Bethesda Magazine: July-August 2014

Bethesda Magazine • BethesdaMagazine.com • July/August 2014

10th Anniversary Issue July/August 2014 $4.95

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A Decade of

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Outlet / Warehouse: 701 Dover Road Unit B, Rockville, MD 20850 | Phone: 301.294.8193

6/4/14 10:09 AM

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Super Re-Models!

6736 Newbold Drive, Bethesda, MD 20817 $1,395,000 Step inside this 6BR/4.5 Colonial to over 3,700SF of beautifully designed living space. Everything from the stunning Gourmet Kitchen to the finished attic is showcase worthy. In addition, a 15kW back-up generator and solar panels make this home ready for a close up.

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Find us on 301-718-0010

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STAYING AHEAD OF THE CURVE.

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W I S C O N S I N

C I R C L E

•

C H E V Y

C H A S E ,

M D

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Wisconsin Avenue

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all this smiling can make your cheeks hurt.

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6/10/14 3:01 PM

Meredith, Ozzy & Aaron at Pike & Rose

You know that smile you get when you’re having fun at Bethesda Row? It’s now available at a brand new address, Pike & Rose. Step outside your luxurious apartment and breathe the fresh air of an authentic, walkable, family-friendly neighborhood. Live close to Metro. Browse the farm market for dinner or have a date night at Stella Barra Pizzeria. Why merely pursue happiness when you can live right in the middle of it?

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As In Baseball, In Life Most Of The Important Things Happen At Home!

This summer while you’re celebrating the glory of Independence Day and the rockets’ red glare… Family, Friends and Festivities,

For information on how to declare your financial independence contact **Barron’s

Baseball, America’s past time… Backyard BBQs, Hot Dogs and Apple Pie, allow our team of CFP® practitioners and CPA* licensed professionals the opportunity to help you re-claim your “financial independence” so you too can celebrate potential wealth management,“tax integrated” Financial Freedom!

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RJFS and SPC Financial, Inc. do not provide tax advice. *Tax services and analysis is provided by the related firm Sella & Martinic, LLC through a separate engagement letter with clients. Sella & Martinic, LLC is independent of RJFS. **Barron’s 2013 / “Top 100 Independent Financial Advisors” acknowledged Edward Geoffrey Sella as one of America’s leading “Top 100 Independent Financial Advisors” in the country, among (one of three) recognized within the State Of Maryland). The National ranking by Barron’s was made after conducting extensive research, surveys and interviews in addition to weighing factors such as advisors’ team assets under management, revenues generated and overall quality of services and regulatory records. http://online.barrons.com/report/top-financial-advisors/independent/2013.

© Copyright 2014

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— SECURITIES OFFERED THROUGH —

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Hand Crafted Draperies And everything else we do in our showroom:

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Helping you create a life and legacy you desire Robert J. Collins

of Collins Investment Group

Among Barron’s Top 1000 Financial Advisors Five Consecutive Years: 2009-20131

Among Financial Times First Annual Rankings for the Top 400 Financial Advisors of 20132

Pictured (L to R): Jordan VanOort, CFA®, CFP®, Financial Advisor; Kristian Price, COO; Steve Cimino, Client Services Specialist; David Clark, Financial Advisor; Robert Collins, Managing Director; Tara Barton, Investment Planning Specialist; Fletcher Perkins, CFA,® Portfolio Strategist; Stephen Clagett, Portfolio Administrator; Sally Mullen, Client Services Specialist

We’re focused on providing our clients services that will help them pass down their legacy through future generations.

Services Include: Retirement Planning Estate Planning Services Educational Planning Lending Services3

1

One Democracy Center 6901 Rockledge Drive Suite 730 Bethesda, MD 20817 301.915.9630 collinsinvestmentgroup.com

The rankings are based on data provided by over 4,000, for 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013, and 3,000, for 2009, of the nation’s most productive advisors. Factors included in the rankings: assets under management, revenue produced for the firm, regulatory record, quality of practice, and philanthropic work. Institutional assets are given less weight in the scoring. Investment performance isn’t an explicit component, because not all advisors have audited results and because performance figures often are influenced more by clients’ risk tolerance than by an advisor’s investment-picking abilities.

2 Rankings are based on data provided by investment firms. Factors include assets under management, experience, industry certifications and compliance record. Investment performance and financial advisor production are not explicit components.

3 Lending services offered through affiliates of Wells Fargo & Company. Collins Investment Group and WFAFN do not offer tax or legal advice.

Investment and insurance products: NOT FDIC-Insured, NO Bank Guarantee, MAY Lose Value LENDER Investment products and services are offered through Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, LLC (WFAFN), member SIPC, a broker-dealer affiliated with Wells Fargo & Company. Collins Investment Group is a separate entity from WFAFN. EQUAL HOUSING

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Welcome to

BETHESDA

78

contents 78 How We’ve Changed Since Bethesda Magazine published its first issue in 2004, our area has changed dramatically. We’ve seen the emergence of new downtowns and shifting demographics in schools, and been taken on a roller-coaster ride in local real estate. Here’s a look back at how the area has changed and grown.

By Eugene L. Meyer

93 Hats Off! To celebrate the magazine’s 10th anniversary, we pulled together some of our favorite people, places and things—all in the form of Top 10 lists. From the best places to have a cold one to a collection of little-known historical facts to celebrities we are proud to call our own, here are some of the many reasons we love this community.

By Teddy Amenabar, Nevin Martell and Mark Walston

FEATURES 102 One of Their Own Paddling the treacherous whitewater of Great Falls earns kayakers a spot in an elite, closeknit community. When the rapids took the life of Shannon Christy, local kayakers refused to leave her behind.

By Amy Reinink

112 Fields of Dreams Whitman grad Greg Glenn took a different path than most of his classmates—and ended up running a farm.

By David Frey

122 In Two Worlds Like many amateur cartoonists, Chris Mararac can’t make a living off of his art. But Bethesda’s community of underground artists provides a safe haven to pursue his passion.

By Nevin Martell

130 Immigration Face Off Derwood’s Brad Botwin wants to make sure we shut the door on anyone trying to enter this country illegally, while Gaithersburg’s Alfonso Aguilar is urging his fellow Republicans to see reform as the ticket to the future.

By David Frey

COVER: 10th anniversary cover illustration by Amanda Smallwood 12 July/August 2014 | BethesdaMagazine.com

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138 Cooking with Ink For local chefs, showing their true colors is a matter of art.

By Theresa Sintetos

144 Love’s Her Job How Bethesda’s Sophia Nash wrote romance into her life.

By Kris Coronado

152 Bethesda Interview Writer and Silver Spring resident George Pelecanos is known for gritty crime novels and television work such as The Wire.

He finds his greatest inspiration on the streets of Washington, D.C.

By Julie Rasicot

159 Write On The winners of our annual Short Story and Essay Contests.

amanda smallwood

cover

July/August 2014 volume 11 issue 4

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F I N E P RO P E RT I E S I N T E R N A T I O N A L

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contents 261 Health 218

264 Follow the Leader

How a local acupuncturist used Chinese medicine to improve her health

By Leah Ariniello

266 Rescue Day

A silent killer turns a day of celebration into one of the biggest emergencies the B-CC Rescue Squad has ever faced.

By David Frey

274 On the Mend

Surgery helps a Potomac teen get his life back on track.

By Rita Rubin

210 House Appropriations A small-scale sofa can be a useful, attractive piece—and you can find one in almost any style.

282 Seeing Success

Often overlooked, vision therapy can help with everything from eyestrain and headaches to concentration.

By Stacey Colino

By Carolyn Weber

288 Health & Fitness Calendar

212 Elements of Style

Seminars, running events and support groups.

From dramatic open shelving to colorful backsplashes and whimsical breakfast nooks, homeowners are finding creative ways to add personality to their kitchens.

Compiled by Cindy Murphy-Tofig

282

By Jennifer Sergent

317 DINE

218 Growing Up

317 Dine Review

The transition from kid to teen can be hard on everyone. One way to help?

Create an organized, sophisticated space.

By Charlotte Safavi

224 Designing Independence

Macon Bistro & Larder delights with Southern and French fare.

By Carole Sugarman

322

A North Potomac home builder draws on his own experience to ease the way for others with special needs.

By Archana Pyati

230 By the Numbers The most expensive home sales in the area, as well as home sales trends by ZIP code.

320 Table Talk

A new gourmet market . . . Crazy for cronuts . . . Fending off the “freshman 15” at college, and more.

By Carole Sugarman

322 Cooking Class

A L’Academie de Cuisine chef explains how to make perfect eggs Benedict.

By Brian Patterson

324 Dining Guide Write-ups on more than 200 restaurants.

stacy zarin-goldberg (teen room & eggs benedict) mike olliver (boy)

207 hOME

14 September/October 2014 | BethesdaMagazine.com

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Ranked in the

TOP 100 NATIONWIDE

Out of 1.1 Million Realtors® By THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Steve Wydler ASSOCIATE BROKER

Play Squash Street Smarts BA-Dartmouth, JD-Vanderbilt Golf on TV Taller Than Hans

Readers’ Pick

Best Realtor 2012

Hans Wydler ASSOCIATE BROKER

Doesn’t Even Eat Squash Book Smarts BA-Yale, MBA-Harvard NPR in Car Taller Than Steve

When it comes to Real Estate, these brothers stand together.

Thinking about changing homes? Consider leveraging the Wydler Brothers’ expertise and unparalleled knowledge of our local real estate market. With over $700 million in sales, Steve and Hans lead one of the highest producing real estate teams in the DC metro area. Their savvy clientele include an array of Washington’s top leaders in law, business, politics, education and medicine. For your next move, Join the Family!

Maryland Office 301.986.6405 Virginia Office 703.873.5020 DC Office 202.600.2727 General 301.215.6444 x6405

www.WydlerBrothers.com

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contents Departments 20 To Our Readers 22 Contributors 28 Letters 30 Hometown

286

How one Chevy Chase woman helped to preserve the legacy of a lost community of Iraqi Jews.

38

35 Suburban•ology Kicking the mulch habit.

By April Witt

38 My Stuff The head of The Puppet Co. at Glen Echo Park introduces us to some of his favorite characters.

By Michael-Ann Henry

40 People Watcher A group of first-graders from East Silver Spring Elementary takes home a top prize in the White House Student Film Festival. . . A new (very stylish) way to travel from Bethesda to New York . . .

How one local teen is advocating for sports safety, and more.

By Maura Mahoney

48 Story of My Life Creating peace can be as simple as neighbor talking to neighbor.

By Marilyn Millstone

52 Re•Invention

286 Shop Talk This summer is all about white. Crisp and cool, the shade is right for just about anything: dresses, sandals, handbags, cuffs, sunglasses—even an iPhone case.

305 Driving Range Feeling adventurous? An overnight sail can be a fun and different way to explore Annapolis and the Chesapeake Bay.

By Amy Brecount White

311 Once Upon a Time North Bethesda’s Linden Oak, the biggest, oldest tree of its kind in Montgomery County, stands the test of time.

By Cynthia Hacinli

By Mark Walston

299 What Bethesda’s Reading

312 Domestic Disturbances

Best-selling books in the area vs. those nationwide.

300 To-Do List A roundup of free outdoor summer concerts . . . County rock group Nitty Gritty Dirt Band comes to Strathmore . . . Fun for the whole family at the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair . . . Fourth of July celebrations around the area . . . A festival showcasing local wine, and more.

By Cindy Murphy-Tofig

A would-be actress stages a career switch.

By Nevin Martell

56 Work Related Bruce Gemmel, head swim coach for the Nation’s Capital Swim Club and coach of Olympian Katie Ledecky, on how he found his way from engineering to the pool deck.

As told to Teddy Amenabar

58 Person of Interest Bethesda teen disc jockey Alex Young is hitting all the right notes.

By Teddy Amenabar

58

Our longtime columnist says goodbye— and reflects on the suburban adventures that inspired her writing.

By Sarah Pekkanen

Special Advertising Sections 60 171 218 245

Women in Business Long & Foster Ad Section Luxury Condos & Townhomes Ask the Senior Experts

michael ventura (my stuff); liz lynch (alex young); courtesy photo (white purse)

By Steve Roberts

16 July/August 2014 | BethesdaMagazine.com

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The great big community bank.

Large enough to know more.

Small enough to know you.

We didn’t get to be one of the area’s largest community banks by thinking small. We got here by thinking business first, banking second.

Thinking deeper about your business needs.

Thinking of ways to help you succeed that others can’t (or won’t). Because your success is our success. That’s what community is all about.

Reader’s Pick, Best Local Bank 2013

EagleBankCorp.com 301.986.1800 DC | VA | DC

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BethesdaMagazine.com enter our

what’s online

digital Edition exclusives

Archives Explore past issues and stories using our searchable database.

Social Seen Share photos from community events by emailing them to calendar@ bethesdamagazine.com and we’ll post them to our gallery page.

Win!00 $1,0

JULY

1

Subscribers get free access to the digital edition at www.bethesdamagazine.com/digital.

In this issue, read about:

Social Media Goodbye and Good Luck Revisit Domestic Disturbances columns going back to 2010—Sarah Pekkanen’s last column appears on page 312.

Step Write Up Explore all of the 2014 Short Story and Essay Contest runners-up, as well as the winners, beginning on page 159.

Cute Pigs See more photos of Rocklands Farm and farmer Greg Glenn, whose story appears on page 112.

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

Follow us on Instagram to get the scoop on happenings in the Bethesda area at instagram.com/ bethesdamag.

HOWting!

Pinteertheessda Magazmin/e

at B t.co See wh g at pinteres in n / g in a p is dam bethes

AUGUST

1

On July 1, enter to win a special $1,000 celebration package in honor of Bethesda Magazine’s 10th anniversary, featuring 10 gift cards to places we love.

Starting Aug. 1, enter to win a $1,000 shopping and dining package from Westfield Montgomery Mall, which opens a new wing this fall (below).

Enter giveaways online at: www.bethesdamagazine.com/ giveaway

Newsletters Sign up to receive emails from our daily news service, Bethesda Beat, and to receive special offers from local businesses. Gmail users: Add Bethesda Magazine as a contact to ensure you receive our emails.

skip brown (pigs)

Our daily news service features stories about the community, restaurants, Montgomery County politics and more—every weekday at 11:30 a.m.

Giveaways

18 July/August 2014 | BethesdaMagazine.com

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6/11/14 2:17 PM

Visit our office and notice the lack of ceilings.

(Above) Stacy Murchison - Chief Marketing Officer, Leslie Smith - Chief Financial Planning Officer, Amy Raskin - Chief Investment Officer (Below) Lynn Panagos - Chief Client Services & Operations Officer, Deborah Gandy - Senior Relationship Officer, Susan Freed - Senior Relationship Officer

Our clients may not notice that women hold a majority of the leadership positions at Chevy Chase Trust. But they know they like working with compassionate, collaborative experts who understand them.

Experience the power of thoughtful, personalized investment and financial management — and see the difference trust can make.

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 DUCI ARY & TRUST

FAM I LY W E ALTH S ERVIC ES

6/10/14 10:27 AM

to our

readers

Turning 10 Bruce Adams, the county’s director of volun-

teer activities and general doer of all things good, told me recently that he thought my wife, Susan, and I were “crazy” when we launched Bethesda Magazine in 2004. “I figured there’s no way this magazine will make it,” he said.

Adams wasn’t alone. A number of people expressed skepticism, and a few tried to talk me out of it. Their concerns ranged from “print is dying” to “there won’t be enough to write about.”

I had done a fair amount of market research and was convinced that the affluent and highly educated residents in Bethesda and the surrounding towns would support a magazine. But more than anything, my gut told me that Bethesda Magazine would work because residents here are deeply engaged with the community. After all, people will only read a magazine if they care about the topics it covers.

This issue marks 10 years that we’ve been publishing the magazine. Our first issue was produced by a staff of four and was 64 pages. Today we publish Bethesda Magazine, Arlington Magazine, Applause (the magazine for the Music Center at Strathmore), Bethesda Beat (a new daily online news service) and several websites. We have a staff of 25, and most issues of Bethesda Magazine are more than 300 pages.

Our success is directly attributable to the people in this community who have supported us. I want to thank our readers, advertisers, vendors and contributors, as well as our amazing staff, in particular Susan; and our design director, Maire McArdle, and account executives Penny Skarupa and LuAnne Spurell, who have been with us since the early days.

As I looked back on the last 10 years, I was struck by how much has changed in the Bethesda area in such a relatively short period. Ten years ago Bethesda Lane, Strathmore, Rockville Town Square, the Intercounty Connector and the new downtown Silver Spring didn’t exist. White Flint Mall was a popular shopping destination and

Bethesda Naval Hospital only served the Navy.

In this issue, we celebrate our first 10 years by featuring the many people, places and things that have changed. I think our facts, figures and lists on everything from restaurants that have closed, to real estate prices, to private school tuitions will surprise you. Our coverage begins on page 78.

One of the things I enjoy most about publishing Bethesda Magazine is all the people I get to know, whether advertisers, readers or others in the community. One of the people I got to know best—and liked most—was real estate agent Bonnie Lewin, who started advertising with us in our first issue and didn’t stop.

On April 30, Bonnie stepped off a Vamoose bus in New York City and was struck by a car as she crossed Seventh Avenue in a driving rainstorm.

She died several days later.

Over time, my relationship with Bonnie evolved from mostly business to mostly friendship. Bonnie and I would meet a few times a year, quickly get business out of the way, and then talk about our lives (actually, mostly our kids’ lives). She was warm, direct, smart, successful, generous, funny—and always deflected attention from herself.

She will be dearly missed by the many, many people in our community who were fortunate enough to know her.

If you haven’t already done so, please check

out Bethesda Beat, our daily local online news briefing. Every weekday, new stories are posted on BethesdaMagazine.com at 11:30 a.m.—and an email is sent out with that day’s headlines.

Steve Hull Editor-in-chief and publisher

20 July/August 2014 | BethesdaMagazine.com

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6/11/14 11:12 AM

McEnearney ® ASSOCIATES, INC. REALTORS

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NRich@McEnearney.com 202.552.5610 PREFERRED LENDER

®

®

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contributors

Elegant Eco-Chic Living

LIBBY BURNS Originally from the Washington, D.C., metro area, Burns is an illustrator and designer working in Des Moines, Iowa. This is the third consecutive year that she has illustrated the Short Story & Essay Contests sponsored by Bethesda Magazine and Bethesda Urban Partnership. She is currently completing her master’s degree in editorial design at the University of Missouri and works full time as an art director. When she’s not at work or writing her thesis, Burns draws comics for Northern Virginia Magazine, designs wedding invitations and considers herself a taco enthusiast.

Jill does more than sell luxury homes.

She was appointed Long & Foster’s Green Ambassador. Plus she is committed to helping her clients build—or modify their current homes—for healthier living and a cleaner environment.

greenlongandfoster.com

301.758.7224 JillSchwartzGroup@gmail.com LEED AP, ECO-Broker, MD, DC & VA

#3 Individual agent in Long & Foster’s Bethesda Gateway Office • 301.907.7600

KRIS CORONADO If her life were a work of romantic fiction, writer Kris Coronado says it would be a comedic tale. She has written sugary-sweet profiles of engaged couples for The Washington Post Express and interviewed male celebrities about what they want in a woman for Redbook—all as a single gal herself. But as the Arlington, Va., resident was getting ready to marry her dream man (a mountain-biking fanatic) in May, it only seemed right that she interview rising romance writer Sophia Nash of Bethesda on how to bring amorous adventures to life. “I found her to be incredibly downto-earth, welcoming and warm,” says Coronado, who also writes for The Washington Post Magazine. “As a writer, it was also very inspiring to learn about her own creative process.”

AMY BRECOUNT WHITE Amy Brecount White—a Pisces—has always been drawn to bodies of water, especially to the endlessly fascinating Chesapeake Bay, where she spent an overnight aboard the schooner Woodwind for the Driving Range feature in this issue of the magazine. “Watching the play of light and color on water relaxes me,” says White, the author of ForgetHer-Nots (HarperCollins, 2010), a young adult novel about the language of flowers. Over the years, the Arlington, Va., resident has kayaked, biked and waded through Bay areas for her travel pieces and hopes to paddleboard next. She also owns Expert Essay Coaching, which focuses on coaching college admission essays.

Courtesy of Libby burns; ben tankersley (coronado); erick gibson (brecount white)

Real Experience.

Real Relationships.

Real Estate.

22 July/August 2014 | BethesdaMagazine.com

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Relax - We’ve Got You Covered.

Building a home is all about the details. And we’ve got them – all 121,310 – covered. Sandy Spring Builders is an integrated, full-service group that knows, from our 30 plus years of experience, how to bring your vision to life. Our Custom, Classic, Renovations and Savvy divisions make dream home living possible for most budgets and lifestyles.

www.sandyspringbuilders.com • 301.913.5995

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editorial

Editor-in-Chief

Steve Hull Design Director

Maire McArdle managing Editor

Mary Clare Glover Associate Editor

Julie Rasicot Food Editor

Carole Sugarman Deputy Art Director

Laura F. Goode Associate Art Director

Amanda Smallwood Bethesda beat editor

Andrew Metcalf Web producer

Lindsay Lithgow Contributing Editors

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Eugene L. Meyer, Cindy Murphy-Tofig, Lou Peck Copy Editors

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letters Mettle of Honor

Your article about Adam Keys (“The Indomitable Spirit of Adam Keys,” March/April 2014) is one of the best I’ve read on the trials and the healing of a wounded warrior. Thank you for sharing his life in such a detailed and compassionate manner. I don’t know the Keyses as well as do many of the other volunteers at Walter Reed, but the time I have spent with Adam’s mother, Julie, is always so positive.

You have done a great justice in writing this article and bringing awareness to the multitude of people who read your magazine.

Susan Warren Rockville

I have just read Adam Keys’ story. I have to comment: It was so well written. My family lives in Bedford, Nova Scotia, on the next street over from where Adam grew up. The day Adam’s mother, Julie, got the

call [about Adam being injured in Afghanistan], she called us after contacting their family. It was heartbreaking news.

When Adam was in a critical stage, our family drove 19 hours to see him and to support the family during that difficult time. Since then, we have been many times to visit Adam. He is truly an amazing young man.

Deb Taylor Bedford, Nova Scotia, Canada

How She Does It

In Julie Rasicot’s article “We Don’t Know How She Does It” in the March/April issue (with the cover title “The Nonstop Life”), she presents Missy Lesmes as a woman we should emulate. Upon first glance, I can safely say that working women who have domestic help to clean their houses, brush their 11-year-old’s hair while they eat breakfast, drive their children to afterschool activities and make dinner for their families should have enough time freed up

in their lives to be able to be called “Supermoms” if they so desire. I mean no disrespect to Missy, but the premise of this article is offensive to me and, I am sure, to other working and nonworking moms.

Rasicot quotes Silver Spring social worker Kathleen Smith, who says that she helps women who have emotional and substance abuse problems because they feel that they don’t measure up to society’s expectations. Isn’t that exactly what this article is contributing to?

It makes women feel badly about the fact that they pale in comparison to a woman who has the financial means to ensure that she can be the poster mom for “Supermoms.” This article could just as easily have been titled: “People Who Make a Lot of Money, Can Buy a Lot of Things, Send Their Children to Private Schools, Throw a Lot of Parties and Do a Lot More Than People Who Don’t.”

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Corrections/Clarifications Maybe the true “supermom” in the story (“We Don’t Know How She Does It”) should have been the poor Asian nanny who has to play the mom-at-home role to Missy Lesmes’ children. Her salary probably goes to support her own family, which hopefully lives in the U.S. and not someplace far away.

Supermom needs to learn it is not a tragedy when a decorated Christmas tree crashes. She should cry over the 10,000 Syrian children who have died since the war started, or the millions of children in Africa who never got to see their fifth birthday.

Maybe we should stop propagating this “supermom” syndrome by showcasing a working woman who can afford to outsource her duties at home. It’s a disservice to the less well-to-do moms who truly work hard both at home and at work.

Thu Tran Potomac

“The Fencing Master” in the May/June 2014 issue suggested that fencing teacher Dariusz Gilman did not make the Polish national team in 1999. In fact, he did not make the Olympic national team.

Also in that issue, “Seeing the Light” stated incorrectly that Joanne Shin had stopped working with her art teacher, Sun Ju Choi. Shin still works with the teacher, her family says.

Remembering Drew Pearson

I read with great interest your piece about Drew Pearson (“Pay Dirt”) in the March/April 2014 issue of Bethesda. I am working on Volume II of the Drew Pearson Diaries (1960-1969), which the University of Nebraska Press plans to publish this fall, so items about Drew always catch my eye.

Drew was my stepfather and I worked on “the Farm” starting at age 9. Years later, I worked as a “leg man” on the column.

Reading your piece took me back to “the good old days” when we still pulled some wagons with horses and had a few pigs, one

of which was named after Secretary of State Edward Stettinius Jr. and won the championship at the Montgomery County Fair.

(Drew was one of the founders of the fair.)

Drew never retired and was writing till the day he died.

Tyler Abell Merry-Go-Round Farm, Potomac Bethesda Magazine welcomes letters to the editor. Please email your letter to letters@bethesdamagazine.com and include your daytime phone number. Bethesda Magazine reserves the right to edit letters for length and clarity. n

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STEVE ROBERTS’

hometown

Saving History How one Chevy Chase woman helped to preserve the legacy of a lost community of Iraqi Jews

In May 2003, Doris Hamburg received

a sudden and surprising email. It came from Baghdad, from a woman working for the American forces ruling Iraq after the removal of Saddam Hussein. Troops had discovered a large trove of Jewish books and documents in the basement of the Iraqi Intelligence Service.

“There had been flooding, they were wet,” Hamburg recalls. “She was inquiring, What’s the best thing to do, to take care of them and preserve them? I told her freezing is a good thing to do, it stops the clock, damage is halted.”

The next day the woman called Hamburg and asked: Can you come to Baghdad?

As the director of preservation programs for the National Archives, Hamburg lives quietly in Chevy Chase with her husband, Jerry Garfinkel, and teenage daughter, Johanna; and she works, just as quietly, in College Park. A week later she and a colleague were on a plane to Iraq.

“This is a special project, definitely a special project,” laughs Hamburg, as we talk in her sunny corner office overlooking a wooded glade. “Going to a war zone—I had not done that before.”

In another sense however, Hamburg had been preparing for this assignment since childhood. Now 63, she got her first glimpse of her future career when she was a Girl Scout, working at a historic house near her hometown of Irvington, N.Y. “I enjoyed that a great deal,” she recalls, “particularly the part where, behind the scenes, you had a chance to be in the house as if the people were still living there. That image never left me.”

Hamburg was enthralled not just by the people who lived in the house but by the artifacts they left behind. “It was wonderful to look at things close up and get to really know them,” she says. “My mother was so astute. She wrote, probably when I was a few years old, Doris has to look at things with her hands.”

She still does. In graduate school at the University of Delaware she studied not just the words written on paper but the paper

michael ventura

Chevy Chase’s Doris Hamburg examines a painted glass panel from a Torah case that was found among thousands of Jewish books and documents in Iraq in 2003.

30 July/August 2014 | BethesdaMagazine.com

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itself—how to repair and protect and preserve it. “I always loved paper, it’s an aesthetic issue but it’s also a technical issue,” she notes. “Deterioration is very much based on chemical change.”

By the time she got to Baghdad, American authorities had packed the documents into 27 steel trunks and stored them in a freezer truck usually used for transporting food. Still, the “chemical change” was well advanced.

“Just climbing up this rickety little ladder and opening the door of the truck, the smell of mold just completely hit you,” she recalls.

After examining the documents, Hamburg and her team came to a conclusion.

“Everything looked pretty bad, but we saw a way forward,” she says. “We saw that they could be stabilized and become usable again. They were not lost.”

The documents portrayed a community that had been lost—the Jews of Iraq. For 2,500 years, through the 1930s, Jewish people had played a major role in that nation’s commercial and intellectual life.

Then came the rise of Nazism and antiSemitism. In 1941, a pogrom killed 180 Jews in Baghdad. In 1948, violence spiked when Iraq joined other Arab nations in attacking the new state of Israel. In the early 1950s, almost all the remaining Jews fled the country, stripped of their citizenship and assets.

No one knows why Saddam Hussein gathered so many documents relating to this vanished tribe. They included some very precious items—a Hebrew bible from the 16th century, a Passover Haggadah from the early 20th century, hand-lettered and decorated by a young student. And some very mundane ones—elementary school readers, class records, even personal taxi receipts and gas bills.

Taken together, says Hamburg, “they give people a window into what life was like within that community.”

The documents were flown to Texas and subjected to a process called “vacuum freeze drying,” which essentially converts water into ice and then directly into vapor.

Once dried out, they were shipped to College Park. There, the project languished for lack of funding.

Eventually the State Department chipped in $3 million, and today, more than 11 years

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after the documents were found floating in a Baghdad basement, the entire trove finally has been restored and recorded, photographed and digitized. Several dozen documents were displayed at the Archives earlier this year, and the large crowd of visitors included many Jews with Iraqi origins.

“One gentleman was looking at his records from when he was in school in Baghdad,” reports Meris Westberg, one of Hamburg’s assistants. “He was telling his kids about his grades and his test scores.”

The American government promised to return the documents to Iraq after they were restored, but there is strong opposition to that plan—from Jewish exiles, lawmakers and scholars.

Harold Rhode, a Middle East expert who was advising American forces in Baghdad when the documents were discovered, recently told CBS News: “This is not the heritage of Iraq. It is the heritage of Iraqi Jews. It is their personal property.”

Wherever the documents eventually wind up, they are available online to everyone— more than 200,000 pages worth.

Hamburg emphasizes that she approached the job as a professional, on assignment for the government. But she admits her own family history inevitably colors her emotions. Her grandparents were killed in the Holocaust. Her parents fled Nazi Germany. She knows what it means to feel disconnected and displaced.

“I can relate, definitely, from my family having had to leave their home under very difficult circumstances,” she says.

I can relate, as well. My ancestors fled other pogroms in other countries, and this year marks the 100th anniversary of my grandfather, Avram Rogowsky, arriving in America.

So I feel the power of Hamburg’s words when she says that the documents connect Iraq’s Jews to their own past. “They can find themselves there,” she says. “We saved a part of history.” n Steve Roberts teaches journalism and politics at George Washington University and wrote a memoir about his family, My Fathers’ Houses (William Morrow, 2005).

Send ideas for future columns to sroberts@ gwu.edu.

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Going Natural

claudine hellmuth

Kicking the mulch habit I’ve gone wild or what passes for it in suburbia.

I didn’t spend spring vacation in Daytona Beach taking drunken selfies with my besties—I stopped buying mulch.

I had an epiphany. Hauling home heavy plastic bags of uniformly chopped and dyed commercial mulch from a garden center and dumping them around my garden is a kind of cultural sleepwalking. It’s a failure to engage with the reality of our natural world.

Think about it: Mother Nature gives us free mulch. It’s called fallen leaves.

Yet the Battle Hymn of Suburbia is the roar of mow-and-blow crews corralling and carting away every fallen leaf in sight.

This fall they’ll leave many tender plants without a protective blanket of leaf litter to help them survive winter’s chill. In spring, when flocks of mowers and blowers return to our blocks, they’ll mound fresh mulch so high that some neighborhood trees will suffocate and wither.

“A lot of people use way too much mulch and end up smothering what they are trying to protect,” says Deborah Landau, 46, of Bethesda, a conservation ecologist for the Maryland-Washington, D.C., chapter of The Nature Conservancy.

I try to avoid making my yard an eco-

logical wasteland. I don’t spray chemicals; I know that keeping my roses pristine kills honeybees. I plant to feed and shelter birds. I compost. I reduce the size of my lawn just a little more each year.

But I never questioned my industrial mulch habit until recently.

Some things are so ubiquitous in the landscape of our lives that we no longer see them. It takes an outsider to notice.

During a visit to America last year, British garden writer Noel Kingsbury noticed “the vast deserts of grass mown to within an inch of its life, the extensive mulchscape which surround ‘plantings’ of evergreen shrubs ruthlessly pruned into meatballs. Much U.S. landscaping and its management seems to express almost a hatred of vegetation, or as often with hatred, is it really fear?”

“Such a waste of space,” Kingsbury further lamented in his blog, “such mediocrity on an epic scale, such obsession with control, above all the conformity.”

I understand the appeal of the rigidly enforced line between lawn and mulch.

Life is complicated and messy. The commercial mulch line looks simple and tidy. But it’s not.

Thick layers of commercial mulch don’t always confer the benefits we’ve been led

to expect. The wrong kind of mulch for conditions in your garden can promote weed growth by creating overly-fertile soil conditions that weeds favor, says D.C.based landscape architect Thomas Rainer, 37, author of my favorite garden blog, “Grounded Design.”

“Too much mulching perpetually keeps plants in an establishment phase, never allowing them to touch and interact and fill in,” Rainer says. “We have weeds because there is a niche wanting to be filled. So we have to keep buying bags and bags of mulch to replace the role that plants would play in nature.”

Marney Bruce knows what happens when you buck that trend. Her Bethesda garden has little lawn. She mixes the leaves that fall in her yard with pine needles and other amendments to lightly dress her garden beds. She plants primarily native perennials and grasses that spread and self-seed freely, attracting wildlife.

“I have so many more birds and butterflies and bees than almost everyone else around. My neighbors thank me,” says Bruce, 66. “It’s so enjoyable to have a yard that gives back to me just as much as I give to it.”

Cristol Fleming, 79, one of Montgomery County’s most respected experts on

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suburban•ology

native wildflowers, knows that joy. She hasn’t mulched her Chevy Chase garden in more than 30 years. Ask her how she deals with bare dirt and she says, “What bare dirt?” She primarily plants natives, which spread freely and choke out weeds.

So how did we American suburbanites develop our mulch habit?

Before World War II, most garden books didn’t mention mulch that much, Rainer says. Mulch is a by-product of the logging industry, according to an essay I read by an agricultural extension agent who recalled that the mills of his North Carolina youth processed wood with the bark still attached. But the bark dulled saw blades and slowed work crews. Sometime in the 1970s, he says, he noticed that mills had begun stripping trees of bark before processing them.

Then the industry needed to find something to do with all that leftover

bark and other byproducts of turning trees into two-by-fours.

By the time I bought my first home— and first gardening books—in the 1980s, the regular application of commercial mulch was accepted conventional wisdom.

Ralph Stephens, 78, of Chevy Chase says our unquestioning willingness to buy massive amounts of commercial mulch is symbolic of our wider disconnect from nature. “The outdoors,” the retired economist says, “has become a place where the sun shines on your iPad and makes it harder to use.”

Landau, the conservation ecologist, knows how difficult it is to buck cultural norms. She and her husband have turned their front garden in Bethesda into a lawn-free zone of native plantings.

“It is just chaotically beautiful,” she says.

Landau says she doesn’t like buying commercial mulch because there is

“such a big carbon footprint involved in getting it to my door.” She primarily lets nature mulch for her. Decaying leaf litter hosts fungi and attracts minute insects that are important players in a garden’s ecosystem, even though most people never notice them, she says.

Still, her husband can’t resist buying a few bags of commercial mulch each year at a school fundraiser.

“He loves the way mulch looks. We have been taught to love the look of lawns and love the look of that nice, neat line that mulching gives us. It’s hard to let go of that,” Landau says. “Hopefully, in another couple of decades we’ll all laugh at ourselves that we used so much mulch.” n April Witt is a former Washington Post writer who lives in Bethesda. To comment on this column or suggest ideas, email aprilwitt@hotmail.com.

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In Select Areas

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The grandfather from Peter and the Wolf is Christopher Piper’s favorite character and the favorite puppet he has created. He and Allan Stevens worked meticulously on the puppet’s design, striving for the authentic look of an elderly man with wrinkles, saggy eyes and a balding head.

Spark, The Puppet Co.’s mascot who also doubles as Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is used to introduce the company’s shows to audiences.

Piper plays Drosselmeyer in The Nutcracker; he has a special connection to the magician-like character because they both wear eye patches. Piper is blind in his left eye due to an accident when he was 3 years old. Drosselmeyer was described as having an eye patch in the original story, The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, written in 1816 by E.T.A. Hoffmann.

This large hand puppet of Agoth, one of three dragons featured in The Magic Mirror, is made from Celastic, a plasticinfused fabric that became moldable when mixed with solvents such as acetone. Piper made his puppets out of Celastic until the product was no longer available. He then switched to neoprene, a synthetic rubber that is molded in plaster casts.

It takes him about two and a half weeks to make one puppet.

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Text by Michael-Ann Henry | Photo by Michael Ventura

Created by Piper’s father in the 1960s, this puppet with wild green hair and a beard is the troll from The Three Billy Goats Gruff.

The puppet was refurbished recently and is now part of The Puppet Co.’s collection.

This head of the giant from Jack and the Beanstalk has the blank eyes that Piper prefers for his puppets, believing that painted pupils give them an awkward, static stare. He thinks it’s easier for audiences to imagine the natural movements of a puppet’s eyes if they are left blank.

myStuff He’s Pulling the Strings Christopher Piper was bound to be a puppeteer.

The co-founder and artistic director of The Puppet Co. at Glen Echo Park spent his childhood touring the country with his parents, both professional puppeteers who performed alongside traveling carnivals.

Piper’s passion for puppetry began when he strung together his first marionette at age 6, making a lion out of a toilet paper roll, tape and a hollow egg for the head. In college, he began carving, designing and creating both wood and full-body cloth puppets as a hobby.

After college, Piper dabbled at a marketing job, but eventually returned to puppetry. He wrote a script, The Magic Mirror, in the early 1980s for the Smithsonian’s resident puppet theater and then founded The Puppet Co. with Allan Stevens in 1983.

The Puppet Co. performs about eight shows each year; most are for elementary school children. Piper makes the puppets and performs in the shows, sometimes providing the voice for up to eight characters. “I love to play villains, as it is so far from my own sweet disposition,” he says.

Piper strives to get children excited about classic theater by offering shows such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Nutcracker. He also writes his own versions of fairy tales.

“There’s always a point to what we do; every artistic decision and twist in a story is supposed to teach our audience something and get them excited for another show,” Piper says. “They can see the same show several times and notice something new each time.” n BethesdaMagazine.com | July/August 2014 39

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people

watcher

By Maura Mahoney

Go Figure 4,894,525

Number of visits to county public libraries in fiscal year 2012

4,718,332

Number of visits to county public libraries in fiscal year 2013 Source: Montgomery County Government

In the market for music Most people who go to a farmers market take home vine-ripe tomatoes or artisanal cheeses. But when Chevy Chase resident Charlie Birney, 52, visited Silver Spring’s FRESHFARM market last winter, he wound up bagging a role with Snakehead Run, an acoustic blues and jug band.

From left to right: Snakehead Run band members Birney says he asked to sit in and play mandolin when he saw the Charlie Birney on the shiny mandolin, Denny group at the market one day. He knew their songs from their demos and Buck playing the resonator guitar and Jim Bunch performances. The collaboration went so well that they asked him to join on the washtub bass shortly thereafter. The band performs at local farmers markets and bars throughout the area, including McGinty’s Public House in Silver Spring.

Jim Bunch of Silver Spring and Denny Buck of Rockville have been playing together since late 2006. Bunch (washtub bass, jug and washboard) is a transportation planner at Sabra, Wang & Associates Inc. in Columbia; Buck (guitar, harmonica and lead vocals) is an Eastern Orthodox minister at St. Catherine’s in Hagerstown; and Birney is a real estate agent with Long & Foster’s W.C. & A.N. Miller Realtors office in Spring Valley in Northwest Washington, D.C. “It’s just a lot of fun,” Birney says of the gig. You can catch them at the market roughly two Saturdays a month during peak season.

Ian Heaton

Brian Fisher, 15, a rising sophomore at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, missed almost a month of school last year while recovering from brain surgery, but he put his convalescence to good use. Inspired by his love of computer games, he taught himself the coding language Objective-C, learned how to develop apps, and created a game app called Rocket Flyer. The free app for Apple devices came out in March and already has hundreds of downloads.

Brian underwent surgery in November to correct a condition Brian Fisher called Chiari malformation, which can develop when the bony space at the lower portion of the skull is too small, causing pressure on the cerebellum and brain stem as well as neurological issues. He was diagnosed after experiencing back pain.

Brian, who returned to school in December, says he’s doing fine and plans to take a computer programming class next school year. Developing apps is just a “hobby,” he says, but he hopes to create another. “We’re really proud of him,” says his mother, Helene Fisher. “It’s been fun...to see other people enjoy something he created.”

Safety first Eighteen-year-old Ian Heaton, who graduated from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in May, spoke from personal experience when he testified at a March congressional hearing on improving sports safety.

Testifying as a youth ambassador for The National Council on Youth Sports Safety, Heaton described a serious head injury he sustained during an offseason lacrosse game in September of his sophomore year.

It turned out to be his third concussion. The injury “left me with only 5 percent of normal cognitive activity and I was almost immobilized... . At first, all I wanted to do was sleep. Noise, light and even moving my eyes caused headaches and nausea,” he told the congressional panel. His recommendation: Change the culture of winning at all costs and teach young athletes not to brush off injuries.

Heaton returned to school that December, but says “the constant sensory bombardment made a normal school day impossible.” During his recovery, he kept up with schoolwork with help from Montgomery County Public Schools’ Home and Hospital Teaching program.

Heaton says he is “mostly better, although I still have some symptoms” and is looking forward to attending Elon University in North Carolina this fall.

He no longer plays contact sports.

Charlie Birney; david fisher; lisa heaton

He’s got App

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people

Writing is “[my] second career, but first dream,” says former television executive Caroline Bock. That dream continues to come true. Bock’s second novel for young adults, Before My Eyes (St. Martin’s Griffin), was published in February to positive reviews, and the Potomac resident is currently at work on her first adult novel. Before My Eyes is the story of events leading up to a shooting at a political rally that’s told through the viewpoints of three teenagers whose lives are about to intersect.

Bock says she loves to write about teenagers “because every moment is escalated.”

She says she was drawn to her latest topic in part by the 2011 shooting of former U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords in Tucson, Ariz. Bock says she is concerned “like all parents” about gun violence and wanted to explore the question of “why things happen in this world.”

When Chevy Chase resident Alison Fortier retired as a vice president in the Washington office of Lockheed Martin in April 2013, she set about realizing an idea she had 30 years earlier while working on Capitol Hill as a staffer for the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Watching tourists wandering around, she would think: They could really use a guide to the story of Washington, D.C., and where to look to understand it. So she wrote A History Lover’s Guide to Washington, D.C.: Designed for Democracy (The History Press, May 2014).

The book tells the story of the nation’s capital from its creation by the Founding Fathers through the struggles of the 20th century—including the movements for civil rights and women’s suffrage—and provides descriptions of national museums, buildings and monuments. It is “accessible history” that’s “readable and entertaining,” as well as historically accurate, Fortier says.

In 1961, Michael Rockefeller, son of New York Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, vanished off the coast of southwest New Guinea while on a mission to collect primitive art. Despite an exhaustive search, his body was never found. There were rumors that he had been killed and eaten by the local Asmat— a native tribe of warriors—but the official verdict was that he’d been lost at sea.

Journalist Carl Hoffman, who grew up in Chevy Chase, D.C., says he “was haunted by this story for years” and decided three years ago to write about it. In Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller’s Tragic Quest for Primitive Art (William Morrow, 2014), Hoffman recounts his efforts to solve the mystery of Rockefeller’s disappearance by uncovering and analyzing documents, finding personal witnesses and traveling to the same remote areas that Rockefeller had visited.

Hoffman says the book is ultimately about more than “how Michael was killed…it’s about primitive art, colonialism and geopolitical forces… . Michael’s story is the thread that allows one to talk about these things.”

Silver Spring resident Robert Oshel brings history to life as he recounts Confederate Gen. Jubal Early’s march down Georgia Avenue 150 years ago this year in Silver Spring and the Civil War, published by The History Press in April. The Confederates were “on their way to attack Fort Stevens [in Washington, D.C.], but [Gen. Ulysses S.] Grant got troops back up [to the area] in time to prevent a full-fledged attack,” Oshel says.

Oshel, who has a doctorate in political science, says he became interested in local history about 30 years ago and has written a history of the Silver Spring library as well as a historic and architectural walking tour of the Woodside Park neighborhood where he lives.

Drawing upon memoirs, newspaper accounts and letters, Oshel describes Early’s march and other key events that occurred in Silver Spring during the war, including the burning of the house of Montgomery Blair, President Abraham Lincoln’s postmaster general, and the killing of a prominent local farmer by Union soldiers in 1862.

All books courtesy of Barnes & Noble

Book Report

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A Winning Idea Today first grade...tomorrow Hollywood? Several first-graders from East Silver Spring Elementary School have already tasted moviemaking success: A video they created was named one of the 16 winners in the inaugural White House Student Film Festival. Freelance video producer Eric Humpert heard about the contest, which asked kids to describe the importance of technology in the classroom, and he discussed the idea of entering with his daughter, Sydney, 7, and her teacher, Courtney Brooks. Humpert brainstormed with Sydney’s classmates, who decided their film, Technology and Me: The Past, Present and Future, should feature the students drawing pictures and talking about their ideas. “About eight kids came over to the house one day,” Humpert recalls. “I set up a camera, and that was when the magic happened...their voices and their faces and their imaginations...made the video a winner.”

The East Silver Spring students and other contest winners were invited to the White House to meet President Barack Obama and Bill Nye the Science Guy. “It was fun,” Sydney says. “Not many kids get a chance to go to the White House.”

A winning team: East Silver Spring Elementary School first-graders (from left to right) Makaia Spittel, Sydney Humpert, Eleanor Daken, Bezawit Gessesse, Yoan Pinsonneault, Malaika Wande, Veronica Techane and Emily Kretschmer

Shashi Arnold

Doodle Queen East Silver Spring Elementary’s Shashi Arnold, 10, was also in the national spotlight this spring, when Google named her the Maryland winner of the Doodle 4 Google contest for her “Imagination Transportation” entry. Shashi, who will attend Takoma Park Middle School this fall, was inspired by the contest prompt, “If I Could Invent One Thing to Make the World a Better Place,” to draw three characters decked out in pilot goggles and flying in cardboard boxes. “When I was little, I liked to play in boxes and pretend I was flying,” explains Shashi, who decided “it would be cool if we could get around without causing pollution…if your car was fueled by [your imagination].”

Google reps came to the school in late April to announce that Shashi was the state winner. Her winnings included a trip to Google’s California headquarters in late May for the announcement of the four national finalists and the grand prize winner. She also won an Android tablet and a T-shirt bearing her winning doodle.

Stephen walker (mike hanusin); eric humpert (first graders); jaylene arnold (shashi)

Mike Hanusin and his hand-built hovercraft

Mike Hanusin had talked about building a hovercraft for years, but it wasn’t until the summer of 2013 that the 45-year-old Gaithersburg resident decided he’d talked about it long enough. He found an online store that sells hovercraft plans, acquired some of the parts and started building one in his garage. Hanusin, who works in information technology for a nonprofit in D.C., likes to take on big projects in his spare time, and in 2012 he built an arcade game. But he’s not sure how he’s ever going to top the craft.

It’s designed to skim about 8 inches off the ground on a cushion of air. He conducted a test flight in April, getting 7 inches off the ground for a couple dozen yards and going about 7 mph. Still, some issues need to be resolved. The biggest, Hanusin says, is that he needs “a lot of room to run it safely.” Some neighbors “think I’m nuts,” Hanusin says.

“Others are lining up for a ride.”

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making the scene Look closely the next time you’re watching the HBO comedy Veep or the Netflix political drama House of Cards and you just might catch a glimpse of Bethesda Magazine contributor Maria Leonard Olsen. Three years ago her son, Christopher, an aspiring actor who is now 16, was sent on a job for Maria Leonard Olsen with a the season finale of Veep, which stars Seinfeld alum (and Holton-Arms School cut-out of Veep star Julia Louis-Dreyfus grad) Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Realizing that she’d be hanging out with her son all day during filming, Olsen asked if she could be an extra. Both appeared in the Veep finale, and Olsen had so much fun that she submitted her résumé and photo for additional work on both shows, which are filmed in Baltimore and elsewhere in Maryland.

In the current season of Veep, Olsen appears in two episodes, and in the second season of House of Cards, she’s in one. “The House of Cards set was much more somber,” Olsen says. “Julia Louis-Dreyfus frequently improvised on set and had us all laughing!”

Andy Seligman in his new luxury transport van

Left to right: Brooke Silver, Tory Silver, Chloe Druskin, Rebecca Leggett, Madison Silver and Peyton Silver

All in the Family In 2010, B-CC sophomore Carly Silver of Chevy Chase founded a Once Upon a Prom club at the school, in order to collect used prom gowns and donate them to local girls in need. Together with friend Allison Schneider, Silver, now a rising junior at Cornell University, sent out emails through community Listservs, organizations and youth groups. That year, 250 dresses were collected by the club and donated to local dress drives. The club began holding its own dress giveaway the following year.

When she graduated from B-CC, Carly—one of eight siblings—turned over the club to her younger sister Peyton and Peyton’s classmate Chloe Druskin. This past April, Once Upon a Prom collected more than 1,000 dresses, and 150 girls from around the county attended the giveaway, where the club also raffled off gift cards from local beauty salons and spas.

Peyton is heading to the University of Virginia this fall, but the dress giveaway will continue. Her sister Madison, a rising 10th-grader at B-CC, is ready to take charge, and Wendy Silver, the girls’ mother, says she has found some students to take over after Madison graduates—and until Brooke, a rising fifth-grader, gets to B-CC. “It’s a cause we can relate to. There are six girls in my family, and we all really enjoy dressing up. We wanted to give back in a way that we really care about,” Carly says. “People think, ‘Oh, it’s just a prom dress,’ but it means a lot to girls, and we are happy to be able to help.”

traveling in Style Businessman Andy Seligman has many ties to the Bethesda area. A 1996 graduate of Winston Churchill High School in Potomac, he lived in Bethesda after college and is a co-owner of Brickside Food & Drink on Cordell Avenue. Now he has opened a business that’s designed to get people out of town. Royal Sprinter, a luxury transport service, provides daily transportation between here and New York City, with a fleet of Mercedes vans that carry up to eight passengers and offer a host of amenities, including two routers for wireless service; reclining, angled seats with leg extensions; power outlets; and individual flat screens with DirecTV. “I saw a need,” Seligman says. “I’m a bit of a car buff, and the train is not overly convenient… . If you’re going to cover 250 miles, why not do it in a nicer environment?”

Tickets are $90 each way, and the pickup and drop-off points are the Park Hyatt Washington, Embassy Suites at the Chevy Chase Pavilion, and the Loews Regency Hotel in Manhattan.

Maura Mahoney lives in Chevy Chase. Send People Watcher tips to peoplewatcher@bethesdamagazine.com.

Eastern Middle School physical education teacher and athletic coordinator Gerry Seidman has closed the book on his long career. He retired in June after 40 years of teaching, including 39 with Montgomery County Public Schools, and 31 at Eastern Middle School in Silver Spring. A popular, energetic teacher and coach, Seidman says “the most important thing for me was for the kids to come to class and have fun.”

Gerry Seidman And he made sure they did. An accomplished singer, he started auditions for students to sing the national anthem at home basketball games, ran trivia contests, and, among other activities, began a wrestling tournament called “the Main Event,” in which hundreds of boys and girls have participated. His son, Adam, followed in his footsteps—he is the athletic coordinator for Silver Spring International Middle School and just completed his 16th year teaching in MCPS. What is Gerry Seidman planning next? “I’m taking it one step at a time,” says Seidman, who lives in Columbia. “My family is still in the area, including my two grandkids. I know I will go to high school football games to see some of the kids I’ve coached, and sit there, relax and have fun.”

courtesy of Maria leonard Olsen (Veep); richard woods (seligman); wendy silver (prom club); edie siedman

closing A chapter

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story of my life

The Neighborhood Accords Creating peace can be as simple as neighbor talking to neighbor The young family of five—two parents and three girls—arrived next door just after the blizzard of 2010, in a car with mattresses strapped to the roof. The mother and the oldest daughter, perhaps aged 12 or 13, wore head scarves and long skirts. I guessed they were Muslim.

Normally, my husband and I would’ve reached out to them; we like socializing with our Kensington neighbors. But whenever they left the house, they kept to themselves, heads down. Their wariness held us back. It seemed they wanted to be left alone.

Curious, I approached our neighbor, who explained that he was renting out the bottom floor of his house to them.

The family was, indeed, Muslim; they were here under a State Department ref-

ugee-assistance program. They’d come from Iran. Or was it Iraq? I couldn’t recall which country he’d mentioned; all I could remember was that they’d been forced to leave their homeland— just like my Jewish family had been 100 years ago.

My father’s family emigrated to America after escaping a pogrom in Russia; my mother’s family fled Czarist Rumania. My parents raised my brothers and me in a small western Pennsylvania town, where I was one of only five Jews in a high school graduating class of 468. Nearly all my girlfriends were Christian, as was Mike, my only high school boyfriend.

Several months after we met, Mike gave me a “going steady” ring. I badly

wanted to wear it, but I knew my father would be furious about my dating a Christian, so I slipped the ring onto a necklace and wore it under my clothes.

The first time Mike came to visit, my father greeted him at the door, brandishing a gun I didn’t even know he had. My father laughed and said the gun wasn’t loaded, but Mike quickly backed away.

He broke up with me the next day.

After that, I grew bolder in engaging my father in his favorite pastime: talking politics around the dinner table.

He’d been a merchant mariner in World War II—an occupation whose mortality rate during the war was higher than most branches of the American military—so when he said he despised the Germans and “the Japs,” I understood.

But I’d argue with him about his blanket assertion that all Arabs hated Jews and aimed to destroy Israel. After one particularly heated debate, my father declared me “The Little Arab” and stopped talking to me. I felt like an outcast on the Gaza Strip.

Some weeks later, though, my father began talking to me again as if nothing had happened. I was relieved, but not surprised.

For despite our political differences, my father loved me. And I loved him.

Since that time, I’ve longed to find a way to help foster peace in the Middle East. When this Muslim family moved in next door, I thought: Maybe I can nudge peace along in the humblest of ways, by introducing this family to their Jewish neighbors.

Only I couldn’t make contact with them. If I saw them leaving their house, I’d casually step outside and tend our garden, hoping for a chance to say hello.

But they’d quickly vanish back inside, shutting the front door with a quiet click.

Then one day, their raven-haired preschooler raced outside as I was getting into my car. She introduced herself as Hadi and declared in proud and perfect English that it was her birthday. “Happy birthday, Hadi,” I said, smiling, before driving away. After that, whenever Hadi saw me, she ran out and made the

LINDA OLLIVER

by Marilyn Millstone

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story of my life same declaration. “It’s not your birthday, Hadi,” groaned Amina, the serious older sister who clearly had now been assigned to accompany her.

Several months later, Hadi ran out alone to tell me how much she missed the cat she had to leave behind when the family left Iraq. Having owned and cherished cats for decades, I empathized with her loss. So I bought her a stuffed cat and rapped on their front door to deliver it.

The slats of the window blinds parted slightly. Two dark eyes peered out at me, and eventually a man opened the door a crack. I quickly explained that I’d bought Hadi a special birthday present. He introduced himself as the girls’ father, Ayman. “My English is not good,” he said. “But come in.”

Their oldest daughter Malak served as our translator. It turned out that Hadi never had a cat; it was just another tale she liked to tell. The mother, eyes downcast, began to giggle. Ayman smiled and shook his head. Then everyone, includ-

ing Hadi, started to laugh.

Since then, we’ve laughed together many times. We’ve even shared a big, potluck meal.

Now, Malak takes care of our cats when we’re away. When I gave her a key to my house, Ayman emailed me. “Thank you for entrusting the care of your house to my daughter,” he wrote. “It means a lot to her, and to me.”

While away, I buy souvenirs for all the girls, which gives me the opportunity to visit them when I return. Recently they told me they’d begun karate lessons.

“Is this something you’d have been able to do in Iraq?” I asked.

The girls grinned at me. “No way,” said Malak, who stopped wearing a head scarf years ago and now sports snug leggings and t-shirts.

“Whose idea was it to take karate lessons?” I asked.

They looked over at Ayman, who nodded.

“There is a saying in Muslim culture,”

he said. “You raise your children for the time in which they are living. Not for your time.”

These days, Ayman and I often fall into lengthy conversations about religion and culture. Recently he told me that my husband and I are the first Jewish people he’s really come to know.

Before he met us, he said, all he knew of Jewish people were “opinions.”

“No,” he said, clearly frustrated. “That is not the right word.”

“Propaganda?” I offered.

“Yes. That’s it,” he said. Then he added, “I feel lucky to have you and Bill as my neighbors.”

“I feel lucky, too,” I replied.

What’s the key to peace? Perhaps it’s simply this: two neighbors slowly learning to trust—and like—each other. n Marilyn Millstone is a journalist and playwright who lives in Kensington. To comment on this story, email comments@ bethesdamagazine.com.

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re• INVENTION

By Nevin Martell

Amy Waldman began juicing to lose weight, but soon realized other health benefits. “It was about waking up in the morning and not feeling pain,” she says.

Juiced “Life is fluid,” Amy Waldman says.

“You have to take whatever comes your way.”

It’s a fitting mantra for the 49-year-old owner of Bethesda’s Purée Artisan Juice Bar—in more ways than the obvious.

That’s because promoting health-conscious, produce-driven potables wasn’t the vivacious, golden-haired Chevy Chase resident’s first career choice.

Waldman grew up in Potomac and graduated from the Tisch School of the Arts in New York City in 1988. She started

out studying theater, but ultimately earned a business degree. “I got really scared about being able to support myself doing theater,” she says. “I wanted a backup plan.”

So she turned her back on the stage and took a job as an accountant. Finding that work ultimately unfulfilling, she switched tracks again in the early ’90s to work at the Vera Institute of Justice, a nonprofit organization that promotes safety and social justice. There, she helped create alternative sentencing programs for nonviolent offenders.

“I thought I was going to go on to law school from there,” she says. Instead, Waldman met her husband, Ivan, 50, through work and moved with him back to the Washington, D.C., area in the early ’90s. She found work doing marketing and graphic design at an accounting firm. Meanwhile, she dabbled in stage productions in her off time.

She enrolled at Catholic University in 1995 to earn her dramaturgy degree but had to put her academic aspirations on hold with the birth of her two children—Miles,

michael ventura

A would-be actress stages a career switch

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re•invention now 16, and Emma, 15. “I went full-force mom for a long time after that,” she says.

It wasn’t until the fall of 2008 that Waldman had a chance to return to her theatrical roots. She was cast as a prostitute in Nikolai Erdmann’s dramedy The Suicide, which was being produced by 1st Stage Theatre in Tysons Corner, Va. Her scanty dress in the role inspired her to take a survey of herself.

“I’ve always been comfortable with my body, but I was substantially overweight,” she says. “I had beautiful kids and a wonderful house. Everything was perfect—except for me.”

She began thinking about dieting.

Then one night she was having problems sleeping and turned on the television to find the documentary Crazy Sexy Cancer.

The film follows actress/photographer Kris Carr as she successfully battles cancer through the use of alternative medicines and treatments, including a diet of only water and freshly juiced fruits and

vegetables as a “cleanse.” Proponents of cleanses believe the process helps people shed weight, regulate body systems and combat multiple health problems.

“I went out and bought a juicer the next day,” Waldman says.

She began with an 18-day juice cleanse, then transitioned back to solids by adding raw vegan food to her diet. After six months, she had lost 90 pounds. She had never felt better.

“It wasn’t just losing the weight,” she says. “It was about waking up in the morning and not feeling pain. You get used to living with things, and you don’t even know they’re there.”

There was only one downside to her new lifestyle. “There was nowhere to get juices and be social,” she says. “I found myself tethered to my kitchen.”

As it happened, others had the same issue. At the gym, Waldman met women who were mail-ordering their juices.

That inspired her to start composing rec-

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ipes with the help of culinary, health and cleansing advisers and to begin writing a business plan.

In December 2011, she opened Purée Artisan Juice Bar next to the Equinox gym in Bethesda, hoping to capitalize on New Year’s resolutions. (She opened a second location inside the health club Mint in Adams Morgan last fall.)

Though juicing and cleansing were already popular in major metropolitan areas such as New York City and Los Angeles, Waldman initially had to educate local customers on their benefits.

“It gives your digestion a break, because our bodies work very hard when they’re digesting animal proteins,” she tells people. “In general, people feel lighter, brighter and have more energy during a cleanse. Plus, they start to recognize bad food habits, like eating out of habit, rather than for a purpose.”

Her juices ($7.50 to $12 per 16-ounce serving) come in a variety of colors and combinations—from citrine-hued Mean Lemon-aid (water, lemon juice, cayenne pepper and agave syrup) to Easy Green (cucumber, kale, apple and lemon) to ivory-colored Vanilla Almond Mylk sweetened with dates. The drinks are created in a 2,400-square-foot production space in Kensington by coldpressing hundreds of pounds of organic fruits and vegetables each week, including some sourced from Bending Bridge Farm in Mercersburg, Pa. Waldman herself drinks her juices every day, tries to do a three-day cleanse every month or so, and sticks to a vegan diet.

Though she didn’t end up pursuing that theatrical career, she sees analogies between the two paths.

