip to South Africa The details: Catering was provided by P.I.G.S. (Pork Is Good Stuff ); cake, Cakes for Mom; event planner, Alex Meyer Events; fireworks, Innovative Pyrotechnic Concepts; flowers, Candlelight Floral Designs; hair and makeup, Hello Gorgeous Salon; music, Luke James Shaffer; photography, Rob Korb Photography; videography, One and Done Events. n

photos by Rob Korb Photography

owner of the company, so later that night Brian asked Jill if he could get her number from the mutual friend.

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Wedding Resource guide

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Located in the heart of downtown Bethesda, Hyatt Regency Bethesda near Washington, DC is the ideal venue for weddings and social gatherings. Our contemporary hotel offers comfortable guestrooms with deluxe amenities, and specialty dining options. Sitting atop the Metro, the hotel is convenient to the Nation’s Capital.

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Prenups: Who Needs Them? A prenuptial agreement is like an insurance policy; you hate dealing with it and you hope never to have to use it, but if you wind up needing it, you are very glad to have it. Nobody wants to contemplate the end of a marriage before it has even begun, but having a prenup not only protects against unforeseen problems but actually can provide comfort and certainty in a variety of contexts going into a marriage. A few examples follow. This Is Your Spouse’s Second Marriage. Someone who has said “I Do” before may have strings attached – like it or not. How will your partner finance ongoing alimony payments to his or her first spouse? Does your intended spouse own property with a former spouse or owe a duty of child support? A prenup can address how these expenses will be paid among other factors. You Have Children from a Previous Relationship. Couples with children from previous relationships often use prenups to earmark marital and non-marital assets for those children. In most states, including Maryland, property acquired during the course of a marriage is considered “marital property” and, in the absence of a prenup, is subject to broad-brush rules with regard to asset division at the time of divorce or death. Use of an effective and enforceable prenup can proactively address these issues, and thus can significantly mitigate conflict between the children and step-parent – now and in the future.

substantial debts (education loans, outstanding mortgage debts, etc.). In either case, a prenup is a crucial mechanism for preemptively addressing how these matters will be handled, and can establish clear rules for distinguishing what is marital and what is non-marital, without comingling. You Have Relationship Baggage. Whether your parents divorced or you yourself have been unlucky in love in the past, designing a prenup can bring important comfort to the already anxiety-provoking process of preparing for marriage. As a legal contract, a prenup may give you added confidence and security as you prepare to walk down the aisle. To establish a prenuptial agreement, it is often recommended that each person retain their own lawyer to represent their individual interests. In most cases, divorce or family law attorneys are helpful in anticipating sources of conflict or disagreement given their detachment from the emotions of the impending marriage and their litigation experience. However, counsel from estate planning, tax and business attorneys can add helpful perspective, as each of these professionals will encourage unique considerations based on their areas of practice. As a full service firm, our clients benefit from the talents of attorneys in each of these practice areas.

You Bring Significant Assets, Or Your Spouse Brings Significant Debt, to the Marriage. People who have established their careers and have – or will one day have – significant assets (business interests, savings, retirement or other investments, family inheritance, real property, etc.), may need to consider the degree to which it is important to designate those assets as separate from shared marital property. Similarly, your partner may bring to the marriage

Monica Garcia Harms co-chairs the Family Law department at Stein Sperling Bennett De Jong Driscoll PC. Her thorough knowledge and understanding of her clients’ circumstances and needs distinguish her approach to the practice of family law. Monica represents clients in complex matters including divorce, contested custody, support and property allocation. She can be reached via email at mharms@steinsperling.com.

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name Edward Gero AGE 61 What he does Stage actor Grew up in Madison, New Jersey Lives in Wood Acres, Bethesda

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A Conversation with

Edward Gero By Richard Harris | photo by SKIP BROWN

When playwright John Strand pitched his Supreme Court drama, The Originalist, to Arena Stage, he opened up his PowerPoint presentation to photos of Justice Antonin Scalia and veteran local actor Edward Gero. “Not only do they resemble one another,” Strand remembers saying, “but Ed is a phenomenal actor, someone I have great respect for.” There would be no reason for Gero to audition for the lead role. It was his. And it didn’t hurt that the Gero and Scalia families, both Catholic with New Jersey ties, had roots in Italian villages only miles apart. Last spring, after more than a year of researching the longest-serving justice on the current high court, reading the Federalist Papers, attending oral arguments to study Scalia’s gestures, and having several private meetings with him, Gero helped draw 19,000 theatergoers to see The Originalist. Call him an overnight success, several decades in the making. With four Helen Hayes Awards (Washington’s version of the Tonys), Gero is one of the most recognizable faces on the Washington stage. At press time, he was wrapping up his seventh run as Ebenezer Scrooge in Ford’s Theatre’s A Christmas Carol. He is slated to make his debut on the Woolly Mammoth stage in the District in April. Gero, who lives in Bethesda, has played fictional and historical characters ranging from President Richard Nixon to artist Mark Rothko in more than 100 local

productions. You also may have caught him in the dark television drama House of Cards and in Die Hard 2, where he acted alongside college housemate Bruce Willis. Teaching has played a major role in the Gero household. An associate professor in the theater department at George Mason University, Gero has taught acting since 1991, while his wife, Marijke, taught kindergarten and special education at Janney Elementary School in the District for three decades before retiring in 2013. The Geros moved from Capitol Hill to Wood Acres more than 20 years ago so their son, Christian, could attend Wood Acres Elementary School, Thomas W. Pyle Middle School and Walt Whitman High School. “We squeezed into the smallest house we could find in the neighborhood and never saw a reason to leave,” Gero says, adding that the neighborhood reminds him of Madison, New Jersey, where he and Marijke both grew up. “Tree-lined streets, 1940s and ’50s homes,” he says. “The Bethesda bonus is neighbors from different countries, military people, World Bank folks.” Offstage, Gero’s passions include hiking the C&O Canal, rooting for the Nationals and hitting the links at the Falls Road Golf Course in Potomac. Bethesda Magazine caught up with him just off the practice putting green, preparing to hit a bucket of balls on the driving range. BethesdaMagazine.com | January/February 2016 199

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Place to watch a movie Bethesda Row Cinema

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▼ Pastime Walking his dog, Demi, on the C&O Canal Towpath in Carderock

Why is this golf course one of your favorite places? I’m an avid terrible golfer. I started playing as a young boy, carried my dad’s clubs, and it’s part of what I’d consider to be a family value. It’s great to have a county course like this 10 minutes from home, which is also reasonable. It’s a place for actors to come and sort of unplug for four or five hours and sometimes get some business done, but it’s a humbling game. Any hidden gems in the area you like to frequent that the tourists or even some locals don’t know about? Sycamore Island is a lovely little canoe club on two islands in the Potomac River off MacArthur Boulevard. When we came out here from Capitol Hill in ’93, we got on a wait list. You can store your canoe or your kayak, there’s fishing and a swimming dock. To get there, you have to pull yourself across the Potomac on an old sort of Mark Twain raft. Can you pinpoint when you first got the acting bug? Probably my freshman year in high school. I did a couple of plays in grammar school, Catholic school, but I had this thought early on that I was going to be a priest. I spent a summer in seminary considering that, writing about it, praying about it. And my mother said, ‘God can have you for the rest of your life, I want four years in the public institution.’ So I went to the local high school. It was the last great flowering of art education in the late ’60s, early ’70s. Drama was part of the curriculum. I just found myself at home and I said, ‘This is what I want to do the rest of my life.’ Nobody in your home had come from the acting world? My dad was a union president for 30 years, and Mom was a housekeeper. I felt totally at home as an actor. You

could be part of the team. It wasn’t about where you came from, what your socioeconomic background was. If you had the tenacity and I suppose the audacity to think you could do this, you got to pitch in and play. It was a team sport.

Was there one production that hooked you? It would have to be what I still think is the greatest American Hamlet, certainly in the 20th century. Stacy Keach, James Earl Jones, Colleen Dewhurst and Sam Waterston in Central Park—some of the greatest actors of my generation doing this material. In 1972, just before my 18th birthday, I watched Stacy work. He was enormously physical. I saw a character, and then when he spoke, I understood exactly what he was saying, because it was totally integrated with his body and his physical approach and his intention. So in a great sense, he opened up the language for me. And I went back and saw that production five times. I knew I wanted to be an actor, but I said I want to be like that guy. So that led me towards the classics. How did you end up in D.C.? I went into New York after studying at Montclair State University, 10 miles away from Manhattan. Part of the myth of being an actor is you go to New York to cut your teeth. And I did. I lived there for about seven or eight years. I kept getting work out of town, coming back on unemployment, working as a bartender, as every aspiring actor will do. I was doing a play in 1981 at George Mason University in Virginia, The Corn Is Green, playing a young boy who had a Welsh accent. John Neville-Andrews, the artistic director of the Folger Theatre in Washington, came to opening night and asked if I would like to join his company. I immediately said yes. At the end of the first year I was playing the lead in Henry V.

Photo by Erin Braswell/landmark theatres

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So that invitation to join the Folger company jump-started your career? No question about it. I had been working in several regional theaters and I could have remained in the nomadic life that many actors do, but this afforded me a home base, a sense of permanency in this business. And then, two years later, when it became the Shakespeare Theatre at the Folger and they brought in Michael Kahn, that was a whole quantum leap forward. Stacy Keach arrives, and all of a sudden all these threads start coming together, and this is obviously the place I need to be.

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Was there a moment when you knew you’d stay here for the long term? I vividly remember waking up my first day of work, in my little digs in Abingdon, Virginia, where I was doing summer stock in 1981 at the Barter Theatre, sitting at my table, making a cup of coffee, and the chair across the table was empty. I realized that what I really wanted was balance, that the family values I had grown up with were very important to me. I was always told if you want to be in this business, don’t even think about getting married. Don’t even think about having a family. You have to sacrifice all of that. And I drank the Kool-Aid until that moment, and then thought, wait a minute, maybe that’s not true. Maybe I can do both. And Washington seemed to fit. How is the stage different from Hollywood? We talk about the stage as a place where the actors are in control. Film is a director’s medium, and TV is a writer’s medium. But I remember being on the set for Die Hard 2, real hard chairs with our names and masking tape on the back. The stage manager said, ‘Actors to the set,’ and I stood up, and the actor next to me said, ‘Sit down! You have to wait until a production assistant comes over with a walkie-talkie and walks you to the set.’

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We all got on the set, and then the last person to come on the set was Bruce [Willis]. So suddenly I saw this pecking order. Not only how you show up on the set, but where your trailer is—the further away you are from the lunch wagon, the lower you are in the pecking order. I think it says something about how powerful film is in this country and popular culture. Shakespeare is not part of the popular culture, which is part of the reason why I stayed in Washington— there’s a certain kind of audience here that is very intellectual, and they appreciate the so-called high arts. I remember being on the set of Die Hard and there was some bill that was coming forward in Congress and it was on the front page of the LA Times, and I said to one of the actors, ‘Did you see what happened yesterday in Congress?’ and they looked at me just blankly and turned and walked away. It seemed to be a bit of an intellectual wasteland. The conversation was what 12-step program do you belong to, who’s your shrink, and what car do you drive.

What is it about the Washington theater community that nourishes you? People here are interested in civics and world affairs, and to me, art needs to respond to that. The best art, the most vibrant art, is the art that speaks to the zeitgeist or reflects the zeitgeist. Washington is a community where anything that happens in the world, this is the warehouse, it’s going to pass through here. This is Athens of the modern world. Some might argue that given the kind of press you received and the commercial response to The Originalist, playing Antonin Scalia may be the high-water mark of your career to date. When you were told by playwright John Strand that he had a part in mind for you, and it was Antonin Scalia, what was your first thought? I was shocked, but not surprised. BethesdaMagazine.com | January/February 2016 203

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It had been in the ether. People had said, ‘You’ve done Nixon, you might think about Scalia.’ Scalia? Really fascinating character. Would anybody want to go see him? That was my thought. It was this great character that no one is going to want to see, given the political landscape of my business. To be in Washington, to be talking about a Washington figure to a Washington audience by Washington artists, to be part of a conversation about something that was very provocative, legally, and to have a ringside seat, it was life altering. For the first time, I felt like a bona fide artist citizen. This is as good as it gets, and I hope it gets better. I’m not down-sliding yet.

Describe the day when you witnessed oral arguments on same-sex marriage at the Supreme Court in the morning, and then later that evening played Scalia, sparring onstage on the same issue with his liberal law clerk. The audience that evening was at its peak of attentiveness. They listened to each phrase with an intensity we hadn’t experienced. That level of listening rose to the level of listening in the courtroom earlier that day. The sparring took on seriousness as a result of the audience’s focus that night. That raised our focus. And we didn’t get as many laughs that performance, either. It was all Washington business that night. It was electric. In his dissent in the same-sex marriage case this past term, Justice Scalia wrote that the court had descended “to the mystical aphorisms of the fortune cookie.” During one of your lunches with Justice Scalia as you prepped to play him, you had Chinese food, and his fortune cookie message was more than a bit apt. I’m not sure if the clerk stuffed the fortune cookies. I’ve never seen a fortune cookie with an Oliver Wendell Holmes

quote, and it happened to show up in a luncheon in Justice Scalia’s chambers. It read, ‘The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions.’ I kept it as a souvenir.

I read that your late father had career advice for you. Yeah, he always said I’d be a great lawyer. When you were donning Scalia’s robes on that stage, did you ever think about your dad? Absolutely. ‘I made it, Dad! I’m a Supreme Court justice...not in real life, but I play one on the stage.’ That has a wonderful irony to it. Plus it was the first ItalianAmerican and Roman Catholic role I had done in my career. My whole life experience was brought to the front and utilized. It was very satisfying. Since your families come from the same area of Italy, you may actually share some of Scalia’s DNA. That could very possibly be the case. As he told me, ‘You look like me, but you don’t have the Scalia unibrow.’ And I said, ‘Well, I pluck.’ Despite being in Washington theater all these years, there are still firsts for you. In the spring, you will be making your debut on the Woolly Mammoth stage. I’m going to play a pedophile in The Nether. This is about 180 degrees from Scalia. This is a new play that won an Olivier Award in London two years ago. It’s an argument play, set in the future. At the heart of it is this ethical debate about what’s real. Where does the law meet in a world where the Internet may become total sensate and you can be totally self-absorbed? And can we quarantine people with illnesses like this—do we put a serial killer inside a sensate Internet and let them kill people over and over in their house in that way? Woolly Mammoth is very edgy. They do

new work, they’re trying stuff out that is way out on the fringes, so it will be fun to kind of get out there.

In the fall, you played a down-andout Irish bloke in Conor McPherson’s The Night Alive at Round House Theatre and then returned for a seventh year to Ford’s Theatre as Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. How do you keep that character fresh? It goes back to being a priest. You have to say that Mass every day. I remember when I was an altar boy, Father Callaghan was saying the Mass at 6:30 and barely staying awake, and I thought if you just did it like you believed it, everybody else would. How do you make it fresh? Well you have to listen to the play, and it’s a great story of redemption. It’s Lear redeemed. That’s a great story to tell. It’s been over 350 performances. Sometimes [onstage] when you’re mesmerized by the 10-minute dancing scene unfolding before you, it's hard not to do my grocery list in my head, but listening to the play is the best antidote. At this point in your career, what’s your goal? The goal is to continue to balance a life well lived in work that I love to do, that I feel like I’ve been called to do. And keep learning every day, keep stretching. And hopefully bring the audience something that’s both entertaining and also intellectually captivating. Do you plan to retire anytime soon? I’ve been taking my retirement in threemonth increments since I got here; doing what I love to do and getting summers off. I’d rather travel, as opposed to move. It’s too important a place, too interesting a place, to leave. n Freelance writer Richard Harris (rlharris 05@gmail.com) has lived in Bethesda for 30 years.

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Expansive, light-filled, mid-century gem on quiet culde-sac. Versatile floor plan with 4 bedrooms, 3 baths, spacious chef’s kitchen open to dramatic family room, walkout lower level with family room and office suite. Two decks, patio, fenced yard. Town pool and tennis. Phyllis Wiesenfelder 301.529.3896 PhyllisW@LNF.com

Bethesda/Riverhill

Potomac

$795,000

Meticulously updated, award-winning townhome with renovated granite and stainless kitchen, stepdown living room, office, family room with fireplace, refinished hardwoods on main level, bonus 3rd-floor loft, private brick patio and gardens. Debbie Cohen 202.288.9939 DebbieCohen@msn.com

® ®

$775,000

Beautiful contemporary townhome with lovely courtyard entry and rear deck, all overlooking Potomac Pond! Convenient, one-level living with 2 bedrooms, 2½ baths, high ceilings, wood floors, living room with stone fireplace, great screened porch, attached 2-car garage. Mary Ann Corette 202.256.5501/ CoretteM@aol.com

4650 East West Highway, Bethesda, Maryland | 301.907.7600

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Work with The Best of Bethesda Sharyn Goldman, Your REALTOR® for Life

Buying or Selling Call SHARYN Bethesda/ Woodhaven

For Sale: $1,685,000

10 Year Young Stunning Tudor With Fabulous Designer Finishes

N. Potomac/ Amberlea Farm For Sale: $948,000 Exquisite Colonial With 2 Car Garage And Walkout Basement

Bethesda/ Locust Ridge

Coming Soon

Built In The New Millennium With “Top Of The Line” Perfection

N. Bethesda/ Luxmanor

Expertly Listed And Sold By Sharyn

She Gets Results!

Personalized Service Beyond Expectations!

Sold

301.529.7555 / Cell • 301.907.7600 / Office SharynGoldman.com • Sharyn.Goldman@LNF.com ®

Gorgeous New Homes Bethesda $2,095,000 Breathtaking views of golf course and lake from this exceptional new custom home by Churchill Classics and Studio Z architects on premier halfacre lot. Over 6,500 sq. ft. of upgraded features including 6 bedrooms, 5½ baths, gourmet kitchen, owner’s suite with private balcony, walkout lower level, screened porch, oversized deck, optional elevator!

Top 1% of Long & Foster Agents in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area #2 Top-Producing Team in 2014 #1 Billion Dollar Office

Poolesville from the low $700s Russell Branch Estates, a community of new homes built on sizable lots in the town of Poolesville by award-winning Churchill Classics. Twelve singlefamily homes offering 2 different floor plans with 4-5 bedrooms and many outstanding features and options. Model home available to be toured. Please call for details.

Sondra Mulheron 301.785.9536 smulheron@LNF.com

Pam Schiattareggia 301.802.7796 pam.scat@LNF.com

www.HomesbySondraandPam.com Bethesda Gateway Office 301.907.7600 ®

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Wendy Banner

& The Banner Team ® ®

301.365.9090 | Wendy@BannerTeam.com | www.BannerTeam.com

Potomac

$1,769,000

Bethesda

$1,595,000

Bethesda

$1,445,000

Stunning views of the 15th fairway of TPC at Avenel! Features a NEW roof (2015), updated systems and baths, main level study, spacious rooms and a beautiful two-story great room with stone fireplace. Also includes a finished lower level with exercise and craft room, media room, wet bar and full bath. Gorgeous views from the brick patio and yard!

Expanded and fully renovated home in the heart of Bethesda — walk to all amenities and Metro! Upgrades include timeless gourmet kitchen with state-of-the art appliances adjacent to family room with high ceilings overlooks STUNNING yard with pool, spa, waterfall and fireplace!

Elegant and classical four bedroom Colonial with exceptional grounds! Boasting a gourmet kitchen, oversized dining room, and fireplaces in both the living and family rooms, library, sun room and screened porch! Walkout lower level opens to professionally landscaped yard with in-ground pool lined with trees!

Bethesda

Washington, D.C.

Potomac

Starting at $1,495,000

$1,295,000

$1,265,000

Ten NEW single family homes in Grosvenor Heights by Sandy Spring Builders! Walk to Metro! All include elevators and a 2-car garage, 3 and 4 bedroom plans available. Call us today for an information package! Delivery in 2016!

Beautiful end-unit town home in the Cloisters located in the HEART of Georgetown set on serene courtyard! Features 4 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, gleaming hardwood floors, 2 fireplaces, walk-out lower level to patio and garage plus parking pad!

Updated home on private cul-de-sac off main road! Featuring renovated gourmet kitchen with granite and stainless steel appliances, hardwood floors, all updated baths and more on landscaped lot with deck and 2-car garage!

Potomac

Bethesda

$1,099,000

Spacious townhome in Avenel with wooded/golf course/tennis court views! Featuring hardwood floors, renovated gourmet kitchen with granite and stainless steel appliances, family room with fireplace and access to porch. Spacious owner’s suite, finished loft with bed/ craft room and walkout lower level on landscaped lot with screen porch and patio!

$999,000

Spacious townhome in Avenel with stunning golf course views! Renovated baths and owner’s suite with loft/sitting room and fireplace! Landscaped lot with 3-season porch, owner’s porch, Georgetown style patio and 2-car garage.

$998,888

Updated Colonial on cul-de-sac in Al Marah! About 4,500 square feet on half acre in Whitman school district. Huge owner’s suite with dressing area and luxurious bath, updated kitchen, three baths up, four fireplaces, upgraded HVAC, and large deck overlooks private yard. MUST SEE!

4650 East West Highway, Bethesda, Maryland | 301.907.7600

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10603 Rivers Bend Court, Potomac $2,295,000 Magnificent Toll Brothers estate home with 4-car garage.

10302 Lloyd Road, Potomac $895,000 Expansive rambler on private, treed acre adjacent to parkland.

IN M CO ! ON SO

301.775.4196 #1 Billion Dollar Bethesda Gateway Office | 301.907.7600 (O) Licensed in MD | DC | VA | MargieHalem@LongandFoster.com Please view our listings at www.MargieHalemGroup.com.

11513 Twining Lane, Potomac $1,575,000 Decorator showcase on 1 acre with pool in sought-after community.

Margie Halem Recognized by THE WALL STREET JOURNAL as one of America’s Top Real Estate Agents

One Level Living at its Finest!

Becky Helman

Wendy Lord

SPECIAL FEATURES ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆

Beautiful contemporary home on private one-acre lot Open kitchen with separate dining and family room Oversized living room — great for entertaining Dining room comfortably seats 10 Double-sided gas fireplace in living and family rooms Master suite with loft, gas fireplace and 2 walk-in closets and second laundry 5 additional generous-sized bedrooms, 3 baths Patio and great outdoor space with fenced backyard, full-size swimming pool and jacuzzi in a private setting Extra deep 3-car garage Lower-level with large shelved storage space and entrance to pool and garage

Becky Helman 301.437.1901 ◆ BHelman@LNF.com Wendy Lord 301.789.8114 ◆ Wendy.Lord@LNF.com 301.469.4700 Cabin John Office

Call for an appointment!

HELLO ◆

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Helman and Lord — Offering a Personal Touch to Real Estate

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00,000

mporary imming na, too!

Miller Bethesda All Points Office

4701 Sangamore Road Bethesda, MD 301.229.4000

#1 W.C. & A.N. Miller Realtors® Office • #10 Long & Foster Office for 2014 JOAN NORRIS

SHARRON COCHRAN

301•602•5017 • Joan.Norris@LongandFoster.com Licensed in MD and DC

301.351.4517 • SCochran@LNF.com www.SCochran.com

BRINGING YOU EXTENSIVE KNOWLEDGE OF OUR NEIGHBORHOODS

• Realty Alliance Award Recipient, Top 5 Percent North America

• Native Washingtonian • 37 Years of Real Estate Experience • First-time Buyers, Downsizing, Estates I look forward to hearing you say: “I didn’t know it could go so smoothly!”

• SRES (Seniors Real Estate Specialist) • Staging, marketing, and negotiation expert

Let my experience work for you! Licensed in MD, DC & VA

MARY LOU DELL

301.404.5554

●

And watch me periodically News on Now TV at Noon talking about our local real estate market. Licensed in MD & DC

301.325.2965 • Vicki.Porter@LNF.com Licensed in DC, MD & VA

301.706.3151 ● Walsh.Richards@LongandFoster.com Licensed in DC, MD & VA

I’d love to work with you. Call me when you’re ready to buy or sell.

VICKI PORTER

WALSH RICHARDS

MaryLouDell@aol.com ● ●

●

Innovative Marketing Expert Your Montgomery County Expert raised in Bethesda ● Helping buyers and sellers make their real estate dreams come true! ● SRES (Senior Real Estate Specialist) experienced in down-sizing ● Call Vicki for the real estate results you desire!

Results driven Native Washingtonian committed to finding you the perfect home. Professional and personal level of service Over 45 years of diverse commercial and residential real estate experience to help you throughout the selling and buying process.

● ●

www.VickiPorter.net

Vacations are a special time to relax and get

Call your local Long & Foster office today.

away from it all. That’s why you want to make sure your vacation is the best it can be — by relying on the experience and expertise of the Long & Foster Vacation Rental team. When you’re ready to get away, call our vacation property experts at your desired destination.

Annapolis, MD 410.260.2802

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Wildwood Crest, NJ 609.729.8840

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Miller Bethesda All Points Office

4701 Sangamore Road Bethesda, MD 301.229.4000

#1 W.C. & A.N. Miller Realtors® Office • #10 Long & Foster Office for 2014 KAT CONLEY WITOWSKI 301.943.3865 (C) • 301.229.4000 (O)

Licensed in DC, MD and VA 2011 Realty Alliance Award Recipient Top 5% of REALTORS®, North America Call Kat for any of your real estate needs!

ANNE & LAURA EMMETT Anne: 301.466.2515 • Anne.Emmett@LNF.com Laura: 202.422.6374 • Laura.Emmett@LNF.com Licensed in DC, MD & VA

#2 Team Miller Bethesda Office • Anne & Laura call Bethesda home! It is our pleasure to work with our friends and neighbors. • We are a full service real estate team and can guide you through complex transactions. We take pride in maximizing profit and minimizing stress! • Gibson Island Real Estate Expertise • Anne, M.A.E., Stanford University; Laura, J.D., Georgetown University

Thank You for Another Record Breaking Year!

Happy New Year!

Susan Sanford

VP, Managing Broker ssanford@LNF.com Office Direct: 301.320.8300

202-236-1511 • Toya@LNF.com Licensed in DC, MD & VA

UNDER CONTRACT IN 1 DAY!

301.785.7966 • Ted.Duncan@LongandFoster.com Licensed in DC & MD #4 Individual Agent Miller Bethesda Office #9 Individual Agent Companywide #6 Individual Agent Companywide (volume) • Exceptional knowledge and ability serving Sellers and Buyers • Unparalleled home pricing • Outstanding Negotiator • Service well beyond expectations

LYNN A. STEWART

TOYA GIACOMINI

Contact me today to learn more about how our award winning programs will help you with your real estate needs.

TED DUNCAN

Your River Falls REALTOR® presents this 5 bedroom, 4.5 bath Colonial that is completely renovated and updated. New hardwood floors grace both main and upper floors, updated kitchen, new windows, roof and HVAC make this a true turnkey home. If you are interested in River Falls; please call Ted for exclusive listings.

ANDY ALDERDICE

301.580.4552 • Lynn@LynnStewartSells.com Licensed in DC, MD & VA

• Helping you open your next door • Call me to start planning your move • Senior Residential Specialist (SRES) with a focus on “Right-Sizing” • Certified Negotiation Expert (CNE) & Top Producing Listing Agent • Bethesda Residential Specialist & Expert Buyers Agent in MD & DC • Local Resident & Neighbor

We look forward to working with you in 2016!

Thanks for making 2015 our best year yet!

A 5th generation Washingtonian assisting many MD, DC and VA residents in the sale and/or purchase of their first and subsequent homes since 1994. Call her to schedule a private consultation. 301.466.5898 / 301.229.4000 andy4homes@gmail.com • www.andy4homes.com R T D E AC UNNTR CO

Wishing you a prosperous 2016!

• Excellent Professional Service and Commitment • Fluent in Spanish and French • 25+ Years of Experience

Bethesda, Maryland

$985,000

This gracious 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath Colonial features gorgeous, random-width hardwood flooring throughout, expansive rooms for entertaining and a spectacular oneacre lot.

Rockville, Maryland

$749,900

Handsome 4 bedroom, 2 full bath, 2 half bath Colonial located in the fantastic Old Farm neighborhood. This home features hardwood flooring, an expanded lower level, family room with fireplace, eat-in kitchen, and even a bedroom level laundry room.

Call Our Award-Winning Managing Broker Susan Sanford to find out why top producing and new agents join our office and choose to stay! 301.320.8300 | ssanford@longandfoster.com

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December 2015 By Jeffrey S. Detwiler, President and Chief Operating Officer, The Long & Foster Companies

Balanced Housing Market Predicted in 2016

Last year brought steady improvements in the real estate market. Prices rose driven by lower inventory in many markets, and consumers remained relatively optimistic about the economy and its directionâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;an encouraging indicator for real estate. While the longanticipated increase in interest rates will likely occur in 2016, a number of positive signs point to a balanced market with benefits for both homebuyers and sellers in the next year. For example, an increased supply of inventory and slightly more transactions are expected in 2016. Home prices are forecasted to see modest improvements as well.

Interest rates remain low with housing still very affordable Historically low interest rates have remained in place the past few years, adding to the affordability of homes. While the Federal Reserve has indicated that short-term interest rates will be raised as the economy improves, economists expect mortgage rates to rise minimally over the next year. Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, for example, has said that he expects mortgage rates to stay under 5 percent for most of 2016.(1) As an example, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d pay $141.75 more per month on a $300,000 loan if the interest rate increased from 4.0 percent (the average for third quarter 2015) to 4.8 percent (the forecasted rate for fourth quarter of 2016).(2) Yet while higher interest rates will lead to higher monthly mortgage payments, many borrowers arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t concerned about the increases unless rates pass the 6 percent threshold, according to a recent study by Trulia.(3)

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First-time buyers on the rise First-time buyers play a critical role in driving the real estate market forward, and 2016 is well positioned to see a rise in these first timers. While the current percentage of first-time buyers is below the historic average of about 40 percent, it is continuing to rise. Further, first-time buyers were estimated to have driven 45 percent of the growth in sales in the past year.(4) With rents continuing to climb in most housing markets and prices increasing, first-time buyers will be motivated to make the move in 2016. Additionally, while home prices have increased, financing costs remain low, making homeownership more appealing to first-time buyers.

Credit restrictions to loosen up An obstacle for many would-be buyers earlier this decade was the difficulty of qualifying for a home loan or saving sufficient funds for a down payment and closing costs. Some new loan programs, though, allow buyers, particularly firsttimers, to make a down payment as low as 3 percent of the purchase price. In addition, tweaks to lending standards are beginning to encourage lenders to be more lenient with borrowers. While good credit and a reasonable debt-toincome ratio are mandatory for a loan approval, borrowers may be surprised in the coming year to find that they can qualify for a mortgage more easily than in past years. If you’ve made the decision to buy, sell or move up into your next home, Long & Foster Real Estate offers multiple services that can help you find, finance and insure your home. Representatives of Prosperity Home Mortgage are available in most Long & Foster offices to assist prospective buyers with financing. A professional Realtor can work with first-time buyers and more experienced buyers for a smooth transition. In addition, Long & Foster agents have a range of contractors they can recommend to provide home maintenance service to buyers and sellers before and after they buy a home. 1. Northern Virginia Association of Realtors Economic Summit, Sept. 9 2. Mortgage Bankers Association, Mortgage Finance Forecast, November 2015, and Bankrate.com mortgage calculator to estimate the monthly payments 3. Trulia, Americans NOT Too Worried About Rising Mortgage Rates, Sept. 17 4. Consumer Affairs, Where did the first-time homebuyers go?, Oct. 26

About the author Jeffrey S. Detwiler is president and chief operating officer of The Long & Foster® Companies, parent company to Long & Foster Real Estate, Inc., the largest family-owned real estate company in the United States, and Prosperity Home Mortgage. From extensive, neighborhood-level market information to Long & Foster’s core services companies — providing mortgage, settlement, insurance and property management services in a streamlined manner — Long & Foster offers the services necessary to make today’s real estate transactions manageable for owners and investors.

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We Make Your Home Beautiful.

Photograph Courtesy of © Thibaut Inc.

Custom Draperies

Hunter Douglas Shades

Reupholstery

The Area’s

Premier

Showroom for

Photograph Courtesy of © Thibaut Inc.

Custom Draperies, Hunter Douglas

Shades, Slipcovers, Reupholstery,

Bed Ensembles,

Wall Paper, Fabrics, Trims, Pillows and

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5414 Randolph Road • Rockville www.RockvilleInteriors.com • 301.424.1900 Come and See our Custom Workroom at our Store.

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interior design. architecture. home sales.

Photo by Raquel Langworthy; Photo styling by Charlotte Safavi

home

Playful pieces, including this fish vase, abound in the bedrooms and playroom of local artist Malia Stenersonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s daughters. For more, see page 220.

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home | house appropriations 3

Tile With Style Design experts agree that itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s better to stick with neutral colors and simple profiles for big-ticket kitchen items, such as cabinets and countertops. But backsplash tile is the place to display some personality or even experiment with a trendy shape or color. We scoured the local marketplace to find these products that might strike your fancy. By Carolyn Weber

Modern and retro at the same time, penny round tiles have timeless appeal. These little glazed porcelain gems from Daltile come in 12-by-12-inch sheets with 13 color choices and cost $14.98 per square foot. Find them at Unique Tile & Marble Center in Rockville (301-230-1425; uniquetileand marblecenter.com).

2. GRACEFUL CIRCLES

Go for glamour with these glossy, 15-by15-inch tiles inspired by Art Deco and Hollywood Regency. The Paramount pattern from Walker Zanger features interlocking circles; is available in four colors, including Clover, pictured; and is priced at $81.70 per square foot through Architectural Ceramics in Chevy Chase (301-718-8343; architectural ceramics.com) and Rockville (301-251-3555; architecturalceramics.com).

3. SOPHISTICATED SPIRALS

Metal lends shimmer and shine to a kitchen, and balances out warm wood tones. Stylish circular patterns from Crossville also provide an element of texture. The squares are available in a wide range of sizes and are $71.04 per square foot through Mosaic Tile in Rockville (301-881-2520; mosaictileco. com).

courtesy photos

1. DOT-TO - DOT

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4. FLOWER POWER

Add vintage Mediterranean charm with a mix of floral and geometric designs. The Barcelona ceramic wall tiles come in 12-by-35-inch sheets that are 1/4-inch thick, in black-and-gray and shades of blue for $12.95 per square foot at Porcelanosa in North Bethesda (240-290-1120; porcelanosa.com).

5. DOUBLE DUTY

For those torn between sleek, modern glass and earthy, natural stone, fret no more. The Westhampton mosaic mix blends the two materials in neutral tones from dark chocolate to pale cream. The combinations of narrow, horizontal tiles are sold in 12-by12-inch sheets for $19.99 per square foot at The Tile Shop in Rockville (301-610-5070; tileshop.com).

6. A WALL OF WOW

A tile mural can be a fabulous focal point over a range or wet-bar area. This climbing vine mosaic design is customizable with any glass or stone colors. The cost, as shown, with aquamarine and quartz jewel glass, is $191.25 per square foot at Architectural Ceramics in Chevy Chase (301-718-8343; architecturalceramics. com) and Rockville (301-251-3555; architec turalceramics.com). n

Carolyn Weber lives in Silver Spring and frequently writes about architecture and home design. BethesdaMagazine.com | january/february 2016 219

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child’s play With the help of a designer, a local artist used bold color and whimsical touches to create unique spaces for her two young daughters By Charlotte Safavi

Artist Malia Stenerson has a playful streak— and not only when it comes to the vivid abstract canvases she paints. “Play is a driving force in how I live my life,” she says. “I wear hats and fascinators, costume jewelry, lots of color and expressive makeup. I believe how we dress and interact with the world should be playful.” This philosophy extends to her family’s Chevy Chase home, where she lives with her husband, Todd, and their daughters Journey, 6, and Skylar, 4. The house isn’t just filled with Stenerson’s colorful art—you’ll also find real toys used as home accessories (including a glass kaleidoscope and an oversize Slinky) plus an array of whimsical furnishings, such as an antique gumball machine in the foyer. When Stenerson decided to decorate her daughters’ bedrooms and shared playroom in 2013, she turned to designer Regan Billingsley of Kensington. Like Stenerson, Billingsley graduated from Pratt Institute in New York, a private college with programs in art, design and architecture. The plan was to transform the builder-grade finished attic into a lively, inspirational playroom, while turning the girls’ bedrooms into quiet, serene spaces that they could grow into.

interior room Photos by Raquel Langworthy; room styling by Charlotte Safavi; mom and daughters’ photo by stacy zarin-goldberg

home

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interior room Photos by Raquel Langworthy; room styling by Charlotte Safavi; mom and daughtersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; photo by stacy zarin-goldberg

Malia Stenerson enjoys the circusthemed playroom created for her daughters, Skylar, left, and Journey.

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home

a day at the circus Stenerson remembers going to the circus for the first time with her mom when she was 8 years old. “It seemed so powerful and big,” she says. “It captured a spark of imagination for me, and it stayed.” The vibrant playroom that Billingsley designed was inspired by Stenerson’s love of the circus, as well as her collection of vintage circus toys.

Tip: Create zones within the space

Although the space is full of areas to play and have fun in, Stenerson made sure to incorporate quieter spots, as well, such as the window seat, which can act as a reading nook. “The girls can read, or stare at the stars at night, or simply watch people on the sidewalk outside,” she says.

“We needed places for the adults to sit when the kids were having play dates,” Billingsley says of the American Leather sofa in fuchsia. A customdesigned Lucite table by Plexi-Craft is filled with pom-poms—proof that playful touches can be incorporated into unexpected places.

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Photos by Raquel Langworthy; Photo styling by Charlotte Safavi

The playroom’s palette was drawn from a colorful striped Ikea rug that used to be in Stenerson’s art studio. A custom seat cushion in pearl vinyl with a candy-striped trim was added to an existing window seat. On top is a mass of playful pillows: Ruffled, edged in pom-pom trim or fringed, the pillows are in a variety of vibrant hues and can move around easily to other seating areas within the room. Billingsley also brought in Meaghan McNamara of Kensington’s McNamara Design to create a “circus tent” by painting a rainbow of stripes beneath the eaves. In addition to fitting in with the theme, the painted ceiling and the vintage disco ball that hangs from it designate an area for performances. Textured green and fuchsia felt, purchased at www. fabric.com, frames the “stage.” When the girls don’t feel like performing, they pull in a table and chairs from Ikea.

A green leather chair and ottoman from CB2 and a yellow velvet lounger purchased at Ikea provide comfortable seating for grown-ups watching the show. Vintage marqueestyle lights spell out “PLAY” and double as wall art. Hooks mounted on the wall hold costumes.