“The backstage is our kitchen and we have to put on a good show for the customers up front,” she says. “It’s all come full circle.” n Nevin Martell is a Washington, D.C.-based food and travel writer. His memoir, Freak Show Without a Tent: Swimming with Piranhas, Getting Stoned in Fiji and Other Family Vacations (Possibilities Publishing), came out in June. To comment on this story, email comments@bethesdamagazine.com.

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work related

As told to Teddy Amenabar

Katie Ledecky’s Coach Bruce Gemmel, 53, head coach, Nation’s Capital Swim Club at Georgetown Prep

Swimming has always been a part of my life—from being on clubs as a kid to competing for the University of Michigan.

After I graduated [with a degree] in mechanical engineering, I was asked by the coaches to become part of the staff while studying for my master’s. In time, I was faced with “getting a real job,” but I never found an opportunity that appealed to me as much as coaching swimmers.

Eventually I approached Jon Urbanchek, the head coach at Michigan, and shared my thoughts on making the sport a profession. He disagreed.

Engineering would provide job security and a good salary; coaching would not come with either of those guarantees.

So I took the advice and found a job in engineering. It wasn’t until years later that I learned he had once studied engineering at Michigan before changing majors and becoming a professional swim coach.

Soon enough, though, swimming started to become part of my life again.

It was a progressive change from working full time to spending more time on the pool deck with swim clubs in Delaware. My job as an engineer eventually got in the way of helping my ath56 July/August 2014 | BethesdaMagazine.com

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liz lynch

letes. I wasn’t able to travel with the team to international meets. This led me to finally make the jump to full-time coach for the Delaware Swim Team.

It was just two years ago that I received the offer to be head coach for the Nation’s Capital Swim Club [in the Washington, D.C., area]. The program has a long history of talent and success, so I decided to take the opportunity. Last year, I was awarded Coach of the Year by the American Swimming Coaches Association.

The longer I coach, the more I develop a toolbox to help athletes with different skill sets, from short- to longdistance swimming. At the end of the day, I believe the events pick the swimmer, not the other way around. Even when preparing for the Olympics, the same basic coaching principles remain.

I set goals for my athletes and a timeline along the way.

[Bethesda’s] Katie Ledecky is the only Olympian training at the club right now, but it’s not out of the ordinary for Olympians to come back over breaks and train. Every athlete at that level of the sport knows [that] if they want to get better, they need to practice every day. If not, it’s likely another swimmer will take their place. But Ledecky is so self-driven; I don’t need to motivate her. There are very few swimmers at her level who need to be pushed.

If there’s one difference between coaching Olympians and young swimmers, it’s that younger athletes have a hard time believing they can make it to the Olympics. Coaches have to reinforce that it is possible.

In the end, coaching is less about swimming and more about relationships. The relationship between the coaching staff and swimmers is the most important. I recruit swimmers who are genuinely enthusiastic about the sport, but I also look to their support structure at home and school.

The people are what I love most about the sport. From kids new to swimming to other coaches and older athletes, the people in this sport are the reason I enjoy my job. n

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person

of interest

By Teddy Amenabar

The (Electronic) Music Man Bethesda teen disc jockey Alex Young is hitting all the right notes Suzanne Young wanted her teenage son, Alex, to get a job. Becoming a disc jockey seemed to make the most sense, given Alex’s love of music, so Suzanne convinced him to enroll in classes during the summer of 2011 at the private music school Bach to Rock in Bethesda.

Two years later, Alex, now 17, no longer needs those lessons. Instead, he’s making a name for himself as an up-and-coming DJ in the world of electronic music, a growing genre popular among youths that involves the creation of songs by editing sounds on a computer. Alex has performed—playing tracks he’s created or remixed—at shows in Las Vegas and around Washington, D.C, released a music video, and produced an album that was expected to come out in May. He plans to tour Europe this summer.

Vibe magazine’s website named Alex among the “Top 25 Dance Music DJs Under Age 25” in 2013, noting that “from heavy trap to light-hearted chillout tunes, Young’s range is remarkable, and will assuredly grow more complex with age.”

Alex, who lives in Bethesda, has garnered roughly 39,000 followers on SoundCloud, a social media site where

artists can broadcast new music to fans.

He doesn’t charge for most of his songs.

His most popular tune—a remix of the pop hit “Sweater Weather” by The Neighbourhood—has received more than 750,000 plays on his Facebook page. And that doesn’t include versions copied onto YouTube or reposted to various music blogs.

It’s a stunning rise for a teen who was sitting in classes at Walter Johnson High School two years ago and just beginning to explore the world of electronic music.

After finishing the summer classes at Bach to Rock, Alex says he spent much of his time learning the culture surrounding electronic music by searching for the latest songs and trends online.

Eventually he created his own songs and sent them to small, obscure bloggers to try to gain attention. “From there it started building,” he says.

By the time his mother began tuning in to Alex’s passion for electronic music, he had already developed a following online. “It kind of came out of nowhere,” Suzanne Young says.

As Alex began devoting more time to his music, it became harder to balance his classes during his junior year. Soon the family was faced with a decision.

“Parents want their kids to go through high school and do well,” Suzanne Young says. But “it was a struggle for him to be able to work as hard as he wanted to on his music and do the school piece, too.”

After much discussion, Alex and Suzanne decided that he would leave school. Before making that decision, the two met with a school guidance counselor who said that Alex was the only student who could drop out and “walk right into a job,” Suzanne Young says. “And that’s the truth. He has a career.”

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Alex Young, who earned his GED after leaving Walter Johnson High School last year, often stays up late working on music in his Bethesda home.

Alex promised his mom that he would get his GED certificate before committing to tour dates or traveling across the country with other DJs, and he received it in April. No longer burdened by school and homework, Alex often works on songs late into the night. Leaving school came with a cost, though; Alex says he doesn’t spend much time with other teens—or girls, for that matter.

Danny Kang, a producer at Mega House Music in Bethesda, says Alex is the youngest producer he has ever

worked with. Despite the high quality of Alex’s early music, the studio was “a little hesitant” to pick him up at first because of his age, Kang says. When the studio first approached Alex, he had been producing for less than two years.

There was a six month “drafting process,” Kang says, while the studio looked into whether Alex takes producing seriously. “Not only was he super talented, he was obsessed with his trade and relentlessly worked,” Kang says. “It was shocking to see a 16-year-old kid with

that much drive.”

Now, major labels with well-known artists are starting to approach Alex to help out with productions, Kang says.

For his part, Alex says he now feels even more driven to succeed. “I’ve gotten a lot more mature,” he says. “I’m really focusing on improving my craft.” n Teddy Amenabar grew up in Silver Spring and was a Bethesda Magazine intern. To comment on this story, email comments@ bethesdamagazine.com.

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profiles |

Women in Business

Special Advertising Section

Women

in Business

Meet leading Bethesda-area business women and professionals.

Dr. Rachel Cohn Wink Eyecare Boutique 1095 Seven Locks Road, Potomac, MD 20854 301-545-1111 | drcohn@wink.net | www.wink.net

What made you decide to get into your line of work?

I’ve had poor eyesight since childhood and disliked my glasses from age nine until I could wear contacts.

Optometry always interested me, so I followed that course of study. I eventually realized I could combine my medical skills with my interest in fashion by opening my own optometry practice that has a stylish glasses boutique.

Two new technologies have made a great impact in my work. The Optomap® allows me to look at the retina without dilating drops. The other, Zeiss i.Scriptionon®, maps the eye and that information helps me write a perfect prescription, correcting many secondary sight problems such as difficulty with night vision.

courtesy photo

How do you employ new technology to help your patients?

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Special Advertising Section

Women in Business

Deborah Klotz, DDS Bethesda Sedation Dentistry 10401 Old Georgetown Road, #200, Bethesda, MD 20814 301-530-2434 | sleep@bethesdasedationdentistry.com www.bethesdasedationdentistry.com

What made you decide to get into your line of work?

Dentistry is the only profession where I can be an artist, a doctor and an engineer all at the same time! Monet, Dr. Deb and Bernoulli simultaneously!

What makes you different than others in your profession?

Routine dental visits are critical to good dental health, but when it comes to building a comprehensive, community dental practice, no one is “routine.” Each patient is unique, each case different, and I provide patients a truly personalized experience. My practice puts patient care first in a comfortable setting, while still offering the convenience we need in our lives.

Bethesda Sedation Dentistry is unlike any other in the area. There’s a clear balance of community familiarity and care that is both charming and comforting. I try to go beyond being the best doctor with the best technology and clearly focus on building long-term relationships while providing the best care possible for you. It’s so much more than a dental practice; it’s comprehensive and patientcentric dental care.

shawn heifert

How do you employ new technology to help your patients?

“

The 3D Cone Beam CT has revolutionized the precision and accuracy for dental implants. Patients now can have implants placed via a computergenerated model of their mouth allowing for faster, minimally invasive and safer surgeries.

I try to go beyond being the best doctor with the best technology and clearly focus on building long-term relationships while providing the best care possible for you.”

What’s an example of a time when you helped a patient that you’re particularly proud of?

I am particularly proud of the work I do to help domestic violence victims. I work to restore the smiles of adult women who have suffered damage to, or lost, their smiles at the hands of a former partner or spouse.

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profiles |

Women in Business

Special Advertising Section

Jodi Katzker GKA Advertising 4350 East West Highway, Suite 420, Bethesda, MD 20814 301-657-8855, ext.1208 | jkatzker@gkaadvertising.com www.gkaadvertising.com

What made you decide to get into your line of work?

What makes you different than others in your profession?

Working in real estate law led to working with home builders and subsequently marketing for them. The skills developed for a legal career became my greatest assets in advertising for new home builders; attention to detail, becoming knowledgeable about subjects, organization and planning, etc. These abilities are especially critical now that I own and run my own marketing agency.

I believe my client-first mentality sets my agency apart.

Customer service is paramount. I strive to be flexible and accommodating of clients’ needs – no task is too small or too great to engage with enthusiasm and innovation. Making each client a priority and exceeding their expectations results in a level of excellence that my clients rely on.

What brings you the most satisfaction in your work?

How would your clients describe you?

Making a difference in every day of a buyer’s life by helping them find the home they desire, dream about and will hopefully love for years to come. Whether it’s my agency’s marketing creative that catches their eye, the message and incentives we’re able to convey, or the media strategy I’ve put behind a campaign, every home we help sell means something special.

Hard working, very organized and very protective of their best interests. My ability to listen to their goals and objectives, coupled with my thorough knowledge of the business, the market and their product, allow me to be a great problem solver on their behalf. I make every effort to reflect all these priorities in the work put forth by GKA Advertising.

hilary schwab

“

I strive to be flexible and accommodating of clients’ needs – no task is too small or too great to engage with enthusiasm and innovation.”

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Special Advertising Section

Sarah J. Zimmerman Feldesman Tucker Leifer Fidell LLP 4800 Hampden Lane, Suite 200, Bethesda, MD 20814 301-232-1252 | szimmerman@ftlf.com 1129 20th St. NW, Fourth Floor, Washington, DC 20036 202-466-8960 | www.ftlf.com

What makes you different from others in your profession?

I don’t believe divorce has to be destructive. I always try to look ahead and be constructive, helping clients manage their emotions, focus on the future and develop a plan to protect their children, relationships and assets. As a family lawyer, my role is to attempt to achieve the best possible outcome–not to inflame or get bogged down in conflict.

courtesy photo

What made you decide to get into your line of work?

After living in Israel for several years working for a women’s advocacy organization, I attended law school at George Washington University with the goal of helping women and families navigate the legal system. That led me to pro bono work in domestic violence and custody, and ultimately I settled in Bethesda with my family and dedicated my practice to family law.

profiles |

“

Women in Business

I always try to look ahead and be constructive, helping clients manage their emotions, focus on the future, and develop a plan to protect their children, relationships and assets.”

What is the one thing that your clients should know about you?

I’m an advocate for my clients’ best interests and will always go the extra mile. People tell me I’m remarkably empathetic and patient, and a calming presence during a difficult time. I’m a mom myself, and I always want to achieve the best outcome for children. I also think I appeal to clients who value integrity– people who are interested in doing the right thing and achieving a fair result, rather than punishing their soon-to-be ex-spouse.

When I tell people I’m a divorce lawyer, the most common reaction is: “It must be so stressful.” Yes, my work is challenging, but that is far outweighed by the tremendous satisfaction I get from helping individuals and families through one of life’s most challenging transitions.

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Women in Business

Special Advertising Section

Rebecca A. Kazin, MD, FAAD Washington Institute of Dermatologic Laser Surgery 1430 K St., NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20005 202-628-8855 | rkazin@skinlaser.com www.skinlaser.com

What made you decide to get into your line of work?

I feel fortunate to combine my love of art with the study of medicine. When I meet a patient, I am often fascinated by how much of my exam is based on the principles of symmetry, proportion and shape. I study each person to see what will restore them to their natural beauty subtly and carefully to achieve their goals without looking obvious or artificial.

Because of my extensive experience with laser and injectable therapy, I am also able to apply my passion for teaching by training other dermatologists and surgeons in the latest proper and safe techniques.

“

Patients come to me with a concern, big or small, that is affecting their self-esteem.

I love getting to know them and providing a safe, effective treatment that allows them to feel more self-confident.”

Patients come to me with a concern, big or small, that is affecting their self-esteem. I love getting to know them and providing a safe, effective treatment that allows them to feel more self-confident.

I’ve been in the patient’s chair. Having had many of the treatments myself, I know how my patients feel and what to expect, and can discuss their therapy from their point of view.

I also believe in proven efficacy, and I will only offer treatments on which I have seen data proving their safety and efficacy. I will also say ‘no’ to doing a treatment if I don’t believe it’s what’s best for the patient.

If there’s not a solution, I look to create one. I am the CEO of RKMD Cosmeceuticals, a company whose mission is to formulate products that combine luxury with proven efficacy. I feel strongly that patients deserve treatments that are both highly effective and aesthetically pleasing.

courtesy photo

What makes you different than others in your profession?

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Special Advertising Section

Jill Schwartz Long & Foster Real Estate 4650 East West Highway, Bethesda, MD 20814 301-758-7224 | (o) 301-907-7600 jillschwartzgroup@gmail.com

stephanie bragg

What makes you different than others in your profession?

profiles |

“

Women in Business

I am on a mission to improve the environment – one home and one family at a time.”

What brings you the most satisfaction in your work?

Two things set me apart. First, I have a knack for finding hidden gems, those incredible, elegant, architecturally interesting homes in great neighborhoods. I am also the “eco-chic” Realtor, meaning I promote “green” and healthy living practices with the renovation and building of new homes. Put these elements together, and I have created a wonderful niche in the industry.

I am on a mission to improve the environment – one home and one family at a time. Homebuyers seek my help to find homes that save money on utilities. Builders want to partner with me because I understand the intricacies of LEED certification. Plus, the social responsibility I feel from making this my life’s work is immeasurable.

How do you employ new technology to help your clients?

How would your clients describe you?

I use social media to keep my clients abreast of the latest developments in the “green” movement. I tweet under #GOGREENWITHJILL and offer tips for living a healthier lifestyle on Facebook. I work with local builders on how to construct homes that are energy efficient. These homes not only save the planet but put money back into my clients’ pockets.

After many years in this industry, I now feel like an expert, although there is always more to learn. My clients would say I am resilient, creative and sharp because I understand real estate and know how to get the best for them. My new adage, which I’ve added to all my marketing materials, sums it up: “Real experiences, real relationships, real estate.”

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Women in Business

Special Advertising Section

Monica Garcia Harms, Principal Stein Sperling Bennett De Jong Driscoll PC 25 West Middle Lane, Rockville, MD 20850 301-838-3230 (direct) | mharms@steinsperling.com www.steinsperling.com

I have significantly more courtroom experience. I began my career running a courthouse domestic violence clinic. In my first year, I litigated and represented victims of domestic violence in over 100 cases.

Over the past 12 years, I’ve gained broad and valuable experience through the sheer volume of cases I’ve litigated, using a variety of different approaches or strategies to represent my clients’ – and their families’ – best interests. I always believe a negotiated resolution is best, but I’m never afraid to go to court. That willingness to go to trial has helped me position clients for better settlements.

I take great pride at the amount of strategy and preparation I put into cases. Central to my practice is being better prepared and more proactive than my adversaries. Often, that can make the difference in the courtroom or at the negotiating table.

mike olliver

What makes you different than others in your profession?

Betty Barati & Sherri Hatam, Owners Belina Boutique 10215 Old Georgetown Road, Bethesda, MD 20814 301-897-2929 | sherri@belinaboutique.com www.Belinaboutique.com

Betty: Prior to opening Belina, I managed several stores in the area. I always had a love for fashion and a desire to start my own business.

Sherri: I’m a CPA, and had left my career in accounting to raise my two boys. I wanted to return to the workforce but was looking for a career that provided flexibility and incorporated my love of fashion. We’re both residents of Bethesda, and frequented Wildwood Shopping Center for personal shopping needs. We found the quaint neighborhood center to be the perfect home for Belina. We opened in 2003 with a commitment to provide top-notch service to our clients.

We understand that women have many options when it comes to shopping. Our business was built on the notion that personal attention and service are the most valuable part of the shopping experience.

tony lewis jr

What made you decide to get into your line of work?

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Special Advertising Section

profiles |

Women in Business

Wendy Banner & The Banner Team Long & Foster Real Estate 4650 East West Highway, Bethesda, MD 20814 301-365-9090 | Bethesda Gateway Office: 301-907-7600 www.BannerTeam.com

“

Hiring a team like ours to sell your home or find you a new home costs no more than hiring an individual agent, but you get so much more value with an experienced team working on your behalf.”

What makes you different than others in your profession?

One of our primary goals is to take the hassle out of transactions. We handle large and small details whenever possible and take care of our client’s needs all the way through the process.

Bob Banner, my husband, is part of Sandy Spring Builders, which enables us to help clients with dependable information about renovations, new builds and estimates.

What is the one thing that your clients should know about you?

tony lewis jr

L to R: Ilene West Gordon, Paula Nesbitt, Shelley Green, Wendy Banner, Michelle Teichberg, Julia Fortin Dalton

Hiring a team like ours to sell your home or find you a new home costs no more than hiring an individual agent, but you get so much more value with an experienced team working on your behalf.

We’re constantly networking to find homes coming onto the market and to promote our listings.

I worked individually for years. I couldn’t work any harder, so I had to work smarter. Working as part of a team has enabled me to take the business to another level – along the way we’ve met fantastic people and made lifelong friends!

How do you employ new technology to help your clients?

We're proud to have found a way to use technology to give clients a maximum advantage in the market, while still keeping the personal connection our first priority - we never lose sight of the value of working face-to-face! We're heavily focused on promoting video and virtual listings online, nationally or internationally, as well as with social media. Long & Foster’s affiliation with Christie’s International Real Estate elevates our client’s presence in the global marketplace. Also, our sophisticated transaction management system provides clients with a seamless, conflict-free settlement.

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Women in Business

Special Advertising Section

Jackie Sorrenti, Founder/Owner Gals on and off the Green 5449 Wisconsin Ave., Chevy Chase MD 20815 (behind Clyde's restaurant) 240-800-4670 | jackie@galsonandoffthegreen.com www.galsonandoffthegreen.com www.facebook.com/galsonandoffthegreen Twitter @galsrule

Gals on and off the Green helps women look and feel better about themselves. We provide a great selection of stylish golf and resort wear and world-class customer service, and we offer fit, fashion and function for women of all shapes, with sizes from zero to 22.

We began in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and have expanded with a new location in Chevy Chase, Maryland in August of 2013.

We make a difference and are very proud to be a “small chain” brick and mortar retail expansion story. We’re all about women helping women – from fashion and sizing options – and now to educational opportunities. Our GALS Scholarship Foundation (Growing, Achieving, Learning, Succeeding) provides educational opportunities for women of all ages who participate in golf in some capacity.

tony lewis jr

What is the one thing that your customers should know about you?

Addie Merrick-Phang & Lindsay Keiser, LEED AP BD+C Merrick Design and Build, Inc. 3923 Plyers Mill Road, Kensington, MD 20895 301-946-2356 | amerrick@mdbi.us www.RemodelWithMerrick.com

What made you decide to get into your line of work?

Addie: Growing up around the remodeling industry, it only seemed natural to join the family business. I’m very creative and enjoy solving problems.

Lindsay: Growing up, I watched as my parents restore a 1890s farmhouse and was drawn to the design and restoration process.

We love days that provide a new challenge or opportunity, which are frequent in this business. When we can be creative and reuse existing materials, for instance, it can save on costs and add character to the remodeled space. And anytime we get to make a client’s life a little better we go home happy.

We get added satisfaction from participating in community organizations, such as Rebuilding Together. Merrick just completed an amazing pirate ship playhouse for their auction, which we brainstormed together.

darren higgins

What brings you the most satisfaction in your work?

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Special Advertising Section

Margie Halem, Realtor Long & Foster / Bethesda Gateway 4650 East West Highway, Bethesda, MD 20814 301-775-4196 | (o) 301-907-7600 margiehalem@longandfoster.com | margiehalemrealtor.com

What makes you different than others in your profession?

My clients appreciate my enthusiasm coupled with my calm and confident temperament. I take pride in developing a personal relationship with every one of my clients, and these continue to this day. Whatever their price range, my clients receive my highest degree of service. It’s been 30 years and I’ve enjoyed wonderful success.

courtesy photo

How would your clients describe you?

I am always accessible, detail-oriented, a skillful negotiator and look out for my clients’ best interests. They would say I’m very hands-on and attentive. Here are some recent comments: “She had excellent knowledge of the housing market in general, was very familiar with all the areas we were interested in and a great understanding of current trends. But maybe more important was her willingness to gain an in-depth

profiles |

“

Women in Business

I take pride in developing a personal relationship with every one of my clients, and these continue to this day.”

understanding of exactly what we were looking for.”

“Margie showed us numerous houses and never wasted our time. We never walked out of a house and wondered why she brought us there.”

“We were leaving the country for two weeks and she stayed on top of everything to ensure all paperwork between parties was expedited and always correct. Her professionalism and upbeat personality made the entire process very positive.”

How do you employ new technology to help clients?

This is a networking business, particularly if you’re selling a home. So we’re very tech-savvy and involved with all social media available, including Twitter, blogging, Facebook, Pinterest. We put your listing on as many websites as possible.

We’re very connected throughout the community, with colleagues and past customers and clients, so personal phone calls are also an integral part of our platform.

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profiles |

Women in Business

Special Advertising Section

Jill Martin, Owner Gallery St. Elmo

My customers love our constantly changing vignettes highlighting newly consigned tables, chairs, rugs, lamps and more, helping them visualize how a piece might look in their home.�

What made you decide to get into your line of work?

My background includes weaving custom throws and scarves, crafting unique jewelry, and collecting and selling antiques.

These led me to see the creative and commercial potential of well-displayed consigned furniture and decorative items—now a hallmark of Gallery St. Elmo. My customers love our constantly changing vignettes highlighting newly consigned tables, chairs, rugs, lamps and more, helping them visualize how a piece might look in their home.

What brings you the most satisfaction in your work?

Knowing that a good piece of furniture or unusual home decor will give pleasure and be useful in a new setting, after having been someone's valued possession, gives me the satisfaction of a win-win situation. My consignors are happy to know that things they love are in new homes. My customers have gotten good

value from a well-priced piece, and I'm providing a benefit to the environment by extending the life of gently owned furniture and decorative objects. Our customers are drawn from new apartment residents, young couples furnishing a home, downsizing emptynesters needing a different look, and people searching for special long-sought items.

What makes you different than others in your profession?

Photos of consigned items sent weekly to my email list have proven to be hugely popular. I've made it possible to see what's new in the store and even purchase something over the phone seen on email. Several times a year I highlight vintage and contemporary jewelry in themed events. Because we're known for quality merchandise in clean, like-new condition, we offer everyone a unique consignment shopping experience.

darren higgins

“

4938 St Elmo Ave., Bethesda, MD 20814 301-654-0579 | gallerystelmo@gmail.com www.gallerystelmo.com

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Special Advertising Section

profiles |

Women in Business

Zelda Heller, Vice President TTR Sotheby’s International Realty 5454 Wisconsin Ave., Chevy Chase, MD 20815 202-257-1226 | Zelda.Heller@sothebysrealty.com www.zeldaheller.com

What is the one thing that your clients should know about you?

I am 100 percent committed to my responsibility whether purchase or sale. Real estate is my chosen profession and my passion. I was proud to be recently mentioned in The Wall Street Journal for brokering the highest-priced condominium sale in our entire region.

It’s easy in this industry to be an order-taker— you get a phone call and show a house—and I am definitely not inclined that way. Expert negotiation is essential, and I go above and beyond in my efforts for clients. It’s an honor for me to assist people with the biggest financial decision of their lives.

How would your clients describe you?

Here’s what several of my clients have said: “You and I went through a war together, and I wanted these words to reflect all of my admiration and love for you.”

“My husband and I have been represented by Zelda Heller three times now—buying, selling and buying.

We remain astounded at her almost mystical ability to close a deal.”

“When Zelda Heller makes ‘a few calls’ on your behalf, you won’t mistake the experience. I can still hear her Rolodex furiously turning and her speaking to every single person on our list (and hers) on a familiar, firstname basis in her elegant, South-African accent.”

“We entered this real estate market as complete outsiders, and have emerged, via Zelda, with the success and profits of the best-connected insiders in DC.”

hilary schwab

“Zelda’s credibility, reputation, integrity and goodwill are reflected onto her clients.”

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“

It’s an honor for me to assist people with the biggest financial decision of their lives.”

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profiles |

Women in Business

Special Advertising Section

Gretchen Koitz, Principal The Koitz Group—Keller Williams 7801 Woodmont Ave., Bethesda, MD 20814 301-442-8122 | gk@koitzgroup.com www.koitzgroup.com

What made you decide to get into your line of work?

I got my real estate license when I was a stayat-home mom with a five-month old. I had left a demanding job on Capitol Hill right before he was born. I thought I could get my license and have the best of both worlds—run out, sell a house and come home and nurse the baby!

I quickly found the profession more demanding, so I put full-time Realtor on hold until both my sons were in school full time.

What brings you the most satisfaction in your work?

It may sound trite, but it really is helping clients achieve their goals and making the process as seamless as possible. We’re in a complex business with legal, financial and emotional twists and turns. We try very hard to control those twists and turns—or at least maneuver them for clients so they don’t even know they’re there.

How do you employ new technology to help your clients?

How would your clients describe you?

I get a kick out of this actual quote from a client: “I love The Koitz Group’s level of service!!

Like going to The Four Seasons!!”

tony lewis jr

“

We’re in a complex business with legal, financial and emotional twists and turns.

We try very hard to control those twists and turns—or at least maneuver them for clients so they don’t even know they’re there.”

I love this question because it allows me to brag about my son and partner, Kevin, who built us one of the first really successful real estate websites in the D.C. area. He asked if he could join me in business when he graduated from Stanford. He put his new media knowledge to work and was able to create a site that has been extremely helpful to our buyers and sellers. Check it out at koitzgroup.com.

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profiles |

Special Advertising Section

Women in Business

Potomac Audiology

Tricia Terlep, AuD, and Gail Linn, AuD, CCC-A Potomac Audiology

“

11300 Rockville Pike, Suite 105, Rockville, MD 20852 240-477-1010 | gail@potomacaudiology.com www.potomacaudiology.com

At the end of the day we all go home knowing we had the opportunity to help improve the quality of someone’s life—and we take that seriously.”

tony lewis jr

What’s an example of a time when you helped a patient that you’re particularly proud of?

Every patient is special, although there are some that stand out. Just recently I had a gentleman who was brought in by his daughter. It was clear he was unable to communicate. I knew I had a big job before me. A hearing test found severe hearing loss in both ears. The hearing aids he had with him were inadequate. I took some hearing aids off the shelf and programmed them with “Real Ear” or “Probe Microphone Measures.” We were able to match his Prescriptive Target perfectly and his eyes lit up when he realized he could hear. I spoke to him in a soft voice and he answered, and his daughter was surprised. I went down the hall

and asked him some questions and he answered, and again his daughter was amazed. I suggested that he should take the hearing aids home and try them for a week or two and he was thrilled to have that opportunity.

The next day I got a call from his daughter. “I wish I could reach through the phone and give you a hug,” she said. “I went home with my parents yesterday and sat around the table at dinner and had a conversation with both of them for the first time in years.”

The entire focus of our office is to help each and every patient have an experience similar to this. At the end of the day we all go home knowing we had the opportunity to help improve the quality of someone’s life—and we take that seriously.

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profiles |

Women in Business

Special Advertising Section

Cheryl F. Callahan, DDS, PA 15225 Shady Grove Road, Suite 301, Rockville, MD 20850 301-948-1212 | info@cherylcallahandds.com www.cherylcallahandds.com

What brings you the most satisfaction in your work?

hilary schwab

I often see patients who have not had dental work done for many years due to fear associated with previous dental experiences. Many of them are embarrassed about the condition of their oral health and commonly tell me, “My mouth is a mess.”

I gently guide them through the process of learning about their oral condition and I discuss how I can work with them to help them restore their mouth and their smile. These patients repeatedly thank me for presenting treatment options that they didn’t know existed and for caring for them in a non-judgmental, professional way.

The overwhelming gratitude I receive from them is one of the most rewarding aspects of my work.

Traci Levine, Realtor, CRS, GRI Traci Levine & Associates, Long & Foster 7719 Tuckerman Lane Potomac, MD 20854 301-455-0333 | Traci@TraciLevine.com

What made you decide to get into your line of work?

I have a B.S. in Special Education and Psychology. After managing a restaurant for a number of years, I decided to go into real estate. My mother was a Realtor, and I grew up in this business. My clients say I am knowledgeable, kind, giving and a very good negotiator.

It’s all about client satisfaction and referrals. I love seeing smiling, happy people at settlement. I would rather talk someone out of purchasing a house than having them buy something that’s not right for them.

I'm a single mom of two daughters (with lots of activities). I also have two dogs, and I am a vice president of the Bells Mill Elementary School PTA and a Sisterhood Board Member at Washington Hebrew Congregation.

tony lewis jr

What is the one thing that your clients should know about you?

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Special Advertising Section

profiles |

Women in Business

Kira Epstein, Realtor Beasley Real Estate, LLC 4800 Hampden Lane, #215, Bethesda, MD 20814 240-899-8577 | KEpstein@beasleyre.com beasleyre.com/agent/kira-epstein

“

I love being a part of the process when people are going through an exciting, yet overwhelming experience.”

What makes you different than others in your profession?

I focus on charitable giving as a cornerstone of my business.

For every referral, I make a donation as a thank you to the charity of the choice of the person who referred the client. I am encouraged by the diversity of the organizations that my clients support.

Courtesy photo

What brings you the most satisfaction in your work?

Every day in this business is different. I love being a part of the process when people are going through an exciting, yet overwhelming experience. Whether it is for the wonderful moments, like marriage and children, or for the hardships like divorce or death, it is fulfilling to be there to support my clients.

What is the one thing that your clients should know about you?

My father raised us with the value that “integrity is not negotiable.” There can be times when I am faced with a dilemma, but I always think about the client and the referral, and that one transaction is not worth your reputation. I have also received feedback that I do a great job explaining the home buying and selling process to clients who are just starting out.

What are your interests outside of work?

I’m in a weekly charity poker game. I also love going on long walks with friends to catch up and talk. I spend as much time as I can with my parents, four siblings and nine young nieces and nephews (seven live in the area). I’ve travelled to all 50 states and each of the continents—Antarctica was the seventh!

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profiles |

Women in Business

Special Advertising Section

Naz Rahimi, Owner Oxygen Hair Salon 1677 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852 301-881-9340 | 301-881-5052 oxygenhairsalon@gmail.com www.oxygensalonanddayspa.com Facebook/OxygenSalonandDaySpa.com

What brings you the most satisfaction in your work?

My work brings me the most satisfaction. Helping women see the possibilities with their hair and beauty regimen, working together to create a look they love and one that fits their lifestyle. We want you to leave here looking and feeling your very best!

What are your interests outside of work? darren higgins

Outside of my salon family, my friends and my fitness regimen are my top priorities. When the time permits, I like to travel. Whether I’m touring somewhere or attending a hair or couture show, I always keep an eye on the trends in hair and fashions around the world and I bring them back to Oxygen for our clients.

Vicki Porter, Realtor Long & Foster—All Points 4701 Sangamore Road, Bethesda, MD 20816 301-325-2965 | vicki.porter@longandfoster.com www.VickiPorter.net

How would your clients describe you?

I love helping people buy and sell homes – especially in Bethesda, my very own back yard. My SRES designation and experience with people downsizing makes for easier transitions for my clients, too. Here are a few recent comments: “Vicki was a tremendous help. Most importantly, she listened to our specific needs and made tailored recommendations…

Vicki is wonderfully responsive and knows the D.C. area extremely well.” —Walter & Katherine (Potomac)

“I didn’t realize she had such a fabulous network... I got an outstanding contract for my house for more than the asking price!”

— Tessa (Bethesda)

darren higgins

“Working with Vicki was like working with a trusted friend who had only our best interests at heart. Not only did she sell our condo quickly, but she helped with every aspect of the move and preparation… We couldn’t possibly have had a better experience.” ­ —Sandy (Bethesda)

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profiles |

Special Advertising Section

Women in Business

Pantea Tamjidi, MD Tamjidi Skin Institute 5454 Wisconsin Ave., Suite 1045, Chevy Chase, MD 20815 301-652-4828 | www.tamjidiskininstitute.com

What brings you the most satisfaction in your work?

There is so much I love about my practice and my work. Patients come to me looking for answers, and I enjoy providing them, diagnosing skin conditions and making their concerns go away. It’s very satisfying to put smiles on their faces when their acne clears up, eczema disappears and sun damage is reduced. We help people gain self-confidence, and that’s very satisfying, and a primary reason why we enjoy many long-lasting relationships with patients.

What makes you different than others in your profession?

I get to know my patients on a personal level. I know what they do, their kid’s names, where they’re from and more. I take the time to listen and let people explain both their struggles and achievements, because both can be related to their skin. Stress is such a huge cause of skin-related issues. I believe that my patients should be educated about how to properly care for their skin, especially with sun protection.

How would your patients describe you?

I think they would say that I am fun-loving, caring and compassionate, and very dedicated to my craft and work. When you come to us, it’s never a short, rushed visit. I spend plenty of time listening and finding out about you and your issues. We get to know patients so we can do everything possible to solve their particular problem.

hilary schwab

What are your interests outside of work?

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My two daughters are a huge focus and joy for me, as are my dogs. I also spend a lot of time at the gym and I love to go skiing.

“

Patients come to me looking for answers, and I enjoy providing them, diagnosing skin conditions and making their concerns go away.”

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Mary Noble Ours

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How We’ve

Changed Ten years may not seem like a long

Not all of the change has been good,

time. But since Bethesda Magazine pub-

however. In 2004, the real estate market was

lished its first issue in 2004, our area has

getting hotter and hotter—and homeown-

changed dramatically. Over the past decade

ers had no reason to suspect the housing

we watched construction breathe new life

bust or recession that loomed. The income

into local downtowns, creating destinations

gap widened, with higher percentages of

such as Bethesda Lane and Rockville Town

children receiving free and reduced meals

Square. Music filled new venues such as

at school, especially in the county’s eastern

The Music Center at Strathmore in North

end. Parking tickets got more expensive,

Bethesda and The Fillmore in Silver Spring.

and speed cameras proliferated.

Montgomery County’s population topped

To commemorate the magazine’s 10th

one million for the first time, and in schools,

anniversary, we took a look back at how

everything from the average teacher salary

we’ve changed. >>

to the number of National Merit Scholarship semifinalists went up.

By Eugene L. Meyer Illustrations by Amanda Smallwood

Welcome to

Mary Noble Ours

BETHESDA

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unty

co mery

ols

scho

tgo

mon

SCHOOL ZONE

Education

Edu-topia? More, more, more: more students, bigger salaries, higher tuitions and more diversity Private School Tuitions:

Montgomery County Public Schools

2005-2006

2012-2013 school year: 33,642

Number of Advanced Placement Exams That Received a Score of 3 or Higher

$10,000

2003-2004 school year: 14,453 2012-2013 school year: 24,563

National Merit Scholarship Semifinalists Class of 2004: 144 Class of 2014: 163

$5,000

Bullis School, Potomac

2003-2004 school year: 19,040

$38,082

$35,288

$37,205

$35,200

$27,900

$24,768

$24,545

Note: Many private school tuitions are expressed as a range and vary depending on a student’s grade level. To simplify the numbers for this comparison, we used the higher end of a school’s tuition range.

Data for the 2013-2014 school year came from the schools themselves; data for the 2005-2006 school year came from Bethesda Magazine’s archives.

PUBLIC SCHOOL Data provided by Montgomery County Public Schools

$15,000

$18,355 Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart, Bethesda

Number of Advanced Placement Exams Taken

Sidwell Friends School, Upper Northwest D.C.

$20,000

$24,724 National Cathedral School, Upper Northwest D.C.

2003-2004 school year: $59,076 2013-2014 school year: $74,038

$24,500

Average Teacher Salary

$24,468

$25,000

$24,170

2013-2014 school year: $2.23 billion

Landon School, Bethesda

$28,300

Budget 2003-2004 school year: $1.5 billion

$23,500

$30,000

$19,520 Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, Rockville

2013-2014 school year: $14,065

Holton-Arms School, Bethesda

2003-2004 school year: $10,055

$19,640 Georgetown Preparatory School, North Bethesda

Spending Per Student

$30,690

$35,340

$35,000

$36,010

2013-2014 school year: 151,289

$35,159

2013-2014

2003-2004 school year: 139,098

St. Albans School, Upper Northwest D.C.

$40,000

Georgetown Day School, Upper Northwest D.C.

Number of Students

How High Can They Go?

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mon

tgom

ery co

unty

scho

ols

montgomery county schools

2004 High School Class Presidents: Where Are They Now? Bethesda-Chevy Chase Charles Horwitz majored in history at Davidson College in North Carolina. He wanted to be a lawyer, but a stint as a paralegal in a D.C. law firm cured him of that. Today, Horwitz is a four-year veteran of the Montgomery County Police Department assigned to the Silver Spring district, where he lives with his wife, Rachel.

Walter Johnson

Walt Whitman

After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, Kacey Bayles moved to New York, where she studied at Sotheby’s Institute of Art and worked for three years in the Manhattan office of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. Last July she moved to San Francisco for a job at Crowdtilt.com, a startup that helps people and organizations raise money.

Ashley (Marriott) Samuelian graduated from Brigham Young University in Utah with a major in leisure services management and a husband, classmate Spencer Samuelian, now the chief operating officer of a nursing home company.

The couple lives in Laguna Beach, Calif., where Samuelian is a mother of three and a church volunteer.

MCPS Students

The Long Haul

African-American

These MCPS principals were appointed before July 2004 and are still serving

Asian Caucasian

Principal

courtesy photos

200 3 200 4:

School

Town

Hispanic

Appointed

Joan Benz

Winston Churchill

Potomac

September 1997

James Fernandez

Albert Einstein

Kensington

July 2004

Deena Levine

Poolesville

Poolesville

July 2002

Alan Goodwin

Walt Whitman

Bethesda

July 2004

Michael Doran

Thomas S. Wootton

Rockville

July 2003

22.9%

201 3 201 4:

34.3%

Percentage of MCPS Students who Receive Free and Reduced-Price Meals

7%

.

18

44% 4%

7.

2 2013-2014:

8.1%

.1%

20032004 14.3%

Percentage of MCPS Students who Speak English as a Second Language 2003-2004:

22

13.5%

21

20132014

32%

.4% 14.4%

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Transportation Whether you take Metro or drive, we all love to complain about our commutes. Here’s how they’ve changed.

We compared annual average daily traffic counts from 2004 to 2013 at five key bottlenecks. The upshot: Traffic is actually improving.

Wisconsin Avenue/ Rockville Pike, just inside the Beltway

2004: 64,750 2013: 66,531 Connecticut Avenue, just north of Chevy Chase Circle

2004: 43,475 2013: 37,030 Beltway Between Old Georgetown Road and Route 355

2004: 139,400 2013: 107,911 River Road, just inside the Beltway

2004: 45,275 2013: 44,290 Westmoreland Circle

2004: 26,525 2013: 23,832

Data provided by Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, Montgomery County Public Information Office

Traffic: Better Than You Thought

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m

A Pretty Penny

Slow Down!

Big Brother is watching

Beware the Meter Maid

Number of speed cameras in Montgomery County: Metro fares are on the rise

Higher fees, fewer tickets Parking fine revenue collected in Bethesda 2004: $4,801,042 2013:

$5,162,831

Number of parking citations issued in Bethesda 2004: 106,680 2013:

89,083

Metro Center to Bethesda

2004: 0

2014:

92

!%#@

July 2004: $2.25 July 2014: $3.45 Metro Center to Silver Spring July 2004: $2.30 July 2014: $3.60 Metro Center to Rockville July 2004: $3.70 July 2014: $5.65 Metro Center to Shady Grove July 2004: $3.90 July 2014: $5.90

The Intercounty Connector

The Road Not Taken Then: In November 2004, the county’s transportation planning board endorsed the Intercounty Connector, an 18.8-mile highway that would ultimately connect the I-270 corridor in Montgomery County to Route 1 in Beltsville. Fraught with politics and opposed by environmental activists, the toll highway would not begin construction until October 2006.

Now: The ICC has taken much longer than projected to open, with the final stretch still not completed as of this spring. The project’s original $1 billion price tag ballooned to $2.4 billion—or as much as $4 billion if interest is included. Traffic and revenues have fallen far short of original projections, and tolls on highways and bridges statewide have been raised to help pay for it.

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Cupcakes

Boutique

sushi

Dining, Shopping and Entertainment Since 2004, we’ve seen a score of new restaurants, shops and venues—many of them buzz-worthy national brands such as the Apple store, Lululemon and The Fillmore.

Strathmore

Live Music A growing sound scene Then: The music scene in the Bethesda area was pretty paltry.

Restaurants and clubs occasionally hosted small get-togethers—Vicino Restaurante in Silver Spring held its first Monday night jazz show in July 2003—but there were no large-scale venues.

Now: Our area has become a magnet for music of all types. The Music Center at Strathmore, with its 1,976seat concert hall, opened in February 2005 in North Bethesda. The Fillmore, a 2,000-seat venue that opened in 2011 in downtown Silver Spring, has drawn such big names as Mary J. Blige and John Legend. The Bethesda Blues & Jazz Supper Club opened in March 2013 in a 1938 art deco theater on Wisconsin Avenue. And more is on the way: The Pike & Rose development in Rockville is planning to open a 250-seat performance venue and event space early next year called AMP.

John Legend

Mary J. Blige

SOLD OUT!

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Crepes

Tapas

ics t e m s o C

Easy Come, Easy Go A sampling of restaurants that have closed since 2004 Addie’s, Rockville Amada Amate, Rockville Athenian Plaka, Bethesda Bezu, Potomac Cafe 1894, Kensington Cafe Bethesda Cafe Europa, Bethesda Centro, Bethesda Ceviche, Silver Spring David Craig Bethesda Divino Lounge & Restaurant, Bethesda Famoso and M Cafe, Chevy Chase Flanagan’s Irish Pub, Bethesda Gaffney’s, Bethesda Golden Flame, Silver Spring Green Papaya, Bethesda Hamburger Hamlet, Bethesda Houston’s Restaurant, Rockville Jade Billows, Cabin John Jean-Michel, Bethesda La Flor de la Canela, Gaithersburg La Miche, Bethesda Levante’s, Bethesda McCormick & Schmick’s, Bethesda McDonald’s, Pearl Street, Bethesda Mongolian Grill, Bethesda Nicaro, Silver Spring

O’Donnell’s Sea Grill, Bethesda and Gaithersburg Old Homestead, Bethesda Oro Pomodoro, Rockville PGA Tour Grill, Rockville redDog Cafe, Silver Spring Rarely Legal, Bethesda Red Tomato Cafe, Bethesda Rí Rá, Bethesda Ristorante Terrazza, Chevy Chase Rock Creek, Bethesda and Upper Northwest D.C. South Beach Restaurant & Bar, Bethesda Sweet Basil, Bethesda Tel-Aviv Cafe, Bethesda The General Store, Silver Spring The Red Heffer, Bethesda Thyme Square Cafe, Bethesda Tragara Ristorante, Bethesda Tysons Buffet and Restaurant, Rockville Uncle Jed’s Roadhouse, Bethesda Uno Pizzeria & Grill, Bethesda Volare, Bethesda Willie & Reed’s, Bethesda The Yacht Club, Bethesda

Bad Karma?

Some restaurant addresses have more turnover than others. Take 7528 Old Georgetown Road in Bethesda. In the last 10 years the address has been home to the five restaurants below.

1

Uncle Jed’s Roadhouse

4

2

Thimian Thai

5

3

The Box Bar & Grill

Dry Fried Wing Bar & Grille Tyber Bierhaus (current occupant)

VACANT

???

A sampling of stores that have closed since 2004 Anthropologie, Rockville Borders, Silver Spring and Rockville Bloomingdale’s, Rockville Bowhe and Peare, Bethesda Dale Music, Silver Spring Diane’s Boutique, Silver Spring Harriet Kassman, Chevy Chase, D.C. Hecht’s, Chevy Chase, Md., Montgomery Mall and Wheaton Jeanne’s Shoes, Bethesda Kae Robin Gifts, Bethesda La Musa, Chevy Chase, D.C. Les Enfants, Bethesda Loehmann’s, Chevy Chase, D.C. Olsson’s, Bethesda Pirjo, Bethesda Potomac Video, Upper Northwest D.C. Pottery Barn, Chevy Chase, D.C., Rockville Ranger Surplus, Bethesda Smith & Hawken, Chevy Chase, Md. Stein Mart, Chevy Chase, D.C. The Papery, Bethesda The Posh Pooch, Bethesda The Purse Store, Bethesda Toys R Us, Rockville Waygoose, Bethesda and Rockville Uncommon Threads, Gaithersburg Zelaya, Bethesda

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VOTE for me!

VOTE fo

VOr TE me!

r me!

fo

VOTE for me!

VOT E

for

me

!

Government and Politics In the past 10 years, Montgomery County has gone from blue to bluer

DEMocrat

37%

Some Things Never Change County Council

59%

GOP

3%

General Assembly Delegation

Number of Registered Voters on the rise

Total

32% 2004 2014 8 Democrats 1 Republican

9 Democrats 0 Republicans

Word Play

2004

2014

31 Democrats 1 Republican

32 Democrats 0 Republicans

GREEN

31%

!

W E N 20

2,1 tered s

s Regi tarian r e lib

Data provided by Maryland Board of Elections, Montgomery County Public Information Office

UNAFFILIATED

One of the best ways to see how we’ve changed is to look at the language we use. The following words, phrases and abbreviations have been added to Oxford Dictionaries Online since 2004.

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moco courthouse

VOTE for me!

Up, Up and Away

Average annual salary

After belt-tightening during the Great Recession, Montgomery County is spending more

of county employees

$55,930

2013-2014

$71,298

County spending per capita:

$ 2003-2004

$3.082 Billion 2003-2004

$ 2013-2014

$32,715

2013-2014

$4.811 Billion

Safer Streets Crime in Montgomery County, 2004 vs. 2013

2003-2004

County budget

Crime

$47,260

Homicides 18 vs. 8 Rapes 139 vs. 130 Robberies 788 vs. 747 Aggravated Assaults 967 vs. 850 Burglaries 3,743 vs. 2,587 Larcenies 15,503 vs. 12,085 Shoplifting 2,309 vs. 2,460 Auto Thefts 2,562 vs. 861 Narcotics Offenses 4,511 vs. 4,181 Vandalism Arrests 6,334 vs. 2,783 Weapons Violations 430 vs. 282 Disorderly Conduct Arrests 13,556 vs. 12,869

Sho plif tin only is the g crim inc e t rea se! o

The Remarkable Rise of Kensington’s Golden Boy

file photo

In 2004, Chris Van Hollen had just made the leap from the Maryland General Assembly to the U.S. House of Representatives. Since his arrival on the national stage, his star has continued to rise. Today, Van Hollen is one of the party’s most visible spokespersons. He’s been chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and is the ranking member on the House Budget Committee. Political insiders often float his name as a possibility for the Senate or speaker of the House of Representatives.

OMG • high definition • group hug • e-learning • ridic • man cave • tweeps • video chat • whatevs • bestie • First World Problem • bromance • eco-activist • bikable • cake pop • deets BethesdaMagazine.com | July/August 2014 87

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Development

The fountain in downtown Silver Spring

The rise of the suburban downtown

Rockville Pike

Downtown Silver Spring

Then: An aging relic of Montgomery County’s cardependent past, Mid-Pike Plaza was a 1960s-era shopping center anchored by a Toys R Us and surrounded by nearly 1,400 parking spaces.

Now: Mid-Pike Plaza is no more. The Silver Diner has moved up the road to Federal Plaza, and much of the old shopping center has been demolished. In its place is rising Pike & Rose, a 3.4-million-square-foot mixed-use project by Federal Realty that will include 1,500 residential units, 430,000 square feet of retail, 1.1 million square feet of offices and a 250,000-squarefoot hotel. The development will be laced with citylike cross streets and tall buildings, and will be within walking distance of the White Flint Metro station—all signs of what’s to come for the neighborhood.

Then: After a long decline and several false starts, the D.C. area’s first suburban shopping district was on the cusp of a renaissance, with $1.2 billion in public and private backing. The old downtown was gaining momentum—on the same weekend in 2003, the Discovery Channel moved into a striking glass building and AFI Silver opened in a renovated 1938 movie house.

Now: Multicultural downtown Silver Spring is booming with new ethnic restaurants (several of them Ethiopian), coffeehouses and upscale apartment buildings. One highlight has been the opening of The Fillmore music hall in 2011 in the empty shell of a former J.C. Penney department store. But one big question remains: Will the longawaited transit center—the cost of which has soared from a projected $26 million to $131 million—finally open?

Word Play

Courtesy of pike& rose; Michael ventura (silver spring)

Pike & Rose in Rockville

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parking

The PercePTion

Rockville Town Square

“The Darcy” on Bethesda Row

Ask people about parking in downtown Bethesda, and you’re apt to hear a litany of complaints—from the inconvenience of one-hour meters and the perils of getting ticketed if you’re so much as a minute late, to the frustrations of entering an overflowing garage on a Saturday night.

Wendy Satin, a lawyer who grew up in Potomac and now works in Rockville, is typical. “I can’t deal with Bethesda, can’t deal with the parking. There is none,” says Satin, who lives in Northwest Washington, D.C. “My blood pressure goes up just thinking about going there.”

In a 2009 survey of Bethesda Magazine readers, nearly a third of more than 450 respondents said parking was maintenance. And Lot 44 on West Virthe first problem they’d tackle if they ginia Avenue off Wisconsin is the leastThen: Following were the failure and demoThen: Ten used yearspublic after Federal originally acquired the property in “mayor” of Bethesda. parking Realty lot: Only 37 percent lition of the old Rockville Mall, work was 1994, Bethesda Row had become a model for how of its spaces are occupied on a weekday. to create a lively subjust beginning on the 60-acre, $370 million urban downtown. was lined with “It’sBethesda very easyAvenue to get frustrated,” says shops and restaurants, Rockville Town Square. including a Blockbuster movie store, Giant grocery The realiTy David Dabney, executive director ofstore, and Chicken Out Now: The first phase of theofficials project opened Bethesdans regularly(BUP), volleyed County say there are Rotisserie plenty of restaurant.

Bethesda Urban Partnership a for a coveted spot in in 2007 with 27 restaurants shops, a to walk the parking across the street from partly Barnes under& Noble. spaces for and people willing a few lot nonprofit organization new four-story public library, underground Now: The western endthe of county downtown Bethesdaand has exploded with a mix blocks or take the free Bethesda Circulator written by to promote garages, an outdoor plaza and weaves 644 luxury con-from Woodmont of national improve and localthe shops and restaurants—you’ll business district, “but it’s find a Georgetown bus that its way dos and apartmentsTriangle rising above the streetCupcake, a Sweetgreen, and local chef Robert Wiedmaier’s Mussel Bar & to Bethesda Row and back. not because of lack of parking.”

Lot 31 (and Lot 31A across the street) will level retail. The outdoor has become a parking Grille.

Bethesda Lane, an extension of Bethesda Row, opened in 2008, cre-this fall. Left is a rende Inplaza fact, there are 8,921 spaces “There is always parking available,” disappear sometime popular venue for concerts andeight alfresco din-garages ating a European-style with shops of “the Darcy,”strung part of the condo developm (6,686 in public and nine Dabney says.walkway But “thelined people who wantand restaurants, with underground garage that will replace ing. And plans to expand arelots; in motion: An on the with lights, and topped with luxury The surface parking lots parking 835 metered street; to park closest to the frontapartments. door of where 1,400isinunder private lots and that garages). they’re going to dinner are goingand to run 18-story mixed-useand building constraddled the intersection of Bethesda Woodmont avenues have That’s a lot ofparking spaces.lot And on any greater challenges thoseand who“The are Flats,” two mixed-use struction on the site of the former beengiven closed into to make way for “Thethan Darcy” Thatand stretch of Woodmo they’re not full. willing to park a couple blocks over.” in front of the Regal weekday, movie theater complex. retail and residential buildings thatofwill house a totalmerchants. of 250 condos Avenue will be closed for an estimate Go to one lot or garage at the wrong apartments.

20 months. time, though, and you could be frustrated: Garages 40 and 57 approach 100 per- loT 31, Where are you?

Ultimately, county officials say, the cent occupancy between 6 and 8 on a Sat- Sometime this fall—the exact date is will be more public parking than b urday night. In fact, Garage 57, wedged uncertain—279 surface spaces opposite fore. But in the meantime, “we’re sup between Bethesda Avenue and Elm Street Barnes & Noble at the corner of Wood- concerned with when Lot 31 closes in Bethesda Row, is also the busiest ga- mont and Bethesda avenues will van- says William Neal, managing partn rage during peak demand—midday, mid- ish. Lot 31, with 256 spaces by the Capi- of Mon Ami Gabi restaurant on Woo week—with 89 percent occupancy on av- tal Crescent Trail, and Lot 31A, with 23 mont. “We’re excited about the end r erage. The busiest lots—36 on Del Ray spaces across Woodmont, will close to sult. But certainly it’s going to add a l BethesdaMagazine.com | July/August 89 the new gara Avenue and 31/31A at Woodmont and make way for two mixed-use retail and more parking 2014 issues until Bethesda avenues—come in even higher condo buildings. is completed.” on a weekday, at 96 percent.

In their place, developers will conSteve Nash, chief of the Division struct a condo building with 238 units Parking Management the pages_ANNIVERSARY_ThenNow.indd 89 But consider Garage 42 on Chelten6/10/14 in 10:49 AMMontgom

Bethesda Row

flickr andrew bossi laurel (rockville town square); Rendering courtesy of PN Hoffman

Rockville Town Square

• social sharing • woot • hobo bag • crowdfunding • e-banking • bridezilla • bloggable • facepalm • banh mi • slow food • iOS • guyliner • Twitterati • jeggings • debt ceiling • boy shorts •

CONDOS Available!

SALE!

Real Estate The last 10 years have taken homeowners on a roller coaster ride. $1,200,000

81

20

208

5

16 4

85

$900,000

20

20817

20814 $600,000

2085

2

2085

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

0

2006

2005

2004

$300,000

Note: This chart reflects prices for detached single-family homes in certain ZIP codes. Data is from RBI, a division of Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, and was provided by Jennifer Sproul, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage.

Eugene L. Meyer is a contributing editor for the magazine. To comment on this story, email comments@bethesdamagazine. com. Writers Ann Cochran, Carole Sugarman and Karen Watkins contributed research to this section.

d Wory a Pl

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2014 Bethesda Magazine thanks our partners and sponsors for a fantastic evening Bethesda Blues & Jazz Supper Club Black’s Bar & Kitchen Fancy Cakes

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Hats Off! To celebrate the magazine’s 10th anniversary, we pulled together some of our favorite people, places and things—all in the form of Top 10 lists. From the best places to have a cold one to a collection of little-known historical facts to celebrities we are proud to call our own, here are some of the many reasons we love this community.

By Teddy Amenabar | Nevin Martell | Mark Walston Illustrations by Amanda Smallwood BethesdaMagazine.com | July/August 2014 93

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Delicious pizza

Let’s Eat Outside!

Now’s the time to celebrate summertime’s sun-soaked days and balmy evenings.

So gather some friends, request a table outdoors and enjoy some of the area’s best bites.

Black’s Bar & Kitchen

Fresh-from-the-sea raw bar selections and aromatic bowls of mussels are top picks at Jeff Black’s neighborhood favorite in Bethesda. A small, rock-lined pool takes center stage on the inviting open-air patio that overlooks Woodmont Avenue.

7750 Woodmont Ave., Bethesda, 301-6525525, blacksbarandkitchen.com

Roof

With unbeatable views of Bethesda’s Woodmont Triangle, this aptly named bistro specializes in American favorites from chef Jed Fox. Think shrimp with cornmeal grits, bacon-boosted short ribs and a hearty beef dip sandwich.

7940 Norfolk Ave., Bethesda, 240-245-7663, roofbethesda.com

Tia Queta

that always bubbles with chatter and clatter from diners. It’s a great spot to gather a group to enjoy seafood-centric fare, including swordfish tacos and flash-fried calamari.

10128 River Road, Potomac, 301-299-0481, thetavernatriverfalls.com

Mon Ami Gabi

Grab a seat outside this classic French bistro and you’ll feel instantly transported to a sidewalk café in Paris. Order classics like steak frites and trout amandine.

7239 Woodmont Ave., Bethesda, 301-654-1234, monamigabi.com

Bacchus of Lebanon

This well-loved Lebanese bistro’s generous patio overlooks the bustling Norfolk Avenue strip in Bethesda. A stone lined miniature waterfall gurgles away in the corner, providing a soothing soundtrack.

Too lazy to wave a fan? On the roof of this corner cantina in Bethesda, you can enjoy a cooling breeze—plus strong margaritas and homespun Mexican cuisine.

4839 Del Ray Ave., Bethesda, 301-654-4443, tiaqueta.com

7945 Norfolk Ave., Bethesda, 301-657-1722, bacchusoflebanon.com

Bistro Provence

Located behind the restaurant and surrounded by high walls, the outdoor dining area at Bistro Provence in Bethesda is quiet and lovely. Abundant plants and flowers add to the sense of tranquility.

4933 Fairmont Ave., Bethesda, 301-656-7373, bistroprovence.org.

Mia’s Pizzas

If you want to enjoy a slice outdoors, you might need to pack sunscreen. At this wood-fired pizzeria, there are plenty of seats—not all of them with umbrellas— on the substantially-sized concrete patio overlooking Cordell Avenue in Bethesda.

4926 Cordell Ave., Bethesda, 301-718-6427, miaspizzasbethesda.com —Nevin Martell

Old Angler’s Inn

The slate patio at this Potomac charmer is a primo warm-weather spot, and there’s a fire pit to help ward off the chill when the temperature dips. Seasonal ingredients rule Executive Chef Nick Palermo’s menu, so come hungry for the taste of summer.

10801 MacArthur Blvd., Potomac, 301-3652425, oldanglersinn.com

At the heart of ever-bustling Bethesda Lane, Redwood offers plenty of people watching— as well as scratch-made continental cuisine.

7121 Bethesda Lane, Bethesda, 301-656-5515, redwoodbethesda.com

The Tavern at River Falls

Lunch alfresco at Mon Ami Gabi

This Potomac Village pub has a lively patio

steve walker (2)

Redwood

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How Bethesda Ranks

Top Earning Town CNN Money, 2012

What’s on Tap

Nothing beats a cold beer (or three) on a hot summer day. Here are our 10 favorite places to toss down a few pints when temperatures rise.

Mussel Bar & Grille

The beer list at this seafood-centric spot in downtown Bethesda emphasizes Belgian brews. A standout is Antigoon pale ale, a sudsy collaboration between ownerchef Robert Wiedmaier and Brouwerij De Musketiers brewery in Ursel, Belgium.

7262 Woodmont Ave., Bethesda, 301-2157817, musselbar.com

Hank Dietle’s Bar

Since the 1950s, this cash-only dive bar on Rockville Pike has been serving up cold ones.

Though there’s a limited selection of cheap beers, it’s easy to amuse yourself by shooting pool, playing vintage video games and watching live music.

11010 Rockville Pike, Rockville, 301-881-8711, facebook.com/hank.dietlesbar Beer at Mussel Bar & Grille

Liz Roll (aspin pet cemetary); public domain (thompson, carson)

Jonathan’s Sports Pub

This Rockville redoubt serves up a strong selection of suds—including about 30 bottled and canned options and half a dozen drafts, such as Stella and Yuengling—in a friendly, casual environment perfect for game watching.

820 Baltimore Road, Rockville, 301-294-8010, oursportspub.com

Quarry House Tavern

In this subterranean Silver Spring watering hole, you’ll find nearly two dozen Belgian and German beers, plus stateside brewskis inspired by Teutonic traditions.

8401 Georgia Ave., Silver Spring, 301-5878350, quarryhousetavern.com

Comet Ping Pong

Local suds from Atlas District, DC Brau and Port City are highlights at this Chevy Chase pizzeria. Choice domestic craft brews fill out the robust beer list, so you have plenty of thirst-quenching options after you finish a spirited pingpong match.

5037 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, D.C., 202-364-0404, cometpingpong.com

Baying Hound Aleworks

You’ll find this nano brewery with a small tasting room tucked away in an unassuming industrial park. Choices change frequently, but you might be able to enjoy a beautifully bitter Hop Shop Indian Pale Ale or the pumpernickel-flavored Pup-R-Nickel as a pint on site or in a growler to go.

1108 Taft St., Rockville, 301-637-9322, bayinghoundales.com

Tyber Bierhaus

Eastern European and Belgian brews make up the menu at this new Bethesda beer hall.

Enjoy tough-to-track-down lambics, sour ales and farmhouse ale—all available by the liter if you’re feeling particularly thirsty.

7528 Old Georgetown Road, Bethesda, 240-821-6830, tyberbierhausmd.com

Rock Bottom

Handcrafted selections—from a citrus-laced India Pale Ale to malty White Ale—rule

the beer menu at this Bethesda brewerygastropub. Limited-edition, ever-changing Brewmaster’s Choice and Specialty Dark selections ensure that there’s always something new on tap.

7900 Norfolk Ave., Bethesda, 301-652-1311, rockbottom.com

Food Wine & Co.

This haute spot in downtown Bethesda doesn’t restrict itself to world-class vinos—it also features a globe-spanning selection of more than 100 craft beers.

7272 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda, 301-652-8008, foodwineandco.com

Piazza Beer Garden

Cesco Osteria’s patio has been transformed into an alfresco birreria. A short beer list focuses on local standouts from DC Brau, Flying Dog and Heavy Seas.

7401 Woodmont Ave., Bethesda, 202-8419114, piazzabeergarden.com —Nevin Martell

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How Bethesda Ranks Aspin Hill Pet Cemetery

Walt Whitman Ranked Best High School in Maryland U.S. News and World Report, 2014

Guy Vernon Thompson

Did you know... ty schools

College Bound The top 10 universities and colleges that Bethesda-area public high school students applied to last year 1. University of Maryland, College Park (1,495 students) 2. University of Maryland, Baltimore County (577 students) 3. Towson University (566 students) 4. University of Michigan (393 students) 5. Montgomery College, Rockville (357 students) 6. Pennsylvania State University, University Park (345 students) 7. Salisbury University (309 students) 8. University of Pittsburgh (263 students) 9. University of Virginia (255 students) 10. Cornell University (243 students) This data was self-reported and collected from these local high schools: Bethesda-Chevy Chase in Bethesda, Thomas S. Wootton in Rockville, Walter Johnson and Walt Whitman in Bethesda, Winston Churchill in Potomac and Montgomery Blair in Silver Spring.

—Teddy Amenabar

• Opened in 1921, Aspin Hill Pet Cemetery—the second oldest in the U.S.—is the site of more than 40,000 burials, including 40 humans who insisted upon being interred alongside their pets. Bankrupt by the 1980s, the overgrown cemetery was slated to be turned into a shopping center, but it was saved from destruction by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

• On July 8, 1930, Bethesda’s first traffic signal was installed at the intersection of Wisconsin Avenue, Old Georgetown Road and the newly completed East West Highway. A 10-hour traffic count conducted in 1930 by the Maryland State Highway Administration at the intersection recorded 6,000 vehicles traveling along East West and Old Georgetown, and 8,000 vehicles on Wisconsin, making it the busiest intersection in the county.

• Georgetown was once a part of Montgomery County, serving as its only port town, where oceangoing vessels would carry the products of county fields and forests to the world. The Maryland Legislature formally incorporated the town in 1789. Two years later, Georgetown would be cut away from the county with the creation of the District of Columbia.

• On February 5, 1960, Wheaton Plaza opened, becoming the first regional mall in the Washington area; by 1963, it had grown to become the fourth largest in the United States.

In 1968, Montgomery Mall in North Bethesda took local shopping to even greater heights as the area’s first totally enclosed mall.

• Brookeville became “Capital for a Day” in 1814, when President James Madison and his staff sought refuge in the house of town Postmaster Caleb Bentley during the British invasion and burning of Washington in the War of 1812. For two days during the occupation, Madison conducted the business of the federal government from the Bentley home.

• The county’s first shopping center catering to shoppers arriving in cars opened in 1938 at the intersection of Colesville Road and Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring. Built by U.S. treasurer and developer William Alexander Julian and designed by John Eberson in an exuberant art deco style, the Silver Spring Shopping Center was anchored by the Silver Theatre—now the crown jewel of a cultural center created by the American Film Institute.

• Rachel Carson, who lived and died in Silver Spring, was a renowned naturalist and author of the incendiary 1962 book Silent Spring, which brought global attention to the environmental damage caused by the rampant use of pesticides. Many credit her with beginning the modern environmental movement.

• The last man executed in Montgomery County was Guy Vernon Thompson, a painter from Germantown who in 1921 was convicted of dynamiting the cabin of James Bolton, killing him and the two young children of his housekeeper. Thompson was hanged that year in Rockville.

• In 1958, the last of Montgomery County’s schools were integrated, ending more than 80 years of segregation. The first appropriation for separate schools for African-Americans in Montgomery County was passed in 1872.

• Bethesda is the most educated town in America, with 51.5 percent of residents holding advanced degrees—more than five times the national average, according to the most recent U.S. Census American Community Survey.

—Mark Walston

liz roll (aspin hill pet cemetery); public domain (thompson, carson)

montgomery coun

Rachel Carson

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How Bethesda Ranks Sugarloaf Mountain

Best City for Finding Employment Right Now Forbes, 2013

What’s in a Name?

In Montgomery County, founding families weren’t shy about using their monikers to stake claim to local land—think Darnestown, Brookeville and Gaithersburg. Even memories of English villages and prominent natural features played a role in the naming of places such as Kensington, Somerset, Silver Spring and Glen Echo. Here are 10 local place names with interesting origins.

• The name of Sugarloaf Mountain, which straddles Montgomery and Frederick counties, dates from the early 18th century. Before the introduction of granulated sugar in the 19th century, sugar came in a solid mass, called a loaf, most often packed into a paper cone.

One early settler thought the looming mountain looked like a conical loaf of sugar laid on its side.

• Pook’s Hill in Bethesda was so named by landowner Merle Thorpe, a noted D.C. journalist who, early in the 20th century, named his property after Puck of Pook’s Hill, the 1906 children’s book by Rudyard Kipling.

• Although Tobytown, north of Potomac, was founded in the 1870s by former slaves, white residents are responsible for its name. They referred to the community as “Toby,” a slang term for blacks derived from a common first name given to slaves.

• Olney was originally named “Mechanicsville,” but the U.S. Postal Service asked the town to change its name in the 19th century due to an overabundance of Mechanicsvilles in the region. The new name was taken from a nearby estate, which had been named for the English town of Olney, famous today for its annual pancake races.

• Sligo Creek, which runs through Silver Spring, and the surrounding community were named by Irish immigrants in the 19th century after the county and town of Sligo in Ireland, formerly a major commercial port on the country’s west coast. Sligo means “abounding in shells.”

• Potomac is Native American for “something brought,” a reference to a village on the lower Potomac River that was a place of trade

among the tribes. However, the upper part of the river, above Great Falls, Va., had a different name: Cohongarooton, which means “honking geese.”

• Legend has it that around 1900 a large tree on a farm near River Road was struck by lightning and burned for days, giving rise to the name of “Burning Tree” for the nearby road and neighborhood in Bethesda.

#1

• Wheaton was named after Union Gen. Frank Wheaton, a hero of the Battle of Fort Stevens, part of which took place in July 1864 in Montgomery County. When Confederate forces attacked the ring of fortifications defending Washington, Wheaton commanded the forces that helped repel the assault, driving the Confederates back along Georgia Avenue as far as the site of the current town.

• By 1890, Sen. Francis G. Newlands of Nevada had amassed more than 1,000 acres along today’s Connecticut Avenue. One of his key early purchases was a 305-acre plot straddling the line dividing Maryland and the District, part of a larger tract originally called “Cheivy Chase.”

The name refers to a 1388 battle between Lord Henry “Hotspur” Percy of England and James, the Earl of Douglas of Scotland, over hunting grounds, or a “chace,” in the Cheviot Hills along the Anglo-Scottish border.

Newlands cleaned up the spelling and adopted the name for his Chevy Chase Land Co. and his exclusive suburban community.

• The origin of “Cabin John” is lost to history. Some say it is a corruption of “Captain John Creek,” so named for Capt. John Smith.

He and his crew were the first Europeans to visit the area in 1608.

Others say, less convincingly, that it was named for a hermit, John, who lived alone in his cabin along the creek. —By Mark Walston

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1

6

2

8 7

LOCAL CELEBRITIES WE ARE

3

Proud TO CALL our own

michael ventura (david simon; thomas friedman); jamie shoeberger (alice mcdermott); flickr/chetlyzarko (chris matthews); courtesy/file photos (all others)

4

#1

9

5 1. Julia Louis-Dreyfus, actress, Seinfeld and Veep 2. Katie Ledecky, Olympic gold medalist 3. Spike Jonze, director of Being John Malkovich and Her

 

10

4. Laura Hillenbrand, author of Seabiscuit and Unbroken 5. Thomas Friedman, New York Times columnist 6. David Simon, creator of The Wire 7. Alice McDermott, author of Charming Billy

and Someone 8. Mary Chapin Carpenter, singer/songwriter 9. O.A.R., rock band 10. Chris Matthews, political commentator, host of Hardball with Chris Matthews

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ANN JAKABCIN

How Bethesda Ranks

How Bethesda Ranks

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These 10 neighborhoods had the highest average sales prices in 2013 Neighborhood name

2013 average sold price

Edgemoor, Bethesda $2,470,363 Kenwood, Bethesda $2,427,634 Kentsdale Estates, Potomac $1,884,575 Avenel, Potomac $1,665,452 Spring Valley, NW Washington D.C. $1,468,216 Wesley Heights, D.C. $1,456,719 Potomac Outside, Potomac $1,419,962 McAuley Park, Potomac $1,394,363 Bradley Hills, Bethesda $1,320,590 Avenel, Bethesda $1,291,416

HOT, HOT, HOT! CAROLINE BONAVIRI

MICAH BONAVIRI

Here are the 10 Neighborhoods where houses sold fastest in 2013 Neighborhood name

ADAM ABRAMOWITZ

BILL ROBERGE

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2013 average days on market

East Gate of Potomac, Potomac Georgetown Village, Bethesda American University Park, D.C. Highland Stone, Potomac Connecticut Avenue Estates, Silver Spring Rock Creek Forest, Chevy Chase

Blair, Silver Spring Parkwood, Kensington Fernwood, Bethesda Tilden Woods, North Bethesda

11 12 12 13 13 15 15 16 17 19

SOLD!

Note: This data was provided by Metropolitan Regional Information Systems and takes into account single-family home sales only. For these two lists, we included neighborhoods where there were 10 or more sales in 2013.

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Will Seeber of Bethesda, perched on a rock below Great Falls on the Potomac River, was kayaking with Shannon Christy when she disappeared. He later helped recover her body.

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one of their own

by Amy Reinink

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Paddling the treacherous whitewater of Great Falls earns kayakers a spot in an elite, closeknit community. When the rapids took the life of Shannon Christy, local kayakers refused to leave her behind.

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one of their own

Will Seeber wasn’t worried at first.

Elite kayaker Jason Beakes of Poolesville, shown here at Mathers Gorge on the Potomac River, had invited Christy to participate in the 26th annual Great Falls Race. Beakes and professional kayaker Steve Fisher led the effort to recover her.

Two days earlier, Christy had

stood on a cluster of rocks above Great Falls, exuding outdoorsy charisma as she flashed a wide, confident smile at Jason Beakes of Poolesville, an elite kayaker who was preparing to guide her through

her first run down the falls, a set of rapids that drops more than 55 feet in about a third of a mile. The river roiled around her, careening over boulders, frothing in furious currents and swirling in countercurrent eddy pools.

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The 24-year-old Bethesda kayaker had made his way down the Potomac River with fellow paddler Shannon Christy, so together they could run Great Falls, some of the most treacherous white water in the world.

As Seeber weaved through whirlpools and waves on the way to the falls in C&O Canal National Historical Park on that July afternoon last year, he could see Christy, a 23-year-old kayaker from South Carolina, paddling straight ahead.

Seeber assumed she would stop to wait for him before attempting the difficult “line,” or path of descent, down the falls.

“I realized at the last second, ‘Oh, she’s not even stopping,’ ” Seeber says. “I wasn’t worried at that point. She paddled into it with purpose, and hit the line perfectly.”

Seeber paddled quickly to catch up, running the first waterfall right behind Christy, but found no sign of her. Assuming that Christy had continued down the falls, he kept paddling. He glimpsed Christy’s red boat above a section of the rapids known as the Five Fingers.

Then Seeber spotted the young woman.

She was trying to swim in full paddling gear, but the current was sweeping her downstream toward a dangerous death trap of water and rock called the Subway. As Seeber began sprinting toward her, Christy disappeared beneath the churning water.

By the end of that day, Christy’s disappearance had sparked a search involving dozens of kayakers and highly trained swift-water rescuers from Montgomery and Fairfax counties who took to the water in heavy-duty inflatable boats as news helicopters buzzed overhead, broadcasting the drama to the entire nation. For the elite local kayakers who would risk their lives to recover Christy’s body, the day would forever change the way they viewed the sport they loved.

But at first, it was just Seeber, furiously back-paddling away from the deadly channel in shock, trying to figure out how to save his friend.

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courtesy anna levesque

“I’m ready,” she said as a production crew from CBS’s 60 Minutes Sports captured the scene.

It was Tuesday, July 9, four days before the 26th annual Great Falls Race on July 13, which attracts the world’s best kayakers.

Christy had come at the invitation of Beakes, whose outfitting company, Active Nature, organized the race, and professional kayaker and documentary filmmaker Steve Fisher of South Africa, who’d been contracted by CBS to help film a story about the white-water paddling scene at Great Falls and in the area. Beakes invited Christy to participate because he thought she represented something important about white-water kayaking: She paddled because she loved the access to the rarest and most beautiful parts of the world, and to be with others who valued the same experiences.

Finishing her first run, Christy flashed her well-known smile for the camera.

“Ahh, that was great,” she said in a Southern drawl, her big blue eyes bright, her kayak slung over her shoulder. “I cannot wait to do it again.”

By all accounts, Christy was a talented paddler who was well prepared for Great Falls’ Class V+ rapids, a designation reserved for the world’s most difficult white water. But expert kayakers who run the falls often know that no matter how talented or confident the paddler, the exhilaration of a successful descent comes with deadly risk—the rapids claimed the lives of two experienced kayakers, one in 1998 and another in 2004. They know that the velocity and complexity that attract them to the falls can just as easily turn into their worst nightmares.

With its stunning beauty and easy access, the Potomac River draws a wide variety of kayakers. Beginners can learn basic skills on flat, quiet areas of the river. Advanced and intermediate kayakers find challenges and excitement paddling the river’s numerous Class II, III and IV rapids.

A 23-year-old from South Carolina, Shannon Christy paddled because she loved having access to the rarest and most beautiful parts of the world.

But for a handful of talented athletes, such as Beakes and Seeber, the falls represent a unique opportunity to test their world-class skills. Lured by the sense of accomplishment and confidence they feel when pushing their limits, they choose to run waterfalls and rapids that represent the edge of what’s humanly possible.

First run by local kayaking legend Tom McEwan in the 1970s, Great Falls remains a rite of passage for expert kayakers in the Bethesda area, and a destination for elite paddlers throughout the country.

Beakes, now 40, a former national white-water slalom team member who grew up in Bethesda, made his first full descent of the falls at 15. He would go on to win the Great Falls Race six times.

He recalls hearing the lore of the falls at Valley Mill Camp in Germantown, where the kayaking school has produced scores of elite paddlers. “I knew how to run the lines before I even saw them from

hearing the stories about them,” he says.

He also learned to respect the dangers of the falls, and later became part of the culture promoting river safety as a member of the Potomac Paddlers Volunteer Corps, which works with National Park Service officials to patrol the river.

Beakes met Christy during a trip to South Carolina to see his sponsors at Confluence Watersports, where Christy worked in marketing. Beakes was charmed by her enthusiasm and optimism, and he invited her to stay at his Poolesville home on the days leading up to the 2013 Great Falls Race.

Christy arrived on July 4, and kicked off her visit by watching the Washington, D.C. fireworks on a stand-up paddleboard on a calmer section of the Potomac with Beakes and his wife, Patricia.

Known as a stickler for proper kayaking technique who refuses to paddle with people whose skills aren’t up to his standards, Beakes had checked with

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one of their own

Though Christy had only started kayaking a few years earlier, she was a rising star in the sport by the time she came to Maryland.

She’d run dangerous rapids and was well aware of the consequences of a wrong move in Class V+ water, elite kayaker Jason Beakes says. friends in the small world of extreme white-water kayaking about the level of Christy’s ability, but he hadn’t ever paddled with her. He says he was instantly impressed by her “clean, well-practiced technique” as he watched her paddle in easier rapids leading up to her first Great Falls run.

Christy’s mother, Kim, says her daughter’s athletic talent and intrepid spirit developed at a young age. As a teen, Christy spent summers as a rafting guide in North Carolina. She took up kayaking while studying at West Caro-

lina University, developing her skills at clinics.

Though Christy had only started kayaking a few years earlier, she was a rising star in the sport by the time she came to Maryland. She’d run dangerous rapids and was well aware of the consequences of a wrong move in Class V+ water, Beakes says.

Beakes explained to Christy that the race line—the path kayakers would follow on race day—would follow the Center Lines, one of several routes a kayaker can take to run Great Falls. He warned

On July 11, with just two days to go until the race, Christy and Beakes both considered taking the day off.

Then Seeber, who began kayaking at age 8 and first ran Great Falls at 14, got out of work early that day and texted Christy to ask if she wanted to kayak.

She responded with an enthusiastic yes, and she and Beakes both made plans to head to the river, though they drove separately.

Seeber and Christy, who had met during a group paddling outing the previous week, paddled off to run the falls shortly after meeting on the Maryland side of the river at 3:50 p.m.

Beakes, meanwhile, connected with Fisher, who was already at the river. The men decided that Fisher would position his boat on the Virginia side of the river so he could film Beakes running the Maryland side of the rapids.

As Beakes waited on the rocks on the Maryland side, watching for a signal that

family photo

Christy on an earlier kayaking trip

her that straying into a chute called the Subway, one of the Five Fingers at the bottom of the race run, meant almost certain death. Fisher and Beakes say they asked her to repeat those warnings to them, which she did soberly.

Christy nailed the race line the first time through, Beakes says. She did so several more times on Tuesday and Wednesday with Beakes and with Fisher.

Bethesda filmmaker Mark Leisher planned to film and photograph the Great Falls Race, and on Wednesday evening the men met at Beakes ’ home for a preproduction meeting. Leisher found Christy cooking a pot of spaghetti for several kayakers. She was radiating warmth and enthusiasm.

“She lit up the room,” Leisher says.

“She was real excited for the competition. She was humble about it, but you had this sense that she was beginning to realize that she was a person to watch in the kayaking world; that this was her time to shine.”

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vicki capone

Fisher was ready to film him, he noticed a strange scene near the Center Lines. He saw Seeber standing on the rocks near the Subway with Jordan Poffenberger, then 18, a member of the U.S. freestyle kayaking team who lives in Fairfax, Va. But he didn’t see Christy with them.

Beakes signaled to Seeber and Poffenberger by patting the top of his head, the universal sign for boaters that asks if everything’s OK. They didn’t signal back.

He signaled again—still no response. A minute passed, then another.

That’s when Beakes heard a U.S. Park Police helicopter buzzing overhead. “I knew there had been an accident, and in a place like that, there are no small accidents,” he says.

Beakes got into his kayak and ran the first rapid on the Maryland side, then paddled to Seeber and Poffenberger.

When they told him that Christy had been swept into the Subway, Beakes started paddling toward the Virginia side to get Fisher, who had led numerous rescue and recovery efforts on the world’s most dangerous rivers.

At the same time, Fisher was walking toward an overlook with his camera gear when he noticed that a group of tourists was pointing toward an overturned red kayak in the water below.

“Someone must have taken a swim,” Fisher thought as he scanned the river for the paddler.

Then Fisher overheard a tourist tell a U.S. Park Police ranger that he’d seen the kayaker get swept into a particular channel. He knew it was the deadly Subway.

Fisher felt certain the paddler would have become trapped under the Subway, where a sieve of rocks allows water to pass through, but holds on to almost anything else. So he grabbed his kayak and rescue equipment—some ropes, tubular webbing and carabiners he keeps in his boat at all times—and ran down to the river.

He didn’t know until Beakes ran up the rocks to meet him that the missing kayaker was Christy.

Christy became trapped in the Subway, a dangerous sieve of rocks at the bottom of Great Falls.

Montgomery County Fire

and Rescue Service Battalion Chief Kent Mallalieu was wrapping up an uneventful day at Battalion 2 headquarters on Old Georgetown Road in Bethesda when a report came in about a missing kayaker on the Potomac River.

Battalion 2 oversees two stations in Cabin John that house Montgomery County’s River Rescue and Tactical Services Team, which is made up of specially trained units that respond to swift-water emergencies. Mallalieu, who specializes in technical rescues, has responded to countless swift-water incidents in his 36 years as a firefighter.

It’s not unusual for the team to answer two or three emergency calls on the river per day on busy summer weekends, Mallalieu says. The unit typically responds with three of its large, inflatable boats with powerful motors. Many of the calls involve incidents farther down the river, where the water’s placid appearance belies the danger of the currents below the surface.

A tourist who sees a kayaker capsize at Great Falls occasionally will call 911, but the expert kayakers who frequent the falls usually rescue each other before help arrives, Mallalieu says. Most paddle

with the kind of safety equipment that Fisher carries, and are well-trained in advanced rescue techniques.

But as Mallalieu received updates from the first-responding units during his drive to the river, he realized this situation was serious.

Officers on board the first rescue boat to arrive interviewed Seeber and other onlookers and then began searching downstream, hoping that Christy had made it to a rock nearby. They had found her helmet and personal flotation device roiling in the foam near the Subway.

As other boats joined the search, Fisher and Beakes started to make their way upstream toward the Subway—a 10to 15-minute journey that involves paddling across the river and then walking along a series of slippery rocks.

When Fisher saw one of the county rescue boats, he pleaded for help from the team on board. He told them, “Hey, we’re expert kayakers who know the person who’s trapped. We know where she is, and how to get her out. We have the equipment, and I’ve done this same rescue many times before. Can you take us up there in your boat?”

The officer in charge refused, Fisher says.

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Though the chances of Christy being alive decreased with every passing minute, the kayakers felt a responsibility to try to rescue her.

“I feel that if you have the equipment and the experience to act, you have the responsibility to do so,” says Steve Fisher.

“He basically told us, ‘It’s impossible to access that point, and we’re telling you not to go up there,’ ” Beakes says. “I looked at Steve and said, ‘We’ve got to make our own plan.’ ” The two men knew that the inflatable rescue boats would be at risk of taking on water if they got too close to the falls. Kayaks, with their spray skirts that keep water out, were better suited for this type of rescue effort. And as expert kayakers, they spent hours training for situations like this.

But on that July day, the river was running high after days of heavy rain in the previous weeks, making it even more hazardous than usual to mount a rescue or a recovery. Mallalieu, the incident commander, says he believed that Fisher and Beakes could have lost their own lives as they attempted to recover Christy. And fire-rescue officials weren’t as certain about Christy’s location as the two men were, he says.

Mallalieu says he can’t confirm exactly what officers said to Fisher and Beakes.

But he says the kayakers’ account makes sense, given that every fire-rescue officer on the scene was trying to get them away from the rocks and back to safety.

“You feel horrible,” Mallalieu says.

“You want this person recovered, but you need to keep your people safe.

At that point, it was obvious that Ms.

Christy was deceased. It was not prudent from any standpoint, moral or otherwise, to risk more lives.”

Though the chances of Christy being alive decreased with every passing minute, the kayakers felt a responsibility to try to rescue her. Even after it became clear that they would be recovering Christy’s body rather than saving her, Fisher and Beakes said they believed it was important to provide her family with a sense of closure by recovering her body.

“It’s like a firefighter walking into a burning building—it was a calculated risk with precautions taken,” Fisher says.

“I believe that if you have the equipment and the experience to act, you have a responsibility to do so.”

By the time Fisher and Beakes

reached the rocks beside the Subway, a rescue boat had whisked Seeber away to provide witness statements. Poffenberger was still there, awaiting instructions on how to help.

As a county rescue boat hovered downstream, Fisher and Beakes set up a Z-drag system, in which a system of ropes and carabiners operate as pulleys to create mechanical advantage when pulling something out of the water. Since they were on slippery rocks in the middle of the river, they couldn’t find natural anchors for the ropes. So Beakes impro-

vised by making a loop of rope roughly 20 feet in diameter and anchoring it in various crevices in the rocks.

Beakes and the other kayakers say the day quickly took on a surreal quality. They approached the recovery effort as they would a stretch of difficult white water— singularly focused on the task at hand, devoid of emotions, and with an uncanny presence of mind.

“It felt like I was standing outside of myself,” Beakes says. “At one point, I actually thought to myself: ‘A few weeks from now, you’re going to feel like crap.

But not today.’ ” Using his personal flotation device, Fisher tethered himself to two ropes, one held by Beakes on a ledge above Fisher, the other by Poffenberger, who stood on a rock a few feet behind Fisher. When he was secure, Fisher stepped to the edge of the rock closest to the Subway and began punching his arm into the onslaught of water, trying to find Christy’s body as Beakes and Poffenberger prevented him from slipping into the deadly channel.

“All I was thinking was, ‘Please, don’t let him fall in, don’t let him fall in,’ ” Poffenberger recalls.

Spray from the violent rapids assaulted the kayakers. The rocks, coated in moss and mist and sediment, were smooth and slick. Fisher says the rushing water yanked his hand downstream as soon as he punched into it. So he switched to his paddle, jabbing it into the current, feeling it hit a rock each time. “Then I felt something that was not a rock, and I knew she was there,” he says.

Fisher attached two slings made of webbing to the Z-drag system, and draped them around his arms. Then he crouched down on the rock beside the Subway and plunged his right arm into the water, keeping it close to the rock wall to avoid catching the full force of the current. After several attempts, his hand connected with Christy’s wrist. Fisher slipped the slings from his arms onto Christy’s to connect her to the Z-drag system.

Word of the incident had spread

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one of their own

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During a memorial service for Christy held the day after her death, kayakers gathered at a calm spot below Great Falls, shown here, and raised their paddles in her memory (top).

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one of their own After Shannon Christy’s death, 60 Minutes Sports changed the focus of the story it was filming to the tragedy. The segment aired in October.

In May, correspondent David Martin accepted an Emmy on behalf of the production team. He dedicated it to Christy.

This year’s Great Falls race is scheduled for July 5. quickly throughout D.C.’s paddling community. Expert kayakers showed up with their own rescue gear, asking how they could help. Seeber had rushed back to help, as well. Fisher directed the incoming kayakers to connect to the Z-drag system to multiply the pulling power.

With Beakes and Bethesda kayaker Geoff Calhoun perched on the ledge above Fisher and Poffenberger, and with several other paddlers hooked into the pulley system farther away, the group began pulling, trying to free Christy’s body. The group would rest after gaining a few inches, and Beakes would lock off the main rope to prevent it from backsliding.

Finally, Christy’s body broke free and emerged from the water. As the kayakers covered the body with a makeshift shroud of spray skirts and huddled around it on the rocks, they wept for several minutes, their heads bowed and arms wrapped across each other’s shoulders. Nobody spoke. It was 7:45 p.m. Officers on the rescue boat nearby sent over a body bag to cover Christy for the trip back to shore.

No one will ever know what hap-

pened to Christy as she started her run of the falls. Grace Under Pressure, the first waterfall in the line she was running, is the toughest in the series of drops, and failing to make a technical paddling move there can create a cascade of increasingly serious problems below, kayakers say.

Beakes says his best guess is that Christy’s kayak was pushed against a cluster of rocks located about 3 feet to the left of the race line, and that the force of the water

pinned her boat there, making it impossible for her to escape without abandoning the kayak. At that point, the powerful current must have swept her into the Subway, where she was pinned. The force of the water most likely ripped off her flotation device and helmet, he says.

The next day, Friday, July 12, Beakes canceled the Great Falls Race and scheduled a memorial service for Christy instead.

At the memorial, Christy’s friends gathered at one of the observation decks overlooking the falls, where they shared memories about her above the roar of the river. A few dozen kayakers paddled to a calm spot below the falls and raised their paddles in Christy’s memory. Another smaller group ran the falls, sprinkling flowers into the rapids in her honor.

“In a positive and uplifting way, there was a defiance to honoring Shannon’s memory by going to a place that only kayakers can go,” Beakes says.

Christy’s parents, Kim and Lee Christy, and her twin brother and older brother traveled from North Carolina to join her friends at Beakes’ home that night, where they watched a memorial video prepared by Leisher and shared more memories.

Kim Christy spoke of the strong Christian faith that guided her daughter, who once described herself as “an AllAmerican girl that loves Jesus, ice cream and white water.”

“I really believe that her faith in her future really diminished any fear that she had in any area of her life,” Kim told The Washington Post last July.

“She didn’t fear the future; she didn’t fear the river.”

Christy was the third kayaker to die since the first descent of the falls in the 1970s, but she was one of six people who died in the Potomac River Gorge last year. The rest were hikers, waders and others who most likely were unaware of the river’s power.

Mallalieu served as incident commander for five of the drownings. The strain of the deaths grew heavy as the summer progressed, he says.

“I know there are people who may say that the firemen should have been out on those rocks that day” when Christy’s body was recovered, Mallalieu says. “I can understand their perspective, and I can certainly understand the passion of the kayakers. If it was a friend of mine, I likely would have been doing the same thing. But you really have to keep risk, benefit and reality in check when you’re supervising people in harm’s way.”

The kayakers who assisted with the recovery frequently talked about the nature of risk as they gathered in each other’s homes in the days and weeks following Christy’s death.

From the outside, it’s easy to question why anyone would risk her life as Christy had by running the falls. But the kayakers see things differently. They say Christy stacked her considerable skills and experience against the risk of something going wrong, and decided her chances of succeeding were good.

Most of the kayakers had been involved in previous rescue or recovery efforts, and had had their share of close calls. For some, it wasn’t the first time the sport they loved took a friend’s life.

Still, they were rattled by the death of Christy—a highly skilled young kayaker who hadn’t yet realized her potential and who paddled for the pure joy of the sport—and they began to reevaluate their own approach to risk.

Beakes didn’t think he’d be emotionally ready to run the falls the day of Christy’s memorial. But as he sprinkled flowers over the water, he had a clear sense that he should do so in her memory, and says

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he was surprised at how calm and focused he felt. He knew the emotional pain from her death would come later.

In September, it swamped him. He was paddling a difficult section of the Lower Meadow River in West Virginia when he started having visions—so real that they were more like hallucinations—of terrible things happening on his line. He finished his run unscathed, but shaken.

“I don’t know what my tolerance and approach to risk is going to look like in six months,” Beakes says. “Change is occurring, but I don’t know what the outcome is going to be.”

Seeber injured his shoulder shortly after Christy’s death, and welcomed the break from kayaking that his recovery required. He has started paddling again, but only with his most-trusted friends, and with a new understanding of the dangers of the falls.

“I’ve found that paddling is better than not paddling,” says Seeber, now 25.

“Especially at the falls, I can think that Shannon is still there, smiling down on us as part of the river; that she’s part of the spirit of the place.”

Fisher took six months off from kayaking following Christy’s death—his longest hiatus since he took up the sport at age 6. Now 38 and living in North Carolina, he has given talks on the topic of risk, and says the event has changed his own attitude about it.

“To me, it was so unjust that this happened to her, of all people, while I’ve spent a lifetime taking serious risks and been spared,” says Fisher, who nearly drowned in 2011 when his kayak was swallowed by a massive whirlpool in the Congo River’s Inga Rapids.

Still, he says framing Christy’s death in terms of risk versus reward is to deny

the fact that life, even at its most mundane, is filled with calculated risks. He would rather view the sport of extreme kayaking as Christy did: not as taking a possibly life-threatening risk that was worth the reward, but as an act of faith that she could overcome the fear it represented.

“I can’t say for sure what Shannon was thinking that day, but I can say with confidence that she didn’t stand there going, ‘I’m going to risk my life, but the reward is worth it,’ ” Fisher says. “She was feeling confident in her ability to run that line, and thinking, ‘This is going to be so much fun.’ ” n Amy Reinink is a frequent contributor to the magazine who also writes for Runner’s World and other outdoor publications. To comment on this story, email comments@bethesdamagazine.com.

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Organic vegetables are grown at Poolesville’s Rocklands Farm,here which also sells natural caption beef, pork, lamb, chicken and eggs at its own market.

Fields of D Whitman grad Greg Glenn took a different path than

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m

f

n

Owners Anna and Greg Glenn and their 1½-year-old son, Fritz, live in an outbuilding on the farm. They are expecting a second child in November.

Dreams

most of his classmates—and ended up running a farm

By David Frey | Photos by Skip Brown BethesdaMagazine.com | July/August 2014 113

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Greg Glenn steps over an electric fence to bring water to the hens.

Students who graduate from

Bethesda’s Walt Whitman High School, where SAT scores are typically among the highest in the county’s public schools, often end up pursuing jobs in high-paying careers after college. Greg Glenn had a different idea: He came home to be a farmer.

Friends who watched him fall in love with outdoor life think “it’s fitting,” Glenn says, smiling, as he stands in a pasture on his Poolesville organic farm. “Some of them come out and enjoy this place.”

On an early morning in April, he’s whistling, shouting and cooing at 20 uncooperative hair sheep, trying to shoo them from one pasture to another.

The farm’s red mud stains his tattered jeans, work boots and the creases of his hands—matching the red of his hair and beard, and even his cheeks on this cool day—as he performs the morning’s chores of feeding, watering and rotating the sheep, chickens and cows.

“They’re not like cattle,” Glenn says, ushering the sheep from the pasture where they’ve gnawed long grass to putting-green length. “Cattle like to be led from the front. Sheep like to be led from behind.”

Glenn’s years at Whitman and those spent earning a degree in agriculture economics at Virginia Tech never taught him that, or how to use chickens as natural manure spreaders, or how to turn

hog bedding into compost. When Glenn started Rocklands Farm, a chemical-free family operation in 2010, his knowledge of farming was gleaned mostly from books, the Internet and picking the brains of local farmers willing to help the new guy.

Four years later, he’s become a mentor to others, and his operation selling natural beef, pork, lamb, chicken, eggs, vegetables and even wine has become a model.

Rocklands Farm is “our poster child for how we’d like to see new family farms run out here,” says Caroline Taylor, executive director of the Montgom-

ery Countryside Alliance, which promotes rural preservation.

At 28, Glenn is the new face of farming. As older generations of farmers retire, new farmers in Montgomery County and across the country are often young, educated urbanites and office workers drawn to the lifestyle, despite having little or no farming experience, Taylor says. “There’s a real resurgence of people wanting to grow their own food.”

They’re more likely to raise rows of organic heirloom tomatoes than acres of soybeans, and more interested in organics than genetically modified seeds. They

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“Cattle like to be led from the front,” says Glenn. “Sheep like to be led from behind.”

are also more likely to sell at farmers markets than to supply fast-food chains, relying on high prices paid by healthconscious shoppers, and often some offfarm income, to get by.

They’re people like Glenn, who was raised in Bethesda and whose mission is to nurture and engage his customers, as well as feed them.

“We want them to have that intimate connection with their farmer,” Glenn says. “To see where their food comes from. How it’s grown. How it’s raised. To us that’s really important. To a lot of our customers it’s also really important.”

Glenn and his wife, Anna, also 28, live on the farm in an outbuilding with peeling red paint and white-framed windows, where they raise their 1½-yearold son, Fritz. A second child is due in November. Glenn’s parents live at the top of a grassy hill in an elegant farmhouse built nearly a century and a half ago with red stone blocks from the same nearby quarry used to build the Smithsonian Castle in Washington, D.C., Glenn said.

He tends the livestock. Joel and Megan Barr, friends from college, live a mile down the road and raise the vegetables. Anna is the education manager,

running a summer camp and working with local schoolchildren and college students on field trips.

Glenn’s mother handles weddings and events, including concerts and community farm dinners. His father began the vineyard, which is becoming a central feature of the farm. Rocklands already bottles wine from other vineyards’ grapes, an operation overseen by family friend TJ Fleming of Silver Spring, a middle school science teacher turned vintner. The Glenns hope to be making wine exclusively from their own grapes in five years.

It’s a diverse mix of activities, but

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fields of dreams

Garden managers Joel Barr and his wife, Megan, at right, are in charge of the organically grown produce.

an increasingly common approach as small farms try to stay afloat. Like any new business, Glenn says, the early years have been lean. Startup costs were high, involving everything from livestock to wine vats, tractors and bottle corkers.

He and Anna get by on salaries that would qualify as poverty wages. But the farm provides housing and food—for them and other workers who also live on or near the farm. Part-timers who work at the on-site market make better than minimum wage, he says. Business is booming; the farm sells everything it raises, and there are plans to expand in order to increase production.

Demand for local food is far greater than what area farmers can supply, says Jeremy Criss, the county’s agriculture services manager. “But it’s hard work, and low returns on your investments, especially in the beginning.”

The farm is Glenn’s life—and the dream of his father, Dr. Greg Glenn,

a chief medical officer at a biotech firm who bought the historic property in 2003 and moved his family there after having lived in Bethesda for 11 years.

Father and son were chopping wood in the front yard of their MacArthur Boulevard home one afternoon when the elder Glenn noticed that his teenage son didn’t know how to swing an ax. He was reminded of himself as a boy: a city kid raised in metropolises around the world thanks to his father’s globe-trotting NASA career. A summer spent wak-

ing before dawn and working 12 hours a day as a 16-year-old on his grandparents’ Idaho farm changed his life.

“That feeling of gaining confidence and getting things done was such a different experience,” says the elder Glenn.

He wanted the same for his son.

His wife, Janis, was out driving when she spied the 35-acre farm for sale. It sat 2 miles north of the Potomac River, across a metal bridge that spans Seneca Creek, part of what had been known in the 19th century as Rockland (with-

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Farm market interns Corrine Johnson and Jether English prepare greens and flowers for sale.

out the “s”) Farm. Once an area of working farms that moved crops to market on the nearby C&O Canal, the region became better known for horse estates.

The setting was stunning, though the farm was a wreck, with overgrown fields and crumbling buildings. “But we could see what it could become,” says Dr. Glenn, who began planting trees and started a vineyard in hopes of seeing the property perform like a farm again. “It’s really gratifying to be out here more than a decade from that [time] and see that it’s turned into this working, thriving farm.”

His son took to country life, though his studies at Virginia Tech focused more on international markets than cattle wrangling. Glenn was interested in foreign development work, but a trip to his aunt’s dairy farm in Kenya inspired him to see farming as a way of life back home. His aunt’s operation wasn’t just a farm, he realized, but a central part of the community.

“There’s something a little more than dollars involved in making a living farm,” Glenn says. “It’s about feeding people. It’s about nourishing people. It’s about blessing people. That’s what really interested me: blessing people through farming.”

Glenn uses words like “blessing” and “bounty” the way some farmers rattle off commodity prices. He uses terms like “holistic” and “diversity” in describ-

The market also sells fresh eggs and meat from organically raised chickens and pigs (below).

ing his farm. One of his favorite words is “reverence,” which he uses liberally when talking about the land and animals. A devout Christian like many at the farm, Glenn says he seeks to cultivate a spiritual connection with the land as much as raise crops. That’s why he requires customers to come to the farm to buy its products, so they can see the animals grazing and the fields where the crops are grown.

“We want to connect people back to the land where the harvest comes from,” he says. “…That’s why the craft of farming is really important, and the stewardship, the caring for the land, is important.”

His aunt in Kenya changed Glenn’s life in other ways. When Anna, one of her friends from back home in Washington state, came to work at the farm in Kenya, Greg’s aunt played long-distance matchmaker. Greg and Anna began exchanging

emails and fell in love electronically, the way couples once courted by mail.

“After six months, I kind of knew I wanted to marry him, and I hadn’t met him,” says Anna, who wears her long blond hair in a braid to the side.

The two first met at the Seattle airport in 2010 when she flew back to Washington state for a visit. A few months later, Greg, who had already started Rocklands Farm, returned to Kenya and proposed. Anna accepted. It seemed a perfect match in more ways than one: She wanted to teach and dreamed of farming, and could pursue both passions with Glenn at his farm.

Glenn had started Rocklands a year earlier with two Virginia Tech friends who were more into farming than he was.

Nick Wilson, an architecture major, had built a couple of buildings at the farm for his senior thesis. Shawn Eubank, a business finance major, became interested in farming after working at a farm stand.

Wilson left after a year to join an architectural firm, so the Barrs signed on to raise the vegetables, even though neither had farmed. “I wouldn’t recommend anyone do that,” Joel Barr says, laughing. “It was a hard year.”

Tall and thin with cool blue eyes, an orange beard, and an enormous straw hat to block the sun, Joel, 24, was an Engcontinued on page 121

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fields of dreams fields fieldsofofdreams dreams

Visitors to the farm market (above left) can check out what’s for sale on chalkboards posted inside. Signs (right) direct wedding guests to the barn.

Come Out to the Farm Business manager Chris Ahn describes Rocklands Farm as experiential.

The 34-acre property offers guided tours for school groups that take students through its gardens and sheep pastures. A program last spring allowed families to “adopt” a newborn chick for a week, then return it to the farm.

After the chicks grew and were harvested, each family received a discount voucher for a dinner made from the bird they housed.

Every other month, Rocklands hosts concerts—called “Barnside Acoustics”—featuring

dinner made with ingredients from the farm and live music (tickets $30, $25 in advance).

You can also eat with the farmers at a monthly event called “The Growing Table” (tickets $30).

Rocklands’ market sells its organic seasonal produce and meats on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. At lunchtime you may find owner Greg Glenn grilling grass-fed beef burgers while his wife, Anna, adds farm-grown flowers to mason jars on wooden picnic tables. You can also buy wine that the farm produces at the Kens-

ington Farmers Market (Saturdays, 8 a.m. to noon, 3701 Howard Ave., Kensington) and at the Montgomery Farm Women’s Cooperative Market (Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., 7155 Wisconsin Ave., Bethesda).

The farm, at 14525 Montevideo Road in Poolesville, also hosts summer camps and weddings, when the rustic barn and main lawn are available for rent. For more information, call 301-825-8075 or check the farm’s website at www.rocklandsfarmmd.com.

—Jacob Bogage

katie maciocha (3)

Rocklands hosts many events that are open to the public

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continued from page 118 lish major who hadn’t planned on being a farmer. He has found a new vocation.

“Here on the farm you’re dealing with nature and the environment to produce an absolutely necessary thing,” he says.

“We all eat three meals a day, and that food has to come from the land.”

Rocklands sits in Montgomery County’s 93,000-acre Agricultural Reserve.

Although the county is better known for biotech firms and suburbs, a third of it is set aside with regulations to protect farmland against creeping subdivisions.

Most county farms are large operations that grow commodity crops—wheat, feed corn and soybeans—but small farms are on the rise.

The Glenn family had one huge advantage over others interested in starting a farm in the county—it already owned the land.

“Most of us can’t afford to buy a huge bunch of land in Montgomery County,” says Sarah Miller, who oversees the coun-

ty’s New Farmer Pilot Project, which links beginner farmers with landowners willing to lease, and with mentors willing to lend their knowledge.

Rocklands relies on natural techniques that make the farm an ecosystem. Cows graze section by section to replicate the way bison once roamed the Great Plains, chewing grass down to stubs before moving on. Their manure acts as natural fertilizer. When the herd moves on, the chickens move in, their mobile henhouse in tow, their pecking and scratching acting as natural manure spreaders. The hogs eat discarded food from Manna Food Center, a food bank in Gaithersburg, and spent grains from a couple of Washington, D.C., breweries. Their bedding becomes compost. The sheep mow the lawn.

of fence line, and flow instead into the vineyard. Scout, the border collie-Australian shepherd mix at his feet, proves more adept at chasing a slobbery tennis ball than herding sheep. Bone Dog, an aging golden retriever, displays no interest at all.

“Change of plans,” Glenn sighs.

Waving his arms and shouting, he hustles the sheep onto the front lawn. Shaggy and disheveled, the sheep, which grow hair instead of wool, look out of place in front of the stately farmhouse, with a chimney in each corner and a white widow’s walk that overlooks the land.

“Happy animals,” Glenn says as he raises a wire fence in place behind the sheep. For him, that’s what farming is all about. n

Positioning himself behind the

David Frey lives in Gaithersburg and has written for Sunset magazine and other publications. To comment on this story, email comments@bethesdamagazine.com.

herd of hair sheep, Glenn waves his arms to drive them into the next pasture. They ignore him, escape over a sagging bit

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Comic artist Chris Mararac, shown here with characters he drew himself, has a day job in finance.

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In Two Worlds Like many amateur cartoonists, Chris Mararac can’t make a living off of his art.

But Bethesda’s community of underground artists provides a safe haven to pursue his passion.

By Nevin Martell Photo by Richard Woods Illustrated characters by Chris Mararac

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IF in two worlds

Vienna, Va., where he still works today.

But thanks to a vibrant and growing local community of fellow comic book artists and fans, he’s been able to continue pursuing his passion. “I used to be afraid I could never be a successful cartoonist,” he says. “Now I’m doing this just for myself. That has taken the pressure off, so I can really enjoy it.”

Every September,

Mararac gets to publicly showcase his work and see what his peers are creating. It happens in an unlikely venue: the ballroom at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center, which transforms from a corporate event space into a comic book wonderland. About 4,000 fans browse 280 colorfully decorated tables where comics are showcased and sold. “We’re only open for 14 hours, so to hit them all you can spend only three minutes at each table,” says Warren Bernard, the convention’s executive director, before adding, “if you take no bathroom breaks and don’t stop to eat.”

Though its official name is the Small Press Expo, most attendees affectionately refer to this prestigious alternative comics conference as SPX. This year marks its 20th anniversary.

Most of the comics for sale aren’t about run-of-the-mill cartoon superheroes trying to save the world—such as X-Men or The Avengers. Instead they tell the stories of fringe crusaders such as Monkey Chef, the Cat-stronauts and Mr. Drone. These underground comics, many of them independently- or self-published, aren’t bound to typical comic precedents. They usually concentrate on more alternative storylines completely devoid of evil archvillains, skintight costumes and epic battles. Often they’re created by part-time artists, like Mararac, who fit their comic book work into schedules already packed with other professional obligations.

A walk through the aisles at last year’s show found almost every table crowded with fans reading comic books, perusing original works of art and examining merchandise. In the digital age, it was refresh-

Artwork of Silver Spring photographer

Troy-Jeffrey Allen

ing to see so many people reveling in the wonders of tactile, tangible art. Since the comic books’ creators man many tables, readers have a firsthand opportunity to pick their brains and indulge in a little adulation. “You can shake their hand, hug them, and exchange a different kind of dialogue,” Bernard says.

Mararac attends SPX with DC Conspiracy, a collective of a dozen independent comic creators in the Greater Washington, D.C., region. “If I did the show individually, people would overlook me because I’m not known,” Mararac says.

The first SPX show in 1994 was held at the now-defunct Ramada Inn in Bethesda. It hosted about 30 creators and drew around 500 fans. But it was on the leading edge of what’s become a national trend—in the last five years, alternative comics conventions have sprung up in Portland, Ore., Chicago and Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, SPX continues to grow and has become one of the largest such shows in the country. Three years ago, Bernard says, “we had half the number of tables and 40 percent less people.”

When Chang met Mararac in 2003,

she didn’t know about his passion for comic books. “I didn’t know he was very artsy,” admits the contract worker for the

drawing by troy-jeffrey allen

you’re seeking geek nirvana, look no further than Chris Mararac’s home in northern Silver Spring.

The meticulously maintained row house in a newly minted development where the 34-year-old lives with his wife, Qiao Chang, 30, may not look out of the ordinary from the outside. Walk up to the second-floor living room, though, and you’ll find a veritable shrine to pop culture. There are framed movie posters from The Goonies and V for Vendetta, and an entertainment console stocked with video games. One wall is consumed by floorto-ceiling shelves full of artfully arrayed comic art collections, vintage camera gear and dozens of toys. Look carefully at the sprawling, colorful collection and you’ll spot a DeLorean from Back to the Future made of LEGO pieces, a figurine of Toy Story’s Woody and a gaggle of bug-eyed Minion characters from Despicable Me. On a desk by the windows sits a 27-inch, flat-screen computer monitor.

Here, Mararac digitally draws comic art on his Mac. On a mid-May day, Mararac is dressed in a Mr. Happy T-shirt and sports spiky black hair and a restrained goatee as he proudly shows a visitor his portfolio in the drawing program Manga Studio. He posts his work on his blog, uppercut-justice.com.

The Filipino-American artist has been a fan of comics since regularly reading Calvin and Hobbes and Garfield in the Sunday newspaper while he was growing up in Fort Washington, Md. Inspired

by Japanese manga animation, he started sketching in middle school. Instead of crafting full storylines, he simply created characters such as Cyberfire. “He had that metallic spandex armor that every superhero has, and he could throw fire around,” Mararac says. “He’s a little embarrassing when I think about him now.”

Mararac’s love of drawing took him to the University of Maryland, where he earned a degree in studio art in 2003 in hopes of pursuing a career in graphic design. He had a hard time finding work that paid well, so he took a job in finance for the Navy Federal Credit Union in

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excerpt and book jacket by jacob warrenfeltz

National Institutes of Health in Bethesda. “I thought, ‘This is interesting. He draws.’ ” Early in their relationship, Mararac hand-sketched a comic for her as a gift (he hasn’t touched pen and paper for nearly three years since going fully digital). “I used to smoke, and she was always telling me to quit,” Mararac says. “She was into cars, so I drew her beating me with a tire iron and yelling, ‘Stop smoking!’ ” He gave up his habit, and she became his biggest supporter—as well as his occasional editor, especially when she appears in his work. “Sometimes I say, ‘That does not look like me at all. Please revise me,’ ” she says. “Other times there are storylines that I don’t think he should do, because they’re too harsh.”

Many of Mararac’s comics involve personal issues or emotions he’s working through. A recent piece is a page-long comic birth announcement depicting him and his pregnant wife after they found out the sex of their first child, due this fall.

“I wanted a girl,” Mararac bemoans in the strip. “This is just the first of many disappointments my son will give me.”

His cartoon wife is highly unamused by this reaction. She demands he apologize to the baby and kiss her belly. While he’s giving his wife’s abdomen a smooch, the baby kicks him in the face. The visual

Artwork of Takoma Park resident

Jacob Warrenfeltz punch line is the outline of a small footprint on the expectant father’s cheek.

Mararac’s own gestation as an artist inspired one of his most recent comic books, the independently-published When I’m Gone. The autobiographical story follows an artist as he tries to find professional fulfillment in an office job, while still pursuing his dream of being a full-time cartoonist. “It’s about struggling with insecurities,” Mararac says.

He had copies professionally printed last year and sold about 10 of them for $3 each at SPX. “I don’t go to make bank,” Mararac says. “I just do it to get my name out there.”

When Mararac and his comicloving friends at DC Conspiracy aren’t attending conventions together, the group publishes a biannual comic newspaper, Magic Bullet, which highlights members’ works. About 7,500 free copies are distributed at Metro stops and various venues and shops in the area, including Joe’s

Record Paradise and The Record Exchange, both in Silver Spring.

“Every page is an individual strip,” explains DC Conspiracy co-founder Jacob Warrenfeltz of Takoma Park. “That way, everyone has space to really showcase their work.”

Bernard, the SPX executive director, believes the ad-supported newspaper is helping comic book art flourish in an age when traditional print media is struggling. “When you open up Magic Bullet, you can’t reproduce that experience on a laptop screen,” he says.

“The paper brings a tangible piece of human interaction, which you don’t get in the digital world. Sometimes that’s far more gratifying than reading a website.”

One Magic Bullet contributor and frequent SPX attendee is 32-year-old Troy-Jeffrey Allen, who works as a photographer in Silver Spring. He is heartened by the growing number of area artists and local comic book buffs. “There’s a budding community that’s slowly forming,” he says.

As a child, Allen consumed a steady diet of Archie and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles before graduating to more mature comics, including Spider-Man and X-Men. Ultimately he earned a degree in film at Montgomery College. “A lot of my discipline came from an understanding of how to write for motion pictures,” he says.

“However, there are a lot of things that you do in comics that you can’t do in motion pictures. Plus, making comics is cheaper than trying to make an independent movie, and it’s easier to bring together an artist and editor than a full movie crew.”

When he sits down to pen a new comic, he’s as likely to look at his DVD collection as his bookshelf to spark his muse. “I am a child of the ’80s, so I’m inspired by Steven Spielberg and Lethal Weapon screen-

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in two worlds

get your geek on

writer Shane Black,” Allen says.

One of his biggest projects is the independent comic book series Bamn. “It’s about a bunch of high school kids who are getting bullied by the high school wrestling team, so they befriend this washed-up pro wrestler,” Allen explains.

“He teaches them how to fight back.”

When he began producing the comic in 2008 with Bethesda artist Jay Payne, it was an actual comic book they sold at conventions. Now they’ve gone completely digital.

Like many other small comics from burgeoning artists, Bamn is available for free online at bamncomics.com. Though it’s an uphill battle for new artists to get noticed and build a following online, there’s no arguing with the medium’s affordability and its potential for reaching fans.

Joe Procopio, however, is all about preserving the work of earlier comic artists in actual books. Founder of Silver Spring-based Picture This Press, Procopio publishes anthologies of lesser known illustrators and cartoonists from the first half of the 20th century through the company’s Lost Art Books series.

During last year’s SPX convention, Procopio’s table was piled high with copies of his latest publication, The Lost Art of Matt Baker: The Complete Canteen Kate. The

book brings together the Korean War-era comics starring the comely-but-comedic titular character, who finds herself in endless screwball situations centered around the Army mess hall where she works.

Like all of the collections the 44-yearold Procopio has published so far, the art’s copyright is in the public domain, so anyone can republish it without cost.

The diligent self-professed “bibliomaniac” tracks down the original comics, scans the material, digitally restores the images and then packages them in beautifully presented softcover editions filled out with bonus materials, such as scholarly essays, biographic information and extra art. “Part of the mission of my press is to bring artistic and cultural context, which will shed light on the lives of the artists,” Procopio says.

Since launching Picture This Press in the fall of 2010, he has published six books. He’s currently collecting material for several more, including The Lost Art of Ethel Hays, which is expected to be published this summer. The compendium chronicles the work of one of the first female cartoonists in America, a woman who rose to prominence in the 1920s for her art deco-style Flapper Fanny Says comic strip. The spirited, stylish cartoon character always

had a quick-witted observation at the ready, such as “a woman’s face is her fortune only when it draws interest” and “the woman who dreads the camera never shrinks from having her portrait painted.” That character “really shaped our understanding and vision of flappers,” Procopio says.

For Procopio, SPX is the perfect place to connect with fellow comic book enthusiasts. “It pulls together artists, publishers and fans. It’s an energetic and enthusiastic group,” he says. “It’s a gathering of the tribe.”

Due to the upcoming birth of his son, Mararac says he will skip this year’s show.

But he’s already thinking about comics he’s going to create to sell at the 2015 convention. “Some of the stories I’m thinking of now are about me becoming a father.

I’m excited to see what I’ll create when our child arrives,” he says, then pauses before adding, “when I have the time.” n Nevin Martell frequently writes about food and culture from Washington, D.C., and is the author of Freak Show Without a Tent: Swimming with Piranhas, Getting Stoned in Fiji and Other Family Vacations (Possibilities Publishing, 2014). To comment on this story, email comments@bethesdamagazine.com.

meredith rizzo

Thousands of fans browsed comics at last year’s annual Small Press Expo held at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel & Conference Center.

The Small Press Expo takes place at the Bethesda North Marriott Hotel and Conference Center (5701 Marinelli Road, North Bethesda, 301-822-9200, marriott.com) on Saturday, Sept. 13, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Sunday, Sept. 14, from noon to 6 p.m. Tickets are $15 for Saturday, $10 for Sunday, or $20 for a two-day pass. Confirmed participants include Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Jules Feiffer; Robert Mankoff, cartoon editor for The New Yorker magazine and author of How About Never, Is Never Good for You?: My Life in Cartoons (Henry Holt and Co., 2014); graphic novelist Raina Telgemeier and Lynda Barry, creator of the weekly comic strip Ernie Pook’s Comeek.

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IMMIGR Brad Botwin wants to make sure we shut the door on anyone trying to enter this country illegally

face o Michael Ventura

Derwood’s

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GRATION

By David Frey

Erick Gibson

e off pages_FEATURE_faceoff_immigration.indd 131

Gaithersburg’s

Alfonso Aguilar is urging his fellow Republicans to see reform as the ticket to the future BethesdaMagazine.com | July/August 2014 131

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immigration face off brad BOTWIN

Protesters have come by the thousands to the foot of the Capitol to lobby for immigration reform, hoisting banners, signs and flags, and chanting in unison: “Sí, se puede!” (Yes, we can!)

Across the street, a dozen people sit in lawn chairs or stand beneath homemade posters in red, white and blue that deliver the opposite view: “Secure Our Borders.”

“If I close my eyes, I think I’m in Mexico City,” Brad Botwin mutters of the “Si, se puede!” crowd on this warm day in April 2013. “I’m expecting Che Guevara to be onstage next. Maybe Fidel [Castro] himself.”

In many ways, Botwin is swimming against the current. President Barack Obama has pushed for immigration reform. The Senate has supported it.

this country as children.

A conservative Republican in a Democratic state, Botwin takes his defeats in stride. “I’m doing this in my spare time,” he says. He’s an immigration foe in a county where the immigrant population has soared. About 320,000 Montgomery County residents—nearly a third of the population—were born in another country, up from 81,500 in 2000.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate groups, labels Help Save Maryland a “nativist extremist group” alongside organizations such as the Minuteman Project, whose self-appointed members patrol the Mexican border. The Anti-Defamation League similarly criticizes Help Save Maryland as being part of a coalition that promotes “anti-immigrant themes that demonize individuals.”

Botwin, who is Jewish, bristles at the comparison. Groups like the Ku Klux Klan “would sooner hang me than have me as a member,” he says.

Help Save Maryland claims more than 3,000 subscribers to its newsletters, in which Botwin rails against immigration reform and attacks CASA de Maryland, the immigrant aid group that he views as his archrival and that inspired him to form Help Save Maryland.

In 2006, Montgomery County approved CASA’s day labor center in Derwood. Botwin was incensed. He lives a mile away, in a subdivision of houses with porches and two-car garages, set along curving streets with Native American names—Mahaska, Oskaloosa. An American flag flies over his home. Two SUVs sit in the driveway. One bears the bumper sticker: “Don’t blame me, I voted for Romney.”

Botwin and his wife, both career fed-

“I’ve had Latino players living with me...

To call me a racist, it’s kind of silly.”

—Brad Botwin

Only hard-line House Republicans hold out against immigration reform, which party moderates view as key to winning Latino votes.

“My grandparents were Russian immigrants,” says Botwin, pale and wiry, with glasses and a bristly mustache.

“These are not immigrants. These are freeloading migrants.”

The 56-year-old Derwood resident is the face of the anti-immigration movement in Montgomery County. He directs Help Save Maryland, a group that in 2012 unsuccessfully battled Maryland’s plan to give in-state tuition to socalled “Dreamers” who came illegally to

eral employees, raised their son and daughter, now 25 and 27, in this house.

Because of his activism, Botwin won’t say where he works, but it doesn’t take much Googling to find him at the Commerce Department.

A family of merchants, Botwin’s ancestors emigrated from what is now Belarus at the turn of the 20th century, part of a Jewish exodus fleeing religious persecution. His father became an engineer who worked on the propulsion system that brought the Apollo 13 astronauts home.

His son is a nuclear engineer.

“That to me is the excitement of the American Dream,” Botwin says. “That is wonderful. But it can’t be a free-for-all— just get here, touch the ground and Ollie, Ollie, all in free.”

His daughter has immigration problems of another sort. A year ago she married an Englishman who has not yet obtained his spousal visa. “We had to get interviewed at the embassy,” Botwin says. “I had to sign away my life that he’s not going to be a debt to society. The day laborers at the center here in Derwood—who’s signing for them, making sure they’re not a debt to society?

Nobody. Only the schmucks have to fill out forms and come here legally.”

In person, Botwin is mild-mannered when talking about anything other than immigration. He loves baseball. He served as vice president for the Rockville Express, a summer collegiate baseball team. “I’ve had Latino players living with me…,” he says. “To call me racist, it’s kind of silly.”

But his newsletters rant: “Hispanic illegal aliens” are overcrowding neighborhoods and schools. “Illegal alien criminals” have caused a “massive increase in robberies and assaults.” Gaithersburg is a “haven for illegals.” CASA is an “ethnic supremacy group.”

Sometimes the rhetoric surprises even him. “I’m not sure I used the word ‘supremacy,’ ” he says. But when the words are read back, he doesn’t retract them.

CASA’s response? “I think that ratiocontinued on page 134

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ALFONSO Aguilar

Alfonso Aguilar appears to be talking to the wall.