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home

sweet dreams For the bedrooms, Billingsley set out to create calm and pretty spaces that the girls wouldn’t outgrow too quickly. “Even though I predominantly used pink, I worked in grays and charcoals to make the baby pinks more sophisticated,” she says. Though the rooms are different, the shared palette ties them together.

The Roman shades and the floor lamp are trimmed with crystal beads while the drapes hang from Lucite curtain rods. The overall effect? The space feels more grown-up than girly.

Photos by Raquel Langworthy; Photo styling by Charlotte Safavi

In Skylar’s room, a table from Serena & Lily brings subtle pattern and texture to the space. The mirrored jewelry box reflects light and adds a touch of glamour.

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To soften the hard edges of Skylar’s bed, Billingsley added sheer linen drapes with pink ties to each of its four posts. The wall behind the bed was painted strawberry pink, and a trundle bed—perfect for sleepovers—tucks neatly underneath. In the corner of the room, a pale pink linen armchair from Restoration Hardware sits next to botanical-print drapes in a fabric from Elizabeth Aiken. Billingsley edged them in a girly grosgrain ribbon, which can be removed when Skylar gets older.

There’s a hint of the circus in the wood carnival horse sculpture that sits atop Skylar’s chest of drawers, which came from Restoration Hardware.

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home

Journey’s bedroom has a woodsy bunk bed from Restoration Hardware, with an upper bunk for corralling favorite stuffed animals, hosting sleepovers or spending quiet time reading alone. A faux antique mirrored vanity in a corner of the bedroom adds shine and serves as a practical place to experiment with jewelry and makeup as Journey gets older. The wall behind it is painted in pink and white stripes that are edged in charcoal. The curtains in this room have a petite geometric print that’s edgier than those in Skylar’s room, though Billingsley softened them with a pink grosgrain ribbon trim.

Photos by Raquel Langworthy; Photo styling by Charlotte Safavi

The mercury glass lamp base, mirrored vanity and Venetian-style mirror bounce light around the room, making it feel larger.

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Photos by Raquel Langworthy; Photo styling by Charlotte Safavi

The bottom bunk, where Journey sleeps, has pink and gray bedding along with a custom-made lumbar pillow. To the left, a mirrored chest from Pottery Barn adds a touch of bling.

Tip: think creatively about art

Rather than buying traditional art, Billingsley had a custom woodcut monogram made for each girl’s room. “They added individual personality,” she says.

Charlotte Safavi is a freelance writer and stylist who lives in Alexandria, Virginia. BethesdaMagazine.com | january/february 2016 227

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home

Bathing Beauties Inside three gorgeous master bathroom renovations

photo by justin tsucalas

By Jennifer Barger

228 January/February 2016 | BethesdaMagazine.com

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Ingrid Smith brought a boho-chic vibe to the master bath of her Chevy Chase, D.C., home.

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home

Natural Beauty designer Leslie Roosevelt of Gilday Renovations, the Silver Spring-based firm the couple hired to renovate the space in 2013. “Leslie had recently helped us redo our kitchen in a clean contemporary style, and we wanted to bring our bath in line,” Claudia says. On

their wish list were calming colors, a smaller tub and a private toilet area. Roosevelt considered expanding the space to improve the room’s flow, but in the end, clever features such as a floating vanity and a walk-in shower fronted with clear glass kept the space feeling—and living—large.

“The original shower was a two-headed one, which sounds romantic, but it wasn’t very practical,” Dan says. In addition, the entrance to the old metal-framed shower was directly across from the toilet, making it awkward to enter and hampering privacy. Roosevelt replaced the shower with a larger walk-in version that’s lined with Daltile porcelain tile that looks like marble. “Now it feels very open, and when you walk into the room, your eye doesn’t stop because of the clear glass,” Roosevelt says.

photos by morgan howarth

Claudia and Dan Esposito loved their spacious midcentury house in a wooded section of Potomac. But their master bathroom, while large, smacked of the 1970s. “It was terribly dated stylistically, with laminate counters in a dusty rose hue and a huge tub surround,” says

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Resale Tip: Go Neutral The previous bath was dated (and, thanks to its pink countertops, full of too much personality). Now, with its natural tones and classic cabinetry, the new master bath has a cohesive, timeless feel. “It’ll appeal to the masses if we resell,” Dan says.

The old bathroom lacked storage, so Roosevelt incorporated multiple alder cabinets into her design, including a tall one in the center of the double vanity. “It’s their version of a medicine cabinet,” she says. Two features near the sink trick the eye into thinking the room is larger than it is: unframed vanity mirrors reflect more light than framed versions, and a floating vanity gives the illusion of more floor space.

Roosevelt replaced the old tub, which had a huge tile surround, with an oval model by Hydro Systems. The perimeter of the new curved tub features small, slate tiles from Daltile. “We considered covering it in marble, but this tile has no maintenance and was moderately priced,” Roosevelt says. An oil painting that was a gift from Claudia’s parents hangs over the tub. BethesdaMagazine.com | January/February 2016 231

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home

Boho Chic Before moving to Chevy Chase, D.C., Ingrid Smith and her father restored an early 20th century Brooklyn, New York, row house, putting in a country-cool kitchen, adding a roof deck and rehabbing the façade. “I love a fixer-upper, so when I moved to D.C. and started a family, I decided to do it again,” says the lawyer by day, amateur interior

designer by night. When she and her husband, Gerardo Lapetina, bought their 1936 colonial in 2007, the couple knew they wanted to expand the midsize home to make more room for themselves and twins Charlie and Cecilia, now 9 years old. The 2011 renovation that Smith planned with help from contractor Jose Villalta-Claros of JVC Con-

struction added a sizable master bath. “Before, our master bath was essentially a closet,” Smith says. Working with Villalta-Claros, she incorporated exotic elements and vintage touches. Now the space, like the rest of her house, reads as boho-yet-functional—think a sleeker Anthropologie catalog come to life.

Designer Tip: Pay Attention to the details

Smith traveled to Turkey after graduating from law school, and she fell in love with the many colorful bathrooms she saw there. “Incorporating Turkish tile became an obsession,” she says. The new blue and white tiles on the wall and in the shower complement and play off of the simpler white tiles on the floor. An antique claw-foot tub, scored for $200 on Craigslist, is a nod to the home’s age. “When I’m in here, I feel like I’m somewhere else,” Smith says. “It’s exotic.”

photos by justin tsucalas

Smith and VillaltaClaros used river rocks on the bottom of the walk-in shower. “I love the way they feel on your feet,” Smith says. “It’s very spa-like.”

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The funky pendant light over the tub? It’s vintage, and Smith purchased it for $35 on eBay. “I like older fixtures because they’re more interesting and attractive than ones you find in stores now,” says Smith, who suggests looking for vintage pieces at estate sales. She liked this fixture’s pale blue shade, and thought its 60s vibe provided a nice contrast to the tub and Turkish tile.

Smith bought the dark wood vanity and matching storage cabinet on eBay, pairing the vanity with Venetian-style mirrors from Lowe’s. “We spent a bunch of time measuring what would and wouldn’t fit, and these pieces really utilize the space,” Villalta-Claros says. “You have to maximize the floor plan in these older homes, even with an addition.”

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home

Just Like Paris modern? I wanted that,” she says. After admiring a Euro-sleek bathroom by Case Design/Remodeling at a show house, Lyons enlisted the help of the Bethesda-based firm. Project developers Colleen Shaut and John Audet suggested a slight expansion of the space’s footprint by taking over a linen closet in the bedroom. Lyons’ large walk-in closet became part of the room, too, thanks to frosted-glass French doors that separate it from the bathroom and create a getting-ready suite.

Resale Tip: Incorporate a tub

Lyons wanted a true water closet—a separate toilet room with a mini sink for washing her hands. Inside, an 8-inch-deep medicine cabinet provides storage, while a frostedglass pocket door keeps the enclosed space as sunny as the bathroom beyond. “Frosted glass feels so organic and light,” Shaut says.

Shaut says many potential homebuyers feel strongly about having a bathtub in their master bathroom, so she often advises against creating a master suite with only a shower.

courtesy of case design/remodeling

Tamara Lyons’ Darnes town house reminds her of the good times spent there with her late husband, Brian, and her now 9-year-old son, Asher. “But the master bathroom was so dreary,” she says. “It had Formica countertops that always looked dirty, and a giant two-person tub that was like the world’s most expensive drying rack.” So Lyons decided to transform her master bath in 2014. “You know how you walk into the bathroom at a fancy hotel, and it’s so clean, white and

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Custom mirrored cabinets, marble-look ceramic tiles laid in a herringbone pattern and a Sherwin-Williams pale blue-green paint called “glimmer” on the walls help create an “are we in Paris?” vibe. A walk-in shower and a dramatic (but smaller) freestanding tub by Victoria + Albert both boast views of the tree-filled property. “We wanted it bright, and the mirrors help reflect the light from outside so well,” Shaut says.

To achieve the herringbone floor, Case fabricators cut 18-inch-square “Carrera Mist” matte tiles from Architectural Ceramics into 6-by18-inch rectangles. “The pattern ends up nicely balancing the feminine-modern look of the room,” Shaut says. “It was more work, but worth it for the effect.” Radiant heating installed under the tiles ups the luxe factor. “My cats love to sleep on it,” Lyons says with a laugh. n BethesdaMagazine.com | January/February 2016 235

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by the numbers

Data provided by

Octoberâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Most Expensive t A peek a the some of d sol recently around houses the area

Home Sales

Sale Price:

$2.5 million List Price: $2.8 million

courtesy of Michael Burns

Address: 5310 Chamberlin Ave., Chevy Chase 20815 Days on Market: 96 Listing Agent: Michael Burns, RE/MAX Allegiance Bedrooms: 6, Full/half baths: 5/1

$3.7 million List Price: $4 million

Address: 4929 Glenbrook Road NW, Washington, D.C. 20016 Days on Market: 461 Listing Agent: William F.X. Moody, Washington Fine Properties Bedrooms: 6, Full/half baths: 8/1 Sale Price:

$3 million

List Price: $2.9 million

Sale Price:

$1.8 million List Price: $1.8 million

courtesy photo

Address: 5404 Harwood Road, Bethesda 20814 Days on Market: 7 Listing Agent: Michelle Gerald, Weichert Bedrooms: 5, Full/half baths: 4/1

Address: 5032 Fulton St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20016 Days on Market: 21 Listing Agent: Roby Thompson, Long & Foster Real Estate Bedrooms: 6, Full/half baths: 6/2 Sale Price:

$2.7 million List Price: $2.7 million

Address: 5111 Wessling Lane, Bethesda 20814 Days on Market: 0 Listing Agent: Jane Fairweather, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Bedrooms: 5, Full/half baths: 5/1 Sale Price:

$2.2 million Sale Price:

$1.7 million List Price: $1.9 million

courtesy photo

Address: 10817 Alloway Drive, Potomac 20854 Days on Market: 63 Listing Agent: Marc Fleisher, Long & Foster Real Estate Bedrooms: 5, Full/half baths: 4/2

List Price: $2.3 million

Address: 5188 Palisade Lane NW, Washington, D.C. 20016 Days on Market: 9 Listing Agent: Debra Singleton, DC Living Real Estate Bedrooms: 5, Full/half baths: 5/0 Sale Price:

$2 million

List Price: $2.1 million

Address: 8211 Custer Road, Bethesda 20817 236 january/february 2016 | BethesdaMagazine.com

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by the numbers Days on Market: 26 Listing Agent: Phyllis Michaels, Long & Foster Real Estate Bedrooms: 7, Full/half baths: 5/1 Sale Price:

$1.8 million List Price: $1.9 million

Address: 3707 Morrison St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20015 Days on Market: 34 Listing Agent: Lucy Hassell, Long & Foster Real Estate Bedrooms: 7, Full/half baths: 5/1 Sale Price:

$1.8 million List Price: $1.8 million

Address: 6101 Kirby Road, Bethesda 20817 Days on Market: 112 Listing Agent: Greta Nicoletti, Long & Foster Real Estate Bedrooms: 6, Full/half baths: 5/1 Sale Price:

$1.8 million List Price: $1.8 million

Address: 141 Grafton St., Chevy Chase 20815 Days on Market: 0 Listing Agent: Shelley Gold, Compass Bedrooms: 4, Full/half baths: 4/1 Sale Price:

$1.7 million List Price: $1.8 million

Address: 9000 Fernwood Road, Bethesda 20817 Days on Market: 514 Listing Agent: Barbara Casper, Long & Foster Real Estate Bedrooms: 5, Full/half baths: 8/1 Sale Price:

$1.7 million List Price: $1.7 million

Address: 3310 Rittenhouse St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20015 Days on Market: 12 Listing Agent: Claudia Donovan, TTR Sothebyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s International Realty Bedrooms: 4, Full/half baths: 3/1

List Price: $1.7 million

Sale Price:

Address: 7604 Holiday Terrace, Bethesda 20817 Days on Market: 99 Listing Agent: Bradley Rozansky, Long & Foster Real Estate Bedrooms: 6, Full/half baths: 4/2

$1.6 million List Price: $1.6 million

Address: 5949 Searl Terrace, Bethesda 20816 Days on Market: 4 Listing Agent: Josette Skilling, Keller Williams Capital Properties Bedrooms: 6, Full/half baths: 4/3

Sale Price:

$1.6 million List Price: $1.6 million

Address: 4845 Loughboro Road NW, Washington, D.C. 20016 Days on Market: 124 Listing Agent: Daryl Judy, Washington Fine Properties Bedrooms: 5, Full/half baths: 3/1 Sale Price:

$1.6 million List Price: $1.7 million

Address: 4984 Rockwood Parkway, Washington, D.C. 20016 Days on Market: 138 Listing Agent: Joanne Pinover, Washington Fine Properties Bedrooms: 4, Full/half baths: 4/1

Sale Price:

$1.6 million

Your dreams Your success Your life

Sale Price:

$1.5 million List Price: $1.5 million

Address: 11724 Lake Potomac Drive, Potomac 20854 Days on Market: 5 Listing Agent: Marjorie Halem, Long & Foster Real Estate Bedrooms: 6, Full/half baths: 6/1 Sale Price:

$1.5 million List Price: $1.5 million

Address: 3414 Newark St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20016 Days on Market: 0 Listing Agent: Margot Wilson,

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7008 Bradley Boulevard in Bethesda, MD 238 january/february 2016 | BethesdaMagazine.com

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Deb Levy and Lisa Bennett

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by the numbers Washington Fine Properties Bedrooms: 5, Full/half baths: 2/0 Sale Price:

$1.5 million List Price: $1.5 million

Address: 9201 Vendome Drive, Bethesda 20817 Days on Market: 97 Listing Agent: Traudel Lange, Washington Fine Properties Bedrooms: 6, Full/half baths: 5/2 Sale Price:

$1.4 million List Price: $1.6 million

Address: 9737 Beman Woods Way, Potomac 20854 Days on Market: 149 Listing Agent: Anne Killeen, Washington Fine Properties Bedrooms: 5, Full/half baths: 4/1 Sale Price:

$1.4 million List Price: $1.5 million

Address: 5315 42nd St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20015

Selling

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Days on Market: 48 Listing Agent: Guy-Didier Godat, Evers & Company Real Estate Bedrooms: 5, Full/half baths: 5/1 Sale Price:

$1.4 million List Price: $1.4 million

Address: 5228 Elliott Road, Bethesda 20816 Days on Market: 7 Listing Agent: Sharron Cochran, W.C. & A.N. Miller Realtors Bedrooms: 5, Full/half baths: 3/1 Sale Price:

$1.4 million List Price: $1.5 million

Address: 11717 Centurion Way, Potomac 20854 Days on Market: 46 Listing Agent: Sharon Mulholland, Mulholland Realty Bedrooms: 6, Full/half baths: 4/2 Sale Price:

$1.4 million List Price: $1.5 million

the

Address: 5001 Sedgwick St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20016 Days on Market: 15 Listing Agent: Kimberly Gibson, Washington Fine Properties Bedrooms: 6, Full/half baths: 6/1 Sale Price:

$1.4 million List Price: $1.4 million

Address: 3205 Morrison St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20015 Days on Market: 45 Listing Agent: Marilyn Charity, Washington Fine Properties Bedrooms: 6, Full/half baths: 4/1 Sale Price:

$1.4 million List Price: $1.4 million

Address: 12308 Greenbriar Branch Drive, Potomac 20854 Days on Market: 73 Listing Agent: Michael Rose, Rory S. Coakley Realty Bedrooms: 5, Full/half baths: 5/1 Sale Price:

$1.3 million

List Price: $1.4 million

Address: 10004 Broad St., Bethesda 20814 Days on Market: 62 Listing Agent: Jeremy Lichtenstein, RE/MAX Realty Services Bedrooms: 5, Full/half baths: 4/1 Sale Price:

$1.3 million List Price: $1.4 million

Address: 11300 Spur Wheel Lane, Potomac 20854 Days on Market: 107 Listing Agent: J Montalvan, Keller Williams Capital Properties Bedrooms: 6, Full/half baths: 6/1 Sale Price:

$1.3 million List Price: $1.3 million

Address: 5615 Oak Place, Bethesda 20817 Days on Market: 122 Listing Agent: Stephen Schuck, Long & Foster Real Estate Bedrooms: 6, Full/half baths: 5/1 Note: Some sale and list prices have been rounded off.

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by the numbers

Real Estate Trends (by zip code )

october 2014

october 2015

20015 (Upper NW D.C.) Number of Homes Sold Average Sold Price Average Days on Market Above Asking Price Below Asking Price Sold Over $1 Million

15 $1 Mil. 15 7 4 6

october 2014

october 2015

20818 (Cabin John) 11 $1.2 Mil. 24 3 5 8

20016 (Upper NW D.C.)

Number of Homes Sold Average Sold Price Average Days on Market Above Asking Price Below Asking Price Sold Over $1 Million

october 2014

october 2015

20854 (Potomac) 3 2 $1 Mil. $837,500 40 60 0 0 2 1 1 1

Number of Homes Sold 31 24 Average Sold Price $1.2 Mil. $948,166 Average Days on Market 100 58 Above Asking Price 4 4 Below Asking Price 23 19 Sold Over $1 Million 17 10

20832 (Olney)

20855 (Rockville)

Number of Homes Sold 16 15 Average Sold Price $566,787 $504,108 Average Days on Market 72 75 Above Asking Price 1 3 Below Asking Price 12 10 Sold Over $1 Million 1 0

Number of Homes Sold 11 10 Average Sold Price $527,675 $503,700 Average Days on Market 91 69 Above Asking Price 4 1 Below Asking Price 6 7 Sold Over $1 Million 0 0

20850 (Rockville)

20877 (Gaithersburg)

Number of Homes Sold 14 12 Average Sold Price $608,886 $630,333 Average Days on Market 95 57 Above Asking Price 2 3 Below Asking Price 11 9 Sold Over $1 Million 1 2

Number of Homes Sold 12 7 Average Sold Price $370,908 $329,043 Average Days on Market 86 58 Above Asking Price 1 2 Below Asking Price 9 4 Sold Over $1 Million 0 0

20815 (Chevy Chase)

20851 (Rockville)

20878 (North Potomac/Gaithersburg)

Number of Homes Sold 26 15 Average Sold Price $1.4 Mil. $1.1 Mil. Average Days on Market 43 51 Above Asking Price 5 1 Below Asking Price 17 11 Sold Over $1 Million 15 6

Number of Homes Sold 15 8 Average Sold Price $316,020 $348,875 Average Days on Market 24 38 Above Asking Price 4 1 Below Asking Price 8 6 Sold Over $1 Million 0 0

Number of Homes Sold 29 26 Average Sold Price $622,479 $598,423 Average Days on Market 70 52 Above Asking Price 2 4 Below Asking Price 24 19 Sold Over $1 Million 0 0

20816 (Bethesda)

20852 (North Bethesda/Rockville)

20879 (Gaithersburg)

Number of Homes Sold 7 14 Average Sold Price $432,843 $677,992 Average Days on Market 31 42 Above Asking Price 1 3 Below Asking Price 5 8 Sold Over $1 Million 0 1

Number of Homes Sold 8 10 Average Sold Price $352,613 $387,534 Average Days on Market 60 52 Above Asking Price 2 1 Below Asking Price 6 8 Sold Over $1 Million 0 0

20853 (Rockville)

20882 (Gaithersburg)

Number of Homes Sold 20 24 Average Sold Price $454,080 $433,320 Average Days on Market 63 48 Above Asking Price 2 6 Below Asking Price 14 14 Sold Over $1 Million 0 0

Number of Homes Sold 15 14 Average Sold Price $482,593 $519,764 Average Days on Market 133 125 Above Asking Price 1 1 Below Asking Price 14 13 Sold Over $1 Million 0 0

Number of Homes Sold 23 Average Sold Price $1.6 Mil. Average Days on Market 38 Above Asking Price 5 Below Asking Price 10 Sold Over $1 Million 18

15 $1.5 Mil. 76 3 10 11

20814 (Bethesda) Number of Homes Sold 10 Average Sold Price $878,640 Average Days on Market 41 Above Asking Price 2 Below Asking Price 6 Sold Over $1 Million 2

Number of Homes Sold 12 Average Sold Price $914,500 Average Days on Market 29 Above Asking Price 3 Below Asking Price 8 Sold Over $1 Million 3

11 $1.1 Mil. 38 2 7 4

13 $1 Mil. 22 1 7 4

20817 (Bethesda) Number of Homes Sold Average Sold Price Average Days on Market Above Asking Price Below Asking Price Sold Over $1 Million

35 37 $1 Mil. $999,876 59 71 5 7 29 26 16 13

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october 2014

october 2015

october 2014

october 2015

october 2014

october 2015

20886 (Gaithersburg)

20902 (Silver Spring)

20905 (Silver Spring)

Number of Homes Sold 3 5 Average Sold Price $328,000 $426,180 Average Days on Market 32 135 Above Asking Price 0 1 Below Asking Price 2 3 Sold Over $1 Million 0 0

Number of Homes Sold 26 41 Average Sold Price $382,098 $406,426 Average Days on Market 39 58 Above Asking Price 2 11 Below Asking Price 20 21 Sold Over $1 Million 0 0

Number of Homes Sold 9 12 Average Sold Price $488,778 $498,891 Average Days on Market 95 92 Above Asking Price 1 1 Below Asking Price 6 10 Sold Over $1 Million 0 0

20895 (Kensington)

20903 (Silver Spring)

20906 (Silver Spring)

Number of Homes Sold 19 19 Average Sold Price $585,560 $568,285 Average Days on Market 64 81 Above Asking Price 3 5 Below Asking Price 13 12 Sold Over $1 Million 1 0

Number of Homes Sold 8 11 Average Sold Price $376,307 $389,281 Average Days on Market 133 52 Above Asking Price 0 3 Below Asking Price 8 7 Sold Over $1 Million 0 0

Number of Homes Sold 27 24 Average Sold Price $357,581 $359,041 Average Days on Market 58 76 Above Asking Price 4 4 Below Asking Price 20 12 Sold Over $1 Million 0 0

20901 (Silver Spring)

20904 (Silver Spring)

20910 (Silver Spring)

Number of Homes Sold 22 25 Average Sold Price $440,877 $404,584 Average Days on Market 45 64 Above Asking Price 2 7 Below Asking Price 16 14 Sold Over $1 Million 1 0

Number of Homes Sold 20 21 Average Sold Price $433,845 $422,586 Average Days on Market 62 83 Above Asking Price 3 4 Below Asking Price 16 14 Sold Over $1 Million 0 0

Number of Homes Sold 17 20 Average Sold Price $551,118 $565,050 Average Days on Market 15 44 Above Asking Price 7 5 Below Asking Price 4 12 Sold Over $1 Million 0 1

Information courtesy of MRIS as of Nov. 15, 2015. Listing information should be independently verified. MRIS is real estate in real time™, enabling real estate professionals to list and sell more than $100 million in real estate each day in Maryland, Washington, D.C., Virginia and markets in Pennsylvania and West Virginia. MRIS powers MRIShomes.com, the only real estate home search site in the MidAtlantic brought to you by the Multiple Listing Service. Visit MRIShomes.com or text MRIS2Go to 87778 to download the MRIS Homes™ app for real-time local listings. Note: Some sales and list prices have been rounded off.

Home

7735 Old Georgetown Road, Suite 700 Bethesda, Maryland

w w w . g t m a r c h i t e c t s . c o m

Readers’ pick, “best architect for custom Homes”

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fitness. wellness. medicine.

photo by skip brown

health

When Sally Egan (left) sustained a concussion playing soccer, her mother, Amy, helped her navigate a difficult transition back to the classroom. For their story, see page 248.

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health | be well

the power of touch

After seeing massage help her mother, Saya Barkdoll made it her career BY kathleen seiler neary

As a teenager in 1996, Saya Barkdoll witnessed a transformative moment for her mother, Delphine, who was suffering from AIDS. Hospice care was at the family’s Kensington home. Morphine wasn’t helping. Someone recommended massage therapy, and Barkdoll saw the difference it made for Delphine. “She lit up, she stood up. It was phenomenal. It was beyond comprehension. That moment, I was like, ‘I’m gonna do this,’ ” says Barkdoll, whose mother died about a month later. Now 36, Barkdoll owns Ohana Wellness in Bethesda, a tranquil massage therapy center that’s more consultation-focused than a spa. The Academy of the Holy

Cross alum, who graduated from the Potomac Massage Training Institute in 2000, bounced around spa jobs before landing at a wellness center in 2004. That same year, she gave birth to her daughter, Taylor, who spent two months in the neonatal intensive care unit because she was born with hydrocephalus, an accumulation of fluid in the brain. Taylor was being poked and examined all the time, and Barkdoll sought to counter that with “positive touch.” “I was massaging her constantly, before I could hold her,” says Barkdoll, who lives in Silver Spring. As a toddler, her daughter was delayed physically and late to walk, so Barkdoll continued using massage.

“It helped with her muscle growth, and giving her the body awareness to know how to use the muscles properly,” she says. Taylor, 11, is thriving now. “They gave us a pretty grim outlook on her future. She’s my little miracle girl.” Ten years ago, after the wellness center where she worked closed, Barkdoll opened Ohana in Woodmont Triangle. The staff— Barkdoll and seven others—does mainly massage, with a couple practitioners for acupuncture and craniosacral therapy. Clients seek pain reduction, injury prevention and simple relaxation. “I think most people come for the escape,” Barkdoll says, “to have their little hour of peace.”

➼ touchy-feely

“In my family, we were very close. We were very touchy people, so I was never afraid of touch. Also, going to Holy Cross with all the girls, [there was] lots of hugging. I really disliked feet, so I had to get over that.”

wear and tear ➼ “We see a good amount of people with

It’s good for you ➼ “A lot of my clients will tell you that

pulled muscles, a lot of neck and back pain. Frozen shoulder is unfortunately a big one—when you totally lose range of motion on your shoulder. [We see] a lot of computer stuff. Everybody at the computer, rolled shoulders, head in.”

they’re not just getting a rubdown. There is something to be said for that, too, but most people that come here are looking for more. We need to stop viewing massage as a luxury. Yes, it’s relaxing and it feels good, but ultimately the [health] benefits are beyond great.”

Photo by liz lynch

In her own words...

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Photo by liz lynch

Saya Barkdoll owns Ohana Wellness Center in Bethesda.

➼ something for everyone

“I have never turned anyone away. Even if the client is in spasm and can hardly move, I will just customize my pressure and focus to help them relax and find relief. Everyone can receive some form of massage, whether you’ll get a deep tissue or just a loving touch. Everyone can benefit.”

➼ babies on board

“Almost half of our practice is prenatal mamas—that’s such a wonderful thing. Two of us are doulas. We work with a lot of midwives and obstetricians that send their patients here. We sometimes see the babies afterwards for infant massage.”

Letting go ➼ “There can be a lot of emotional release that happens on the table. Or things can come up from the past. Oftentimes, laughter is a sign of major release. And tears, too. People will start just crying, then start laughing because they don’t know why they’re crying. We definitely are part therapist.” n

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health

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confusion illustration by adolfo valle

in the classroom When student-athletes sustain a concussion, strict rules govern their return to play, but not their return to school. Some experts and parents say that needs to change. by Julie rasicot BethesdaMagazine.com | January/February 2016 249

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health

oalie Sally Egan watched as an opposing player approached her during a Saturday soccer scrimmage in February 2014. Focused on stopping the player from scoring, the 14-year-old dove for the ball just as the other girl swung her foot. “The forward kicked me in the head,” says Sally, now a 16-year-old sophomore at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School. “I heard ringing in my ears and I felt a little bit dizzy.” Sally didn’t tell her coach what had happened. She knew the team’s only other goalie was sidelined with a concussion, so she figured she needed to stay in the game. After it ended, she headed to McDonald’s with friends. That’s when it became apparent that something was wrong. “Afterwards, I was told that I was acting weird when I ordered, like they had to ask me a couple times before I responded,” says Sally, who went home and told her mom, Amy Egan, what had happened. By the next day, Sally’s symptoms had gotten worse. She was nauseous and her head hurt, especially in a brightly lit room, and she was having trouble keeping her balance and following conversations. Sally, who lives in Chevy Chase, stayed home from school on Monday. On Tuesday, when there was no improvement, Amy took her daughter to the pediatrician. During the visit, Sally failed a neurological exam. She couldn’t focus and nearly fell over during a simple test for balance. “It was terrifying,” Amy says. “She couldn’t touch her nose and touch his finger, she was missing his hand entirely, and this is a kid whose hand-eye coordination has brought her all the sports success that she has experienced.” The pediatrician diagnosed Sally with a concussion, a type of traumatic brain injury that alters the way the brain functions. It can result from a blow to the head or any type of activity that shakes the brain inside the skull. Sally was told

to stay home from school for a week and do nothing that stimulated her brain so it could heal. That meant no reading or physical activity, and no screen time of any kind. It was a prescription that was difficult for Sally to follow—as it would be for most kids. “At first it was kind of exciting because I was missing school, but then it got really boring really fast,” she says. “Not going to school was pretty tough.”

As soon as Sally’s concussion

was diagnosed, strict return-to-play protocols established by her doctor and her club sports team kicked in; she wouldn’t be allowed to participate again until she was no longer experiencing symptoms. Such protocols have become common practice in children’s sports leagues and at local public and private schools. But when Sally returned to Eastern Middle School in Silver Spring, where she was an eighth-grader in a humanities magnet program, there was no such returnto-learn protocol. Amy contacted Sally’s guidance counselor and provided a note from the pediatrician explaining that the teen might need some extra help in class. Attending school for half days at first, Sally was back in classes only a short time before she realized that she hadn’t fully recovered. Bright lights in the classroom and noise in the cafeteria would cause her head to spin. “Math was really hard before the concussion, and then with the concussion I couldn’t focus too well,” Sally says. She found that some of her teachers were more understanding than others about her limitations. “They would excuse me from work and they’d let me have a lot of time to make stuff up.” One teacher, though, was “pretty strict” about deadlines for a major project. So when Sally continued to suffer from symptoms after three weeks, her guidance counselor decided she needed a written plan of accommodations, known as a 504 plan, to get her more time for the project and to tell teachers what she could handle.

“The guidance counselor was amazing. I didn’t have to advocate for too much, and I attribute that to kids at that school who had come before us with concussions,” Amy Egan says. Still, not everyone was willing to accommodate Sally while she recovered. The school's health technician, for example, would only let the teen rest in the health room for a short time. The technician said the school system’s policy required that Sally return to class or go home, Amy says, even though the pediatrician’s note said she should be allowed to rest from time to time throughout the day. “Sally could quote you the county policy on how long she could rest in the nurse’s office,” Amy says.

Increased awareness about the

dangers of concussions has prompted every state to mandate that schools educate students, parents and staff on the risks of this brain injury and devise return-to-play protocols. But the development of standards governing a student’s return to learning has lagged far behind, experts say. In Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS), all middle and high school student-athletes receive a packet of information about concussions and must return signed notices before they can play a school sport. Local private schools say they also have protocols for raising awareness and governing a student-athlete’s return to play. Online testing of student-athletes to provide a baseline of their cognitive abilities before they can play also has become commonplace; MCPS requires all high school athletes to be tested. During the 25-minute test, students complete a series of timed exercises that measure verbal and visual memory, processing speed and reaction time. While the test is not used to diagnose a concussion, the baseline results can be compared to a test taken after a concussion occurs to determine how a student’s cognitive abilities have been affected. At Georgetown Preparatory School in

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photo by skip brown

Sally Egan, now a sophomore at B-CC High School, was diagnosed with a concussion two years ago after being kicked in the head during a soccer game.

North Bethesda, injured student-athletes are evaluated with a number of screening tools, including the online test, athletic trainer Joe Spelta says. If a student is suspected of having a concussion, Spelta emails other school officials, including the athletic director, school nurse and assistant headmaster. “Whether or not it affects them, everybody is aware of what happened,” he says. This school year, every MCPS high school has an athletic trainer on staff who can evaluate injured players. Bethesda parent Tom Hearn, whose son suffered a concussion four years ago as a junior

varsity football player at Walt Whitman High School, lobbied the state school board to update policies concerning concussions and is credited with spearheading the drive for MCPS to hire the trainers. When it comes to the classroom, though, schools are left to their own devices; there isn’t even a consensus among officials on who parents should contact about their child’s brain injury. MCPS Chief Communications Officer Brian Edwards says there is no standard approach because the course of action can vary depending on the severity of a student’s injury.

“All of our schools try to work with families on a very individual basis. Every child is different in the accommodations they may need and the time they may need to heal,” says Edwards, whose own daughter spent two years recovering from a concussion. “It’s a very inexact science.” While Edwards suggests that parents contact the principal at their child’s school, some administrators say they are more likely to tell parents to approach guidance counselors who can work with teachers to develop a plan for handling a student’s return to school. And William

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health “Math was really hard before the concussion, and then with the concussion I couldn’t focus too well,” Sally says. She found that some of her teachers were more understanding than others about her limitations. Beattie, MCPS director of system-wide athletics, says that once a student-athlete is diagnosed, “the school nurse becomes the hub of everything” and there is an “immediate tie-in back to the school from the athletic arena to the academic arena.” An absence of clarity can make it difficult for parents of injured students to figure out how to make sure their children get the help they need at school while they are recovering. That’s why experts say it’s important for schools to institute standards so that families and teachers can know what to expect. Neuropsychologist Gerard Gioia, director of the Safe Concussion Outcome Recovery & Education (SCORE) Program at Children’s National Health System in Washington, D.C., says all schools should have return-to-learn protocols that outline what types of accommodations should be provided for specific symptoms. Common arrangements include allowing a child to leave class early to rest in the nurse’s office, permission to skip certain types of assignments or cut back on homework, and providing a key to the school elevator so a child doesn’t have to climb stairs. There also should be national standards to guide schools in how they manage students recovering from concussions, including training for staff and partnerships between schools and primary care doctors, Gioia says. “The good news is we know a lot more about this now, we’ve got protocols,” he says. “The bad news is it hasn’t been implemented as far as it needs to be. It hasn’t been disseminated as far as it needs to be.”

Dr. Korin Hudson,

an attending physician in emergency and sports

medicine at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital, was hoping to increase educators’ understanding of concussions and how they affect students when she asked Walt Whitman High School Principal Alan Goodwin if she could speak to his staff this past fall. Goodwin was happy to oblige. Like other county educators, he has been perplexed by the growing number of students who are diagnosed with concussions each year. He thinks that parents’ concerns over the long-term impact of concussions may partly explain why Whitman’s football team has dropped from about 70 players in recent years to about 40 this past season. “What really interests me is, five years ago, certainly 10 years ago, I never heard about concussions. I never dealt with concussions,” Goodwin says. “I’ve been an educator for over 40 years and it’s never been so prevalent.” The incidence of diagnosed concussions nationwide increased from about 9 percent of reported sports-related injuries in the 2005-2006 school year to nearly 25 percent in 2014-2015, according to the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study by the Center for Injury Research and Policy of The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. For 10 years, the study has collected data from 100 high schools to monitor injuries among high school athletes participating in football, basketball, soccer, volleyball, softball, baseball and wrestling. Girls soccer was second only to football in the number of concussions suffered by players during the 2014-2015 school year. Data from MCPS shows that 364 high school student-athletes were diagnosed

with concussions during the 2014-2015 school year, an average of nearly 15 for each of the county’s 25 high schools. Following the national trend, football produced the most concussions at 116, followed by girls soccer with 40. Cheerleaders accounted for the third-highest number of concussions with 33, according to the data from the MCPS athletics department. Medical experts say the growing number of diagnoses reflects increasing awareness about the impact of traumatic brain injury. The situation is similar to what happened about 30 years ago as more research became available about attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and doctors began diagnosing more children with the condition, Gioia says. “This is the same sort of wave that we have right now with concussions. We’re recognizing it more, we’re probably in some cases over-recognizing it, but that’s kind of the natural progression,” says Gioia, who has treated many local children at SCORE’s Rockville clinic and published numerous papers on the subject of concussions in youths. Goodwin says he believes teachers and staff generally try to accommodate recovering students. Still, he told his staff as he introduced Hudson on a November afternoon that “one of the struggles we have is how to work with a child who has a concussion.” Hudson, who’s also a team physician for Georgetown University athletics, treats athletes of all ages. At the time of her visit to Whitman, she was treating 12 of the school’s students. She told the staff that a concussion is “a complex process that affects the brain” and is “most like a power surge to your computer during an electric storm.” The physical and emotional changes occurring during adolescence only make it more difficult to treat concussions, she said. “Concussions are a whole lot easier to treat in 8-, 9- and 10-year-olds, and they’re a lot easier to treat in 30- and 40-year-olds,” Hudson told the Whitman staff. “Teenagers are tough to begin with. A teenager with a head injury is really tough.” The “invisible” nature of the injury makes it difficult to determine what a

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Neuropsychologist Gerard Gioia, director of the Safe Concussion Outcome Recovery & Education Program at Children's National Health System, has treated many local children in his Rockville clinic.

recovering student needs when returning to school, especially for teachers and staff who haven’t been trained in what to expect and may not grasp how the stimulation of the school environment may be overwhelming, Hudson and other experts say. That’s why several experts suggested in a December 2012 study published in the Journal of Neurosurgery that doctors, rather than sticking with the specific diagnosis of a concussion, may need to use the term “concussion spectrum” to clarify that they are referring to a number of factors that may impact the severity of a brain injury. “There’s no way to know how severe this is or how long the symptoms are going to last based on anything we see up front,” Hudson told the Whitman staff.

photo by jordan silverman

Grace Wagner

of Chevy Chase knows firsthand about the challenges of dealing with a long-term recovery from a concussion. In late September of seventh grade, Grace suffered a second concussion while playing soccer—not long after she’d recovered from her first. Grace, now 15, returned to Eastern Middle School a week after she was injured, but soon was suffering from headaches and having trouble

concentrating in class. Her symptoms became so debilitating as the weeks passed that she could only attend school part time before she finally had to stay home, not returning full time until April. During the months after Grace’s injury, her mother, Laura Bowman, would tangle often with school officials over how her daughter should be accommodated—at first within the classroom and then while she recovered at home. Eventually she received a 504 plan and also was tutored at home through an MCPS program. Eastern Principal Casey Crouse declined to comment on how the school currently handles students with concussions. Before she stopped going to school, Grace says she struggled with some teachers who weren’t willing to modify assignments or provide work that she had missed while absent. Some teachers “thought I was faking it, and that kind of really hurt me a lot because I was having such a difficult time and they weren’t making it any easier for me, and I was working really hard just to keep up,” Grace says. Trying to keep up with classwork while recovering can be challenging enough, but what if you are a high school student facing the pressures of doing well on high-stakes exams and applying to college?

Two days before she was to take the first of four Advanced Placement exams last May, Montgomery Blair High School junior Nicole Spiezio sustained a concussion when she collided with another player during a Saturday lacrosse game. Within hours, she was suffering from headaches, light sensitivity and fatigue. “Her personality went flat,” says her mother, Chris Spiezio, of Silver Spring. “She just wanted to sleep for 14 hours.” Chris emailed Nicole’s guidance counselor and teachers to let them know what happened. She also contacted the school’s coordinator for AP exams because it was clear that Nicole would be unable to take a chemistry exam scheduled for that Monday or the other upcoming exams. The tests were rescheduled for a few weeks later, but that meant Nicole had to take two of the most difficult three-hour exams—chemistry and calculus—on the same day. “It’s frustrating,” Chris says of her daughter’s experience with the AP exams. “Emotionally, you are still all intact and you want to do well, but your brain is not allowing you to do well.” In mid-October, Nicole suffered another concussion when she fell and hit her head during field hockey practice.

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health Neuropsychologist Gerard Gioia says all schools should have return-to-learn protocols that outline what types of accommoDations should be provided for specific symptoms. Now a senior, Nicole was facing a Nov. 1 deadline for applying to several colleges. Her guidance counselor told her to focus foremost on completing her applications and not to worry about her classes, Chris Spiezio says. Shortly after, though, one of Nicole’s teachers allowed students to spend a 90-minute period working on college essays on computers in a brightly lit classroom—a difficult situation for Nicole, who couldn’t focus on her work, but didn't tell the teacher she was having trouble. Chris Spiezio says she wishes teachers had a better understanding of how a concussion can affect a student, but

realizes “they’re not nurses, they’re not doctors. Their skills are to teach a class.” School administrators say they find that teachers generally are willing to help students figure out how they can best handle the work required for a class. “We all want the same thing,” says Jennifer Baker, principal of Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda. Some private schools, which often have more resources than public schools, will take the extra step of contacting colleges if recovering students who plan to apply may have problems taking standardized tests or meeting application deadlines. At Bullis School in Potomac, admin-

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istrators say counselors have contacted colleges to talk about prospective students recovering from concussions. “We’ve definitely had a few we had to deal with,” says athletic trainer Rachel Moore, who adds that colleges have usually been accommodating. Lisa Heaton of Bethesda says she decided to contact Elon University in North Carolina to explain why her son Ian, then a B-CC senior, hadn’t done as well as he’d hoped on his college admission tests when he was applying for early admission in 2013. Ian had suffered a debilitating concussion while playing lacrosse in September of his sophomore year. All told, he missed four months of school, including a three-month stint during his sophomore year, and still had recurring symptoms when he took the standardized tests. “The SATs and the ACT were a nightmare. You take a kid and sit him down for three to four hours of high-stakes testing and he did not do well,” Heaton says.

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So what can schools do to

better help students dealing with concussions succeed in the classroom? Experts say educators need to understand the wide range of symptoms that students may experience and the slow nature of recovery for some. Most kids will recover from their first concussion fairly quickly; research shows that 50 percent will be better in 10 days to two weeks, with most back to normal within a month, according to Hudson. Some may have recurring symptoms for years. “I wish there were a recipe that we could say works for everybody, but it just doesn’t [exist],” Hudson told the Whitman staff. Still, Gioia says schools could train teams of staff to employ a standardized set of accommodations based on a student’s symptoms. The teams would include a main point of contact—usually a school nurse—for doctors, families and teachers. Edwards of MCPS, whose daughter was treated by Gioia, acknowledges that

training school staff to better understand the nature of concussions and the variable paths to recovery is a good idea. He says he has been working to connect Gioia and his team with MCPS staff. “It’s an emerging area. A lot of teachers are not necessarily aware. It’s very difficult and challenging for teachers to understand what one child may need or another child may need,” Edwards says. And that’s why “there ought to be a policy that can be referred to or pointed out rather than just appealing to a teacher’s goodwill or a guidance counselor’s good intentions,” notes Tom Hearn, the Bethesda parent who says he raised the issue of return-to-learn guidelines when he was lobbying for better protocols for injured athletes. Hudson says it’s important to get kids back into the classroom as soon as possible. During her talk at Whitman, a teacher asked whether there was a baseline for determining when injured students could handle academic work,

and Hudson said she recommends a step-by-step approach that takes into account the cognitive problems a student may be experiencing. Being in class, even if students aren’t actively participating, will help facilitate their recovery, she said. So teachers should consider such accommodations as allowing a recovering student to sit up front where there are fewer distractions or assigning a “representative” amount of work, rather than the entire assignment given to other students. “We want them back in the classroom as quickly as we can, not just for their academic performance, but also for their social and their emotional well-being,” Hudson told the Whitman staff. “It’s better than sitting at home and doing nothing.” n Julie Rasicot (julie.rasicot@bethesda magazine.com) is the managing editor of Bethesda Beat, the magazine’s daily online news briefing. She lives in Silver Spring.

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what happened to my child? BY DAVID FREY

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Strep throat is usually an easy thing to treat. But some parents say a debilitating psychological disorder associated with strep infections caused their children to change overnightâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and turned their families' lives upside down.

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ake Wiederhorn bounds onto the porch of his family’s Potomac home wearing a Captain America T-shirt and soccer shorts. He’s 9 years old, bright and thoughtful, hair parted on the left and cut short on the sides, and he shows no hint of the nightmare he’s been fighting to leave behind for three years. “The nausea and the headache’s better,” Jake tells his parents. Around his neck he wears a gold medal that his brother, Max, 12, and his sister, Kayla, 7, made for him out of paper. It’s a reward for what he’s been through this week in early August. He spent the past two days playing Xbox at a doctor’s office while an IV dripped antibodies into his arm. The IV can make him feel sick at first, he says, but it’s meant to help him overcome a terrifying disorder that upended his young life. On a late summer day in 2012, Jake transformed from a fun-loving 6-year-old into a screaming, cursing child so paralyzed with fear that he refused to leave his mother’s side. It came without warning. One week, he was being treated for a double ear infection; the next, he was tearing apart his bedroom in a rage. “It’s hard on the family,” his mother, Debbie, says. “It’s hard on the siblings. It definitely impacts everybody. But I feel like it’s made us stronger as a family.” Jake looks at her, wide-eyed, as if it’s the first time he’s heard of anything good coming out of this experience. “Really?” She smiles. “Absolutely,” she says. The Wiederhorns say they can pinpoint the moment the old Jake vanished. He had recently started first grade at Potomac Elementary and was heading out the door to catch the bus to school. Usually, the morning ritual was like a party—he and Max ran down the street to meet

neighborhood friends at the bus stop. Kayla, too young for school, came along just to be with them. But that morning, Jake froze. When his friends boarded, he wouldn’t budge. The bus driver, a friendly man called “Wonderful Juan” by all the kids, waited as long as he could. But as Jake stood on the sidewalk with his mom and sister, the driver had to leave without him. “This was a child who was happy, outgoing, funny, independent, responsible, caring, sensitive and so lovable,” Debbie says. “He just simply disappeared.” Over the next few days, Jake’s behavior became even stranger. He threw tantrums, which were out of character for him, and spit swear words at his brother and sister, something he’d never done before. He wouldn’t sleep in his bed. He stopped eating. He fought so fiercely against going to school that his parents had to carry him into the building. His mother spent all day in the classroom beside him because he refused to go to school without her. Soon he wouldn’t go at all. For Jake’s family, the incident at the

the doctor. Most cases clear up quickly with a 10-day dose of antibiotics. Sometimes, though, strep goes undiagnosed. Children might carry the strep bacteria but show few or no symptoms—they may not even have a sore throat. Jake wasn’t tested for strep, but his parents believe it was probably the source of his ear infections. In rare cases, some doctors believe, strep that isn’t fully treated can lead to PANDAS, a deceptively cute acronym for “pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infections.” In children who have the debilitating psychological disorder, the strep bacteria are believed to trigger an immune response that goes haywire. Instead of attacking the bacteria, the body’s immune system attacks the brain. That causes inflammation in the basal ganglia, a region deep within the brain that’s associated with movement, learning and emotions. Usually, PANDAS can be prevented by promptly treating the strep, but in cases where the antibiotics don’t com-

“This was a child who was happy, outgoing, funny, independent, responsible, caring, sensitive and so lovable," says Jake's mother, Debbie Wiederhorn. "He just simply disappeared.” bus stop was the start of a journey into the heart of a medical mystery shrouded in controversy.

It’s nearly impossible for parents to keep their kids from getting strep throat. Scientists estimate that streptococcal pharyngitis is responsible for about 37 percent of the sore throat cases that send school-age children to

pletely kill the infection—particularly when children stop taking their medication too soon—PANDAS can still take hold. Some kids develop it after their first bout of strep. Others might get it after they’ve had multiple strep infections, each one apparently making the child more susceptible to PANDAS. The disorder comes with telltale signs, including obsessions, compulsions,

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Nine-year-old Jake Wiederhorn of Potomac was diagnosed with PANDAS three years ago. His parents can pinpoint the moment their son's behavior changed.

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Dr. Beth Latimer sees about eight new PANDAS patients a week.

“I think the question is: Why isn’t everyone else treating it?” Latimer says. “It’s not as if I’m a renegade.” anxiety, tics and personality changes. Children can’t concentrate. Their math and handwriting skills decline. They may stop eating, have trouble sleeping, wet their beds and act like they’ve aged backward. One Bethesda fifth-grader became so consumed by obsessive thoughts that she curled up in a ball on a doctor’s waiting room floor, trying to squeeze herself into the radiator. A Sandy Spring sixth-grader scribbled page after page of confessions to her mother about everything she thought she had ever done wrong. “The children recognize how crazy the symptoms are, so they try to hide them until they can’t hold it in anymore,” says Dr. Susan Swedo, a senior investigator at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda who was part of the team that

first identified PANDAS in 1998. While PANDAS can mimic other disorders—obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), Tourette syndrome, even schizophrenia—its sudden appearance is what makes it stand out. Like the Wiederhorns, many parents can remember exactly when their child’s behavior changed. Though firm PANDAS numbers are still unknown, Swedo believes that one out of between 250 and 500 children develop the illness. The disorder affects more boys than girls and appears to almost solely affect Caucasians, experts say, although researchers caution that it may be underreported or undetected in other ethnic groups. Many children who suffer from PANDAS tend to be smart, popular, active and well-behaved, but researchers aren’t

sure if that’s due to reporting (they may hear less about the children who get PANDAS but don’t exhibit those traits), or if the disorder is actually tied to the genes responsible for qualities such as intelligence and leadership ability. If PANDAS is caught early, doctors say, a heavy dose of antibiotics can knock it out, though a child may still have flareups in the future. More serious cases might require intensive therapies that can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Sometimes that’s a super-dose of antibodies slowly dripped into the veins—a $10,000 process called intravenous immunoglobulin, or IVIG. Sometimes it’s plasmapheresis, a $40,000 procedure in which the patient’s plasma is removed and replaced with healthy plasma. If treated, PANDAS should pass after adolescence, researchers say. Adults rarely get strep, and they rarely get PANDAS. When the Wiederhorns learned about PANDAS from friends, the symptoms seemed to match their son’s perfectly. But when they told their family physician that they suspected PANDAS was causing Jake’s strange behavior, the doctor didn’t agree with them. A national registry lists only about 100 doctors who treat PANDAS. “We are on the forefront of the discovery of a new disease,” says Jake’s father, Alex Wiederhorn, 45, who works for Macquarie Equipment Finance, which provides lease financing to companies using expensive medical and technology equipment. “It takes time, unfortunately, until the medical community as a whole will accept it.” Jake’s doctor suggested a psychiatrist, who referred the family to Dr. Beth Latimer, a pediatric neurologist. To Latimer, Jake’s condition wasn’t odd at all—the boy was showing the classic symptoms of a disorder she’s devoted her career to treating. Latimer, who lives in Bethesda, says she sees about eight new PANDAS patients a week at her Georgetown office. They come from across the country and around the world. Some wait three months for an appointment. “I think the question is: Why isn’t everyone else treating it?” she says. “It’s not as if I’m a renegade.”

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health coming on again, his parents took him in for another round of IVIG treatments. They’re hoping a new insurance company will be easier to work with, but say they realize there’s no guarantee. “Once a disease becomes controversial, then mainstream physicians shy away from treating it,” Swedo says. “Unfortunately, the children are the collateral damage.” Scientists have known for more than a century that strep can lead to harmful psychological disorders. In the 1800s, strep was identified as a trigger for Saint Vitus Dance, now known as Sydenham’s chorea, which causes patients to jerk their hands and feet and contort their faces. The link to OCD didn’t come about until the 1980s, when National Institutes of Health (NIH) researchers noticed that some children taking part in an OCD study had recently contracted

Usually, PANDAS can be prevented by promptly treating the strep, but in cases where the antibiotics don't completely kill the infection—particularly when children stop taking their medication too soon—PANDAS can still take hold. After a round of antibiotics, Jake’s initial symptoms went away and life returned to normal. But two years later, when he had a recurrence, he went in for IVIG treatments and the family’s insurance company balked. The Wiederhorns were left paying $15,000 out of pocket, a cost that included IVIG treatments and a tonsillectomy, another procedure for combating PANDAS.

Latimer says battles with insurers are common. “They deny everything,” she says. “I don’t think they have a reason most of the time.” Fortunately, Jake’s father says, the Wiederhorns can afford it. “We’re doing all we can for Jake,” Alex says. “The biggest concern for us is: What do the families do that don’t have the means?” Last summer, when Jake felt symptoms

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strep. They wondered: Could the two conditions be linked? Swedo’s group investigated and concluded that yes, in some cases, strep does lead to OCD. Studies that followed reached conflicting findings, though, leaving the medical community divided for years and prompting many family doctors to refuse to recognize and treat PANDAS. During a 2010 meeting at NIH, scientists on both sides of the argument agreed on a new diagnosis called “pediatric acute-onset neuropsychiatric syndrome,” or PANS, a broader classification that includes triggers other than strep. Both terms are used now. But many pediatricians have remained skeptical that PANDAS is different from other types of OCD. In February 2015, the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology broke new ground, publishing a special edition that focused on PANS and PANDAS and was designed to help doctors diagnose and treat the disorders. “Together, these articles represent

F I V E

S T A R

the initial push in a coordinated effort to systematically study PANS,” the journal noted in its introduction. That was good news for those who acknowledge PANDAS, but some doctors remain wary. Donald L. Gilbert, a neurologist at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, told The Wall Street Journal in July that he still saw little evidence to support treating PANS or PANDAS any differently than other types of OCD. “The long-term course is not different,” he said. But PANDAS specialists insist that unlike ordinary OCD, PANDAS has a physiological cause. They believe that treating the inflammation in the brain makes the disorder go away.

Like many parents, Rockville mother Hayley Flack first turned to the Internet when her daughter’s sudden, bizarre behavior led her to suspect PANDAS—a disorder she knew about through a family friend whose child had been diagnosed with it. While searching

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online, she found the PANDAS Network, a group that was started in 2009 as a way for parents to swap stories and information. Since then, the network has evolved into a nonprofit that supports parents, doctors and researchers, and advocates for more PANDAS awareness and treatment. “They were like a lifeline to us,” says Flack, a consultant to nonprofits who now sits on the board of the PANDAS Network. It was July 8, 2012, when her 6-year-old daughter, Layla, threw a tantrum about going out to dinner. A few weeks earlier, Layla had been diagnosed with coxsackievirus, which can produce flu-like symptoms in children. She was usually a well-behaved child, but when she got out of the bathtub that evening, she went crazy. “Her eyes got wild-looking and she was just screaming for 45 minutes,” says Flack, who believes her daughter also had strep throat that wasn't diagnosed. Layla refused to get dressed or to brush her hair. Her sudden rage was unlike her, but over the next few weeks, such outbursts became routine. Food

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Debbie Wiederhorn says Jake's struggle with PANDAS has made the family stronger.

didn’t smell right, and she stopped eating dishes she used to like. She obsessed over her appearance. Worried that her neck was “hideous,” she insisted on wearing turtlenecks in the heat of summer. “She literally would build a fort and stay in there, saying, ‘I can’t come out,’ ” says Layla’s father, Brian, a corporate attorney. Their family doctor was skeptical about PANDAS, but when they consulted another pediatrician, she directed them to Latimer, who recognized her symptoms and started IVIG treatments. The IVIG took care of Layla’s symptoms, but she’s had minor flare-ups since then, usually after being near sick kids. Parents say PANDAS can be a recurring nightmare—children may get it again and again, often after being exposed to someone with strep or other infections. Sometimes, Flack says, her daughter shows an “edginess,” or becomes unusually emotional, signs that PANDAS hasn’t completely gone away. The Flacks are always on the lookout for signs of PANDAS in Layla’s brother and sister, too. Because the disorder seems to have a genetic component, it’s not uncommon for siblings of children who’ve had PANDAS to also develop it. That’s what happened to Jake Wiederhorn’s sister: She showed some early signs of PANDAS, but after antibiotics

and a tonsillectomy, Debbie says, “she’s doing great.” It hasn’t happened to Layla’s siblings, but if they do get it, Hayley says, the family knows there’s treatment. “If PANDAS does come back, we’re well equipped to deal with it now,” Brian says. “But it always sits there in the back of your mind.”

S e v e n t e e n - y e a r - o l d Jennifer (her name has been changed at her family’s request) can talk about her struggles with PANDAS now—seven years after they began—though sometimes remembering that time still brings tears to her eyes. “It’s like you’re a slave to PANDAS,” she says. “It literally runs your life. It runs everyone’s life.” Jennifer was a happy, fun-loving Bethesda fifth-grader earning straight A’s at her private elementary school, says her mother, Peggy. Then suddenly, after coming down with what seemed like a cold, she was caught in a coil of obsessive thoughts and compulsive actions that tightened around her. “I didn’t know what was happening. It was just so sudden,” Jennifer says. “It slowly got worse and worse.” It all began with a strange walk—two steps forward, one step back—that Jennifer kept repeating. She started hopping in strange patterns, tapping things around

her and touching them over and over again. Soon she was twisting herself into positions so painful that it brought tears to her eyes, but she couldn’t stop herself. She would curl up, squeeze her eyes shut and refuse to speak. “The OCD was telling me not to move,” she says. “I had to close my eyes and just stay there like a ball.” Within three weeks, the girl she once was had vanished. “She fell down the rabbit hole of OCD,” Peggy says. In an attempt to keep Jennifer’s life as normal as possible, Peggy took her to Hadley’s Playground in Potomac, where they often went to play. As she carried Jennifer out of the car, the little girl’s legs dragged behind her. Peggy sat and watched as other mothers played with their children. A few weeks earlier, she was one of them; now her daughter lay in front of her, clutching the ground. What in the world has happened, she thought. Jennifer’s pediatrician recommended a psychiatrist. The psychiatrist recommended a neurologist. The neurologist suspected a brain inflammation might be the cause of her sudden onset of OCD. When an MRI showed a sinus infection, the neurologist prescribed a steroid burst, and—at the insistence of Jennifer’s father—the pediatrician ordered a round of antibiotics. Jennifer's father had read about PANDAS and thought antibiotics might help his daughter. He wasn’t sure if she’d ever had strep, but he knew she had been around kids who did. Jennifer’s doctors had heard of PANDAS, but told her they hadn’t treated it. The neurologist was open to it, Peggy says. But the pediatrician was skeptical. “You have to ask yourself: Why don’t they believe it exists?” Peggy says. “Just because it hasn’t been in their experience? [To] those who have lived it, it’s mind-boggling that doctors would not

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be willing to treat it.” For four weeks during the summer, Jennifer barely spoke a word. Then, 10 days after starting the steroids and antibiotics, she suddenly began prattling on about an episode of That’s So Raven, like nothing was wrong. By the time school started, she was well enough to go, but she had to bring extra clothes in case she wet herself. A teacher kept a watchful eye on her as she methodically rearranged books or repeatedly slid her coat on and off. The following school year, Jennifer was OCD-free, but the symptoms seemed to return briefly whenever she was exposed to someone with strep. The next year, PANDAS came back. She suffered from intrusive thoughts and anorexia until IVIG treatments, plasmapheresis and getting past puberty appeared to do away with the PANDAS for good. Today, as Jennifer gobbles down a sandwich and chips at Panera Bread, that time seems like forever ago. She’s a cheerleader, runner and top student who’s focused on college plans for next year. “The years now, since I’ve gotten out of it,” she says, “I kind of look back and say, ‘Wow, I’m so amazed by how happy I am and how great my life is.’ ”

The fight with PANDAS seems like ancient history to Melanie, too. At 16, Melanie (not her real name) is busy with classes at her magnet school. As she sits down at the grand piano in her living room, she pulls back her long blond hair. Then she touches the keys and evokes a gentle melody. She likes to compose her own music, but this time she’s playing a classical piece, “The Angel” by Sergei Bortkiewicz. She used to know it by heart, she says, but now her fingers fumble sometimes as they try to remember where to go. “It’s always been a favorite of mine,” Melanie says. “It’s very sweet and pleasant. It’s beautiful.” Melanie was in sixth grade when she developed PANDAS. The straight-A student loved piano, enjoyed Girl Scouts and had lots of friends. She also had lots of strep—she got it 14 times, by her

mother’s count. In an instant, Melanie became afraid of the world and herself. She confessed any wrongdoings she could think of to her mother, and she worried about what she might do to herself. It’s not that she was suicidal, she says. She wanted to live, but feared that whatever had taken over her mind would make her harm herself, or someone else. “One second you’re like a completely normal kid,” Melanie says. “The next second, you’re, like, terrified of everything.” She found herself in front of pediatricians, psychiatrists, psychologists and emergency room doctors. Her mother was on the phone with suicide hotlines. No one could help her, until one psychiatrist suggested that she see Susan Swedo at NIMH. Swedo, Melanie’s mother says, recognized the symptoms immediately. “I remember she told me, ‘You’re going to have your child back,’ ” Christine says. “I wanted to believe her, but at the same time I couldn’t.” Melanie joined a research study at NIH in Bethesda and started getting better after a round of antibiotics. IVIG treatments helped even more. One day at The Children’s Inn at NIH, where young patients and their families sometimes stay when they take part in studies, Melanie passed a baby grand piano in a second-floor dining area. For two months, she hadn’t gotten near a piano. This time, she took a seat on the bench. She reached out hands that were nearly as pale as the keys and let “The Angel” fill the room. Sunlight streamed through stained-glass windows. As her mother stood and listened, tears welled in her eyes. She was getting a glimpse of the child she used to know. Since then, Melanie says, she occasionally has a bout of OCD, but it’s nothing like what she once faced. “I feel like telling my story might let other people know they’re going to be OK,” she says. “It’s really rough and it’s scary, but it’s gonna be OK.” n David Frey (www.davidmfrey.com) lives in Gaithersburg and has written for Sunset magazine, the San Francisco Chronicle and other publications.

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health

wellness

calendar Compiled by Cindy Murphy-Tofig

with strength and mobility in their shoulders and arms, as well as improving their energy level and well-being. 12:30 p.m. Wednesdays. Free. Hope Connections for Cancer Support, Bethesda. 301-634-7500, www.hopeconnectionsforcancer.org. Ongoing REGAIN YOUR STRENGTH EXERCISE. Learn how to warm up and stretch in this class of balance and strengthening. Wear athletic shoes and loose clothing. 6:30 p.m. Mondays. Free. Hope Connections for Cancer Support, Bethesda. 301-634-7500, www. hopeconnectionsforcancer.org. Jan. 7 and Feb. 4 HYPNOSIS FOR SYMPTOM REDUCTION. A hypnotherapist teaches self-hypnosis techniques in order to decrease pain, stress and anxiety. 10:30 a.m. Free. Hope Connections for Cancer Support, Bethesda. 301-634-7500, www.hopeconnectionsforcancer.org.

RUNNING/WALKING Jan. 1 NEW YEAR’S DAY 5K. Start the year with a new commitment to running. 9:30 a.m. $10; $5 for younger than 18; free for members of Montgomery County Road Runners Club. Seneca Creek State Park, Gaithersburg. www. mcrrc.org. Jan. 9 AL LEWIS 10-MILER. The out-and-back course runs along Rock Creek Trail. 9 a.m. $5 online registration; free for members of D.C. Road Runners Club. Race day registration is $10 ($5 for members of D.C. Road Runners Club). Ken-Gar Palisades Park, Kensington. www.dcroadrunners.org.

Jan. 16 CARDEROCK JFK 20K AND MLK 5K. The races take place on the C&O Canal towpath. 9 a.m. for the 5K, about 10 a.m. for the 20K (once all of the 5K runners have completed the course). $5 for either race; free for members of D.C. Road Runners Club. Race start is at the far southeast end of the Carderock Recreation Area, Carderock. www. dcroadrunners.org.

SCREENINGS/CLASSES/ WORKSHOPS Ongoing PINK RIBBON PILATES. A Pilates instructor helps breast cancer survivors

SUPPORT GROUPS Support groups are free unless otherwise noted. Ongoing SUPPORT GROUP FOR ADULT CHILDREN. Adults who care for ill or aging parents meet for support. 6 p.m. Mondays, 3 p.m. Tuesdays or 10 a.m. Thursdays. Holy Cross Resource Center, Silver Spring. 301754-7152, www.holycrosshealth.org. Ongoing SUPPORT GROUP FOR SPOUSES. The group welcomes spouses who care for ill or aging partners and are facing a role reversal in the marriage, loneliness or other issues. 10 a.m. Wednesdays, 3 p.m. Thursdays or 10 a.m. Fridays. Holy Cross Resource Center, Silver Spring. 301-754-7152, www.holycrosshealth.org.

photo by Ken trombatore/Courtesy of Mcrrc

Get the year on track at Seneca Creek State Park in the New Year’s Day 5K.

Jan. 28 and Feb. 25 RELAXATION AND TRANQUILITY. Use visual imagery, meditation and progressive relaxation to reduce stress and increase feelings of wellness. 10:30 a.m. Free. Hope Connections for Cancer Support, Bethesda. 301-634-7500, www.hopeconnectionsfor cancer.org.

268 january/february 2016 | BethesdaMagazine.com

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Jan. 5 DROP- IN DISCUSSION ABOUT GRIEF AND HEALING. The group is open to those grieving the death of a loved one. 1 p.m. Montgomery Hospice, Bethesda. 301-9214400, www.montgomeryhospice.org. Jan. 5 and Feb. 2 BREAST CANCER SUPPORT GROUP. 6:30 p.m. Hope Connections for Cancer Support, Bethesda. 301-634-7500, www. hopeconnectionsforcancer.org. Jan. 7 and Feb. 4 BLOOD CANCERS SUPPORT GROUP. The group is for people with myeloma, leukemia, lymphoma and other blood cancers. 6:30 p.m. Hope Connections for Cancer Support, Bethesda. 301-634-7500, www. hopeconnectionsforcancer.org. Jan. 11, Jan. 25, Feb. 8 and Feb. 22 OVARIAN/GYNECOLOGICAL CANCERS GROUP. The drop-in group is open to women, without reservations. 12:30 p.m. Hope Connections for Cancer Support, Bethesda.

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301-634-7500, www.hopeconnectionsfor cancer.org. Jan. 12-Feb. 16 AFTERNOON GRIEF SUPPORT GROUP. The six-week group is for anyone grieving a loved one. 1:30 p.m. Tuesdays. $25. Faith United Methodist Church, Rockville. 301921-4400, www.montgomeryhospice.org.

The Carderock JFK 20K takes place on the C&O Canal towpath on Jan. 16.

Jan. 14 and Feb. 11 YOUNG ADULT GROUP. Join peers in discussing the challenges of living with cancer as a young adult. 6:30 p.m. Hope Connections for Cancer Support, Bethesda. 301-634-7500, www.hopeconnectionsfor cancer.org. Jan. 20-Feb. 24 COURAGE TO GRIEVE: LOSS OF A CHILD SUPPORT GROUP. The six-week group is for parents who have experienced the death of a child of any age. 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays. $25. Montgomery Hospice, Rockville. 301-921-4400, www.montgomery hospice.org. Jan. 21-Feb. 25 EVENING GRIEF SUPPORT GROUP. The six-week group is for anyone grieving for a loved one. 6:30 p.m. Thursdays. $25. Hughes United Methodist Church, Silver Spring. 301-921-4400, www.montgomeryhospice.org.

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Jan. 21-Feb. 25 PARENT LOSS SUPPORT GROUP. The six-week group is for adults who have experienced the death of one or both parents. 6:30 p.m. Thursdays. $25. Montgomery Hospice, Rockville. 301-921-4400, www.montgomeryhospice.org. n To submit calendar items, go to Bethesda Magazine.com.

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Special Advertising Section

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Special Advertising Section

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DDS, FICD, FACD, General Dentist Chevy Chase Cosmetic & Implant Dentistry 5454 Wisconsin Ave., Suite 1500 Chevy Chase, MD 20815 301-652-9717 drrasetto@cccid.net www.cccid.net

What’s an example of a time when you helped a patient that you’re particularly proud of? Dr. Rasetto: One patient came from overseas and we restored multiple crowns in one appointment, reconstructing his smile. He could not believe it could be accomplished in one visit, and it helped him reestablish his function and self-confidence

with natural-looking restorations. We can deliver ceramic restorations completed in the same appointment using CEREC technology. We also utilize a sensor system (T-SCAN) to identify improper bite pressures and adjust these, when needed, on patients with muscle pain and bite problems. What’s a challenge that you’ve faced in your life and how did you overcome it? Dr. Rasetto: The language barrier was hard. But determination, perseverance and commitment have allowed me to develop my skills and help hundreds of patients. Now, along with my practice, I also teach at the University of Maryland Dental School Post Graduate Prosthodontics Residency Program. How would your patients describe you? Dr. Kahan: I would hope my patients would describe me as a caring and concerned dentist, whom they trust, appreciate and look forward to seeing. I would hope they describe me as a friend.

michael ventura

Flavio Rasetto,

What brings you the most satisfaction in your work? Dr. Kahan: The interpersonal relationships I have developed with patients–it almost feels like I’m not going to work every day, like I’m going to visit with family. I get great satisfaction from providing quality dental care, but the most comes from person-to-person relations. Dr. Rasetto: It’s so satisfying to connect with people, and with our skills, dedication and compassion, help them achieve their oral health goals and improve their smile, function and quality of life.

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Featured Dentists

Special Advertising Section

“As partners and husband and wife, we have nearly identical training and education in the numerous aspects of advanced levels of sedation, and in the many levels of complex surgical, restorative and cosmetic dental care that our patients require.” What brings you the most satisfaction in your work? The most satisfying part of what we and our team do is to help transform a patient from a place of shame, guilt and fear, to a place of comfort, hope and confidence, through a gentle, amazingly effective and overwhelmingly positive process, using our sedation and advanced dental care.

Robert Schlossberg, DDS & Deborah Klotz, DDS mike olliver

Bethesda Sedation Dentistry 10401 Old Georgetown Road, Suite 200 Bethesda, MD 20814 301-530-2434 sleep@bethesdasedationdentistry.com www.bethesdasedationdentistry.com

What makes you different than others in your profession? As partners and husband and wife, we have nearly identical training and education in the numerous aspects of advanced levels of sedation, and in the many levels of complex surgical, restorative and cosmetic dental care that our patients require.

What are your interests outside of work? As husband and wife, our life together flows between our busy dental practice and our busy home life. We are the proud parents of two boys, a four-and-ahalf year old and an 18-month old, along with Dharma, their four-legged sister. We can often be found gathered around our kitchen table, as we strongly believe that sharing meals as a family strengthens our relationships and values. Deb has a tradition at each meal, even if its cereal on a Sunday morning, of asking each person what the best part of their current or previous day was. We always laugh as Carter answers for his younger brother in his “Bennett voice.” We enjoy learning to see life through our young son’s eyes. A little-known secret of ours is that we aspire to participate in the North American Wife Carrying Championship in Sunday River, Maine one day.

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Special Advertising Section

What is the one thing that your patients should know about your practice? We say “Treating Your Family Like Family,” and we mean that literally. We ensure everyone’s comfort by simply treating our patients really well. From our front desk administration to the clinical experience and any follow-ups, we make your dental visit a great experience. We strive to provide dental treatment with the care, skill and judgment that we would only want for ourselves and our family members. It’s this attentiveness that separates us from the rest.

Jason A. Cohen, DDS 5530 Wisconsin Ave., Suite 560 Chevy Chase, MD 20815 301-656-1201 drcohen@cosmeticdds.com www.cosmeticdds.com

tony lewis jr

How would your patients describe you? I’ve been described as very focused, detail-oriented and practical. Additionally, most patients embrace the artistry that goes into our dentistry. Our patients also appreciate that we preserve, protect and enhance their dental health, while at the same time offering a caring and gentle atmosphere. What makes you different than others in your profession? We go above and beyond traditional dentistry, educating patients on the direct link between their oral health and overall health. We listen to patients’ wants and needs, and develop a plan using the latest multimodal techniques, like veneers, lifelike ceramic restorations, CEREC, Invisalign and implants, to help achieve optimal oral health and a smile they’ve always dreamed of.

Jay Samuels, DDS, PA 11140 Rockville Pike, Suite 510 N. Bethesda, MD 20852 301-881-4200 drj@drjsamuels.com www.drjsamuels.com

tony lewis jr

How would your patients describe you? Here are two comments we received from patients: “Dr. Samuels will make you feel comfortable during any procedure. You can expect the use of cutting-edge technology and techniques to get the job done in the best way possible. As someone who hates the dentist, he has made it as painless as possible.” “Wonderful experience from start to finish! The office staff is friendly and helpful, providing me with email reminders and phone calls. Dr. Samuels is calming and professional. He has done a wonderful job.” 274 January/February 2016 | BethesdaMagazine.com

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Featured Dentists

Special Advertising Section

“Our doctors ensure a positive dental experience for your family as you transition throughout your life.”

Shailja Dhir Ensor, DDS Lauren Lewis, DDS Jessica Weber, DDS Tim Johnson, DMD

james kim

Drs. Ensor, Johnson & Lewis 11810 Parklawn Drive, Suite 101 North Bethesda, MD 20852 301-881-6170 info@ejldental.com www.ejldental.com

What makes you different from others in your profession? Our team of certified specialists provides comprehensive care for the entire family in one practice, and in one location. Our doctors ensure a positive dental experience for your family as you transition throughout your life. Our pediatric dentists, Drs. Ensor, Lewis and Doshi, create a fun and nurturing environment. Kids love coming to our office. When a family member needs orthodontic care, Dr. Johnson provides the latest technologies including Invisalign and clear braces. Our orthodontic care is an integral part of our practice and provides continuity of care for our patients. Drs. Weber and Rouhanian focus on creating healthy and beautiful smiles for all our adult patients. We provide personalized dental and orthodontic care “in house” for all family members, including those with special needs.

The EJL experience is caring, convenient and fun – we love to see our families smile! We are thrilled that Dr. Johnson was chosen as “Best Orthodontia Practice” in the Best of Bethesda Readers’ Poll. What brings you the most satisfaction in your work? Continuing a dental tradition that began 45 years ago, we provide care to patients who began coming to our practice as children and now bring their own kids. It gives us great joy and pride to serve multiple generations. In addition, our specialized and trained doctors have been recognized as a leading provider of dental care for the special needs community. We are proud to be able to provide all members of one family with dental and orthodontic care. Also, it is rewarding to have a thriving practice and be able to enthusiastically welcome new patients to our friendly, caring and family centered environment.

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Featured Dentists

Special Advertising Section

“Our practice is a subspecialty of medicine, and over time, you learn to look at someone’s whole health carefully, along with their teeth.”

John J. Higgins, DDS 5648 Shields Drive Bethesda, MD 20817 301-530-8008 thefrontdesk@johnjhigginsdds.com www.johnjhigginsdds.com

What is the one thing that your patients should know about you? Our practice concentrates on restorative dentistry. By emphasizing healthy gums and a functional bite, complex dental treatment is made easier. Our initial exam concentrates on the medical aspects, because if the mouth isn’t healthy, there may be something else going on. Our practice is a subspecialty of medicine, and over time, you learn to look

at someone’s whole health carefully, along with their teeth. How would your patients describe you? Here’s what a few patients said: “I have had the pleasure of being a patient of Dr. Higgins for 18 years. His knowledge of and skill at the practice of dentistry are unrivalled. He is a superb craftsman who thoroughly enjoys his work and interactions with his patients and his staff.” “The warm and friendly Ellen is first to greet you. This appointment was for a cleaning and Inna (our hygienist, she’s a gem) is the expert, thorough and worth every cent. “Inna has a great chairside manner – welcoming and forthcoming with relevant comments about my teeth and their care, but never asking questions when there are instruments in my mouth.”

darren higgins

What brings you the most satisfaction in your work? I’m so fortunate to have found something that I love to do and have been doing it for 42 years. We develop lifelong relationships with patients, as well as improving their health. I set up a practice that is really enjoyable. No one stresses, and they trust that I’ll always act in their best interests. I treat every day as if it were a gift.