Just a few blocks from the Capitol, in an office building that has emptied out for the weekend, past abandoned cubicles, he sits in a tiny conference room retooled as a radio studio. He focuses a little to the left and speaks his mind, in Spanish, into a microphone that broadcasts to thousands of listeners around the country.

He may talk about the economy. Or complain about President Barack Obama.

But on this Saturday, as on most, he’ll talk about immigration reform and why his fellow Republicans aren’t backing it, even though he believes they should be.

“Aaaaaand a big welcome to all our rrrrrradio listeners across the great geography of this great American nation,” says Aguilar, who calls himself “La Voz de los Latinos” (The Voice of Latinos).

If there’s one voice that stands out in Montgomery County for immigration reform, it would have to be the baritone of Aguilar, a staunch Republican speaking out at a time when many in the GOP are taking the opposing view.

As the executive director of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, Aguilar lobbies legislators, spends money on behalf of Republican candidates and appears regularly on CNN and Univision. He’s quoted in stories on NPR and in The Washington Post. He writes columns for The Washington Times. Listeners tune in to Univision America’s weekly “El Show de Alfonso Aguilar,” which Aguilar calls the only conservative Latino talk show on the air.

The show gets callers from all over America. There’s Aurelio, a Miami tea party activist, shouting, “Obama is a traitor to the American people!” And Juan in Chicago, who’s equally heated in the president’s defense. Mexicans, Cubans and Salvadorans tune in to hear what Aguilar has to say on radio stations in several of the top Latino markets— including Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Hous-

ton, Dallas, El Paso, even on the Web. Regardless of their politics, Aguilar listens, smiles gently and thanks them for calling.

“Some people say, ‘You’re a Latino Rush Limbaugh,’ ” Aguilar says, shaking his head. “No. Not at all.”

At 45, Aguilar looks like an overgrown boy, paunchy, with brown hair combed back and dark, tortoise-shell glasses. A longtime Bethesda resident who now lives in Gaithersburg, he is divorced with a 13-year-old son who lives with his mother in Puerto Rico.

Every other weekend, Aguilar flies there to see him, broadcasting his radio show from San Juan.

Born in Puerto Rico to a Costa Rican father and an Italian mother, he studied government at Notre Dame, interned in Washington (with Sen. Ted Kennedy, a staunch Democrat), earned his law degree in San Juan, and then plunged into politics. He became the island’s first director of international affairs under Puerto Rican Gov. Pedro Rosselló, a Democrat who shared Aguilar’s passion for Puerto Rican statehood if not his politics.

In 2000, Aguilar became an adviser to the George W. Bush administration on how to reach Latinos, eventually becoming the first chief of the Office of Citizenship, a position intended to promote the assimilation of immigrants. A photo on the wall of Aguilar’s Connecticut Avenue office shows him and Bush at a naturalization ceremony.

“I think every U.S. citizen should go to a naturalization ceremony,” Aguilar says.

“When Americans start thinking that anybody who doesn’t look like [them] can’t be American, we have lost a sense of our founding. Then we become nationalistic instead of patriotic. Nationalism is xenophobic. For me, somebody who says that somebody who has a different culture cannot be fully American—they don’t know what the U.S. is about.”

After Bush left office in 2009, Aguilar was recruited to lead the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, part of the conservative American Principles Project. His mission is to bring Latinos, historically a reliable voting bloc for Democrats, into the conservative fold.

But he has been known to be criti-

“When Americans start thinking that anybody who doesn’t look like [them] can’t be American, we have lost a sense of our founding.”

—Alfonso Aguilar

cal of his fellow Republicans. In the last presidential election, he supported Mitt Romney even as he criticized the conservative candidate for what he calls “piñata politics”—engaging in little more than token appearances in front of Latino crowds.

“You cannot just show up in a Hispanic community two months before the election,” Aguilar says. “It has to be an ongoing presence.”

On the eve of the 2012 presidential election, Aguilar appeared at a forum at Georgetown Law, warning that Rom-

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nal minds can differ about what can be done with our broken immigration system,” says CASA Political Director Kim Propeack, “without being as debasing as he regularly is.”

When Botwin’s forbearers arrived, immigration foes similarly decried uneducated newcomers who refused to speak English, stole jobs from Americans and squeezed large families into squalid tenements. Groups like the Know-Nothing Party warned of “Papists” and “Hebrews” bringing crime and disease. Many immigrants were “birds of passage,” warned Henry Cabot Lodge, a Republican senator from Massachusetts at the time, saying that they refused to integrate and shipped their dollars back home.

“These myths just never seem to go away, no matter how often they’re disproven,” says Walter Ewing, senior researcher with the American Immigration Council, a pro-immigration group in D.C. “…When you see a wave of newcomers arriving, you find it difficult to imagine what it’s going to be like 20 years from now. That’s the same thing that confronted previous immigrants.

People saw a bunch of Italian people, Russian people, Polish people, and they didn’t see how they could possibly fit in.

Of course, they did.”

For Botwin, there’s a key difference.

His ancestors, he says, “didn’t cross the border illegally and set up shop and say, ‘Where’s my driver’s license? Where’s my in-state tuition? Where’s my housing?’

They didn’t overstay their visas. They came in the front door.”

And if they had come illegally? Would he criticize them for leaving the poverty and anti-Semitism of Eastern Europe to start over in the New World?

“Yeah,” he says. “It’s a privilege to be here. It’s not a right to just violate the laws of this country. Immigrants and others built this place and maintain this place. It feels to me like the end of the Roman Empire. You had people coming in and doing whatever, and the system kind of collapsed on itself. We don’t have standards on who’s coming here.”

Aguilar ney would lose without Latino votes.

Only after the election did Republicans start taking that message to heart, urging hard-liners to soften their stance on immigration reform.

Without 40 percent of the Latino vote, Republicans can’t win the White House, Aguilar says. And without immigration reform, they won’t get those votes.

“Obviously, as a conservative, I see Republicans in a better light,” he says, “but when they’re idiots, I’ll say it.”

His candor has won him praise from some Democrats.

“He’s one of the bright lights in his party right now—and God knows they need it,” says Maria Cardona, a Democratic strategist who worked in Bill Clinton’s White House and served as an adviser for Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. Cardona and Aguilar often appear head-to-head on cable news shows, and she’s a regular guest on his radio show.

“He’s somebody who really knows how to make an argument for his side,” she says. “I rarely agree with those arguments—but he does it in a very respectful way.”

Aguilar’s office walls feature a framed copy of a Washington Post article about his role as chief of the Office of Citizenship, copies of the citizenship test he drafted in that position and a “DON’T TREAD ON ME” flag for Puerto Rican statehood. A Ronald Reagan penholder sits on his desk.

“Ronald Reagan used to say that Hispanics are conservatives, they just don’t know it,” Aguilar says. “It means if we don’t engage them, they won’t realize we have a message. I really believe they can be an asset for the conservative movement. Some will agree. Some won’t.

Some won’t be convinced.”

His job is to help convince them, and to persuade fellow Republicans to do the same. n David Frey lives in Gaithersburg and has written for Sunset magazine and other publications. To comment on this story, email comments@bethesdamagazine.com.

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INK cooking with

For local chefs, showing their true colors is a matter of art

By Theresa Sintetos | Photos by Mike Olliver

Lots of famous chefs have been flaunting their ink on TV—including Anthony Bourdain, Guy Fieri and Anne Burrell. So it’s no wonder that many in the Bethesda area have started showing off their tattoos, too.

Bryan Voltaggio, who had his own star turn on Bravo’s Top Chef and owns Range and Aggio in Friendship Heights, says the relationship between restaurants and tattoo parlors is simple: Both tend to be open late. “For a lot of chefs, tattoos are things that just happen after shifts,” he says.

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Tony Marciante Chef-owner, Chef Tony’s in Bethesda

A massive tattoo spans Tony Marciante’s back. Though he has already invested 30 hours in it, it remains a work in progress. This epic scene of illustrator Roger Blachon’s “Chaos in the Kitchen” is Marciante’s largest tattoo, and one he’s proud of. The words “Chef Life” pay homage to rapper Tupac Shakur’s “Thug Life” tattoo.

“You don’t get into this industry unless you have a passion for it,” Marciante says. “That’s why my tattoo exists. It’s a part of my life.”

Marciante has been in the restaurant industry for 26 years, and getting tattoos from the same Miami tattoo artist for nearly 30. The tattoo on his back was featured in the cookbook Eat Ink by Brian O’Halloran and Daniel Luke Hamilton (Adams Media, 2013). He says he has invested at least $5,000 in his tattoos, and he already has his next one planned: a Mac or Apple theme for his arm because Marciante is a bit of a techie.

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Bryan voltaggio

Chef-owner, Range and Aggio in Friendship Heights

Bryan Voltaggio admits that his first tattoo resulted from a night of underage drinking at age 16.

“I had, like, 50 bucks in my pocket, and I didn’t have a clue what I was getting,” he says. The result was a simple dragon tattoo on his right ankle that has since faded. But like all of his tattoos, it has come to have a deeper meaning. This tattoo now represents his wife, Jennifer, who was born in the year of the dragon.

Voltaggio has added tattoos on his forearms that represent his children—each features the Chinese New

Year animal of their birth, a hare and a pig, along with the kids’ names. A nautical star on his left arm reminds him of home in Frederick. His next tattoo will be for his 9-month-old daughter, Ever, who was born in the year of the snake. He’s not quite sure where that one will go.

“If I had more time, I probably would have more tattoos,” says Voltaggio, who has been busy opening new restaurants, including Aggio earlier this year and the upcoming Family Table in Friendship Heights.

Because of that, Ever’s tattoo will have to wait.

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Brandon Shapiro Sous-chef, Brasserie Beck Kentlands

“A lot of chefs you’ll see with pigs or knives,” Brandon Shapiro says. “That wasn’t me. It took me a long time to find the mix and idea, and it was well worth it.”

On the side of Shapiro’s calf is a vintage pinup girl dressed in chef’s whites and cooking. It’s a classic tattoo with a unique twist.

Shapiro was about 18 when he got his first tattoo, and he has slowly added others. One arm features a drawing of Buddha and a Tibetan elephant, a tribute to his grandmother, who collected Eastern artifacts.

Some of his tattoos, though, are simply canvases for his favorite artist. “My Bob Marley tattoo [on a lower calf] happened because my artist called me up one day and said he felt like doing a portrait,” Shapiro says.

And his next tattoo? Well, it could be anything.

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John Wassil

Sous-chef, Redwood Restaurant and Bar in Bethesda

John Wassil got his first tattoo—a simple star on his back—for his 18th birthday. Wassil grew up in a family of artists and was drawn to the idea of wearing art, so he began looking for the right artists and designing bigger pieces.

“People don’t realize the time or the amount of dedication it takes to become a chef,” Wassil says. “It’s [also] a commitment to get a tattoo…so that kind of attitude is

definitely part of the culture.”

He went to 10 different parlors before finding the right artist in the Pittsburgh area for his most recent tattoo. It spans his right arm and depicts two koi which he says represent good and bad. He still needs to have the tattoo colored in, but he’s already planning others.

Wassil shares his love of the art with his girlfriend, who has a cherry branch tattooed across her back.

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Jerome Dorsch

Executive chef, Timpano Italian Chophouse in Rockville Jerome Dorsch went to culinary school right out of high school, and eventually worked with the famed Emeril Lagasse at Nola in New Orleans.

Dorsch was just 15 when he got his first tattoo. “A lot of my friends were getting them,” he says.

Dorsch admits to regretting a few of those early tattoos— and he has tried to cover up some of them. But he remains addicted to getting new designs. His most recent: a tribal tattoo that eventually will cover his entire arm like a sleeve. “I kind of got that fever,” he says. “I wanted to go to the tattoo parlor every paycheck and get more work done on it.”

Dorsch used to find highend restaurants unaccepting of tattoos. “My job before this wanted the long-sleeve jacket to cover up the tattoos,” he says. “But this place is cool with it. I mean, they even bought me a short-sleeve jacket.” n Theresa Sintetos grew up in Rockville and was a Bethesda Magazine intern. To comment on this story, email comments@ bethesdamagazine.com.

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s ’ e v o

H

b o

How Bethesda’s Sophia Nash wrote romance into her life

By Kris Coronado

Mary Noble Ours

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Bethesda’s Sophia Nash has made a name for herself writing “Jane Austenesque” tales that go “beyond the bedroom door.” Her 11th book, The Once and Future Duchess, was published in May.

Mary Noble Ours

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W love’s her job

He pulled her ever closer to the warmth of his powerful hard frame and she could not stop the small sound which escaped from her throat. He was all heat and restrained strength. His striated muscles rolling under the fine layer of shirt linen made her feel faint with pleasure…

Nash calls her fiction “Jane Austenesque” tales that go “beyond the bedroom door.” And over the last decade, she has steadily made a name for herself writing romance novels set during England’s Regency era (1811-1820; imagine horse carriages and ballroom gowns).

The aforementioned scene takes place between two characters in Nash’s latest novel, The Once and Future Duchess (Avon, May 27). Her 11th title, it’s the fourth and final installment in Nash’s “Royal Entourage” series, a collection inspired by present-day pop culture.

Like the 2009 film The Hangover and the HBO series Entourage, Nash’s multibook narrative follows the misadventures of a band of mostly men (British

dukes and one duchess) who are trying to piece together what happened on one wild, absinthe-induced night—not to mention the amorous entanglements that resulted from it.

Her protagonists’ escapades are true page-turners—like the hydrophobic duke who finds himself tied to a ship that has sailed out to sea. But Nash’s own journey to writing success is an intriguing story on its own.

Born to an American father and

French mother who lived in a home overlooking Lake Geneva in Switzerland, Nash was raised in a variety of locales, from Jamaica (so her father could scuba dive for a year) to Boca Raton, Fla. (where both parents briefly worked as teachers).

Summers were spent at her grandmother’s house in Biarritz, a city along the Bay of Biscay in southwest France, accompanying cousins on hikes or zipping around town on a motor scooter. (“I always say that my heart is in France,” says Nash, who is fluent in French. “But my soul is in America.”)

Far from resenting her serendipitous childhood, Nash reveled in it, pursuing new challenges and adventures with the aplomb of a romantic heroine, including competing on the West Coast equestrian circuit as a teen.

“Sophie always had this very upbeat— not cocky—but very simple sense of confidence and exuberance,” recalls Peter Nash, a cousin who works in D.C. real estate and briefly lived with Nash and her family in Los Angeles. “She just seemed fearless.”

After graduating from the University of Miami in 1981 with a bachelor of science degree in communication, Nash landed a position at a local news station,

where she wrote and produced human interest stories, and later hard news.

“It was like being thrown into the deep end,” Nash says of her time at WTVJ (now NBC-6 South Florida). “It was…a grueling job, but I learned about telling stories. If the editors didn’t like a story you wrote, they marked it, threw it back and said, ‘Do it again.’ ” Romantically, though, not much was happening, thanks to long days on the job. “Romance was the last thing on my mind, I was working so hard,” she says.

After four years, Nash decided to move closer to family. Her parents had divorced, but her father was living in D.C. after retiring as a vice president at Continental Grain, a commodities trading firm in New York. So she moved to the D.C. area in 1985 and soon landed a job as a press secretary for then U.S. Rep. Bill McCollum of Florida.

Three years later, Nash was married to

kim lowe

hen Sophia Nash writes a riveting love scene, she doesn’t dim the lights and pour herself a glass of red wine. Instead, the 56-year-old Bethesda resident descends into her home’s “lower salon,” as she calls it, sits at a desk before a large window overlooking her backyard, and fires up her MacBook Air. The only requirement?

“It has to be night,” says Nash, a trim, blue-eyed woman whose platinum hair falls just below her shoulders. Though Nash writes throughout the day, she waits until her teenage son has gone to bed before tackling passages that might make some readers blush:

Nash’s books have won awards and been translated into Japanese, Turkish, German and Russian.

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a commercial real estate broker—she has since divorced—living in Bethesda and working for the United States Information Agency producing live broadcasts for U.S. embassies abroad.

After four years in the job, Nash went to work as executive director of the Washington International Horse Show, an annual multi-day event at the Verizon Center that features hundreds of horses and top international riders. She held that post for nine years, giving birth to a daughter in 1992 and a son in 1996.

Then, like a character out of one of her romance novels, Nash experienced a life-altering event in the summer of ’99.

“My father was dying of cancer,”

Nash says.

Richard Nash had been diagnosed with prostate cancer years earlier, but appeared to be free of the disease. Now, he learned, it had spread to his bones.

He was given a year to live.

Having fought under Gen. George Patton during World War II and having lived a colorful life, Richard Nash had always wanted to write a memoir. So his daughter suggested he start before it was too late.

“He said, ‘No, I can’t do it, but this should show you how short your life is,’ ” Nash recalls. “ ‘You have to follow your dreams right away or they’ll slip through your fingers. So you’re going to write the book, and I’m going to edit the book.’ ” That was Nash’s wake-up call. Soon after, she quit her job to begin piecing together her father’s story. But increas-

ingly she felt pulled toward a tale she’d started on the side. A voracious reader who’d devoured Jane Austen, Nash had been a fan of Regency-era romances since her late 20s. Reading Mary Jo Putney’s 1998 book, The Rake, featuring a disgraced anti-hero seeking redemption, made Nash realize that romantic protagonists didn’t need to be perfect; they could be complicated and even troubled.

“I had this image, as many people do,” Nash says, “that romance [writing] is just fluff and things hid under the bed.

That story was a story of a hero who was an alcoholic who fell in love and realized he had this horrendous problem and he didn’t know what to do. …That’s when I

felt like I had found my tribe,” says Nash, a self-described nonjoiner who attended the group’s annual retreat. “I sat down, and everyone was talking about reading, writing, books and stories, and creating.”

Among the 200 or so authors there were some heavy-hitters—including Putney and Nora Roberts, who once lived in Silver Spring. Over meals, the two offered Nash insights into their own creative processes.

“I knew there was something wrong with my manuscript, but I didn’t know what it was,” Nash says. “I can remember one of the two of them started talking about point of view and head-hopping [switching from one character’s

Nash goes to great lengths to ensure her stories have an accurate feel. She has traveled to British locales—London, Cornwall and Derbyshire—multiple times to conduct on-site research. said, ‘You know, maybe I could do this.’ ” Nash began working on the story of a 19th-century British widow seeking a second chance at love while caught between two suitors. Before his death in 2000, her father encouraged Nash to press on with the book instead of his memoir.

That same year, she joined Washington Romance Writers (WRW), the D.C. area chapter of the Romance Writers of America (RWA). The local group provided the encouragement she needed. “I

thoughts to another’s]. I all of a sudden thought: That’s something I’m doing wrong, and I made a mental note of it.

Then they started talking about pacing, that after you finish writing a first draft, you sit down in one sitting and you read the entire book, and you get a much better sense of where parts of your story are too slow, or other parts are too fast.”

Their advice provided the boost she needed. “I would never be published today if I hadn’t met those people,” says

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love’s her job

Writing their Hearts Out Sophia Nash isn’t the only Bethesda writer penning romantic fiction.

Here’s a look at other area women bringing amorous escapades to life.

JEANNE ADAMS, Potomac Romantic genre: suspense, paranormal suspense Writing since: 2001 Number of titles: five Latest: The Slip Traveler (Golden Gryphon Press, April 2014), a paranormal romantic suspense novel featuring an alien hunter and a magical enforcer who team up to track down a deadly assassin.

Romantic status: married with two sons Day job: writes full time Website: jeanneadams.com ANNE BARTON, Derwood Romantic genre: historical Writing since: 2006

Number of titles: three Coming soon: Scandalous Summer Nights (Forever, October 2014) features a heroine in love with her brother’s best friend.

Romantic status: married with three children Day job: declines to answer Website: annebarton.com

MERRY BANERJI, Bethesda Pen name: Meredith Bond Romantic genre: Regency, paranormal, fantasy Writing since: 1992 Number of titles: 10 (seven are romance) Latest: Air: Merlin’s Chalice (Smashwords, March 2014) features an orphaned heroine coming to terms with her supernatural capabilities and falling in love for the first time.

Romantic status: married with two children Day job: Her part-time work includes teaching writing at Frederick Community College and formatting books for independent

authors (anessabooks.com).

Website: meredithbond.com

KRISTEN CALLIHAN, Kensington

Romantic genre: historical paranormal Writing since: 2001 Number of titles: six Coming soon: Evernight (Forever, August 2014), the seventh work in Callihan’s “Darkest London” series, recounts the escapades of a late 19th-century hit man who feels an undeniable attraction toward his mysterious mark.

Romantic status: married with two children Day job: writes full time Website: kristencallihan.com

EMILY GREENWOOD, Kensington

Romantic genre: regency Writing since: 2005 Number of titles: two Coming soon: Mischief by Moonlight (Sourcebooks Casablanca, June 2014) follows an earl tasked with protecting his best friend’s

ANNE BARTON

MERRY BANERJI

EMILY GREENWOOD

Nash, who still attends WRW’s retreat and brainstorms at Starbucks with kindred spirits such as Jeanne Adams, a suspense romance writer from Potomac.

Indeed, it was her fellow authors who urged Nash to enter her draft into RWA’s Golden Heart Awards, an annual writing competition for unpublished romance authors. Out of more than 1,000 entries, Nash’s novel was named a finalist in the spring of 2002.

Thus encouraged, Nash began bombarding editors with her manuscript.

Six rejected it. Then Hilary Ross from Penguin Putnam accepted a call from

Nash that June. Ross candidly—and correctly—told Nash her book was unlikely to win the award. But she offered Nash feedback and said she’d publish the manuscript once Nash made certain revisions.

Nash quickly turned around a new draft. And in January 2003, Ross offered her a two-book deal. Nash’s A Secret Passion came out the following year. “[Ross] said, ‘Well, if I’m going to publish you, you are going to stay writing, right? This isn’t going to be your one book wonder?’ ” Nash recalls of the now-retired editor. “And I said, ‘No! I’ll do whatever you say!’ ”

In the decade since, Nash has won a RITA, the equivalent of an Academy Award for romance authors, for A Passionate Endeavor, the title she wrote in seven months after finishing Passion; received the 2007 RT Book Reviews Reviewers’ Choice Award for her Regency-era book A Dangerous Beauty; and had her books translated into Japanese, Turkish, German and Russian. She has written nearly a dozen romances to date, including two separate series of four books each.

It’s quite a feat considering that Nash writes within one of the nation’s most profitable and popular genres. In 2013,

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fiancée while he’s away at war. There’s just one problem: He may want her all to himself.

Romantic status: married with two daughters Day job: writes full time Website: emilygreenwood.net

KATHRYN JOHNSON, Silver Spring

Pen names: Nicole Davidson, Kathryn Jenson, K.M. Kimball and Mary Hart Perry Romantic genres: contemporary suspense, historical thrillers Writing since: 1972 Number of titles: 42 (almost half are romance) Latest: The Shadow Princess (Diversion Books, February 2014), under the byline Mary Hart Perry, in which her royal protagonist aims to stop the notorious Jack the Ripper.

Romantic status: married with two children and one granddaughter Day job: In addition to teaching at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Johnson runs a men-

toring service for authors called Write by You. Website: writebyyou.com

MIRANDA KENNEALLY, Tenleytown, Washington, D.C. Romantic genre: young adult Writing since: 2009 Number of titles: five (four are romance) Coming soon: Breathe, Annie, Breathe (Sourcebooks Fire, July 2014) is the tale of a gal who might just fall for the guy cheering her on as she trains for a marathon in honor of her deceased boyfriend.

Romantic status: married Day job: State Department analyst Website: mirandakenneally.com

SALLY MacKENZIE, Rockville Romantic genre: historical Writing since: 2000 Number of titles: 13 (10 novels, three novellas) Latest: Loving Lord Ash (Zebra, March 2014)

is about an estranged noble couple who are giving their marriage one last chance.

Romantic status: married with four sons Day job: writes full time Website: sallymackenzie.net

DIANA PETERFREUND, Silver Spring

Pen name: Viv Daniels (also writes under her own name) Romantic genre: contemporary, futuristic thrillers Writing since: 2001 Number of titles: 12 (five are romances) Latest: Sweet & Wild (self-published, March 2014), written by the author as Viv Daniels, follows the journey of a well-to-do daughter who rebels against her society-striving parents by pursuing a sexy bad boy.

Romantic status: married with a daughter Day job: writes full time Website: dianapeterfreund.com

KATHRYN JOHNSON

SALLY MacKENZIE

DIANA PETERFREUND

romance titles accounted for 23 percent of adult fiction sales, according to Nielsen BookScan, which tracks book publishing data. According to the Romance Writers of America, romance novels racked up more than $1.4 billion in sales in 2012.

Compare that with mysteries, $728 million; science fiction and fantasy, $590 million; and literary novels, $470 million.

Like most romance writers, Nash doesn’t like to say how many books she has sold or how much she earns. But Nora Roberts, a top-earner in the field, made $23 million in 2013, according to Forbes magazine.

A few years ago, Indianapolis-based

romance writer Brenda Hiatt tried to break the silence on earnings with a page on her website called “Show Me the Money!” (brendahiatt.com/show-methe-money). Relying on an honor system, she updates the web page twice a year as authors anonymously email her their earnings, which can range from $200 to $500,000 a book, with some authors receiving no advances and others reportedly getting as much as $450,000.

For Nash’s part, it’s clear she’s not living paycheck to paycheck. Her splitlevel home reflects a love of travel, nature and art. Framed illustrations of

British bird eggs hang throughout the house. The clay torso of a male sits atop a stand in the kitchen, a testament to the author’s recent foray into sculpture.

Nash was planning a two-week vacation in Namibia, and she spends summers at her second home in Biarritz.

“There are other people who will write and have a bidding war and then, let’s say, they get offered a huge advance and possibly the book doesn’t earn out the advance,” she says. But “I’ve been able to grow my readership and keep selling more and more and more as I go along.”

Nash’s success derives partly from her

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love’s her job

Romantic Rendezvous

Want to rub shoulders with area romance writers? You can do just that at the recently launched Silver Spring chapter of Lady Jane’s Salon (Ladyjanesalonss.com).

Held from 6 to 8 p.m. on the second Saturday of every month at La Madeleine (7607 Old Georgetown Road, Bethesda), the series features authors reading 10-minute portions of books ranging from erotica to paranormal suspense. Admission is $5 or one gently used romance novel. Proceeds benefit Lost Dog & Cat Rescue Foundation.

ability to adapt to an ever-evolving literary market. When Penguin Putnam closed its Regency romance division in 2006, Nash transitioned into writing more characterdriven, and significantly longer, historical romances laced with astute wit.

“She’s a very intelligent writer,” says Putney, a New York Times best-selling author who lives in Towson and has become friends with Nash. “… She checks out her histories, her characters have complexity.”

Nash goes to great lengths to ensure her stories have an accurate feel. She has traveled to British locales—most often London, Cornwall and Derbyshire—multiple times to conduct on-site research.

She also regularly consults such sources as British Cavalry Equipments 1800-1941 and The London Encyclopaedia to ensure the accuracy of, say, the type of horsedrawn carriages her characters ride in.

Nash has honed her writing routine in the years since Ross first urged her to carry on. She drops off her 18-yearold son at school in the morning (her 21-year-old daughter is a junior in college), and then writes until lunchtime at about 1 p.m. Afterward, she writes for a couple more hours, takes a long afternoon walk to mull plot points, and then returns home to write some more. She picks up her son and cooks dinner before calling it a day. But sometimes “I’ll be just drifting off to sleep, and all of a sudden I grab my tape recorder or a piece of paper and I write in the dark,” she says. “The next day I’m looking at this piece of paper like: What does that say?

Purple martin? What does that mean?”

Nash estimates that it takes five or six months to write a first draft. She gives copies to her agent and a friend to read. A few

weeks later, she pulls out a red pen and reads her entire manuscript in a 24-hour period, just as Putney and Roberts advised.

She spends another month whittling out a second draft before sending it to her editor, Carrie Feron, senior vice president of William Morrow and Avon Books. Feron then sends Nash revisions (sometimes multiple times). Once Nash approves those, the work goes to copy edit, then back to Nash for review, before arriving in galley form for a final read. It takes about a year from start to finish.

It’s a grueling schedule. But “I must write the story every day,” she says. “Even if it is only a page. If I don’t—and if it goes on for too long—it starts getting stale.”

Nash starts each book with a general idea, then drafts a plot synopsis before she begins to write. But sometimes her characters lead her down unforeseen paths.

“What happens is I start down that road and then all of a sudden I see something that’s fascinating to me and I veer way off of it,” Nash says. “Then sometimes I think: Where am I going? Does this work? And there’s that ‘aha’ moment: It all works, I can keep going. Or: No, I might have to backtrack.”

Wherever her narratives lead, one theme remains consistent throughout Nash’s work: Irrespective of the era, her female characters are empowered women who don’t necessarily wait for a man to make the first move—and, yes, that might mean sex before marriage.

Some people have asked if she’s writing about her own sexual fantasies. “And I say, ‘You know, is this what you would ask someone who writes a murder mystery?’ ” she says. “ ‘Is their fantasy going out and murdering people and becom-

ing a serial killer?’ No. I’m telling a story about people and redemption and themes of X, Y, Z. This is a plot point in the story.

“My goal is to make people feel emotion,” Nash says. “I want them to laugh out loud at least several times when they’re reading—and I want them to cry actual tears at a passage. And I want them to lose themselves in the book and feel as if they’re living through the characters.”

In 2012, Nash probably was more than

happy to lose herself in her characters.

That year, she went through a divorce.

She doesn’t like to talk about it today, but in a Huffington Post piece that April, she wrote about the irony of being a romance writer whose marriage was ending.

Describing herself trying to write at Starbucks, she noted: “Often, I’d hide in the restroom to cry until the rush hour crowd pounded at the door.”

And yet, “the romances I wrote during that period were very raw and real,” Nash says. “I cut through all of the clichéd romance. They were more serious. …All of my heroines are pretty independent creatures, but those were especially independent.”

Nash’s latest protagonist is no exception: Isabelle is the blossoming-but-bold heroine of the forthcoming The Once and Future Duchess.

“She is a strong and capable woman who can face any difficulty,” Nash says of her creation.

A woman not unlike the author herself. n Kris Coronado is a freelance writer based in Arlington, Va. To comment on this story, email comments@bethesdamagazine.com.

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A neon sign advertising private investigator Derek Strange, one of George Pelecanos’ most well-known characters, decorates the author’s office in his Silver Spring home.

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bethesda magazine interview

George Pelecanos: criminal intent

michael ventura

Want to know what makes awardwinning crime writer George Pelecanos tick?

Look no further than his novels.

You can find him in Detective Gus Ramone of The Night Gardener (Little, Brown and Co., 2006). Ramone is a white man dealing with the issues of raising mixed-race kids; Pelecanos and his wife, Emily, adopted a Guatemalan daughter and two African-American sons when the three were infants.

Read about the fictional Alex Pappas taking over the family diner when his father falls ill in The Turnaround (Little, Brown and Co., 2008), and you might just as easily be reading about Pelecanos’ experience running his father’s coffee shop in D.C. at age 18.

Pelecanos, 57, grounds his novels in the language, music and culture of the world in which he grew up: the working-class neighborhoods of Washington, D.C., and Silver Spring.

His gritty, hard-edged realism has earned him numerous awards and accolades. Esquire labeled him the “poet laureate of the D.C. crime world” in 2001. Pelecanos has parlayed that success into a separate career in television. He received an Emmy nomination for his writing on the acclaimed HBO series The Wire, and was a co-writer and producer on the World War II miniseries The Pacific. He recently served as executive producer and writer on Treme, the HBO series based in New Orleans that ended in December.

Pelecanos lives with his wife, Emily, adult son Pete and daughter, Rosa, a junior at Montgomery Blair High School, on an unassuming street near downtown Silver Spring. As we talked in his dining room one rainy April morning, Pelecanos sat beneath “Double Portrait,” the oil painting by artist Minerva Chapman that inspired his most recent book, The Double (Little, Brown and Co., 2013).

By Julie Rasicot

Q&A Seeing the actual painting—two portraits of the same man from different views— really makes your book The Double come alive.

Yeah, I was always wanting to write about that because I was fascinated by the painting. Obviously, it’s the duality of one guy. It was my uncle’s, and he died in 1990 and it’s the only thing I took from his house because I loved it. It’s actually by a noted American impressionist [Chapman].

That’s one of the pleasures of reading your books—the references to culture as well as to familiar locations in the D.C. area.

When I started out in the early ’90s writing books, it hadn’t been done before in Washington. There wasn’t anybody writing about the living city. My mom and dad grew up in the city. My mom—she’s 90 years old—I can call her up and say, “Mom, what was on H Street, between 8th and 10th, and she’ll go right down the line and tell me every single store. So if I say there is a house that’s white with green shutters at 9 and Quackenbos or something like that, there [actually] is a house there that is white with green shutters.

You do your own research. You’re out there on your bike, just like your character Spero Lucas in The Double, checking things out.

I do a couple months of that before I start writing a book…in addition to doing things like going to the D.C. jail and meeting inmates or working with lawyers and detectives.

In The Double, there’s a scene where Spero, an Iraqi war vet-turned-private investigator, delivers books to wounded soldiers at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda. You write that the recovering vets “enjoy a good story with clean, efficient writing, a plot with a problem to be solved and everyday characters readers can relate to.” Is that how you would describe your writing?

That’s what I’m trying to do. That’s what I admire. The writers that I mention in that little passage [Elmore Leonard, James Lee Burke, Lawrence Block, among others] are the writers that I really look up to because they do that successfully. If it’s done well, it can be art.

How did you end up a writer?

In my senior year [at the University of Maryland], I took an elective in crime fiction with this guy, Charles Mish, and he turned me on to books—and, specifically, crime novels. I wanted to be a filmmaker, [do] film production, and that’s what I got my BethesdaMagazine.com | July/August 2014 153

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george pelecanos degree in. But when I took that class, I sort of changed my goals. I decided that I was going to write a novel.

And so for the next 10 years, I worked in a lot of restaurants and bars and I sold women’s shoes, televisions and a bunch of things. And in that period, I was reading a lot because I had never really read books before I took that class. I read books voraciously to try to figure out how to do it, because I’d never taken a writing class or anything like that. I did have a natural talent—teachers would say, “You’re a pretty good writer.” But how was I going to get from A to B? I had no idea. Being a GreekAmerican kid, I thought it was always [John] Updike and all these others guys who lived in Connecticut. I just had to figure it out for myself, which is what I did.

And then I was 31 and I started to sit down and do it. Emily and I were married in ’85. We had a little $85,000 house, didn’t have a lot of debt, and I quit my job, which was the stupidest thing you can do, because two or three months later I had to get a job again. So I took a job working in

a kitchen down on C Street and 2nd in a bar and I started writing this book [A Firing Offense, St. Martin’s Press, 1992] and not knowing what I was doing. I wrote the book in longhand. I wrote it again in notebooks, couldn’t afford a computer. Then I bought one and I wrote the third time on the word processor. And I sent it up to New York blind because I couldn’t get any agents to even answer my letters or calls.

So you blanketed publishers?

How did you react?

It was huge. Because all I ever really wanted to do was write one book. I wanted to have a book in the library with my name on the spine. But at that point, I was getting into it as a writer. By the time they called me, I had my second novel done. And I’ve written one every year since.

And you were working at the time?

I finally got a job with Jim and Ted Pedas, who [had] owned the Circle Theatre [in D.C.]. They had a distribution company.

They were starting to produce the Coen brothers films, and I read in the trades that they had picked up a John Woo film called The Killer, which I had seen. And I wrote them a letter and said, “I want to come work with you guys and promote and distribute the film for you.” I didn’t know what I was doing, but they let me in and I worked there for nine years. And we produced films together, independent films.

No, I did something also stupid. I got that book the Writer’s Market, which is still published. The instructions always say no simultaneous submissions. The reason they don’t want that is because if you got something, they don’t want other people to bid it up. But I didn’t know that, so I sent it to St. Martin’s Press exclusively. And I didn’t bother them. I just started writing another book because I liked the process. A year later, I got a call from an editor there and he’d What does that involve? just picked it up off the slush pile and It’s different than what I ended up doing. A FEB14_BETHESDA_MAGAZINE_AD_v1_Border.pdf 1/22/14 film producer can be a guy in 1an office who11:25 they wanted to buy it.

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puts the deal together. But when I started working in television on The Wire, a film producer [was] somebody who’s there all the time on the set [for] prep, shoot, postproduction. You’re actually a filmmaker, if you’re a writer-producer, which is what I became. I was right on the crest of that wave that was The Sopranos and Oz, and I was with The Wire, where we were changing what was happening in television.

I left the Pedases because I started to get jobs writing for movies. And then my book King Suckerman (Little, Brown and Co., 1997) was bought by Miramax, and as part of the deal, I was the screenwriter on that. At that point, I was working two jobs already because I was writing every night and early morning and going to work during the day. I wrote eight novels like that, while I had a day job every year. I couldn’t take having three jobs because I was getting work as a screenwriter. So I left them in ’99.

So 15 years I’ve been out on my own.

How did you manage for so long?

I would get up very early and I would write, and then I would go to work and I’d come

home after the 9-to-5 and I’d write at night.

I did that for eight years.

Do you maintain a similar routine now?

Yeah, I treat it like my business. I’m in there at 9 o’clock. I dress for work. I don’t wear sweatpants or shorts or something like that. I wear a button-down shirt and jeans when I’m working.

When I start writing, I write seven days a week. I’ve always done that. I don’t know any other way to do it. I never leave it. I just keep working every day, a certain amount of pages. I work at night, rewriting what I did that morning. Two shifts.

By working that intensely, I can have a book in five months, a clean manuscript to send up to New York.

I have to work. I’m very uncomfortable when I’m not working. In television, it’s 14, 16 hours a day for six or seven months straight. I did Treme in New Orleans for the last four years. I was down there for six months of the year. Every season I wrote a couple scripts, but that’s 10 days of writing for each script, so what I was doing was producing. I was working very hard,

but it wasn’t writing for the most part. It was all the things you do every day: prep for the shoot, post-production. I love that.

And what I really like about it as opposed to being a novelist, which I also like, is when I’m here writing a book, I’m alone every day. And then I get this other job for the second half of the year and all of a sudden I’m working with 100 people that I feel are artists. They don’t get their due, but the hair and makeup people, the costumes people, all these people, they’re artists, and you’re building something together. That’s really intriguing to me.

When you’re writing a novel, do you work from an outline?

I have a situation in mind and I’ve got all that research, so I’ve got a lot of ammunition.

Then I just start the writing. I don’t outline.

Do you ever feel like your characters take over and drive the story in ways you didn’t expect?

Once you’ve established them and you know who they are, it does feel like they’re doing things based on how you’ve created them.

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george pelecanos When you know who the people are, then the book, it just gets written. Most of the people I know don’t outline. Even Elmore Leonard, who I knew a little bit, he never outlined. He’s the guy I want to be. He died at 87 still writing books.

You hope to be writing at 87?

Of course. I’m never going to retire.

Spero Lucas, your latest character, has a lot in common with you. You both like to cycle and kayak, and you both drive a Jeep Cherokee.

He’s a younger version of me. The kayak is right on the side of the house; my bikes are in the garage. He’s just a younger guy who has a lot of my interests. I wanted to write about a younger guy because I wanted to make him a highly sexual guy.

He’s been in the war and he comes back and he wants to make up for lost time, and it kind of gets him in trouble. In The Double, he falls in love with a married woman. In the beginning he thinks: Well, I’m just going to sleep with her. She’s hot and I’m just going to take her upstairs.

And [then] this bad thing happens.

The crime genre seems to have a strong element of male fantasy.

The very first crime novel I read in that class [at Maryland] was The Deep Blue Good-by, which is by John D. MacDonald. The Travis McGee character was really influential on me. I’m paying tribute to [McGee] in this book because, first of all, he’s a salvage recovery expert. He goes out and retrieves things for a percentage, as does Lucas. But also, in the Travis McGee books, it’s total wish fulfillment. He doesn’t have a job, he lives on a houseboat. He screws all sorts of women and most of them die conveniently.

There’s a big element of wish fulfillment in a lot of male crime friction. It’s [for] the guy riding the Metro who has to go to work every day and he’s reading the book about the guy he wants to be.

Is that who you’re writing for?

I don’t know. If I was smarter, I mean, women are the biggest audience for crime fiction by far. It’s something crazy, like 75 percent. I’m not in it for that. I’m making a good living, I’m not going to deny that.

[But] I’m not trying to reach everybody,

you know what I mean? I’m gonna write the books I want to write.

I’ve always written about male issues, masculinity, and you’ll see in this book, [Lucas] gets torched because of the guy he is. And in the first book [featuring Lucas], The Cut (Little, Brown and Co., 2011), he had a great girlfriend and he screwed her over. It’s just honest because guys do that.

The reality is this guy is pretty much a typical guy.

The Spero Lucas books are much less gritty than your earlier books. Are you mellowing with age?

I don’t think it’s that as much as I’m trying to be realistic always about where Washington is. Books like The Sweet Forever (Little, Brown and Co., 1998) are set in ’86, when everything bad happened here.

That’s when crack came to town. [University of Maryland basketball star] Len Bias died and the violence escalated—’86 to ’89 were really dark years here. And those books are a lot darker. Now what I’m writing about is what Washington is [like today]. In 1989, there were 480-some homicides. Now there are 100 a year. It’s remarkable. The city is different. It would be unrealistic for me to paint that kind of picture of it if it doesn’t exist anymore.

Spero Lucas is a former Marine, which allows you to delve into the psychology of a soldier who’s been to war. Why that topic?

I wrote The Turnaround, and one of the characters was a physical therapist at the old Walter Reed [Army Medical Center] on Georgia Avenue. I knew somebody who could let me in there and I did a lot of talking to soldiers and Marines, and I just had a lot of material that wasn’t appropriate for that book and I just wanted to keep writing about it.

And then my father was a Marine. He fought in the Pacific, and I’ve done the sequel to The Band of Brothers. There’s a lot of that that comes out of my family, too, because my father was very quiet most of his life. He didn’t really talk about it, but I know that he was impacted deeply by what he’d done and seen over there because he killed people, and that’s the whole point.

They’re finding out now that a lot of the people who operate drones are com-

ing back with PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder]. They’re not even near a battlefield. So what does that tell you? It tells you that what causes these psychological problems is not so much being under fire, it is taking another life. That’s the kind of stuff that interests me.

Music and cars also play major roles in your novels.

Yeah, I got a Mustang Bullitt down in the garage, based on the Steve McQueen movie. It’s a replica of the car. The Jeep is my everyday driver. But when we go down to the beach or something, I always take my Mustang.

And music?

I always loved music, and my dad, in the diner, he had WOL and WOOK playing all day long, which were soul stations on AM. That’s really what got me real interested, because in D.C., the soul stations really were not like Motown, they were like Southern soul. To this day, I’m very interested in it. Then I got to go to New Orleans. That for me was life-changing, to be living there and seeing music every night and shooting music.

What do you hope to accomplish in the next decade?

I’ve probably got 10 years left of working in television and movies, because in that business, I’m an old guy. But I will continue to write books until the end. That’s the plan. I’ll probably write one more Spero Lucas novel and then see what happens. There are a lot of things I want to write about that are going to naturally be outside that character.

You recently were a guest programmer for Turner Classic Movies and selected Ride the High Country, a Western directed

by Sam Peckinpah. You said you wanted a line from the movie on your tombstone: “All I want is to enter my house justified.”

What did you mean by that?

That I lived a good life, a righteous life.

And that I was satisfied with what I’ve done.

Are you satisfied?

So far, yeah. n

Julie Rasicot is the associate editor of Bethesda Magazine. To comment on this story, email comments@bethesdamagazine.com.

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Write On The Winners of the 2014 Short Story & Essay Contests Illustrations by Libby Burns If there had been a theme for this year’s short story and essay contests, it would have to have been “The Outsider.” Many of the entries dealt with feelings of isolation—in some instances, marginalization arising from sexual orientation or ethnicity; in others, isolation resulting from a particular moment in one’s life.

The contest—jointly sponsored by Bethesda Magazine and the Bethesda Urban Partnership—drew about 100 entries in each of the four categories (Adult Short Story, Young Adult Short Story, Adult Essay and Young Adult Essay). The first-place winners were awarded cash prizes ranging from $250 to $500 each at the Bethesda Literary Festival in April. Their stories appear on the pages that follow.

You can read the runners-up at BethesdaMagazine.com and at www.bethesda.org.

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Adu tory S t r o h S t Contes

Freddie Prinze’s Children (Letter from Shari Mailman to Eric Bright dated Dec. 18, 1976)

About the Author Like the characters in “Freddie Prinze’s Children,” Susan Alpert grew up on Staten Island and says she struggled deeply over the death of Freddie Prinze. Her story relating to that “is written in the epistolary style,” she says, “which, except for brief emails, is rapidly becoming extinct.” Currently, Alpert lives in Glen Echo. She has published short stories, newspaper articles and book reviews and had several plays produced. She has completed a novel titled Searching, about how looking for a former lover on the Internet becomes an obsession.

Eric Bright 142 Charles Lindbergh Avenue Staten Island, New York Dear Eric, I bet you’re wondering why I’m sending you this letter when we see each other every day in Mr. Caruso’s fourth period algebra class. Luanne Martini sits between us.

By the time Mr. Caruso gives us our homework assignment (you know, do the even number questions on the odd pages but skip the odd number questions on the even pages blah blah blah) you strap your books together, put your Levi jacket with The Who album logo on the back, and you’re out the door. It’s not like you avoid me. You avoid everyone.

I couldn’t help but notice that one of the books that you carry around is my favorite book of all time. Of course, I mean Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. Did you get up to the part—well I guess it’s OK to mention from where your bookmark is—where this guy real-

ized that he might have made out with his long-lost daughter? That part is my favorite.

I see that you’re also reading Lord of the Flies for Miss McMann’s English honors class. You’re lucky. I’m in nonhonors English so I’m forced to read Johnny Tremain.

I hate all my classes. I’m not even supposed to be going to this crummy school. My family was planning to move to Denver. I had already told the principal’s office and all my records got transferred. My father thought he had gotten a job as an accountant for the Broncos but he must have heard wrong, or my mother must have been confused, or the Broncos must have actually met my father because the deal didn’t work out.

So I’m stuck here in Staten Island being forced to read Johnny Tremain.

Everyone here is into disco which, I’m sure you agree, sucks.

But then, I saw that you were reading Gravity’s Rainbow and that you’re also into The Who. If you ask me, Keith Moon’s drums have the same passion as Gravity’s Rainbow. It makes me feel that (continued on page 165)

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By Susan Alpert

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WINNE

Young R A Short S dult to Contes ry t

The Subway Away

By Zoe Johnson Friendship Heights, 5:37 p.m.

Briefly, she considered getting off.

Though the Metro station itself was dank and dirty—Metro stations in general always reminded her of the river Styx, with trains instead of boats to help people get to whatever hell they were destined for, be it office, bar or lonely apartment—above ground lay shops, restaurants and frozen yogurt: all a person needed to take her mind off things.

And maybe she’d do some poking around. Tiffany’s was nearby, Ellery knew; maybe some jewelry? Or flowers—surely there were flowers. Quinn had always loved flowers. Yesterday, a red rose had nestled perfectly in her dark hair, matching her lipstick and accentuating her pale skin. Ellery had marveled at it the way she always marveled at Quinn, at her coordination and grace and elegance and ability to go an entire day without a hair out of place. Even if she was furious and yelling and repaying every cruel word Ellery shot at her with a perfectly aimed missile (continued on page 168)

About the Author Growing up in Silver Spring, Zoe Johnson developed an affinity for exploring and has spent years riding the Metro around D.C. She is a rising senior at Montgomery Blair High School, where she is one of the editors-in-chief of Silver Chips Online. She adores all forms of storytelling, from poetry to theater to nonfiction, and intends to make writing her career.

Additionally, she loves languages and plans to learn at least six.

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Bethesda, 5:34 p.m.

Just a reminder, dinner at seven, Ellery typed. Can’t wait to see you.

She sent the text. No way of knowing when it was received, but in all probability it would be, and though a response was unlikely, she knew Quinn would be on time.

Looking around, Ellery was, as always, amazed by how normal everyone seemed.

The people surrounding her on the Metro—mostly suits, with a couple of weary mothers and elderly volunteer types for variety—all appeared whole, healthy, wholesome. Mature and grown-up.

Growing up, Ellery thought. Worst mistake I ever made.

Adulthood meant a job. It meant work. It meant 9-to-5 every day, business suits, coffee; memos she didn’t want to read, which were usually not worth the time anyway; maturity in the face of complete and utter disaster. Complete, utter disaster. What a disaster.

Ellery closed her eyes. It had been a long day.

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Adu Essay t Contes

Pantry

By Jean Kim containers, containing nothing? What was she trying to keep?

My mother left her country at age 23, a newlywed. She was the baby of six, doted on by her own mother. So it must have been a savage rip through the fibers of the heart for both of them. For my mother to say goodbye to her childhood, for my grandmother, to see the last chick literally fly away.

There is a photo that my mother can no longer look at, taken at Kimpo Airport in Seoul, of my mother standing with my grandmother outside on the tarmac. My grandmother has this unearthly look, as though her legs are about to give way from underneath her, as though my mother’s arm is barely holding her up.

Her head is slightly tilted to the right, her wire-rimmed glasses unable to hide that strange, ephemeral gaze. In a time before

Skype, the Pacific was a wide ocean. My grandmother knew it was farewell.

My grandmother passed away shortly afterward, just before I was born in the 1970s. Now my mother stands, shy like a little girl, just outside the pantry. The tension in her face has mellowed into both resignation and relief. The dirty deed is nearly done.

I open the last drawer, and there are remnants of my own time: a Gerber bottle used to feed me, little pink Japanese lunch boxes where my mother put seaweed-rice rolls, Betty Crocker cookie cutters from times baking together, a logoed foam cup holder from my college freshman year. My mother has clung to my youth, just as much as she had lost hers.

Everything still goes in the dark green bag. But one of the pink lunch boxes, shaped like Hello Kitty, I keep. n

About the Author Jean Kim is a psychiatrist in Washington, D.C. She is working on her master’s degree in nonfiction writing at Johns Hopkins University and has been a nonfiction fellow at The Writers’ Institute of The Graduate Center of CUNY (The City University of New York). She grew up in Columbia, Md., and now lives in Bethesda.

courtesy photo

It had to be done. My mother grimaced as I started to fill the garbage bag.

Thirty years of clutter had collected in our home’s armpit: the pantry. Inside, the room was deceptively white. The leaky white metal fridge, the white laundry machines, the white shelves, but none of it quite white anymore; shades of milk gone sour.

Then there were the stacks, the piles inhabiting every corner, every inch and angle of physically viable space.

Mainly empty containers and kimchee jars, waiting, even yearning to be filled with something, anything. Tupperware boxes, their plastic gently degrading into the yellow of old parchment. Mismatched lids piled on their own, never to find their partners again.

Initially, I tenderly placed them in the bag. Then I dumped them, with increasing speed. As exhaustion set in, I felt a deliriously sick glee. Time raced down like an avalanche into the chasm, as in seconds I tore down what had taken years to collect.

Just when I thought I was making headway, my head would turn and I would see more of the rascals, lurking in another grimy corner behind boxes of cleaning supplies, old packages of dried noodles, sacks of rice, dusty cans. Why this repetition, this mad clamor for more

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Aria

WINNE

By Logan Dreher

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At dawn, the South Carolinian sea retreats to the horizon for miles, like it’s baring its secrets to the world. Scientists have quantified the phenomenon with charts and maps of the moon’s position, but to me, low tide will always be magic.

When we visited on vacation, my parents would wake me up in the early hours of the morning to walk along the wet grains of sand and pick out seashells. My sister and I would compete to find an unbroken sand dollar, screaming in delight when we caught sight of their perfectly round shape.

Often my father would carry me, enveloping me in his arms because I was still listless from sleep. Perhaps that’s why the low tide is so enchanting in my memories; my drowsiness granted the beach an ethereal, dreamlike edge.

We stayed for hours sometimes, and my father joked about making my sister’s elaborate sand castles their home. My mother would remind him of the fleeting nature of the long stretches of sand. The incoming high tide always caught us by surprise, though.

My mother would look into the distance and shout a wordless warning, and my father would swing me into his arms again, even if I were fully awake, so we could beat the incoming tide. I remember abandoning a plastic

shovel by mistake once and begging the sea to give it back. I found the toy a few hours later where the white foam of the waves crashed into the sand.

I have bags and bags of sand dollars and seashells now. But my family never visits South Carolina anymore, both because my parents are divorced, and because our summers are too full to take those long vacations.

My father lives in Miami, so I still visit the beach sometimes, but the water isn’t the same sea I once knew. The ocean in Florida is completely placid, like pool water, and foreign in color. The ocean is secretive there; it holds its water close even at low tide.

Were I to return to the Carolinas, I do not think the sea would speak to me in the same way. My contentment didn’t come from just the beach; it grew from inside me. Some innate happiness was spoiled in the act of growing up, marred by my age. When I was young, everything had this air of mystery about it, like the whole world ran on magic.

Everything was a novelty. The low tide of South Carolina was not science. It was magic.

I do not remember when the shift happened, when the subtle undertow of my thoughts became jaded, but I do not think I can undo it. n

Young R Adult Essay Contes t

About the Author Logan Dreher is a rising senior at James Hubert Blake High School in Silver Spring. A member of the National Honor Society, she puts her passion for reading and writing to work as an editor of the award-winning Blake Beat school newspaper and of the school’s creative writing magazine. Logan was one of 37 Washington, D.C., high school juniors to receive the Award for Excellence in the Arts by the National Society of Arts and Letters. An avid writer in her spare time, the Silver Spring resident draws inspiration for her short stories from her family and from her vast collection of books.

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the judges

5

Michelle Ray was born and raised in

Los Angeles. She attended Tufts University, where she studied theater history and literature. Ray teaches English at Eastern Middle School in Silver Spring. Her novel, Falling for Hamlet (Poppy, 2011), is being adapted for an E! channel show called The Royals. She lives with her husband and two daughters in Silver Spring.

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Adult Short Story Contest

1

Jim Beane is a native Washingtonian.

His fiction has appeared in numerous journals as well as the crime fiction anthology D.C. Noir. He is a 2013 Pushcart Prize nominee for a story published in 0-Dark-Thirty. He has been a Virginia Center for the Creative Arts fellow and teaches a fiction workshop at The Writer’s Center in Bethesda. He’s continuing work on a second collection of short stories, grooming a first novel and, as always, contemplating the next new story.

2

Michelle Brafman has received numerous awards for her fiction, including a special mention in the 2010 Pushcart Prize anthology. Her work has appeared in Slate, Tablet, The Minnesota Review, Blackbird and elsewhere. She teaches fiction writing at the Johns Hopkins University Master of Arts in Writing Program and at George Washington University.

3

Elizabeth Word Gutting lives and writes in Washington, D.C. Her fiction, nonfiction and book reviews have appeared in The Washington Post, The Rumpus, The

9 Quotable, Treehouse and Defying Gravity, an anthology of D.C. women writers published

by Paycock Press. She has received fellowships from George Mason University, the Vermont Studio Center and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She was a 2008-2009 Fulbright Scholar. Born and raised in St. Louis, Mo., she has lived in rural Ohio, the Mission District of San Francisco and on a tangerine farm on the island of Jeju in South Korea.

Young Adult Short Story Contest

4

Betsy Harvey Kraft writes books

for upper elementary and middle-grade readers. Focusing primarily on biography, her titles include Theodore Roosevelt: Champion of the American Spirit (Clarion Books, 2003), Sensational Trials of the 20th Century (Scholastic, 1998) and Mother Jones: One Woman’s Fight for Labor (Clarion Books, 1995). In addition to writing, she conducts writing workshops, including a one-day Smithsonian Associates seminar on writing nonfiction for young readers. She lives in Washington, D.C.

6

Aaron Taylor is an eighth-year English teacher at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School. He graduated from the University of Maryland in 2006 with degrees in English education and theater.

Rereading The Great Gatsby in college inspired him to pursue a career in education. Other favorites of his include Things Fall Apart and Eats, Shoots & Leaves. He lives with his wife, Megan, and his son, Xavier, in Olney.

Adult and Young Adult Essay Contests

7

Zahara Heckscher is among the

8

Lisa Page is acting director of

co-authors of the book How to Live Your Dream of Volunteering Overseas. She also has written numerous articles that have appeared in books and in the online travel magazine TransitionsAbroad.com, where she serves as a contributing editor.

Heckscher teaches writing at the University of Maryland at College Park. She blogs at CancerThriver.blogspot.com.

creative writing at George Washington University and a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post’s Book World, Playboy, Washingtonian, Savoy and the Chicago Tribune, among other publications. Her essays and short stories have appeared in the anthologies Skin Deep: Black Women & White Women Write About Race, Gravity Dancers and Dream Me Home Safely. She is a regular guest on NPR’s “The Diane Rehm Show Readers’ Review.” She is a member of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation’s board of directors, and its former president.

9

Lisa Shroder was until recently the editor of Bethesda Magazine and previously worked as both a writer and an editor for a number of metropolitan newspapers, including the Atlanta JournalConstitution, the Miami Herald, The Detroit News, the Orlando Sentinel and the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel. She also has served as a judge for the James Beard Awards. She lives in Vienna, Va., with her husband, Tom.

courtesy photos except for dana pelzman (ray); emma patti (shroder)

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freddy prinze’s children (continued from page 160) being stuck here isn’t all that bad after all. this club called Catch a Rising Star in I know this sounds a little weird but I Manhattan where he worked for free. He hope you answer this letter. I hate the tele- did impressions too. phone and it’s a little hard for me to use it I wanted to go to that club to do my because my mother likes to listen in. impressions but I couldn’t find the place.

I’ll wait for your letter.

(Manhattan streets are kind of confus ing to me.) But, I plan to go back there

Signed and Cosigned, soon—someday.

Shari Mailman Shari, I’m glad you’re staying in Staten Island and not moving to Denver.

I was hoping you might want to write (Letter from Joey Basso to me. You can’t call because our phone Shari Mailman dated Dec. 23, 1976) isn’t working right now. As my mom says, it’s not like anyone calls us anyway.

Shari Mailman Take care, Shari.

104 Father Capodanno Boulevard Apartment 4-D Merry Christmas, Staten Island, New York Joey Basso Dear Shari, Eric showed me the letter you sent him.

Well, he didn’t really show it to me personally. He hates me. He showed it to everyone who’s in the percussion section of the band and since I play the xylophone I was close enough to see it too. I know you wouldn’t be crazy about your letter getting passed around thirtyfive drummers but I only tell you so that you’ll know what a weird guy Eric is.

I guess he’s smart because, like you, he is reading Gravity’s Rainbow and that’s nine hundred pages long. I couldn’t read it. Still, Eric is a psycho.

Do you know that his project for the science fair is Farrah in Formaldehyde in which he shows what color a Farrah Fawcett-Majors doll’s hair turns in different solutions?

The guy’s a space cadet. None of the band likes him. If I were you I wouldn’t bother with him.

But I thought that maybe if you like writing letters we could write each other.

We’re in the same hygiene class and I liked you ever since we did that skit on plaque. I love the Groucho Marx tee shirt that you wear every Wednesday. I do an impression of him. Well I guess everyone does, but I do a lot of other famous people like Jack Benny, Carol Channing, and Freddie Prinze.

I’m planning on becoming a stand up comedian like Prinze. He started out at

P.S. By the way, what’s so bad about disco?

(Letter from Shari Mailman to Eric Bright dated Jan. 10, 1977) Dear Eric, Hope you had a happy New Year. As usual, I just spent it watching Dick Clark. He only had disco singers on the show so it sucked.

I heard from Joey Basso that you showed the letter I sent you to everyone in the Band. After that, your mother must have thrown it out thinking it was junk mail from the Book of the Month Club. That’s why you forgot to write back. I accidentally throw things out all the time. In the school hallways you still act like you don’t know me.

And you’re tall; I’m short. Maybe you don’t always see me. I notice that you don’t carry around Gravity’s Rainbow anymore. You must have just finished it.

Didn’t it blow your mind? We’re probably the only two people in Staten Island who read it. Man, it would have been banned from Staten Island if they knew it was about Tyrone Slothrop’s erections causing the enemies’ bombs to go off.

I’ll tell you this and I think you’ll understand. My mom and I had kind of a frightening experience late last night.

My dad cut his wrists with his new Gil-

lette razor that I got him for Christmas.

He didn’t cut very deep. Mom drove him straight to the hospital and an hour ago they transferred him to South Beach Psychiatric. I guess he’s been upset that he hasn’t been able to find a job in a long time. He’s been acting strange lately like criticizing me for watching TV, even when I’m watching public TV. And I haven’t played a record in so long, even a quiet one, like Olivia Newton-John’s, because that really sets him off.

I’m walking on eggshells here. I hope you write me back soon.

Sincerely Shari (Letter from Joey Basso to Shari Mailman dated Jan. 23, 1977) Dear Shari, Did you get my last letter? I was hoping to hear from you. Well maybe it got lost.

Anyway, I want to let you know that I got my first gig as a comic! I persuaded the manager of Lenny’s Clam Bar on Hylan Boulevard to let me do my impressions there next Friday at five P.M. That’s sort of before the customers come in and I won’t get paid, and also I’ll have to work refilling the salad bar. Still, this is the way Freddie Prinze started out! I plan to wear my Freddie Prinze tee shirt. Some of the guys in the band said they might try to come. It would mean a lot to me, Shari, if you could be there as well. We could take the 103 bus there together if you want. Please let me know in hygiene class if you’re interested. Anyway it’s next Friday, January thirtieth, at five p.m.