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Featured Dentists

What makes you different than others in your profession? Rad2 Orthodontics is the premier provider of Orthodontic treatment to adults, teens and children in the Washington area. Our unrivaled reputation for excellence, exceptional results and fun atmosphere has established Rad2 Orthodontics as the leader in contemporary orthodontics for more than a decade. What sets us apart from other orthodontic offices is that we are both science-driven and sincere. We use only the most proven and sophisticated systems and we genuinely care for our patients. We treat every patient as a VIP. Dr. Mehdy Rad and Dr. David Rad are proud to have earned Invisalign® Super Elite Provider status, a distinction awarded only to the top 1 percent of Invisalign® providers nationwide. Experience counts, and we’re known for achieving excellent results in highly complex orthodontic cases. How would your patients describe you? We routinely hear our patients say that we’re “fun and friendly.” Patients appreciate that Dr. Rad takes time to discuss the diagnosis and treatment options with them and to answer all their questions. The entire Rad Team welcomes and respects everyone who comes in. We love the fact that many new patients arrive at our door with glowing personal referrals from our current patients. Our reputation speaks for itself. How do you employ new technology to help your patients? Rad2 Orthodontics uses only the most proven and sophisticated systems to ensure precisely customized, comfortable and efficient treatments. We employ the highest precision systems and the most sophisticated styles of custom treatments because they work better, faster and more comfortably than traditional systems. By combining the best techniques and materials available, we provide excellent treatments fast.

courtesy photo

Rad2 Orthodontics 7201 Wisconsin Ave., Suite 500 Bethesda, MD 20814 301-656-1600 radical@radsmile.com www.radsmile.com

“We employ the highest precision systems as well as the most sophisticated styles of custom treatments because they work better, faster and more comfortably than traditional systems.” BethesdaMagazine.com | January/February 2016 277

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Featured Dentists

Special Advertising Section

“[Dr. Adam] combines dental expertise and artistic talent with technology to create beautiful and natural looking and feeling teeth that transform smiles.”

Schneider Family Dentistry 22 Montgomery Village Ave. Gaithersburg, MD 20879 301-948-3111 appointments@drschneiderdds. comcastbiz.net www.schneiderfamilydentistry.net

What makes you different than others in your profession? We were among the first offices in the state to use digital x-rays, lasers and same-day (cad-cam) crowns. “I love using technology to engineer complex treatments that eliminate pain and achieve occlusal stability.” Cosmetic cases are one of our specialties. Training with top dentists has given Dr. Adam the skills to provide exceptional cosmetic dentistry. He combines dental expertise and artistic talent with technology to create beautiful, natural looking and feeling

teeth that transform smiles. How would your patients describe you? With a rare combination of skills and charisma, Dr. Adam delivers top-quality dental care while getting to know every patient on a personal level. He can put the most apprehensive patient at ease while delivering comprehensive treatments comfortably and quickly. He treats everyone with respect and takes time to explain treatment options. This is why he has been named a Top Dentist for more than 10 years. What is the one thing that your patients should know about you? We are uniquely dedicated to patients and truly cultivate a culture of caring. “We take a genuine interest in our patients and their families. We treat four generations of many families – they started with my grandfather, and now bring their great-grandchildren to us. We’ve even been known to make house calls.” Now that’s special.

james kim

What made you decide to get into dentistry? My grandfather founded Schneider Family Dentistry on excellence and integrity 75 years ago, and his philosophy guides my team and me today. “We’re not interested in settling for insurance companies’ low standards. Rather, we expertly deliver comprehensive science-based treatments customized for each patient.”

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Special Advertising Section

Featured Dentists

What brings you the most satisfaction in your work? We're part of a family of three generations of dentists and are very proud of our dental heritage. Paramount is building a relationship with each patient. The best part of our day is when a patient tells us how we have positively affected his/her life. We take pride in providing the highest quality dental care in a comfortable environment. We will find the right solution for you – whether it be saving your natural teeth or providing dental implants. What is your professional and educational background? Both of us are graduates of University of Maryland School of Dentistry where we are members of the Deans Faculty. We’re both highly involved in leadership of local dental organizations and numerous dental study clubs. Besides teaching, we lecture to dental and dental hygiene colleagues. What is the one thing that your patients should know about you? We combine longevity and experience with contemporary education. It’s one of the hallmarks of our practice. We deliver only the latest advances and technology in periodontics, dental implants, oral medicine and dental sleep medicine. We’ve been performing surgical placement of dental implants at the Bethesda Dental Implant Center for 30 years. How do you employ new technology to help your patients? The Pinhole Surgical Technique for treating gum recession and exposed roots is one of our many stateof-the-art services. It allows us to treat gum recession without incisions or sutures. We also use digital x-rays and 3-dimensional CBCT tomography equipment – a dramatic help in diagnosis and treatment. With our new Piezo Electric Unit, we provide minimally invasive therapy, which allows for a quick recovery.

Roy Eskow, DDS & Adam Eskow, DDS, MS

michael ventura

Bethesda Dental Implant Center Wyngate Medical Park 5626 Shields Drive Bethesda, MD 20817 301-493-6200 (Bethesda) 202-337-0200 (Washington, D.C.) office@perio2implants.com www.bethesdadentalimplantcenter.com

“We’ve been performing surgical placement of dental implants at the Bethesda Dental Implant Center for 30 years.” BethesdaMagazine.com | January/February 2016 279

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What made you decide to get into your line of work? Dentistry gives me the wonderful opportunity to educate patients on how important caring for their mouth is to their overall health. I also have a nursing background, and I am able to bring my medical knowledge and skills and incorporate them into providing the highest level of care to my patients. I am able to provide patients with both immediate and long-term benefits, such as relief from a sudden toothache as well as help patients to achieve and maintain the health of their teeth and gums over their lifetime. The combination of art and science in dentistry allows us to create beautiful smiles that function well. A beautiful smile gives people confidence and improves their self-esteem. It’s so rewarding to be able to make this possible for my patients. My career enables me to develop longterm relationships while making significant contributions to a greater quality of life for our patients.

350 Fortune Terrace Rockville, MD 20854 301-279-2600 www.stevenjanowitzdds.com

tony lewis jr

Steven Janowitz, DDS

Cheryl F. Callahan, DDS, PA 15225 Shady Grove Road Suite 301 Rockville, MD 20850 301-948-1212 callahan@cherylcallahandds.com www.cherylcallahandds.com

courtesy photo

What brings you the most satisfaction in your work? Being selected as Bethesda Magazine’s “Best General Dentist” in the 2015 Best of Bethesda Readers’ Poll was an incredible honor. It meant the world to me that so many people took the time to vote. What I love most about being a dentist is the ability to develop long-term relationships with my patients, and then having them display their confidence and trust in me by referring their families and friends. It is so gratifying to incorporate the latest technological advances in dentistry into my patients’ care. Using these evolving technologies, and with the assistance of my compassionate and highly skilled staff, I can enhance and restore beautiful smiles in a very comfortable setting. Dentistry is the perfect profession for me. I can think of nothing else I would rather do each day.

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Featured Dentists

Special Advertising Section

“Our team loves building relationships with patients and watching their smiles grow.” What is your professional and educational background? Our doctors are board certified specialists in both orthodontics and pediatric dentistry.

Amy Light, DMD & Associates Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics Amy Light, DMD Heather Sholander, DMD

darren higgins

Madeleine Goodman, DMD 9812 Falls Road, Suite 118 Potomac, MD 20854 301-983-9804 smiles@amylight.com www.AmyLight.com

What makes you different than others in your profession? We have the unique ability to meet all dental needs for children from infancy through graduation. Our team loves building relationships with patients and watching their smiles grow. We pride ourselves on making parents feel just as comfortable as our patients; parents are encouraged to accompany their children to the treatment area and to be active participants in their child’s oral health care. To save you time, our one-stop-shop practice also allows you to coordinate your children’s dental check-up with their orthodontic visits. How do you employ new technology to help your patients? We have state-of-the-art dental and orthodontic equipment. All our doctors have

extensive training in laser technology and are well versed on the uses of this wonderful tool to help make your child’s visit to the dentist stressfree. Suitable for both children and adults, the laser is a safe and effective method to eliminate decay and treat soft tissue lesions. Using hard tissue and soft tissue laser dentistry, we deliver a precise treatment that is more comfortable, quicker and provides more stunning results. Benefits of laser therapy dental treatment include: • Many treatments do not require anesthesia, and the recovery time is much quicker than with traditional methods. • Treatments are more comfortable. • There is potentially less chance of bacterial infection because laser treatments are so precise. What are your interests outside of work? Dr. Light and Dr. Sholander both love to sing! They even sing at work sometimes. Dr. Goodman loves playing soccer and taking long bike rides.

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Special Advertising Section

Not pictured: Wayne Steinberg, DDS, Robert Bouffard, DDS, Periodontics, Matthew Miller, DDS, Periodontics & Joseph Lee, DDS, Endodontics

What brings you the most satisfaction in your work? At Bethesda Family Dentistry, we feel like the luckiest people in the world for being able to make a difference in our patients’ lives every day. What sets us apart from other practices is that we are an office of professionals bringing together each of our specialties for the common goal of the highest quality of care. Whether it is for a routine check up to a full arch reconstruction, we excel at any procedure with a delicate touch and the upmost compassion. Our greatest satisfaction is that we are able to improve our patients’ lives through their wonderful, healthy smiles. We offer a variety of services from our dentists and board certified specialists including implants, root canals, oral and periodontal surgery, restorative dentistry, Invisalign, and professional whitening. We like to think that “Our Smiles Speak for Themselves.”

Mark Taff, DDS Brad Levine, DDS Hilari Dunn, DDS Janice Grossman, DDS New Potomac Location: 7811 Montrose Road, Suite 300 Potomac, MD 20854 301-530-3717 taffandlevine@comcast.net www.taffandlevine.com

tony lewis jr

Taff & Levine, DDS, PA

Deborah Tabb, DDS Ivelisse Cuevas, DDS Catherine Palandjian, DDS Tammira Badakhshan, DDS Bethesda Family Dentistry 10215 Fernwood Road, Suite 415 Bethesda, MD 20817 301-493-4204 6000 Executive Blvd., Suite 505 North Bethesda, MD 20852 240-221-3602 info@BethesdaFamilyDentistry.com www.BethesdaFamilyDentistry.com

hilary schwab

What is the one thing that your patients should know about you? We’re a unique full-service dental practice providing most procedures under “one roof.” One can be confident in knowing that, in addition to our comprehensive dental hygiene program, procedures such as root canals, implants, crowns and bridges, veneers and Invisalign, as well as periodontal surgery, can be completed without leaving our office. As a result, we are committed to continually advancing our knowledge and expertise in all phases of dentistry in order to provide exemplary care in a safe and caring environment. We will always be one step ahead in dental technology and committed to treating you in the way we ourselves want to be treated. Let us give you something to smile about! Let us give you something to brag about! We are confident you will be as proud to be a part of our full-service dental practice as we are to serve you.

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restaurants. cooking. food. drinks.

photo by stacy zarin-goldberg

dine

Key lime tart is a sweet ending at PassionFish Bethesda. For our review of the new restaurant, see page 284.

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dine | review

Passion Food Hospitality chef and co-proprietor Jeff Tunks

finding its sea legs The décor at PassionFish is striking, but the dishes so far are uneven BY Carole Sugarman photos by stacy zarin - goldberg

PassionFish Bethesda

7187 Woodmont Ave., Bethesda, 301-358-6116, passionfishbethesda.com FAVORITE DISHES: Yucatanstyle shrimp, Chesapeake Fish Fry, crispy fried oysters, “Rock” sushi, dorade and skate (catches of the day), key lime tart, warm doughnuts

BEER, WINE AND COCKTAILS: Sixteen craft and mainstream beers on tap, plus bottles, cans and gluten-free and nonalcoholic options; extensive selection of Old and New World wines, by the glass or bottle; six sake choices (tasting flight of three for $10); appealing selection of signature cocktails, frozen drinks and mock-tails

PRICES: Raw bar and caviar service, $9 to $90; sushi, $7 to $14; hot and cold appetizers, $9 to $15; entrées, $19 to $42

Overall Rating:

B-

SERVICE: Better-than-average host stand; service at two out of three visits was knowledgeable and professional

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PassionFish’s “Rock” sushi

bar photo by laura chase mcgehee

Bethesda landed a big one

when PassionFish opened in September. Passion Food Hospitality, an experienced restaurant group with several other metro area eateries, including PassionFish Reston, knows how to put on a stylish show. The aquatic-themed décor, for one, is lovely, done in a soft palette of blues and gray, with pops of yellow. The nearly 10,000-square-foot space is divided into several dining areas, with no loser locations in the bunch. To the right of the entrance, circular alcoves create intimate seating, while the centrally located four-sided bar, with 26 seats, seems perpetually lively, and the blue-and-greenflecked quartz countertops provide a pretty platform for Hurricanes at happy hour. An engaging mural of swirling fish that looks like a take from Finding Nemo dominates the wall in a back room that’s also available for private parties. The dishes, too, are visually appealing. Whether it’s the Chinese smoked lobster, with the scarlet crustacean lolling in a bright green bed of crispy spinach; a whole red snapper under a blanket of olives, capers and pickled jalapenos; or the smoked-fish spread covered with a paper film of the PassionFish logo, dishes big and small invite an Instagram. Even the diners are a snazzy set. Some look like something out of central casting for a photo shoot on a luxury liner, svelte and fashionably dressed. The staff make a good impression, too. For the most part, they seem professional and well-trained. As for the food, it doesn’t keep pace with the rest of the show. Some of it is seaworthy, but too many times, careless cooking rocks this boat. On the evenings I had them, both the Kung Pao Calamari and the Char-Grilled Baby Octopus tasted like rubber replicas. And the octopus was over-accessorized with halloumi cheese, quinoa tabbouleh, tzatziki and harissa, a seriously cockamamy combination with the seafood.

Yucatan-style shrimp

Chesapeake Fish Fry

Daily happy hour deals include $5 drinks and appetizers at the four-sided bar.

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dine | review Crispy fried oysters

Warm doughnut holes with coffee Bavarian cream

Dorade with romesco sauce

The Herb-Crusted Halibut and a chargrilled swordfish were likewise overcooked, leaning heavily toward dry, and sections of the Chinese smoked lobster suffered from chewiness. The latter signature dish was a disappointment, especially at $39. Other items (non-seafood) were plagued by undercooking. The tough, roasted Brussels sprouts needed considerably more time in the oven. Ditto for the way-too-crunchy apples in the apple-

Skate with salsa verde

and-blackberry crisp. Given the cooking inconsistencies, you’re better off with dishes that don’t depend on heat treatment, such as sushi. Or, head for simply prepared, thin cuts of fish, such as catch-of-the-day skate and dorade, with their buttery, white flesh. The kitchen seems more facile at brief cooking, which is often easier to do right than judging doneness for thicker pieces of protein. Finish up by following the staff’s dessert

recommendations for either the smooth, dense key lime tart topped with a toasty meringue, or the warm, pillowy doughnuts. They taste as good as they look. The restaurant may be at the top of its game during happy hour, a fabulous deal that goes from 3 to 6:30 p.m. on weekdays, 4 to 6:30 p.m. on Saturdays and 4 to 9 p.m. on Sundays. Drinks and appetizers are $5, and you can assemble a dinner of satisfying small plates, such as Yucatan-style shrimp, which come swimming in a zesty salsa, or fried seafood fingers, called Chesapeake Fish Fry. Also, a friendly and funny bartender, who made an uplifting Dark & Stormy one night, is a definite keeper. Like a pretty mermaid, PassionFish seems more about style than substance. If it can overcome its cooking quirks, maybe it’ll get its sea legs. n Carole Sugarman is the magazine’s food editor. To comment on this review, email comments@bethesdamagazine.com.

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MoCo

RestauRant Week presented by

Ja n

uary 2

2-31, 2016

RestauRant Week is baCk! MoCo Restaurant Week is a 10-day dining event showcasing Montgomery County’s vibrant restaurant scene. Diners will have the opportunity to enjoy prix-fixe lunch and dinner menus at some of the area’s best restaurants. For more information visit BethesdaMagazine.com.

ParticiPating restaurants: AG Kitchen

Heckman’s Delicatessen & Bar

Raku

All Set Restaurant & Bar

La Ferme

RANGE

Barrel + Crow

Lebanese Taverna

River Falls Tavern

Boulevard Tavern

Mon Ami Gabi

Seasons 52

Café Deluxe

Morton’s the Steakhouse

Stella Barra Pizzeria

Cava Mezze

Mussel Bar & Grille

SuGo Osteria

City Perch Kitchen + Bar

Naples Ristorante e Pizzeria e Bar

Summer House Santa Monica

Crave

Normandie Farm

Del Frisco’s Grille

Oakville Grille and Wine Bar

The Grilled Oyster Co.

MoCo’s Founding Farmers

Olazzo

Grapeseed

Paladar Latin Kitchen

Gringos & Mariachis

PassionFish

Wildwood Italian Cuisine ‘Geppetto’

Guardado’s Restaurant

Persimmon

Wildwood Kitchen

Trattoria Sorrento Urban Heights

sPonsored by:

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dine

table talk BY CAROLE SUGARMAN

chef on the rise Ten years ago, Michelle “Mieka” Houser Harris

The chef, who says she “never would have thought any of this would have happened,” absorbed a lot in the process. Here’s what she learned from:

Attending L’Academie de Cuisine: “Techniques, and how to fix things.”

Doing an externship at the Oval Room: “Discipline.”

The kitchen at Full On Craft Eats & Drinks in Rockville is managed by Michelle Houser Harris.

Full On Craft Eats & Drinks, 4007-D Norbeck Road, Rockville, 240-669-3875, www.fulloncraft.com

Applying on a lark for Hell’s Kitchen: “Any opportunity you get, even if you think you might not do well—just do it.”

The intense pressure of being on reality TV: “It’s OK to leave your comfort zone.”

Gordon Ramsay, host of the show: “Do it right the first time.”

Being kitchen manager at Full On: “Sometimes the easy way isn’t the right way. Do everything to the fullest.”

Her mother: “You only get one life. “ photo by erick gibson

was working at a McDonald’s in a small town in Pennsylvania, uneasy about her future. But life has unexpectedly taken off for the 28-year-old Olney native. In 2011, she graduated from L’Academie de Cuisine in Gaithersburg, following an externship at Washington, D.C.’s Oval Room, and has since competed on the 14th season of Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Kitchen (she was sent home in the fourth episode), conducted cooking demos on local TV, and most recently, was featured in the fall “Women Chefs: Artists in the Kitchen” exhibit at The Mansion at Strathmore. Harris, one of a handful of young female chefs quietly making inroads, is now kitchen manager at Rockville’s Full On Craft Eats & Drinks, a unique restaurant serving upscale sandwiches, craft beer and wine, with a focus on from-scratch preparations. A small, rustic space in a nondescript shopping strip, Full On features a friendly vibe along with homemade soups, sauces, dressings, side dishes and desserts, plus house-roasted meats.

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comings goings Following his foray into upscale hot dogs, hamburgers and doughnuts, Bethesda’s Bold Bite owner Alonso Roche is going back to his culinary roots with a tapas bar. Roche is shooting for an informal, lively venue called De Tapas, to be opened sometime this spring in a portion of the former BlackFinn pub, right next to his Bold Bite eatery. At press time, Maki Bar, a sister restaurant to Bethesda’s Maki Maki sushi place, was getting ready to open at The Shops at

Wisconsin Place on Wisconsin Avenue, right below Trader Joe’s. After less than a year in business, Silver Spring’s Sligo Café changed ownership and, in November, was transitioning from American comfort food to casual Korean. Benny’s Bar & Grill also changed hands, when the Potomac restaurant was sold in October to the owner of the Irish Inn at Glen Echo. Not surprisingly, a traditional Irish restaurant is in the offing, estimated for arrival in January.

Also in 2016, construction will begin on a 15-seat bar at La Ferme restaurant in Chevy Chase; replacing a small private party room, it will offer drinks and small plates as well as the regular menu. In big closing news, Chef Geoff’s on Rockville Pike, which opened in 2012, couldn’t make a go of it, shuttering in early November. Owner Geoff Tracy told Bethesda Beat that he was unable to generate the necessary revenue and was losing a lot of money at the location.

hometown hard cider

photo by michael ventura

Hard cider is hot these days, and Kensington resident Matt Cimino was in on the ground floor of the burgeoning trend. With a doctorate in botany from the University of Maryland, Cimino was doing forensic analysis for government contractors when he decided to switch gears, opening Great Shoals Winery in 2010. By the next year, he was selling Spencerville Red Hard Apple Cider, made from an apple variety from Spencerville, Maryland. Great Shoals now produces more than a dozen varieties of hard cider, as well as a host of traditional and sparkling wines. While the wines are made in a few locations around the state, Great Shoals’ hard ciders are made right in Silver Spring, in a warehouse at Heyser Farms, where Cimino also runs a tasting room. Great for a weekend activity, even on a cold winter day, the tasting flights range from $7 to $10. Great Shoals Winery at Heyser Farms, 14526 New Hampshire Ave., Silver Spring, 410-849-9616, www.greatshoals.com. Winter tasting room hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and 10 a.m to 6 p.m. Saturday. The ciders are also served at Denizens Brewing Co. and Urban Winery in Silver Spring, and bottles can be purchased at Fenwick Beer and Wine in Silver Spring, Mom’s Organic Market and King Farm Wine Shop in Rockville and Roots in Olney.

Matt Cimino offers tasting flights of his hard cider in Silver Spring.

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dine | TabLe Talk

SILVER SILVER DINER vs

When Chef Ype Von Hengst developed the menu for the snazzy new Silver restaurant in downtown Bethesda, he wanted it to be a brand extension, but not totally different from the eats at Silver Diner, the regional chain he started in 1989 with partner Bob Giaimo. So a third of the menu is the same, a third is new (i.e., tuna tartare, chia banana pudding), and the remaining dishes are upscale, flavor-enhanced versions of Silver Diner classics. Examples: buffalo wings at Silver Diner, chimichurri wings at Silver; flat-iron steak at Silver Diner, hanger steak at Silver. Look what happened to meatloaf.

Side dishes include buttered corn and steamed fresh broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. Mashed potatoes are made from russets.

Organic Bison Truffle Meatloaf at Silver, $20

Fresh spinach is wilted with organic garlic olive oil.

Mashed Yukon Gold potatoes get a drizzle of basil oil. Meatloaf made from organic ground bison is mixed with chopped truffles and topped with demi-glace; sautĂŠed chanterelle mushrooms and roasted pearl onions nestle alongside.

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first taste

Food Editor Carole Sugarman checks out new eateries

Gusto Italian Grill Yet another fast-casual take on make-it-your-way, this time Italian-style. That means customized pasta, flatbread and salads with an array of proteins (meatballs, chicken, steak, porchetta), sauces (such as classic tomato, pesto, Alfredo) and toppings (olives, artichoke hearts, sweet and spicy peppers, pancetta and more). Takeaway: Homey, hearty fare that will leave you satisfied, not gushing with gusto. Porchetta (pork shoulder slow-roasted in herbs and spices) is done well here. 4733 Elm St., Bethesda, 240-396-6398; 8512 Fenton St., Silver Spring, 301-565-2800, www.gustoitaliangrill.com.

Wagshal’s Restaurant

Sliced meatloaf, made from Black Angus ground beef, gets topped with a brown gravy and crispy onion straws.

Black Angus Meatloaf at Silver Diner, $14.99

photo by goran kosanovic; gusto photo by andrew metcalf

A longtime Northwest Washington institution—known for its dependable, high-quality eats—expands its dominance over the Spring Valley Shopping Center with a casual restaurant, opened in October. The company already runs a deli and small market in the center, plus Pitmasters Back Alley BBQ, in an alleyway behind it. (It also owns a sizable gourmet market on New Mexico Avenue NW, and catering, importing, school lunch and custom cake businesses.) Takeaway: The glass-enclosed dining area is pretty spare, and uncomfortable metal chairs will take a toll on your tush. But the overstuffed sandwiches can compete with the best in the Big Apple, and the crab cake—with chunks of jumbo lump meat, two veggies and a salad—is a delicious steal for $17. 4855 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Washington, D.C., 202-363-5698, www.wagshals.com.

Jamaican Mi Crazy Food truck operator Naya Radway, the daughter of Jamaican parents, gets a brick-and-mortar gig at Westfield Montgomery’s dining terrace. Takeaway: Tender oxtails and brown stew chicken are better bets than the meek chicken or goat curries. Hot heads will like the tear-jerker jerk chicken. 7101 Democracy Blvd. (in Westfield Montgomery mall), Bethesda, 202-505-2447, www.jmccurbside.com.

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dine

By Brian Patterson Lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Academie de Cuisine | www.lacademie.com

bounty of the bay When itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not crab feast weather, simmer a vegetable-loaded chowder with oysters plucked from the Chesapeake Bay

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Maryland Oyster Chowder Difficulty Level

On the Clock

Servings

1 hour

Ingredients 2 tablespoons butter 1 cup diced yellow onions 1 cup diced celery ½ cup diced carrots 1 cup dry white wine

6 cloves of garlic, chopped 3 sprigs fresh thyme 1 bay leaf 1 sprig Italian parsley 1 cup fish stock (or oyster juice) 1 cup heavy cream 1 cup whole milk 2 cups diced potatoes, preferably Yukon gold or red bliss (to prevent oxidization, diced potatoes can be held submerged in cold water until ready to use) 1 tablespoon Old Bay seasoning 1 pint shucked oysters, including any liquid they are packed in Salt and pepper to taste (about 1 tablespoon salt and 1 teaspoon pepper) 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

photos by stacy zarin-goldberg

½ cup chopped Italian parsley

Find It Local Shucked Chesapeake Bay oysters, which should be used within hours of purchasing, are available at Seafood in the Buff in Silver Spring and Cameron’s Seafood in Rockville and Silver Spring.

Directions 1. Heat a one-gallon soup pot over medium heat. Melt the butter in the pot, and add the onions, celery and carrots with a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring occasionally, for five minutes. If the vegetables start to brown on the bottom of the pot, add a few drops of water to loosen them. 2. Add the wine and garlic. Tie the thyme, bay leaf and parsley together with twine and add to the pot. Continue cooking over medium heat until the liquid has almost evaporated. 3. Add the fish stock, cream, milk, potatoes and Old Bay. More fish stock or milk can be added as needed. Raise the heat to high to bring to just below boiling, then reduce to medium and cook for 20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. 4. Pour in the oysters and turn the heat to high to reach just below boiling, then lower heat and simmer for three minutes, until the edges of the oysters start to ruffle. Adjust seasoning and acidity with salt, pepper and lemon juice. 5. Ladle into bowls and sprinkle with parsley. Serve with oyster crackers. BethesdaMagazine.com | january/february 2016 293

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dine

Dining Guide

Check out the online version of the DINING GUIDE at BethesdaMagazine.com.

Bethesda 4935 Bar and Kitchen

4935 Cordell Ave., 301-951-4935, www.4935barand kitchen.com. The restaurant offers a sleek, modern interior and a young chef-owner serving French and Indian fusion dishes such as spicy chicken confit and tandoori pork chops. The popular upstairs private party room is now called “The Loft at 4935.” L D $$$

Aji-Nippon

6937 Arlington Road, 301-654-0213. A calm oasis on a busy street, where chef Kazuo Honma serves patrons several kinds of sushi, sashimi, noodle soups, teriyaki and more. Try a dinner box, which includes an entrée, vegetables, California roll, tempura and rice. L D $$

American Tap Room

7278 Woodmont Ave., 301- 656-1366, www.american taproom.com. Here’s a classic grill menu featuring sliders, wings and craft beer offered by Thompson Hospitality, the owners of Austin Grill. Entrées range from BBQ Glazed Meatloaf Dinner with whipped potatoes and green beans to the lighter Crabmeat Omelet. ❂  R L D $$

&pizza

7614 Old Georgetown Road, 240-800-4783, www.andpizza.com. Create your own designer pizza from a choice of three crusts, three cheeses and eight sauces or spreads. Toppings for the thin, crispy crusts range from the usual suspects to falafel crumbles, fig marsala and pineapple salsa. This location of the hip, fast-casual chain has limited seating. L D $

Bacchus of Lebanon

7945 Norfolk Ave., 301-657-1722, www.bacchus oflebanon.com. This friendly and elegant Lebanese staple has a large, sunny patio that beckons lunch and dinner patrons outside when the weather is good to try garlicky hummus, stuffed grape leaves, chicken kabobs, veal chops and dozens of small-plate dishes. ❂ L D $$

Bangkok Garden

4906 St. Elmo Ave., 301-951-0670, www.bkkgarden. com. This real-deal, family-run Thai restaurant turns out authentic cuisine, including curries, soups and noodle dishes, in a dining room decorated with traditional statues of the gods. Dishes range from mild to very hot. L D $

The Barking Dog

4723 Elm St., 301-654-0022, barkingdogbar.com. A fun place for young adults, with drink specials nearly every night and bar food such as quesadillas and burgers. Salsa dancing on Tuesdays, trivia on Wednesdays, karaoke on Thursdays and a DJ and dancing Fridays and Saturdays. ❂ L D $

BARREL and CROW

4867 Cordell Ave., 240-800-3253, www.barreland crow.com. Contemporary regional and southern cuisine served in a comfortable setting with charcoal gray banquettes and elements of wood and brick. Menu highlights include Maryland crab beignets, shrimp and grits croquettes and Virginia mackerel. ❂ R L D $$

Benihana

Key

7935 Wisconsin Ave., 301-652-5391, www.benihana. com. Experience dinner-as-theater as the chef chops and cooks beef, chicken, vegetables and seafood tableside on the hibachi. This popular national chain serves sushi, too. The kids’ menu includes a California roll and hibachi chicken, steak and shrimp entrées. J L D $$

Price designations are for a threecourse dinner for two including tip and tax, but excluding alcohol.

Bethesda Crab House

4958 Bethesda Ave., 301-652-3382, www.bethesda crabhouse.net. In the same location since 1961, this casual, family-owned dining spot features jumbo lump crabcakes, oysters on the half shell and jumbo spiced shrimp. Extra large and jumbo-sized crabs available year-round; call ahead to reserve them. ❂ L D $$

$ $$ $$$ $$$$ b  B R L D

Bethesda Curry Kitchen

4860 Cordell Ave., 301-656-0062, www.bethesda currykitchen.com. The restaurant offers lunch buffet and Southern Indian vegan specialties, served in a spare and casual setting. There are plenty of choices from the tandoor oven, as well as vegetarian, seafood and meat curries. L D $

BGR: The Burger Joint

4827 Fairmont Ave., 301-358-6137, www.bgrthe burgerjoint.com. The burgers are good and the vibe is great at this frequently packed eatery next to Veterans Park. Try the veggie burger, made with a blend of brown rice, black beans, molasses and oats. ❂JLD$

Bistro LaZeez

8009 Norfolk Ave., 301-652-8222, www.bistrolazeez. com. Reasonably priced Mediterranean cuisine served in a small, attractive space. Don’t miss the grilled pita and the signature BLZ Chicken Medley, with a grilled, marinated chicken thigh, drumstick and wing basted in a zesty sauce. ❂ J L D $

Bistro Provence (Editors’ Pick)

4933 Fairmont Ave., 301-656-7373, www.bistro provence.org. Chef Yannick Cam brings his formidable experience to a casual French bistro with a lovely courtyard. The Dinner Bistro Fare, served daily from 5 to 6:30 p.m., offers a choice of appetizer, main course and dessert for $35. ❂ R L D $$$

Black’s Bar & Kitchen (Editors’ Pick)

7750 Woodmont Ave., 301-652-5525, www.blacks barandkitchen.com. Bethesda Magazine readers voted Black’s “Best MoCo Restaurant” and “Best Happy Hour” in 2014. Customers count on the impeccable use of fresh and local ingredients and enjoy dining on the expansive patio. ❂ R L D $$$

Blaze Pizza

7101 Democracy Blvd. (Westfield Montgomery mall), 240-630-8236, www.blazepizza.com. One of the new breed of fast-casual pizza concepts, Blaze features build-your-own pies with a choice of nearly 30 toppings and six sauces. Pizzas are “fast-fire’d” for 180 seconds, resulting in thin, super-crisp crusts. Wash them down with the blood-orange lemonade. L D $

BOLD BITE

4901-B Fairmont Ave., 301-951-2653, boldbite.net, 202donuts.com. Made-to-order hickory-smoked burg-

up to $50 $51-$100 $101-$150 $151+ Outdoor Dining Children’s Menu Breakfast Brunch Lunch Dinner

MoCo Restaurant Week Participant See page 287 for details

ers and salads top the menu, which won “Best Menu Design” from Bethesda Magazine’s editors in 2013. Also here is 202 Artisanal Donut Co. with rotating flavors of doughnuts and locally roasted joe. J B LD$

Brickside Food & Drink

4866 Cordell Ave., 301-312-6160, www.brickside bethesda.com. Prohibition-era drinks meet Italian bar bites and entrées. Dishes range from fried chicken and waffles to lobster ravioli. Try one of the colorfully named punches, which include Pink Murder Punch and Snow Cone Punch. ❂ R L D $$

Caddies on Cordell

4922 Cordell Ave., 301-215-7730, www.caddies oncordell.com. Twenty-somethings gather at this golf-themed spot to enjoy beer and wings specials in a casual, rowdy atmosphere that frequently spills onto the large patio. Bethesda Magazine readers voted Caddies “Best Place for a Guys’ Night Out” in 2015. ❂ J R L D $

Café Deluxe

4910 Elm St., 301-656-3131, www.cafedeluxe.com. This local chain serves bistro-style American comfort food in a fun and noisy setting with wood fans and colorful, oversized European liquor posters. Menu options include burgers, entrées, four varieties of flatbread and mussels served three different ways. ❂ J R L D $$

Cava Mezze Grill

4832 Bethesda Ave., 301-656-1772, www.cava grill.com. The guys from Cava restaurant have created a Greek version of Chipotle. Choose the meat, dip or spread for a pita, bowl or salad. Housemade juices and teas provide a healthful beverage option. ❂ LD$

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Cesco Osteria

7401 Woodmont Ave., 301-654-8333, www. cesco-osteria.com. Longtime chef Francesco Ricchi turns out Tuscan specialties, including pizza, pasta and foccacia in a big, jazzy space. Stop by the restaurant’s Co2 Lounge for an artisan cocktail before dinner. ❂ L D $$

Chef Tony’s

4926 St. Elmo Ave., 301-654-3737, www.cheftonys bethesda.com. Chef-owner Tony Marciante focuses on Mediterranean seafood tapas, offering dishes ranging from fish and seafood to chicken, steak and pasta. Desserts include Drunken Strawberries and Classic Creme Brulée. J R L D $$

City Burger

7015 Wisconsin Ave., 301-652-0010, www.cityburger online.com. Inexpensive quarter-pound burgers made from all-natural, antibiotic-free beef from the owners of Food Wine & Co., Beer Wine & Co., Don Pollo and Fish Taco. Hot dogs and half-smokes, plus homemade milkshakes and ice cream available. Space seats about 15, but geared for takeout. L D $

City Lights of China

4953 Bethesda Ave., 301-913-9501, www.bethesda citylights.com. Longtime Chinese eatery serves familiar Szechuan and Beijing fare, including six types of dumplings and seven handmade noodle dishes. Red walls and chocolate-colored booths give the place a sharp look. L D $$

COOPER’S MILL (New)

5151 Pooks Hill Road (Bethesda Marriott), 301897-9400, coopersmillrestaurant.com/bethesda.

Hotel restaurant showcases a modern, stylish menu with stone-oven flatbreads, homemade tater tots and locally sourced produce. Local beers on draft and by the bottle, plus regional bourbon and gin. B R L D $$

The Corner Slice

7901 Norfolk Ave., 301-907-7542, www.thecorner slice.net. New York-style pizza, available by the slice or as a 20-inch pie. Specialty pizzas include the spinach-artichoke white pie with ricotta, mozzarella and parmesan and the Buffalo Chicken Pie with blue cheese and hot sauce. ❂ L D $

CRAVE

7101 Democracy Blvd., Suite 1530 (Westfield Montgomery mall), 301-469-9600, cravebethesda. com. Minnesota-based chainlet offers an eclectic melting pot of American dishes, including bison burgers, duck confit flatbread and kogi beef tacos. The restaurant is also known for its extensive selection of wine and sushi.J L D $$

Daily Grill

One Bethesda Metro Center, 301-656-6100, www.dailygrill.com. Everyone from families to expense-account lunchers can find something to like about the big portions of fresh American fare, including chicken pot pie and jumbo lump crabcakes. ❂ J B R L D $$

Don Pollo

7007 Wisconsin Ave., 301-652-0001, www.donpollo group.com. Juicy, spiced birds and reasonable prices make this Peruvian chicken eatery a go-to place any night of the week. Family meals that serve four

or six people available. Locations in Rockville and Gaithersburg, too. L D $

Flanagan’s Harp & Fiddle

4844 Cordell Ave., 301-951-0115, www.flanagans harpandfiddle.com. This stylish pub features live music several days a week, Tuesday night poker and Monday quiz nights. In addition to traditional stews and fried fish, Flanagan’s offers smoked ribs, salmon and traditional Irish breakfast on weekends. ❂ J L D $$

Food Wine & Co. (Editors’ Pick)

7272 Wisconsin Ave., 301-652-8008, www.foodwine andco.com. Upscale American fare that includes a farmstead cheese and charcuterie bar, an oyster bar, salads and sandwiches, and entrées ranging from pan-roasted rockfish to a risotto made with local pumpkin, smoked pearl onion and wild mushroom, all served in a stunning bistro. L D $$

Garden Grille & Bar

7301 Waverly St. (Hilton Garden Inn), 301-654-8111. Aside from a breakfast buffet featuring cooked-toorder omelets, waffles, fruit and more, the restaurant offers an extensive menu, from burgers and other sandwiches to crabcakes, short ribs and pasta dishes. J B D $$

Rw Grapeseed American Bistro + Wine Bar (Editors’ Pick)

4865 Cordell Ave., 301-986-9592, www.grapeseed bistro.com. Chef-owner Jeff Heineman, who develops each dish on the frequently updated menu to pair with a specific wine, also offers small plates and a 10-seat wine-room table. Charcuterie offer-

L!ve

h g u La

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dine ings include house-made and artisan meats. L D $$$ Rw

Gringos & Mariachis (Editors’ Pick)

4928 Cordell Ave., 240-800-4266, www.gringos andmariachis.com. The owners of the popular Olazzo Italian restaurants in Bethesda and Silver Spring trade in the red sauce for salsa at this hip taqueria with edgy murals and plenty of tequila. Starters include duck nachos, and the taco selection nears 15 choices. Voted “Best New Restaurant” by the magazine’s readers in 2015. L D $

Guapo’s Restaurant

8130 Wisconsin Ave., 301-656-0888, www.guapos restaurant.com. This outpost of a local chain has everything you’d expect: margaritas and chips galore, as well as a handful of daily specials served in festive Mexican surroundings. Perfect for families and dates. J R L D $

Guardado’s

4918 Del Ray Ave., 301-986-4920, www.guardados. com. Chef-owner Nicolas Guardado, who trained at Jaleo, opened this hidden gem devoted to LatinSpanish cooking in 2007 and has developed a following with tapas specialties like shrimp and sausage, stuffed red peppers and paella. J L D $

GUSTO ITALIAN GRILL (New)

4733 Elm St., 240-396-6398, gustoitaliangrill.com. The fast-casual have-it-your-way concept comes to Italian fare, with flatbread, pasta and salad as the base options; meatballs, porchetta, grilled chicken and steak as protein pile-ons; toppings such as artichoke hearts, pancetta and Tuscan corn; and several sauces and dressings. Gusto Stix (rolled flatbread with fillings such as cheese, pepperoni and/or mushrooms), gelato pops and cool chandeliers add fun. ❂ J L D $

Hanaro Restaurant & Lounge

7820 Norfolk Ave., 301-654-7851, www.hanaro bethesda.com. Operated by father-and-son Mike and Gene Han, the restaurant’s modern dark woods combined with a light-filled dining room brighten its corner location, and the menu includes sushi and Asian fusion main courses. The bar offers a daily happy hour. ❂ L D $$

Heckman’s Delicatessen & BAR

4914 Cordell Ave., 240-800-4879, www.heckmans deli.com. The deli features all the staples, plus a dinner menu with chicken-in-a-pot and stuffed cabbage. Menu offers long lists of ingredients to build your own salads, sandwiches and egg dishes. Sweets include rugelach, black-and-white cookies and homemade cheesecake. ❂ J B L D $

Himalayan Heritage

4925 Bethesda Ave., 301-654-1858, www.himalayan heritagedc.com. The menu includes North Indian, Nepalis, Indo-Chinese and Tibetan cuisines, featuring momos (Nepalese dumplings), Indian takes on Chinese chow mein and a large selection of curry dishes. LD$

House of Foong Lin

4613 Willow Lane, 301-656-3427. www.foong lin.com. The Chinese restaurant features Cantonese, Hunan and Szechuan cuisine, including chef’s recommendations, low-fat choices and lots of traditional noodle dishes. L D $$

House of Milae

4932 St. Elmo Ave., 301-654-1997. The Kang family, who own Milae Cleaners in Bethesda, bring simple Korean dishes to their first food foray. Chef “M&M” Kang prepares home-style fare such as bulgogi, galbi and bibimbap; also look for the Korean-style su-

shi known as kimbab. The kids’ menu has one item: spaghetti, made from the recipe of owner Thomas Kang’s former college roommate’s mother. L D $

Jaleo (Editors’ Pick)

7271 Woodmont Ave., 301-913-0003, www.jaleo.com. The restaurant that launched the American career of chef José Andrés and popularized Spanish tapas for a Washington, D.C., audience offers hot, cold, spicy and creative small plates served with outstanding Spanish wines. Voted “Best Small Plates” by Bethesda Magazine readers in 2014 and 2015. ❂ R L D $$

JAMAICAN MI CRAZY

7101 Democracy Blvd. (Westfield Montgomery mall), 301-469-6000. www.jmccurbside.com. Food truck operator Naya Radway adds a Caribbean vibe to Westfield’s dining terrace with a counter-service eatery. The daughter of Jamaican parents, Radway features family recipes for jerk chicken, curry chicken, stewed oxtail and more. L D $

Jetties

4829 Fairmont Ave., 301-769-6844, www.jetties dc.com. The only suburban location of the popular Nantucket-inspired sandwich shop, which has five restaurants in Northwest Washington, D.C. Aside from the signature Nobadeer sandwich (roasted turkey and stuffing with cranberry sauce and mayonnaise on sourdough), look for large salads, a soup bar and an innovative children’s menu. ❂ J L D $

Kabob Bazaar

7710 Wisconsin Ave., 301-652-5814, www.kabob bazaar.com. The younger sister of a popular Arlington restaurant with the same name offers kabobs in every protein possible, plus lots of vegetarian side dishes. Music on Saturdays and Sundays. ❂ L D $

Kadhai (Editors’ Pick)

7905 Norfolk Ave., 301-718-0121, www.kadhai.com. This popular Indian restaurant formerly known as Haandi serves a variety of traditional chicken, lamb and seafood dishes, plus rice and vegetarian dishes and a selection of breads. An extensive lunch buffet is offered daily. ❂ L D $$

La Panetteria

4921 Cordell Ave., 301-951-6433, www.lapanetteria. com. La Panetteria transports diners into a quaint Italian villa with its impeccable service and Old World atmosphere, serving such Southern and Northern Italian classic dishes as homemade spaghetti and veal scaloppine. L D $$

Le Vieux Logis

7925 Old Georgetown Road, 301-652-6816, www. levieuxlogisrestaurantmd.com. The colorful exterior will draw you into this family-run Bethesda institution, but classic French dishes such as Dover sole meunière and mussels in a white wine broth will keep you coming back. ❂ D $$$

Lebanese Taverna

7141 Arlington Road, 301-951-8681, www.lebanese taverna.com. This branch of this long-lived local chain is an elegant spot for dipping puffy pita bread into hummus and baba ghanoush. The rest of the traditional Lebanese mezze are worth a try, too, as are the slow-cooked lamb dishes. Voted “Best Mediterranean Restaurant” by Bethesda Magazine readers in 2014. ❂ J L D $$

Louisiana Kitchen & Bayou Bar

4907 Cordell Ave., 301-652-6945, www.louisiana bethesda.com. The popular Bethesda institution offers a Cajun- and Creole-style menu, complete with divine fried items. The pain perdou and beignets remain a great way to start a Sunday morning. BRLD$

Luke’s Lobster

7129 Bethesda Lane, 301-718-1005, www.lukes lobster.com. This upscale carryout features authentic lobster, shrimp and crab rolls; the seafood is shipped directly from Maine. Try the Taste of Maine, which offers all three kinds of rolls, plus two crab claws.❂ L D $

Mamma Lucia

4916 Elm St., 301-907-3399, www.mammalucia restaurants.com. New York-style pizza dripping with cheese and crowd-pleasing red sauce, and favorites like chicken Parmesan and linguini with clams draw the crowds to this local chain. Gluten-free options available. ❂ L D $$

MATUBA JAPANESE RESTAURANT

4918 Cordell Ave., 301-652-7449, www. matuba-sushi.com. Longtime Bethesda Japanese eatery goes more casual, with counter service and carryout added to the traditional seating area. Sushi a la carte, rolls and entrées all available. L D $$

Max Brenner Chocolate Bar

7263 Woodmont Ave., 301-215-8305, www.max brenner.com. Chocoholics and dessert lovers will have a field day with the restaurant’s milkshakes, coffee drinks, hot chocolate, crêpes, waffles, fondue, ice cream and chocolate pizza. A retail section offers bonbons, praline wafers and caramelized nuts rolled in hazelnut cream and cocoa powder. ❂ $

Met Bethesda

7101 Democracy Blvd., Unit 3200 (Westfield Montgomery mall), 301-767-1900. www.met bethesdamd.com. Boston-based restaurateur Kathy Sidell’s restaurant offers seasonal American cuisine cooked over a wood-burning grill. Look for oak-fired prime rib-eye steak, grilled avocados stuffed with Maryland crab and an extensive martini selection, served in snazzy surroundings with an open kitchen. L D $$

Mia’s Pizzas (Editors’ Pick)

4926 Cordell Ave., 301-718-6427, www.miaspizzas bethesda.com. Mia’s Pizzas’ wood-burning oven turns out Naples-style pies with a variety of toppings, plus homemade soups and cupcakes. Sit in the cheery dining room with yellow, green and orange accents or under an umbrella on the patio. ❂ J L D $$

Moby Dick House of Kabob

7027 Wisconsin Ave., 301-654-1838, www.mobys kabob.com. This kabob takeout/eat-in mainstay was one of the first kabob places in the area. It makes its own pita bread. The menu includes a variety of salads and vegetarian sandwiches and platters. L D $

MOMO Chicken + Jazz

4862 Cordell Ave., Bethesda, 240-483-0801, www. momofc.com. Skip the breasts, and head for the wings or drumsticks at Bethesda’s first Korean fried chicken spot. Options such as seafood pancakes, bulgogi and bibimbap are part of the extensive offerings, all served in a hip space with framed record albums gracing the walls. ❂ J L D $$

Mon Ami Gabi

7239 Woodmont Ave., 301-654-1234, www.mon amigabi.com. Waiters serve bistro classics such as escargot, steak frites and profiteroles in a dark and boisterous spot that doesn’t feel like a chain. Voted “Best Place for a Couple’s Night Out” by the magazine’s readers in 2015. Live jazz Tuesday and Thursday nights. ❂ J R L D $$ Rw

Morton’s, The Steakhouse

7400 Wisconsin Ave., 301-657-2650, www.mortons. com. An ultra-sophisticated steak house serving pricey, large portions of prime-aged beef and drinks. The

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restaurant is known for a top-notch dinner experience but also offers lunch and a bar menu. D $$$ Rw

Mussel Bar & Grille

7262 Woodmont Ave., 301-215-7817, www.musselbar. com. Kensington resident and big-name chef Robert Wiedmaier serves his signature mussels, plus woodfired tarts, salads and sandwiches. Wash them all down with a choice of 40 Belgian beers, a list that was voted “Best Craft Beer Selection” by the magazine’s readers in 2013 and 2015. ❂ R L D $$ Rw Naples Ristorante E Pizzeria E Bar

7101 Democracy Blvd. (Westfield Montgomery mall), 301-365-8300, www.naplesbethesda.com. Neapolitan-style pizzas from three wood-fired ovens are served at this large, light and airy addition to the mall’s dining terrace. Owned by the Patina Restaurant Group, which operates about 70 eateries nationwide, Naples also offers Italian wines, small plates, pasta dishes and entrées. L D $$

NOT YOUR AVERAGE JOE’S

10400 Old Georgetown Rd., 240-316-4555, www. notyouraveragejoes.com. Massachusetts-based chain does a total redo, inside and out, of the old Hamburger Hamlet, transforming it into an urban, rustic setting. Moderately-priced menu offers burgers, big salads and stone-hearth pizzas, plus entrées like Vietnamese salmon and Anything But Average Meatloaf. ❂ J L D $$

Oakville Grille & Wine Bar

(Editors’ Pick)

10257 Old Georgetown Road, 301-897-9100, www. oakvillewinebar.com. Fresh California food paired

with a thoughtful wine list in an elegant, spare setting may not sound unique, but Oakville was one of the first in the area to do so, and continues to do it well. L D $$ Rw

Olazzo (Editors’ Pick)

7921 Norfolk Ave., 301-654-9496, www.olazzo.com. This well-priced, romantic restaurant is the place for couples seeking red-sauce classics at reasonable prices. Founded by brothers Riccardo and Roberto Pietrobono, it was voted “Best Italian Restaurant” and “Best Fried Calamari” by our readers in 2014. ❂ L D $$

Original Pancake House

7700 Wisconsin Ave., Store D, 301-986-0285, www. ophrestaurants.com. Try one of dozens of pancake dishes, as well as eggs and waffles galore. Named “Best Breakfast” by the magazine’s readers in 2014. JBL$

Parva Cocina & Tequila Bar

7904 Woodmont Ave., 301-312-6488, www.the parva.com. With more than 70 tequilas and an extensive menu of Tex-Mex dishes, the eatery formerly called The Parva has re-branded itself from its Latin fusion days. All three varieties of the ceviche are lively, and so is the bar scene. R D $$

Passage to India (Editors’ Pick)

4931 Cordell Ave., 301-656-3373, www.passageto india.info. Top-notch, pan-Indian fare by chef-owner Sudhir Seth, with everything from garlic naan to fish curry made to order. Elegant ivory screens shield diners from street noise. Voted “Best Indian Restaurant” by Bethesda Magazine readers in 2014. ❂ R L D $$

PASSIONFISH bethesda

7187 Woodmont Ave., 301-358-6116, passionfish bethesda.com. The second location of Passion Food Hospitality’s splashy seafood restaurant (the first opened in 2008 in Reston, Virginia) features stunning coastal-themed décor and an extensive menu of shellfish, caviar, sushi, chef’s specialties and fresh catches of the day. See review, page 284. J L D

$$$

PAUL

4760 Bethesda Ave., 301-656-3285, www.paul-usa. com. Five-generation, family-owned French bakery becomes an international chain, with locations in close to 35 countries. Aside from breads and pastries, look for soups, sandwiches and quiche. ❂ B L D $

Penang Malaysian & THAI Cuisine & BAR

4933 Bethesda Ave., 301-657-2878, www.penang maryland.com. At this Malaysian spot decorated with exotic dark woods and a thatched roof, spices run the gamut of Near and Far Eastern influence, and flavors include coconut, lemongrass, sesame and chili sauce. L D $$

Persimmon (Editors’ Pick)

7003 Wisconsin Ave., 301-654-9860, www.persimmon restaurant.com. Owners Damian and Stephanie Salvatore’s popular restaurant offers casual fare from salads to sandwiches to meat and seafood entrées in a bistro setting featuring a lively bar, cozy booths and bright paintings on the walls. ❂ R L D $$

Pines of Rome

4709 Hampden Lane, 301-657-8775. Local celebrities and families gather at this down-home Italian spot for traditional pasta, pizza, fish and seafood at prices

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dine that are easy on the wallet. The white pizza is a hit, and don’t forget the spaghetti and meatballs. L D $

Pizza Tempo

8021 Wisconsin Ave., 240-497-0000, www.pizza tempo.us. Pizza with a twist, which includes toppings such as sujuk (Mediterranean beef sausage), pistachio mortadella and spicy beef franks, plus a wide selection of pides (boat-shaped pizzas). Salads, wraps, panini and entrées also available. Limited seating; delivery within about a 3-mile radius. L D $

Pizzeria da Marco (Editors’ Pick)

8008 Woodmont Ave., 301-654-6083, www.pizzeria damarco.net. Authentic Neapolitan pizzas fired in a 900-degree Italian brick oven range from the Siciliana with eggplant confit and black olives to the Solo Carne with sausage, pepperoni and salame. Salads, antipasti and calzones available, too. ❂ L D $

Positano Ristorante Italiano

4940-48 Fairmont Ave., 301-654-1717, www. epositano.com. An authentic Italian, family-run restaurant popular for private events, large and small. Colorful rooms are decorated with Italian landscapes, copper pots and hanging plants, and the outdoor patio is one of the most beautiful in the county. ❂ L D $$

Praline Bakery & Bistro

4611 Sangamore Road, 301-229-8180, www. praline-bakery.com. This sunny restaurant offers a tempting bakery takeout counter, full dining service and a patio. The food, which includes chicken pot pie and pralines, is French with an American accent. The magazine’s editors voted its desserts the prettiest around in 2013. ❂ J B R L D $$

Raku (Editors’ Pick)

7240 Woodmont Ave., 301-718-8680, www.raku asiandining.com. Voted “Best Sushi” by the magazine’s readers in 2014 and “Best Bethesda Restaurant” in 2013, this casual restaurant has bamboo walls that do little to dampen the noise, but the menu satisfies with everything from sushi to kung pao chicken. ❂ L D $$

Redwood Restaurant & Bar

7121 Bethesda Lane, 301-656-5515, www.redwood bethesda.com. The upscale wine bar features fresh, local food and California-centric wines. Voted “Best Private Dining Room” by the magazine’s readers in 2013 (in a tie), Redwood features a frequently changing menu and in-season farmers market dinners. ❂ J R L D $$

Rice Paddies Grill & Pho

4706 Bethesda Ave., 301-718-1862, ricepaddies grill.com. This cute copper-and-green eat-in/carryout makes quick work of Vietnamese favorites such as pork, beef and vegetable skewers infused with lemongrass and the classic beef noodle soup known as pho. L D $

Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery 7900 Norfolk Ave., 301-652-1311, www.rock bottom.com. India Pale Ales and specialty dark brews are among the award-winning beers crafted in-house at this cavernous yet welcoming chain, which offers a vast menu. The burgers are the real deal. ❂ J L D $$

Ruth’s Chris Steak House

7315 Wisconsin Ave., 301-652-7877, www.ruths chris.com. A dark and clubby feel makes this elegant chain popular with families as well as the happy-hour crowd. Don’t skip the fresh seafood choices, which include Caribbean lobster tail and barbecued shrimp. D $$$

Sala Thai

4828 Cordell Ave., 301-654-4676, www.salathai dc.com. This Thai mainstay cooks the classics and offers diners a nearly panoramic view of Woodmont Avenue through huge, curved windows. Live jazz Friday and Saturday evenings. L D $$

Saphire Café

7940 Wisconsin Ave., 301-986-9708. A relaxing spot for tasting everything from Maryland-style crab soup to Argentine skirt steak, Saphire pumps it up a notch on Friday and Saturday nights with drink specials and DJs. Tiki bar open Wednesdays through Saturdays. ❂ L D $

Satsuma

8003 Norfolk Ave., 301-652-1400. satsumajp.com. Bethesda’s first yakiniku (Japanese barbecue) restaurant has built-in grills at each table. Diners select a cut—short rib, chuck rib, skirt or tongue—and prepare it themselves. There’s also an extensive sushi and sashimi menu, as well as interesting cooked dishes. L D $$

Shanghai Village

4929 Bethesda Ave., 301-654-7788. Owner Kwok Chueng prides himself on personal attention and recognizing regulars who have been stopping in for his classic Chinese cooking for more than 25 years. Order the secret recipe Mai Tai. L D $

Shangri -La Nepalese and Indian Cuisine

7345-A Wisconsin Ave., 301-656-4444, www.shangri labethesda.com. Northern Indian and Nepali specialties such as butter chicken and fresh flatbreads known as naan shine here. The extensive menu ranges from soups and salads to tandoori and kabobs.J L D $

Share Wine Lounge & Small Plate Bistro

8120 Wisconsin Ave. (DoubleTree Hotel), 301-652-2000, www.doubletreebethesda.com/ dining.aspx. Share some buffalo chicken sliders or avocado bruschetta, or go for main courses ranging from Yankee pot roast to cedar plank-roasted salmon. B L D $$

SILVER

7150 Woodmont Ave., 301-652-9780, eatatsilver. com. Upscale, tonier version of the homegrown Silver Diner chain, with modern takes on American classics and an emphasis on healthy, local and organic ingredients. Sleek interior takes its cue from the 1920s. ❂ J B R L D $$

Smoke BBQ Bethesda

4858 Cordell Ave., 301-656-2011, www.smokebbq bethesda.com. Pulled pork, beef brisket, smoked chicken, ribs and all the fixin’s, plus starters including smoked tomato soup and fried pickles served in a friendly, casual space. Delivery available for orders over $15. J L D $

SOUP UP BETHESDA (New)

5001 Wilson Lane, 301-986-4744, soupup.us. Jamaican-born Donna Henry branches out from a stall at D.C.’s Union Market to a 46-seat soup bar in Bethesda’s striking mint-green PeriPoint building. No dairy, butter, oil, preservatives or additives are used in her creative, satisfying soups; the menu also includes homemade spring rolls and salads. Save room for the ice cream sandwich, made with cornbread patties and vanilla ice cream. ❂ L D $

South Street Steaks

4856 Cordell Ave., 301-215-8333, www.southstreet steaks.com. Even transplanted Philadelphians will admire the cheesesteaks at this local chain’s third

location. The shop also offers chicken cheesesteaks, hoagies (that’s Philly-talk for cold subs) and sandwiches called “Phillinis,” a cross between “Philly” and “panini.” J L D $

Stromboli Family Restaurant

7023 Wisconsin Ave., 301-986-1980, www.strombolis restaurant.com. In addition to a large selection of delectable hot Italian sandwiches called stromboli, this proud family restaurant/carryout features pizzas, subs and pastas at reasonable prices. L D $

sweetgreen

4831 Bethesda Ave.301-654-7336, sweetgreen.com. The sweetgreen fast-casual chain—with its focus on local and organic ingredients—concentrates on salads (devise your own, or pick from a list) and soups. Look for eco-friendly décor and a healthy sensibility. ❂ LD$

Tako Grill

4914 Hampden Lane (The Shoppes of Bethesda), 301-652-7030, www.takogrill.com. Longtime, popular sushi destination relocates to the space formerly occupied by Hinode Japanese Restaurant. Look for the same traditional sushi menu, plus some new options, such as griddle-cooked teppanyaki at lunch, and more varieties of yakatori at dinner. L D $$

Tandoori Nights

7236 Woodmont Ave., 301-656-4002, www.tandoori nightsbethesda.com. Located in the heart of downtown Bethesda, the restaurant serves traditional Indian fare ranging from tandoori chicken, marinated in yogurt and spices, to a biryani flavored with saffron, nuts and raisins. ❂ L D $$

Tastee Diner

7731 Woodmont Ave., 301-652-3970, www.tastee diner.com. For 80 years, this crowd-pleasing if slightly sagging spot has served up everything from breakfast to burgers to blue-plate specials such as steak and crab cakes to crowds of loyal customers. Open 24 hours. J B L D $

Taylor Gourmet

7280 Woodmont Ave., 301-951-9001, www.taylor gourmet.com. The sandwich shop offers a menu of upscale takes on Philadelphia hoagies, sandwiches and salads made with top-notch ingredients. Check out the eggroll appetizer of mozzarella, provolone, hot capicola, Genoa salami, peppers and red onion. LD$

Tia Queta

4839 Del Ray Ave., 301-654-4443, www.tiaqueta.com. This longtime family and happy-hour favorite offers authentic Mexican food such as moles and fish dishes, as well as the usual Tex-Mex options. Menu includes American and Mexican beers. ❂ J L D $$

Tommy Joe’s Restaurant

4714 Montgomery Lane, 301-654-3801, www.tommy joes.com. Hot wings, loaded potato skins and sliders, along with drink specials, abound at this friendly restaurant/bar/nightclub featuring 20 big-screen TVs for game time. ❂ L D $$

Trattoria Sorrento (Editors’ Pick)

4930 Cordell Ave., 301-718-0344, www.trattoria sorrento.com. This family-run Italian favorite offers homemade pastas, baked eggplant and fresh fish dishes. Half-price bottles of wine on Wednesdays. Opera dinners at 6 p.m. on the first Sunday of each month feature a four-course meal and a performance for $60 per person. D $$

Tyber Bierhaus

7525 Old Georgetown Road, 240-821-6830, www. tyberbierhausmd.com. Czech, German and Belgian

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brews served in an authentic beer-hall setting, furnished with the same benches as those used in the Hofbrau brewhouse in Munich. Pub menu features mussels, hearty sandwiches, schnitzel and goulash. R L D $$

Uncle Julio’s Rio Grande Café

4870 Bethesda Ave., 301-656-2981, www.uncle julios.com. Loud and large, this Tex-Mex eatery packs in families and revelers fueling up on fajitas, tacos and more. Kids love to watch the tortilla machine. Voted “Most Kid-Friendly Restaurant” by the magazine’s readers in 2015. ❂ J R L D $$

Union Jack’s

Vino Volo

7247 Woodmont Ave., 301-656-0916, www.vino volobethesdarow.com. This wine bar and shop features a rustic café serving small plates, cheeses and cured meats, salads, sandwiches, pizza and a few entrées. For dessert, there’s bourbon bread pudding, gelato or sorbetto. ❂ L D $$

4915 St. Elmo Ave., 301-652-2561, www.union jacksbethesda.com. This authentically decorated British-style pub is partially below street level. English dishes such as Welsh rarebit cozy up to burgers, salads and crab cakes. DJ and dancing on weekends until 2:30 a.m. ❂ L D $$

RW Restaurant Group. Delightfully dated décor includes lava lamps and photos of late great rock stars. The menu is divided into hearty dishes (villain) and vegetarian options (saint). ❂ R L D $$

Urban Heights

7940 Norfolk Ave., 301-312-8282, urbanheights bethesda.com. Chef Robert Wiedmaier’s RW Restaurant Group features the pan-Asian cooking of Filipino chef Cliff Wharton, who concentrates on creative small plates (think wasabi blue cheese guacamole). The second-story restaurant offers patio and rooftop dining, plus jazzy drinks such as a kumquat mojito. ❂ L D $$

Villain & Saint

7141 Wisconsin Ave., 240-800-4700, villainand saint.com. Listen to live music while digging into salt-roasted beets or slow-smoked pork ribs at this hip bar, courtesy of chef Robert Wiedmaier’s

Wildwood Italian Kitchen

10257 Old Georgetown Road (Wildwood Shopping Center), 301-493-9230, www.oakvillewinebar.com. The owners, menu, décor and chef are the same, but the former Geppetto restaurant just gets a name change. The longtime eatery, owned by the adjacent Oakville Grille & Wine Bar, serves up thick-crusted Sicilian-style pizza, pasta and entrées in a casual atmosphere. ❂ L D $$ Rw

Wildwood Kitchen (Editors’ Pick)

10223 Old Georgetown Road (Wildwood Shopping Center), 301-571-1700, www.wildwoodkitchen rw.com. Chef Robert Wiedmaier’s attractive neighborhood bistro serving fresh and light modern cuisine. Entrées range from Amish chicken with a scallion potato cake to grilled Atlantic salmon with creamy polenta. L D $$

Woodmont Grill (Editors’ Pick)

7715 Woodmont Ave., 301-656-9755, www. hillstone.com. Part of the Houston’s chain, the eatery offers such classics as spinach-and-artichoke

dip and its famous burgers, but also house-baked breads, more exotic dishes, live jazz and a granite bar. ❂ L D $$$

Yamas Mediterranean Grill

4806 Rugby Ave., 301-312-8384, www.yamasgrill. com. A friendly staff serves gyros, souvlaki, lemon chicken and other Greek specialties at this sunny café. Dinner entrées include Greek-style chicken and vegetarian mousaka. ❂ J L D $

Yuzu

7345-B Wisconsin Ave., 301-656-5234, yuzu bethesda.com. Diners will find authentic Japanese dishes, including sushi, sashimi and cooked tofu, vegetable, tempura, meat and fish dishes, prepared by sushi chef and owner Yoshihisa Ota. L D $$

CABIN JOHN Fish Taco

7945 MacArthur Blvd., 301-229-0900, www.fish tacoonline.com. This counter-service taqueria from the owners of Bethesda’s Food Wine & Co. features a full roster of seafood as well as non-aquatic tacos, plus margaritas and other Mexican specialties. The eco-chic décor is casual and attractive. Don’t miss the bread pudding. ❂ J L D $

Indigo House (Editors’ Pick)

7945 MacArthur Blvd., 301-312-6737, www.indigo houserestaurant.com. Sake-steamed clams, tamarind pork buns and tea-smoked duck breast are among the choices at this hip Pan-Asian eatery from Persimmon and Wild Tomato restaurateurs Damian and

2016

Winner

A 2016 Top Vote Getter

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dine Stephanie Salvatore. There’s a long bar that’s inviting for drinks and sushi. ❂ L D $$

Wild Tomato (Editors’ Pick)

7945 MacArthur Blvd., 301-229-0680, www.wild tomatorestaurant.com. A family-friendly neighborhood restaurant from Persimmon and Indigo House owners Damian and Stephanie Salvatore, serving salads, sandwiches and pizza. Voted “Best Fish Tacos” by our readers in 2014. ❂ J L D $

CHEVY CHASE Alfio’s La Trattoria

4515 Willard Ave., 301-657-9133, www.alfios.com. This Northern Italian classic on the first floor of The Willoughby of Chevy Chase Condominium has been feeding families and casual diners for more than 30 years. Look for traditional pasta, veal and chicken dishes (plus pizza), served in an Old World environment. J L D $$

THE Capital Grille

5310 Western Ave., 301-718-7812, www.capital grille.com. The upscale steak-house chain, known for its He-Man-sized portions and extensive wine list, is located in The Shops at Wisconsin Place. Entrées also include chicken, lamb chops, salmon and lobster. L D $$$$

Clyde’s

5441 Wisconsin Ave., 301-951-9600, www.clydes. com. The popular restaurant features a frequently changing menu of American favorites and a collection of vintage airplanes and cars, as well as a model train running on a track around the ceiling. ❂ J R L D $$

La Ferme (Editors’ Pick)

7101 Brookville Road, 301-986-5255, www.la fermerestaurant.com. This charming Provencestyle restaurant serving classic French cuisine is a popular choice for an intimate dinner or a celebration in one of several private rooms or on the heated patio terrace. Perhaps that’s why the magazine’s readers voted it the “Most Romantic Restaurant” in 2014. ❂ R L D $$$

Lia’s (Editors’ Pick)

4435 Willard Ave., 240-223-5427, www.chefgeoff. com. Owner Geoff Tracy focuses on high-quality, lowfuss modern Italian-American fare at this modern space with a wine room. Pizzas, house-made pastas and fresh fish please business lunchers and dinner crowds. ❂ J R L D $

Manoli Canoli Restaurant

8540 Connecticut Ave., 301-951-1818, www.manoli canoli.com. Italian and Greek specialties abound at a fun family eatery that features a large prepared foods section, dishes made with olive oil from owner Stavros Manolakos’ family farm in Greece and homemade mozzarella on pizza and subs. ❂ J L D $

Meiwah Restaurant

4457 Willard Ave., 301-652-9882, www.meiwah restaurant.com. This modern restaurant on the second floor of a Friendship Heights office building offers top-quality Chinese dishes that are hard to beat. There’s also a sushi bar with an extensive menu. A fountain sparkles on the outdoor patio. ❂ L D $$

Potomac Pizza

19 Wisconsin Circle, 301-951-1127, www.potomac pizza.com. This cheery, casual dining room provides a break from the ultra-posh shopping surrounding it. In addition to pizza, subs and pastas are popular. Beer and wine available. ❂ J L D $

Sushiko (Editors’ Pick)

5455 Wisconsin Ave., 301-961-1644, www.sushiko restaurants.com. Known as one of the Washington, D.C., area’s most respected sushi restaurant, Sushiko offers a wide range of sushi and other dishes. A chef’s nine-course tasting menu includes seven original small dishes, a sushi course and dessert. ❂ L D $$

Tavira

8401 Connecticut Ave., 301-652-8684, www.tavira restaurant.com. Fish stews and several versions of bacalhau (salted cod) figure prominently on the menu of this intriguing Portuguese restaurant, which manages to be charming and attractive despite its location in an office building basement. L D $$

GARRETT PARK Black Market Bistro (Editors’ Pick)

4600 Waverly Ave., 301-933-3000, www.black marketrestaurant.com. Sublime American bistro fare served in a restored Victorian building next to railroad tracks; the building once served as a general store and still houses a post office. Entrées range from swordfish to a burger and pizza, including several vegetable options. ❂ J R L D $$

GLEN ECHO Irish Inn at Glen Echo

6119 Tulane Ave., 301-229-6600, www.irishinn glenecho.com. This historic tavern has been a family home and a biker bar, but its incarnation as the Irish Inn has been delivering smiles and hearty food since 2003. Traditional Irish music on Monday nights and The 19th Street Band on every other Wednesday night, plus live jazz on Thursday nights. ❂ J R L D $$

KENSINGTON Frankly…Pizza!

10417 Armory Ave., 301-832-1065, www.franklypizza. com. Owner Frank Linn turns out high-quality pizza in a rustic brick-and-mortar restaurant. The menu offers wood-fired pies topped with home-cured meats and tomato sauce made from an 80-year-old family recipe. Wines and homemade sodas served on tap, too. ❂LD$

K Town Bistro

3784 Howard Ave., 301-933-1211, www.ktown bistro.com. Try filet mignon, duck breast à l’orange, chicken marsala and other classic continental dishes from this family-run eatery owned by Gonzalo Barba, former longtime captain of the restaurant in the Watergate Hotel. L D $$

Savannah’s American Grill

10700 Connecticut Ave., 301-946-7917. This casual sports bar serves American bar food, including wraps, burgers, salads and ribs, and brunch on weekends. Diners can enjoy their meals outside on a 50seat patio. ❂ J R L D $

Sub*Urban Trading Co.

10301 Kensington Parkway, 301-962-4046, www. suburbantrading.com. Earthy, neighborhood bistro and market features creative seasonal dishes. Think cured duck leg sandwich with shaved onions and fig preserves, roasted sausage and rice-stuffed shallots, vegetable pot-au-feu, plus homemade sweets. R L D $$

NORTH POTOMAC/ GAITHERSBURG Asia Nine

254 Crown Park Ave. (Downtown Crown), 301-3309997, www.asianine md.com. Pan Asian restaurant with a first location in Washington, D.C.’s Penn Quarter offers dishes from Vietnam, China, Thailand and Japan. Specialties include grilled lamb chops served with mango-soy coulis and miso honey duck breast drizzled with a sake butter sauce. R L D $$

Athens Grill

9124 Rothbury Drive, 301-975-0757, www.athens grill.com. This casual, friendly, family-run restaurant specializes in authentic Greek cooking, using recipes handed down through generations. Specialties such as rotisserie chicken, chargrilled salmon with a lemon dill sauce and lamb kabobs are cooked on a hardwood grill. L D $

Bonefish Grill

82 Market St., 240-631-2401, www.bonefishgrill.com. While fresh fish cooked over a wood fire is the centerpiece of this upscale Florida chain, the steaks, crab cakes and specialty martinis make it a fun option for happy hour and those with hearty appetites. R L D $$

Boulevard Tavern

311 Kentlands Blvd., 301-569-4247, thetaverns.com/ boulevard-tavern. Brasserie Beck Kentlands was revamped into a more casual American tavern with an expansive menu including chicken wings, burgers, Maryland crab cakes and mussels. The restaurant also offers a mixture of American and Belgian craft beers and a larger outdoor dining area that sometimes hosts live music. ❂ R L D $$

Buca di Beppo

122 Kentlands Blvd., 301-947-7346, www.bucadi beppo.com. The Kentlands outpost of this national chain serves huge, family-style portions of Italian specialties from fresh breads to antipasti and pasta dishes amid a sea of Italian kitsch. Desserts include Italian Creme Cake and Tiramisu. J L D $$

Burma Road

617 S. Frederick Ave., 301-963-1429, www.burma road.biz. A good place to sample pickled tea leaf salad and other Burmese specialties. House specials include Three Cup Chicken Casserole and Sizzling Shrimp and Scallop in Hot Garlic Sauce. L D $

Coal Fire

116 Main St., 301-519-2625, www.coalfireonline.com. Homemade crusts fired by coal and topped with your choice of toppings and three different sauces: classic, spicy and signature, which is slightly sweet with a hint of spice. Salads, sandwiches and pasta also available, plus a full bar. ❂ L D $

Coastal Flats

135 Crown Park Ave. (Downtown Crown), 301-8698800, www.greatamericanrestaurants.com. First Maryland locale for Great American Restaurants, a Fairfaxbased chain. Seaside-inspired décor extends to the menu, which offers lobster and shrimp rolls, fried grouper and key lime pie. Steaks, pasta and burgers also served. ❂ J L D $$

Copper Canyon Grill

100 Boardwalk Place, 240-631-0003, www.ccgrill. com. Large portions of American classics such as salads, ribs and rotisserie chicken prepared with

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Growler’s

227 E. Diamond Ave., 301-519-9400, www.growlers restaurant.com. This turn-of-the-century building in downtown Gaithersburg is now a brewpub with regular and seasonal house brews and a full menu including pizzas, burgers, sandwiches and entrées such as Cajun rigatoni and steak frites. Live music Wednesday through Saturday. ❂ J R L D $

Guapo’s Restaurant

9811 Washingtonian Blvd., L-17, 301-977-5655, www.guaposrestaurant.com. See Bethesda listing. ❂JRLD$

Hershey’s Restaurant & Bar

17030 Oakmont Ave., 301-948-9893, www.hersheys atthegrove.com. Fried chicken that tastes like it was made by an aproned elder is served up in a clapboard building constructed in 1889. Besides the fab fried chicken, Hershey’s serves up warm rolls, inexpensive prices and live music. ❂ J R L D $$

INFERNO PIZZERIA NAPOLETANA (New)

12207 Darnestown Road, 301-963-0115, inferno-pizzeria.com. Tony Conte, former executive chef of Washington, D.C.’s Oval Room, goes casual with his first restaurant, an authentic Neapolitan pizzeria offering sophisticated toppings such as shaved truffles and garlic confit. Cozy dining room seats 39, with a tiled, wood-burning pizza oven as the centerpiece. D $

Il Porto Restaurant

245 Muddy Branch Road, 301-590-0735, www.il portorestaurant.com. A classic red-sauce menu, elegant murals of Venice and an authentic thin-crust pizza are hallmarks of this friendly, unfussy Italian restaurant tucked in the Festival Shopping Center. Fried calamari and the white pizza are among customer favorites. ❂ L D $

Joe’s Crab Shack

221 Rio Blvd., 301-947-4377, www.joescrabshack.com. This is one of four Maryland locations of the chain, which offers blue crabs from April through August and other varieties year-round, as well as chicken and burgers for landlubbers. Popular with families and young couples. ❂ J L D $$

Le Palais

304 Main St., No. 100, 301-947-4051, www. restaurantlepalais.com. Chef-owner Joseph Zaka trips lightly through the dishes of Brittany and Burgundy, adding a modern twist here and there. Entrées include squab with chestnuts, prunes and wild mushrooms, and cassolette of lamb. D $$$

The Melting Pot

9021 Gaither Road, 301-519-3638, www.themelting pot.com. There’s nothing like dipping bits of bread, vegetables and apples into a communal pot of hot cheese to get a date or a party started. The Melting Pot chain also offers wine, oil or broth to cook meat tableside and chocolate fondue for dessert. J D $$

Not Your Average Joe’s

245 Kentlands Blvd., 240-477-1040, www.notyour averagejoes.com. See Bethesda listing. ❂ J L D $$

Paladar Latin Kitchen & Rum Bar

203 Crown Park Ave., 301-330-4400, www. paladarlatinkitchen.com. This Cleveland-based chain covers the spectrum of Latin cuisine, with dishes from Cuba, the Caribbean and Central and South America. From Brazil, there’s feijoada stew; from Cuba, ropa vieja; and from Jamaica, jerk chicken. Bar selections includes 50 varieties of rum, 15 tequilas and six types of mojitos. ❂ J R L D $$

Potomac Pizza

625 Center Point Way, 301-977-9777, www.potomac pizza.com. See Chevy Chase listing. J L D $

Quincy’s Bar & Grille

616 Quince Orchard Road, 301-869-8200, quincys bar.com. Energetic neighborhood pub with a sports bar atmosphere, Quincy’s also has an extensive menu with wings, pizza, build-your-own burgers and chicken sandwiches, plus entrées including Guinnessbraised brisket. Live music is also a big draw. L D $

DONU

800 W. Diamond Ave., 301-963-4847, www.dogfish alehouse.com. The first Maryland outpost of the popular Rehoboth Beach brewpub, the restaurant is packed with revelers and families clamoring for the Dogfish Head brews, burgers, pizzas and ribs. Check out the burger of the week. ❂ J L D $$

212 Ellington Blvd. (Downtown Crown), 301-9636281, www.oldtownpourhouse.com. One of the eateries from Chicago’s Bottleneck Management restaurant company, this place features more than 90 local and international brews on tap. Classic American cuisine is served in a setting with copper-inlaid bars and high ceilings. ❂ L D $$