Smile!

Joey (Letter from Shari Mailman to Eric Bright dated Jan. 26, 1977) Dear Eric, My dad came home from South Beach Psychiatric this week and the doctors are making him take more drugs than Aerosmith. Mom said we can’t talk about any topics that could irritate him like

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freddy prinze’s children

the bills, Tony Orlando and Dawn, the weather, blah blah blah.

You still act like you don’t know me in school. Don’t you think that place is getting to be full of Fonzie wannabees?

I can tell you that the patients at South Beach Psychiatric are saner than anyone in our school.

Are you going to see Joey Basso perform at Lenny’s Clam Bar on Friday? I heard that some members of the band are going. (Come to think of it, I heard that from Joey Basso.)

By the way, what did you get on Mr. Caruso’s final exam? I got a ninety-two?

Yours truly, Shari

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(Letter from Eric Bright to Shari Mailman dated Jan. 27, 1977) Shari, Just leave me alone. Can’t you see that I have no interest in anything you, your sick family, or that idiot, Joey Basso, do?

My life is very busy creating shirts with buttons made out of mood ring stones that I plan to market to bands such as Pink Floyd.

I don’t know what you are looking for, Shari. I only know it can’t be found on Charles Lindbergh Avenue.

Sincerely, Eric Bright (Letter to Shari Mailman from Joey Basso dated Jan. 30, 1977) Dear Shari, By now you must have heard the devastating news. Freddie Prinze, the greatest comic who ever lived, shot himself to death. I still can’t believe it. He was just twenty-two. He was a star right after he graduated from high school. I had to cancel my debut at Lenny’s Clam Bar because it just doesn’t seem right to be funny right now.

They say it was too much too soon.

That there was too much pressure once his TV show, Chico and the Man, became a hit.

I don’t know. Maybe he preferred to do clubs to TV? Maybe he should have just stuck to doing talk shows than starring in a grueling sitcom? Maybe he should have been given more time to develop his craft. Or maybe it was the drugs. All the Hollywood celebrities do them.

My feeling is that he was just too damn good. He hung around a lot of no-named entertainers (except for veteran actor Jack Albertson who costarred with him in Chico and the Man and gave a tremendous performance in The Poseidon Adventure that should have earned him an Academy Award). Maybe he didn’t like the fast life of L.A. I think he did so many impressions because he wasn’t that happy being himself. Maybe I’m the same. But as I said I’m going to develop my craft. He should have stuck with the clubs and taken it slow. Joan Rivers tried to warn him about that.

Everyone wanted a piece of him. I won’t let that happen to me.

I bet Catch a Rising Star will have a memorial or something for him. I just wish I could find that place!

Shari, I saw sadness in you even before Freddie Prinze died. Maybe you sensed something like that would happen to Freddie? Or maybe it’s something to do with Eric. You shouldn’t like him so much. You’re too nice for him.

I try to think of Freddie Prinze’s Chico and the Man theme song when I’m down. You should do the same.

Shari, don’t be discouraged if the man he don’t understand...

Shari, things will be better then Oh yes they will for Chico and the Man. Even if he don’t understand…

I’ll always love you, Joey Basso ■

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the subway away (continued from page 161) of her own.

Not a hair out of place. Jesus. Ellery closed her eyes. There was no way flowers would be enough to fix this.

Tenleytown-AU, 5:39 p.m.

She tried her best not to think about it.

After all, there was nothing she could do at the moment. She’d already texted Quinn several times, plus left a couple voice mails, apologizing. The ball was in Quinn’s court now.

For some reason, Tenleytown had always reminded Ellery of California, or at least of how she imagined California to be. As a New England teenager, growing up in cold, rural towns with grim gas stations and streets and people, she’d pictured the West Coast as an oasis of sunshine and brightly colored storefronts, with everyone wearing sunglasses and a smile, and a handshake ready for every stranger. Though she’d only been to Tenleytown once, its sprawl and width and sprinkled trees seemed a similar vision.

Ellery had wandered through its neighborhoods for hours. The escape had been perfect: a quick getaway to an unknown place where she herself was nothing.

Ellery opened her eyes and stared out the window, although all she could see was a dismal gray wall.

What if Ellery and Quinn could go?

What if they could just be gone?

Van Ness-UDC, 5:41 p.m.

It wasn’t as crazy as it sounded, Ellery knew. In fact, to Quinn it would sound positively tame.

They’d shared a thirst for adventure, made up in large part, Ellery thought, by a desire to leave. Though Ellery had moved from Massachusetts to D.C., she couldn’t bear the thought of settling there, and wanted desperately to be on the road again. Quinn had lived her whole life riding these same rails, first around Eastern Market, then from Takoma.

Frequently, Ellery imagined her as a little girl, sitting in an orange seat, impatiently kicking her heels back and forth.

Her long-suffering mother, Ellery knew, had braided Quinn’s dark, curly hair into pigtails every day until Quinn turned 10 and declared that the only birthday

present she would accept was the right to do what she pleased with her hair.

Her wish granted, she promptly cut her ringlets off, resulting in a feathery, boyish cut that was surprisingly versatile: a good combing made it formal; a bandana or headband kept it out of her eyes; some gel and hairpins let her spike it in whatever fashion she chose. Even then, Quinn had been fashionable. Quinn, Ellery knew, had been looking forward to a new life, one where she could be whatever she wanted to be, go wherever she wanted to go. Then, she’d never doubted her ability to get there.

Quinn as a little girl, Ellery knew, had been a much happier person.

Beep.

A text—unexpected, surprising, exciting, just like Quinn—arrived.

Cleveland Park, 5:43 p.m.

Not exactly the text she was expecting, though: too bad, Quinn had written.

Woodley Park, 5:46 p.m.

Unexpected, surprising, exciting. Just like Quinn.

Ellery supposed it wasn’t too shocking, though. Quinn was angry. Truth be told, she was, too. Though they didn’t fight often, their fights, when they happened, were drawn out and excruciating.

After the initial blowout, which could take hours, silence reigned for days.

They were stubborn people, and their shared ability to hold a grudge overwhelmed the small apartment.

This time, however, Ellery’s temper was no match for her excitement. What were they waiting for? They had enough money for airplane tickets, for a first month of rent.

Everything else would follow. Normally she wasn’t the impulsive one—she tried to leave that to Quinn—but this, this she was ready for. On her phone, she opened Safari and Googled plane trips. From here, going anywhere. She bought two tickets to the first one out of the country.

No, really, Ellery typed. I have a surprise.

Dupont Circle, 5:48 p.m.

Again, from Quinn: too bad.

C’mon, babe, Ellery typed. I’m cooking.

Farragut North, 5:50 p.m.

Another text. A different one this time.

But worse: doesn’t matter. i’m not staying any longer.

Metro Center, 5:52 p.m.

Ellery closed her eyes, trying to keep the panic inside. It had been a long day, a long week, for both of them. But they loved each other. That had to count for something.

From Quinn: remember when we first met?

Of course she did. She would never forget. The party, the lights, the empty streets they walked together. They had felt so free, so ready.

Duh, Ellery wrote back, hoping to keep the mood light. Maybe if she didn’t react to the text, just calmly assured Quinn that she’d be waiting for her, she would come back. Quinn’s mother had employed the same tactic. How could I forget?

Gallery Place-Chinatown, 5:54 p.m.

The first time Ellery saw her, Quinn was drinking red wine out of a sippy cup. The friend who had brought her to the party nudged her, giggling, and Ellery laughed with her, more out of amazement than anything else. Then, Quinn had been such a novelty. Now, Ellery could list Quinn’s quirks like her own name: quickly and without thinking about it. Her ability to twist apples in half with her bare hands.

Her need to apply ample mascara before leaving the house, even just to get the mail.

Her habit of bringing a hula hoop to the beach, along with a book about high crime.

God, she was obsessed with outlaws.

From Quinn, moments later: i said we were like bonnie and clyde Quinn, Ellery wrote. She’d given her that book last Christmas. Clearly, it was a mistake. you said they’d never catch us alive Where are you? Ellery typed. The panic was emerging in a shock of adrenaline, shivering through her whole body.

She felt light-headed. & i believed you Judiciary Square, 5:56 p.m.

Where are you? Ellery sent again.

And again.

And again.

168 July/August 2014 | BethesdaMagazine.com

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Union Station, 5:58 p.m.

Ellery closed her eyes and reasoned with herself. Quinn was impulsive, but she wasn’t stupid. She would show up— maybe not today or tomorrow, but soon.

There was no way she could just go, just be gone.

Unfortunately, Ellery was all too fond of reasoning. Quinn could in fact just be gone. The two of them had practiced escapes: not yoga or meditation, genuine escapes. They’d call in sick and drive for hours, roam the streets of towns miles away. They never came back before 2 a.m. But they always came back.

The leaving had been soothing, therapeutic, almost a high. It was just so easy.

Ironic, Ellery thought. I learn to go, and now she’s gone.

NoMa-Gallaudet U, 6 p.m.

Time passed achingly.

Her thoughts felt like sandpaper.

Rhode Island Ave-Brentwood, 6:02 p.m.

Where are you? Ellery sent again.

And again.

And again.

BETHESDA BETHESDA MAGAZINE’S DAILY NEWS DISPATCH

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Brookland-CUA, 6:04 p.m.

Ellery looked out the window at her favorite—now to be her least favorite— Metro station. On the wall opposite her, bright blue and pink graffiti looped and swirled, spelling out Quinn’s motto and signature street art: those who would sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither Quinn had painted it on their first date.

She wrote it like a gift, a prayer, an offering to some higher god. It was a testament to their ambition and a test of their faith: leaning against the fence afterward, staring up at the sky with Ellery’s hand clutched tight in hers, Quinn whispered, “You promise we’ll never come back?”

Fort Totten, 6:07 p.m.

Where are you?

One more time.

Ellery closed her eyes.

Takoma, 6:10 p.m.

She was staring out the window, some-

170 July/August 2014 | BethesdaMagazine.com

where after Fort Totten. Somehow the vibrations of the train weren’t soothing anymore.

She watched the buildings go by, the graffiti, the fences. When they pulled to a stop, she was staring straight ahead. The light glinted gently off the metal poles. Through the window, the sign said Takoma. When she turned her head, she could see Cedar Street, the wide gray road, the wet grass, the empty storefronts, the nonexistent pedestrians. Further, the curve into downtown.

Suddenly, it was all so clear: she stood up, got off the Metro. Outside, it was raining. She walked down Cedar, down Carroll, down streets and sidewalks, passing shops, then houses, gardens curling out to meet her. After a mile or so, she turned. Walked down the hill, over the bump, up the gravel to the yellow house. Someone opened the door, holding a cat whose soft gray fur matched the sky. Quinn smiled, and— Beep. A new text. Ellery woke abruptly, grabbing her phone eagerly, greedily, gluttonous for the heartbreak that she knew was about to arrive. you’ll never know. don’t bother trying to write.

“Doors closing. Please step back to allow the doors to close.”

Ellery left Takoma behind.

Silver Spring, 6:13 p.m.

Though it wasn’t her stop, Ellery got off.

Who will I cook dinner for? she thought hazily.

The masses of people all seemed to be in a terrible rush. They brushed past her, glanced off her, not shoving, quite, just...harried. Hurried. Worried. Quinn.

Where are you?

Wandering, wandering, wandering.

Street. Cars.

So this is what shock feels like, she thought.

Ellery sat on the next bench she saw.

Every time someone with curly dark hair walked by, she tracked them with her eyes, hoping desperately for the familiar face.

Her phone dinged with a reminder: plane leaves in 45 minutes.

Ellery sat.

Where are you?

Well, Ellery thought. I’d better get packing. ■

[ home]

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Welcome

to The Long & Foster® Companies’ exclusive “Showcase of Homes” As the home of the best-trained, best-equipped agents in the industry, we are positioned to provide unsurpassed service and expertise to today’s real estate clients from contract to closing and beyond. No matter what your real estate goals are, Long & Foster agents can help you take advantage of historic real estate opportunities.

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Beautifully sited on over one acre with sweeping golf course views ,this charming fivebedroom home is an entertainer’s delight with wonderful indoor and outdoor spaces to welcome family and friends. Full country club membership conveys to enjoy two golf courses, pools, tennis courts and club house amenities.

• Result 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.

Mary Lou Dell

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301.404.5554

MaryLouDell@aol.com I’d love to work with you.

CAROLE EGLOFF

Call me when you’re ready to buy or sell.

240.401.1200 cell 301.570.4664 Carole.Egloff@ LongandFoster.com

Sandy Spring, Bancroft

$1,225,000

Elegant Mitchell & Best home in this popular and uniquely beautiful community! With almost 7,000 sq.ft.of living space, this five bedroom, four and a half bath home has it all. Meticulously maintained by original owner & in move-in condition. Just minutes to ICC and 2 Metro stations.

And watch me periodically on News Now TV at Noon talking about our local real estate market.

Licensed in MD & DC

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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Bethesda All Points Office

4701 Sangamore Road Bethesda, MD 301.229.4000

#1 W.C. & A.N. MILLER REALTORS® Office • #14 Long & Foster Office for 2013 Anne Emmett

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301.466.2515

Congratulations to Susan Sanford and her Extraordinary Team!

Anne.Emmett@LNF.com

Laura Emmett

202.422.6374

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Laura.Emmett@LNF.com EmmettHomes.com

The #1 Miller Office

Anne and Laura call Bethesda home!

For in-depth knowledge of the Bethesda market and superior service, call Anne and Laura Emmett. l

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Congratulations to Susan Sanford on her 25th Year in Real Estate!

Susan Sanford

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

#1 Group in Bethesda All Points Office

301.320.8300

Licensed in MD, DC & VA

Kat Conley Witowski

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301.943.3865

TAMMY GRUNER DURBIN 301.996.8334 l

Kat@LNF.com l

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l

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W.C. & A.N. Miller REALTORS Bethesda All Points Office is the flagship office for Miller Realtors Companywide. We are home to successful and top-producing agents seeking an executive approach to their business as well as new agents ready to launch successful real estate careers. Call me for a confidential interview to find out why top producing and new agents join my office and choose to stay!

#2 Individual Sales—Bethesda Miller #69 Agent Companywide —Long & Foster #3 Individual by Units Sold—Bethesda Miller 2011 Realty Alliance Award Recipient, Top 5 Percent North America

Call Kat for any of your real estate needs.

SHARRON COCHRAN

#1 INDIVIDUAL MILLER AGENT 2012 301.351.4517

SCochran@LNF.com www.SCochran.com

TGDHomes@LNF.com • Associate Broker Recent recipient of 8th place in the TOP TEN for 2013 for the W.C. & A.N. Miller Realtors Group Consistently Ranked in Top 150 out of over 12,000agents companywide.

Bethesda

W.C. & A.N. Miller REALTORS 4701 Sangamore Road Bethesda, MD 20816

Located in Burning Tree, Tom Rixey 4/5 BR, 5 BA Dutch Col exudes elegance, charm & detail. Oversized screened porch, deck & lap pool on gorgeous 18K+ lot, Heated 3 stall/7 car gar.

Andy Alderdice #1 Listing Team Companywide 2013 andy4homes@gmail.com www.andy4homes.com Top Sales Associate 2013

2012 Realty Alliance Award Recipient, Top 5 Percent North America l Licensed in MD, DC & VA l Staging, marketing, and negotiation expert Let my experience work for you! l

CATHERINE DAVILA 202.302.0219

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CatherineDavila.LNF.com

Representing Buyers & Sellers l Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Silver Spring, Rockville, DC, Kensington l All Price Points l Licensed in DC & MD l Celebrating 10 years with Long & Foster l

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

Lynn A. Stewart

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301.580.4552

Lynn@LynnStewartSells.com MOVING YOUR HOME . . . “FOR SALE TO SOLD”! l Your Bethesda residential specialist l Your expert Buyer’s Agent in MD & DC l Your Top Producer l Your go-to help for “right-sizing” l Your Certified Negotiation Expert l Your neighbor! l Licensed in MD, DC & VA

Spring Valley, Washington, DC

$1,350,000

Oasis in the City! Gracious, sun drenched 4 Bedroom home in Spring Valley offers wonderful privacy, large formal rooms and nanny’s quarters. Trees and lush landscape surround the very private pool.

Lydia Benson 202.365.3222 LydiaBenson@StanfordAlumni.org

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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North Bethesda/ Rockville Office

6000 Executive Blvd., #100 Bethesda, Maryland 301.468.0606 | LongandFoster.com ®®

Gaithersburg, Maryland $544,900

Bethesda, Maryland

Lovely townhome.

Main level boasts gorgeous wood floors and the open floor plan is wonderful for today’s lifestyle. The upstairs owner’s suite has a large walk-in closet & private bath with shower & tub.

On the top floor is a magnificent family room with cathedral ceilings.

Becky Plesset 202.438.3755 myhomesdb.com/ beckyp

$1,249,900

Elegant five bedroom home sited on picturesque lot with a unique and spacious floor plan. Remodeled kitchen with granite and stainless steel appliances, breakfast room and Master Suite with private loft. Great location!

Denise Szczur 301.452.5544 DeniseSzczur.LNF.com

Kensington, Maryland

$575,000

Olney, Maryland

$1,699,990

Gaithersburg, Maryland

$446,500

Beautifully maintained, sun filled, spacious single family home with two car garage. You will enjoy over 2500 square feet of living space and close to shopping, restaurants and much more!

Karen Eaton 301.928.0516 www.KarenEaton.LNF.com

Bethesda, Maryland Olney, Maryland

$825,000 $549,000

A commuter’s dream at White Flint Park! This four bedroom, three bath all brick rambler is in a great location, between Grosvenor and White Flint Metros.

The home is situated on a fantastic .30 acre lot, on a quiet cul de sac, backing to park land.

Bill Calomeris 301.370.3962 www.calomerisgroup.com

Grand 1928 Colonial Home on 7.1 acres featuring a 20x40 living room with fireplace, formal dining room, and updated table space kitchen with hidden treasures.

Minutes to Olney Town Center, the Aquatic Center, and the ICC!!

MaryAnne Fiorita 301.529.0090 www.MaryAnneFiorita.com

Meticulously maintained updated 3,000 square Quiet and serene 2 acre and property.

A rambler home foot featuring large bedrooms and 2.5 with home new roof, gutters4and a separate 2 story barnbaths, with large table-space main-level office, family electric.

Convenientkitchen, to the ICC. room with stone fireplace and exit to deck, enormous master suite with luxury bath.

Joanna Argenio301.469.9111 Tom Whiteman 202-258-2273 Tom@TomWhiteman.com

Silver Spring, Maryland

Silver Spring, Maryland

Potomac, Silver Spring, Maryland Maryland

$995,000

Contemporary Acorn Home on 2+ acre private lot with exquisite detailing and expansive windows. Huge gourmet Neff kitchen opens to large family room and breakfast room with hardwood floors throughout.

Barbara Ciment 301.346.9126 www.Ciment.com

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$585,000

Fully updated four-level split home inside the beltway and minutes from downtown Silver Spring. New kitchen and appliances, new windows, updated bathrooms and refinished hardwood floors. Finished lower level with walkout, screened porch, refinished deck.

Chris Hager 240.498.5044

$1,149,999 $529,900

Spectacular All brick twoColonial level rambler with contemporary near metro. flair Large boasting eat-in 2-story kitchenfoyer, with beautiful gourmet kitchen refinished with hardwood island and floors, stunning new master carpet onsuite. lowerCustom level, firstpaint, floor family lighting room, andfireplace built-ins. in Charming living roombrick andpatio rec room, bordered gorgeous by evergreens. renovated full bath on main level and large fenced in backyard.

Donna Tom Corcoran Karpa &301.365.9365 Sharon Owens 301.215.6907 Donna.Karpa@LNF.com www.CorcoranGalleryofHomes.com

6/10/14 5:10 PM

Chevy Chase Office 202.363.9700 20 Chevy Chase Circle, NW, Washington, D.C.

Woodley Park Office 202.483.6300 2300 Calvert Street, NW, Washington, D.C.

®®

Bethesda, Maryland

$899,000

Renovated and expanded this 4 BR, 2.5 BA home includes a formal living room, dining room and first floor family room. Sited on a terrific lot, with a fenced yard and front driveway, close to Bethesda Triangle, NIH and Greenwich Forest Park in the Whitman School district.

Cheryl Kurss 301.346.6615

Silver Spring, Maryland

Chesapeake Beach, Maryland

$355,000

Chevy Chase, Maryland

$475,000

WATERFRONT - Awake to your own stunning Chesapeake sunrise! Unique, bright 1BR home can be your retreat on the Chesapeake Bay. Clean & simple 1-lvl living, open flr plan, full Bay views. Eat-In Kit; MBR w/dual-entry BA; deck, fenced yard, OSP. A unique opportunity!

Lili Sheeline 202.905.7561

1,425 SF, 2 bedroom Penthouse in chic high-rise building.

Spacious Living/Dining area; master bedroom suite with bath, walk-in closet and custom-designed storage.

Washer/Dryer in updated Kitchen; 2-car garage PARKING. Walk/free shuttle to METRO, fine shops and dining.

Mary McGuire 301.717.7563

$675,000

Chevy Chase, Washington, DC $1,075,000

Forest Hills, Washington, DC

It’s carefree living at its best in this gorgeous 4-level EYA home built in 2007. Every horn and whistle plus loads of owner upgrades, including a 2-sided gas fplc off roof deck. Steps to RC Park and walk to Forest Glen METRO from this 4 BR, 3 FBA home.

Cindy Holland 301.452.1075

Spacious, open, 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath townhouse facing Rock Creek Park. Beautifully renovated with gorgeous new master bath, fantastic table space kitchen, generous living and dining rooms plus a tranquil garden with patio.

Metro bus practically at your doorstop.

Julie Roberts 202.276.5854

This handsome 1930 stone Tudor has a modern soul!

With 6 BRs, 4 full BAs and 2 half BAs, it boasts all the fine details of a bygone era but also embraces today with its 2004 renovation. Rarely does one encounter such a harmonious blend of old and new.

Lenora Steinkamp 202.246.4475

Forest Hills, Washington, DC

Kalorama, Washington, DC

$549,000

Wesley Heights, Washington, DC $3,200,000

Sun-drenched and stunning top floor 2 bedroom, 1.5 bath duplex with wonderful layout! Formal dining room, large living room with fireplace, warm hardwood floors, new chef’s kitchen, updated baths, sun deck.

Seller will pay for parking for one year 1.5 blocks away.

Roby Thompson 202.255.2986

Stunning 5 BR, 4.5 BA expanded colonial with over 5,500 SF of living space! Multiple skylights & walls of glass provide wonderful light throughout. Gourmet designer kitchen, fabulous family room & master wing additions, plus attached 2 car garage.

Roby Thompson 202.255.2986

$495,000

Bright, spacious 2 BR, 2 BA unit with updated kitchen and baths, ample closets, balcony, extra storage and 2 garage parking spaces. Monthly fees include all utilities, parking, and property taxes! Full-service building with underground access to Metro/Giant!

Marian Huish 202.210.2346

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$1,949,000

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Chevy Chase Office Resort/Vacation RentalsWoodley Park Office 202.363.9700 LFVacations.com 20 Chevy Chase Circle, NW, Washington, D.C.

202.483.6300 2300 Calvert Street, NW, Washington, D.C.

®®® ®

Bethesda, Maryland

$899,000

Renovated and expanded this 4 BR, 2.5 BA home includes a formal living room, dining room and first floor family room. Sited on a terrific lot, with a fenced yard and front driveway, close to Bethesda Triangle, NIH and Greenwich Forest Park in the Whitman School district.

Cheryl Kurss 301.346.6615

We have a Chesapeake Beach, Maryland

$355,000

WATERFRONT - Awake to your own stunning Chesapeake sunrise! Unique, bright 1BR home can be your retreat on the Chesapeake Bay. Clean & simple 1-lvl living, open flr plan, full Bay views. Eat-In Kit; MBR w/dual-entry BA; deck, fenced yard, OSP. A unique opportunity!

Lili Sheeline 202.905.7561

Chevy Chase, Maryland

$475,000

1,425 SF, 2 bedroom Penthouse in chic high-rise building.

Spacious Living/Dining area; master bedroom suite with bath, walk-in closet and custom-designed storage.

Washer/Dryer in updated Kitchen; 2-car garage PARKING. Walk/free shuttle to METRO, fine shops and dining.

Mary McGuire 301.717.7563

vacation destination for you!

Silver Spring, Maryland

$675,000

Chevy Chase, Washington, DC $1,075,000

Forest Hills, Washington, DC

It’s carefree living at its best in this gorgeous 4-level EYA home built in 2007. Every horn and whistle plus loads of owner upgrades, including a 2-sided gas fplc off roof deck. Steps to RC Park and walk to Forest Glen METRO from this 4 BR, 3 FBA home.

Cindy Holland 301.452.1075

Spacious, open, 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath townhouse facing Rock Creek Park. Beautifully renovated with gorgeous new master bath, fantastic table space kitchen, generous living and dining rooms plus a tranquil garden with patio.

Metro bus practically at your doorstop.

Julie Roberts 202.276.5854

This handsome 1930 stone Tudor has a modern soul!

With 6 BRs, 4 full BAs and 2 half BAs, it boasts all the fine details of a bygone era but also embraces today with its 2004 renovation. Rarely does one encounter such a harmonious blend of old and new.

Lenora Steinkamp 202.246.4475

Vacations Vacationsare area aspecial special time time relax and and get totorelax getaway awayfrom fromit all.

That’s why you want to make it all. That’s why you want to Forest Hills, Washington, DC $495,000 sure your vacation is the best make2 sure vacation is the Bright, spacious BR, 2 BAyour unit with updated kitchen canclosets, be —balcony, by relying on and the2 and baths,itample extra storage bestspaces. it can be — by relying garage parking Monthly include all utilities, on experience andfees expertise of the parking, and property taxes! Full-service building with the experience and expertise underground access Metro/Giant!

Long &toFoster Resort Rental Team.

Marian Huish 202.210.2346 of the Long & Foster Resort Rental Team.

$1,949,000

When you’re ready to get away, call our vacation property experts.

Annapolis, MD Annapolis, MD 410.260.2802 866.741.2794

Rehoboth / Dewey / Rehoboth/Dewey/ Lewes, Lewes, DE DE 800.272.2828 800.272.2828 Kalorama, DC $549,000 Washington, DC $3,200,000 Avalon/Washington, Longport, Avalon / Ocean City, NJ MD Wesley Heights, Sun-drenched and stunning top floor 2 bedroom, 1.5 Stunning 5 BR, 4.5 BA expanded colonial with over Stone NJNJ layout! Formal 609.822.3339 Smith Mountain Lake, VA of Harbor, 800.843.2322 Smith Mountain bath Stone duplexHarbor, with wonderful dining 5,500 SF of living space!

Multiple skylights & walls room,800.967.7796 large living room with fireplace, warm hardwood glass provideLake, wonderful light throughout. Gourmet 800.967.7796 866.395.2038 VA Margate, Ocean PinesNJ/ designer kitchen, fabulous family room & master wing floors, new chef’s kitchen, updated baths, sun deck.

SellerBethany will pay forBeach/ parking for away. attached 2 car garage.

Bethany 609.428.7795 Wildwood Crest, NJ Beach / one year 1.5 blocks West Ocean City,additions, MD plus866.395.2038 RobyFenwick ThompsonIsland, 202.255.2986 DE

Fenwick Island, DE 800.562.3224 800.562.3224

Deep DeepCreek CreekLake, Lake,MD MD 800.336.7303 800.336.7303

877.208.7368 Ocean City/

Roby Thompson 202.255.2986 609.729.8840

Ocean Pines, MD 800.843.2322 Find your next vacation at LFVacations.com

Wildwood Crest, NJ 609.729.8840 Follow us on:

®

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Rockville Centre Office 301.424.0900 | 703.879.1551 LongandFoster.com ®®

Potomac, Maryland

$2,375,000

Potomac, Maryland

$1,988,000

9 Potomac School Court. Elegant colonial on quiet culde-sac in prestigious Avenel. This 9,700 square feet gem features 6 bedrooms, including 2 master suites, one on the 1st floor. Sited on 2 beautifully manicured acres with lush rear back yard.

13210 River Road. Exceptional 6 bedroom estate in Merry-Go-Round Farm on 4.5 acres! Marble entry flanked by formal living & dining room sets a welcoming tone.

Stunning, renovated eat-in kitchen. Rear yard features large trex deck, screened gazebo, pool and hot tub.

Potomac, MD

Potomac, MD

Eric Stewart ◆

301.424.0900 703.879.1551 800.900.9104

$1,485,000

$1,000,000

10705 Tara Road. Fantastic 6 bedroom Potomac estate.

With a grand 2 story foyer, updated kitchen, all-season sunroom, parlor with wet bar, magnificent ballroom, and outdoor area with stone patio accented by brick arches, this home has it all.

9904 Carmelita Drive. Move right into this 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath all-brick McAuley Park home! Updated table-space kitchen and beautiful sunken living room with built-in bookshelves and fireplace with marble trim. Sunroom addition with vaulted ceilings ideal for entertaining.

Rockville, MD

McLean, VA

Website:

EricStewartGroup.com Email:

Eric@EricStewartGroup.com ◆ Call now to receive your complimentary copy of the Market Ready Guide: Get Your House Ready To Sell For Maximum Profit. In this must-read, Eric also coaches you on how to interview a Realtor before you hire one.

Over 10,000 in print.

Order your copy today at 800.900.9104!

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$1,093,000

$1,175,000

14364 Chesterfield Road. Custom-built 5 bedroom, 4.5 bath Georgian in desirable Manor Country Club community. Generous sized rooms for formal entertaining, designer granite, travertine baths, hardwood floors, 4 fireplaces. English conservatory with all-season, 20’ x 40’ gunite pool complete this extraordinary offering.

6512 Old Dominion Road. Custom-built 4 bedroom, 4 full bath home with light from every axis. Fabulous features include 2-story foyer with gallery, brick family room with wall of glass to patio, Juliet balconies, master bedroom closet with electronic wardrobe carrier.

Walking distance to Balducci’s Shopping Center.

McLean, VA

McLean, VA

$988,000

7285 Evans Mill Road. Classic elegance with convenient location. Fabulous 3 bedroom, 3 bath end unit with Georgetown courtyard & detached studio with fireplace like no other in Evans Mill Pond. Meticulously maintained and decorated. Near upcoming metro.

$759,000

6434 Noble Drive. Wonderful opportunity to own in sought out McLean neighborhood! Cozy and inviting home with 3 bedrooms and 3 baths. Fenced in corner lot with carport. Enclosed sunroom and finished basement.

Just minutes to metro and easy drive to DC.

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Potomac Village

10200 River Road Potomac, MD 301.983.0060 | LongandFoster.com ®®

Bethesda, Maryland $1,549,000 Elegant 6,000 sq ft colonial on a flat, enchanting .49 acre, offers a great opportunity to live in popular Deerfield. Two story addition presents an ideal floor plan, 7 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, fabulous open kitchen area and more.

Bethesda, Maryland $1,495,000 This 4 BD, 4 full bath, 2 half bath home is beautifully sited on over ½ acres & backs to Burning Tree CC. It features large rooms, kitchen w/ granite, center island. Enclosed lap pool.

Marc Fleisher 202.438.4880/ Marc@thefleishergroup.com

Chris Koons-Byrne 240.672.6628/ Chris.koonsbyrne@LNF.com

Frankie Laborwit-Kretzmer 301.461.4548/ Frankie@LNF.com

Comus/Dickerson, Maryland $2,900,000 Magnificent 44 acre estate less than an hour to Washington, DC. Stone manor home with open floor plan and designer features. Horse stable, pool, separate apartment. Commanding views!

Toni Koerber 301.802.6770/ Toni.realtor@usa.net

Comus/Dickerson, Maryland $745,000 Private country retreat on 7.5 acres. Sections of home date to 1800s. Gorgeous one acre pond with dock, swimming pool with pool house. Poolesville School District.

Toni Koerber 301.802.6770/ Toni.realtor@usa.net

Damascus, Maryland $975,000 Stunning Craftmark Expanded Oakton model on 2 acres featuring 6 bedrooms, 6 full baths, 4 finished levels, and an in law suite with full kitchen. Outstanding mountain views and sunsets.

Toni Koerber 301.802.6770/ Toni.realtor@usa.net

Darnestown, Maryland $775,000 New Listing! Private, two acre estate home which includes Master Suite, updated kitchen with granite, formal living and dining rooms, separate area with family bedrooms and a two car side entry garage. Fresh paint and loving care.

Peg Mancuso 301.996.5953/ Peggym9@aol.com

North Potomac, Maryland $950,000 Private, scenic, classic 3 levels of masterfully designed space. 1+ acre, designer kitchen, split staircase, formal living, dining and library. Family room with gas fireplace, 2 level master, sitting room, additional guest bedrooms.

Peg Mancuso 301.996.5953/ Peggym9@aol.com

Potomac, Maryland $2,395,000 French Colonial on 2 acres with pool and spa in Camotop.

Over 8000 sq ft. Dramatic foyer with sweeping staircase.

Gorgeous kitchen with vaulted beamed ceiling opens to family room with stone fireplace. Exceptional living space!

Pam Powers 202.253.0754/ Pam@pamelapowers.net

Potomac, Maryland $1,995,000 Stunning home with a contemporary flair, 10,000 sq ft on 2 acres, offers 6 bedrooms and 5 bathrooms. Wide open floor plan, soaring ceilings, walls of windows and one of a kind features. Designed for family living and entertainment.

Potomac, Maryland $819,000 One-of-a-kind farmhouse in the heart of Potomac. Home offers original log cabin’s chestnut logs and millwork from the 1780s. First floor Master Suite with sitting room, office/library, family room open to kitchen, plant room.

Coreta Osborne 301.922.4336/ Coreta.osborne@lnf.com

Washington, DC $2,295,000 Elegant home in desirable Foxhall Crescent. Exceptional floorplan offers 4 bedrooms, 4.5 baths, 9 ft. ceilings, exquisite living room, dining room, library. Lower level with family room, study. Extensive millwork. Lovely garden.

Pam Powers 202.253.0754/ Pam@pamelapowers.net

Chris Koons-Byrne 240.672.6628/ Chris.koonsbyrne@LNF.com

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Bethesda, Maryland $1,199,000 Over 6,000 updated sq ft! Wow kitchen with huge island, breakfast room & top of the line appliances, dream master closet, family room w/ gas fireplace. 6 bedrooms, 4.5 baths.

Pam Weiss 240.498.6644/ Pam.weiss@lnf.com Kathy Lorenz 240.350.7355/ Kathy.lorenz@lnf.com

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Bethesda, Maryland $1,199,000 Best Value in Bethesda! Over 6,000 expanded and updataed sq ft. Wow kitchen with huge island, breakfast room and top of the line appliances, dream master closet, bonus room, family room with gas fireplace. 6 bedrooms, 4.5 baths.

Becky Helman 301.469.4700/ BHelman@lnf.com

Potomac, Maryland Price Upon Request Luxury Tudor style colonial on 2 acres on a private cul-desac features 5 bedrooms, 6 full and 2 half baths. Award winning designer kitchen and master bath, first floor office, two story family room, spectacular back yard.

Svetlana Danshes 301.919.2036/ danshes@yahoo.com

Potomac, Maryland $6,900,000 A premier estate home in Potomac, “AYRLAWN” holds an elegant & storied place in the history of the Nation’s Capitol.

Thoroughly upgraded, this 15,000 sq. ft. house features superb décor, modern amenities and timeless appeal.

Stacey Sauter 301.252.9705/ Stacey.sauter@lnf.com

SOLD

Potomac, Maryland $1,575,000 Grand colonial with Old World Charm on 3+ acres. 5 fireplaces. Master suite: bedroom, balcony, sitting room, 2 big closets and 2 full baths. 4 more bedrooms, 2 hall baths.

Finished lower level. Pool, tennis court and fenced yard.

Leslie Friedson 301.455.4506/ Leslie.friedson@lnf.com

Potomac, Maryland $1,074,000 Spectacular and classic elegance Dutch Colonial on quiet cul-de-sac offers 6 Bedrooms, 4 Full Baths/ renovated powder room. Situated on a 0.36 acre leveled lot w/ large deck overlooking the elegant landscaping & huge backyard.

Anna Masica 240.423.7000/ AnnaMasica@gmail.com

Washington, DC $650,000 Another stunning renovation by WSK Homes in popular, red-hot Petworth. Not your typical cookie-cutter job! High-end details wherever you look! Huge gourmet kitchen, new hardwoods, new systems and walkout lower level.

Michele Weinstein 202.412.8484/ Michele@lnf.com

Cabin John

®

Stacey Sauter

7719 Tuckerman Lane | Potomac, MD 301.469.4700 | LongandFoster.com

TOP SELLING AGENT IN POTOMAC/CABIN JOHN

Potomac, Maryland

Stacey Sauter

Luxury REALTOR® Licensed in MD & DC

$6,900,000

Built in 1991, this Classical Georgian Revival masterpiece features generously scaled rooms, a graceful floor plan, and windows that encourage abundant light. A former NSO Designer Show House, Ayrlawn’s present owner recently oversaw a thorough renovation in collaboration with a top designer and master craftsmen. Designed for an active executive/residential lifestyle, this nine bedroom, fourteen bath home blends state-of-the-art technology with warm, sophisticated décor on all four levels. Meticulous finishes and fine attention to detail throughout make this estate truly ready for refined and comfortable living. Two lush acres with irrigation system.

Easy commute to top schools, downtown Bethesda, Washington DC, and local airports. MLS: MC8353088.

301.252.9705 (cell) | Long & Foster Real Estate 301.469.4700 Stacey.Sauter@lnf.com

®

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• www.longandfoster.com

7719 Tuckerman Lane | Potomac, MD 301.469.4700 | LongandFoster.com

6/10/14 5:10 PM

® ®

[you ] Thank

for viewing The Long & Foster® Companies’ exclusive “Showcase of Homes”

No matter what your buying, selling or investment goals are, our agents can help you take advantage of real estate opportunities. When you’re ready to take the next step, we welcome you to contact one of our sales offices or expert sales associates.

Readers’ Pick— Best Real Estate Agency

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Celebrating 45 years of real estate success! Our company was founded on the principles of integrity, honesty, innovation, and customer service— values we continue to support today.

6/10/14 5:10 PM

Shifting into Neutral | Cruise Control | The Uninvited Guests

Bethesda Magazine

July/august 2014

Living in a

Lighthouse

How one couple saved a historic lighthouse and turned it into a family getaway

Bethesda Magazine HOME | July/August 2014 187

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Bethesda Magazine

July/August 2014

198

190 House Appropriations

198 Cruise Control

Outdoor furniture and accents in neutral tones and natural materials blend well with the environment and are easy to live with for years to come.

A Bethesda couple’s yacht provides the comforts of home—and then some.

COVER STORY 192 Beacon on the Bay A historic lighthouse shines on as a family getaway in Lewes, Del.

By Annie Groer Home COVER PHOTO by stacy zarin-goldberg

By Annie Groer

206 The Uninvited Guests Tired of deer treating your yard like a buffet?

Here’s how one homeowner solved the problem.

By Charlotte Safavi

212 By the Numbers A look at the most expensive home sales in the area, as well as home sales trends by ZIP codes.

roy karten

By Carolyn Weber

188 July/August 2014 | Bethesda Magazine HOME

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UNDER CONTRACT 7814 English Way, Bethesda

9716 The Corral Drive, Potomac

4301 Military Road NW #314, Washington DC

SOLD 11204 Greenbriar Preserve Lane, Potomac

SOLD 9609 Persimmon Tree Road, Potomac

In addition to her decades of real estate experience and market knowledge, Yasmin’s drive to succeed and commitment to

SOLD 9413 Falls Bridge Lane, Potomac

SOLD 9418 Thrush Lane, Potomac

excellence is second to none.

From professional staging and photography for each listing to regular market trend reports and individualized home searches for each buyer, she makes sure that everything is taken care of, from consultation to closing.

SOLD - 4.76 ACRE LOT 12501 Bridgeton Drive, Potomac

12123 Triple Crown Road, North Potomac

For additional information and photos, please visit www.TeamPotomac.com

Market Trend Reports Indivualized Home Searches Professional Staging & Photography Direct Line: 301.983.1212 | Office: 301.983.0060 | E-mail: Yasmin@starpower.net | www.TeamPotomac.com

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house

appropriations

By Carolyn Weber

Shifting into

Neutral

When summer blooms provide an abundance of color, bold hues can fight for attention. Outdoor furniture and accents in neutral tones and natural materials blend well with the environment and are easy to live with for years to come.

3

2

1 1. No room for an herb garden?

No problem. Go vertical with this space-saving, reclaimed wood wall planter. The 24-by-16-inch frame holds 10 planting cells. Water the herbs as needed through an irrigator at the top; a collector

tray at the bottom catches the excess. This cool garden artwork goes for $179.95 at Williams Sonoma in Mazza Gallerie (202-237-1602; www. williams-sonoma.com).

2. Teak wood furniture is an outdoor staple, and blends

with any decorating style.

With crisp horizontal lines, the Strata bench gives the traditional material a modern look and feel. The backless bench comes in three lengths—4, 5 and 6 feet—the largest retailing for $895. All are available

at Country Casual in Gaithersburg (301-926-9195; www. countrycasual.com).

3. It may be time to jettison the hot pink baby swing in favor of something a little more understated. The sleek, simple design of the Loll swing is

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5 4

7

6

old-fashioned and modern all at once. It’s waterproof, fade-resistant and made in the USA of recycled, post-consumer plastics. For $250, choose one of nine colors at Design Within Reach in Bethesda (301-215-7200; www.dwr.com).

4. It’s a boulder, it’s a side table—it’s both! These fun little faux stones totally rock as extra seating, a place to rest a drink, or just a fun addition to the patio. The organic shapes in natural gray tones are molded of mineral compounds, salt, sand and fiber, and are available in two sizes, large (14 inches high) and tall (18 inches high). Pick up one for $119 at Crate & Barrel in Spring Valley (202-3646100; www.crateandbarrel.com).

5. Outdoor curtains create a finished look on a porch, provide privacy and block the glaring sun.

These grommet-top panels are constructed of durable, easy-toclean olefin, are 50 inches wide and come in three lengths—84, 96 and 108 inches. Choose from several colors and patterns, including camel, camel stripe, brown circles, and green circles (pictured) for $59.95 to $69.95 at Plow & Hearth in Rockville (301-984-0031; www. plowandhearth.com).

6. Turn the patio into a real hot spot without all the labor-intensive wood chopping and flame fanning. Super convenient and a great-looking conversation piece, the 53-inch-wide wood-grain bioethanol fire table is made of

cast concrete designed to resemble stacked wood. Choose this version, which burns nontoxic bioethanol fuel, or two other options that operate on natural gas and propane.

The bioethanol fire table retails for $3,495 at Restoration Hardware in Georgetown (202-625-2771; www. restorationhardware.com).

7. This thatched market umbrella adds personality and a touch of tropical flair to a patio in the suburbs or at the beach. It could even be the perfect topper for a tiki bar. It’s 9 feet high and 105 inches in diameter, and is equipped with a three-position tilt mechanism. The umbrella is made of low-maintenance polyurethane.

Order one for $139.99 from World Market (www.worldmarket.com). n

Carolyn Weber lives in Silver Spring and frequently writes about architecture and home design.

Send product ideas to carolyn.weber@ bethesdamagazine. com.

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second homes John and Sally Freeman with their dog, Peppercorn

on the bay A historic lighthouse shines on as a family getaway in Lewes, Del.

By Annie Groer | Photos by Stacy Zarin-Goldberg

Talk about a lightning strike. It had never occurred to Sally and John Freeman to turn a derelict, 19th-century maritime landmark into the anchor of a family getaway in Lewes, Del. But on the spring day in 2002 that they bought a lot on historic Shipcarpenter Square, the 129-year-old Mispillion Lighthouse seven miles away caught fire during a violent electrical storm and burned halfway to the ground. >>

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Backyard Bounty owner Edamarie Mattei, shown here in the conservatory at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, believes in creating gardens “the way you plant vegetables—by taking care of the soil.”

The 19th-century Mispillion Lighthouse and keeper’s quarters became the centerpiece of the Freemans’ new home.

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second homes

A fireplace surround paved with crockery from an 18th-century shipwreck is the focal point of the family room. Sally Freeman collected the shards when they washed ashore during a beach restoration a dozen years ago.

A news report about the blaze caught Sally’s attention and, within weeks, the Edgemoor couple—he’s a developer known for adapting historic buildings for new uses, she chairs the board of The Writer’s Center in Bethesda—had walked through the lighthouse with a contractor and bought the decrepit wreck. What remained of the 65-foot wooden tower and lightkeeper’s quarters was dismantled, stacked on flatbeds and trucked off to storage.

Built under Congressional authorization in 1831, the original lighthouse on the site was torn down in 1859 and replaced in 1873 to guide ships through Delaware Bay. By 1932, it had been decommissioned and sold to the first in a series of private owners. Over time, nearly all the additions and outbuildings

fell into ruin, and in 2001, just months before the fire, it topped Lighthouse Digest’s “Doomsday List” of America’s most endangered beacons.

Such history was irresistible to the preservationist and his wife. “We bought it for $2,000, spent $10,000 to move it, and seven figures to build all of this,” Sally says with a laugh, describing a massive project that took two years to design and another four to construct and furnish.

The result is a knockout. Painted the original colors of crisp white with black trim in the Victorian style of the late 19th century, the lighthouse tower and keeper’s quarters are now seamlessly joined to an identically painted large, rear addition complete with gables and balconies that the couple built on the Shipcarpenter Square lot.

The Freemans’ well-honed preservation instincts followed two paths.

First, they had snapped up the vacant lot to control the view from their existing and expanded 18th-century shingled Colonial farmhouse across the street. These days its six bedrooms shelter visiting friends and family, including the couple’s four adult children, spouses and grandkids.

Then they set about finding the best way to connect the old lighthouse and the new addition, a task made easier once they located “as-built” drawings of the lighthouse prepared for the Historic American Engineering Record. The plans were part of a successful civic drive that put Mispillion on the National Register of Historic Places in 1987.

How else would the couple have

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The new addition features a large open kitchen done in nautical blue and white.

The formal dining room is decorated with period antiques.

known there were precisely 52 steps from the first floor to the light chamber, where Sally often sits with a birder’s telescope checking out all things avian?

“The view from up there is spectacular. You can see the spires of all the churches in Lewes, the rooftops of homes and the Delaware Bay. And the wraparound outdoor balcony is a great spot for watching July Fourth fireworks,” she says.

Enter by the front door, and the first room is the lightkeeper’s office, with a framed 38-star American flag from 1877 resting on the mantel. A nearby doorway connects to a small parlor decorated in shades of pale green and a narrow stairway to the right leads upstairs to the master suite. The bedroom includes a sitting area just steps from a small bathroom where a few scorched timbers remain exposed as a reminder of the fire that almost destroyed the Mispillion Lighthouse.

A spiral staircase leads up to what proved to be the home’s most problematic element—the light chamber. “The metal lantern house was fabricated in Baltimore, brought to the site on an 18-wheel flatbed truck and lifted into place with a crane. And then it leaked,” says John. “Fixing it took over a year of trial and error methodology. Finally a local vendor who provides sealants for the beds of pickup trucks dismantled the lantern floor section by section and waterproofed it successfully.”

For months, the couple searched for a rare Fresnel lens, which allows a common 40-watt bulb to throw a beam visible for miles from the rescued lighthouse. They finally found one in Maine.

A potential catastrophe that could have ignited a repeat of the 2002 fire was averted after a construction worker discovered that none of the home’s nine lightning rods had been grounded.

The new addition proved much easier to build. It features a large open kitchen and family room, a living room, a formal dining room, and a screened

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second seeinghomes the light

This small sitting room once housed the lightkeeper’s office. The flag hanging above the fireplace was made in the 1870s.

porch on the first floor, plus three bedrooms and two baths upstairs. Antique furnishings, lighting, art and accessories share space with such high-tech essentials as a flat screen TV (hidden behind a contemporary painting of the Mispillion seascape) and smart wiring for music.

“We wanted this big open kitchen because we have a big family and it’s where we spend most of our time. It’s the emotional and social hub,” Sally says.

The focal point of the family room is the fireplace surround created by Colleen Everett, an artist in Ocean City, Md. It is imbedded with shards of pottery and china that washed ashore a dozen years ago when beach restoration churned up cargo from the “Severn,” a British vessel that sank in 1774. Donning a miner’s headlamp and carrying a bucket, Sally routinely went out during low tide—sometimes at 3 a.m.—to dig up dinnerware and ballast “untouched by human hands” for nearly 230 years.

The other side of the fireplace opens onto the dining room. Like proper Victorians inclined to display multiple signifiers of prosperity, the Freemans bought period

antiques, including a 19th-century mahogany dining table that seats 12, and a large sideboard for china and silver. They had corner cupboards installed, and papered the room in a subtle, rose-colored William Morris print. An ornate, shell-encrusted mirror harkens back to the seafaring folk art form known as “sailors ’ valentines.”

Past the dining room is the living room, where the Freemans hung one of their favorite acquisitions, a Jamie Wyeth painting titled “Shingling the Lighthouse.” A life-size, antique carvedwood mermaid by an unknown artist is another cherished purchase. It is often dressed for the season, wearing sunglasses in summer, Mardi Gras beads before Lent and a Santa hat in December, and even a veil for a family wedding.

A self-described “crisis shopper” who dashes to Lord & Taylor to buy a dress mere hours before a party, Sally says she and her husband did far more planning for furnishings as they visited antiques shops and art galleries along the Atlantic Coast during and after construction. A treasure trove of Victorian hardware— knobs, hinges, stained glass doors, even

a hand-crank doorbell—came from the architectural salvage firm Olde Good Things in Manhattan and Scranton, Pa. Sally wanted identical pulls for every drawer and cabinet, and she had dozens of them cast by a Delaware jeweler from a metal button that came off a uniform of the U.S. Lighthouse Service, an agency ultimately absorbed by the U.S. Coast Guard.

With construction and restoration headaches a fading memory, the Freemans revel in their handiwork while enjoying the company of family and friends.

“We had a good laugh over the question of whether we would do this again,” John says. “Let’s just say that would be a close call. It took much longer than we anticipated, and the process generated a considerable amount of stress. The result, however, is gratifying.” n Annie Groer is a former Washington Post and PoliticsDaily.com correspondent and columnist. She writes widely about design, culture and politics, and is at work on a memoir. To comment on this story, email comments@bethesdamagazine.com.

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CHEVY CHASE $5,500,000

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MICHAEL RANKIN +1 202 271 3344 ELLEN ABRAMS +1 202 255 8219 COREY BURR +1 301 346 3345 MICHELLE GALLER +1 703 217 9405 ANNE-MARIE FINNELL +1 202 329 7117 M.A. SWENGROS +1 301 325 6513

Brick colonial on a .79-acre lot backing to Chevy Chase Club’s 14th hole. Over 7,000 SF, first floor library, bedrooms with en-suite baths, gracious master suite with 2BA, elevator.

Restored home featuring approx. 9,000 SF, high ceilings, well-proportioned rooms. En suite bathrooms, heated floors, parking for 10 cars, 4 fireplaces, limestone terrace and pool.

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This 6BR, 5.5BA home offers entertaining space and beautiful landscaped grounds with a pool, wet-bar and pergola. Upgraded thru-out.

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Exceptional 6BR, 7BA + 2 half BA estate on over 1 acre in Burning Tree. High-end amenities with comfort of a family retreat.

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.75 acre of lush gardens and lawn, 7BR, gourmet kitchen opens to family room, featuring 200-year old English pine. 4 finished levels, basement with enterCOURTNEYABRAMS +1 202 253 0109 tainment center.

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This home sits on 2 landscaped acres close to Potomac Village. Formal living room, separate dining room, eat-in kitchen with walk-out, 5BR, flagstone patio. 2-car garage, parking for 20.

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CHEVY CHASE $1,300,000

CHEVY CHASE $1,295,000

BETHESDA $1,225,000

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4BR, 3.5BA in prestigious Kenwood.

Traditional floor plan with many original finishes, family room addition on first floor and large rear deck. Minutes from Bethesda and downtown Washington.

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Colonial in Town of Chevy Chase offering updated appliances, drawing room with French doors to screened porch. Big yard with decks on 2 levels, perfect for entertaining. Garage parking. Close to downtown Bethesda, public transportation.

This renovated Colonial offers a top floor master suite + 3BRs, 4FBs, 1HB and garage parking. Features light-filled open floor living space and great room perfect for entertaining.

CHEVY CHASE $1,199,000

Minutes from downtown Bethesda, this home offers an open living room, updated kitchen with access to deck, 2 BR/1BA on main level. Master suite on 2nd level, 2-car gar with studio.

THE WILLIAMS TUCKER SNODGRASS GROUP JOINS TTR SOTHEBY’S INTERNATIONAL REALTY

CHEVY CHASE, DC $1,185,000

4BR, 4.5BA home featuring formal living room with Juliet balconies, study with fireplace and built-ins, renovated kitchen, butler’s pantry, separate dining room, gracious master suite.

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NORTH BETHESDA $839,900

3BR, 3.5BA residence near Metro, beltway and Whole Foods features open living/dining rooms, kitchen opens to family room and deck. Hardwood floors throughout 3 levels.

It is with great pleasure that TTR Sotheby’s International Realty announces that Kirsten Williams, Dolly Tucker, and Frank Snodgrass have joined our firm and will be representing us in our Chevy Chase office. If you are considering selling your home, please call or email them for a confidential discussion.

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Equal housing opportunity. All information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Price and availability subject to change.

6/3/14 11:51 AM

second homes

CRuise Control A Bethesda couple’s yacht provides comforts of home—and then some

By Annie Groer | Photos by Roy Karten

Fred Ezra commanded his first watercraft at age 6 and never looked back. As the skipper of an 8-foot plywood rowboat, he and his pals spent hours noodling around New Jersey’s Lake Hiawatha.>>

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Starr and Fred Ezra of Bethesda enjoy socializing and cruising on their 76-foot yacht, docked in Edgewater, Md. Top left: The Ezras’ yachting philosophy is captured on a pillow.

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By the 1970s in Rockville, when his own children were toddlers, he and his wife, Starr, would stow a 10-horsepower outboard motor in the back of the station wagon and put a 16-foot aluminum boat from Sears on the roof, and head for the Chesapeake Bay to go crabbing.

Fast forward about 30 years. At a 2002 Fort Lauderdale boat show, the couple was drawn to a large, previously owned motor yacht. “We saw the 76-foot Horizon and fell in love with it,” Fred says. A

dozen years later, “it is still the perfect boat for us.”

These days, Fred, 74, founder of The Ezra Co., a Washington, D.C.-based tenant advisory firm, and his wife, Starr, 72—a former teacher, therapist, and onetime “shrink and den mother” at the family business—are afloat most weekends and much of the summer between mid-April and mid-November. Their trips range from day-cruising around the Chesapeake to weeks along the Atlantic

coast as far north as New England.

The Ezras toggle easily between their five-bedroom, 1912 Spanish revival home in Bethesda’s Edgemoor neighborhood, where they raised two children, and the cozier confines of the gleaming white Starr docked at the Selby Bay Yacht Club in Edgewater, Md. The yacht sleeps 10 and has many of the comforts of home, including an outdoor grill, Wi-Fi, a washer-dryer, multiple televisions, wine coolers and places to relax.

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Above: The main salon, which leads into the pilot house, features an ivory leather sofa, a flat-screen TV hidden in the cabinetry and a wet bar with a granite countertop.

Right: The three aft staterooms, including a master suite (top), the “VIP” quarters (middle) and the grandkids’ space (bottom), are decorated with custom bedding.

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Built for rough seas, “the boat can stand a lot more than people can,” Fred Ezra says.

“We have been in situations where we both felt seasick. We always take it slow.”

“My Bethesda kitchen is very big, but I can do as much in here as I can back there,” Starr says during a recent tour of the boat. The Ezras, who have no immediate plans to sell their Edgemoor place, like to entertain 15 to 20 friends for a day of cruising. Those outings include a meal on board, or a stop at a dock so the whole gang can enjoy a local seafood restaurant.

Visitors board the Starr via the aft deck, where a gleaming teak table and six chairs hint of the hospitality to come.

Indeed, the first thing a visitor sees on the right side of the main salon is a wet bar with a granite countertop, a wine cooler, an icemaker—and a large statue

of Betty Boop.

A deeply curved ivory leather sofa invites reading, conversation, napping or TV-watching. “When we first got [the yacht], there was a very large, old-fashioned television that took up the entire bottom” of a cabinet, Fred says, “so we replaced it with a flat-screen model that you can bring up or make disappear.”

Starr also replaced the white carpeting with a more forgiving palette of sand and burgundy, and hung favorite artwork, including a large Peter Max painting in the salon; a second one hangs in their stateroom.

One step up, near the bow of the vessel, is her culinary lab, a streamlined

galley with a full-size, four-burner electric cooktop, a standard oven, an overhead microwave, a dishwasher and a trash compacter. The Sub-Zero fridge and freezer drawers, as well as built-in cabinets that utilize every inch of storage space, are concealed behind paneling of anegre, an African hardwood stained a rich burnt sienna.

A second sofa overlooks the galley and pilothouse, which is fitted with sophisticated navigation and communications equipment. It’s where Fred happily shares his seagoing philosophy: “We never rush. We never run at night. With all the modern weather forecasting technology, we don’t go out

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Left: Fred Ezra mans the navigation and communication systems in the pilothouse. Bottom left: The engine room houses sophisticated equipment for everything from air conditioning to waste disposal.

if a storm is coming. We’d rather stay over somewhere another night or two.”

The division of labor has changed over time. For most of the 51 years they have owned powerboats, the Ezras were their own crew. “Fred is very mechanical and knowledgeable and is as good as any captain,” Starr says.

Three years ago, however, they hired a live-aboard mate who “does much of the physical maintenance, helps with handling lines while I am docking and keeps the boat sparkling clean,” Fred says. As evidence that Starr once handled heavy ropes, she proudly flexes biceps kept taut by the couple’s thrice-weekly ses-

sions with a trainer when they’re home in Bethesda.

“Fred always runs the boat. I take over if he needs to leave the wheel for a short time,” Starr says. “When we travel north, we run between four and eight hours, depending on our destination. I am fortunate enough to relax and read for most of the trip, aside from preparing our lunch.”

Built for rough seas, “the boat can stand a lot more than people can,” Fred says. “We have been in situations where we both felt seasick. We always take it slow.”

That means that although the Starr can reach 20 knots, Fred prefers a more fuelefficient half speed. “At 10 knots an hour,

we use no more than 20 gallons of diesel fuel. At 18 to 20 knots, you burn 110 to 120 gallons of fuel an hour.”

Descending a tight spiral staircase up front, Starr shows off a trio of staterooms, each decorated with custom bed covers and pillows. The master suite boasts a beveled sunburst mirror above a king-size bed dressed in shades of green and red. Doorways on both sides lead to the wide bathroom—or “head” in boating parlance—with a toilet at each end, and a center shower with glass walls and his-and-hers doors painted with riotous marine flora and fauna.

The “VIP stateroom” sleeps two (usually daughter Michelle Jacoby, 48, or son, Mark, 45, and a spouse), as does a small twin-bedded chamber for grandchildren (there are eight, ages 8 to 23). Both guest rooms have a private head with a toilet and circular glassed-in shower.

Two more staterooms are at the rear of the Starr, one for the mate, the other with a set of bunk beds for two more guests.

The heart of the vessel is Fred’s man cave, which houses two 1,400-horsepower Caterpillar diesel engines, two Onan generators that run the heating and cooling; a waste treatment system; hydraulics for the bow thruster and anchor, and stabilizers to help control roll. There is also a treatment system that produces fresh water from saltwater, added when they first bought the boat and cruised the Bahamas, where, they say, the cost of buying desalted water was prohibitive.

In good weather, visitors head straight for the upper deck, “the real party space on this boat,” Starr says. A long, curved

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second homes

sofa upholstered in a weatherproof fabric snakes around the deck, offering seating for more than a dozen people. There is also a concealed grill, a two-burner stovetop, a sink and a fridge.

“I either grill or come up here to read,” Starr says. The grandkids prefer lounging on the prow, with its fitted seating and padded sunbathing area.

Mobility and camaraderie are two big lures to life on the water, the couple agrees. “Boating is a huge subculture. You meet people along the way to travel with and to party with,” Starr says.

“When we arrive somewhere, we go out to dinner and explore. The boat is not only a means to get to a place, but to enjoy being there.”

In spring, they might spend “romantic weekends” chugging to St. Michaels on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. July and August find them in the Northeast, at such boating and sailing hot spots as Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts, and New York’s Long Island. In each port, they book a slip at a yacht club or a marina and sleep on board.

On a sunny but chilly spring day, not long after the protective plastic winter wrapping was peeled off the Starr at the yacht club, the Ezras prepared for their maiden outing of 2014. They would launch the season with a weekend visit to St. Michaels as a prelude to adventures with family and friends.

“What we have loved best” about boating “has been the endless weekends and summers we have spent with our children since they were toddlers, sharing experiences and each other, living in these cozy spaces together,” Starr wrote in an email the next day. “How fortunate we are now to be able to do some of the same things with our grandchildren.” n

Annie Groer is a former Washington Post and PoliticsDaily.com correspondent and columnist. She writes widely about design, culture and politics, and is at work on a memoir. To comment on this story, email comments@bethesdamagazine.com.