Dogfish Head Alehouse

Old Town Pour House

seasonal ingredients at family-friendly prices are the bill of fare at this spacious and casual chain restaurant. J L D $$

OFF E

hand made fresh everyday locally roasted

direct trade, specialty

coffee

office subscriptions available at:

4901 b fairmont ave

Red Hot & Blue

16811 Crabbs Branch Way, 301-948-7333, www. redhotandblue.com. You’ll find generous portions of hickory-smoked barbecue, plus burgers, salads and wraps, and a Southern attitude at this chain popular for its office party takeout and its family-friendly, kitschy roadhouse décor. J L D $

(corner of norfolk)

(301) 951-3653

Rio Grande Café

231 Rio Blvd., 240-632-2150, www.unclejulios.com. See Bethesda listing under Uncle Julio’s. ❂ J R L D $$

Ruth’s Chris Steak House

106 Crown Park Ave. (Downtown Crown), 301-9901926, www.ruthschris.com. See Bethesda listing. D $$$

Sardi’s Pollo a La Brasa

430 N. Frederick Ave., 301-977-3222, www.sardis chicken.com. Yes, there’s charbroiled chicken, but don’t miss the other Peruvian specialties, especially the ceviche and Salchipapas, a true Peruvian street food of thinly sliced pan-fried beef hotdogs mixed with french fries and served with condiments. L D $

Bethesda Magazine Reader’s Pick, A Top Vote Getter, Best Sushi

Tandoori Nights

106 Market St., 301-947-4007, www.tandoori nightsmd.com. See Bethesda listing. ❂ L D $

Tara Thai

9811 Washingtonian Blvd., L-9, 301-947-8330, www. tarathai.com. Thai cuisine goes high style at Bethesda Magazine’s pick for “Best Thai Restaurant” in 2014. With colorful murals of ocean creatures looking on, diners can try dishes ranging from mild to adventurous. ❂ L D $$

Ted’s Bulletin

220 Ellington Blvd. (Downtown Crown), 301-9900600, www.tedsbulletin.com. First Maryland location of the modern diner chainlet from the folks at Matchbox Food Group. Boozy milkshakes, homemade pop tarts and the Cinnamon Roll As Big As Ya Head (served weekends only) are among the specialties. ❂ J R L D $$

TED’S MONTANA GRILL (New)

105 Ellington Blvd. (Downtown Crown), 301-3300777, tedsmontanagrill.com. First Maryland location

4914 Hampden Lane Bethesda, MD 20814 (301) 652-7030

www.takogrill.com

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dine of billionaire and bison rancher Ted Turner’s restaurant chain, which uses bison as the showpiece in a humongous selection of dishes, including burgers, meatloaf, nachos and chili. Soups, salads, American classics and spiked milkshakes also available at this saloon-style eatery. ❂ J L D $$

Thai Tanium

657 Center Point Way, 301-990-3699, www.thai taniumrestaurant.com. Authentic Thai food laced with lots of chilies and garlic as hot as you like. Try one of the Thai street food dishes, such as roasted pork with Thai herbed sweet sauce and noodle soups. ❂ J L D $

Vasilis Mediterranean Grill

353 Main St., 301-977-1011, www.vasilisgrill.com. With soaring white pillars and a spate of inviting outdoor tables, this Greek restaurant serves the usual souvlaki and gyros as well as more interesting dishes such as grilled branzini (sea bass) and lamb chops. ❂ J L D $

The Wine Harvest, The Kentlands

114 Market St., 301-869-4008, www.thewine harvest.com. Stop by this popular Cheers-like wine bar locally owned by the Meyrowitz family for a glass of wine or a Belgian beer. The menu includes salads, sandwiches and cheese plates. There’s also a Potomac location. ❂ L D $

Yoyogi Sushi

328 Main St., 301-963-0001. A no-nonsense neighborhood sushi place with bright fish tanks, it offers the familiar sushi, teriyaki, tempura dishes, plus seaweed salad, soup, green tea and red bean ice cream. LD$

Ziki Japanese Steak House

10009 Fields Road, 301-330-3868, www.zikisteak house.com. This large steak house on a busy corner charms patrons with its fountains, stone Buddhas and geisha mannequins. Food offerings include sushi, as well as meats cooked on a tableside hibachi. J L D $$

POTOMAC Amici Miei

1093 Seven Locks Road, 301-545-0966, www.amici mieiristorante.com. Chef Davide Megna and manager/ partner Roberto Deias have created an upscale Italian neighborhood gathering place, with wood-fired pizzas, homemade pastas and creative salads. ❂ R L D $$

Attman’s Delicatessen

7913 Tuckerman Lane (Cabin John Shopping Center & Mall), 301-765-3354, cabinjohn.attmansdeli.com. This landmark Baltimore deli has run a second location in Potomac since 2013. The menu offers the same legendary corned beef, pastrami and other deli specialties. Third-generation owner Marc Attman is at the helm. J B L D $

Brooklyn’s Deli & Catering

1089 Seven Locks Road, 301-340-3354, www. brooklynsdelimd.com. From chopped liver to chicken soup, Brooklyn’s serves all the deli specialties, plus more. Think hot pastrami with cole slaw and Russian dressing on pumpernickel or grilled marinated chicken breast, avocado, tomato and mayonnaise on grilled sourdough. ❂ J B L D $

Elevation Burger

12525-D Park Potomac Ave., 301-838-4010, www. elevationburger.com. Fast-food burgers go organic and grass-fed at this Northern Virginia-founded

chain. Veggie burgers, chicken sandwiches, grilled cheese and a BLT available, too. Shake flavors range from banana to key lime and cheesecake. ❂ L D $

Gregorio’s Trattoria

7745 Tuckerman Lane (Cabin John Shopping Center & Mall), 301-296-6168, www.gregoriostrattoria.com. Proprietor Greg Kahn aims to make everyone feel at home at this family-owned restaurant serving a hit parade of traditional Italian favorites, with all the familiar pasta, pizza, chicken, veal and seafood dishes; the gluten-free menu offers pizza, cheese ravioli and quinoa pastas. J L D $$

The Grilled Oyster Co. (Editors’ Pick)

7943 Tuckerman Lane (Cabin John Shopping Center & Mall), 301-299-9888, www.thegrilled oystercompany. com. This Chesapeake-style seafood eatery features small plates, salads, sandwiches and entrées. Named “Best New Restaurant” by Bethesda Magazine readers in 2014. ❂ J R L D $$

Hunter’s Bar and Grill

10123 River Road, 301-299-9300, www.thehunters inn.com. At this Potomac institution and popular English hunt-themed spot, try a big salad or hamburger for lunch and a traditional pasta dish or filet mignon for dinner with the family. ❂ J R L D $$

Mix Bar and Grille

9812 Falls Road, Potomac, 301-299-3000, www.mix barandgrille.com. This casual spot serves charcuterie and cheese plates, brick-oven flatbreads and other light fare. The space is modern and hip, with tall, white banquettes, Plexiglas chairs, five big-screen TVs, and a 20-seat bar. Look for lots of wines by the glass and beers on tap. L D $$

MoCo’s Founding Farmers

12505 Park Potomac Ave., 301-340-8783, www.we arefoundingfarmers.com. Farm-inspired fare in a modern and casual setting; this is the sister restaurant to the phenomenally popular downtown Founding Farmers. Bethesda Magazine readers chose it as “Best Restaurant in Montgomery County” and for “Most Inventive Cocktails” in 2015. Try the warm cookies for dessert. ❂ B R L D $$ Rw

Normandie Farm Restaurant

10710 Falls Road, 301-983-8838, www.popovers. com. This fine-dining French restaurant, open since 1931, strives to preserve its classical heritage while embracing new traditions. Dinner entrées run from seafood to beef and lamb. The restaurant offers quick service, a casual café option and a violinist at afternoon tea. ❂ J R L D $$

Old Angler’s Inn

10801 MacArthur Blvd., 301-365-2425, www.old anglersinn.com. Open since 1860 and known for its refined American food and beautiful fireplaces and grounds, it features live music on weekends. Signature cocktails include hard cider sangria and a pumpkin pie martini. ❂ R L D $$$

Potomac Pizza

9812 Falls Road, 301-299-7700, www.potomac pizza.com. See Chevy Chase listing. L D $

Renato’s at River Falls

10120 River Road, 301-365-1900. The Italian restaurant offers fish dishes among its menu of pastas and classics such as osso bucco and linguini with clams and eggplant parmigiana. Traditional Italian desserts include tiramisu, profiteroles and cannolis. ❂ J L D $$

River Falls Tavern (Editors’ Pick)

10128 River Road, 301-299-0481, www.thetaverns. com/river-falls-tavern. Well-known chef Robert

Wiedmaier’s RW Restaurant Group took over this upscale American pub—formerly called The Tavern at River Falls—in 2015. Entrées include crab cakes, fish tacos, grilled bronzino, a New York strip steak and steak frites. ❂ R L D $$ Rw

Sugo Osteria & Pizzeria

12505 Park Potomac Ave., 240-386-8080, www.eat sugo.com. The Greek guys who own Cava Mezze and Cava Mezze Grill partner with Mamma Lucia restaurants to serve Italian small plates, meatballs, sliders, pizza and pasta. Chef specialities include blue crab gnocchi and charred octopus. ❂ R L D $$

Tally- Ho Restaurant

9923 Falls Road, 301-299-6825, www.tallyho restaurant.com. A local fixture since 1968, the eatery serves an expansive diner-style menu with Greek and Italian specialties. Choose from options ranging from burgers and deli sandwiches to pizza, calzones and dinner entrées. ❂ J B L D $

The Wine Harvest

12525-B Park Potomac Ave., 240-314-0177, www. thewineharvest.com. See Gaithersburg listing. ❂LD$

Zoës Kitchen

12505 Park Potomac Ave., Suite 120, 240-328-1022, www.zoeskitchen.com. The first Maryland outpost of a Birmingham, Alabama, fast-casual chain, Zoës features Mediterranean dishes such as kabobs, hummus and veggie pita pizzas. It specializes in takeout dinner for four for under $30. ❂ J L D $

ROCKVILLE/ NORTH BETHESDA A & J Restaurant (Editors’ Pick)

1319-C Rockville Pike, 301-251-7878, www. aj-restaurant.com/main.html. Northern dim sum is the specialty at this hard-to-find spot in the Woodmont Station shopping center. Warm-colored walls surround the crowd digging into thousand-layer pancakes and fresh tofu. Named “Best Dim Sum Brunch” by the magazine’s editors in 2014. R L D $

Al Carbon

200 Park Road, 301-738-0003, www.alcarbon restaurant.com. Serving authentic Latin American fare across the street from the Rockville Metro station, this unassuming roadhouse has a loyal following for its arepas, empanadas, tapas and more. Try one of the natural juices including mango and tamarindo. ❂ B L D $

Amalfi Ristorante Italiano

12307 Wilkins Ave., 301-770-7888, www.amalfi rockville.com. A family-run, red-sauce Italian restaurant with specialties including white pizza and lasagna. Lots of antipasti choices, too. The gazebo is a charming spot to dine during the summer. J L D $$

American Tap Room

36-A Maryland Ave. (Rockville Town Square), 301- 838-4281, www.americantaproom.com. See Bethesda listing. ❂  R L D $$

Amina Thai Restaurant

5065 Nicholson Lane, 301-770-9509. Pleasant and bright, Amina Thai is run by a husband-and-wife team and bills itself as the first Muslim Thai restaurant in the area, using only halal meats and serving familiar Thai dishes. Chef’s specials include pineapple fried rice and grilled salmon. L D $

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the

Benjarong Thai Restaurant

885 Rockville Pike, 301-424-5533, www.benjarong thairestaurant.com. This Thai food stalwart has a reputation for above-average food served in a gracious setting reminiscent of an upscale country home. Try Thai-style fried bananas with ice cream for dessert. L D $

Bombay Bistro

98 W. Montgomery Ave., 301-762-8798, www.bombay bistro.com. Bombay Bistro opened in 1991 as one of the first Indian restaurants in the area to combine high style, reasonable prices and a fresh take on traditional Indian, and it has been packed ever since. House specialties include tandoori lamb chops and shrimp and scallops masala. J L D $$

Bonchon Chicken

107 Gibbs St., Unit A (Rockville Town Square), 301637-9079, www.bonchon.com. International fried chicken franchise with Korean roots serves up wings, drumsticks and strips with soy-garlic or spicy hot garlic sauce, plus other traditional offerings such as bulgogi, bimbimbop and scallion seafood pancakes. L D $

BRIO Tuscan Grille

20 Paseo Drive, 240-221-2691, www.brioitalian.com. Look for a wide range of Tuscan dishes served in a handsome setting. House specialties run from the traditional, such as lasagna Bolognese al forno, to the modern, including grilled chicken and quinoa salad. ❂ J R L D $$

CavA MEZZE (Editors’ Pick)

9713 Traville Gateway Drive, 301-309-9090, www. cavamezze.com. The dark and elegant Cava offers small plates of everything from fried Greek cheese, octopus and orzo in cinnamon tomato sauce to crispy pork belly and macaroni and cheese. There are martini specials, too. ❂ R L D $$ Rw

City Perch Kitchen + Bar

11830 Grand Park Ave. (Pike & Rose), 301-231-2310, www.cityperch.com. Located above the entrance to the iPic Theaters at Pike & Rose, City Perch offers creative, seasonal American cuisine in a rustic, inviting space. The menu includes raw-bar selections, small plates, shareable salads and entrée options such as rotisserie-cooked lamb shoulder and black sea bass. ❂ R L D $$$

Cuban Corner

825 Hungerford Drive, 301-279-0310, www. cubancornerrestaurant.com. Pork and empanadas shine at this small space brimming with ethnic pride (there’s a tribute wall to famous Cuban-Americans). Don’t skip the Cuban coffee or the Cuban sandwich, a sub bursting with ham, pickles and tangy mustard. LD$

Del Frisco’s Grille

11800 Grand Park Ave. (Pike & Rose), 301-881-0308, delfriscosgrille.com. This is the Texas-based chain’s second location in the area. Look for upscale takes on American comfort foods, such as veal meatloaf and short rib stroganoff, plus trendy items such as kale and Brussels sprouts salad, deviled eggs, flatbreads and ahi tuna tacos. Plenty of burgers, sandwiches and salads, too. ❂ R L D $$

The Dough Roller

800 Pleasant Drive, #160, (King Farm Village Center), 301-869-4584, www.doughrollerrestaurants.com. Grab a pizza slice and dream of boardwalk breezes at the first inland outpost of Ocean City’s popular pizza and pancake chainlet. Besides pizza, this locale features sandwiches, burgers and other items, including pancakes served all day. J B R L D $

East Pearl

838-B Rockville Pike, 301-838-8663, www.east pearlrestaurant.com. Choose from many options of Hong Kong cuisine, including familiar dishes featuring chicken, beef, poultry, pork and even duck, as well as those for adventurous tastes. Try the soups ranging from egg drop to seafood with bean curd. L D $

grilled oyster co.

El Mariachi Restaurant

765-D Rockville Pike, 301-738-7177, www.el mariachirockville.com. Serving Tex-Mex and South American food in a bright, pleasant space made lively with colorful art. In addition to the usual enchiladas, tacos and burritos, look for Peruvian seafood and Cuban beef specialties. L D $

El Patio

5240 Randolph Road, 301-231-9225, www.elpatio international.com. This bustling café with pretty green umbrellas on the patio serves up the traditional meat-heavy dishes of Argentina, as well as pizzas and freshly made baked goods. Look for mouth-watering empanadas, beef tongue and sausage specialties. ❂ J B L D $

Ev & Maddy’s

101 Gibbs St., Unit C (Rockville Town Square), 301296-6682. Owned by Olney residents Patrick and Eunice Pak, this unpretentious French bistro serves beef bourguignon, lamb sausage, hanger steak and other traditional dishes with a modern twist. Executive Chef Patrick Pak sports impressive credentials, having cooked at Washington, D.C.’s Komi, Blue Duck Tavern and the former Palena. J L D $$

Readers’ Pick, Top Vote Getter Best Restaurant in Potomac

A 20 Top Vote 16 Getter

The Grilled Oyster Company is a regionally inspired fresh seafood & raw bar 7943 Tuckerman Ln. Potomac, Md 20854 301-299-9888 3701 Newark St., NW Washington, DC 20016 (in the new Cathedral Commons) TheGrilledOysterCompany.com

Far East Restaurant

5055 Nicholson Lane, 301-881-5552, www.fareast rockvillemd.com. Owned and operated by the same family since 1974, this classic Chinese restaurant greets customers with two royal stone lions out front and sticks to the familiar Chinese-American basics. Check out the daily specials and dim sum menu. L D $$

Fontina Grille

801 Pleasant Drive, 301-947-5400, www.fontina grille.com. A trendy spot with its curvy maple bar and wood-burning pizza oven, Fontina Grille is a favorite gathering place for the King Farm neighborhood. Pizza, pasta and salads are the main attractions. Two-dollar pasta dishes available on Monday nights and half-price bottles of wine on Tuesdays. ❂ J R L D $$

Gordon Biersch

200-A E. Middle Lane (Rockville Town Square), 301340-7159, www.gordonbiersch.com/restaurants. The national brewpub chain prides itself on house beers and friendly service. The shiny bar is boisterous, and the menu includes bar favorites with some barbecue and Asian touches, small plates, salads, pizza and flatbreads. J L D $$

Grand Fusion Cuisine

350 East Fortune Terrace, 301-838-2862, grand fusionrestaurant.com. Diners will find something for everyone seeking a taste of the Asian continent, a full sushi bar, and Chinese, Malaysian and Singaporean specialties. Chef’s specials include Crispy Eggplant in Spicy Orange Sauce and Double Flavored Shrimp. ❂ L D $

Hard Times Café

1117 Nelson St., 301-294-9720, www.hardtimes.com. Good American beer selections, hearty chili styles ranging from Cincinnati (cinnamon and tomato) to Texas (beef and hot peppers), and hefty salads and wings bring families to this Wild West-style saloon for lunch and dinner. L D $

TAVIRA Portugese & Mediterranean Cuisine Prefix Menu* 3 Course Meal $25 Dinner $15 Lunch Sunday-Thursday Tasting of Portugal* 3 Course Meal $33 Dinner $20 Lunch 7 Days a Week • Open Table Diners' Choice Winner 2015 •

$20 off any dinner check of $50 or more with this coupon. Not valid with other offers or Prix Fixe Menu. One coupon per table. Not valid on Valentine’s Day. Offer expires 2/29/2016.

Fine Dining • Private Dining • Parties & Events • Live Entertainment

Conveniently located with free parking Call for reservations 301-652-8684 8401 Connecticut Ave. Chevy Chase, MD 20815 * Restrictions Apply

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dine Hinode Japanese Restaurant

134 Congressional Lane, 301-816-2190, www. hinoderestaurant.com. Serving traditional Japanese cuisine since 1992. All-you-can-eat lunch and weekend dinner buffet offers 40 types of sushi, 14 hot foods and a salad bar. Check out the patio with full bar service. L D $$

Il Pizzico

15209 Frederick Road, 301-309-0610, www. ilpizzico.com. Setting aside the strip mall location and lack of pizza (il pizzico means “the pinch” in Italian), chef-owner Enzo Livia’s house-made pasta dishes, gracious service and extensive wine list of mainly Italian wines make even a weeknight meal feel special. L D $$

Joe’s Noodle House

1488-C Rockville Pike, 301-881-5518, www.joes noodlehouse.com. Chinese ex-pats and many other customers consider the Szechuan specialties (soft bean curd with spicy sauce and hot beef jerky) among the area’s best examples of gourmet Chinese cooking. L D $

La Brasa Latin Cuisine

12401 Parklawn Drive, 301-468-8850, www.labrasa rockville.com. A bold, yellow awning marks the unlikely industrial location of the popular La Brasa. Customers rave about the rotisserie chicken, lomo saltado (Peruvian marinated steak), Salvadoran pupusas and Tres Leches. ❂ L D $

La Canela (Editors’ Pick)

141-D Gibbs St. (Rockville Town Square), 301-2511550, www.lacanelaperu.com. Sophisticated, modern Peruvian cooking shines in a regally furnished dining room in a yellow stucco building graced with curvy black ironwork. The menu includes artfully prepared seafood, pork, chicken and beef dishes. ❂ L D $

La Limeña Restaurant

765 Rockville Pike, 301-424-8066. lalimena restaurant.com. Diners can choose dishes such as beef hearts, tripe and homemade pastries in this tiny but well-appointed eatery. Desserts include passion fruit mousse and vanilla flan. And of course, there’s rotisserie chicken to go. L D $

La Tasca

141 Gibbs St., Suite 305 (Rockville Town Square), 301279-7011, www.latascausa.com. The Rockville location of this regional chain strives to keep things interesting with 45 tapas dishes and six kinds of paella, including Paella Mixta with chicken, shrimp, chorizo, scallops, mussels, squid and clams. ❂ L D $$

Lebanese Taverna Café

1605 Rockville Pike, 301-468-9086; 115 Gibbs St. (Rockville Town Square), 301-309-8681; www. lebanesetaverna.com. A casual and pleasant family spot for lunch or dinner after shopping on Rockville Pike, the café is a more casual offshoot of the local Lebanese Taverna chain, serving hummus, pita, falafel, chicken and lamb kabobs. J L D $

Lighthouse Tofu & BBQ

12710 Twinbrook Parkway, 301-881-1178. In addition to the numerous tofu dishes ranging from Mushroom Tofu Pot to Seafood Beef Tofu Pot, diners at this Korean stalwart can try barbecue, stir-fried specialties and kimchee, the national dish of pickled cabbage. LD$

Mamma Lucia

12274-M Rockville Pike, 301-770-4894; 14921-J Shady Grove Road, 301-762-8805; www.mamma luciarestaurants.com. See Bethesda listing. ❂ L D $$

Matchbox Vintage Pizza Bistro

(Editors’ Pick)

1699 Rockville Pike, 301-816-0369, www.matchbox rockville.com. Look for mini-burgers, a “ginormous meatball” appetizer and thin-crusted pizza with toppings including herb-roasted chicken and portobella mushrooms or fire-roasted red peppers and Spanish onions served in a super-cool space in Congressional Plaza. ❂ J R L D $

MemSahib 4840 Boiling Brook Parkway, 301-468-0098, www. memsahibrestaurant.com. Patrons eat the Indian country way, with their hands. MemSahib offers a buffet lunch, including such dishes as tandoori chicken and vegetable samosas and pakoras, and a six-course prix fixe dinner while belly dancers entertain customers. L D $$

Michael’s Noodles 10038 Darnestown Road, 301-738-0370, www. michaelsnoodles.com. Extensive Taiwanese menu at this popular strip mall eatery includes dim sum, mixed noodle dishes, noodle soup and unusual specialties, such as Shredded Chicken with Jelly Fish and Stewed Pork Intestine and Duck Blood. L D $

Mi Rancho 1488 Rockville Pike, 240-221-2636, www.mirancho texmexrestaurant.com. You’ll find a boisterous party atmosphere every night at a place where customers can count on standard Tex-Mex fare at good prices. The outdoor patio, strung with colorful lights, is the place to be in nice weather. ❂ L D $

Moa 12300 Wilkins Ave., 301-881-8880. moakorean restaurant.weebly.com. A welcoming Korean restaurant in the midst of an industrial stretch. Try the seafood pancake appetizer—a satisfying, crispy frittata bursting with squid, clams, shrimp and scallions. Dol Sot Bibimbap, a mix of rice, vegetables and protein in a hot pot, is a customer favorite. L D $

Mosaic Cuisine & Café 186 Halpine Road, 301-468-0682, www.mosaic cuisine.com. A diner with a soft European accent. Try the fresh Belgian waffles for breakfast. For those with hefty appetites, the waffle sandwiches are worth the trip, but don’t overlook the homemade soups or light dinner entrées. J B R L D $$

Mykonos Grill 121 Congressional Lane, 301-770-5999, www.mykonos grill.com. An authentic Greek taverna with whitewashed walls with Mediterranean blue accents on a busy street, Mykonos Grill turns out legs of lamb and fresh seafood expected at any good Greek restaurant. ❂ L D $$

Nagoya Sushi Japanese Restaurant 402 King Farm Blvd., Suite 130, 301-990-6778. Cheery yellow walls decorated with shelves of Japanese knickknacks greet customers who come for the large selection of sushi at this unassuming sushi spot in King Farm. L D $$

Nantucket’s Reef 9755 Traville Gateway Drive, Rockville, 301-2797333, www.nantucketsreef.com. This casual New England-style eatery offers a wide range of reasonably priced seafood dishes, including raw and baked oysters, stuffed cod, fried Ipswitch clams, seafood tacos, tuna and salmon salads, and lobster items. Signature cocktails are made with Nantucket Nectars juices. ❂ R L D $$

Nick’s Chophouse

700 King Farm Blvd., 301-926-8869, www.nickschop houserockville.com. Aged Angus beef cooked over an open fire is the specialty at this upscale spot, but seafood lovers can get their fill from big crab cakes. Signature steaks include slow-roasted prime rib weighing 10 to 32 ounces. Separate bar menu. ❂ L D $$

Niwano Hana Japanese Restaurant

887 Rockville Pike, 301-294-0553, www.niwano hana.com. Clean Asian décor and elegant wooden screens greet diners at this friendly and busy sushi spot located in Wintergreen Plaza. There are the usual sushi rolls, plus creative options such as a Spicy Scallop Roll with mayonnaise and chili peppers, noodle dishes, teriyaki and yakitori. L D $$

Old Kimura Sushi

785 Rockville Pike, Unit D, 301-251-1922, www.old kimura.com. A small restaurant serving an extensive sushi menu, along with noodle soups, rice dishes and tempura. Dinner specials include grilled fresh eel served over rice and sushi and sashimi combinations. L D $$

The Original Ambrosia Restaurant

12015 Rockville Pike, 301-881-3636, www.the originalambrosia.com. Look for an eclectic menu of breakfast, gyros, pizza, crabcakes and soups at this family-owned eatery. Traditional Greek dishes include spanikopita, stuffed grape leaves, mousaka and shish kabob. J B L D $

Original Pancake House

12224 Rockville Pike, 301-468-0886, www.oph restaurants.com. See Bethesda listing. J B L $

Paladar Latin Kitchen & Rum Bar

11333 Woodglen Drive, 301-816-1100, paladarlatin kitchen.com. See Gaithersburg listing. ❂ J R L D $$

Peter Chang

20-A Maryland Ave. (Rockville Town Square), 301-8389188. Chef Peter Chang’s only restaurant in Maryland showcases his Szechuan specialties in an apricotwalled dining space. Garnering a cult-like following over the years, Chang is best known for dishes such as dry-fried eggplant, crispy pork belly and duck in a stone pot. L D $$

Pho 75

771 Hungerford Drive, 301-309-8873. The restaurant is one of the Washington area’s favorite spots for the Vietnamese beef noodle soup known as pho. Soup can be customized with bean sprouts, Thai basil, chilies, lime, and hot and hoisin sauces. Beverages include interesting options such as Iced Salty Pickled Lemon Juice. L D $

Pho 95

785-H Rockville Pike, 301-294-9391. Pho, the Vietnamese beef noodle soup, is king here. Other offerings include fat rice-paper rolls of shrimp, noodles and herbs with a sweet and spicy peanut sauce, Grilled Lemon Grass Chicken and Grilled Pork Chop and Shredded Pork Skin. L D $

Pho Hoa Binh

11782 Parklawn Drive, 301-770-5576. www.pho hoa.com. This pleasant pho restaurant offers the full gamut of variations on the beef noodle soup, plus about a dozen grilled entrées. The Adventurer’s Choice features “unusual” meats, including tendon, tripe and fatty flank. The Vietnamese iced coffee is divine. L D $

Pho Nom Nom

842 Rockville Pike, 301-610-0232, www.phonom nom.net. As the name suggests, the specialty is pho,

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Join us today! but there are also grilled dishes, noodles and the Vietnamese sandwich known as banh mi. House specials include Vietnamese beef stew and pork and shrimp wontons. L D $

PHOLUSCIOUS VIETNAMESE GRILL

10048 Darnestown Road, 301-762-2226, www. pholuscious.com. This casual restaurant and bar is home to traditional Vietnamese cooking, with fresh ingredients, minimal use of oil and many herbs and vegetables. The menu features pho, noodle dishes, rice plates and lots of protein dishes. Beverages include bubble tea, smoothies, beer and wine. L D $$

Pizza CS

1596-B Rockville Pike, 240-833-8090, www. pizzacs.com. Authentic Neapolitan pies are offered in a sub-shop atmosphere. Choose from a list of red and white pizza options, or build your own pie with herbs, cheeses, meats and vegetables. ❂ J L D $

Potomac Pizza

9709 Traville Gateway Drive, 301-279-2234, www. potomacpizza.com. See Chevy Chase listing. ❂ JLD$

Quench

9712 Traville Gateway Drive, 301-424-8650, www. quenchnation.com. Urban bar scene in the suburbs, with unique cocktails and contemporary American cuisine. Lots of starter options to try, plus salads, entrées, sandwiches and burgers, and three Asian dishes including pad Thai. ❂ J R L D $$

Quincy’s South Bar & Grille

11401 Woodglen Drive, 240-669-3270, quincys bar.com. See North Potomac/Gaithersburg listing. ❂LD$

Seven Seas Chinese Restaurant

1776 East Jefferson St., 301-770-5020, www.seven seasrestaurant.com. An elegant restaurant popular with politicians and local chefs and known for its fresh seafood and impeccable service. Specials include the paper hot pot, meals using ancient Chinese herbs and afternoon tea. Sushi, too. L D $

Sheba Restaurant

5071 Nicholson Lane, 301-881-8882, www.sheba rockville.com. The menu features authentic Ethiopian cuisine with lots of vegetarian and vegan options. House specialties include Dulet Assa, chopped tilapia mixed with onion, garlic and jalapeño and served with a side of homemade cheese. L D $

Sichuan Jin River

410 Hungerford Drive, 240-403-7351, www.sichuan jinriver.com. Customers find terrific Sichuan cuisine served in a no-frills setting. Take the plunge and try something new with the authentic Chinese menu, inlcuding 23 small cold plates. L D $

Silver Diner

12276 Rockville Pike, 301-770-2828, www.silver diner.com. Customers flock to this trendy diner that still offers tableside juke boxes. The latest food trends (think quinoa coconut pancakes) share company on the enormous menu with diner staples such as meatloaf and mashed potatoes. J B R L D $

Spice Xing

100-B Gibbs St. (Rockville Town Square), 301-6100303, www.spicexing.com. Chef and owner Sudhir Seth, who also owns Bethesda’s Passage to India, serves up small plates and dishes that reflect the history of culinary influences on India. Try the allyou-can-eat lunchtime buffet. ❂ J R L D $$

Rocklands Barbeque and Grilling Company

STANFORD GRILL

Rolls ‘N Rice

891-A Rockville Pike, 240-268-1120, www.rocklands. com. John Snedden has perfected the art of barbecue since he first opened Rocklands in Washington, D.C., in 1990. This location serves all-American pork ribs, smoked chicken, brisket and lamb cooked exclusively over red oak and hickory. ❂ J L D $ 1701 Rockville Pike (Shops at Congressional Village), 301-770-4030, www.rollsnrice.com. This Asian café serves more than 25 varieties of rolls, from a volcano roll (spicy tuna, white fish, salmon, tomato, jalapeño, fish eggs and vegetables) to a Philadelphia Roll (smoked salmon, cream cheese and avocado). JLD$

Sadaf Halal Restaurant

1327-K Rockville Pike, 301-424-4040. An elegant alternative to the run-of-the-mill kabob places dotting Rockville Pike, Sadaf is pristine, with lace curtains and glass mosaic tiles in front. In addition to kabobs, it offers Persian curries and fish dishes. ❂ J L D $

Sam’s Café & Market

844 Rockville Pike, 301-424-1600, www.samcafe market.com. Fill up on the kitchen’s juicy skewered meats or interesting entrées, including pomegranate molasses stew and marinated grilled salmon, then have a gelato and check out the hookahs. ❂ LD$

Seasons 52 (Editors’ Pick)

11414 Rockville Pike, 301-984-5252, www. seasons52.com. A fresh, seasonal menu featuring items under 475 calories. Choose from flatbreads including Blackened Steak & Blue Cheese and Grilled Garlic Pesto Chicken to entrée salads to meat and seafood dishes. Nightly piano music. ❂ L D $$

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2000 Tower Oaks Blvd., 240-582-1000, www.the stanfordgrill.com. From the Blueridge Restaurant Group, owner of Copper Canyon Grill restaurants, comes this 300-seat American eatery on the ground floor of an office building. Salads, burgers, steaks and seafood, plus sushi, with an eye towards highquality. ❂ L D $$

Stella Barra Pizzeria

11825 Grand Park Ave. (Pike & Rose), 301-770-8609, www.stellabarra.com. Adjacent to its sister restaurant, Summer House Santa Monica, Stella Barra is an artisan pizzeria with a hip, urban vibe. Look for crisp crusts with chewy centers topped with butternut squash and candied bacon or house-made pork sausage and fennel pollen. Italian wines available. ❂ L D $$ Rw

Summer House Santa Monica

(Editors’ Pick)

11825 Grand Park Ave. (Pike & Rose), 301-881-2381, summerhousesm.com. An airy, light and stunning space sets the scene for modern American cuisine with a West Coast sensibility. Dishes include Beach Bum Ceviche, Santa Monica Cobb Salad, plus sushi, tacos, sandwiches and steak frites. Do not miss the bakery counter. ❂ J R L D $$

Super Bowl Noodle

785 Rockville Pike, 301-738-0086. www.superbowl noodlehouse.com. Look for a large variety of Asian noodle dishes in super-size portions, plus a large selection of appetizers. Also, bubble tea and desserts, including Sweet Taro Root Roll and Black Sugar Shaved Ice. ❂ L D $

Sushi Damo

36-G Maryland Ave. (Rockville Town Square), 301340-8010, www.sushidamo.com. A slice of New York

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dine sophistication, this elegant restaurant offers sushi à la carte or omakase, chef’s choice, plus beef and seafood entrées and an impressive sake list. L D $$

Sushi House Japanese Restaurant 1331-D Rockville Pike, 301-309-0043. A tiny, plain restaurant serving a large selection of fresh sushi, including sushi and sashimi combinations. Lunch specials for under $7. It’s popular, so be prepared to wait. L D $$

Sushi Oishii 9706 Traville Gateway Drive, 301-251-1177, www. sushioishii.com. This charming sushi bar in the Traville Gateway Center offers friendly service and 24 specialty sushi rolls, bento boxes and a few grilled items, including beef, poultry and seafood teriyaki. L D $$

Taipei Tokyo 14921-D Shady Grove Road (Fallsgrove Village Center), 301-738-8813; 11510-A Rockville Pike, 301881-8388; www.taipei-tokyo.net. These sister restaurants offer a sizable roster of Chinese, Japanese and Thai dishes. The Fallsgrove Village location is the younger and sleeker of the two, with full sitdown service. The older sister, opened in 1993, is more like a noodle shop/cafeteria. L D $$

Tara Asia 199-D E. Montgomery Ave., 301-315-8008. www. taraasiarestaurantrockville.com. A pan-Asian offshoot of the Tara Thai family, Tara Asia is dominated by a floor-to-ceiling mosaic and has an 82-item menu that spans the cuisine from Japan to Thailand and the tiny islands in between. L D $$

Tara Thai 12071 Rockville Pike, 301-231-9899, www.tarathai. com.com. See Gaithersburg listing. ❂ L D $$

Temari Café 1043 Rockville Pike, 301-340-7720. Deep-fried oysters, classic rice balls, ramen noodle soup, sushi and sashimi and comic books to peruse while you await your order set this Japanese restaurant apart from the rest. L D $$

Thai Farm 800 King Farm Blvd., 301-258-8829, www.thaifarm restaurant.com. A tastefully modern dining room soaked in a soothing yellow light. The usual suspects are on the menu here, but chef’s suggestions include an intriguing broiled fish wrapped in banana leaf and stir-fried duck. L D $$

Thai Pavilion 29 Maryland Ave., Unit 308 (Rockville Town Square), 301-545-0244, www.thaipavilionrestaurant.com. The soaring ceilings decorated with red chandeliers shaped like giant, stationary spinning tops give the feel of a modern museum. When the menu says spicy, believe it. ❂ J L D $$

That’s Amore 15201 Shady Grove Road, 240-268-0682, www.thats amore.com. This local chain focuses on family-style portions of classic Neapolitan dishes such as lasagna and chicken Parmesan in a more elegant setting than might be expected. Good for groups and large families. J L D $$

Timpano Italian Chophouse 12021 Rockville Pike, 301-881-6939, www.timpano chophouse.net. A chain steak house with an Italian accent, Timpano is a favorite of wheeler-dealer business lunchers and nighttime diners looking for

a high-quality steak or well-prepared pasta.