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Shirley Rooker has been waging a battle to save her landscaping for 15 years— ever since white-tailed deer first appeared in the yard of her Bethesda home.

“I’ve lived here for nearly 50 years,” says Rooker, a longtime consumer advocate and the director of WUSA 9’s Call for Action. “When I moved in, there was no deer problem. The first time I saw them in my backyard I thought: how cute—until I saw they were eating my plants! Suddenly I didn’t feel so welcoming.”

Rooker is not alone. Homeowners throughout the Bethesda area are growing increasingly fed up with deer that view their yards as free food courts. In recent years, the animals have become more brazen and less fearful of humans, venturing out even in daylight to nibble on prized azaleas and rosebushes.

Though it may seem as if there are more deer than ever, the opposite is true.

According to the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, the overall deer population statewide has been in decline since 2000. Still, that’s little consolation for homeowners who spend thousands on plants and shrubs only to find them reduced to nubs by foraging deer.

George Timko, an urban deer biologist for the natural resources department, believes that suburban development actually improves conditions for deer because the fragmentation of woodlands creates the “edge” environment that they prefer—the intersper-

Snapdragons are just one of several annual and perennial flowering plants that deer don’t like to eat.

“They aren’t even afraid of coming up to the front door. After decimating the lovely tuber begonias once potted at the entrance to my home, I’m surprised the deer didn’t ring my doorbell and ask for dessert.” —Shirley Rooker of Bethesda sion of wooded areas with open spaces such as fields and housing lots. A lack of predators and food shortages caused by disappearing habitat are also enticing deer to venture closer to human habitation.

“They aren’t even afraid of coming up to the front door,” Rooker says. “After decimating the lovely tuber begonias once potted at the entrance to my home, I’m surprised the deer didn’t ring my doorbell and ask for dessert.”

Experts employ a variety of methods—some more effective than others— to control the encroachment of deer into suburban areas.

“Hunting is our most effective tool for controlling the deer,” Timko says. “Around 85,000 to 100,000 are killed annually in Maryland by hunters. But this can’t be done everywhere, especially in more developed suburban areas with local restrictions, like discharge ordinances.”

A more benign method of controlling the deer population involves sterilization. Enid Feinberg of Wildlife Rescue Inc., a nonprofit with a rehabilitation center in Freeland, Md., is collaborating with the natural resources department on the state’s first nonlethal deer management program involving doe sterilization; 69 successful ovariectomies have

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s

the univited guests

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Plant this, not that 1.

4.

3.

1. Bluebell 2. Rosemary 3. Catmint 4. Tarragon

2.

We asked Tom Aurelio of Green Team which plants deer do and don’t like. “Bear in mind that nothing is a guarantee, and there are subtle variations of deer resistance—or not—even within a given genus,” he says.

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been performed since 2011.

“What people need to know is killing deer is a bit like mowing a lawn,” says Feinberg. “The grass will grow back.

Killing doesn’t stop deer from reproducing,” Feinberg says.

After deer began appearing on Rooker’s property, she decided to fully enclose her half-acre backyard with a high, visually unobtrusive fence of 2-inch-square polypropylene meshing that met local zoning requirements. Her backyard, with its canopy of trees and shade-loving plants, has thrived since the fence, now 7 feet tall, was installed.

Even the hostas, known as “deer candy,” grow back profusely every year.

Installing the correct type of fence is one step recommended by Sandy Baker, author of How to Deer-Proof Your Garden in Five Easy Steps (Monroe County Alliance for Wildlife Protection, 2003).

Based in upstate New York, Baker consults and lectures in Maryland and throughout the Northeast corridor.

“Learning about deer behavior is important,” she says. “Deer are creatures of habit and afraid of anything new, but

Deer-resistant Plants

Deer Favorites

Bulbs: daffodils, flowering onions,

Bulbs: tulips, crocus, some lilies,

colchicum, bluebells and snowdrops

gladiola and caladium

Annuals: ageratums, vincas, dusty

Annuals: begonias, dahlias, cosmos,

millers, cleomes and snapdragons

impatiens and pansies

Perennials: hellebores, ferns, yuccas and ornamental grasses

Perennials: hostas, daylilies, sedum, Heuchera and black-eyed Susans

Evergreen Trees: spruce,

Evergreen shrubs: azaleas, Euonymuses, camellias, yews and most hydrangea varieties

cryptomeria, blue Atlas cedar, pine and Southern magnolia

Herbs: rosemary, anise, thyme, tarragon and catmint

Evergreen trees: arborvitaes, Virginia cedars, Leyland cypresses, Nellie Stevens holly and hemlocks

a note on Deciduous Trees: Deer tend to chew the lower branches of younger deciduous trees, but leave older, larger trees alone if their branches are more than 5 feet above the ground. Those with thin bark are subject to antler rubbings that can cause extensive damage in late summer to early fall, Aurelio says.

For more information, check these websites: New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station: http://njaes.rutgers.edu/ deerresistance; Maryland Cooperative Extension: https://exten sion.umd.edu/sites/ default/files/_docs/articles/FS655-ResistanceDeer.pdf

Maryland Department of Natural Resources: http://www.dnr.state. md.us/wildlife/Hunt_Trap/deer/deer_damage/ddmtplants.asp

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the uninvited guests

they’re highly adaptable and territorial.

They also travel in family groups and educate their young on what and where to eat.”

Baker also recommends that homeowners select plants resistant to deer, choose effective repellents and deterrents, and develop a customized strategic plan.

Last spring, Rooker decided it was time to revamp her front yard—a straggly mix of holly, yew and azalea—and reclaim it from the deer that snacked there, especially during the winter months when food is more scarce in the woods.

“Of course, there was no way to attractively fence in the front yard,” Rooker says. “When I started to look at plant possibilities, my major concern was spending all this money and feeding the deer.”

One alternative to installing a fence is to use a deer repellent. Whether storebought or home-concocted, most are easy-to-apply sprays that contain odors or tastes that deter deer, including fish meal, hot pepper, putrid egg, dried blood, wintergreen oil, soap and garlic.

Dr. John Grande, director of the wildlife management farm at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J., has spent years researching the field. “Deer repellants in landscaping obviously work,” he says. “But

they also require multiple repeat applications, especially after precipitation and during the wintertime, when deer have less available food in their habitats and become more invasive. If the deer population is high and they are really hungry, repellants are also less effective.”

Not willing to constantly spray her

yard, Rooker chose another option: planting deer-resistant plants. In addition to researching appropriate flora for her front yard, she also hired landscape designer Tom Aurelio of Green Team, a Manassas, Va.-based company.

“When I first used to do landscaping, we had a whole palette of plants to work with. There were no worries about deer,” recalls Aurelio, who has been in the landscaping business for 30 years. “Now we have a much more limited choice of plants that offer deer resistance.”

Those include plants with sharp thorns, prickly needles or tough-tochew leaves, such as yucca, holly osmanthus and Southern magnolia. Ornamental grasses also tend to be less prone to deer nibbling. Deer are repelled by specific strong odors, so they are not fond of herbs, including rosemary, anise, thyme, tarragon and catmint. And they avoid

plants that are toxic to them, including anything from the narcissus family.

“Tom and I worked closely together to select the right plants that would not only work, but would also thrive over time,” Rooker says.

Her front yard now contains some 22 species of deer-resistant plants—all perennials or evergreen shrubs—that are flourishing. Rooker created a layered garden that includes about 100 plants with year-round interest—without resorting to the showy annuals that deer find irresistible.

There are fragrant flowering plants, including the “Crown Jewel” gardenia and winter daphne. Those providing color range from the blue-tinged “Blue Star” juniper to the bright-green Thujopsis dwarf cypress to sweetbox’s red berries in winter, as well as variegated hue plants like Leucothoe “rainbow,” which also have graceful arching branches. For texture, there are Christmas fern and bird’s nest spruce, among others. Some of the plants add height, such as “Chindo” sweet viburnum, while ornamental grasses, such as mondo, grow closer to the ground.

“Her garden shows it is possible to have an interesting deer-resistant garden with lots of textural differences, variations in color and height, and diverse plant varieties,” Aurelio says.

Not only is Rooker delighted with the result, but she thinks she’s won the war against the deer. She recalls the footprints of visiting deer that she found in her front yard during a snowstorm last winter. The deer appeared to have approached her plants, but they had not eaten many, despite the area having endured one of the coldest and snowiest winters in recent years.

“Now I call that a victory!” Rooker says. n Charlotte Safavi is a freelance writer living in Alexandria, Va. To comment on this story, email comments@bethesda magazine.com.

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Deer tend to avoid the Southern magnolia (left) and yucca (right) because their leaves are tough to chew.

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Home

7735 Old Georgetown Road, Suite 700 Bethesda, Maryland 20814

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

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by the

NUMBERS Data provided by

April’s Most Expensive Home Sales 20816 (Bethesda)

Courtesy of Marc Fleisher Group

5320 Wehawken Road List Price: $2.3 million Sale Price: $2.3 million Days on Market: 45 Listing Agent: Marc Fleisher, Long & Foster Real Estate Bedrooms: 6 Full/Half Baths: 4/2

11110 Kenilworth Ave. List Price: $1.48 million Sale Price: $1.45 million Days on Market: 138 Listing Agent: Audrey Dyer, Long & Foster Real Estate Bedrooms: 5 Full/Half Baths: 4/1

Courtesy of Audrey Dyer

3717 Huntington St. NW List Price: $1.3 million Sale Price: $1.25 million Days on Market: 23 Listing Agent: Pamela Ryan-Brye, Long & Foster Real Estate Bedrooms: 5 Full/Half Baths: 4/1

20016 (Upper NW D.C.) 3715 Idaho Ave. NW List Price: $2.65 million

20814 (Bethesda) 5114 Hampden Lane List Price: $1.8 million Sale Price: $1.8 million Days on Market: 4 Listing Agent: Jane Fairweather, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Bedrooms: 5 Full/Half Baths: 4/1

20815 (Chevy Chase) 35 W. Lenox St. List Price: $3.6 million Sale Price: $3.3 million Days on Market: 294 Listing Agent: Marc Fleisher, Long & Foster Real Estate Bedrooms: 6 Full/Half Baths: 6/2

20896 (Garrett Park)

20015 (Upper NW D.C.)

Bedrooms: 5 Full/Half Baths: 2/2

Sale Price: $2.53 million Days on Market: 162 Listing Agent: Michael Rankin, TTR Sotheby’s International Realty Bedrooms: 6 Full/Half Baths: 5/1

20812 (Glen Echo) 44 Wellesley Circle List Price: $1. 5 million Sale Price: $1.48 million Days on Market: 0 Listing Agent: Erich Cabe, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage

20817 (Bethesda) 8506 Country Club Drive List Price: $3.5 million Sale Price: $3.2 million Days on Market: 10 Listing Agent: Wendy Banner, Long & Foster Real Estate Bedrooms: 6 Full/Half Baths: 7/2

20818 (Cabin John) 6509 81st St. List Price: $1 million Sale Price: $1 million Days on Market: 11 Listing Agent: Ellen Wilner, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Full/Half Baths: 3/1

20832 (Olney) 17008 Macduff Ave. List Price: $629,000 Sale Price: $634,000 Days on Market: 4 Listing Agent: Delia McCormick, Washington Fine Properties Bedrooms: 5 Full/Half Baths: 3/0

20850 (Rockville) 13603 Anchor Cove Court List Price: $1.2 million Sale Price: $1.1 million

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The Fleisher Group Long & FosTer reaL esTaTe, Inc.

ExquisitE FrEnch Provincial homE in chEvy chasE stunning rEnovations and WorkmanshiP

Welcome to this distinct and unique home beautifully transformed from its original ranch design into a magnificent three story French provincial with unparalleled materials and finishes. From the dramatic two story entry foyer with its clerestory windows to the breathtaking living room with cathedral ceiling, limestone fireplace and floor-to-ceiling picture window design to the fabulous kitchen with expansive center island featuring exotic granite countertop and state-of-the-art professional appliances, no detail has been spared in creating this special home reflecting the pride of ownership. Three bedroom and den grace the main level while a newly created master suite with luxury bath and private sitting room complement the upper level. A sun- filled walk-out lower level presents an incredible in-law/ guest apartment complete with living and dining room, second kitchen and bedroom with full bath. Multi-tiered flagstone terraces take advantage of breathtaking views and scenic vistas and allow for extraordinary outdoor entertaining. A circular drive enhanced with granite paving stones introduces a private two-car garage and serene entryway lined with stucco walls, flagstone walkway and specimen plantings reminiscent of the French countryside. Ideally located in close-in Chevy Chase, this wonderful home is only minutes to the heart of downtown Bethesda, the vibrancy of Friendship Heights, the multitude of shops and restaurants on Connecticut Ave and is also a stone’s throw away from Rock Creek Parkway, Candy Cane Park and equestrian stables. Offered at $1,695,000.

thef leishergroup Marc Fleisher

www.thefleishergroup.com 202.364.5200 x 2927 (O) 202.438.4880 (C)

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by the

NUMBERS

April’s Most Expensive Home Sales Days on Market: 30 Listing Agent: Marjorie Halem, Long & Foster Real Estate Bedrooms: 6 Full/Half Baths: 5/1

20851 (Rockville) 607 Linthicum St. List Price: $485,000 Sale Price: $485,000 Days on Market: 26 Listing Agent: Alireza Teimoori, Metropol Realty Bedrooms: 4 Full/Half Baths: 2/0

20852 (North Bethesda/Rockville) 6510 Tilden Lane List Price: $1.6 million Sale Price: $1.58 million Days on Market: 36 Listing Agent: Nurit Coombe, RE/MAX 2000 Bedrooms: 5 Full/Half Baths: 4/1

20853 (Rockville) 16407 Upbrook Court List Price: $749,900 Sale Price: $735,000 Days on Market: 48 Listing Agent: Nancy Terry, Long & Foster Real Estate Bedrooms: 4 Full/Half Baths: 3/1

20854 (Potomac) 10204 Iron Gate Road List Price: $5 million Sale Price: $4.4 million Days on Market: 524 Listing Agent: Marc Fleisher, Long & Foster Real Estate Bedrooms: 9 Full/Half Baths: 10/3

20855 (Rockville) 15845 Buena Vista Drive List Price: $582,500 Sale Price: $596,000 Days on Market: 5 Listing Agent: Melissa Burroughs-King, RE/MAX Realty Centre Bedrooms: 4 Full/Half Baths: 3/1

20877 (Gaithersburg) 6 Rideout Court List Price: $457,000 Sale Price: $462,500 Days on Market: 4 Listing Agent: Brenda Peters, RE/MAX Realty Centre Bedrooms: 4 Full/Half Baths: 3/1

20878 (North Potomac/Gaithersburg) 612 Firehouse Lane List Price: $1.3 million Sale Price: $1.2 million Days on Market: 122 Listing Agent: Meredith Fogle, RE/MAX Metropolitan Realty Bedrooms: 4 Full/Half Baths: 4/0

20879 (Gaithersburg) 7105 Intrepid Lane List Price: $667,900 Sale Price: $667,900 Days on Market: 11 Listing Agent: Simon Kim, SimonHomes.com Bedrooms: 5 Full/Half Baths: 3/1

20882 (Gaithersburg) 25114 Vista Ridge Road List Price: $825,000 Sale Price: $825,000 Days on Market: 12 Listing Agent: Brenda Peters, RE/MAX Realty Centre Bedrooms: 5 Full/Half Baths: 4/2

20886 (Gaithersburg) 19821 Helmond Way List Price: $600,000 Sale Price: $600,000 Days on Market: 174 Listing Agent: Barbara Goldman, RE/MAX Realty Group Bedrooms: 4 Full/Half Baths: 4/1

20895 (Kensington) 4029 Franklin St. List Price: $1 million Sale Price: $1 million Days on Market: 22 Listing Agent: Howard Morin, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Bedrooms: 3 Full/Half Baths: 3/0

20901 (Silver Spring) 4 Granville Drive List Price: $599,000 Sale Price: $607,000 Days on Market: 5 Listing Agent: Tamara Kucik, W.C. & A.N. Miller Bedrooms: 4 Full/Half Baths: 3/0

20902 (Silver Spring) 1612 Belvedere Blvd.

List Price: $599,000 Sale Price: $589,000 Days on Market: 140 Listing Agent: Leslie Friedson, Long & Foster Real Estate

Bedrooms: 4 Full/Half Baths: 3/1

20903 (Silver Spring) 10420 Rodney Road List Price: $525,000 Sale Price: $515,000 Days on Market: 174 Listing Agent: Cristopher Sutton, Keller Williams Capital Properties Bedrooms: 5 Full/Half Baths: 3/1

20904 (Silver Spring) 13805 Overton Lane List Price: $549,988 Sale Price: $550,000 Days on Market: 20 Listing Agent: Deyi Awadallah, D.S.A. Properties & Investments Bedrooms: 5 Full/Half Baths: 3/0

20905 (Silver Spring) 403 Firestone Drive List Price: $949,000 Sale Price: $890,000 Days on Market: 138 Listing Agent: Susan Ellis, RE/MAX Realty Centre Bedrooms: 5 Full/Half Baths: 4/1

20906 (Silver Spring) 15816 Laughlin Lane List Price: $900,000 Sale Price: $820,000 Days on Market: 53 Listing Agent: David Powers, Long & Foster Real Estate Bedrooms: 5 Full/Half Baths: 4/2

20910 (Silver Spring) 814 Gist Ave. List Price: $625,000 Sale Price: $625,000 Days on Market: 6 Listing Agent: Elizabeth Brent, Keller Williams Capital Properties Bedrooms: 4 Full/Half Baths: 1/2

20912 (Silver Spring) 7063 Eastern Ave. List Price: $715,000 Sale Price: $745,000 Days on Market: 6 Listing Agent: Margaret Finn, Long & Foster Real Estate Bedrooms: 3 Full/Half Baths: 2/0 Note: Some sales and list prices have been rounded off.

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Lisa Bennett and Deb Levy

EXPECT THE BEST …

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MD | DC | Va | www.debbielevy.com

6/3/14 11:17 AM

by the

NUMBERS

Real Estate Sales Trends (by Zip code) April 2013

April 2014

20015 (Upper NW D.C.)

April 2013

April 2014

April 2013

April 2014

20817 (Bethesda) Number of Homes Sold 45 30 Average Sold Price $909,479 $995,477 Average Days on Market 59 49 Above Asking Price 18 7 Below Asking Price 21 17 Sold Over $1 Million 13 10

20854 (Potomac)

20016 (Upper NW D.C.)

20818 (Cabin John)

20855 (Rockville)

Number of Homes Sold 39 41 Average Sold Price $703,040 $978,764 Average Days on Market 56 46 Above Asking Price 6 12 Below Asking Price 23 21 Sold Over $1 Million 8 15

Number of Homes Sold 4 3 Average Sold Price $753,875 $813,333 Average Days on Market 91 49 Above Asking Price 1 0 Below Asking Price 3 2 Sold Over $1 Million 1 1

Number of Homes Sold 15 8 Average Sold Price $415,213 $416,425 Average Days on Market 40 14 Above Asking Price 3 2 Below Asking Price 6 5 Sold Over $1 Million 0 0

20012 (Glen Echo)

20850 (Rockville)

20877 (Gaithersburg)

1 2 Number of Homes Sold Average Sold Price $850,000 $1.2 Mil. Average Days on Market 325 18 Above Asking Price 0 0 Below Asking Price 1 2 Sold Over $1 Million 0 1

58 42 Number of Homes Sold Average Sold Price $525,814 $534,807 Average Days on Market 35 27 Above Asking Price 14 8 Below Asking Price 37 32 Sold Over $1 Million 1 2

22 17 Number of Homes Sold Average Sold Price $315,722 $269,790 Average Days on Market 50 70 Above Asking Price 9 6 Below Asking Price 11 8 Sold Over $1 Million 0 0

20814 (Bethesda)

20851 (Rockville)

20878 (North Potomac/Gaithersburg)

37 39 Number of Homes Sold Average Sold Price $633,749 $813,523 Average Days on Market 67 28 Above Asking Price 10 12 Below Asking Price 25 21 Sold Over $1 Million 8 13

14 6 Number of Homes Sold Average Sold Price $316,289 $382,917 Average Days on Market 54 29 Above Asking Price 7 3 Below Asking Price 4 2 Sold Over $1 Million 0 0

74 71 Number of Homes Sold Average Sold Price $494,567 $526,922 Average Days on Market 45 25 Above Asking Price 24 19 Below Asking Price 35 36 Sold Over $1 Million 0 2

20815 (Chevy Chase)

20852 (North Bethesda/Rockville)

20879 (Gaithersburg)

Number of Homes Sold 30 39 Average Sold Price $1.2 Mil. $1.1 Mil. Average Days on Market 61 39 Above Asking Price 6 8 Below Asking Price 21 21 Sold Over $1 Million 14 12

Number of Homes Sold 54 50 Average Sold Price $491,170 $481,987 Average Days on Market 27 39 Above Asking Price 15 11 Below Asking Price 31 32 Sold Over $1 Million 0 2

Number of Homes Sold 26 24 Average Sold Price $319,174 $307,049 Average Days on Market 27 41 Above Asking Price 8 7 Below Asking Price 16 8 Sold Over $1 Million 0 0

20853 (Rockville)

20882 (Gaithersburg)

Number of Homes Sold 24 21 Average Sold Price $452,429 $423,119 Average Days on Market 46 44 Above Asking Price 4 8 Below Asking Price 13 9 Sold Over $1 Million 0 0

Number of Homes Sold 10 14 Average Sold Price $489,400 $538,445 Average Days on Market 71 105 Above Asking Price 1 1 Below Asking Price 8 12 Sold Over $1 Million 0 0

Number of Homes Sold 11 10 Average Sold Price $868,364 $925,213 Average Days on Market 24 39 Above Asking Price 4 5 Below Asking Price 4 4 Sold Over $1 Million 3 4

20816 (Bethesda) Number of Homes Sold 28 Average Sold Price $940,719 Average Days on Market 82 Above Asking Price 5 Below Asking Price 17 Sold Over $1 Million 11

14 $1 Mil. 10 8 6 7

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

42 49 $1 Mil. $978,510 57 54 9 15 29 22 13 12

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April 2013

April 2014

April 2013

April 2014

April 2013

April 2014

20886 (Gaithersburg)

20901 (Silver Spring)

20910 (Silver Spring)

Number of Homes Sold 48 34 Average Sold Price $270,728 $272,972 Average Days on Market 28 58 Above Asking Price 16 13 Below Asking Price 23 19 Sold Over $1 Million 0 0

Number of Homes Sold 31 24 Average Sold Price $372,805 $422,188 Average Days on Market 43 31 Above Asking Price 7 7 Below Asking Price 16 10 Sold Over $1 Million 0 0

Number of Homes Sold 25 19 Average Sold Price $461,479 $371,705 Average Days on Market 66 44 Above Asking Price 8 5 Below Asking Price 12 11 Sold Over $1 Million 1 0

20895 (Kensington)

20902 (Silver Spring)

20912 (Silver Spring)

Number of Homes Sold 26 20 Average Sold Price $559,873 $580,654 Average Days on Market 37 29 Above Asking Price 7 6 Below Asking Price 12 10 Sold Over $1 Million 1 0

Number of Homes Sold 32 35 Average Sold Price $348,391 $343,898 Average Days on Market 59 58 Above Asking Price 12 12 Below Asking Price 18 20 Sold Over $1 Million 0 0

Number of Homes Sold 26 16 Average Sold Price $416,347 $361,586 Average Days on Market 49 107 Above Asking Price 8 2 Below Asking Price 14 8 Sold Over $1 Million 0 0

20896 (Garrett Park)

20905 (Silver Spring)

2 1 Number of Homes Sold Average Sold Price $962,500 $1.5 Mil. Average Days on Market 133 138 Above Asking Price 0 0 Below Asking Price 2 1 Sold Over $1 Million 1 1

Number of Homes Sold 7 14 Average Sold Price $357,286 $489,796 Average Days on Market 202 85 Above Asking Price 1 3 Below Asking Price 6 10 Sold Over $1 Million 0 0

Information courtesy of MRIS as of May 1, 2014. 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 Mid-Atlantic 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.

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Visit us at: BEthEdsA/ChEVy ChAsE 7032 wisConsin AVEnUE, ChEVy ChAsE, md 20815 301.656.1800 www .E VErs C o . Com Bethesda Magazine HOME | July/August 2014 217

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showcase | luxury condos,

Special Advertising Section

townhomes & apartments

The Lauren bio

4802 Hampden Lane, Bethesda, MD 20814 301-830-3634 | www.thelaurenresidences.com

The Lauren is being developed by 1788 Holdings, a D.C.-based real estate investment company. The company’s capabilities include: acquisition, disposition, asset management, development, and construction for office, retail, multi-family and industrial assets.

Design by Robert M. Swedroe Architects. Sales & Marketing through TTR Sotheby’s International Realty.

The Lauren Residences is a boutique 29 unit building being constructed in the heart of Bethesda. This unique property represents a one of a kind opportunity for luxury living in some of most spacious condominium residences being developed in the D.C. area. Top of the line finishes and the ability to customize floor plans and finishes set this building apart from all the rest. The location, just one block from Metro and Bethesda Row, presents unlimited dining and shopping opportunities. The Lauren will be a full-service building with staff to manage every need of its select group of residents.

Two to four bedroom residences range from 1,500 to nearly 4,000 square feet.

Building amenities include a top of the line fitness center, wine lounge with private wine storage and a stunning rooftop terrace. Parking for two cars and storage is included in unit pricing.

courtesy of the lauren

the property:

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Special Advertising Section

showcase | luxury condos, townhomes & apartments

the Palisades of bethesda apartments & penthouses bio

4835 Cordell Ave., Bethesda, MD 20814 301-656-8006 | www.thepalisadesapts.net

Since 1965, the name Southern Management has been synonymous with quality, service and value. Whereas other companies may simply manage or own their apartment communities, Southern Management does both – assuring the highest standards in the business. It’s what makes us the leader in apartment home living, and your first choice when searching for the perfect community.

courtesy of The palisades of bethesda

the property: Step inside The Palisades of Bethesda and you are immediately surrounded by indescribable luxury and charming sophistication. Boasting a premier location on the corner of Cordell and Woodmont avenues, this beautiful high-rise promises a living experience far exceeding expectations. With free concierge services and all utilities included, The Palisades provides a perfect blend of convenience, comfort and customer service. Residents of The Palisades enjoy luxury without comparison. With sophisticated colors and contemporary wood and marble finishes, the lobby lounges and library resemble private clubs while the private fitness studio offers personal training in a windowed, spacious and bright facility – and no fees are charged for any of it. The Palisades is within walking distance of countless shopping, dining and entertainment opportunities, as well as the Bethesda and Medical Center/NIH Metro. These are just a few reasons The Palisades has established a reputation as one of the most coveted residential communities in the Metropolitan area.

Bethesda Magazine HOME | July/August 2014 219

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Special Advertising Section

townhomes & apartments

Gallery Bethesda bio

4800 Auburn Ave., Bethesda, MD 20814 877-784-3025 | www.GalleryBethesda.com

Built by The Donohoe Companies and managed by Vantage Management, Gallery Bethesda is Bethesda’s first new high-rise residence in five years. Founded in 1884, Donohoe has a reputation for high-quality urban projects in the Washington area. Vantage Management specializes in delivering a level of customer service unmatched in the Washington area.

Work is complete on Bethesda’s newest, tallest, and most luxurious apartment residence. At Gallery Bethesda you, and even your pets, will feel like you are living at a five star retreat! Whether you spend the day basking in our resort style rooftop pool, working out in our club-inspired fitness center or just catching up with friends in our 18th floor lounge, you will see that Gallery Bethesda has everything you need and more! If you are looking for a brand-new apartment home with refined, high-end finishes, concierge services and a team that is always willing to go above and beyond, then you simply must stop by Gallery Bethesda. There has never been an apartment in Bethesda quite like this. Come see it for yourself. This is your last chance to be the first to live in this amazing community!

courtesy of gALLERY BETHESDA

the property:

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Special Advertising Section

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crown bio

10000 Fields Road, Gaithersburg, MD 20878 301-424-4141 | www.SmartUrbanLiving.com

Crown is inspired by innovation. With streets named for musicians, artists and writers, Crown offers a lifestyle like no other. Amenities include a pool/clubhouse, parks, trails and even a climbing wall.

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Serenity Now | Making Connections Bethesda Magazine

JULY/AUGUST 2014

Born to Run Local podiatrist and avid runner Lee Firestone on staying fit and healthy

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Meditation is having its moment, as increasing numbers of people use the practice to cure what ails them.

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By Leah Ariniello

Podiatrist Lee Firestone of Potomac relies on chocolate milk to help repair muscles after running.

How a local podiatrist and runner stays on track

There are more than 50 million runners in the U.S., with almost 30 million people running 50 or more times a year, according to a 2013 report by the Sports & Fitness Industry Association.

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A runner since high school, Lee Firestone of Potomac is well-versed on the sport’s ability to boost overall health. And as a podiatrist since 1994, he’s also an expert on running’s downside.

“Running is one of the toughest things our feet can take,” says Firestone, who has offices in Chevy Chase and downtown Washington, D.C. With each step, runners pound about two and a half times their body weight onto their feet, he says, and as a result, about 80 percent of runners will likely encounter some kind of injury. In college, Firestone himself injured tissue supporting the arch of his foot, a common problem known as plantar fasciitis, which caused pain in his heel. And three years ago he suffered a painful partial tear of one of his Achilles tendons.

But Firestone says the benefits of running outweigh the risks, so he doesn’t plan to give it up. Instead, he follows a regimen that helps prevent or minimize injury, including strategies that aid form and ensure proper recovery.

As a result, the 48-year-old Firestone continues to run 50 to 70 miles a week.

Since recovering from his last injury in 2011, he has completed six marathons, for a total of 11 so far, and plans to complete his 12th in November.

“I want to run as long as possible,” he says.

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VARIES HIS RUNS

Firestone rotates between two types of running shoes: the more traditional Brooks Adrenaline, which promotes a rear-foot strike, and the more minimalist Brooks PureCadence, which promotes a mid-foot strike. At home, he walks barefoot.

Firestone varies his runs, jogging over hills and flat terrain. During the week, he often runs on smooth asphalt, through Rock Creek Park, for example, and on Sundays he runs on the rockier terrain of the Greenway Trail or the Seneca Ridge Trail in the Gaithersburg area.

Quality of Life.

The Payoff: Mixing it up helps strengthen a wider variety of muscles in the feet and legs, which creates better stability and lowers the risk of injury from repetitive pounding, Firestone says.

KEEPS GOOD FORM

Firestone aims for a running cadence of 180 steps per minute. He stretches, focusing on his calves, for about five minutes between his 1-mile warm-up jog and his main run, as well as at the end of the day. He also performs exercises, including planks, for about 15 minutes daily to strengthen his core.

He sometimes places supportive orthotic insoles, such as Superfeet, inside his sneakers. Firestone replaces his shoes after he has run 500 to 750 miles in them.

The Payoff: Firestone says his running cadence achieves a mid-foot strike, the best position for his feet to absorb shock. The stretching, core strengthening, and the use of insoles help Firestone maintain proper form and biomechanics while running, which wards off injury—as does keeping his shoes in good condition. “One of the most overlooked factors in running injuries is running in old shoes,” he says.

MAKES RECOVERY A PRIORITY

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Within 30 minutes after running, Firestone drinks chocolate milk.

He takes one day off a week from running. After age 50, he plans to take two. If he feels pain, he’ll stop running for about three days and reevaluate.

After a run, Firestone ices sore spots or areas recovering from injury for 10 to 20 minutes, generally avoiding anti-inflammatory drugs. He may use a racquetball to massage a sore foot, or he’ll get a sports massage.

The Payoff: The chocolate milk’s balance of carbohydrates and protein helps repair muscles, he says.

His weekly running breaks allow time for muscles to recover. Firestone says the body needs more recovery time with age, requiring older runners to take a longer rest. A longer break further bolsters the body’s ability to recover and can head off a more serious problem. “No improvement [from any pain] within three days is a sign to seek medical attention,” he says.

Applying ice helps reduce inflammation without the potential negative effects of anti-inflammatory drugs, which Firestone says may tax the kidneys if a runner is dehydrated, interrupt the healing process and also mask pain, allowing runners to unknowingly hurt themselves even more. Massage helps increase blood flow and aids healing, he says. ■

Leah Ariniello lives in Bethesda and frequently writes about health.

To comment on this story or suggest subjects, email comments@bethesdamagazine.com.

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Serenity Now Meditation is having its moment, as increasing numbers of people use the practice to cure what ails them

By Stacey Colino I’m lying on my back in an airy, sun-

drenched studio at The Mindfulness Center in Bethesda, trying to empty my mind. But an overwhelming to-do list with work deadlines, my parents’ health issues and other daily concerns keeps intruding.

Pay attention to your breathing, Deborah Norris, the center’s co-founder and executive director, tells me and the dozen strangers around me on this fall morning. She urges us to clear our minds, to release areas of tension in our bodies, and simply observe random thoughts as they float by without reacting or holding onto them.

Become conscious of your own internal energy, she says, and focus on the natural rhythms inside our bodies, the elements that make each of us unique.

It isn’t easy. But after engaging in a thorough stretching routine and focusing on my breathing, I find my frazzled mind feeling clearer, even calm.

For years, I’ve admired people who meditate regularly and envied their apparent serenity. But I’ve never thought it was for me. Sitting still, doing nothing for long periods of time seemed like an exercise in frustration.

And chanting “om”? Um, I didn’t think so.

Then I tried it for the first time last summer during BodyFlow, a fusion class at Bethesda Sport & Health that incorporates elements of tai chi, yoga and Pilates. As I learned to clear

my mind and focus on my breathing, I found myself enjoying shavasana, the final meditative phase of a yoga session.

I emerged feeling a calm, clear, focused energy that was both restorative and invigorating. And over time, my sleep improved, my stress levels diminished, and I felt more grounded physically and mentally.

I’m hardly alone in becoming a medita-

tion convert. A 2007 survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that more than 20 million people in the U.S. had practiced meditation in the previous year.

And that number has grown, experts say.

Since the nonprofit Mindfulness Center opened in Bethesda in 2009, some 8,000 people have attended its classes and retreats.

Meditation classes also are being offered in schools, Marine Corps training programs and in corporations. Mindfulness programs— which train people to focus on what’s happening at a given moment, rather than on the past or future—are being introduced in many local schools, including Chevy Chase Elementary this year.

As part of the trend, there are labyrinths for walking meditation at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda and the Georgetown Waterfront Park in D.C., as well as at some local churches. >>

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Jessie Norris, daughter of co-founder and executive director Deborah Norris, meditating at The Mindfulness Center in Bethesda

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serenity now

Meditation has been practiced for thousands of years in Eastern religions and cultures. But only in recent decades has it evolved into a secular practice, starting with transcendental meditation (TM) and continuing with the mindfulness meditation practice that’s becoming increasingly popular in this country.

Many modern approaches simply involve concentrating on your breath, a soothing saying, a sound or an image of your own choosing.

Studies funded by the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda have found that

“Sometimes it seems like it’s too good to be true, but it’s important to remember that meditation is not a pill, it’s a practice.”

—Deborah Norris, co-founder of The Mindfulness Center in Bethesda

practicing transcendental meditation significantly reduces blood pressure, improves insulin resistance (a risk factor for diabetes), reduces atherosclerosis (clogged arteries), and improves quality of life and functionality of patients with heart failure.

In 2011, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital reported that people who practiced mindfulness meditation for 30 minutes a day for eight weeks also gained measurable density in the parts of the brain associated with learning, memory, emotion regulation, empathy and stress.

Research at the University of California, San Francisco, has found that mindfulness meditation techniques may slow cellular aging, as well, perhaps by preserving the length of telomeres, the protective caps at the ends of chromosomes.

“Telomeres are a marker of aging, because when telomeres start to get too short, DNA unravels and the biological aging process can accelerate,” says Dr. Charles Raison, associate professor of integrative mental health at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Scientists don’t yet know why meditation might

affect telomeres, but in theory, a regular meditation practice could help people live longer and more healthfully.

Meditation also has been shown to alleviate chronic pain (from arthritis, for example), reduce anxiety and depression, ease insomnia, enhance immune function and facilitate the healing of wounds. In a study published in a 2003 issue of Psychosomatic Medicine, researchers found that people who participated in an eight-week mindfulness meditation program had a greater antibody response to a flu shot than those in a control group did.

“In every realm in which scientists have looked, we’ve seen beneficial effects,” says Norris, who happens to be a neuroscientist as well as director of the psychobiology of healing program at American University. “Sometimes it seems like it’s too good to be true, but it’s important to remember that meditation is not a pill, it’s a practice—and it finetunes the systems that are already regulating our bodies. But it does this according to our individual needs—that’s one way it’s different from medications.”

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Several high-profile individuals have attributed their well-being and success to meditation, further promoting the trend.

Last year, Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) came out with A Mindful Nation (Hay House), urging people to adopt a mindfulness meditation practice. He says it helped him reduce stress, quiet his mind and harness more of his energy.

Similarly, Ray Dalio, considered one of the top hedge fund managers in the world and the founder of Westport, Conn.based Bridgewater Associates, has attributed part of his success to a twice-a-day meditation habit. He has spoken on the subject at conferences for business executives over the past few years.

In 1998, Tara Brach, a clinical psychologist and well-known teacher of Western Buddhist meditation who lives in Great Falls, Va., began teaching a Wednesday night meditation class to a small group at the River Road Unitarian Universalist church in Bethesda. Today, about 250 people attend those weekly sessions.

“I’ve seen a high increase in the number of people coming in for meditation,” says Jenna Mahrha, director of the Meditation Museum in Silver Spring, which opened in 2009 and offers training programs to cultivate personal and spiritual growth. “People come because they want to feel better—but they discover that being more reflective also helps them focus faster and be more effective because their mind becomes clearer.”

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The Name Game

Here’s a look at some of the different forms of meditation being practiced today.

Mindfulness meditation: Probably the most popular form of meditation in the U.S., mindfulness meditation involves developing a conscious awareness and acceptance of living in the present moment—often by focusing on your breathing while letting your mind roam free as you sit or lie still.

Transcendental Meditation: Sometimes called “mantra meditation,” transcendental meditation involves repeating a calming word or phrase (such as “I’m a peaceful soul”) to focus your mind and achieve a deep state of relaxation and a higher sense of consciousness. When thoughts arise during the practice, you’re supposed to disregard them and return your attention to your mantra.

Zen meditation: This is a sitting meditation that involves cultivating mental quietude. By focusing all of your attention on a koan (a story, question or statement such as “what is the sound of one hand clapping?”), you try to clear your mind, get in touch with your true nature and understand your purpose.

amy moore

Visualization meditation: Considered to be a powerful meditative practice in the Buddhist tradition, visualization meditation involves focusing on the image of, say, a setting sun or a place you find personally relaxing, and imagining the sights, sounds and smells you would experience there.

Brenda Sonneveldt, a Chevy Chase mother of two, has had epilepsy since age 23. Her seizures became so severe—along with migraines and TMJ (temporomandibular joint disorder)—that she decided to leave her job as a technical writer in the summer of 2012 so she could have more time to relax and meditate.

She took classes, and then honed her ability to meditate on her own, practicing for an hour every morning. Over the last year, the frequency and severity of her seizures have decreased dramatically.

“Now I only get partial seizures that are so light—it’s like a flick of a light switch and I’m able to go back to my regular day,” she says. “It used to be like I’d have a hangover from them because they were so strong.”

Jane Scott has realized the benefits of meditation, as well. When she moved from Boston to Bethesda in 2007, she found her stress levels soaring as she adjusted to a new job and a new city. She experienced sleep disturbances, muscle tension in her shoulders, general restlessness and spasms in her right eye.

Taking a group meditation class at The

Compassion meditation: This approach often involves silently repeating certain phrases (such as “May I be filled with loving kindness” or “May we all be well and happy”) that express the intention to move from judgment to caring and understanding, from personal isolation to a greater connection with others, says Dr. Charles Raison, associate professor of integrative mental health at the University of Arizona in Tucson. The goal is to generate compassion toward all living beings.

Moving meditation: Forms of movement that involve breath work, visualization or other ways of focusing your mind are often considered “moving meditation.” These practices—which can include tai chi, yoga, qigong or simply walking on your own or in a labyrinth—generally combine elements of meditation, relaxation, breathing exercises and physical movement to help people restore or maintain an internal sense of balance.

—Stacey Colino

Mindfulness Center helped her learn to listen to her body and calm her mind.

After four weeks, the eyelid spasms ceased. “I hadn’t been a believer [in the power of meditation] until that point because I didn’t have anything objective to look at in terms of results,” says Scott, a program officer at the National Institutes of Health. “Being able to turn off those spasms was a big aha moment for me—it told me that I needed to pursue meditation, and I did.”

As she continued over the course of a year, the muscle tension in her body eased, her sleep improved and she learned how to release feelings of stress.

The benefits were so great that Scott now meditates 10 to 15 minutes daily at home

and occasionally takes group classes at The Mindfulness Center.

Meditation techniques can vary, from reciting a mantra to simply focusing on your breathing. Each approach has the same basic goal, however: to calm the mind and be in the moment rather than dwelling on the past or the future.

“People often have thoughts that are related to the past or to anticipating the future—but we’re better off living in the present and letting other thoughts pass like clouds in the sky,” says Lawrence Sank, a clinical psychologist with the Cognitive Therapy Center of Greater Washington in Bethesda. “Meditation

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serenity now can be an on-ramp to the ultimate goal of becoming more mindful in everyday life.”

Sank recommends the practice to patients who suffer from chronic pain, insomnia, depression and anxiety, as well as those who experience sexual problems related to performance anxiety.

“Many men who have sexual dysfunction issues are so focused on whether they can get or sustain an erection, they’re not focused on the sensations in their bodies,” says Sank, who is writing a book about cultivating mindfulness for people living in the fast lane. “Sex can be pleasurable with or without orgasms. Meditation helps people focus on the sensations in their bodies and being more experienceoriented than goal-oriented.”

Similarly, he says, meditation can help with pain management by bolstering people’s sense of control as well as their awareness of other sensations. That way, “pain doesn’t become the centerpiece of their lives,” he says.

Though scientists haven’t figured out how meditation alleviates various health conditions, there are several theories.

Transcendental meditation, for one, “settles down the sympathetic nervous system [which is responsible for mobilizing the body’s fight-or-flight response],” says Dr. Norman Rosenthal, a psychiatrist based in North Bethesda and author of Transcendence: Healing and Transformation Through Transcendental Meditation (Tarcher, 2011).

“This lowers blood pressure and calms the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, which is activated by stress. TM will lower blood pressure while you’re meditating, but there is apparently a carry-through effect. That’s a huge deal, because high blood pressure is a big risk factor for cardiovascular disease.”

This reduction in blood pressure and calming of the sympathetic nervous system helps people react less to stressful events and reduces anxiety and depression, he says. In effect, “TM acts as a surge protector,” says Rosenthal, a clinical professor of psychiatry at Georgetown University School of Medicine who has practiced TM for 20 minutes twice daily for decades.

About 10 years ago, Denise Keyes of Bethesda began doing TM daily for general stress relief and to calm her nerves before giving presentations. In 2011, she

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also began taking mindfulness meditation classes at The Mindfulness Center.

“It’s something I really can’t do without,” says Keyes, the senior associate dean of the division of professional communication at Georgetown University’s School of Continuing Studies. “It’s given me a whole different perspective on the power of meditation. In the past, it was focused on the outside—on the mantra. By focusing on the breath, it brings it inside so quickly.”

The practice has reduced her blood pressure (from borderline high to “stellar,” she says), helped her follow a healthier diet and led to better sleep.

“I tend to be a very adrenaline-driven person, which is not good for any of us as we get older,” Keyes says. But now “I can feel a good physical balance in my body.”

A Silver Spring resident who asked not to be identified says mantra meditation was instrumental in his recovery from alcoholism. Since joining a 12-step program in 1988 and taking meditation classes, he has been meditating on his own for 10 to 20 minutes a day.

“In early recovery, when I was working hard to stay away from having a drink, meditation helped mitigate my cravings,” he says. “Now it helps quiet the mental chatter, it helps me feel centered, and it helps me be able to accept the events and people around me far better than I otherwise would.”

Another benefit of regular meditation: He no longer suffers from cluster headaches.

None of this is news to Norris. “The brain seems to be the pathway in [to these physical benefits],” she says. “Meditation has been shown to produce physiological changes—it elevates melatonin levels, reduces cortisol and adrenaline levels, and balances reproductive hormones. It also creates greater harmony between different parts of the brain.

“What meditation is really teaching us,” Norris says, “is to create the brain state of our own choosing.” n Stacey Colino lives in Chevy Chase and frequently writes about health for national magazines such as Family Circle and Real Simple. To comment on this story, email comments@bethesdamagazine.com.

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Making

Connections For a Kensington couple, news of their son’s devastating diagnosis

By Rita Rubin was a call to action Nineteen weeks into her pregnancy, Andrea Cole and her husband, Eric,

were excited about the sonogram that would reveal the sex of their first child. They already had names picked out: Ryan if it was a boy, Victoria—Tori for short—if it was a girl. Their parents, his in Alabama and hers in Silver Spring, couldn’t wait to hear the news.

But the routine sonogram took a devastating turn. As Andrea lay in the darkened exam room, Eric by her side, the radiologist delivered the blow.

“It looks like part of the back of his brain is missing,” the doctor said. He suspected their baby had a birth defect called Dandy-Walker syndrome.

“It really felt like a Mack truck hit me,” Andrea recalls.

michael ventura

Nine years later, the Coles sit at the dining table in their airy Kensington

home, the memory of the radiologist’s words as vivid on this spring afternoon as if they’d been uttered just moments earlier.

Andrea and Eric went home that day, cried, and then called their parents, who were eagerly awaiting the news of their grandchild’s sex. Eric’s parents jumped into their car and drove more than 800 miles to Kensington to offer emotional support.

The next day, additional sonograms and MRIs confirmed the diagnosis.

The Coles had never heard of Dandy-Walker, and in the weeks that followed they searched for an organization that could provide information about it and connect them with other families raising children with the syndrome. When they didn’t find one, they put their respective areas of expertise to work: Eric is an information technology specialist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda; Andrea is an analyst at the Department of Defense. They mined PubMed, the online database of medical journals managed by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, part of NIH, for articles about Dandy-Walker.

A year after their son was diagnosed in utero, the Coles created a website, DandyWalker.org, and posted abstracts of studies about Dandy-Walker from peer-reviewed medical journals, along with additional information and resources. They wanted Bethesda Magazine HEALTH | July/August 2014 239

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making connections

other parents who Googled “DandyWalker” to find more than they had.

The Coles continued to add resources to the website, including information about NIH-funded research and a blog to enable families to connect with each other.

“We got hit with a tidal wave of requests from around the world,” Eric says.

In September 2007, the Coles incorporated the Dandy-Walker Alliance as a nonprofit. It has no members–a deliberate decision by the Coles. In their search for information, they had encountered many requests for membership or subscription fees, and they didn’t want to place any obstacles in the path of desperate families.

Dandy-Walker syndrome is named for the two Johns Hopkins neurosurgeons who independently described it in the first half of the 20th century. It involves malformations of the cerebellum, an area at the back of the brain that controls movement, and the fluid-filled spaces around it.

Key characteristics include the enlargement of a small channel through which fluid flows between the upper and lower areas of the brain and spinal cord, the partial or complete absence of the part of the brain that connects the two halves of the cerebellum, and the formation of a cyst inside the skull, near the base.

Most children with Dandy-Walker syndrome develop hydrocephalus, a condition in which cerebral spinal fluid builds up in the brain, requiring the placement of a special tube, or shunt, to drain it and reduce pressure and swelling. As the alliance notes on its website, the syndrome is frequently associated with other central nervous system disorders, as well as malformations of the heart, face, limbs, fingers and toes.

According to the International Society for Pediatric Neurosurgery, DandyWalker syndrome occurs in about one in 30,000 live births, but Eric says that statistic is misleading. If you go beyond live births and count terminations and miscarriages of fetuses with the brain defect, Dandy-Walker syndrome is more than 10 times more common, occurring in

Ryan Cole’s service dog, Merit, knows 90 commands and accompanies the 9-yearold everywhere except school.

one in 2,500 pregnancies, he says. “From an advocacy perspective, it doesn’t always work to your benefit to make it sound like the rarest thing in the world,” Eric says.

Dr. John Myseros, a neurosurgeon at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and a member of the Dandy-Walker Alliance advisory board, says he sees three to 10 children with the condition each year. Some, like Ryan Cole, are diagnosed in the womb. Some are not diagnosed until after birth, when slow motor development and progressive enlargement of the skull in infancy, or symptoms of increased pressure inside the skull during childhood, provide clues.

Despite their brain malformation,

about half of the children born with Dandy-Walker syndrome have normal intelligence, although they might have movement or balance problems, says advisory board member Dr. William Dobyns, a medical geneticist and pediatric neurologist at the University of Washington in Seattle. If the symptoms are subtle and the individual never undergoes any type of brain scan, the malformation could go undetected, Dobyns says. He notes that the syndrome has been discovered in autopsies of one or two people who died in their 80s.

From the start, though, says 41-yearold Eric, health care professionals painted a grim prognosis. A genetics

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Ryan and Dr. Myseros

counselor predicted their son was “likely to be a vegetable,” and raised the option of terminating the pregnancy.

The Coles wanted to have the baby, but “we really didn’t know exactly what we were going to be dealing with,” says Andrea, who’s now 40. Would he ever be able to talk? Would he ever be able to walk?

Myseros says it’s virtually impossible to predict what a baby born with DandyWalker syndrome might accomplish.

“Parents want to know if their kid is going to college, if they’re going to play sports. I don’t know the answers to any of those questions,” he says. “Time will tell.”

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At the Center for Integrative Brain

Research at Seattle Children’s Hospital, Dobyns and colleague Dr. Kathleen Millen have identified four Dandy-Walker genes and have leads on three others that play a role in the syndrome.

When he needs more patients for his Dandy-Walker research, Dobyns says “the most effective way to get them is to ask Eric.”

Dobyns has been studying DandyWalker for nearly 15 years and is one of the world’s leading experts, but even he doesn’t receive as many referrals as he would like.

One reason: Many of the patients referred to him have a defect in the back part of their brain, but it’s not exactly the same as Dandy-Walker syndrome.

“I end up changing the diagnosis probably half the time,” Dobyns says.

“Dandy-Walker is the best-known birth defect of the cerebellum, but not the only one. The medical community has this amazing confusion about what true Dandy-Walker is.”

Part of the problem is semantics, in particular the often-used term “DandyWalker variant,” he says. Only about 5 percent to 10 percent of children diagnosed with Dandy-Walker variant have true Dandy-Walker syndrome, Dobyns says.

Labeling other defects of the cerebellum as Dandy-Walker leads doctors to dispense erroneous information to patients’ families, he says. For example, the chance that the parents of a child

“Parents want to know if their kid is going to college, if they’re going to play sports.

I don’t know the answers to any of those questions. Time will tell.”

— Dr. John Myseros, a neurosurgeon at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C. with true Dandy-Walker syndrome will have another child with the birth defect is “lower than low,” although not unheard of, he says. But other defects of the cerebellum have a much higher chance of running in families.

And while 50 percent to 80 percent of children with true Dandy-Walker have hydrocephalus, Dobyns says, he has seen only one case of hydrocephalus in a child diagnosed with Dandy-Walker variant.

In late January, the Dandy-Walker Alliance launched an online patient registry to enable patients, family members and researchers to gather and share information and health histories. So far, more than 100 patients have been entered into the registry, Eric says.

“This registry will help us better understand the major health issues among individuals with Dandy-Walker, improve the natural history for the diagnosis and help us recruit for future pre-clinical research studies and therapeutic clinical trials,” the registry’s home page notes.

In addition to connecting Dobyns with children who have the syndrome, the Coles have raised money through

efforts such as the annual Dandy Walker Awareness Day at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., to help pay for his research, which requires expensive technology to track down relevant genes. He also has a grant from the National Institutes of Health to study Dandy-Walker.

“If it’s a simple disorder where you know you’re going to find the same gene in every family, you just need one or two families,” Dobyns says.

But nothing about Dandy-Walker is simple. “There’s no question that there are different genes in different kids,” he says.

Instead of one or two families, Dobyns says he probably needs 50 or more to detect genetic themes in Dandy-Walker.

Thanks to the alliance, he has far more than that. The alliance recently paid for whole exome sequencing of 300 “trios,” meaning a child with the syndrome and his or her parents. Whole exome sequencing analyzes the exons, or coding regions, of thousands of genes. The exome, which represents a tiny percentage of the entire genome, directs the body to make proteins essential for proper function.

Though the research might never

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making connections

“I end up changing the diagnosis probably half the time. Dandy-Walker is the best known birth defect of the cerebellum, but not the only one.

The medical community has this amazing confusion about what true Dandy-Walker is.”

— Dr. William Dobyns, medical geneticist and pediatric neurologist and member of the Dandy-Walker Alliance advisory board benefit his son, Eric remains passionate about the need for answers. “I could accept the Dandy-Walker diagnosis,” he says. “I couldn’t accept that we didn’t know what caused it.”

Shortly before Ryan was born in

2005, Myseros told the Coles: “One day you’re going to look down and not see Dandy-Walker. You’re going to look down and see your son.”

It has not been an easy road, starting with Ryan’s premature birth, which was not thought to be related to DandyWalker. About 28 weeks into her pregnancy, Andrea’s water broke. She was at work and started having contractions.

She was admitted to George Washington University Hospital on a Friday and received steroid injections to reduce the risk of lung problems in her baby. Ryan was born weighing 1 pound, 15 ounces on the following Tuesday, May 3—the same birth date as the late folk singer Pete Seeger, a supporter of the alliance whose nephew, now 62, has Dandy-Walker.

Ryan spent the first 94 days of his life and 156 days of his first year in Children’s National Medical Center. Blood in his stool led to the diagnosis of necrotizing enterocolitis, an intestinal problem linked to prematurity, which necessitated the temporary placement of a feeding tube in his stomach. At home, he needed oxygen through a tube attached to his nose and caffeine through his feeding tube to maintain his breathing.

A month after his first birthday, Ryan had a shunt inserted into his brain to treat hydrocephalus. Two days later the shunt

failed. During surgery for a new one, he experienced a brain bleed. Afterward he started having seizures, and for the next three years he took anti-seizure medication.

During that time, Andrea says, “he was severely delayed in all areas.” He could stand and walk only while holding on to something, and he couldn’t talk. He attended a special needs preschool and communicated on a limited basis through sign language and picture cards. But he couldn’t communicate important things, such as if his head hurt, which could be a sign that his shunt was malfunctioning.

When Ryan finally was able to stop taking anti-seizure medication at age 4, however, he began walking unaided and it was as though his speech switch had been flipped on.

“Now that he can talk, life’s a whole lot easier,” Eric says. “If he wants to do something this weekend, he’ll let you know.”

Ryan also loves to sing—loudly, his parents say with a laugh as their son’s rendition of a hymn he learned in church emanates from another room in the house.

Today, as Myseros predicted, the Coles don’t see Dandy-Walker when they look at their sandy-haired, bespectacled son, who turned 9 in May. Instead, they see “an active little boy who loves doing what little boys do,” his father says. “He probably has more therapy appointments than most, but he has hopes, dreams and aspirations like everyone else.”

Ryan will enter fourth grade this fall at the special needs Learning Center at Burning Tree Elementary School in Bethesda.

He can dress himself, although his parents say they’re still working on getting

him to bathe and brush his teeth. He can read and write, albeit on a first-grade level, his mother says. He has a full schedule of extracurricular activities, including Cub Scout meetings, horseback-riding lessons, and speech, physical and occupational therapy sessions. He can ride a bike with training wheels, and this summer he’s going to day camp.

Ryan has a service dog named Merit, an affectionate golden retriever/yellow lab mix who accompanies him everywhere except school, Eric says. The dog joined the family last August and knows 90 commands.

Eric calls to Ryan and asks him to demonstrate one of Merit’s most important duties. Ryan lies down on the floor, and, without prompting, the dog stands guard over him, his paws on both sides of the boy. If Ryan ever falls down in the street, Merit will immediately assume that position. Fortunately, the dog hasn’t needed to do that, but if Ryan stumbles at home, “Merit will come over and kind of hover by him,” Eric says.

A neuropsychology evaluation in the spring of 2013 found that Ryan had a “mild intellectual disability,” Andrea says, adding that the likelihood of her son attending college is low.

“I don’t know if he’ll ever have an apartment by himself,” her husband adds. But even though he might have trouble with the math needed to pay his bills, he will be able to work, his mother says with certainty.

“He’d probably tell you he wants to be a lifeguard,” Eric says as Ryan stands and holds a clipboard close to his face. “He’s attracted to any positions of authority— priest, teacher, lifeguard, fireman. He’s actually mimicking the lady who does bus dismissal.”

When a visitor asks Ryan about his favorite subjects in school, the boy replies, “lunch and recess.”

His dad smiles. “Just like a typical 9-year-old,” he says. n Rita Rubin was a health writer for USA Today for many years. She lives in Bethesda. To comment on this story, email comments@bethesdamagazine.com.

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health & fitness calenDAR

RUNNING/WALKING EVENTS The Adventist Healthcare Walking Club, 8-9:30 a.m. Tuesdays. Westfield Montgomery Mall, 7101 Democracy Blvd., Bethesda. The free event is open to people of all ages and fitness levels. Register to become a walking club member from 8 to 9:30 a.m. at the food court. Registrants receive a gift and invitations to free health screenings and events. 301-315-3030, www.

AdventistHealthCare.com/WalkingClub. Rise and Shine Walking Program, 8:309:30 a.m. Wednesdays. Lakeforest Mall, 701 Russell Ave., Gaithersburg. Free. 301-8963100, www.suburbanhospital.org.

Autism Speaks 5K, 8 a.m. July 4. Potomac Village Library, 10101 Glenolden Drive, Potomac. The race is presented by Autism Speaks, an autism advocacy organization.

Proceeds will go toward funding research and increasing awareness of autism. A 1-mile walk will begin at 8:05 a.m. $35; $40 on race day; $15 for ages 14 and younger at all times. Registration fees are the same for the 1-mile walk. www.autismspeaks5k.org.

Darcars Rockville Rotary Twilight Runfest, 8:45 p.m. July 19. North Washington Street, Rockville Town Center. The 8K race starts and ends on North Washington Street and winds through Rockville neighborhoods.

After the race, stay for live music and refreshments. A 1K fun run begins after the end of the 8K race and a 2-mile family fitness walk also will take place. $34 through June 30; $39 July 1-18; $45 on race day; $20 for 1K fun run and fitness walk through race day. www.rockvilletwilighter.org.

Eastern County 8K and Fun Run, 7:30 a.m.

Aug. 23. Martin Luther King Jr. Park, 1102 Jackson Road, Silver Spring. The fun run is eight-tenths of a mile. $10; $5 younger than 18; free for members of Montgomery County Road Runners Club. www.mcrrc.org.

FITNESS EVENTS Hope Connections for Cancer Support, 9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda. 301-6347500, www.hopeconnectionsforcancer.org.

Classes are free.

Compiled by Cindy Murphy-Tofig

Gentle Yoga, 10 a.m. and 11:15 a.m.

Mondays and Wednesdays. Stretching, breathing and relaxation exercises can help improve muscle tone and stress management. The class also takes place 11 a.m. Mondays at the Aquilino Cancer Center, 9905 Medical Center Drive, Rockville.

Pink Ribbon Pilates, 12:30 p.m.

Wednesdays. The class, for breast cancer patients, helps with regaining strength and mobility in shoulders and arms, and helps improve energy levels.

Holy Cross Resource Center, 9805 Dameron Drive, Silver Spring. 301-754-7000, www.holycrosshealth.org.

Yoga I, 6:15 p.m. Mondays, July 7-28 and Aug. 4-25; also 9 a.m. Thursdays, July 31-Aug. 28. The class is both a physically active and meditative experience. $50 for July 7-28 and Aug. 4-25 sessions; $60 for July 31-Aug. 28 session.

Yoga II, 7:45 p.m. Mondays, July 7-28 and Aug. 4-25; also 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, July 31-Aug. 28. For students who have already taken Yoga I. $50 for July 7-28 and Aug. 4-25 sessions; $60 for July 31Aug. 28 session.

Pilates, 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays, July 23Aug. 27. Improve flexibility, posture and core strength in this six-week class. $70.

Destination Maternity, Westfield Montgomery Mall, 7101 Democracy Blvd., Bethesda. 301-754-8800, www.holycross health.org.

Prenatal Exercise, 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Aug 5.-Sept. 9. The class includes stretching, toning, strength training and cardiovascular exercise. A note from a health care provider is needed to participate in the class. $50.

Moms on the Move, 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Aug. 5-Sept. 9. The six-week class combines yoga and Pilates in a workout that builds strength and awakens abdominal muscles. The class is for women who delivered their babies at least six weeks before the start of the class. $50.

Postnatal Yoga/Pilates, 11 a.m. Thursdays, Aug. 7-Sept. 11. Learn mother‑baby postures and massage, designed to strengthen, stretch and tone in this class designed for both mom and baby (ages 6 weeks to 9 months). Bring a pouch-type baby carrier to class. $50.