❂ L D $$$

Tower Oaks Lodge 2 Preserve Parkway, 301-294-0200, www.clydes. com/tower. Here is Clyde’s version of a lodge in the mountains. Well-prepared food runs the gamut of American desires, from burgers to fish, plus a raw bar. Check out the twig sculpture spanning the ceiling of The Saranac Room. J R L D $$

Trapezaria 11 N. Washington St., 301-339-8962, www.thetrap ezaria.com. This down-to-earth and hospitable Greek/Mediterranean restaurant serves top-notch and unfussy small plates and entrées. Choose among a variety of dips, vegetarian mezze, souvlaki, sausages and more-involved fish and lamb dishes. Save room for the baklava. L D $$

Urban Bar- B - Que Company 2007 Chapman Ave., 240-290-4827; 5566 Norbeck Road, 301-460-0050, urbanbbqco.com. Urban BarB-Que Company, a tiny joint run by a couple of local friends, has a winning formula and features fingerlicking ribs, burgers and wings, plus salads, chili and smothered fries. Staff is friendly, too. J L D $

Villa Maya 5532 Norbeck Road (Rock Creek Village Center), 301460-1247. Here you’ll find all the traditional Mexican and Tex-Mex favorites from quesadillas to fajitas that are sure to please the whole family. R L D $$

The Woodside Deli 4 N. Washington St., 301-444-4478, www.the woodsidedeli.com. A second location of the venerable Silver Spring eatery and caterer that has been dishing up matzo ball soup since 1947. Choose from a wide selection of sandwiches, burgers and entrées. This one has a pickle bar. ❂ J B R L D $

Yekta 1488 Rockville Pike, 301-984-1190, www.yekta.com. Persian cuisine, including a selection of beef, chicken and lamb kabobs, is served in a beautiful dining room. Try a dessert such as frozen noodle sorbet or saffron ice cream. Check out the adjacent market after polishing off your kebab. L D $$

Yuan Fu Vegetarian 798 Rockville Pike, 301-762-5937, www.yuanfu vegetarian.com. From tea-smoked “duck” to kung pao “chicken,” the whole menu is meatless, made from Chinese vegetable products. There is a large selection of chef’s specials, including Pumpkin Chicken with Mushrooms in a hot pot and Baby Abalone in Tomato Sauce. L D $

Silver Spring 8407 Kitchen Bar 8407 Ramsey Ave., 301-587-8407, 8407kb.com. This sleek space across from the Silver Spring Metro prides itself on stellar service and from-scratch preparations, such as house-smoked salmon and homecured charcuterie. Signature craft cocktails are a specialty. R L D $$

Addis Ababa 8233 Fenton St., 301-589-1400. Authentic Ethiopian-style vegetables and fiery meats are served atop spongy bread in communal bowls. Traditional woven tables and a roof deck add to the ambience. There’s a weekday lunch buffet, too. ❂ R L D $

Adega Wine Cellars & Café

8519 Fenton St., 301-608-2200, www.adegawine cellars.com. This light and bright blond wood dining room serves creative sandwiches and allows customers to choose from a small selection of wines by the bottle to take home. A fine place for lunch, if only to try the eggplant fries. ❂ L D $

A.G. Kitchen

931 Ellsworth Drive, 301-588-9480, www.ag kitchen.com. Cuban-born Manhattan chef and restaurateur Alex Garcia goes casual at this colorful Latino eatery with a creative menu of foot-long baconwrapped hot dogs with jalapeno, papaya and sweet pickle relish; a Gaucho burger topped with crispy onions and guava barbecue sauce; and crispy Cuban seafood sliders with pineapple slaw. For the less adventurous, there’s Brazilian-style roast chicken, tacos, Cubanos and paella. ❂ R L D $$ Rw

All Set Restaurant & Bar

8630 Fenton St., 301-495-8800, www.allset restaurant.com. American cuisine with a focus on New England specialties. Look for clams, oysters and lobster, plus crab cakes and rockfish, and beef and vegetarian options. The snazzy space is also the setting for clam bakes and fried chicken on Sunday nights. ❂ J L D $$

AMINA THAI

8624 Colesville Road, 301-588-3588. See Rockville/ North Bethesda listing.

Asian Bistro Café

8537 Georgia Ave., 301-589-0123, silverspringasian bistro.com. A bevy of choices, from Japanese sushi and soups to Chinese noodles and vegetarian dishes are offered at this bustling downtown eatery. Try one of the Chinese or Japanese lunch specials. L D $

Austin Grill

919 Ellsworth Drive, 240-247-8969, www.austin grill.com. Fun and friendly service welcomes families and couples to this noisy, colorful Tex-Mex favorite. Finish off a meal with Margarita Bites, cake “bites” soaked in tequila, flash fried and served with salted honey-lime dipping sauce. ❂ J R L D $$

Azúcar Restaurant Bar & Grill

14418 Layhill Road, 301-438-3293, azucar restaurant.net. The name means sugar, and it fits. A colorful Salvadoran spot decorated in bright purple and orange with Cubist-style paintings. The porkstuffed corn pupusas are stars. Also look for more elegant dinners, including fried whole trout. L D $$

BETE ETHIOPIAN CUISINE

811 Roeder Road, 301-588-2225. Family-run Ethiopian restaurant with a modest dining room but some exemplary cooking. Don’t miss the vegetarian sampler, and in nice weather, opt for eating outside in the lovely, shaded back patio. ❂ J B L D $$

The Big Greek Café

8223 Georgia Ave., 301-587-4733, www.biggreek cafe.com. Owned by the Marmaras brothers, whose family operated the decades-old Golden Flame restaurant, the café serves a hit parade of Greek specialties, including a top-notch chicken souvlaki pita. LD$

The Classics (Editors’ Pick)

8606 Colesville Road, 301-588-7297, www.the classicsdc.com. The restaurant features great steaks and seafood served without the pomp in a basic white dining room. Serious drinks and fresh seasonal American fare. Its less-formal bistro seating is first-come, first served. D $$

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Copper Canyon Grill

928 Ellsworth Drive, 301-589-1330, www.ccgrill.com. See Gaithersburg listing. ❂ J R L D $$

Crisfield Seafood Restaurant

8012 Georgia Ave., 301-589-1306. www.crisfield seafood.com. With its U-shaped counter and kitschy, oyster-plate-covered walls, this landmark seafood diner has customers lining up for the Eastern Shore specialties such as oysters and crabmeat-stuffed lobster that it has served since the 1940s. L D $$

Cubano’s

1201 Fidler Lane, 301-563-4020, www.cubanos restaurant.com. The brightly colored tropical dining room of greens, blues and reds and the authentic Cuban cooking evident in dishes such as ropa vieja (shredded beef in onions, peppers and garlic) and fried plantains keep customers coming back. ❂ L D $$

The Daily Dish

8301 Grubb Road, 301-588-6300, www.thedaily dishrestaurant.com. A neighborhood favorite serving seasonally inspired, locally sourced comfort food, including bar bites and brunch dishes. Fullservice catering is available, too. ❂ J R L D $$

Denizens Brewing Co. (Editors’ Pick)

1115 East West Highway, 301-557-9818, denizens brewingco.com. The bright-orange building houses Montgomery County’s largest brewery, featuring core beers and seasonal offerings, along with drafts from other regional breweries. Menu of appealing snacks, sandwiches and salads includes vegetarian options and toast made with spent grains from the brewing process. There is a large outdoor beer garden and indoor seating overlooking the brewery. ❂ D $

Eggspectation

923 Ellsworth Drive, 301-585-1700, www. eggspectations.com. This Canadian import features fresh and creative egg plates in an elegant yet casual dining room complete with a fireplace and colorful Harlequin-themed art. It also serves great salads, dinners and dessert. ❂ B L D $$

El Aguila Restaurant

8649 16th St., 301-588-9063, www.elaguila restaurant.com. A cheery bar and generous plates of Tex-Mex favorites such as enchiladas and Salvadoran seafood soup make this eatery popular with families and others looking for a lively night out. ❂ L D $

El Gavilan

8805 Flower Ave., 301-587-4197, gavilanrestaurant. com. The walls are bright, the music’s upbeat, the margaritas are fine and the service is friendly. The usual Tex-Mex fare is here, as well as Salvadoran specialties such as tasty cheese- or pork-filled pupusas. Live music on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. JLD$

El Golfo

8739 Flower Ave., 301-608-2121, elgolforestaurant. com. Friendly, home-style Latin service is the hallmark, as attested to by the many Salvadorans who stop in for lunch and dinner. Pupusas, soups and beef dishes such as carne asada as well as more adventurous choices can be found in the charming, raspberrycolored dining room. ❂ J R L D $

Ethio Express Grill

952 Sligo Ave., Silver Spring, 301-844-5149, ethiogrill.com. Ethiopian food goes fast-casual in this counter service eatery that offers your choice of carbohydrate bases (i.e., injera, rice, pasta), plus grilled meats (or tofu), sauces and a host of vegeta-

bles (the spicy lentils and yellow split peas are especially good). L D $

Fenton Café

8311 Fenton St., 301-326-1841. An out-of-the-way crêperie serving 31 kinds of sweet crêpes and 16 varieties of savory crêpes. Savory versions range from cheese and ham to roasted eggplant with zucchini, bell pepper, sundried tomato, garlic and onion. BLD$

Fire Station 1 Restaurant & Brewing Co.

8131 Georgia Ave., 301-585-1370, www.firestation1. com. A historic firehouse made over as an eatery serves 21st-century pizza, sandwiches, meat, seafood and vegetarian entrées. Try the Cuban sandwich with seasoned pork, chipotle mayo, Dijon mustard, pickles and Swiss cheese on a ciabatta roll. L D $

The Greek Place

8417 Georgia Ave., 301-495-2912, www.thegreek place.net. Here are big portions of better-than-average food at reasonable prices. The bifteki pita sandwich, a seasoned ground lamb and beef patty with tzatziki, tomatoes and red onions, is especially good. L D $

GUSTO ITALIAN GRILL (New)

8512 Fenton St., 301-565-2800, gustoitaliangrill.com. See Bethesda listing. ❂ J L D $

ITALIAN KITCHEN

8201 Fenton St., 301-588-7800. www.italiankitchen md.com. Casual, attractive pizzeria with bar seating also turns out homemade sandwiches, calzones, salads and pasta dishes. Pizza and paninis are top notch. LD$

Jackie’s Restaurant (Editors’ Pick)

8081 Georgia Ave., 301-565-9700, www.jackies restaurant.com. This lovable eatery serves modern American cuisine emphasizing seasonal, organic ingredients from local farms in a former-auto-repairshop-gone-1960s-hot-pink. The Sidebar is a cocktail lounge; Jackie’s Back Room has live music and private parties. R D $$

Jewel of India

10151 New Hampshire Ave., 301-408-2200, www. jewelofindiamd.com. Elegant décor and top-notch northern Indian cuisine make this shopping center restaurant a real find. Diners will find a good selection of curries, and rice and biryani dishes. L D $$

Kao Thai

8650 Colesville Road, 301-495-1234, www.kao thairestaurant.com. This restaurant turns out topnotch curries, noodle dishes and vegetarian options, plus house specialties, such as Siam Salmon with Spicy Thai Basil Sauce and Thai Chili Tilapia. Dishes are cooked medium spicy. ❂ L D $$

La Casita Pupuseria & Market

8214 Piney Branch Road, 301-588-6656, www.la casitapupusas.com. Homemade pupusas, tamales and other Salvadoran specialties are available, plus a full breakfast menu and a small selection of grocery items. B L D $

LacoMelza Ethiopian Cafe

7912 Georgia Ave., 301-326-2435. One of Silver Spring’s many Ethiopian eateries, Lacomelza serves traditional cuisine from doro wat (chicken legs with spicy sauce) to the ground beef mixture of kitfo in a modern and attractive setting decorated with Ethiopian art. R L D $

La Malinche

8622 Colesville Road, 301-562-8622, www.la malinchetapas.com. Diners will find an interesting selection of Spanish and Mexican tapas, plus a full Saturday and Sunday brunch featuring huevos rancheros, variations of tortillas Espanola and more. R L D $$

Langano Ethiopian Restaurant

8305 Georgia Ave., 301-563-6700. Named for the popular Ethiopian vacation spot, Lake Langano, this longtime restaurant offers fine Ethiopian cuisine such as doro wat (spicy chicken stew) and tibs (stewed meat) in a cozy white- and red-accented dining room. Lunch specials on weekdays. L D $

Lebanese Taverna Café

933 Ellsworth Drive, 301-588-1192, www.lebanese taverna.com. See Rockville listing. J L D $

Mamma Lucia

1302 East West Highway, 301-562-0693, www. mammaluciarestaurants.com. See Bethesda listing. ❂ L D $$

Mandalay Restaurant & Café

930 Bonifant St., 301-585-0500, www.mandalay restaurantcafe.com. The modest dining room is packed most evenings with families and large groups who come for the Burmese food, a cross between Indian and Thai. L D $

McGinty’s Public House

911 Ellsworth Drive, 301-587-1270, www.mcgintys publichouse.com. Traditional Irish pub and restaurant features corned beef and cabbage, live music and dancing. Early-bird special, three-course menu for $15, from 5 to 7 p.m. ❂ J R L D $$

Mi Rancho

8701 Ramsey Ave., 301-588-4872, www.mirancho texmexrestaurant.com. See Rockville listing. ❂ LD$

MIX BAR AND GRILLE

8241 Georgia Ave., #200, 301-326-1333, mixbar andgrillesilverspring.com. Modern American bistro with an older sibling; similar menu, plus a selection of ceviche. See Potomac listing. ❂  R L D $$

MOD Pizza

909 Ellsworth Drive, 240-485-1570, www.mod pizza.com. First Maryland location of this Bellevue, Washington-based chain offers design-your-own fast-casual pies (hence, Made on Demand, or MOD). Pizzas, cooked at 800 degrees for three minutes, can be topped with a choice of nearly 40 sauces, cheeses, meats, spices and veggies. ❂ L D $

Mrs. K’s Restaurant

9201 Colesville Road, 301-589-3500, www.mrs ks.com. Here’s an elegant, antique-filled option for special occasions and Sunday brunch. This historic restaurant beckons a younger crowd with the Wine Press, a European-style wine bar downstairs, which has its own more casual menu. ❂ R L D $$$

Nainai’s Noodle & Dumpling Bar

1200 East West Highway, 301-585-6678, www. nainaisnoodles.com. Sisters Joanne and Julie Liu serve homemade noodles and dumplings in this lovable fast-casual eatery that shares kitchen space with their Scion restaurant next door. Focus on the noodles, and bring a picture of your “Nainai” (grandmother in Chinese) to tack on the bulletin board. L D $

Olazzo

8235 Georgia Ave., 301-588-2540, www.olazzo.com. See Bethesda listing. ❂ J L D $

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dine Oriental East Restaurant 1312 East West Highway, 301-608-0030, www. orientaleast.com. Be prepared to wait for a table and maneuver around carts filled with dumplings, noodles and spare ribs at this popular dim sum restaurant that caters to families and groups on weekends. Chinese standards for dinner, plus tripe and jellyfish. L D $

Pacci’s Neapolitan Pizzeria (Editors’ Pick) 8113 Georgia Ave., 301-588-1011, www.paccis pizzeria.com. This stylish eatery turns out top-notch pizzas from a wood-burning oven. Choose from red or white pizza selections, plus four kinds of calzones. ❂ J (upon request) L D $

Pacci’s Trattoria & Pasticceria 6 Old Post Office Road, 301-588-0867, paccis trattoria. com. Diners will find a range of classic Italian dishes, including homemade meatballs and sausage, from the owner of Pacci’s Neapolitan Pizzeria, also in Silver Spring. L D $$

Parkway Deli & Restaurant 8317 Grubb Road, 301-587-1427, www.theparkway deli.com. Voted “Best Deli” for 2014 by Bethesda Magazine readers, Parkway features a bustling back dining room that makes this popular spot so much more than a deli. Longtime waitresses greet regular customers and kids with hugs during busy weekend breakfasts. All-you-can-eat pickle bar. ❂ B L D $

Pete’s New Haven Style Apizza 962 Wayne Ave., 301-588-7383, www.petesapizza. com. Sporting more stylish décor than its other locations, this Pete’s offers the same crunchy-crusted New Haven-style pizzas, plus pasta, panini and salads. This branch is the only one so far to offer fried calamari. J L D $

Pho Hiep Hoa 921-G Ellsworth Drive, 301-588-5808, phohiep hoa.com. Seventeen kinds of Vietnamese soup called pho can be customized to taste in this upbeat restaurant overlooking the action in the downtown area. L D $

Samantha’s 631 University Blvd. East, 301-445-7300, samanthas restaurante.com. This white-tablecloth, Latin-Salvadoran spot in an industrial neighborhood is popular because of its welcoming attitude toward families with young children. The steak and fish specialties are good. L D $$

Sergios Ristorante Italiano 8727 Colesville Road, 301-585-1040. A classic redsauce Italian restaurant that manages to feel special, with soothing wall murals and high-quality service, despite a basement location inside the DoubleTree Hotel. Ravioli with asparagus and cheese in a tarragon sauce is popular. L D $$

The Society Lounge 8229 Georgia Ave., 301-565-8864, www.societyss. com. A sleek and modern atmosphere catering to a nightlife crowd, Society offers fare with a Caribbean accent. Check out the rooftop seating and daily drink specials, which include $25 beer buckets. ❂ L D $$

Sushi Jin NEXT DOOR 8555 Fenton St., 301-608-0990, www.sushijinnext door.com. The eatery is spare, clean and modern, and offers terrific udon noodle soup and impeccable raw

fish. Choose from 11 appetizers and seven soups and salads. L D $$

sweetgreen

8517 Georgia Ave., 301-244-5402, www.sweet green.com. See Bethesda listing. L D $

Tastee Diner

8601 Cameron St., 301-589-8171, www.tastee diner.com. See Bethesda listing. ❂ J B L D $

Thai at Silver Spring

921-E Ellsworth Drive, 301-650-0666, www.thaiat silverspring.com. The Americanized Thai food is second to the location, which is superb for peoplewatching on the street below. A modern and stylish dining room with a hip bar in bold colors and good service add to the appeal. ❂ L D $$

Thai Derm

939 Bonifant St., 301-589-5341, www.thaiderm usa.com. This local favorite serves home-style Thai food in a pleasantly modest dining room off a quiet street near downtown. The large menu includes noodle dishes like pad Thai and savory-sweet salads. Lunch specials offered daily. ❂ L D $

Urban Bar-B-Que Company

10163 New Hampshire Ave., 301-434-7427, urban bbqco.com. See Rockville listing. L D $

Urban Butcher (Editors’ Pick)

8226 Georgia Ave., 301-585-5800, www.urban butcher.com. Hip, eclectic setting is the backdrop for this New Age steak house, with its home-cured salamis, sausages and other charcuterie, plus meat dishes made from local animals of yesteryear breeds. There’s a lounge, bar, meat curing room, retail counter and dining area. R D $$

URBAN WINERY

949 Bonifant St., 301-585-4100, www.theurban winery.com. Silver Spring residents Damon and Georgia Callis open the first and only urban winery in the Mid-Atlantic area. Tasting facility offers craft wines made with local and international grapes, and customers can even create their own wines (by appointment). Light menu includes artisan cheese, charcuterie and smoked seafood platters, plus Greek mezze. D $

Vegetable Garden

3830 International Drive (Leisure World Plaza), 301598-6868, vegetablegarden.com. The popular vegan, vegetarian and macrobiotic Asian restaurant features a wide variety of eggplant and asparagus dishes, plus vegetarian “beef,” and “chicken” dishes often made with soy and wheat gluten. L D $$

Vicino Ristorante Italiano

959 Sligo Ave., 301-588-3372, vicinoitaliano.com. A favorite neighborhood red-sauce joint that hasn’t changed in decades, Vicino features some fine seafood choices in addition to classic pasta dishes. Families are welcome. ❂ L D $ $

The Woodside Deli

9329 Georgia Ave., 301-589-7055, www.thewoodside deli.com. See Rockville listing. J B L D $

Upper NW D.C. Aggio (Editors’ Pick)

5335 Wisconsin Ave. NW (Chevy Chase Pavilion), 202803-8020, www.volt-aggio.com. Located in the former

private party room at Range, this formal and sophisticated space is chef Bryan Voltaggio’s “restaurant within a restaurant.” Look for modern takes on Italian standbys like steak Florentine, and inventive combinations such as lentils with charred octopus and sprouted wheat berries. D $$$

American City Diner

5532 Connecticut Ave. NW, 202-244-1949, www. americancitydiner.com. Retro diner complete with blue-plate specials such as Salisbury steak and stuffed peppers; malts and egg creams. Diners can catch a classic movie free with dinner. ❂ JBLD$

Arucola

5534 Connecticut Ave. NW, 202-244-1555, www. arucola.com. The restaurant serves authentic Italian cuisine in a casual setting, with a changing menu that includes creative treatment of traditional dishes, homemade pasta and pizza from the wood-burning oven. ❂ L D $ $

Blue 44

5507 Connecticut Ave. NW, 202-362-2583, www. blue44dc.com. The menu features classic American favorites infused with the flavors of Italy and France, including ratatouille, pork schnitzel and bouillabaisse. ❂ J R L D $$

Buck’s Fishing and Camping

5031 Connecticut Ave. NW, 202-364-0777, www. bucksfishingandcamping.com. Diners can enjoy a seasonal menu that changes daily, and offers hip takes on comfort food such as roast chicken (locally raised) in an artsy-chic setting. D $$$

Café of India

4909 Wisconsin Ave. NW, 202-244-1395, www. cafeofindiadc.com. Here’s a cute corner café with two levels of dining and an extensive menu that includes vegetarian and tandoori entrées, dosas, samosas, tikkas, curries and kabobs. ❂ L D $$

Chads Friendship Heights

5247 Wisconsin Ave. NW, 202-362-8040, chadsdc. com. This neighborhood hangout is sometimes compared to Cheers, but it also offers a full menu beyond bar food, including salads, steaks, seafood and sandwiches. ❂ R L D $$

Comet Ping Pong (Editors’ Pick)

5037 Connecticut Ave. NW, 202-364-0404, www. cometpingpong.com. Landmark fun spot where you can play ping-pong or admire local art while you wait for your wood-fired pizza. Choose from over 30 toppings to design your own pie. ❂ R L D $

DeCarlo’s Restaurant

4822 Yuma St. NW, 202-363-4220, www.decarlos restaurant.com. This is a family-owned neighborhood staple, with a traditional Italian menu and upscale/casual atmosphere. Signature dishes include agnolotti, veal Bolognese, broiled salmon and handmade pasta. ❂ L D $$

Guapo’s Fine Mexican Cuisine

4515 Wisconsin Ave. NW, 202-686-3588, www.guapos restaurant.com. See Bethesda listing. ❂ R L D $$

Jake’s American Grille

5018 Connecticut Ave. NW, 202-966-5253, www. jakesdc.com. Burgers, steaks and sandwiches are served in a restaurant named after the owner’s grandfather, an accomplished Navy test engineer. Check out the Boiler Room, a sports bar in the basement. J R L D $$

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Jetties

5632 Connecticut Ave. NW, 202-364-2465. www.jetties dc.com. See Bethesda listing. J L D $

Le Chat Noir

4907 Wisconsin Ave. NW, 202-244-2044, www.lechat noirrestaurant.com. This cute, cozy neighborhood bistro is run by French restaurateurs, who cook traditional fare such as steak frites, bouillabaisse and braised lamb cheeks. R L D $$

LUNCHBOX

5535 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Suite 018, 202-244-3470, www.voltlunchbox.com. The Washington remake of chef Bryan Voltaggio’s defunct Frederick restaurant offers specialties including the Southern Bahn Mi with crispy chicken and pickled vegetables and B’More with pepper-crusted pit beef. L D $

Macon Bistro & Larder (Editors’ Pick)

5520 Connecticut Ave. NW, 202-248-7807, macon bistro.com. Southern and French cuisine converge at this airy, charming restaurant in the historic Chevy Chase Arcade. Appetizers include raclette and fried green tomatoes, and steak frites is offered alongside short ribs with grits for main courses. ❂ R D $$

Maggiano’s LITTLE ITALY

5333 Wisconsin Ave. NW, 202-966-5500, www. maggianos.com. The restaurant features old-style Italian fare that’s a favorite for large groups and private celebrations. Check out the signature flatbreads and specialty pastas, including lobster carbonara. J L D $$

Masala Art (Editors’ Pick)

Satay Club Asian Restaurant and Bar

Murasaki Japanese Cuisine and Sushi Bar

Tanad Thai

4441-B Wisconsin Ave. NW, 202-362-4441, www. masalaartdc.com. Here is fine Indian dining featuring tandoor-oven specialties and masterful Indian spicing. Start off by choosing from a selection of nine breads and 17 appetizers. L D $$

4620 Wisconsin Ave. NW, 202-966-0023, www. murasakidc.com. The restaurant offers a wide variety of specialty sushi rolls plus a full menu, including teriyaki, tempura, noodle soup and other authentic Japanese dishes served in a tastefully understated décor. ❂ L D $$

Parthenon Restaurant

5510 Connecticut Ave. NW, 202-966-7600, www. parthenon-restaurant.com. This is a neighborhood eatery taken up a couple notches, with an extensive menu full of authentic selections familiar and exotic, including avgolemono (egg/lemon soup), tzatziki, moussaka, dolmades and souvlaki. ❂ L D $$

Pete’s New Haven Style Apizza

4940 Wisconsin Ave. NW, 202-237-7383, www.petes apizza.com. See Silver Spring listing. ❂ J L D $

Range (Editors’ Pick)

I help heroes recover who are severely wounded in service

4912 Wisconsin Ave. NW, 202-966-0616, www. tanadthaicuisine.com. The extensive menu ranges from noodles, rice and curries to vegetarian entrées, and even a Thai lemonade cocktail. House specialties include pad Thai and Drunken Noodles. ❂ L D $$

Tara Thai

4849 Massachusetts Ave. NW, 202-363-4141, www. tarathai.com. See Gaithersburg listing. ❂ L D $$

Terasol (Editors’ Pick)

5010 Connecticut Ave. NW, 202-237-5555, www. terasolartisans.com. This charming French café offers soups, salads, quiches and a few entrées, along with jewelry and pottery from local artisans. Live music on Fridays and Saturdays. ❂ B L D $

WAGSHAL’S RESTAURANT

5335 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Suite 201, 202-803-8020, www.voltrange.com. Celebrity chef Bryan Voltaggio’s extravaganza, featuring multiple open kitchens, seats 300 and offers an enormous wine list. The restaurant was chosen for “Best Cocktail” in 2014 by the magazine’s editors. L D $$$

I’m Max, a service dog, and

4654 Wisconsin Ave. NW, 202-363-8888, www.asian satayclub.com. The restaurant prides itself on providing a comfortable/casual setting with a menu that spans Japanese sushi, Chinese moo-shi vegetables, Thai curries and Vietnamese spring rolls. LD$

4855 Massachusetts Ave. NW, 202-363-5698, www. wagshals.com. Longtime popular deli expands grocery and carryout section, and adds a casual sitdown restaurant in the Spring Valley Shopping Center. Same high-quality fare, including the overstuffed sandwiches. L D $ n

AS A SERVICE DOG, I HELP OUR WOUNDED HEROES RECOVER. WILL YOU HELP, TOO?

to our county. The Combat

Soldiers Recovery Fund also helps by giving them 100%

of every donation they receive.

Each dollar makes a diﬀerence so join me to help our heroes.

combatsoldiersrecoveryfund.org

THEY GAVE 100% so WE GIVE 100% BethesdaMagazine.com | january/february 2016 309

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Special Advertising Section

summer camps Camp

Type

Gender

Ages Location

Website

Phone

American Volleyball Camp

Day & Overnight

Coed

9 - 18

Washington, D.C.

americanvolleyballcamps.com

202-885-3031

Barrie Day Camp

Day

Coed

4 - 14

Silver Spring

barrie.org/camp

301-576-2816

Beauvoir Summer Program

Day

Coed

3 - 11

Washington, D.C.

beauvoirschool.org

202-537-6485

Bullis Summer Programs

Day

Coed

3.5 - 17

Potomac

bullis.org/summerprograms

301-983-5741

Calleva

Day

Coed

4 - 17

DC Metro area

calleva.org

301-216-1248

Camp Arena Stage

Day

Coed

8 - 15

Washington, D.C.

arenastage.org/camp

202-600-4046

Camp Hidden Meadows

Overnight

Coed

7 - 16

Bartow, W.Va.

camphiddenmeadows.com

304-456-5191

Camp JCC

Day

Coed

4 - 21

Rockville

jccgw.org/camp

301-348-3883

Camp Olympia

Day

Coed

3.5 - 15

Rockville

camp-olympia.com

301-926-9281

Camp Rim Rock

Overnight

Girls

6 - 16

Yellow Spring, W.Va.

camprimrock.com

347-746-7625

Creative Summer at Holton-Arms

Day

Coed

4 - 13

Bethesda

holton-arms.edu/creative-summer 301-365-6003

East West Tae Kwon Do Summer Camp

Day

Coed

4 - 13

Potomac

eastwestTKD.com

301-869-7072

ESF Summer Camps at Georgetown Prep

Day

Coed

4 - 16

N. Bethesda

esfcamps.com/georgetownprep

301-493-2525

Good Counsel Summer Camps

Day

Coed

3 - 17

Olney

olgchs.org/camps

240-283-3200

Green Acres School Summer Camp

Day

Coed

3 - 12

N. Bethesda

greenacres.org

301-468-8110

Grier Summer

Overnight

All Girls

7 - 17

Tyrone, Pa.

griersummer.org

814-684-3000

Imagination Stage Summer Camp

Day

Coed

4 - 18

Bethesda

imaginationstage.org

301-280-1660

KidsCo

Day

Coed

4 - 14

multiple Md. Locations

KidsCoOnline.com

301-740-9600

Koa Sports Multi Sport Camp

Day

Coed

4 - 11

Bethesda

koasports.org

301-229-7529

Lowell School Summer Programs

Day

Coed

3 - 14

Washington, D.C.

lowellschool.org

202-577-2006

Mercersburg Summer

Overnight

Coed

7 - 17

Mercersburg, Pa.

mercersburgsummer.com

717-328-6225

My Gym Children's Fitness Center

Day

Coed

3 - 10

Bethesda, Potomac

mygym.com/bethesda or /potomac

301-542-2820

Oneness-Family School Summer Programs

Day

Coed

2 - 11

Chevy Chase

onenessfamilyschool.org

301-652-7751

Round House Theatre Summer Camps

Day

Coed

5 - 18

Bethesda, Silver Spring

roundhousetheatre.org

301-585-1225

Silver Stars Gymnastics

Day

Coed

3.5 - 15

Silver Spring, Bowie

gosilverstars.com

301-589-0938

Spy Camp

Day

Coed

10-13

Washington, D.C.

spymuseum.org/spycamp

202-654-0933

St. John's College High School Summer Sports Camps

Day

Coed

6 - 17

Chevy Chase, DC

stjohnschs.org/summercamps

202-363-2316

Stone Ridge Summer Campus

Day

Coed

4 - 16

Bethesda

stoneridgesummercampus.org

301-657-4322

Summer at Norwood

Day

Coed

3.5 - 14

Bethesda

summeratnorwood.org

301-841-2254

Summer at Sandy Spring

Day

Coed

3 - 17

Sandy Spring

summeratsandyspring.org

301-774-7455

Summer at St. Patrick's

Day

Coed

3 - 14

Washington, D.C.

stpatsdc.org/summer_programs

202-342-2813

Summer at the Academy Enrichment Camp

Day

Coed/All Girls

12 - 18

Kensington

academyoftheholycross.org

301-942-2100

Summer at the Academy Sports Camp

Day

All Girls

6 - 17

Kensington

academyoftheholycross.org

301-942-2100

Summer at WES

Day & Overnight

Coed

4-14

Bethesda

w-e-s.org/summer

240-482-0160

Summer Musical Theater Camp

Day

Coed

6 - 12

Glen Echo

adventuretheatre-mtc.org/camps

301-251-5766

Summer Stock at the Academy - Performing Arts Institute

Day

Coed

12 - 17

Kensington

academyoftheholycross.org

301-942-2100

Valley Forge Summer Camps

Day Overnight

Coed All Boys

6 - 15 9 - 17

Wayne, Pa.

vfmac.edu/camp

601-989-1262

Valley Mill Camp

Day

Coed

4 - 14

Darnestown

valleymill.com

301-948-0220

Westmoreland Children's Center

Day

Coed

2-5

Bethesda

wccbethesda.com

301-229-7161

WIS Passport to Summer

Day

Coed

3 - 16

Washington, D.C.

wis.edu

202-243-1791

YMCA Bethesda-Chevy Chase/Ayrlawn Center

Day

Coed

4 - 15

Bethesda

ymcadc.org

301-530-3725

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Field Trips

Horses

Water sports

Special Advertising Section

Essential information on

summer camps

Specialties

Volleyball training for youth, middle school, and high school

●

On-site swimming, horseback riding, sports, overnights, special event days, arts and crafts, nature, outdoor living skills, martial arts, dramatics, music, and CIT program.

●

Outdoor swimming pool/swimming lessons, outdoor education and adventure, comprehensive early childhood camp program

●

"Something for Everyone"...75+ athletic, specialty and academic enrichment camps in one- to two-week sessions. 14 new camps in 2016! Extended Day and lunch are available.

●

Calleva offers exciting outdoor adventures in nearby wilderness areas -"Rivers, Trails, Rocks & Farm." Transportation included.

●

Camp Arena Stage is dedicated to the personal and creative growth of our campers, and includes over 75 activities including acting, a cappella, stage combat, filmmaking, newspaper, costume design, hip-hop dance, pick-up sports, musical theater, rock band, sculpture, improve, and Chinese brush painting!

●

Horseback riding, swimming, soccer, tennis, gymnastics, basketball, track and field, and more

●

Horseback riding, aquatics with private lake and two pools, sports, performing arts, arts and crafts

●

Create your own summer: We offer classes in the arts, cooking, crafts, dance, music, outdoor exploration, sports, swimming, tennis, theater, tutoring, and more. Transportation, extended day are available.

●

Now in our 25th year, campers participate in FUN activities like swimming, soccer, dodgeball, kickball, arts & crafts, and field trips with twice daily Tae Kwon Do. No experience necessary.

●

Expanded specialty camps for 2015-Way more than a typical day of camp! 1-9 week options-extended day available! Please visit website for our extensive offerings!

●

Build lifelong friendships while on outdoor adventures, creating art, backpacking, sailing, rock climbing, rafting, gardening & more!

●

Come to Camp JCC to experience art, sports, theater, traditional day camp, daily swimming and more!

Join us for the fun! Camps include baseball, basketball, field hockey, football, lacrosse, soccer, softball, volleyball, wrestling, robotics, environmental adventure, programming, theatre, choral/visual arts, and video production. After-care available.

●

Daily, on-site swimming instruction; Create your own path in science & Technology, Sports, Music and Art. ●

●

More than 100 1, 2, 3, & 4-week camps in drama, dance, musical theatre, and filmmaking ●

●

Horsemanship program, outdoor adventures program, onsite swimming pool, newly expanded weekly teen offerings, and extended programs into August including an Aquatics camp.

●

Adventure camp, theatre workshop, dance workshop, young writers camp, swim clinics

Soccer, sports, swimming, arts & crafts, and traditional camp activities The best, most fun coaches around - basketball, street hockey, soccer, flag football, and more!

Art, musical theatre, dance, English or Western horseback riding; intensive or recreational programming options; beginner, intermediate, or advanced skill levels welcome; theme weekends & special activities.

Gymnastics, sports, agility, movement games, crafts and more. Different themes each day and week. ●

●

Exciting outdoor adventures, outdoor swimming, yoga, creative movement, and a comprehensive early childhood camp program.

1-Week and Multi-Week camps for youth and teens. Focus on acting, playwriting, storytelling, design and more. Inspire creativity and explore your imagination!

Gymnastics

Spy Camp is filled with top secret briefings & activities that put spy skills to the test. Recruits will hone their tradecraft, learn from real spies, and run training missions.

Baseball, basketball, field hockey, football, lacrosse, performance training, soccer, tennis, track and field, volleyball, wrestling

●

Choose your own adventure from over 45 classes including: makerspace tech lab, moviemaking, rocket science, improv, jewelry making, fine arts, sculpture, dance, a cappella, musical theater, guitar lessons, swimming, diving, soccer, field hockey, basketball, volleyball camps, Adventure Camps and more!

●

Early childhood, specialty day camps in tech, art, science, dance, cooking, sports, kayaking, rock climbing, hiking, CIT/LIT

●

Swimming, academics, STEM, creative arts, adventure, basketball, LEGO®, yoga, soccer, theatre, coding, sustainable farming, video production, community service and volunteerism, rocketry, fishing, cooking, and so much more!

●

Sports, swimming, arts, theatre, language immersion, science and more!

Preparation course for the High School Placement Test (HSPT) used for Archdiocese of Washington Catholic high school admissions.

Choose from field hockey, soccer, softball, lacrosse, basketball, and volleyball

●

Nine sessions that include archery, robotics, cooking, sculpture, animation and video game development, basketball, hiking, improv and sketch comedy, dance, and more!

Celebrating 38 years, it will be an unforgettable summer as they take their final bow in a musical theater show! Two weeks of singing, dancing, costumes, props and acting.

Hone your performing arts skills; classes include singing, dancing, improvisation, filmmaking, and acting.

●

Valley Forge Summer Camp is a special place where campers grow, discover new abilities, and develop friendships that will last a lifetime. Your child will learn new skills, gain confidence, and participate in activities that will assist them in becoming successful in all they do. Valley Forge offers a co-ed day camp and adventure and fitness sleep-away camps for boys ages 9-17. For both camps, families can mix and match their camp weeks to best meet their family’s summer schedule.

●

Kayaking, canoeing, swimming, horseback riding, rock climbing, archery, air rifle, gymnastics and more. Transportation provided.

A variety of age appropriate activities. Each theme oriented session includes water play, special events, special projects and music. Outdoor playground space and well-equipped pre-school classrooms, along with a low teacher to child ratio.

●

Specialty camps, languages

●

25+ different camps a week - travel camps, aquatics, sports, arts, science, teen, specialty

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summer Camps

I am a thinker, an athlete, an artist. S U M M E R AT H O LY C R O S S Co-Ed Summer Enrichment High School Placement Test Prep (HSPT) Course June 20 - 24 Morning Session:

8:30 am - 12 pm Afternoon Session:

1 pm - 4:30 pm

Girls Summer Sports Camps Grades 1-10 Volleyball, Soccer, Session 1: June 20 - 24 • 9 am - 3 pm Softball, Lacrosse, Session 2: June 27 - July 1 • 9 am - 3 pm Field Hockey Basketball

Session 3: July 11-15 • 9 am - 3 pm

Co-Ed Summer Stock Performing Arts Grades 6-11 July 5 - 15 • 9 am - 3 pm Classes in: Musical Theatre Dance, Musical Theatre Singing, Improvisation, Filmmaking, Acting Final Performance: Friday, July 15 at 7 pm All-Girls, Grades 9-12 4920 Strathmore Ave, Kensington MD

For more inform ation, call 301-942-2 100.

w w w .A c A d e my O f T h e h O ly c r O s s . O r g

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summer Camps

This summer, St. John’s College High School has something for every athlete! SJC offers a wide variety of summer sports camps for both boys and girls, including: Baseball Basketball Field Hockey Football

Lacrosse Performance Training Soccer

Tennis Track and Field Volleyball Wrestling

For more information, please visit us online at www.stjohnschs.org/summercamps

ST. JOHN’S COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL 2607 Military Rd., NW, Chevy Chase, DC 20015 202-363-2316 / stjohnschs.org

Located On VFMAC Campus 1001 Eagle Road Wayne, PA 19089

OVERNIGHT CAMP June 19 - July 22 One Week or Multiple Week Options

SUMMER CAMP

2016

REGISTRATION NOW OPEN FITNESS PAINTBALL FIELD TRIPS MEALS

*ENRICHMENT ACTIVITIES OFFERED*

OPEN TO BOYS AGES 9 - 17 CONTACT US AT OUR CAMP OFFICE:

Tel: 610.989.1262 | summercamp@vfmac.edu | vfmac.edu/camp BethesdaMagazine.com | January/February 2016 313

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summer Camps

SUMMER MUSICAL

THEATER CAMP FULL DAY CAMP | MON–FRI | GLEN ECHO PARK

Hosted in Bender Arena on the campus of

American University

Mid-July & Early August 2016

Keep American Volleyball Camps in mind as you make your summer plans. Check for camp dates and registration information on our website.

Several Camp Options

POSITIONS - SKILLS - AGE/LEVEL A camp for every need and to grow your game!

IAL IRD SPEC EARLY B w to save $50! o y it all n 16 Pa uary 31, 20 ends Jan

Head Coach Barry Goldberg

6 time Patriot League Coach of the Year 2013 NCAA Regional Coach of the Year 15 NCAA tournament appearances - Sweet 16 in 2013 27 seasons at American University

Musical Theater Center For more information or to register, call 301.251.5766 or visit www.adventuretheatre-mtc.org

www.americanvolleyballcamps.com

2016

JUN E 20 –A UG UST 5

AGE S 3–1 1

HALF & FULL DAY OPTION S

SUMMER PROGRAM Featuring our Fantastic Playground and Outdoor Pool! Creating Adventures and Lasting Memories. Swimming, Outdoor Adventures, Languages, Music, Cooking, Golf, STEM, Soccer, Science, Field Trips and MUCH, MUCH more.

For more information visit www.beauvoirschool.org/summer 3500 Woodley Road, NW • Washington, DC 20016

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summer Camps Day Camp

AGE 4–8 Way more than a typical day at camp!

SUMMER

Sports Camp

AGE 6–14 The best multi-sports experience around!

Senior Camp

AGE 9–15 Experiences they’ll never outgrow!

LEADERSHIP EXPLORATION AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM (LEaD) AGE 15-16 Day, Sports, and Specialty camps for boys and girls, ages 4–16

JUNE 15 – AUGUST 14 AT GEORGETOWN PREP IN NORTH BETHESDA, MD

Discover your unique leadership abilities and prepare to be a part of the next generation of ESF leaders!

Specialty Major Camps

GRADES PREK–9 Choose from a variety of hands-on experiences!

Tech Camps

GRADES 2–12 Camps ranging from Game Design to Robotics!

EVE

MORNE TECH

Club OT and Specialty Clinics AGE 3–15 The fun and learning continues!

301.493.2525 | esfcamps.com/GeorgetownPrep

READY FOR ADVENTURE? Adventure is not in the guidebooks & beauty is not on the maps.

RY • RE UA

2016

MID-JAN

301-216-1248

SUMMER

www.calleva.org

Cubs ages 4-5 outdoor fun Explorers ages 6-9 outdoor activities Adventurers ages 9-15 outdoor challenges Overnight Trips ages 13-17 outdoor leadership

BEGIN ON

TRATI GIS

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summer Camps

m ddp i H a C wesn meado

New Bethesda Location!

1 - 4 Weeks Boys & Girls Ages 7-16 Horseback Riding • White-Water Rafting • Climbing Tower • Sailing Sports • Mountain Boarding • Canoeing • Backpacking • Swimming Arts & Crafts • Organic Farm • Mountain Biking • Rock Climbing 1,000 Ft. Zip Line • Performing Arts & more!

KidsCo

Day Camp

Soccer Camp

On-The-Run

KidsCo Jr.

Day Trip Camps

e Shuttl C D r fo area!

1-800-600-4752

KidsCo

301-740-9600 camphiddenmeadows.com

www.KidsCoOnline.com

PERFORMING ARTS AQUATICS HORSEBACK RIDING ARTS & CRAFTS SPORTS

VOTED “BEST OVERNIGHT CAMP”

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316 January/February 2016 | BethesdaMagazine.com

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summer Camps

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2016 summer cAmp

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Camps for Ages 4-18

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1, 2, 3 or 4-week options! Register now for Winter/Spring 6 and 14-week classes!

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www.imaginationstage.org | 301-280-1660 BethesdaMagazine.com | January/February 2016 317

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summer Camps

E G A T S A N E R A P M CA

Summer at

le ages 8 – 15

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VISIT WWW.ARENASTAGE.ORG/CAMP | 202-600-4064

Gallop to the beat of Summer fun!

Washington International School

Co-Ed Instructional Sports Program Camp:

June 20 - August 26 Spring break camp: March 28 - April 1

Open house dates: Jan 23, 30, Feb 6, 20 2 week minimum Ages 3 1/2 - 15 Door to Door Transportation Extended Care Available

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• Football • Gymnastics • Soccer

• Tennis • Mountain Biking • Games and more!

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Visit us online to learn more!

318 January/February 2016 | BethesdaMagazine.com

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summer Camps Use promocode BETHESDA10 to receive 10% OFF enrollment for 2016 Mercersburg Summer Programs! *this promotion does not apply to any ESL+Language program. Promo code is only valid for new 2016 registrations. Promo code cannot be added to currently enrolled participants.

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summer Camps Our Lady Of GOOd COunseL HiGH sCHOOL

2016 Summer Programs ATHLETICS

Baseball Basketball Field Hockey Football Lacrosse

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olgchs.org/camps

EastWestTKD (301) 869-7072 eastwesttkd@verizon.net eastwesttkd.com

My Gym Bethesda (301) 652-2820 My Gym Potomac (301) 983-5300 mygym.com

Westwood Center II 5110 Ridgefield Road Cabin John Mall 11325 Seven Locks Road My Gym, Readers’ Pick, Best Place for Kids Parties

WHERE ADVENTURE NEVER ENDS

AND KIDS NEVER STOP LEARNING At YMCA Bethesda Chevy-Chase/Arylawn summer camp, summer camp I can have different experiences and adventure all summer. Summer day camp at YMCA Bethesda Chevy-Chase allows campers to step outside of their comfort zones and try new and exciting things. Every week you can choose from a variety of 20 different camps that help children learn more about themselves, their communities and the world around them. Choose Y camps such as sports, dance, nature, adventure, tennis or aquatics. See what new adventure is waiting every day!! The YMCA of Metropolitan Washington is a non-profit 501©3 organization that fosters the spiritual, mental and physical development of individuals, families and communities according to the ideals of inclusiveness, equality and mutual respect for all.

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Camp brochures are available online at www.ymcadc.org or call 1.301.530.8500 or 301.530.3725 320 January/February 2016 | BethesdaMagazine.com

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summer Camps Junior Day Specialty Day Camp Classes Adventure Camps Sports Camps

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Visit barrie.org/camp for more information

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Ages four to fourteen 301.576.2816 for more information. BethesdaMagazine.com | January/February 2016 321

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summer Camps Classes • Birthday Parties • Open Gym • Competitive Team • Camps

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summer Camps

Big Summer Birthday Bash i ne Onl ration is t Reg egins 1 B ary u Jan

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15101 Seneca Rd Darnestown MD BethesdaMagazine.com | January/February 2016 323

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Bethesda Urban Partnership and Bethesda Magazine will honor writers at the Bethesda Literary Festival, April 15-17, 2016.

DEADLINE: JANUARY 22, 2016 For eligibility and rules, please visit www.bethesda.org or www.bethesdamagazine.com.

AWARDS

First place: $500 and published in Bethesda Magazine Second place: $250 // Third place: $150 // Honorable Mention: $75 The first place winners will also receive a gift certificate to The Writerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Center.

All winners will be published on the Bethesda Magazine and Bethesda Urban Partnership websites and will be honored at a special event during the Bethesda Literary Festival. High School winners receive: $250, first place; $100, second place; $50, third place. Bethesda Magazine will print the first place Essay & Short Story.

For more information, please call 301-215-6660, Ext. 117 or 301-718-7787, Ext. 207.

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shopping. beauty. weddings. pets. travel. history.

photo by jason varney

etc.

A hidden entrance leads to cocktail bar Hop Sing Laundromat in Philadelphiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Chinatown. For more highlights from Phillyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dining and bar scene, see page 332.

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etc. S h o p Ta l k

By samantha miller

We asked local experts to share tips for wearing this season’s must-have accessory As a busy mom of three, Rosana Vollmerhausen, founder of personalstyling business DC Style Factory, appreciates a functional fashion trend. “Blanket scarves are popular because they’re wearable and make a statement,” says the Silver Spring resident, who’s worked alongside celebrity stylist Stacy London. “They’re also a great way to elevate your style while keeping your

look relaxed.” To prevent the accessory from overwhelming your outfit, Vollmerhausen suggests folding the scarf in a triangle, then piling it loosely across your shoulders or tying it in a simple knot in front of your chest. Rachel Edwards, manager and buyer for Bethesda boutique Sassanova, looks to runway shows, fashion magazines and social media for trends. Plaid

and geometric shapes have re-emerged this season, appearing in fall lines such as Alexander Wang, Marc Jacobs and Fendi. Edwards, who prefers to drape blanket scarves over her shoulders like a shawl, suggests “incorporating colors you’re already wearing, which will pull the whole look together.” Bethesda stylist Robin Fisher, who counts news anchors and diplomats

photos of Vollmerhausen by darren higgins

How to Style a Blanket Scarf Like a Pro

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That’s a Wrap Upgrade your winter wardrobe with oversized scarves in dramatic patterns

DC Style Factory founder Rosana Vollmerhausen ties a simple scarf knot.

All scarf Photos Courtesy

Nordstrom Plaid Blanket Wrap, $48 at Nordstrom in Westfield Montgomery mall and nordstrom.com

as clients, says scarves can add drama to your winter wardrobe. The key is finding one that complements your natural beauty. “For a polished and sophisticated look, choose a pattern that blends with your hair color and skin tone,” she says. “If you hold the scarf up to your face, there shouldn’t be a huge disconnect in color.”

1. Burberry Color Block Blanket Scarf, $375 at Bloomingdale’s in Chevy Chase and bloomingdales. com 2. Zara Soft Geometric Scarf, $36 at Zara in Westfield Montgomery mall and zara.com 3. V. Fraas Herringbone/Plaid Blanket Scarf, $58 at Irresistibles in Wildwood Shopping Center 4. Coco International Plaid Check Scarf, $50 at Sassanova in Bethesda 5. Lou Lou Jade Blanket Scarf, $35 at Lou Lou in Bethesda and loulouboutiques.com

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Winter Hair S u rv i v a l G u id e

Plagued by dull, limp hair that won’t cooperate? You’re not alone, which is why we turned to Ira Ludwick of Ira Ludwick Salon in Bethesda. Here are his top three tips to revitalize lackluster locks.

Ludwick’s Pick:

Oribe Gold Lust Nourishing Hair Oil $49 at Bluemercury in Bethesda and bluemercury.com

Davines Calming Shampoo $28 at Ira Ludwick Salon in Bethesda

Sachajuan Volume Powder $18 at Anthropologie in Chevy Chase and anthropologie.com

1. Fight Frizz wit h Oil

2. Moisturize Your Hair and Scalp

3. Go Easy on t he Shampoo

The combination of dry, winter air and indoor heat can wreak havoc on your mane, says Ludwick, who began his hairdressing career in 1974. His clients’ number one complaint? Static electricity. “The lack of humidity and moisture causes an electrical charge, so your hair stands on end,” he says. To eliminate frizz and restore shine, apply a drop of nourishing oil to wet or dry hair, beginning mid-shaft and working your way to the ends.

“People forget that your scalp is an extension of your skin,” Ludwick says. “And a healthy scalp is the foundation for healthy hair.” To combat flakes and soothe irritation, he recommends using a gentle shampoo packed with calming botanicals. Leave-in treatments and masks are also good options to help restore damage caused by environmental factors (or a love affair with your flat iron).

Women with fine to medium hair can usually wash their tresses on a daily basis, according to Ludwick. However, those with curly, coarse or textured hair are able to go days— sometimes weeks—without lathering up, especially in winter. To revive limp locks between washes, Ludwick suggests “applying a volume powder or texturizing spray to make hair more manageable, without adding unnecessary weight.”

All Photos Courtesy

Ludwick’s Pick:

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Bethesda Green thanks the generous sponsors of our successful 2015 Gala!

Your support advances our work to educate the community about sustainability, facilitates green solutions and bolsters the local economy through our Green Business Incubator.

Michael D. Rubin I N A S S O C I AT I O N W I T H

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etc. G e t Away

By Christine Koubek

Read by the Fire The Inn at Sugar Hollow Farm, located 17 miles from Charlottesville, Virginia, is a good place to visit during the winter months. In addition to four guest rooms with wood-burning fireplaces, the communal great room offers a floor-to-ceiling fieldstone fireplace and views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Want to bring your dog? Four dogfriendly guest rooms are located across the lawn from the main house in the Farmhouse building. The Dogwood Suite is the largest, with a kitchen, living room (with sofa bed) and bedroom. Trails on the grounds of the inn lead to Shenandoah National Park. Several nearby wineries and restaurants feature dog-friendly spaces. Weekend breakfast favorites include pumpkin (or buttermilk) pancakes with baked apples, and a Mexican eggand-cheese dish with green chilies and cilantro. Weekend rates range from $199 to $319, including breakfast. The pet fee is $20 per dog, per night.

Take a Winter Swim Cure the winter stir-crazies at the new— always 84 degrees—Aquatopia Indoor Water Park at Camelback Lodge in Pennsylvania’s Poconos region, the largest indoor water park in the Northeast. Opened in May 2015, Aquatopia features 13 slides, ranging from the Venus SlydeTrap raft ride, which plunges through a serpentine flume, to North America’s longest uphill water coaster. The park’s transparent roof lets the sun shine in over seven pools, including a wave pool, a toddler pool, a pool with a swim-up bar, and a lazy river. Aquatopia is available to all guests at Camelback. The lodge’s 453 rooms come in 16 configurations, from family suites with bunk beds to loft suites with a fireplace. Rates start at $299 per night. 193 Resort Drive, Tannersville, Pennsylvania; 855-5151283; www.camelbackresort.com

Photo by Images of Sommer ( sugar hollow farm ); Photo Courtesy of Aquatopia

6051 Sugar Hollow Road, Crozet, Virginia; 434-8237086; www.sugarhollow.com

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Escape to the Ocean The Sea Spray Inn in Ocean Grove, New Jersey, made it onto the list of TripAdvisor’s 2015 “Top 25 B&Bs and Inns, United States.” Cared for meticulously by innkeepers Mary Ellen and Eric Tellefsen, the inn has seven luxuriously comfortable rooms and a three-course homemade breakfast that includes a special coffee blend from a local roaster. Guest room décor is in soft shades of aqua, gold, lavender or blue. Each coastal-themed room has unique features, from cushioned rattan chairs to claw-foot tubs and a porch overlooking the ocean. The walls of the romantic “Love Letter Room” feature an elegantly penned love letter on the upper perimeter, plus a painting of a woman reading a love note. The Rose Bud Room’s twin beds are perfect for girlfriend getaways. The inn reopens each year on Feb. 1. Rates begin at $115-$195 per night. 19 Broadway, Ocean Grove, New Jersey; 732-897-0700; www.theseaspray.com

Photos courtesy of The sea Spray inn; Photo Courtesy of Wisp Resort

Ski and snowboard Wisp Resort, in Maryland’s Deep Creek Lake area, opened Sundown Village last winter in order to expand its offerings for beginning skiers and snowboarders. The village, which is housed in eight yurts from Alaska, serves as home base for the Adult Ski and Snowboard Learning Center, the Wisp Kids program, a Nordic Center that offers cross-country skiing and snowshoeing, and a casual eatery called the Sundown Café. Five conveyor carpet lifts service two new beginner trails and the children’s area, making multiple runs easy. Thanks to the addition of Sundown Village, the resort now offers 34 slopes and trails (35 percent beginner, 38 percent intermediate and 27 percent expert). But that’s not all: Wisp’s adjacent Mountain Park offers snow-tubing, an ice-skating rink and a mountain coaster. 296 Marsh Hill Road, McHenry, Maryland; 301-387-4000; www.wispresort.com BethesdaMagazine.com | January/February 2016 331

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Baker Alex Boisâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; bread is a highlight at High Street on Market.

Philly Me U Left page: v street bar, right page: townsend

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etc. Driving Ra n g e

A food and cocktail tour of the City of Brotherly Love Phil adelphia native W.C. Fields took every opportunity to call his hometown “dullsville.” I spent 48 hours there in September, packing in a fortnight’s worth of eating and drinking. And I’m here to tell you that the food and cocktail scene there, contrary to the late comedian’s opinion, is anything but boring. After hitting more than 20 places for breakfast, lunch, dinner, booze and loads of noshes between meals, I affirmed the sense I came away with after a similar binge two years before: That town is on fire.

photo by Jason Varney

e Up

By David Hagedorn

Philadelphia is between Washington and New York, but it’s closer to the latter, more than just geographically. Both Philadelphia and New York were major ports of entry for immigrants who brought heterogeneity, a no-nonsense work ethic and deeply rooted food traditions with them. Like New York, Philly is a city of neighborhoods. “That really can’t be overstated,” says one local foodie pal I consulted during my visit. “I’m from Northeast Philly, so South Philly doesn’t have anything to do with me.” That’s changing, however, along with her tune, now that East Passyunk (pronounced pa-SHUNK) Avenue in South Philly is blowing up with amazing food options. She wants to be in on the action by eating and drinking all over town. She should check out the two restaurants that executive chef Joe Cicala oversees in East Passyunk. At Brigantessa (brigantessaphila.com)—a casual, bi-level trattoria-meets-pizzeria—a sunset-orange

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Hop Sing Laundromat in Chinatown offers cocktails made with top-shelf liquor.

Americano di Camillo (gin, Carpano Antica, Cappelletti Aperitivo) primes the palate nicely, and Maryland-born Cicala displays his Sicilian roots. Rosy slices of 24-month prosciutto di Parma with fresh figs, whipped ricotta pipings and mosto cotto meld in blissful harmony. Woodgrilled cardoncelli mushrooms dressed with olive oil are an exercise in restraint. The Regina pizza of buffalo mozzarella, mineral-rich Piennolo tomatoes and fresh basil has the blistered crust and soupy center that great Neapolitan pizza should. And the briganti (pasta bugles)—rendered green with the addition of beet greens— arrive in a bold ragù of dry-aged beef. The dish is rustic yet refined. Cicala spotlights Abruzzese cooking at Le Virtu (levirtu.com), where highlights include delicate crepes (scrippelle ’mbusse) filled with aged pecorino cheese and awash in rich chicken brodo; pasta “handkerchiefs” (taccozzelle) with sausage, porcini mushrooms, black truffle and Abruzzo’s Navelli saffron; and an ethereal brined rabbit, roasted

porchetta-style and served with eggplant caponata and pine nuts. At Townsend (www.townsendrestau rant.com) in East Passyunk, chef owner Tod Wentz offers a sublime rabbit roulade, braised “pot-au-feu” style with carrots and potatoes. His charming white-tablecloth restaurant (upstairs) with a cozy, sexy bar (downstairs) features refined French cooking with interpretations, such as broiled oysters with spinach, bacon and fennel; or Hamachi cubes and cucumber dressed with sesame oil and seeds, lime juice, and furikake (a Japanese seasoning). The escargots and fava beans in rich crème fraîche sauce with bacon and sherry are irresistible.

Center City, including Rittenhouse Square, also is a trove of interesting eats and drinks. One area where Philadelphia is miles ahead of Washington is on the vegan and vegetarian front. Take Charlie Was a Sinner (charliewasasinner.com), a sexy, narrow space with slate-blue walls, low lighting, terrific cocktails by J. Christine Lamb and vegan small plates by chef Ted Manko. The Going Down Easy (lemongrass-infused gin, yellow Chartreuse, lemon) is true to its name. Avocado toast with shredded radish and habañero aioli is splendid, as are the fried artichokes with saffron aioli.

In October 2014, Kate Jacoby and James Beard Award nominee Rich Landau opened V Street (vstreetfood. com) near Rittenhouse Square as a casual sister restaurant to Vedge, their acclaimed and elegant vegan restaurant. V Street offers a small menu of flavor- and texture-packed street foods. Peruvian fries (fried, baked potato wedges slathered with yellow-pepper aioli and sprinkled with chopped peanuts and Kalamata olives) are life-altering. So are tacos filled with spicy fried cauliflower florets, zesty red-pepper purée, crisp pappadum, tomato chutney and raita. (Mustard in a cocktail, not so much.) Dinner at Vernick Food and Drink (vernickphilly.com), also near Rittenhouse Square, is de rigueur. The hushed second-floor dining room, with its light-wood tables and floors, wall shelf of votive candles and centerpiece of stunning flowers, is a perfect setting for a romantic evening. Our stellar meal started with striped jack crudo with avocado dollops and smoked jalapeño oil, followed by heavenly tiny curds of scrambled egg, topped with whipped butter and uni. We then moved on to tuna poke with candied tamarind, macadamia nuts, black sesame seeds and yogurt foam; a salad of toasted couscous, corn, steamed mussels and tarragon

Photo by revtar photography/courtesy of hop sing laundromat ( cocktail ); courtesy of Brigantessa ( oven )

A wood-fired oven adds blistered crust to Neapolitan pizzas at Brigantessa.

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Townsend serves interpretations of refined French cooking.

Roasted rabbit at Le Virtu

Courtesy Le Virtu; photo by Neal santos/Courtesy of townsend

aioli; duck ragù tagliatelle; and corn and coconut crème caramel.

E xc e l l e n t co c kta i l programs abound in Philly, from noodle bars to the finest restaurants, but two places that specialize in them are standouts. The Franklin Bar in Rittenhouse Square (thefranklinbar.com) is a downstairs, speakeasy-type bar with an unmarked entrance and a bouncer outside. Inside, it’s all tufted oxblood banquettes, marble-topped tables and exposed brick. Head bartender Sara Justice’s menu is well curated. A three-course cocktail tasting menu for $35 affords the chance to sample three stellar libations in one fell swoop. When I was there, a tiki trio included Surf Avenue (multiple rums, Blue Curaçao, green tea, pineapple juice, cream, bitters); Under the Boardwalk (a drink laced with passion fruit, coconut and ginger); and Laughy Taffy, which featured cognac, brown butter and banana. If you can only go to one bar, make sure it’s Hop Sing Laundromat (hop singlaundromat.com) in Chinatown. The place has no sign or phone number,

takes no reservations and has a few rules: no tennis shoes/flip-flops/sandals, no shorts, no hats, no phones, no cameras and cash only. Other standards: top-shelf liquor only (The Glenlivet 15 is in the well) and reasonable prices. I intended to stop by Hop Sing for one drink on the way to a 5:30 dinner reservation. Ten cocktails and two-and-a-half hours later, my companion and I were woozy from the charm and talent of the bar’s quirky owner, Lê, the man who built the dark, inviting boîte himself and filled it with artwork and bric-a-brac that deserve a story of their own. (The bar is made of perfectly aligned inlaid nickels.) Legendary cocktails include the Nevermore, a grownup’s cappuccino in a coupe made with gin, cold Vietnamese coffee, Patrón Citrónge and a float of cream; and the Henry “Box” Brown, made with 15-year-old rum and freshly pressed red grape juice.

My only regret on this trip to Philly was that I didn’t have a chance to hit any BYOB restaurants. Wine and spirits can only be bought in Pennsylvania from state-owned outlets, where the

cost and subsequent markup are high. Liquor licenses are also expensive. So, many restaurateurs find a small space with decent rent, make sure the food is great, accept cash only and let people bring their own liquor. Two tried-and-trues are Modo Mio for Italian (modomiorestaurants.com) in Northern Liberties and Pumpkin (pumpkinphilly.com) for solid seasonal American cooking in Graduate Hospital, aka “G-Ho.” (That is the name of the neighborhood, by the way.) On the way out of town, I stopped at a few food emporiums in Center City for car snacks to keep me company on the two-and-a-half-hour drive home. (See sidebar on page 336.) Among them were hummus piled with crispy chicken skins, buttermilk-ranch-coated fried chicken and an overstuffed Italian hoagie. The next time someone asks me where the best place to eat in Washington is, I just may tell him Philadelphia. David Hagedorn is an overstuffed and underpaid food, travel and design writer in Washington, D.C.

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Nosh Worthy Still hungry? Graze your way through these local treasures. Ca po f i t to

Stephanie and John Reitano, owners of Capogiro Gelato, crank out terrific Neapolitan pies at this Old City pizzeria. You’ll find top-notch ingredients such as Rotondo Dolce prosciutto di Parma, San Marzano tomatoes and fior di latte mozzarella crowning a nicely charred, thin-crust pizza, along with a pile of arugula and a slathering of superb Sicilian olive oil. The San Lorenzo (smoked provola, house-made sausage, mushroom ragù and pecorino) is divine, as is the pistachio gelato. Open 7:30 a.m.-10:30 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; 7:30 a.m.-11:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. 233 Chestnut St., 215897-9999; capofittoforno.com

Cheu Noodle Bar

At this 28-seat Center City noodle bar, chef Ben Puchowitz does his own thing with Asian food. Case in point: ramen with tender smoked brisket, a giant but delicate matzo ball, kimchi and red chili broth. Other delights: broccoli with Vietnamese sausage and peanuts; crispy black-garlic chicken wings; and juicy pork-and-pickle dumplings. Open noon-3 p.m. and 5-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday; noon-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday; noon-10 p.m. Sunday. 255 S. 10th St., 267-639-4136; cheunoodlebar.com

D i B r u n o B ro s.

Forget the Rittenhouse Square outpost of this Italian market. The real gem is its tiny flagship cheese store, which opened 75 years ago among the stalls of Ninth Street’s famed Italian market in South Philly. Here’s

a tip: Go there with up to 16 folks for a private, after-hours tasting/shopping/learning extravaganza of antipasti, salumi, cheeses, oil and vinegar samplings and stories. Such events are BYO friendly, and participants will enjoy a 10 percent discount on purchases. Call for hours and pricing (ballpark is $55 per person, plus tax and gratuity). 930 S. Ninth St., 215-922-2876; dibruno.com

Dizengoff

When you walk in the door of chef Michael Solomonov’s hummusiya, your eye is drawn to the baker pulling puffed pitas from a wood-burning oven. But the star of the place is the silky hummus, whether topped with a pile of crispy chicken skins, or with braised onions, pistachios, sumac, za’atar and dill. On the side, try a cucumber, tomato and onion salad with cornichons. Open 10:30 a.m.-7 p.m. daily. 1625 Sansom St., 215867-8181; dizengoffphilly.com

F e d e ra l D o n u t s

Each order of succulent, crispy fried chicken, served naked or tossed with a choice of seasonings (coconut-curry, za’atar, buttermilk-ranch) and a glaze (chiligarlic, soy-garlic, honey-ginger), comes with a honey-cake doughnut. But you may very well find yourself leaving with strawberry-shortcake, chocolate-éclair and lemon-ricotta doughnuts, too. Open 7 a.m.-7 p.m. (or until sold out); chicken starts at 11 a.m. Multiple locations, including 3428 Sansom St., 267-275-8489; federaldonuts.com

T h e F ra n k l i n F o u n ta i n

This old-fashioned soda shop in Old City makes the best ice cream in town. Its house fudge, composed mainly of Wilbur’s chocolate, is gooey and chewy as it should be. Try it on top of Whirly Berley ice cream (chocolate with nougat and salted caramel) with whipped cream and a Bordeaux cherry for a transcendent experience. Open 11 a.m.-midnight daily. Cash only. 116 Market St., 215-627-1899; franklinfountain.com

High Street on Market

This sister restaurant to Fork (whose chef, Eli Kulp, was paralyzed in the Amtrak crash

of May 2015) is known for baker Alex Bois’ bread, so make a point of breakfasting here. The black squid ink bialy, encrusted with sesame seeds and filled with whitefish, will make you a believer. The same goes for the coffee-almond-date cake, and the red-eye Danish with ham and coffee cream. Breakfast: 7:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. Monday-Friday; 8 a.m.-3:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. (Also open for lunch and dinner.) 308 Market St., 215-625-0988; highstreetonmarket.com

L a Co lo mb e

Local craft coffee roaster La Colombe opened an 11,000-square-foot café in funky Fishtown last year. The space contains a tasting room, a bakery, a full-fledged café menu and its own rum distillery. The menu includes tartines, salads, skillets (like shrimp and grits), sammys and charcuterie boards. Savvy baristas can make whatever you throw their way. Open 7 a.m.-7 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; 7 a.m.-9 p.m. Friday and Saturday. 1335 Frankford Ave., 215-563-0860 or 267-4791600; lacolombe.com

Reading Terminal Market

More than 100 stalls—flowers, cheeses, baked goods, Peking duck, you name it— fill this vast Philadelphia landmark, but remarkably much of the food here is average. Tommy DiNic’s is a notable exception. Two sandwiches in particular—the brisket with gravy, and the thinly sliced pork shoulder dipped in jus (get them both with sharp provolone, broccoli rabe and roasted hot peppers)—are pure gold. Open 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; 9 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday and Monday. 51 N. 12th St., 215-922-2317; readingterminalmarket.org

Sc ratc h B i s c u i t s

Buttery, crumbly buttermilk drop biscuits are the “in” carbs du jour. Chef Mitch Prensky’s are just fine eaten plain with salted molasses butter, but I’m partial to The Philly Farmhand, a biscuit stuffed with baked eggs, homemade scrapple, sage-cream gravy and hot sauce. Build your own from a menu of proteins, vegetables and sauces. Open 7:30 a.m.-7:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday.

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map by mary ann smith

1306 Chestnut St., 267-930-3727; eatscratch biscuits.com

S o u t h P h i l ly B a r b acoa

Chef/owners Cristina Martinez and Ben Miller traded in their cult-following food truck for this small brick-and-mortar eatery, which is known for its lamb barbacoa tacos. The tortillas are made in-house and the meat is slow-cooked, chopped to order, ultra-juicy and all-around delectable. Dress it up with

onions, cilantro, roasted peppers, nopales and salsa verde from the toppings bar. Open 5 a.m. to sellout, Friday-Sunday. Cash only. 1703 S. 11th St., 215-694-3797 (no website)

V i l l ag e W h i s k e y

Sometimes you just need a great burger, and chef Jose Garces’ team delivers at this small, no-reservations spot near Rittenhouse Square. Eight ounces of grass-fed, grain-finished beef are formed into a tall

patty that’s griddled to a dark sear and wonderfully juicy. With Jasper Hill cheddar cheese, house-cured jalapeño bacon and caramelized onions, it adds up to a mountain of pure satisfaction. Open 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m. Monday-Friday; 10:30 a.m.-11 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, plus late night hours 11 p.m.-midnight Tuesday-Thursday and 11 p.m.-1 a.m. Friday and Saturday. 118 S. 20th St., 215-665-1088; village whiskey.com n

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private schools Please call or e-mail Clare Cahill to schedule a tour: clare.cahill@wccbethesda.com

Application Deadline: January 15, 2016 Visit barrie.org/apply for more information or to begin your application.

For more information, contact our Admission team at 301.576.2800 or admission@barrie.org Serving students age 18-months through Grade 12 13500 Layhill Road, Silver Spring, MD 20912 338 January/February 2016 | BethesdaMagazine.com

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private schools

McLean celebrates differences; they don’t walk away from them. These kids are the people who will think differently and solve the world’s problems.

It is surprising how few public or private schools understand how to educate a child with learning disabilities—yet capable of high academic performance. McLean is the only school that can provide a rigorous, college prep curriculum for students with learning challenges!

The love, attention, and the individualized understanding of our daughter’s academic needs were managed in such a positive manner. McLean has changed our child’s life, and our family dynamic.

Open House 9:00 am Saturday, January 23

RSVP admission@mcleanschool.org 240.395.0698

Our son was off the charts smart— but couldn’t get organized. It was a relief to come to a school that recognized his intellectual strengths.

Parents Talk. Join the conversation about McLean School.

8224 Lochinver Lane Potomac, Maryland 20854 www.mcleanschool.org K-12 College preparatory school supporting bright students’ individual learning styles

WHERE YOU START

NOW ENROLLING!

THE JOURNEY CAN MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE. Tour the Goddard School located in Bethesda and experience why it’s the best preparation for social and academic success. Goddard Systems, Inc.’s program is AdvancED accredited. BETHESDA • 240-630-2400 6400 Goldsboro Road GoddardSchool.com

-----------LEARNING FOR FUN. LEARNING FOR LIFE.® ------------

The Goddard Schools are operated by independent franchisees under a license agreement with Goddard Systems, Inc. Programs and ages may vary. Goddard Systems, Inc. program is AdvancED accredited. © Goddard Systems, Inc. 2015

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private schools Bullis community support for all games and shows is amazing! ~NOAH, 11TH GRADE

What else does Noah like about Bullis? www.bullis.org/Noah

Grades 2â&#x20AC;&#x201C;12 301-299-8500 Potomac, MD

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PLAN YOUR VISIT

TODAY

Excellence in K-8 Education

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Learn more about our child-centered program at www.norwoodschool.org C

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G r a d e s K- 8 C o -E d Bethesda, MD

301.841.2130 www.norwoodschool.org Bus transportation available

ech. T a i n i t Virg a w o ild. n h s C â&#x20AC;&#x2122; y e l h o S n at Htes received mmeicrit a g e b She f 2015 graduawith our dyna oly Child

ss o m worked ere their H e f our Cla wh Many o ships. All of thteam to find on. r t ti la n c e o a h m c to s advise put in college nce could be ie r e See more outcomes. exp

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spirit of

achievement

Washington Episcopal School students love to learn. They are challenged daily in a balanced, joyful environment that lets kids be kids. With teachers always instructing – from books, the latest technology, studios, hallways, and athletic fields – children reach new levels of achievement. Our students stand out without burning out.

COME AND SEE FOR YOURSELF: All Grades Open House Thursday, January 14, 9:00 a.m. RSVP at www.w-e-s.org/admissions Or call 301-652-7878 to schedule a visit today!

WASHINGTON EPISCOPAL SCHOOL An independent, co-educational school for Nursery – Grade 8 5600 Little Falls Parkway, Bethesda, MD 20816 | www.w-e-s.org

Located about a mile from the DC line and 10 minutes from northern Virginia, off River Road BethesdaMagazine.com | January/February 2016 341

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ge 3-Grade 8

private schools WE CAN HELP YOUR SON

SUCCEED

LEARN

GROW

VA L L EY F O RG E M IL I TARY AC A D EMY College Preparatory Curriculum Middle School Grades 6 - 8 High School Grades 9 - 12

LEAD

Schedule a Tour or Join Us for Our Next Open House 610-989-1300

Located 12 Miles from Philadelphia 1001 Eagle Road • Wayne, PA 19087

vfmac.edu/academy

The Nora

“...my new classmates were warm and welcoming and the kids were nice to me and to each other, nothing like middle school. The teachers were also very supportive in getting past my struggles and helped st me excel throughout high school.” School -Nicky, ‘15

Grades 9-12 Silver Spring MD

www.nora-school.org

Who is a Holton girl?

We are makers and risk takers. School Day Open House

Thursday, 1/7 at 9 AM Experience how our academic programs prepare students for success in high school and beyond.

#EpicFail

Sunday, 1/24 at 4 PM Discover our STEM programs while challenging your mind— and your imagination—in various “maker” projects!

Coffee & Conversation with Matthew Aborn Wednesday, 2/10 at 8:30 AM Join our Lower School Head to learn more about how progressive education instills in children a lifelong gift: love of learning.

Age 3-Grade 8

www.greenacres.org

a Holton girl is someone who: Loves to learn Is eager to explore Might be an artist, athlete, scholar, or all three Works hard, yet knows how to have fun Hears our motto, “I will find a way or make one,” and thinks, yes, that’s me! •

•

Sound like anybody you know? Holton-Arms is an independent day school in Bethesda, Md., for girls in grades 3 through 12. www.holton-arms.edu

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private schools Weekly Tours: Tuesday & Thursday at 9:00am For more information: admissions@thedienerschool.org 11510 Falls Road Potomac, MD 301.299.4602

www.TheDienerSchool.org

“The Beginning is the Most Important Part of the Work” —Plato

Motivating Minds, Inspiring Capabilities Serving Students Kindergarten-6th Grade with Learning Disabilities, Language and Sensory Processing Disorders, Executive Functioning & Attention Issues, and Social Thinking Challenges Readers’ Pick, Runner-Up, A 2013 A 2012 A 2011 Top Vote Getter Top Vote Getter Top Vote Getter

Best School for Non-Traditional Learners

Beauvoir, the National Cathedral Elementary School is an independent elementary school for grades Pre-Kindergarten – Third Grade. For more information, please visit us online at: www.beauvoirschool.org. 3500 Woodley Road, NW · Washington, DC 20016 · www.beauvoirschool.org

Learn More! Come, learn more about our programs for children ages 2 1/2 through 8th grade. Weekly tours offered through January. 1640 Kalmia Road NW Washington, DC 20012 202-577-2000 | lowellschool.org New: Bethesda/Friendship Heights bus service

www.ThePrimaryDaySchool.org

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etc.

By kathleen seiler neary

“The kids love to be silly, we love to be silly with them,” Stephen Krooth says of his family.

Stephen and Pamela Krooth moved to Bethesda’s Green Acres neighborhood from New York City in 2012, soon after adopting their son, David, now 5, from Ethiopia. Stephen, 45, left Wall Street to become president of Pamela’s family’s business, Arlington, Virginia-based Dominion Electric Supply Company. Both raised in Montgomery County, they met 15 years ago when their parents set them up. “I joke that it was an arranged marriage,” says Pamela, 43. Their daughter, Maya, is 9. Family time: “We have dinner together as a family every night,” Stephen says. Tuesday is tacos; Fridays they might go to Sushiko in Chevy Chase. Some nights, Stephen and the kids make homemade pizza, and then Pamela and Maya watch their favorite show together. “We’re a little obsessed with The Voice,” Pamela says. Sisterly love: When Stephen and Pamela told Maya, then 5, that they were adopting, she had one request: to be the big sister. “She wanted to be older—we assured her that she was,”

Pamela says. “She was really, really wonderful with him—I think she really helped him with his adjustment.” The wait: “The adoption process was challenging,” Pamela says. “It took us three years, which is actually unfortunately pretty typical, especially for international adoptions.” After they brought David home, the Krooths got help from the Center for Adoption Support and Education in Burtonsville, where Pamela now works as a therapist. Culture connections: “We wanted the house to have stuff from Ethiopia,” Stephen says, so they filled it with Ethiopian artwork. When David gets older, the couple plans to take a family trip to Ethiopia to show him where he was born. Getting away: The Krooths have a house in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, where they swim, kayak and ride Jet Skis. “The kids love driving around in golf carts,” Stephen says. “Supervised,” Pamela adds. n

photo by liz lynch

family portrait

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Readers’ Pick, Best Car Dealership

”

Bethesda continues to develop into a world-class community and Chevy Chase Cars has been there from the start, providing great products and customer-friendly service for over 75 years! That’s why for decades my family has been buying cars and trucks from Chevy Chase Cars!

”

Bob Dalrymple, Partner at Linowes & Blocher

“We make friends through sales…and keep them through service!” 7725 Wisconsin Avenue, Bethesda · 301-656-9200

www.ChevyChaseCars.com

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