Prenatal Yoga, 10 a.m. or 11:15 a.m.

Saturdays, Aug. 9-Sept. 20. Learn relaxation techniques, postures for stretching and ways to strengthen muscles used during labor and delivery. A note from a health care provider is needed to participate in the class. $50.

Postnatal Yoga/Pilates, 11 a.m. Fridays, Aug. 8-Sept. 12. Holy Cross Resource Center, 9805 Dameron Drive, Silver Spring.

Learn mother-baby postures and massage, designed to strengthen, stretch and tone in this class designed for both mom and baby (ages 6 weeks to 9 months). Bring a pouchtype baby carrier to class. $50.

Twinbrook Tri, 7:30 a.m. Aug. 10. Twinbrook Swimming Pool, 13027 Atlantic Ave., Rockville. The event encompasses a 350-meter swim, a 4-mile bike ride and a 1.5-mile run. $65. www.triitnow.com/ Twinbrook/twinbrookitri.htm.

SUPPORT GROUPS Support groups are free unless otherwise noted.

Hope Connections for Cancer Support, 9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda. 301-6347500, www.hopeconnectionsforcancer.org.

Bereavement Support Group, 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays.

Young Adult Group, 6:30 p.m. Tuesdays.

Diabetes Support Group, 6 p.m. July 1 and Aug. 5. Washington Adventist Hospital, Outpatient Nutrition and Diabetes Education Office, 7610 Carroll Ave., Suite 350, Takoma Park. For patients with diabetes and prediabetes. Free. Call 301-891-6105 to RSVP. www.adventisthealthcare.com.

Mother to Mother Connection, 10 a.m.

Wednesdays. Start date for new members is Aug. 6. Holy Cross Resource Center, 9805

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health calendar

Dameron Drive, Silver Spring. The discussion group is for moms with babies up to 6 months old. The group is facilitated by childbirth educators and provides new moms a chance to ask questions, share experiences and receive support. $15; once registered you can attend an unlimited number of sessions.

301-754-8800, www.holycrosshealth.org.

Cancer Caregivers Support Group, 12:30 p.m. July 8, Aug. 12 and 26. Aquilino Cancer Center, 9905 Medical Center Drive, Rockville. 240-826-6297, www.adventist healthcare.com.

Dementia Support Group, 6:30 p.m. July 9 and Aug. 13. Arden Courts Memory Care Community of Potomac, 10718 Potomac Tennis Lane, Potomac. 301-983-3620, www. arden-courts.com/Potomac.

Breast Cancer Support Group, 1 p.m. July 10

and Aug. 14. Holy Cross Hospital Radiation Treatment Center, 2121 Medical Park Drive, Suite 7, Silver Spring. Call 301-592-9124 to register. www.holycrosshealth.org.

Ovarian and Gynecological Cancer Support Group, 6:30 p.m. July 16 and Aug. 20.

Holy Cross Hospital Professional and Community Education Center, 1500 Forest Glen Road, Silver Spring. Free. 301-754-9124, www.holycrosshealth.org.

Prostate Cancer Support Group, 7 p.m.

July 21 and Aug. 18. Suburban Hospital, 8600 Old Georgetown Road, Bethesda. Call 301-896-6837 for more information. www. suburbanhospital.org.

Montgomery Hospice, 1355 Piccard Drive, Rockville. 301-921-4400, www.montgomery hospice.org. Events are free and open to Montgomery County residents. Registration is required.

Guided Imagery for Grief and Healing, 6:30 p.m. July 24. For anyone mourning the death of a loved one and interested in learning about guided imagery.

Beyond Words: Grief Expression through Art Making, 6:30 p.m. Aug. 11 and 18. The two-session workshop is for anyone grieving the death of a loved one. No art experience is required.

For Men Only: Picking Up the Pieces Through Grieving, 6:30 p.m. Aug. 14, 21 and 28. The three-session workshop, led by a male facilitator, is for men grieving the death of a loved one.

brookville healing arts

Massage • Pilates Yoga

Grieving Mindfully, 6:30 p.m. Aug. 26. For anyone mourning the death of a loved one and interested in learning about mindfulness.

SEMINARS/ WORKSHOPS

301.346.5716 www.thebodypolitic.net

Hope Connections for Cancer Support, 9650 Rockville Pike, Bethesda. 301-6347500, www.hopeconnectionsforcancer.org.

Classes are free.

7019 Brookville Road, Chevy Chase, MD 20815

Vacation from Cancer, 6 p.m. Thursdays. Engage your mind through sketching or journaling.

Guided Mindful Meditation, 11:30 a.m.

Fridays. Meditation can help lower blood pressure and reduce anxiety. No class on July 4.

Parent Encouragement Program (within Kensington Baptist Church), 10100 Connecticut Ave., Kensington. 301-929-8824, www.pepparent.org.

PEP I: Parenting 5- to 12-Year-Olds, 7:30 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays, July 7-31. Get a framework for positive parenting and skills to correct misbehavior. $248.

Managing Anger: A Parent’s Guide, 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays, July 9-23. Examine the reasons you get angry, learn how to change your words and actions, and help your children cope with their anger. $90.

This Isn’t a Hotel & I’m Not Your Maid, 7:30 p.m. July 10. Discover strategies for raising cooperative kids who want to pitch in. For parents of children ages 5-18. $30.

Community CPR, 5 p.m. July 8. Suburban Hospital Lambert Building, 8710 Old Georgetown Road, Bethesda. Learn how to respond to emergencies in this four-hour class designed for nannies, lifeguards, preschool teachers and young adults. $75.

301-896-3100, www.suburbanhospital.org.

Matter of Balance, 10 a.m. Tuesdays, July 8-Aug. 26. Holy Cross Hospital Senior Source, 8580 Second Ave., Silver Spring.

Worried about falling? Learn how to view falls as preventable, make changes to reduce the risk of falls and exercise to improve balance and strength. Free. 301-7548800, www.holycrosshealth.org.

Look Good, Feel Better, 6:30 p.m. Aug. 14. Holy Cross Hospital Professional and Community Education Center, 1500 Forest Glen Road, Silver Spring. Chemotherapy can affect the skin and hair. Receive tips on hairstyles, skin care, nail care and cosmetics. Free. 301-754-8800, www.holycross health.org. n To submit calendar items, go to www.

BethesdaMagazine.com.

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Special Advertising Section

Ask The

courtesy photo

Senior Services Experts

Potomac Valley Nursing & Wellness Center See Profile page 257

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ASK THE SENIOR SERVICES EXPERTS

Special Advertising Section

Collingswood Nursing & Rehabilitation Center

299 Hurley Ave., Rockville, MD 20850 301-762-8900 | www.collingswoodnursing.com

Why did Collingswood begin providing respiratory care to our area’s older adults?

Ms. Mollaneda: Every day thousands of Mid-Atlantic seniors have difficulty breathing or cannot breath independently due to respiratory compromise or nonfunctioning lungs. The cause may be short term due to illnesses like pneumonia and bronchitis, or from chronic conditions like congestive obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), emphysema or asthma. Following certain surgeries, someone may have a temporary or permanent tracheostomy.

Collingswood opened its Respiratory Care Unit in 2013 to provide skilled care to persons challenged by any of these conditions or diseases. Prior to this, obtaining respiratory care within a skilled nursing and rehabilitation center was difficult to access locally. We made the decision to add to our Programs of Excellence to better meet the needs of the community.

What considerations are there in providing respiratory care services?

Ms. Ragasa: Our two greatest areas of focus were establishing the right professional partnership and assuring that we had a dedicated team of clinical caregivers to support program success.

We chose a collaboration with LindeRSS, whose REMEO® ventilator program has been recognized as a Center of Excellence by the American College of Chest Physicians. Our exceptional onsite team includes a licensed respiratory therapist and skilled nurses (24 hours a day, 7 days a week), a pulmonologist, nurse practitioner, speech-language pathologist and a medical director.

Ms. Lennon: Our capabilities include oxygen therapy, airway management, bronchodilator therapy, BiPAP, CPAP and ventilator use and weaning. We’re helping people to more fully enjoy the opportunities that each day presents by increasing their capabilities in things we all take for granted. These include eating confidently, communicating easily with others, enjoying an activity or being more physically active. Feedback from both residents and families has been remarkably positive. They are all profoundly grateful that this resource is available at Collingswood.

tony lewis jr

Linda Lennon, Respiratory Therapist Joy Mollaneda, BSN, RN, Director of Nursing Vicky Ragasa, BSN, RN, Assistant Director of Nursing

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ASK THE SENIOR SERVICES EXPERTS

Special Advertising Section

Brandon Williams, Executive Chef Five Star Premier Residences of Chevy Chase 8100 Connecticut Ave., Chevy Chase, MD 20815 301-907-9894 | www.fivestarpremier-chevychase.com

tony lewis jr

What is one thing you get very high marks on when you survey your residents?

I’m proud to say we consistently get high marks on dining; we serve about 300 people seven nights a week. At dinner, which always consists of four courses, 80 percent of the dishes are made to order individually. The pastries and ice cream are made in-house. All kinds of dietary preferences and restrictions are honored: gluten-free, vegetarian, low sodium, no sugar and others.

Our kitchen also offers event catering, room service and buffet breakfasts, but the greatest challenge is keeping things interesting, day after day, for the same audience. We focus on residents who are hard to please, and we go so far as to request and replicate family recipes. That’s very satisfying.

Fortunately, because this is a luxurious community, octopus, mussels and other top-choice ingredients are in the budget.

Dining services are only one aspect of our community that

gets high marks on surveys from residents. I know that our active independent and assisted living seniors love the wooded, park-like setting that’s located inside the Beltway.

How have things changed over the past year at Five Star Premier Chevy Chase?

We continue to shine a bright light on food and beverage.

In May, Five Star began a collaboration with celebrity chef Brad Miller. Chef Brad will consult with us to raise the bar in the world of senior living dining with a fresh, flavorful approach to classic recipes. May marked our 24th anniversary and debuted our community-wide renovation. In our new club room, residents can enjoy an espresso or latte with a pastry prepared by our pastry chef. In the late afternoon, the club room becomes a cocktail lounge, where we serve martinis, umbrella drinks and fine wine from our wine cellar.

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ASK THE SENIOR SERVICES EXPERTS

Special Advertising Section

Scott Thompson, Founder & Chief Executive Officer Lifematters 7768 Woodmont Ave., Suite 200, Bethesda, MD 20814 301-652-7212 | www.lifemattersusa.com

How do I begin to think about the options for care for my loved one?

There are many options when it comes to home care agencies, so it’s important to ask the right questions. First of all, work with an established agency that’s licensed, bonded and insured. Ask if the caregivers are employees, which means they are licensed, trained, background-checked, supervised and paid by that agency. Otherwise, you’re working with independent contractors and open to potential liability.

Also, inquire about the process for making changes to the caregiver or schedule. Find out if the agency has LPNs and/or RNs to provide skilled care, if needed. That way, you can use the same agency for personal and skilled care as needs progress. They should provide an upfront and ongoing assessment by an RN that is used to create an individualized care plan.

It’s hard to know who to trust when it comes to in-home care. These important questions are a great place to start. tony lewis jr

There are many options: home care, independent and assisted living communities, nursing homes and continuing care retirement communities to name a few. Start by assessing your loved ones’ current needs: medical conditions, mobility difficulties and transportation preferences. Try to predict their future needs. For some, needs might be met at home with private duty aides that help with bathing, dressing, meals, medications and housekeeping.

Their financial condition requires careful assessment, too.

The cost and quality of each option varies widely. If moving to a senior care community is being considered, cultural, spiritual and logistical comforts are important, as are practical considerations such as who will visit, where will medical care be obtained and what is the closest hospital? Try to get as big a picture as possible. Consider consulting with a care manager.

How do I select a home care company?

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Eric Stewart, Realtor Licensed in DC, MD & VA

Long & Foster Realtors 4400 Jenifer St., NW, Washington, DC 20015 Other Offices in Rockville, MD and McLean, VA 301-252-1697 | www.ericstewartgroup.com

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How is working with seniors different than other real estate clients?

As a senior real estate specialist, I work with 50 to 60 seniors each year who are downsizing—or as I call it, rightsizing—from typically larger homes to single level apartments or smaller detached homes. I have written a Rightsizing Guide, available on my website, that packs in 50 pages of practical advice about how to get rid of all your stuff, how to decide what retirement community is best for you, and how to approach your real estate sale.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to moving on is letting go. The fear of forgetting, the comfort of the current, and a lack of vision are why 95 percent of seniors never move out of their homes.

Rightsizing requires an initial evaluation of several integral areas of well-being and lifestyle, determining whether or not you are living actively and abundantly, and what areas you may want to focus on changing.

When I meet with seniors who are exploring the possibility of moving, I ask if there are any parts of their home that they no longer live in. They still heat them, air condition them, clutter them up and pay taxes on the space. I help seniors find the right fit in a new, comfortable home. We all feel better when we unload unnecessary possessions and convert our items into manageable resources, while opening the door to an exciting new life.

I come from a family of doctors and approach the real estate process in much the same way as my father worked with his patients: I listen, ask questions, diagnose, give direction and assistance, and come alongside to see the process fulfilled and a new season begin.

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Russ Glickman, Owner Glickman Design Build 14516 Pebblewood Drive North Potomac, MD 20878 301-444-4663 | www.glickmandesignbuild.com

How do you think senior living will change for the next generation of seniors?

With a growing emphasis on aging-in-place, more people will consider modifying their existing home as an alternative to moving to senior living communities. Therefore, universal design, or enhancements that work for everyone, in any situation, will become more prevalent.

And products and techniques that complement senior living will continue to improve. For example, the walk-in bathtub in which you have to remain in the tub until the water empties out is being replaced in popularity with walk-in or roll-in showers. As long as you increase water pressure at the source, you can add as many spray jets and other water features as you like, and they will all work at the same time making this a great choice.

I think we will also start to see more multigenerational homes. Adding space to an existing home or taking advantage of an unused lower level space with easy access to the outdoors will continue to grow as an attractive option for many.

When we approach a project, we look not only at how the design will work for the client now, but also how it will work for them in the future.

Drawing on talented colleagues and working in collaboration with the client, we help clients of all ages by creating master plans that can be implemented in stages, as needed. We suggest cool features that do not look accessible, like French doors, body dryers, ramps that look like sidewalks and lifts that are built in and concealed by a front porch. Thinking ahead when planning a project, particularly in the baby boomer years, will allow homeowners to continue to enjoy their homes as their needs change.

Darren HIggins

What is an example of your company’s out-of-the-box thinking?

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Susan Rodgers, RN, Owner The Cottage at Curry Manor 6501 Curry Manor Court, Bethesda, MD 20814 301-652-4344 | www.cottageatcurrymanor.com

Hilary Schwab

How do you go about introducing home care to a reluctant parent?

Few people want strangers in their home, and aging seniors understand the deeper meaning of taking this step. They fear losing their independence, privacy and ability to make decisions. When you initiate the conversation, expect resistance. Suggest a trial run with an aide, companion or licensed nurse who will come for a half day a couple of days a week.

Encourage your parent to write a wish list: things they’d like help with, favorite meals, places they would like to go and things they’d enjoy doing. Starting slowly and having the parent be part of the process should lead to success. Regular caregiving visits—while providing for the individual’s health, safety and overall well-being— can reduce depression, isolation and stress on both the parent and adult child caregiver.

What happens when home care is no longer appropriate?

As a successful home care company for 40 years, we’ve cared for thousands of people and believe in aging in place with independence and dignity; however, we understand that this isn’t the answer for everyone.

Frequently, a medical condition or any number of factors, including the adult child caregiver’s peace of mind, lead families to consider assisted living. There are many options, from large communities to intimate residential settings. Finding the right fit is key to a successful transition.

Recognizing the need for a new class of assisted living, we recently opened a refined residential living home, The Cottage at Curry Manor. We provide assisted living services, social interaction with other residents and engaging activities. Offering gracious living and many amenities, we hope The Cottage at Curry Manor will be recognized as the Relais et Chateau of assisted living. With our knowledge and expertise, we know life can be pleasant and fulfilling at any age.

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Sandy Kursban, Founder and Chair Neal Kursban, President

There’s no doubt that it’s an emotional and physical strain to balance everything as a family caregiver, but help is available.

The home care services provided by Family & Nursing Care can help stabilize your life and prevent that burnout. With help, you can have greater enjoyment with your parent again. Our company prides itself on matching clients’ needs with caregivers’ skills.

Frequent feedback we receive from the adult children who arrange for home care services for their parents is represented by this email we received: “I felt like I was with mom when the caregiver was there. She put my mind completely at ease.”

Many people aren’t aware of the flexible nature of home care. Care can be arranged for just a few hours a day. There is no long-term obligation. People who try it out experience such positive changes in their life and in the life of their loved one that they often choose to receive home care services long term.

Family & Nursing Care 962 Wayne Ave., Suite 500, Silver Spring, MD 20910 301-588-8200 | www.familynursingcare.com

When I’m ready to cry “Uncle,” where do I turn for help?

Getting relief doesn’t have to be difficult or overwhelming.

The simplest way to begin is to call us. Initiating the emotional conversation about home care with your parent can be difficult, though, so prepare for some resistance. We provide helpful tips for you to assure your parents that home care can give them more independence and a better quality of life.

Once families begin using home care services, the overwhelming majority say they wish they’d called us sooner.

We recognize that every family’s needs are different and there is no one-size-fits-all answer. We will work together with you to find a solution for your unique family situation.

mike olliver

How can I avoid burning out as a caregiver for my aging mother while actively parenting my teenagers?

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Courtney Campbell, Au.D. A&A Hearing Group 5530 Wisconsin Ave., #1540, Chevy Chase, MD 20815 301-760-4628 | www.AAhearinggroup.com

What’s the best way to approach a parent who’s showing signs of hearing loss and get them tested?

Primary care physicians often have a lot of influence, so encourage your parent’s doctor to suggest a hearing test from a doctor of audiology. Hearing testing is covered by most health insurance plans, including Medicare with a physician referral; and with many plans, including most federal employees and retiree plans, hearing aids are covered, too.

tony lewis jr

How do I know if my parent should get a hearing test?

If your parent has a hard time understanding speech in noisy environments, like restaurants, or complains that other people are mumbling, it’s time for a test. If the test reveals a hearing loss, today’s hearing aids can help with hearing in noise and on the phone, and help clarify speech overall. Hearing aids can be financed, and these days they are extremely easy to maintain. Most importantly, they will significantly improve your parent’s quality of life.

Kisha Davis, MD, MPH Director of Community Health Casey Health Institute 800 South Frederick Road, Gaithersburg, MD 20877 301-664-6464 | www.caseyhealth.org

james kim

What are the top three recommendations you have for seniors who want to thrive in their later years?

Three keys for wellness in older adults include staying active, staying connected and having purpose. Arthritis discomfort, a common complaint as we age, can be reduced with regular exercise, about 30 minutes each day. Exercise also lowers blood pressure and has been shown to prevent or delay Alzheimer’s.

Staying connected to friends, family and the community can’t be underestimated for those whose world has gotten smaller, often through surrendering car keys. And having a reason to get up in the morning propels us, at any age, through our days. Relationships and activities take attention away from our aches and pains. We do better physically when we’re healthy psychologically.

At Casey Health Institute, a state-of-the-art, integrative primary care and wellness center, we care for the whole person. We treat illness, of course, but also discuss important lifestyle components that lead to optimal health.

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Kira Tewalt, President Philia, LLC 4420 Connecticut Ave., NW, #202, Washington, DC 20008 202-607-2525 | www.philia-care.com

My mom is getting older and possibly needs help. When is the right time to get her help, and what kind?

The best way to approach your mom’s aging is to focus on maintaining her quality of life and safety. If she remains engaged in her routines, community and social life, she will continue to thrive even as her body begins to degenerate.

Therefore, the level of care should be aligned with her needs to maintain her quality of life and keep her safe. If her eyesight is poor and she can’t drive, then get someone to drive. If she stays home a lot and seems lonely, get companion care to keep her engaged in social and community life. As her abilities to keep up with daily life activities decline, hire a home care provider to help her with grooming, meals and medication.

At some point, she may need around-the-clock care, in which case a facility may be the best solution for her safety.

Coming to terms with declining health is difficult. Maintaining independence and control as long as possible is crucial. It’s important to let your dad know you value his independence as much as he does. Therefore, the conversation should be about maintaining your dad’s lifestyle.

Help him to understand that having someone help him actually augments his independence rather than reduces it. With a care provider, he can still live life on his terms.

You might want to enlist the help of his trusted friend, doctor or even estate lawyer for this talk.

If you begin planning before the need arises, you can anticipate different possible scenarios and avoid rushed decisions, thus making it easier for your dad to adapt to his changing circumstances.

tony lewis jr

My dad is in denial about needing help, what do I do?

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Barbara Harry, Associate Executive Director Maplewood Park Place Emily Smith, Family & Nursing Care 9707 Old Georgetown Road, Bethesda, MD 20814 301-530-0500 | www.maplewoodparkplace.com

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Why has Maplewood Park Place partnered with Family & Nursing Care?

According to Barbara Harry, the Associate Executive Director at Maplewood, the majority of couples searching for senior living are looking for a solid investment, a carefree life style and health care services when needed. Harry is pleased to announce that Family & Nursing Care (F&NC) was selected as Maplewood’s preferred in-home health partner. Emily Smith, for F&NC, proudly states that her organization offers an additional level of care that allows couples to remain together in an independent living setting. Smith says, “Family & Nursing Care and Maplewood Park Place offer individualized care options based upon each resident’s situation.” Both women caution about the healthier spouse assuming the role of the active caregiver. They see many spouses caring for their loved one, but they may be jeopardizing their own health. Harry and Smith agree that the most rewarding part of their jobs is when

couples stay together, with one receiving some daily assistance and the other continuing to enjoy the active lifestyle that Maplewood offers.

What advice can you offer about when to start researching senior living communities?

Barbara Harry meets numerous seniors on a weekly basis, and she offers them the same advice she gives family and friends, which is to start searching sooner rather than later. Harry strongly recommends that seniors take a proactive approach to finding a senior living community that will fit their needs today as well as future needs. “Seniors should make those decisions with the support of their loved ones,” she says, “instead of waiting too long and having those decisions made for them. By searching early, seniors will have more options available to them, allowing them to find a community where they will be the happiest.”

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Elisa Gil-Pires, MD, Vice President, Medical Affairs Kyle Hreben, Administrator, Housing West Campus Charles E. Smith Life Communities 1801 East Jefferson St., Rockville, MD 20852 301-816-5012 | www.ringhouse.org

When you live at Ring House, you become part of a community with extensive and convenient services. Medical care at Hirsh Health Center is located in the building, staffed with physicians, nurse practitioners, therapists and visiting specialists. Home care services are also right on site.

Located in the heart of Rockville, shopping, restaurants and the JCC are within walking distance, or easily reached on our complimentary bus. A delicious breakfast and dinner is included, along with housekeeping, a full activity calendar and outings. Ring House apartments have many conveniences and new kitchens with granite countertops, stainless appliances and washer-dryers.

Ring House is one of six distinct communities on a beautiful campus in Rockville. Our not-for-profit organization offers a range of services and life environments, enriched by Jewish heritage, suited to many different needs.

Hilary Schwab

I’m not ready for assisted living, but it’s harder for me to cook, clean and drive to my doctor’s office. Is Ring House right for me?

Susy Elder Murphy, BA, CMC

Owner & Director of Care Management Debra Levy Eldercare Associates

11120 New Hampshire Ave., Suite 505, Silver Spring, MD 20904 301-593-5285 | www.care-manager.com

Just as no two weddings are alike, everyone has different needs, preferences and challenges as they age. Very personal decisions, influenced by financial resources, include where your loved one wants to live and what is most important to their quality of life.

Our care managers, a large team of knowledgeable social workers and nurses, are experts in all of the local resources, whether the goal is to remain at home or find the right retirement community, assisted living or skilled nursing facility. We can recommend geriatricians and other specialists, elder law attorneys and financial planners. With over 25 years of experience, we are practiced at coordinating these services and helping families understand important legal and financial matters.

Our services are flexible. We offer office consultations, in-home assessments and ongoing care management as well as our Well Senior Program and our new concierge companion service, Debbie’s Angels.

Hilary Schwab

Why do you say you are like wedding planners for getting old?

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Potomac Valley Nursing & Wellness Center Dr. Alexis McKenzie, Msc.D., Director of Program Development Boyet dela Cruz, Director of Life Enrichment 1235 Potomac Valley Road, Rockville, MD 20850 301-762-0700 | www.potomacvalley.com

What is ‘Namaste Care’ at Potomac Valley?

Dr. McKenzie: Namaste Care means “to honor the spirit within” and is a valuable part of our overall Life Enrichment program. Very often persons with Alzheimer’s or dementia cannot describe their personal preferences as they approach the end of life. As part of Namaste Care, we seek family input regarding aspects of their loved one’s life that can still comfort, including favored foods, music or familiar aromas. Our dedicated Namaste Room offers a tranquil space incorporating Earth elements, water, sounds, lights and scents that calm and enable quiet reflection or spending time with family.

As a part of Life Enrichment, Namaste meshes well within our mind-body-spirit commitment in resident life quality and wellness. We will soon offer traditional massage therapies. As a Reiki Master, I can provide this type of healing to enhance physical, mental, emotional and spiritual wellness. Aromatherapy has been offered for quite some time.

tony lewis jr

What else is incorporated within your Life Enrichment program?

Mr. dela Cruz: Life Enrichment extends far beyond traditional resident activities and focuses in the larger sense on something we all desire: the opportunity to enjoy meaningful days that support our personal growth. At Potomac Valley, both short- and long-stay residents have opportunities to engage in musical, artistic and intellectually stimulating moments that inspire.

Seven days a week, Potomac Valley’s Life Enrichment team enables residents to participate in both shared experiences and ones that support individual interests. Residents enjoy decorative arts, dance, current events discussions, films, outings and culinary events. They also can participate in services supportive of their personal spiritual faith. From vocal concerts within our larger venues to a harp performance in a resident’s room, we work to assure every resident has access to daily enrichment experiences, regardless of their physical health or cognitive challenges.

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Margaret Hubbard, Executive Director Seabury at Springvale Terrace 8505 Springvale Road, Silver Spring, MD 20910 301-587-0190 | www.springvaleterrace.com

We’re pleased to spread the word that Seabury at Springvale Terrace, in a charming residential area of Silver Spring, is the only retirement community in Montgomery County serving low- and moderate-income seniors.

Our residents enjoy comfort, activities, assistance and security for as low as $1,197 per month for a studio apartment with utilities and dinners included. Our buildings and grounds just received a $5.6 million renovation.

We offer independent living and assisted living, with people receiving just the amount of support they need in the comfort of their own apartment. They can have from one to three meals a day, housekeeping and laundry services, medication management and help with the activities of daily living. We’re staffed 24 hours a day.

Physicians make “house calls” at Springvale Terrace, but for those who want to continue to see their regular community doctors, affordable transportation, only $3 each way, is available.

james kim

Where can seniors find affordable retirement and assisted living in high-income Montgomery County?

Bonnie Danker, CSA, President Carepatrol 410-218-5588 | bonnie.danker@carepatrol.com

When it’s time to talk with your parents about assisted living, Carepatrol is here to help. With a mission to educate and advocate, our knowledgeable, caring advisors are familiar with options in your area, from in-home assistance to retirement and assisted living communities. Talking with parents about that next stage in life can be overwhelming and stressful for everyone. Being prepared before a crisis arises can lessen the anxiety.

As a free service, our compassionate advisors meet with seniors and their families to discuss their wishes. We evaluate your loved one’s health needs, lifestyle, finances and location preference to match them with the best options in our network of services and 150 communities. If it’s determined that your parents need to move from their home, we research the desired communities’ reputation, obtain the state’s safety reports and arrange for and accompany you on all tours.

Mike Olliver

What are the best options for seniors needing assisted living?

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Ted Howe, MD, Medical Director Brooke Grove Retirement Village 18100 Slade School Road, Sandy Spring, MDÂ 20860 301-260-2320 | www.bgf.org

Mike Olliver

What advice can you offer regarding how to choose the best assisted living environment for my spouse, parent or loved one?

In most cases, it is best to choose an assisted living facility that is close to the primary caregiver.

The individual in assisted living will have the best experience if the family member who is responsible for choosing and monitoring their care is able to visit frequently.

Good assisted living facilities seek to provide a safe environment while preserving the resident’s independence and autonomy. Sometimes these twin goals seem to be in conflict; however, compassionate and creative staff find solutions that optimally address both of these goals. Ask for specific examples of what the facility has done to achieve this.

Good assisted living facilities have a vibrant life enrichment program. Ask for examples of programs and activities that residents may engage in and ask what is done to encourage residents and their families to participate.

Good assisted living facilities maintain good communication and relationships with providers of medical care including physicians, nurse practitioners or physician assistants. Facilities often make arrangements for this care to be provided on site.

Ask for the names of providers who participate in the care of the residents. You may wish to contact the provider’s office manager and inquire about the quality of communication that they receive from the assisted living facility.

Good assisted living facilities also maintain good working relationships with other providers of care, such as skilled nursing facilities where post-acute rehabilitation is provided, hospitals, home health and hospice agencies. How does the assisted living facility partner with these other providers of care?

Finally, good assisted living facilities actively seek feedback from and encourage participation of family members. Ask about support groups, volunteer programs or other services available to family members.

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Irene Cady, President At Home Care, Inc. Park 29 Professional Center, 15304 Spencerville Court, #101 Burtonsville, MD 20866 301-421-0200 | www.athomecare.com

It is not easy, but my clients have had the most success when they treated it matter-of-factly. You should emphasize that home care is no different than the many appliances, tools and conveniences that your parent has incorporated throughout his or her life to help make life’s routines an easier journey.

Having help come into the home is like using a tool that enables them to have control over their life, lifestyle and personal choices. This is a practical solution that meets the needs of daily living, aging challenges, health challenges and life adjustments.

For 38 years, At Home Care, Inc. has seen Washington area families relieved of worry and guilt by organizing home care for seniors who are happy in their familiar surroundings. Affordable full-time or part-time care is available, as well as live-in arrangements.

james kim

How can I convince my parent that they need help if they want to continue to live in their home?

Susan I. Wranik, MS, MA, CCC-SLP Susan I. Wranik Associates LLC 3504 Preston Court, Chevy Chase, MD 20815 301-520-2332 | susan@speakskill.com www.speakskill.com | Home visits: DC-MD-VA

The mouth is the first and the last frontier. It’s the way we explore the world around us as babies and is often the last choice we make: no one can make us swallow. Never change food textures until you determine the problem. He could be considered what I call a “can’t eat,” who may benefit from therapy or medical intervention. People with dementia sometimes “don’t eat,” can be easily distracted by too many items on the table, and may hold or pocket food. Depression can also be a factor.

Any weight loss is also reflected in the gums. If your dad has dentures, they may not fit right if he has lost weight. If he has Parkinson’s, be aware that half of Parkinson’s patients experience dysphagia (difficulty swallowing). Finally, people eat less as they age, owing to loss of taste or simply being inactive, and especially toward end of life (“won’t eat”). Respect that.

Hilary Schwab

My dad refuses to eat. What should I do?

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Marilyn Thomas Leist, EdD, Executive Director Ingleside at King Farm 701 King Farm Blvd., Rockville, MD 20850 240-499-9019 | www.inglesidekingfarm.org

I understand that Ingleside at King Farm is CARF-CCAC accredited. What does that mean, why is it important?

The Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities-Continuing Care Accreditation Commission (CARF-CCAC) is the nation’s only accreditation program for continuing care retirement communities. It promotes the quality, value and optimal outcomes of services through a consultative accreditation process that centers on enhancing the lives of the persons served. There are over 1,100 CARF-CCAC standards in areas such as strategic planning, leadership, finance, governance, risk management, health and safety, accessibility and human resources, to which Ingleside at King Farm complies. Becoming accredited assures prospects and residents that we are financially solvent and have documented Board of Director approved policies, a strategic plan for the future and best practices to guide daily operations. Ingleside at King Farm is pleased to be one of only 300 out of a total of 1,900 continuing care retirement communities that are accredited in the United States.

tony lewis jr

Now that Ingleside at King Farm is sold out, what is next?

The Ingleside at King Farm journey to excellence will continue! We celebrated our 5th anniversary on March 26th. During those five years, the residents and staff have worked collaboratively to continuously enhance programs and services, which include over 400 cultural arts activities each month, a fabulous dining program, challenging fitness offerings and a Five Star Comprehensive Care unit. Early next year we will break ground for our expanded and enhanced Marketplace Café. In addition, we are excited about our growing wait list. The members of the wait list are planners who want to be a part of the Ingleside at King Farm family in the future.

Those who live and work at Ingleside at King Farm are always looking for the next opportunity for change and growth.

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Sticking with It | On the Mend | Vision Therapy Bethesda Magazine

september/october 2014

first responder How B-CC Rescue Squad Chief Ned Sherbourne led one of the biggest rescue efforts in his team’s history

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Asbury Methodist Village Cynthia Perez, Director of Admissions for Wilson Health Center 301 Russell Ave., Gaithersburg, MD 20877 301-216-4136 | www.wilsonatasbury.org

My parents can always live with us. Why would we look into long-term care?

mike olliver

It’s a rare parent who wants to live with one of their children. A Genworth Financial study found that five times more retirees were fearful of being a burden than they were of dying. Even when all parties are willing, this promise can be difficult or even impossible to keep.

Chronic illnesses requiring round-the-clock care and regular medical intervention can tax even healthy caregivers.

Sometimes that promise of care, made with the best of intentions, simply isn’t realistic. A bad living situation can damage family relationships, and even keep mom or dad from an arrangement that could give them better health, more independence and enjoyable socialization.

This was excerpted from “Five ‘Myth-Understandings’ About Aging Parents,” on our blog, The Asbury Perspective.

Read the full article at http://www.asbury.org/news-center/ the-asbury-perspective

Timothy Cox, CEO The Washington Home & Community Hospice 3720 Upton St., NW, Washington, DC 20016 202-895-0148 | www.thewashingtonhome.org

We believe that small successes add up. Celebrating incremental changes keeps everyone motivated. A therapy team, assigned to each patient, is comprised of everyone involved in that person’s well being.

This can include an occupational therapist, physical therapist, speechlanguage pathologist, physician, nurse, aide, and family members.

Together they map out goals.

At the Washington Home & Community Hospice, outside guests of all ages are as welcome as residents for rehabilitation. Our center is open seven days a week, and the therapy team often recommends safe, supplemental exercises for patients to do in their rooms, to aid in progress and morale.

They also encourage patients to hop on the computers. We use LinkedSenior, an intuitive program created primarily for people with dementia. It’s also useful for improving eye-hand coordination and other skills. There are memory games, pictures, movies and word games played solo or with others. We keep our care services interesting and up-to-date.

mike olliver

How do you keep your rehab guests motivated?

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Jonathan Ellis, Executive Director Aspenwood Senior Living Community 14400 Homecrest Road, Silver Spring, MD 20906 301-598-6424 | www.aspenwoodseniorliving.com

What is one of the most common questions asked by prospective residents?

“How’s the food?” “Great,” I answer. At Aspenwood, a Five Star Senior Living community, we demonstrate that cooking is about more than food; it’s the experience that’s important. We take dining to a new level. Not only are three meals available each day, Aspenwood offers an all-day dining option, which is a lighter fare alternative for residents who want to sleep in or must miss a meal due to an appointment. Menu development not only meets nutritional needs, but also offers variety, compliance to special diets and incorporates resident favorites. Meals in independent and assisted living are served by dedicated wait staff in two well-appointed, comfortable dining rooms. Most importantly, Aspenwood uses fresh ingredients, including seasonal produce. Every meal is prepared from scratch.

hilary schwab

What does “active lifestyle” mean for residents of Aspenwood?

First and foremost, it means supporting the independence of each resident at every level of care so they enjoy their new home. Aspenwood offers residents the opportunity to stimulate their mind, body and spirit. Independent and assisted living residents may choose activities from the simplest word challenges to a memoir writing class. Musical entertainment, scenic rides, local shopping trips and lunch outings are commonplace. Residents can get their blood going by enjoying regular exercise classes, yoga or specialized group exercise sessions run by our physical therapy team. Religious services are offered on site and transportation is available to local places of worship. Aspenwood hosts "Thirsty Thursday," a weekly happy hour for residents who enjoy socializing and a favorite spirit. We also support residents who wish to host their own activities or meetings such as bridge games and lunch socials. We are eager to accommodate any interest that is expressed.

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UNIQUE YET TIMELESS

EVENT PLANNING + DESIGN WWW.EVOKEDC.COM 301.565.5949

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dine A sophisticated new restaurant-in-a-restaurant, Aggio serves up playful twists on Italian classics.

A Class Act

A drizzle of aged balsamic vinegar tops a salad of strawberries and mozzarella.

Chef Bryan Voltaggio’s creativity shines at Aggio

By Carole Sugarman | photos by Stacy Zarin-Goldberg

In a lively video announcing the February rollout of Aggio, chef Bryan Voltaggio and his staff partied to the tune of “Mambo Italiano” while preparing a communal meal of spaghetti and meatballs.

It may have left the impression that the restaurant would be a homey “Hey mambo” kind of place, but not so. With the swiftness of an episode of Extreme Makeover, the bland private dining room at the back of Range, Voltaggio’s multi-kitchen, small-plate restaurant in Northwest D.C., was transformed into a sophisticated space with black leather banquettes, circular-shaped accents, elegant flowers and white tablecloths.

Dinner at Aggio runs about $100 per person, and if you go for the tasting menu and wine pairing, you’re looking at nearly double that. As for the service, while I was recognized as a food critic during one meal, the waitstaff seemed equally attentive to nearby tables, presenting each dish with a detailed recitation of its many ingredients.

Suffice it to say, aside from the meatballs, Aggio is not about comfort food. It’s BethesdaMagazine.com | July/August 2014 265

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Amuse-bouches include an addictive parmesan funnel cake, plus focaccia and ricotta.

about creativity and entertainment, and for the most part, it’s a captivating show.

In a phone interview, Voltaggio said he wanted to approach Italian fine dining from a playful angle, which explains the Rat Pack background music, the whimsically-devised cocktail list and the amusebouches. These gratis starters from the kitchen make for an awesome overture.

The stage is set with breadsticks, made from a yeast-leavened dough and sprinkled with sea salt and fennel pollen, which laces the thin and crispy rods with a lovely hint of licorice.

Next to arrive is the parmesan funnel cake, another of what Voltaggio calls his “fun little first bites.” And fun it is— the savory take on the state fair staple sits twisted like a wayward pretzel atop its rectangular black slate. The cheesy,

Blood orange juice and lemon add zest to the raw yellowfin tuna appetizer.

light and puffy fried dough, made from a mixture of pâte à choux and parmesan piped into a deep-fat fryer, is so addictive I wished the portion was as big as those served on paper plates at the fair.

(In fact, Voltaggio says he had the black plates made from burnt and oiled pieces of poplar to emulate the idea of paper.)

Focaccia with two spreads—homemade goat’s milk ricotta and mortadella puréed with mornay sauce—appears as the third gift. The trio of creamy cheese; salty, smoky mortadella; and the housemade green-olive bread is divine.

If you haven’t opted for the six-course tasting menu, the restaurant recommends four courses from the á la carte listing (appetizer, pasta, meat or fish and dessert). After gobbling up the fabulous freebies at the start of the meal, I found

Meatballs are braised in ragu pomodoro and topped with parmesan shavings.

Black sea bass with fennel is a top entrée choice.

four more courses a bit much—even though the portions are small.

High on my list of first courses is the tuna, a super-refreshing dish of raw yellowfin spiked with citrusy blood orange juice and lemon. Also a must-have: Chioggia beets with tonnato sauce, the tuna purée that’s usually served with veal but is paired instead with the earthy, meaty vegetable. The pretty dish also comes with charred rosemary, pine nuts, mullet roe and arugula.

Another appetizer that sparks conversation is the Caesar salad; the waitstaff grate smoked scallops on top of it. The mollusks, hot-smoked over hickory and dehydrated for 24 hours, are transformed into the texture of a truffle (the fungus, not the candy). Aside from that neat trick, fried oyster “croutons” are nestled among the greenery—in this case, collards and kale along with the traditional romaine.

Keepers on the pasta list include the lamb ragu—a rich, hearty dish cut with oak-smoked pecorino—and the spaghetti and meatballs. Voltaggio says he took a lot of time coming up with the latter, the most humble item on the menu. “It was our 10th interpretation,” he says. “We finally nailed it.”

The abridged version of Voltaggio’s recipe starts with veal, pork, beef and mortadella that are mixed with breadcrumbs, ground into a paté-like consistency and formed into balls. The meatballs are browned before cooking in tomato sauce for 90 minutes. Right before they’re served, the meatballs are placed in an AltoShaam oven that produces humidity, keeping them incredibly soft, airy and juicy.

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AGGIO

5335 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. (in the Chevy Chase Pavilion), 202-803-8020. www.volt-aggio.com

HOURS Open for dinner from 5 to 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday; from 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

RESERVATIONS Highly recommended; available on Open Table A decadent chocolate box is served with bitterorange caramel and coffee-orange gelato.

They’re a revelation, making me wonder how Voltaggio might revolutionize other simple Italian fare.

As for meat and seafood, I loved the tender beef cheeks (a seasonal dish), and you can’t go wrong with either the black sea bass (with fennel, rhubarb, taggiasca olive, orange and cashew) or halibut (with sunchokes, capers, parsley, olives and Meyer lemon).

A citrusy gelato or sorbet makes for a light finish, and for something decadent, the chocolate box encasing hazelnuts and mascarpone and served with bitter-orange caramel and coffee-orange gelato fits the bill. If deciding whether to have dessert, be advised that the meal ends with more presents from the kitchen—candies, such as white chocolate-passion fruit, or some sort of intriguing truffles (think pomegranate or almond-Earl Gray).

While the food is beautiful, not everything tastes as good as it looks. The lentils with sprouted wheat berries and charred octopus and calamari tasted chewy and fishy, the buckwheat and yellow corn polenta served with the prawns was reminiscent of hot cereal, and the vodka sauce accompanying the radiatori seemed thin and watery.

Also, some of the food tasted over-salted to me and my dining companions; an observation that seemed confirmed by our cravings for water after dinner.

Nonetheless, it’s nice to have such a clever culinary actor like Voltaggio in the neighborhood—we don’t have to drive downtown for a show. n Carole Sugarman is the magazine’s food editor. To comment on this review, email comments@bethesdamagazine.com.

PRICES Appetizers, $12 to $18; pasta, $14 to $23; meat and fish, $28 to $33.

Six-course tasting menu, $95; with wine pairings, add $65.

FAVORITE DISHES Tuna with pistachio, castelvetrano olive, blood orange sugo, citrus pith and black radish; Chioggia beets with tonnato sauce; Caesar salad with oyster croutons and smoked scallops; salad of strawberries and mozzarella topped with balsamic vinegar; lamb ragu; meatballs braised in ragu pomodoro; halibut with roasted sunchokes; black sea bass with fennel; beef cheeks and faro with saffron, bone marrow, glazed turnips, parsley and garlic (seasonal)

PARKING Shopping mall lot or $12 valet parking (at Wisconsin Avenue entrance) Friendship Heights Metro

The Wine list

Aggio offers mostly Italian wines and a dozen or so top Champagnes.

The wines are organized under helpful headings such as “Italian Whites for Chardonnay Lovers” or “Italian Reds for Cabernet and Syrah Lovers.”

Wondering what to order? Not a problem. Aggio is the only restaurant on the East Coast with two Master Sommeliers: Kathy Morgan and Keith Goldstein.

17 wines by the glass, priced $10-$16 148 wines by the bottle Half of the wines are priced between $35 and $65.

Recommendations by the glass: If ordering the tasting menu, also order the preselected wine pairings. Otherwise, try the Mastroberardino Falanghina from Campania, Italy (white, $12), or the Le Pupille, Morellino di Scansano from Tuscany (red, $13).

Top bottle picks: 2011 Bastianich Vespa (white, $52); 2011 Avignonesi Vino Nobile di Montepulciano (red, $46); 2008 Ciacci Piccolomini Brunello di Montalcino (red, $78)

Overall grade: A+ The wine list is loaded with well-chosen, fairly priced Italian wines that complement the cuisine beautifully. The staff is well trained and knowledgeable.

—Jay Youmans An Advanced Sommelier and a Master of Wine, Jay Youmans owns the Capital Wine School in Washington, D.C.

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table

TALK

By Carole Sugarman

Melon Mania Ellen Ficklen

Ellen Ficklen has collected more than 1,000 items relating to watermelons, most of which are displayed in the basement of her Bethesda home.

Bon Voyage When it comes

Culinary cruise leader Amy Riolo

to the culinary world, there’s not much Amy Riolo hasn’t done. The Gaithersburg food historian/anthropologist has written three cookbooks; appeared on cooking videos and television and radio shows; lectured about cuisine and culture at museums, embassies and universities; served as a restaurant consultant, recipe developer and culinary mentor; and lived, worked and traveled in several parts of the world.

Now the 40-year-old dynamo is leading a culinary cruise from Istanbul to Greece

with Luigi Diotaiuti, owner and chef of Al Tiramisu restaurant in Washington, D.C. She’s already led food tours of Egypt and Italy; the October trip will be her first seafaring journey, aboard the Oceania Riviera, which houses the Bon Appétit Culinary Center cooking school. Highlights include a tour of the kitchens in the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul, a wine tour in Santorini, Greece, and a workshop at a baklava bakery.

The 10-day trip runs from Oct. 19 to 29 and starts at $4,299 per person, including air fare.

For more information, see www.twochefs culinarycruise.com. For more information about Amy Riolo, check out amyriolo.com.

Courtesy of amy riolo; watermelon mania by stacy zarin-goldberg

calls herself “the queen of a very small niche.” The Bethesda writer believes she’s amassed the country’s most extensive array of stuff devoted to watermelons. More than 1,000 items decorate her split-level home, a collection she admits “got out of control.”

The idea sprouted more than 30 years ago after Ficklen wrote a magazine article about American folk art collectors, and one mentioned that the sweet red fruit was a popular motif. Skeptical of the notion, she told a few friends, who came upon some watermelon trinkets and bought them for her as proof. Other friends and relatives have contributed over the years, but Ficklen, 63, estimates she’s purchased about 75 percent of the collection herself.

Walk down the steps to the “watermelon museum” in her basement and it’s mind-boggling to see how many things people can buy that showcase the ubiquitous summer fruit. Ficklen has collected items ranging from bras and condoms to helmets, bowling balls, Frisbees, umbrellas and piggy banks.

There are postcards, all sorts of kitchenware, candles, sunglasses, toothpastes, shower gel, furniture and more—including candy and alcoholic drinks.

And yes, Ficklen also likes to eat watermelon— she’s even roasted a chicken inside the rind.

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Super Market For an area with one of the country’s highest per capita incomes, Potomac is surprisingly underserved by upscale markets.

Enter Potomac Grocer, a bright, spacious artisan shop that stocks house-made prepared foods, bakery items, salads, sandwiches, locally made products and fresh

and ready-to-cook seafood and meats.

The store, which opened in February, is the brainchild of Tom Spencer, 58, a Potomac resident and one of the original co-founders of Congressional Seafood, the high-end seafood distributor now located in Jessup.

Helming the kitchen is Justin Key, former-

Anh Thu Hoang creates organic, raw chocolates from scratch that are both pretty and healthy.

keeping it raw

Courtesy of joyblissraw.com

10107 River Road, Potomac, 301-299-4200, www.potomacgrocer.com.

COMINGS & GOINGS

FoodD FIN

When she was in

ly a caterer in Frederick, and he’s turning out terrific salads such as quinoa and artichoke; chickpea, white bean and olive; and smoked bacon and corn. Don’t miss the soft and creamy Whoopie pies, either.

her early 20s, Bethesda resident Anh Thu Hoang, 47, nearly decided to attend culinary school.

But she realized she didn’t want to spend weekends working in a restaurant kitchen, and opted for earning a master’s degree in public health instead. That route would take her to Africa and Asia, where she worked for many years on HIV prevention.

While living in Thailand from 2006 to 2009, she fell in love with raw foods, and a year later, she went to the Living Light Culinary Institute in Fort Bragg, Calif., to learn the art of raw cooking.

The move resulted in a career change and now Hoang has created Joy Bliss Raw, a line of organic, vegan, raw cakes and chocolates that are less sweet and more textured

than traditional desserts.

Making raw, organic desserts is both labor intensive and expensive, Hoang says.

She produces her own chocolate using cacao liquor, cacao butter, vanilla, salt and maple syrup or coconut nectar. She also prepares coconut flour from shredded organic coconut and almond flour from organic raw almonds, plus she makes almond, coconut and cashew milks.

“I’m a big dessert person,” says Hoang, a runner and yoga enthusiast. “For me, it’s all about quality.”

Joy Bliss Raw products cost $4 to $5 apiece for truffles or chocolates, and $85 or $90 for 9-inch cheesecakes. Hoang also does party favors and special events. Order online at www. joyblissraw.com.

Crown, the new 182-acre planned community in Gaithersburg, is getting a host of new eateries, including the first Montgomery County branch of Ted’s Bulletin, the upscale diner from the folks at the locally grown Matchbox Food Group. This summer, Smashburger, &pizza, Chop’t, Yogiberry, Asia Nine and La Madeleine are slated to open, and in the fall, Ted’s Bulletin, Coastal Flats, Paladar Latin Kitchen & Rum Bar, Ruth’s Chris Steak House and Old Town Pour House.

Meanwhile, Bethesda’s Haven Pizzeria Napoletana was due for a name change and an overhaul in June. Tiger Mullen, who opened the place in 2012 and was later bought out by his partners, is now back as the head honcho.

At press time, the reinvigorated restaurant was slated to be called Pitzze Table, offering an expanded menu including breakfast.

Arrivederci to Assaggi Mozzarella Bar, which closed in May after seven years on Bethesda Row. Also, Oro Pomodoro in Rockville Town Square closed in April. ■

Carole Sugarman is the magazine’s food editor. Send ideas to carole.sugarman@ bethesdamagazine.com. Follow her on Twitter: @CaroleSugarman

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cooking CLASS

By Brian Patterson L’Academie de Cuisine | www.lacademie.com

A Sophisticated Slice

It’s summer and the living is easy. So why not throw a pizza on the grill? A nicely

photoS by stacy zarin-goldberg

charred round of homemade dough topped with high-quality ingredients is the perfect meal for those days when no one wants to be in a hot kitchen. When grilling a pizza, remember to go light on the toppings so it’s easy to maneuver on the grate. Think of grilled pizza as more of a well-dressed flatbread than the typical commercial pie loaded with layers of cheese, vegetables and meats. It’s a light and sophisticated treat that will surely help beat the heat.

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8

to make Grilled Pizza: 1. In a large mixing bowl, add yeast to warm water and whisk. Add the olive oil, egg and salt and whisk to mix well.

2

2. Add two cups of flour and mix well, then add another two cups and mix again. Add one more cup and mix until the dough can no longer be mixed with a spoon.

1

3. Turn out onto a table and knead about 5 to 7 minutes, adding more flour if necessary, until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Shape the dough into a round.

3

4. Rub oil around a mixing bowl and put the dough in it. Cover tightly and set in a warm area and let rise until doubled. This will take 1 to 3 hours, depending on ambient temperature. When ready to grill the pizzas, make sure the grate is clean before lighting the grill.

Heat until it is as hot as possible.

4

5. Divide the dough into four pieces.

5

6. Lightly roll each piece of dough into a disc, and finish by stretching the dough, forming a lip around the edge. Using regular or semolina flour, lightly dust a pizza paddle or a small, light cutting board. Lay one piece of the dough on the board, making sure it doesn’t stick.

6

7. Slide the dough onto the grill.

After 1 minute, rotate the dough 90 degrees, and cook for 1 additional minute. Flip the dough.

7

8. Arrange a few leaves of basil on the dough, and top with three slices of fresh mozzarella, some crushed tomatoes, a few shreds of prosciutto and a sprinkling of pecorino cheese. Drizzle with a 1 tablespoon of extra-virgin olive oil. This process should take about 1 minute.

8

ingredients

toppings

2 cups water 1½ teaspoons yeast 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 egg 2 teaspoons salt 5 to 6 cups flour Extra flour (regular or semolina) for dusting the pizza paddle Extra oil for coating a mixing bowl

4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil 1 bunch of fresh basil 1 pound fresh mozzarella or buffalo mozzarella, sliced ¼-inch thick 1 16-ounce can of San Marzano whole tomatoes, run through a food mill ¼ pound prosciutto, torn into thick shreds ½ pound pecorino cheese, grated ½ pound baby arugula

9. Close the grill lid for 1 additional minute. Then use a paddle or two large spatulas to remove the pizza. Repeat grilling steps with the remaining pieces of dough.

10. When the pizzas are done, garnish with a handful of baby arugula and serve. Slicing is optional.

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dining

GUIDE

Check out the online version of the DINING GUIDE at BethesdaMagazine.com or download our app for free at the Apple Store.

It’s browsable by category and updated frequently.

Bethesda 100 Montaditos, 4922 Elm St., Bethesda, 240-3966897, us.100montaditos.com/home. As its name proclaims, the Spanish-founded chain features 100 varieties of montaditos—mini sandwiches served on rolls.

Ranging in price from $1 to $2.50, the sandwiches sport fillings from authentic (Serrano ham, manchego cheese, chorizo) to American (Philly cheesesteak, hot dogs and burgers). ❂ L D $ 4935 Bar and Kitchen, 4935 Cordell Ave., 301-8308086, www.4935barandkitchen.com. Former Tragara Ristorante space gets a major redo, with 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 sushi, noodle soups, teriyaki and more. L D $$ American Tap Room, 7278 Woodmont Ave., 301656-1366, www.americantaproom.com. Classic grill menu featuring sliders and wings, from Thompson Hospitality, the owners of Austin Grill. ❂  R L D $$ &pizza (New), 7614 Old Georgetown Road, 240-8004783, 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., 301-6571722, www.bacchusoflebanon.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 in a dining room decorated with traditional statues of the gods. L D $

as the chef chops and cooks beef, chicken, vegetables and seafood tableside on the hibachi. This popular national chain serves sushi, too. J L D $$ Bethesda Crab House, 4958 Bethesda Ave., 301652-3382, www.bethesdacrabhouse.net. In the same location since 1961, this casual, family-owned dining spot features jumbo lump crabcakes, oysters on the half shell and jumbo spiced shrimp. Extra large and jumbo-sized crabs available year-round; call ahead to reserve them. ❂ L D $$ Bethesda Curry Kitchen, 4860 Cordell Ave., 301656-0062, www.bethesdacurrykitchen.com. Former Saveur India chef-owner Anil Kumar moves across town with a new 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 $ Bistro LaZeez, 8009 Norfolk Ave., 301-652-8222, www.bistrolazeez.com. Terrific Mediterranean grilled dishes from local Arabic teacher Reda Asaad. ❂JLD$ Bistro Provence (Editors’ Pick), 4933 Fairmont Ave., 301-656-7373, www.bistroprovence.org. Chef Yannick Cam brings his formidable experience to a casual French bistro with a lovely courtyard. ❂ L D $$$ Black’s Bar & Kitchen (Editors’ Pick), 7750 Woodmont Ave., 301-652-5525, www.blacksbarandkitch en.com. Bethesda Magazine readers voted Black’s “Best MoCo Restaurant” and “Best Happy Hour” in 2014. Customers count on the impeccable use of fresh and local ingredients. ❂ R L D $$$ Bold Bite, 4901-B Fairmont Ave., 301-951-2653, www. boldbite.net. Designer hot dogs from the Venezuelan Roche brothers, with a menu that won “Best Menu Design” from the magazine’s editors in 2013. J L D $ Brasserie Monte Carlo, 7929 Norfolk Ave., 301656-9225, www.brasseriemontecarlo.com. FrenchMediterranean dishes and a mural of a Monte Carlo landscape transport diners to Monaco. ❂ R L D $$ Brickside Food & Drink, 4866 Cordell Ave., 301-3126160, www.bricksidebethesda.com. Prohibition-era drinks meet Italian bar bites and entrées. ❂ R D $$

Bel Piatto Pizza, 7812 Old Georgetown Road, 301986-8085, www.belpiattopizza.com. Entrées, calzones, strombolis and salads, along with a large selection of pizzas. L D $

Caddies on Cordell, 4922 Cordell Ave., 301-215-7730, www.caddiesoncordell.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 Bar Food" in 2014. ❂ J R L D $

Benihana, 7935 Wisconsin Ave., 301-652-5391, www.benihana.com. Experience dinner-as-theater

Café Deluxe, 4910 Elm St., 301-656-3131, www.cafe deluxe.com. This local chain serves bistro-style Amer-

Key: Price designations are for a three-course dinner for two including tip and tax, but excluding alcohol. $ up to $50 $$ $51-$100 $$$ $101-$150 $$$$ $150+

b

Outdoor Dining Children’s Menu B Breakfast R Brunch L Lunch D Dinner



ican comfort food in a fun and noisy setting with wood fans and colorful, oversized European liquor posters. ❂ J R L D $$ Cava Mezze Grill, 4832 Bethesda Ave., 301-6561772, www.cavagrill.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. J L D $ Cesco Osteria, 7401 Woodmont Ave., 301-654-8333, www.cesco-osteria.com. Longtime chef Francesco Ricchi relocates from Cordell Avenue, turning out his Tuscan specialties in a bigger, jazzier space. ❂ L D $$ Chef Tony’s, 4926 St. Elmo Ave., 301-654-3737, www. cheftonysbethesda.com. Chef-owner Tony Marciante focuses on Mediterranean seafood tapas in what was formerly called Visions Restaurant. J R L D $$ City Burger (New), 7015 Wisconsin Ave., 301-6520010, www.cityburgeronline.com. Simple and 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, half-smokes and fries, plus homemade milkshakes and ice cream also served. White-tiled space seats about 15, but geared for takeout. L D $ City Lights of China, 4953 Bethesda Ave., 301913-9501, www.bethesdacitylights.com. Longtime Chinese eatery relocates to a different stretch of Bethesda Avenue, serving the same menu of familiar Szechuan and Beijing dishes. Red walls and chocolate-colored booths give the place a darker, sharper look. L D $$ Daily Grill, One Bethesda Metro Center, 301-6566100, www.dailygrill.com. Everyone from families to expense-account lunchers can find something to like about the big portions of fresh American fare,

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including chicken pot pie and jumbo lump crabcakes. ❂ J B R L D $$ Don Pollo, 7007 Wisconsin Ave., 301-652-0001. Juicy, spiced birds and reasonable prices make this Peruvian chicken eatery a go-to place any night of the week.

Locations in Rockville and Hyattsville, too. L D $ Faryab Restaurant (Editors’ Pick), 4917 Cordell Ave., 301-951- 3484., farandawaycycling.com/Fary ab/index.html. Faryab serves well-prepared Afghani country food, including Afghanistan’s answer to Middle Eastern kabobs, vegetarian stews and unique sautéed pumpkin dishes, in a whitewashed dining room with native art on the walls and attentive service. D $$

Guapo’s Restaurant, 8130 Wisconsin Ave., 301-6560888, www.guaposrestaurant.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. guardadosnico.com. Chef-owner Nicolas Guardado, who trained at Jaleo, opened this hidden gem devoted to Latin-Spanish cooking in 2007 and has developed a following with tapas specialties like shrimp and sausage, stuffed red peppers and paella. J L D $

Flanagan’s Harp & Fiddle, 4844 Cordell Ave., 301951-0115, www.flanagansharpandfiddle.com. This stylish pub features live music several days a week and 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 B L D $$

Freddy’s Lobster + Clams, 4867 Cordell Ave., 240743-4257, www.freddyslobster.com. New Englandstyle seafood shack with fried specialties and a terrific beer menu. Bethesda Magazine readers voted its lobster roll the best in 2013. ❂ J L D $

Persimmon Sunset Dining 3 Course Tasting Menu $33.00 Tuesday thru Sunday 4 pm - 6 pm ■

Geppetto, 10257 Old Georgetown Road, 301-4939230, www.geppettorestaurant.com. Sicilian-style pizza served in a casual atmosphere inside bustling Wildwood Shopping Center, plus classic Italian sandwiches and red-sauce dinners. ❂ J L D $$

Wine Down Tuesday Nights Select Half Price Bottles of Wine and an Exclusive List of Exceptional Steals

Happy Hour

■

at the Bar Food & Drink Specials Tuesday thru Friday 4 pm - 7 pm

Geste Wine & Food, 4801 Edgemoor Lane, 301-7181675, www.gestewine.com. Pizza, panini, subs and salads, plus a small retail area with reasonably priced bottles of wine. L D $ Grapeseed American Bistro + Wine Bar (Editors’ Pick), 4865 Cordell Ave., 301-986-9592, www.grape seedbistro.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. L (Tuesday-Friday) D $$$ Gringos & Mariachis (Editors’ Pick), 4928 Cordell Ave., 240-800-4266, www.gringosandmariachis.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, dark booths and plenty of tequila. Starters include duck nachos, chorizo-stuffed dates and bacon-wrapped jalapenos, and the taco selection nears 15 different choices. Platters available, too. L D $

Hard Times Café, 4920 Del Ray Ave., 301-951-3300, 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

Look what we’re cooking up at...

Food Wine & Co. (Editors’ Pick), 7272 Wisconsin Ave., 301-652-8008, www.foodwineandco.com.

American fare at a stunning bistro in the old Uno Chicago Grill space. L D $$

Garden Grille & Bar (in the Hilton Garden Inn), 7301 Waverly St., 301-654-8111, hiltongardeninn3.hilton. com/en/hotels/Maryland/Hilton-garden-inn-washing ton-dc-bethesda-WASBTGI/dining/index.html. Aside from a breakfast buffet featuring cooked-to-order 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 $$

Hanaro Restaurant & Lounge, 7820 Norfolk Ave., 301-654-7851, www.hanarobethesda.com. Modern dark woods and lots of light brighten the corner location, and the menu includes sushi and Asian fusion main courses. The bar offers a daily happy hour and is open on Fridays and Saturdays until 2 a.m. ❂ L D $$

Sunday Brunch 11am - 2 pm

Damian anddD anniieean pha S Steteph re re to Salva S 7003 Wisconsin Avenue, Bethesda

7003 Wisconsinwww.persimmonrestaurant.com Avenue, Bethesda • www.persimmonrestaurant.com • 301.654.9860 • 301.654.9860

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dining guide West-style saloon for lunch and dinner. Owner Greg Hourigan is a fixture in the community. ❂ J L D $ Heckman’s Delicatessen (New), 4914 Cordell Ave., 240-800-4879. The latest attempt at bringing corned beef to Bethesda features all the deli 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 eggs. Sweets include rugelach, black-and-white cookies and homemade cheesecake, and on a sour note, deli owners are relatives of the founder of the old Heckman’s Pickles firm in the District. ❂ J B L D $ Himalayan Heritage (Editors’ Pick), 4925 Bethesda Ave., 301-654-1858, www.himalayanheritagedc.com.

Indian, Nepalese and Indo-Chinese fare, featuring momos (Nepalese dumplings) and Indian takes on Chinese chow mein. L D $ Hinode Japanese Restaurant, 4914 Hampden Lane, 301-654-0908. Chef Ky Khuu’s sushi specials shine in a dining room dominated by a large fish tank at this tucked-away spot that has been in business since 1992. L D $$ House of Foong Lin, 4613 Willow Lane, 301-6563427. With a (slightly) new name but the same Cantonese, Hunan and Sichuan cuisine, Bethesda’s longtime Foong Lin restaurant has relocated to the old Moon Gate space. L D $$ 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 in the old Plaza del Sol space. Chef “M&M” Kang prepares home-style fare such as bulgogi, galbi and bibimbap; also look for the Korean-style sushi 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., 301913-0003, 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. ❂ R L D $$ Jetties, 4829 Fairmont Ave., 301-951-3663, www.jetties dc.com. The first suburban location for the popular sandwich, salad and ice cream eatery, which has two restaurants in Northwest Washington, D.C. Also look for one-pot “crock” dishes and an innovative children’s menu. ❂ J L D $ Kabob Bazaar, 7710 Wisconsin Ave., 301-652-5814, www.kabobbazaar.com. The younger sister of a popular Arlington restaurant with the same name offers kabobs in every protein possibility, plus lots of vegetarian side dishes. Music on Saturdays and Sundays. ❂ J L D $ Kadhai (Editors’ Pick), 7905 Norfolk Ave., 301-7180121, www.kadhai.com. The popular Indian restaurant formerly known as Haandi has relocated to the old Uptown Deli space. L D $$ La Panetteria, 4921 Cordell Ave., 301-951-6433, www.lapanetteria.com. For more than 25 years, La Panetteria has transported diners into a quaint Italian

villa with its impeccable service and Old World atmosphere, serving such classic dishes as homemade spaghetti and veal scaloppine. L D $$ Le Vieux Logis, 7925 Old Georgetown Road, 301-6526816, www.levieuxlogisrestaurant.com. The colorful exterior will draw you into this Bethesda institution, but classic French dishes such as Dover sole meunière will keep you coming back. D $$ Lebanese Taverna, 7141 Arlington Road, 301-9518681, www.lebanesetaverna.com. The latest 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 $$ Louisiana Kitchen & Bayou Bar, 4907 Cordell Ave., 301-652-6945, www.louisianabethesda.com. Former Louisiana Express chef José Blanco and veteran waiter Carlos Arana continue the tradition of the popular Bethesda institution in a larger, spiffier setting. The prices and Cajun- and Creole-style menu are pretty much the same, the fried items are still divine and the pain perdou and beignets remain a great way to start a Sunday morning. B R L D $ Luke’s Lobster, 7129 Bethesda Lane, 301-718-1005, www.lukeslobster.com. An upscale carryout with authentic lobster, shrimp and crab rolls; the seafood is shipped direct from Maine. ❂ L D $ Mamma Lucia,4916Elm St.,301-907-3399,www.mamma luciarestaurants.com. New York-style pizza dripping with cheese and crowd-pleasing red sauce, and favorites like chicken Parmesan and linguini with clams draw the crowds to this local chain. ❂ J L D $$ Markham’s Bar and Grill, 7141 Wisconsin Ave., 240800-4700, www.markhamsbar.com. A brick-and-mortar eatery from the owner of the former One3Five Cuisine food trailer, Markham’s is a neighborhood spot offering many of the popular sandwiches and salads from the mobile operation. Look for Pakistani tacos, banh mi and a marinated flank steak sandwich, plus nightly comfort-food specials. The beige-andblack interior sports a handsome wine cabinet and photographs of old Bethesda. An outdoor patio includes a pergola and a 5½-foot waterfall. ❂ L D $$ Matuba Japanese Restaurant, 4918 Cordell Ave., 301-652-7449, www.matuba-sushi.com. Detail-oriented sushi chefs and attentive service perk up this otherwise plain white-and-blond-wood Japanese restaurant that has been doing a steady business in downtown Bethesda for 30 years. L D $$ Max Brenner Chocolate Bar, 7263 Woodmont Ave., 301-215-8305, www.maxbrenner.com. It’s sweetsonly at the newest location of this international chain.

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. There are also “Fast Max” items to go, and a retail section offers fashionably packaged bonbons, praline wafers and caramelized nuts rolled in hazelnut cream and cocoa powder. $ Mia’s Pizzas (Editors’ Pick), 4926 Cordell Ave., 301718-6427, www.miaspizzasbethesda.com. Mia’s wood-

burning oven turns out Naples-style pies with a variety of toppings; homemade soups and cupcakes in a cheery dining room with yellow, green and orange accents. ❂ J L D $$ Moby Dick House of Kabob, 7027 Wisconsin Ave., 301-654-1838, www.mobysonline.com. This kabob takeout/eat-in mainstay was one of the first kabob places in the area. It makes its own pita bread. L D $ Mon Ami Gabi, 7239 Woodmont Ave., 301-654-1234, www.monamigabi.com. Waiters serve bistro classics such as escargot, steak frites and profiteroles in a dark and boisterous spot that doesn’t feel like a chain. Voted “Best French Restaurant” by the magazine’s readers in 2014. Live jazz Tuesday and Thursday nights. ❂ J R L D $$ 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 restaurant is known for a top-notch dinner experience but also offers lunch and a bar menu. D $$$ Mussel Bar & Grille, 7262 Woodmont Ave., 301215-7817, www.musselbar.com. Kensington resident and big-name chef Robert Wiedmaier serves his signature mussels, plus wood-fired tarts, salads and sandwiches. Wash them all down with a choice of 40 Belgian beers, which won “Best Beer Selection” by the magazine’s readers in 2013. ❂ R L D $$ Nest Cafe, 4921 Bethesda Ave., 301-718-6378, www.nestwinebarcafe.com. Nest offers simple salads, pasta and pizzas. Among the best eats, however, are the crispy calamari and artichokes appetizer and the mussels and fries entrée. ❂ J R L (Wednesday-Saturday) D $$ Newton’s Table (Editors’ Pick), 4917 Elm St., 301718-0550, www.newtonstable.com. Modern American cuisine from up-and-coming chef-owner Dennis Friedman, whose creations were voted “Best Example of Plating as Art” by the magazine’s editors in 2013. ❂ J L D $$$ Oakville Grille & Wine Bar (Editors’ Pick), 10257 Old Georgetown Road, 301-897-9100, www.oakville winebar.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 it does it well. ❂ J L D $$ Olazzo (Editors’ Pick), 7921 Norfolk Ave., 301-6549496, www.olazzo.com. This well-priced, romantic restaurant is the place for couples seeking red-sauce classics at reasonable prices. Voted “Best Italian Restaurant” and “Best Fried Calamari” by our readers in 2014. ❂ L D $$ Original Pancake House, 7703 Wisconsin Ave., Store D, 301-986-0285, www.ophrestaurants.com. Dozens of pancake dishes, as well as eggs and waffles galore.

Named “Best Breakfast” by the magazine’s readers in 2014. ❂ J B L $ Panas Gourmet Empanadas, 4731 Elm St., 301657-7371, www.panasgourmet.com. Baked, not fried, empanadas with a modern twist—think chicken pesto, smoked eggplant and chipotle steak. L D $

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Parker’s American Bistro, 4824 Bethesda Ave., 301654-6366, www.parkersbistro.com. An all-American menu with vintage local sports posters, Parker’s offers a wide-ranging food and wine list, upbeat soundtrack and servers who take an interest in your happiness. ❂ J R L D $$ Passage to India (Editors’ Pick), 4931 Cordell Ave., 301-656-3373, www.passagetoindia.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 $$ Penang Malaysian Cuisine, 4933 Bethesda Ave., 301-657-2878, www.penangmaryland.com. At this Malaysian spot decorated with exotic dark woods and a thatched roof, spices run the gamut of Near and Far Eastern influence, and flavors include coconut, lemongrass, sesame and chili sauce. L D $$ Persimmon (Editors’ Pick), 7003 Wisconsin Ave., 301-654-9860, www.persimmonrestaurant.com.

Chef-owner Damian Salvatore’s popular restaurant hes reopened, with more casual décor, lower prices and less formal fare. ❂ L D $$ Pitzze Table, 7137 Wisconsin Ave., 301-664-9412.

Haven Pizzeria Napoletana changed names in midJune. Tiger Mullen, who opened Haven in 2012 before being bought out by his partners, is back and

overseeing the reinvigorated restaurant, which offers an expanded menu with more salads and small plates, plus breakfast. B L D $ Pines of Rome, 4709 Hampden Lane, 301-657-8775.

Local celebrities and families gather at this downhome Italian spot for traditional food at prices that are easy on the wallet. The white pizza is a hit, and don’t forget the spaghetti and meatballs. L D $ PizzaPass, 4924 St. Elmo Ave., 301-657-5522, www. pizzapass.net. Waiters, or “pizza passers,” circulate with a variety of hot slices of pizza on their trays, allowing diners to choose their preferred topping. Informal and very kid-friendly, the restaurant also offers pasta and a salad bar. It’s all-you-can-eat for a set price, with substantial discounts for the kids. ❂ L D $ Pizza Tempo, 8021 Wisconsin Ave., 240-497-0003, www.pizzatempo.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.pizzeriadamarco.net. Authentic Neapolitan pizzas fired in a $15,000 Italian brick oven. ❂ 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. Two former White House pastry chefs opened this sunny restaurant with 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 $$ Raku (Editors’ Pick), 7240 Woodmont Ave., 301718-8680, www.rakuasiandining.com. Voted “Best Sushi” by the magazine’s readers in 2014 and “Best Bethesda Restaurant” in 2013, this casual restaurant has bamboo walls that do little to dampen the noise, but the menu satisfies with everything from sushi to kung pao chicken. ❂ L D $$ Redwood Restaurant & Bar, 7121 Bethesda Lane, 301-656-5515, www.redwoodbethesda.com. An upscale wine bar featuring fresh, local food and California-centric wines in the heart of Bethesda Lane. 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. The interior décor makes the

Never miss Breakfast and Never miss our LUNCH! BETHESDA 301-986-0285 ROCKVILLE 301-468-0886 FALLS CHURCH 703-698-6292 www.ophrestaurants.com FREE PARKING ALL LOCATIONS

Voted by Zagat Survey “Extraordinary to Perfection for Food”

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dining guide most of recycled redwood and “green” materials. ❂ J RL D $$ Rice Paddies Grill & Pho, 4706 Bethesda Ave., 301718-1862, ricepaddiesgrill.com. This cute copper-andgreen eat-in/carryout makes quick work of Vietnamese favorites like pork, beef and vegetable skewers infused with lemongrass and the classic beef noodle soup known as pho. L D $ Rock Bottom Brewery, 7900 Norfolk Ave., 301652-1311, www.rockbottom.com. The award-winning beers are crafted in-house and the menu is vast at this cavernous yet welcoming chain. The burgers are the real deal. ❂ J L D $$ Roof Bethesda, 7940 Norfolk Ave. 240-245-7663, www.roofbethesda.com. Bethesda’s first full-service rooftop restaurant and bar is a two-level extravaganza with a casual glass-enclosed dining room and bar on the second floor and a large rooftop space—serving drinks and lighter fare—directly above it. The modern American menu focuses on familiar dishes such as sea scallops, pork chops and shrimp and grits, elevated with simple twists. Craft cocktails and homemade desserts are taken seriously, too. ❂ J R L D $$ Ruth’s Chris Steak House, 7315 Wisconsin Ave., 301-652-7877, www.ruthschris.com. A dark and clubby feel makes this elegant chain popular with families as well as the happy-hour crowd. Don’t skip the fresh seafood choices. D $$$ Sala Thai, 4828 Cordell Ave., 301-654-4676, www. salathaidc.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. ❂ J L D $ Satsuma, 8003 Norfolk Ave., 301-652-1400. 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 Indian and Nepalese Cuisine, 7345-A Wisconsin Ave., 301-656-4444, www.shangrilaus.com.

Northern Indian and Nepali specialties such as butter chicken and fresh flatbreads known as naan shine here. J L D $ Share Wine Lounge & Small Plate Bistro, 8120 Wisconsin Ave. (in the Doubletree Hotel), 301-6522000, www.doubletreebethesda.com/Food-DrinksFun/Share-Wine-Lounge-Small-Plate-Bistro. 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 $$

Smoke BBQ Bethesda, 4858 Cordell Ave., 301-6562011, www.smokebbqbethesda.com. Pulled pork, beef brisket, smoked chicken, ribs and all the fixin’s at Bethesda’s only sit-down barbecue joint. L D $ South Street Steaks, 4856 Cordell Ave., 301-2157972, www.southstreetsteaks.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 $ Steamers Seafood House, 4820 Auburn Ave., 301-718-0661, www.steamersseafoodhouse.com.

Steamers brings Bethany Beach to Bethesda, especially if diners sit on the wraparound porch in warm weather with a bucket of crabs and some beer.❂ J L D $$ Stromboli Family Restaurant, 7023 Wisconsin Ave., 301-986-1980, www.strombolisrestaurant.com. In addition to a large selection of delectable hot Italian sandwiches called stromboli, this proud family restaurant/carryout features pizzas, subs and pastas at reasonable prices. L D $ sweetgreen, 4831 Bethesda Ave., 301-654-7336, www.sweetgreen.com. Founded in 2007 in Washington, D.C., by three newly graduated Georgetown students, the sweetgreen fast-casual chain—with its focus on local and organic ingredients—has expanded rapidly. The menu concentrates on salads and wraps (devise your own, or pick from a list), plus tart frozen yogurt. Look for eco-friendly décor, a healthy sensibility and a hip buzz. ❂ L D $ Tako Grill, 7756 Wisconsin Ave., 301-652-7030, www. takogrill.com. Families and sake connoisseurs seek out this eclectic spot where sushi, sashimi and other Japanese treats are fresh, and waiters are knowledgeable and friendly. L D $$ Tandoori Nights, 7236 Woodmont Ave., 301-6564002, www.tandoorinightsbethesda.com. Indian cuisine returns to the former Delhi Dhaba space. ❂ L D $$ Tara Thai, 4828 Bethesda Ave., 301-657-0488, www. tarathai.com. Thai goes high style at Bethesda Magazine readers’ 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 $$ Tastee Diner, 7731 Woodmont Ave., 301-652-3970, www.tasteediner.com. For more than 70 years, this crowd-pleasing if slightly sagging spot has served up everything from breakfast to burgers to blueplate specials like steak and crabcakes. Open 24 hours. J B L D $

The Burger Joint, 4827 Fairmont Ave., 301-358-6137, www.bgrtheburgerjoint.com. The burgers are good and the vibe is great at this frequently packed eatery next to Veterans Park. The non-beef burgers are good, too. ❂ J L D $ The Corner Slice, 7901 Norfolk Ave., 301-907-7542, www.thecornerslice.net. New York-style pizza, available by the slice or as a 20-inch pie. ❂ L D $ The Parva, 7904 Woodmont Ave., 301-312-6488, www. theparva.com. Latin-fusion cuisine with offerings from Argentina, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela. ❂ D $ Tia Queta, 4839 Del Ray Ave., 301-654-4443, www.tia queta.com. This longtime family and happy-hour favorite offers authentic Mexican food like moles and fish dishes, as well as the usual Tex-Mex options. ❂ J L D $$ Tommy Joe’s Restaurant, 4714 Montgomery Lane, 301-654-3801, www.tommyjoes.com. Hot wings and drink specials abound at this friendly restaurant/ bar/nightclub featuring 20 big-screen TVs for game time. ❂ J L D $$ Trattoria Sorrento (Editors’ Pick), 4930 Cordell Ave., 301-718-0344, www.trattoriasorrento.com.

This family-run Italian favorite offers homemade pastas, baked eggplant and fresh fish dishes. Halfprice 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 $50 per person. D $$ Tyber Bierhaus, 7528 Old Georgetown Road, 240821-6830, www.tyberbierhausmd.com. Czech, German and Belgian brews served in an authentic beerhall setting, furnished with the same benches as those used in the Hofbrau brewhouse in Munich. Pub menu features mussels, hearty sandwiches, familiar entrées, and some schnitzel and goulash, too. R L D $$ Uncle Julio’s Rio Grande Café, 4870 Bethesda Ave., 301-656-2981, www.unclejulios.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. ❂ J R L D $$ Union Jack’s, 4915 St. Elmo Ave., 301-652-2561, www.unionjacksbethesda.com. This authentically decorated British-style pub is partially below street level. English dishes such as Welsh rarebit cozy up to burgers, salads and crabcakes. DJ and dancing weekends until 2:30 a.m. ❂ J L D $$ Vapiano, 4900 Hampden Lane, 301-215-7013, www. vapiano.com. Worldwide Italian chain offers reasonably priced pizza, pasta and panini in a chic cafeteriastyle setting. ❂ J L D $

Taylor Gourmet, 7280 Woodmont Ave., 301-9519001, www.taylorgourmet.com. Upscale takes on Philadelphia hoagies and sandwiches. Italian flavors and top-notch ingredients. L D $

Vino Volo, 7247 Woodmont Ave., 301-656-0916, www. vinovolobethesdarow.com. First non-airport location for the wine bar and shop that also features a rustic café serving small plates, salads, sandwiches, pizza and a few entrées. ❂ L D $$

The Barking Dog, 4723 Elm St., 301-654-0022, www. thebarkingdogonline.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 $

Wildwood Kitchen (Editors’ Pick), 10223 Old Georgetown Road (in the Wildwood Shopping Center), 301-571-1700, www.wildwoodkitchenrw.com.

Attractive neighborhood bistro serving fresh and light modern cuisine from well-known chef Robert Wiedmaier. L D $$

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Woodmont Grill (Editors’ Pick), 7715 Woodmont Ave., 301-656-9755, www.hillstone.com. Part of the Houston’s chain, offering such classics as spinach and artichoke dip and the famous burgers, but also house-baked breads, more exotic dishes, live jazz and a granite bar. ❂ J L D $$$ Yamas Mediterranean Grill, 4806 Rugby Ave., 301312-8384, www.yamasgrill.com. Gyros, souvlaki, lemon chicken and other Greek specialties at this friendly and sunny café. ❂ J L D $ Yuzu, 7345-B Wisconsin Ave., 301-656-5234, yuzu bethesda.com. Authentic Japanese dishes, including sushi, sashimi and cooked tofu, vegetable, tempura, meat and fish dishes, prepared by sushi chef and owner Yoshihisa Ota. L D $$

Cabin John Fish Taco, 7945 MacArthur Blvd., 301-229-0900, www.fishtacoonline.com. This counter-service taqueria from the owners of Bethesda’s Food Wine & Co. features a full roster of seafood as well as nonaquatic tacos, plus margaritas and other Mexican specialties. The eco-chic décor is casual and attractive, and there are rolls of paper towels on every table to sop up sauce-stained fingers. Don’t miss the bread pudding. ❂ J L D $

Wild Tomato (Editors’ Pick), 7945 MacArthur Blvd., 301-229-0680, www.wildtomatorestaurant.com. A family-friendly neighborhood restaurant from Persimmon 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, 4515 Willard Ave., 301-657-9133, www.alfi os.com. Owner Anastasios “Tasios” Hatzitanagiotis welcomes families and casual diners to the elegant dining room of this northern Italian classic, located on the first floor of the Willoughby Condominium.

The salad bar, pastas and homemade desserts are popular. L D $$ Capital Grille, 5310 Western Ave., 301-718-7812, www.capitalgrille.com. The upscale steak-house chain, known for its he-man-sized portions and extensive wine list, is located in The Shops at Wisconsin Place. L D $$$$ Clyde’s, 5441 Wisconsin Ave., 301-951-9600, www. clydes.com. Features a frequently changing menu of American favorites and a collection of vintage airplanes and cars, as well as a model train running on a track around the ceiling. ❂ J R L D $$ Indique Heights, 2 Wisconsin Circle, 301-656-4822, www.indiqueheights.com. Sumptuous silks, a foun-

tain and sweeping vistas from the windows behind the bar heighten the feeling of an Indian palace, but it’s the cooking of chef-partner K.N. Vinod that keeps patrons coming back. ❂ R L D $$ La Ferme (Editors’ Pick), 7101 Brookville Road, 301-986-5255, www.lafermerestaurant.com. This warm and charming Provence-style restaurant is a popular choice for an intimate dinner or a celebration in one of several private rooms or on the heated patio terrace. Perhaps that’s why the magazine’s readers voted it the “Most Romantic Restaurant” in 2014 and editors named it “Best Restaurant for Ambience” in 2013. Classic French cuisine from onion soup to sweetbreads. ❂ R L D $$$ Lia’s (Editors’ Pick), 4435 Willard Ave., 240-2235427, www.liasrestaurant.com. Owner Geoff Tracy focuses on high-quality, low-fuss modern ItalianAmerican fare at this funky and modern space with a wine room. Pizzas, house-made pastas and fresh fish please business lunchers and dinner crowds. The magazine’s readers chose it as “Best Chevy Chase Restaurant” in 2013. ❂ J R L D $ Manoli Canoli Restaurant, 8540 Connecticut Ave., 301-951-1818, www.manolicanoli.com. Italian and Greek specialties 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 $

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dining guide Meiwah Restaurant, 4457 Willard Ave., 301-6529882, www.meiwahrestaurant.com. This modern restaurant on the second floor of a Friendship Heights office building offers top-quality Chinese dishes that are hard to beat. A fountain sparkles on the outdoor patio. Sushi bar. ❂ L D $$ Mi Cocina, 5471 Wisconsin Ave. (in The Collection), 301-652-1195, www.micocinarestaurants.com. A Dallas-based chain serving Tex-Mex staples such as enchiladas, tacos and fajitas in stylish surroundings.

L D $$ Potomac Pizza, 19 Wisconsin Circle, 301-951-1127, www.potomacpizza.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 $

and brunch on weekends, which spills out onto a 50-seat patio. ❂ J R L D $ Sub*urban Trading Co., 10301 Kensington Parkway, 301-962-4046, www.suburbantrading.com. Earthy, neighborhood bistro and market in a small strip shopping center 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. Coffeehouse atmosphere in the front area; back dining room offers rustic vibe. R L D $$

North Potomac/ Gaithersburg

Sushiko (Editors’ Pick), 5455 Wisconsin Ave., 301961-1644, www.sushikorestaurants.com. Washington, D.C.’s oldest and most respected sushi restaurant, opened in Glover Park in 1976, continues its tradition in a bigger, sleeker suburban outpost. ❂ L D $$

Athens Grill, 9124 Rothbury Drive, 301-975-0757, www. athensgrill.com. This casual, friendly, family-run restaurant in Goshen Plaza specializes in authentic Greek cooking, using recipes handed down through generations. Specialties like rotisserie chicken, chargrilled salmon with a lemon dill sauce and lamb kabobs are cooked behind the counter on a hardwood grill. L D $

Tavira, 8401 Connecticut Ave., 301-652-8684, www. tavirarestaurant.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 (except Saturday and Sunday) D $$

Bonefish Grill, 82 Market St., 240-631-2401, www.bone fishgrill.com. While fresh fish cooked over a wood fire is the centerpiece of this upscale Florida chain, the steaks, crabcakes and specialty martinis make it a fun option for happy hour and those with hearty appetites. Bethesda Magazine readers selected it as the “Best Gaithersburg Restaurant” in 2013. R L (only on Sundays) D $$

GarretT Park Black Market Bistro (Editors’ Pick), 4600 Waverly Ave., 301-933-3000, www.blackmarketrestaurant. 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. ❂ J R L D $$

Glen Echo Irish Inn at Glen Echo, 6119 Tulane Ave., 301-2296600, www.irishinnglenecho.com. This historic tavern has been a family home and a biker bar, but its incarnation as the Irish Inn has been bringing smiles to faces and hearty food to bellies since 2003. Traditional Irish music on Monday nights and The 19th Street Band on every other Wednesday night. ❂ J R L D $$

Kensington K Town Bistro, 3784 Howard Ave., 301-933-1211, www.ktownbistro.com. Beef Wellington, duck breast à l’orange and other classic continental dishes from this 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. A casual sports bar serving American bar food, including wraps, burgers, salads and ribs,

Brasserie Beck Kentlands (New), 311 Kentlands Blvd., 301-569-4247, brasseriebeck.com. Chef Robert Wiedmaier and his RW Restaurant Group open the first suburban locale of their highly successful downtown restaurant. Like its District sister, the Belgian-inspired brasserie focuses on raw oysters, mussels, artisan cheeses and charcuterie, plus hearty main courses such as beef carbonnade and braised pork shank. Spacious, blueaccented interior and outdoor patio are conducive for drinking European beers, too. ❂ L D $$$ Buca di Beppo, 122 Kentlands Blvd., 301-947-7346, www.bucadibeppo.com. The Kentlands outpost of this national chain serves huge, family-style portions of Italian specialties amid a sea of Italian kitsch.

J L D $$ Burma Road, 617 S. Frederick Ave., 301-963-1429, www.burmaroad.biz. A good place to sample pickled tea leaf salad and other Burmese specialties. L D $ Coal Fire, Kentlands Square, 116 Main St., 301-5192625, www.coalfireonline.com. Homemade crusts fired by anthracite coal and topped with your choice of three different sauces, plus toppings. Salads, sandwiches and pasta also available. Full bar. ❂ L D $ Copper Canyon Grill, 100 Boardwalk Place, 240-6310003, www.ccgrill.com. Large portions of American classics like salads, ribs and rotisserie chicken at family-friendly prices are the bill of fare at this spacious chain restaurant. J L D $$ Dogfish Head Alehouse, 800 W. Diamond Ave., 301963-4847, www.dogfishalehouse.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. ❂ J L D $$

Famous Dave’s, 917 Quince Orchard Road, 240-6830435, www.famousdaves.com. This local outpost of a national chain offers smoked meat and hearty portions of classic sides such as baked beans and creamy coleslaw. ❂ J L D $ Growler’s, 227 E. Diamond Ave., 301-519-9400, www. growlersrestaurant.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. ❂ R L D $ Guapo’s Restaurant, 9811 Washingtonian Blvd., L-17, 301-977-5655, www.guaposrestaurant.com.

See Bethesda listing. ❂ J R L D $ HaKuBa Restaurant, 706 Center Point Way, 301-9471283, hakubakentlands.com. An elegant, modern Japanese sushi spot that also serves fresh fish and teriyaki and tempura dishes. Wood stools and a silver bar elevate the décor. Dollar-sushi happy hours Monday through Thursday; sake bottles half-price on Mondays. L D $$ Il Porto Restaurant, 245 Muddy Branch Road, 301590-0735, www.ilportorestaurant.com. A classic redsauce menu, elegant murals of Venice and an authentic thin-crust pizza at a friendly, unfussy Italian restaurant tucked in the Festival Shopping Center. L D $ Joe’s Crab Shack, 221 Rio Blvd., 301-947-4377, www. joescrabshack.com. This is one of three Maryland locations of the chain, which offers blue crabs from April through August and other varieties year-round, as well as chicken and burgers for landlubbers. Popular with families and young couples. ❂ J L D $$ Le Palais, 304 Main St., Suite 1, 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. D $$$ Not Your Average Joe’s, 245 Kentlands Blvd. (in Kentlands Square Shopping Center), 240-477-1040, www.notyouraveragejoes.com. Massachusetts-based chain serving creative casual cuisine. ❂ J L D $$ Potomac Pizza, 625 Center Point Way, 301-9779777, www.potomacpizza.com. See Chevy Chase listing. J L D $ Red Hot & Blue, 16811 Crabbs Branch Way, 301948-7333, www.redhotandblue.com. Hickory-smoked barbecue and a Southern attitude at a chain popular for its office party takeout and its family-friendly, kitschy roadhouse décor. J L D $ Rio Grande Café, 231 Rio Blvd., 240-632-2150, www. unclejulios.com. See Bethesda listing under Uncle Julio’s. ❂ J R L D $$ Romano’s Macaroni Grill, 211 Rio Blvd., 301-9635003, www.macaronigrill.com. Standard Italian-American fare served in a lively, family-friendly setting.

Pastas, pizzas and house-label wine. ❂ J L D $$ Sardi’s Pollo a La Brasa, 430 N. Frederick Ave., 301977-3222, www.sardischicken.com. Yes, there’s chicken, but don’t miss the other Peruvian specialties, especially the ceviche. L D $ Tandoori Nights, 106 Market St., 301-947-4007, www.tandoorinightsmd.com. Downtown martini lounge meets modern curry palace in the Kentlands.

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A feast for the eyes as well as the palate, Tandoori Nights specializes in marinated meats baked in the eponymous clay oven. ❂ L D $ Tara Thai, 9811 Washingtonian Blvd., L-9, 301-947-8330, www.tarathai.com. See Bethesda listing. ❂ L D $$ Thai Tanium, 657 Center Point Way, 301-990-3699, www. thaitaniumrestaurant.com. Authentic Thai food laced with lots of chilies and garlic as hot as you like. ❂ J L D $ The Melting Pot, 9021 Gaither Road, 301-519-3638, www.themeltingpot.com. There’s nothing like dipping bits of bread, vegetables and apples into a communal pot of hot cheese to get a date or a party started. The Melting Pot chain also offers wine, oil or broth to cook meat tableside and chocolate fondue for dessert. J D $$ The Wine Harvest, The Kentlands, 114 Market St., 301-869-4008, www.thewineharvest.com. Popular Cheers-like wine bar locally owned by the Meyrowitz family, with salads, sandwiches and cheese plates. It also has a Potomac location. ❂ L D $ Vasilis Mediterranean Grill, 353 Main St., 301-9771011, www.vasilisgrill.com. With soaring white pillars and a spate of inviting outdoor tables, the 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 $ Yoyogi Sushi, 328 Main St., 301-963-0001. A nononsense neighborhood sushi place with bright fish tanks, offering the familiar sushi, teriyaki, tempura and green tea or red bean ice cream. L D $ Ziki Japanese Steak House, 10009 Fields Road, 301330-3868, www.zikisteakhouse.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.amicimieiristorante.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. Happy Hour held Monday through Friday. ❂ R L D $$ Attman’s Delicatessen, 7913 Tuckerman Lane (in the Cabin John Shopping Center & Mall), 301-765-3354, attmansdeli.com. After getting its start on Baltimore’s Corned Beef Row in 1915, the landmark Attman’s Deli made an historic move and opened a second location in Potomac in July 2013. The menu at the nearly century-younger sibling offers the same legendary corned beef, pastrami and other deli specialties. Thirdgeneration owner Marc Attman is at the helm. J L $ Benny’s Bar & Grill, 7747 Tuckerman Lane (in the Cabin John Shopping Center & Mall), 301-299-3377.

Familiar American favorites and old-time cocktails served amidst 1940s-era décor. 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. ❂ J B L D $ Elevation Burger, 12525-D Park Potomac Ave., 301838-4010, www.elevationburger.com. Fast-food burgers go organic and grass-fed at this Northern Virginia-founded chain. Veggie burgers, salads and grilled cheese available, too. ❂ L D $ Gregorio’s Trattoria, 7745 Tuckerman Lane (in the Cabin John Shopping Center), 301-296-6168, www. gregoriostrattoria.com. “Our food is like a warm hug with spaghetti sauce” is the slogan for this familyowned restaurant, where proprietor Greg Kahn aims to make everyone feel at home. The extensive menu reads like 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 spaghetti and penne. J L D $$ Mix Bar and Grille, 9812 Falls Road, Potomac, 301299-3000, www.mixbarandgrille.com. The former Bezu restaurant has been transformed into a more casual concept, serving charcuterie and cheese plates, brick-oven flatbreads and other light fare. The space was gutted and renovated into a modern, hip and totally different-looking dining room, with Plexiglas chairs, tall white banquettes, oak walls made from old whiskey barrels, five big screen TVs, cobalt blue light fixtures and a 20-seat bar. Look for lots of wines by the glass and beers on tap. L D $$ MoCo’s Founding Farmers, 12505 Park Potomac Ave., 301-340-8783, www.wearefoundingfarmers. 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 for “Best Brunch” and “Best Craft Cocktails” in 2014 and as “Best Potomac Restaurant” in 2013. ❂ B R L D $$ Normandie Farm Restaurant, 10710 Falls Road, 301983-8838, www.popovers.com. A fine-dining French restaurant, open since 1931, that strives to preserve its classical heritage while embracing new traditions. It offers quick service and crayons for children, a casual café option and a violinist at afternoon tea. ❂ J R L D $$ Old Angler’s Inn, 10801 MacArthur Blvd., 301-2999097, www.oldanglersinn.com. Open since 1860 and known for its refined American food and beautiful fireplaces and grounds, it features live music on weekends. ❂ R L D $$$ Potomac Pizza, 9812 Falls Road, 301-299-7700, www. potomacpizza.com. See Chevy Chase listing. L D $ Renato at River Falls, 10120 River Road, 301-3651900, www.riverfallsmarket.com. The classic Italian restaurant has added more wine and greatly improved fish dishes to its menu of pastas and classics such as osso bucco and linguini with clams and eggplant parmigiana. ❂ J L D $$ Sugo Osteria & Pizzeria, 12505 Park Potomac Ave., 240-386-8080, www.eatsugo.com. The Greek guys who own Cava Mezze and Cava Mezze Grills partner with Mamma Lucia restaurants to serve Italian small plates, meatballs, sliders, pizza and pasta. Bethesda Magazine readers chose Sugo as the “Best New Restaurant” in 2013. ❂ R (only on Sundays) L D $$

Tally-Ho Restaurant, 9923 Falls Road, 301-2996825, www.tallyhorestaurant.com. A local fixture since 1968 serving a diner-style menu with Greek and Italian specialties. ❂ J B L D $ The Grilled Oyster Company (Editors’ Pick), 7943 Tuckerman Lane (in the Cabin John Shopping Center), 301-299-9888, www.thegrilledoystercompa ny.com. Chesapeake-style seafood eatery, featuring small plates, salads, sandwiches and entrées. Happy Hour from 3 to 6:30 p.m. Monday through Friday in bar only. Named “Best New Restaurant” by Bethesda Magazine readers in 2014. ❂ J R L D $ The Hunter’s Inn, 10123 River Road, 301-299-9300, www.thehuntersinn.com. A Potomac institution and a popular English hunt-themed spot for a big salad or hamburger lunch with friends or a filet mignon dinner with the family. ❂ J R L D $$ The Tavern at River Falls (Editors’ Pick), 10128 River Road, 301-299-0481, www.thetavernatriverfalls.com.

Seafood-heavy pub menu served in a rustic setting; the tavern is owned by the adjacent Renato’s at River Falls and River Falls Seafood Market. ❂ J L D $$ The Wine Harvest, 12525-B Park Potomac Ave., 240-314-0177, www.thewineharvest.com. The second location of the popular Gaithersburg wine bar.

See Gaithersburg listing. ❂ L D $ Zoës Kitchen, 12505 Park Potomac Ave., Suite 115, 240-328-1022, www.zoeskitchen.com. First Maryland outpost of a Birmingham, Ala., fast-casual chain, Zoës features Mediterranean dishes such as kabobs, hummus and veggie pita pizzas. Specializes in takeout dinner for four for under $30. ❂ J L D $

Rockville/ North Bethesda 82 Steak Out, 101-C Gibbs St., Rockville Town Square, 240-428-1295, www.82steakout.com. Parisian-style steakhouse offers steak, salad and French fries for a set price in a hip, industrial setting. American touches include options of a blue cheese chopped salad and sweet potato fries. L D $$ A & J Restaurant (Editors’ Pick), 1319-C Rockville Pike, 301-251-7878, www.aj-restaurant.com/main. html. Northern dim sum, more bread, less dumplings, is the specialty at this hard-to-find spot tucked in the Woodmont Station shopping center. Warm-colored walls and modern lighting surround the young crowd as they dig into thousand-layer pancakes and fresh tofu. Named “Best Dim Sum Brunch” by the magazine’s editors in 2014. L D $ Al Carbon, 200 Park Road, 301-738-0003, www. alcar bonrestaurant.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 and more. ❂BLD$ Amalfi Ristorante Italiano, 12307 Wilkins Ave., 301770-7888, www.amalfirockville.com. A family-run, redsauce Italian restaurant with specialties like white pizza and lasagna. The gazebo is a charming spot to dine during the summer. J L D $

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dining guide Amina Thai Restaurant, 5065 Nicholson Lane, 301770-9509. 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. L D $

All natural breads made from scratch

Opening in Rockville this summer!

4961 Elm St Bethesda, MD 20814 301-654-7970 Located in Bethesda, Gaithersburg, and Barracks Row (Capitol Hill)

Sit outside.

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Benjarong Thai Restaurant, 885 Rockville Pike, 301424-5533, www.benjarongthairestaurant.com. This Thai food stalwart has a reputation for above-average food served in a gracious setting reminiscent of an upscale country home. L D $ Bombay Bistro, 98 W. Montgomery Ave., 301-7628798, www.bombaybistro.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. J L D $ Bonchon Chicken, 107 Gibbs St., Unit A, 301-637-9079 and 301-637-9379, 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.

Red, black and white color scheme encompasses a bar, tables and booths. L D $ BRIO Tuscan Grille, 20 Paseo Drive, 240-221-2691, www.brioitalian.com. Look for Tuscan specialties served in a handsome setting. ❂ J R L D $$ Carbon Peruvian Chicken & Grill, 100-F Gibbs St., 301-251-1944, www.carbonperuviangrill.com. A Peruvian grilled meat mecca from the owners of the popular La Canela, also in Rockville Town Square. ❂ L D $ Cava (Editors’ Pick), 9713 Traville Gateway Drive, 301-309-9090, www.cavamezze.com. The dark and elegant Cava offers small plates of fried Greek cheese, octopus and orzo in cinnamon tomato sauce and martini specials. ❂ R L D $$ Cavo’s Cantina, 4007 Norbeck Road, 301-929-3501.

Traditional Tex-Mex fare, from nachos to enchiladas and fajitas. J R L D $$ Chef Geoff’s, 12256 Rockville Pike (in the Towne Plaza), 240-621-3090, www.chefgeoff.com. Geoff Tracy branches out with his fourth eponymous restaurant featuring contemporary cuisine and something for everyone. ❂ J R L D $$ 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. L D $ East Pearl, 838-B Rockville Pike, 301-838-8663. www. eastpearlrestaurant.com. Hong Kong cuisine, including familiar dishes, as well as those for adventurous tastes. L D $

www.freddyslobster.com

El Mariachi Restaurant, 765-D Rockville Pike, 301738-7177, www.elmariachirockville.com. Serving TexMex 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. elpatiointernational.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 $ Far East Restaurant, 5055 Nicholson Lane, 301-8815552, www.fareastrockvillemd.com. This classic Chinese restaurant greets customers with two royal stone lions out front and sticks to the familiar Chinese-American basics. Check for daily specials. L D $$ Fontina Grille, 801 Pleasant Drive, 301-947-5400, www.fontinagrille.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 on Monday nights, half-price bottles of wine on Tuesdays and ladies’ night on Thursdays with half-priced alcoholic drinks. ❂ J R L D $$ Gordon Biersch, 200-A E. Middle Lane, Rockville Town Square, 301-340-7159, www.gordonbierschrestau rants.com. The national brewpub chain prides itself on house beers and friendly service. The shiny bar is boisterous, and the menu includes bar favorites with some barbecue and Asian touches.❂ J R L D $$ Grand Fusion Cuisine, 350 East Fortune Terrace, 301-838-2862, grandfusionrestaurant.com. Something for everyone seeking a taste of the Asian continent, a full sushi bar, and Chinese, Malaysian and Singaporean specialties. ❂ L D $ Hard Times Café, 1117 Nelson St., 301-294-9720, www.hardtimes.com. See Bethesda listing. J L D $ Hinode Japanese Restaurant, 134 Congressional Lane, 301-816-2190. See Bethesda listing. L D $$ Il Pizzico, 15209 Frederick Road, 301-309-0610, www. ilpizzico.com. Setting aside the strip mall location and lack of pizza (il pizzico means “the pinch” in Italian), chef-owner Enzo Livia’s house-made pasta dishes, gracious service and extensive wine list make even a weeknight meal feel special. L D $$ India Garden, 1321-C Rockville Pike, 301-838-0000, www.india-garden.com. Decorated in warm shades of orange and yellow, India Garden offers northern Indian specialties such as tandoori chicken and the flavorful flatbread called naan, as well as vegetarian options. Daily lunch buffet. ❂ J L D $ Joe’s Noodle House, 1488-C Rockville Pike, 301-8815518, www.joesnoodlehouse.com. Despite the barebones service and dingy interior, 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, 301468-8850, www.labrasarockville.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, 301-251-1550, www.lacanelaperu.com.

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La Limeña Restaurant, 765 Rockville Pike, 301-4248066. Diners can choose dishes such as beef hearts, tripe and homemade pastries in this tiny but wellappointed eatery. And of course, there’s rotisserie chicken to go. L D $ La Tasca, 141 Gibbs St., Suite 305, Rockville Town Square, 301-279-7011, www.latascausa.com. The Rockville location of this regional chain strives to keep things interesting with 45 tapas dishes and six kinds of paella. ❂ J L D $$ Lebanese Taverna Café, 1605 Rockville Pike, 301468-9086; 115 Gibbs St., Rockville Town Square, 301309-8681; www.lebanesetaverna.com. A casual and pleasant family spot for lunch or dinner after shopping at Congressional Plaza or Rockville Town Square, Lebanese Taverna Café is a more casual offshoot of the local Lebanese Taverna chain, serving hummus, pita, falafel, chicken and lamb kabobs. J L D $ Lighthouse Tofu & BBQ, 12710 Twinbrook Parkway, 301-881-1178. In addition to numerous tofu dishes, diners at this Korean stalwart can try barbecue, stirfried specialties and kimchee, the national dish of pickled cabbage. L D $ Mamma Lucia, 12274-M Rockville Pike, 301-7704894; 14921-J Shady Grove Road, 301-762-8805; www.mammaluciarestaurants.com. See Bethesda listing. ❂ J L D $$ Matchbox Vintage Pizza Bistro (Editors’ Pick), 1699 Rockville Pike, 301-816-0369, www.matchbox foodgroup.com. Mini-burgers and thin-crusted pizza in a super-cool space in Congressional Plaza. ❂ J R L D $ MemSahib, 4840 Boiling Brook Parkway, 301-4680098, www.memsahibrestaurant.com. Patrons eat the Indian country way, with their hands. MemSahib offers a buffet lunch and a six-course prix fixe dinner while belly dancers entertain customers. L D $$ Michael’s Noodles, 10038 Darnestown Road, 301738-0370, www.michaelsnoodles.com. Extensive Taiwanese menu at this popular strip mall eatery includes dim sum, mixed noodle dishes, noodle soup and unusual specialties. L D $ Mi Rancho, 1488 Rockville Pike, 240-221-2636, www.mi ranchotexmexrestaurant.com. A boisterous party atmosphere every night at a place serving standard Tex-Mex fare at good prices. The outdoor patio, strung with colorful lights, is the place to be in nice weather. ❂ J L D $ Moa, 12300 Wilkins Ave., 301-881-8880. 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. L D $ Mosaic Cuisine & Café, 186 Halpine Road, 301-4680682, www.mosaiccuisine.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, 301-7705999, www.mykonosgrill.com. An authentic Greek taverna with whitewashed walls on a busy street, Mykonos Grill turns out legs of lamb and fresh seafood expected at any good Greek restaurant. ❂ J L D $$ Nagoya Sushi Japanese Restaurant, 402 King Farm Blvd., Suite 130, 301-990-6778. Cheery yellow walls decorated with shelves of Japanese knickknacks greet customers at this unassuming sushi spot in King Farm. L D $$ Nantucket’s Reef, 9755 Traville Gateway Drive, Rockville, 301-279-7333, www.nantucketsreef.com. Located in the former Stella’s restaurant, 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, fish and shrimp tacos, tuna and salmon salads, and several lobster items. The décor is bright and nautical, with baby blue walls, white wainscoting, model ships and other seafaring décor. Signature cocktails are made with Nantucket Nectars juices. ❂ J L D $$ Nick’s Chophouse, 700 King Farm Blvd., 301-9268869, www.nickschophouserockville.com. Aged Angus beef cooked over an open fire is the specialty at this upscale spot, but seafood lovers can get their fill from big crabcakes. Separate bar menu. ❂ J L D $$ Niwano Hana Japanese Restaurant, 887 Rockville Pike, 301-294-0553, www.niwanohana.com. Clean Asian décor and elegant wooden screens greet diners at this friendly and busy sushi spot located in Wintergreen Plaza. Niwano Hana serves the usual sushi rolls, plus more creative options such as a Spicy Scallop Roll with mayonnaise and chili peppers, noodle dishes, teriyaki and yakitori, as well as a special crêpe for dessert. L D $$

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Sophisticated, modern Peruvian cooking shines in a yellow stucco building graced with curvy black ironwork. ❂ L D $

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7137 Wisconsin Avenue Bethesda, MD 20814 301-664-9412 pitzzetable.com

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Old Kimura Sushi, 785 Rockville Pike, Unit D, 301251-1922, www.oldkimura.com. A small restaurant serving an extensive sushi menu, along with noodle soups, rice dishes and tempura. L D $$ Original Pancake House, 12224 Rockville Pike, 301468-0886, www.ophrestaurants.com. See Bethesda listing. J R L $ Paladar Latin Kitchen & Rum Bar, 11333 Woodglen Drive, 301-816-1100, www.paladarlatin kitchen.com. This small Cleveland-based chain covers the spectrum of Latin cuisine, with dishes from Cuba, the Caribbean and Central and South America. From Brazil, there’s feijoada stew; from Cuba, ropa vieja; and from Jamaica, curry shrimp and jerk chicken. The extensive bar selection includes 50 varieties of rum, 15 tequilas and six types of mojitos, plus sangria, margaritas and specialty cocktails.❂ J R L D $$ Pho 75, 771 Hungerford Drive, 301-309-8873. 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. L D $ Pho 95, 785-H Rockville Pike, 301-294-9391, www. pho95md.com. Pho, the Vietnamese beef noodle soup, is king here. Other offerings include fat ricepaper rolls of shrimp, noodles and herbs with a sweet and spicy peanut sauce. L D $

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dining guide Pho Hoa Binh, 11782 Parklawn Drive, 301-770-5576. This pleasant pho restaurant offers the full gamut of variations on the beef noodle soup, plus about a dozen grilled entrées. The Vietnamese iced coffee is divine. L D $

Asian café serves more than 25 varieties of rolls, from a volcano roll (spicy tuna, white fish, salmon, tomato, jalapeno, fish eggs and vegetables) to a Philadelphia Roll (smoked salmon, cream cheese and avocado). J L D $

Sichuan Jin River, 410 Hungerford Drive, 240-4037351, www.scjinriver.com. Terrific Sichuan cuisine served in a no-frills setting. Take the plunge with the authentic Chinese menu. L D $

Pho Nom Nom, 842 Rockville Pike, 301-610-0232, www. phonomnom.net. As the name suggests, the specialty is pho, but there are also grilled dishes, noodles and the Vietnamese sandwich known as banh mi. L D $

Sadaf Halal Restaurant, 1327-K Rockville Pike, 301424-4040. An elegant alternative to the run-of-the-mill kabob places dotting the 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 $

Silver Diner, 12276 Rockville Pike, 301-770-2828, www.silverdiner.com. Shiny new digs replace the local chain’s first location a few traffic lights away.

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 $

Pizza CS, 1596-B Rockville Pike, 240-833-8090, www. pizzacs.com. Authentic Neapolitan pies offered in a sub-shop atmosphere. ❂ J L D $ Potomac Pizza, 9709 Traville Gateway Drive, 301279-2234, www.potomacpizza.com. See Chevy Chase listing. ❂ J L D $ Quench, 9712 Traville Gateway Drive, 301-424-8650, www.quenchnation.com. Urban bar scene in the suburbs, with unique cocktails and contemporary American cuisine. ❂ J R L D $$ Rocklands Barbeque and Grilling Company, 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 $ Rolls ‘N Rice, 1701 Rockville Pike (Shops at Congressional Village), 301-770-4030, www.rollsnrice.com. This

Sam’s Café & Market, 844 Rockville Pike, 301-4241600, www.samcafemarket.com. After filling up on the kitchen’s juicy skewered meats, have a gelato and check out the hookahs. ❂ J L D $ Seasons 52 (Editors’ Pick), 11414 Rockville Pike, 301984-5252, www.seasons52.com. A fresh, seasonal menu featuring items under 475 calories. Nightly piano music.

Voted “Best Rockville Restaurant” in 2013. ❂ L D $$ Seven Seas Chinese Restaurant, 1776 East Jefferson St., 301-770-5020, www.sevenseasrestaurant. 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. J L D $ Sheba Restaurant, 5071 Nicholson Lane, Rockville, 301-881-8882, www.shebarockville.com. Authentic Ethiopian cuisine, with lots of vegetarian and vegan options. L D $

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Spice Xing, 100-B Gibbs St., Rockville Town Square, 301-610-0303, www.spicexing.com. Started by Sudhir Seth, chef and owner of Bethesda’s Passage to India, this location offers lower prices, smaller plates and dishes reflecting the history of culinary influences on India. ❂ J R L D $$ Super Bowl Noodle, 785 Rockville Pike, 301-738-0086.

Asian noodle dishes in super-size portions. ❂ L D $ Sushi Damo, 36-G Maryland Ave., Rockville Town Square, 301-340-8010, www.sushidamo.com. A slice of New York 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 $$ Sushi House Japanese Restaurant, 1331-D Rockville Pike, 301-309-0043. A tiny, plain restaurant serving fresh sushi. Lunch specials for under $7. It’s popular, so be prepared to wait. L D $$ Sushi Oishii, 9706 Traville Gateway Drive, 301-2511177, www.sushioishii.com. Charming sushi bar in the Traville Gateway Center offering friendly service and 24 specialty sushi rolls, bento boxes and a few grilled items. ❂ L D $$ Taipei Tokyo, 14921-D Shady Grove Road (Fallsgrove Village Center), 301-738-8813; 11510-A Rockville Pike, 301-881-8388; www.taipei-tokyo.net. These sister restaurants offer a sizable roster of Chinese, Japanese and Thai dishes. Opened in 2003, the Fallsgrove Village location is the younger and sleeker of the two, with full sit-down service. The older sister, opened in 1993 across from White Flint Mall, is more like a noodle shop/cafeteria. L D $$ Tara Asia, 199-D E. Montgomery Ave., 301-315-8008.

A pan-Asian offshoot of the Tara Thai family, dominated by a floor-to-ceiling mosaic and an 82-item menu that spans the cuisine from Japan to Thailand and the tiny islands in between. ❂ J L D $$ Tara Thai, 12071 Rockville Pike, 301-231-9899, www. tarathai.com.com. See Bethesda listing. ❂ L D $$ Taste of Saigon (Editors’ Pick), 20-A Maryland Ave., Rockville Town Square, 301-424-7222, www.tasteof saigon.com. This neighborhood favorite focuses on elegant Vietnamese preparations. Tamarind soft-shell crab and lime steak topped with an egg are specialties, but a variety of noodle dishes and lemongrass skewers are also offered. ❂ L D $$ Ted’s 355 Diner, 895 Rockville Pike, 301-340-0088, www.teds355.com. The former Broadway and Hollywood diners get reincarnated again, this time by Virginia pizza restaurateur Ted Thedorou. J B R L D $$ Temari Café, 1043 Rockville Pike, 301-340-7720.

Deep-fried oysters, classic rice balls and comic books

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to peruse while you await your order set this Japanese restaurant apart from the rest. L D $$ Thai Farm, 800 King Farm Blvd., 301-258-8829, www. thaifarmrestaurant.com. A tastefully modern dining room soaked in a soothing yellow light. The usual suspects are on the menu here, but chef’s suggestions include an intriguing broiled fish wrapped in banana leaf and stir-fried duck. L D $$ Thai Pavilion, 29 Maryland Ave., Unit 308, Rockville Town Square, 301-545-0244, www.thaipavilionrestau rant.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 $$ That’s Amore, 15201 Shady Grove Road, 240-2680682, www.thatsamore.com. This local chain focuses on family-style portions of classic Neapolitan dishes like lasagna and chicken Parmesan in a more elegant setting than might be expected. Good for groups and large families. J L D $$ The Original Ambrosia Restaurant, 12015 Rockville Pike, 301-881-3636, www.theoriginalambrosia.com.

When Ambrosia Restaurant lost its lease after 30 years, the original employees opened this location, which features an eclectic menu of breakfast, gyros, pizza, crabcakes and soups. J B L D $ The Potomac Grill, 1093 Rockville Pike, 301-7388181, www.thepotomacgrill.com. A spacious, nautical-themed restaurant with a fireplace, Potomac Grill specializes in seafood but also features serious steaks, burgers and salads. Look for daily specials featuring a catch of the day and several desserts of the day. J R L D $$ Timpano Italian Chophouse, 12021 Rockville Pike, 301-881-6939, www.timpanochophouse.net. A chain steak house with an Italian accent, Timpano is a favorite of wheeler-dealer business lunchers and nighttime diners looking for a high-quality steak or wellprepared pasta. ❂ J R L D $$$ Tower Oaks Lodge, 2 Preserve Parkway, 301-294-0200, www.clydes.com. The Clyde’s version of a lodge in the mountains. Well-prepared food runs the gamut of American desires, from burgers to fish. J R L D $$ Trapezaria (New), 11 N. Washington St., 301-3398962, www.trapezariarockville.com. Down-to-earth and hospitable Greek/Mediterranean restaurant dishes out top-notch and unfussy small plates and entrées. Choose among a variety of dips, vegetarian mezze, souvlaki, sausages, simple broiled items, and more-involved fish and lamb dishes. Save room for the baklava. L D $$

Villa Maya, 5532 Norbeck Road (in the Rock Creek Village Center), 301-460-1247, www.villamayarestau rant.com. Traditional Mexican and Tex-Mex food for the whole family. ❂ J R L D $$ Woodside Deli, 4 N. Washington St., 301-444-4478, www.thewoodsidedeli.com. A second location of the venerable Silver Spring eatery and caterer that has been dishing up matzo ball soup since 1947. This one has a pickle bar. ❂ J B R L D $ Yekta, 1488 Rockville Pike, 301-984-0005, www.yekta. com. Persian cuisine served in a beautiful dining room. Check out the adjacent market after polishing off your kebab. L D $$ Yuan Fu Vegetarian, 798 Rockville Pike, 301-762-5937, www.yuanfuvegetarian.com. From tea-smoked “duck” to kung pao “chicken,” the whole menu is meatless, made from Chinese vegetable products. L D $

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Silver Spring 8407 Kitchen Bar (Editors’ Pick), 8407 Ramsey Ave., 301-587-8407, 8407kb.com. With new chef Ed Witt, this sleek space across from the Silver Spring Metro prides itself on stellar service and from-scratch preparations, such as house-smoked salmon and home-cured charcuterie. It tied for “Best Silver Spring Restaurant” in 2013. J R L D $$

Bombay Gaylord, 8401 Georgia Ave., 301-565-2528, www.bombaygaylordsilverspring.com. A neighborhood favorite serving respectable Indian fare for years.

Lunch buffet. ❂ L D $

Addis Ababa, 8233 Fenton St., 301-589-1400 or 301589-1999. Authentic Ethiopian-style vegetables and fiery meats served atop spongy bread in communal bowls. Traditional woven tables and a roof deck add to the ambience. ❂ R L D $

Crisfield Seafood Restaurant, 8012 Georgia Ave., 301-589-1306. 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. J L D $$

Adega Wine Cellars & Café, 8519 Fenton St., 301608-2200, www.adegawinecellars.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 to stop for lunch, if only to try the eggplant fries. ❂ L D $ Asian Bistro Café, 8537 Georgia Ave., 301-589-0123, www.asianbistrocafe.com. A bevy of choices, from Japanese sushi to Chinese noodles and vegetarian dishes. L D $ Austin Grill, 919 Ellsworth Drive, 240-247-8969, www. austingrill.com. Fun and friendly service welcomes families and couples to this noisy, colorful Tex-Mex favorite. ❂ J R L D $$

Urban Bar-B-Que Company, 2007 Chapman Ave., 240-290-4827, www.iloveubq.com/. Urban Bar-B-Que Company, a tiny joint run by a couple of local friends with a winning formula, features finger-licking ribs, burgers and wings and a friendly staff. J L D $

Azúcar Restaurant Bar & Grill, 14418 Layhill Road, 301-438-3293, azucarrestaurantmd.com. The name means sugar, and it fits. A colorful Salvadoran spot decorated in bright purple and orange with Cubiststyle paintings. The pork-stuffed corn pupusas are stars. Also look for more elegant dinners, including fried whole trout. L D $$

Urban Burger Company, 5566 Norbeck Road, 301460-0050, www.iloveubq.com. Urban Bar-B-Que’s Black Angus burgers were so popular, its owners decided to open another location in 2007. The fullservice restaurant also offers killer fries, salads and wings. ❂ J L D $

Blair Mansion Inn, 7711 Eastern Ave., 301-588-1688, www.blairmansion.com. The graciously restored, 19th-century mansion (formerly the residence of Abigail and Charles Newman) is best known for its participatory mystery dinner theater shows, but it also serves dinner à la carte for private events. J L D $$

Copper Canyon Grill, 928 Ellsworth Drive, 301-5891330, www.ccgrill.com. See Gaithersburg listing. ❂ J R L D $$

Cubano’s, 1201 Fidler Lane, 301-563-4020, www. cubanosrestaurant.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. ❂ J L D $$ Da Marco Ristorante Italiano, 8662 Colesville Road, 301-588-6999, www.damarcorestaurant.com. This full-service restaurant has been a fixture in Silver Spring for years, with an intimate ambience for classic Italian pasta suppers. J L D $$ 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 and dinners. ❂ J B L D $$ El Aguila Restaurant, 8649 16th St., 301-588-9063, www.elaguilarestaurant.com. A cheery bar and generous plates of Tex-Mex favorites such as enchiladas and Salvadoran seafood soup make this popular with families and others looking for a lively night out. ❂ J L $ El Gavilan, 8805 Flower Ave., 301-587-4197. 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

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dining guide as tasty cheese- or pork-filled pupusas. Live music on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. J L D $ El Golfo, 8739 Flower Ave., 301-608-2121, elgolfores taurant.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, raspberry-colored dining room. ❂ J R 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. B L D $ Fire Station 1 Restaurant & Brewing Co., 8131 Georgia Ave., 301-585-1370, www.firestation-1.com.

A historic firehouse has been given a makeover as an eatery serving 21st-century pizza, sandwiches, meat, seafood and vegetarian entrées. J R L D $ Jackie’s Restaurant (Editors’ Pick), 8081 Georgia Ave., 301-565-9700, www.jackiesrestaurant.com. This lovable eatery serves modern American cuisine in a former-auto-repair-shop-gone-1960s-hot-pink. The Sidebar is a cocktail lounge; Jackie’s Back Room has live music and private parties. The restaurant tied for “Best Silver Spring Restaurant” in 2013. R D $$ Jewel of India, 10151 New Hampshire Ave., 301-4082200, www.jewelofindiamd.com. Elegant décor and top-notch northern Indian cuisine make this shopping center restaurant a real find. ❂ L D $$ Kao Thai, 8650 Colesville Road, 301-495-1234, www. kaothairestaurant.com. This recently expanded restaurant turns out top-notch curries, noodle dishes and vegetarian options, plus house specialties, such as Siam Salmon with Spicy Thai Basil Sauce. ❂ L D $$ La Casita Pupuseria & Market, 8214 Piney Branch Road, 301-588-6656, www.lacasitapupusas.com.

Homemade pupusas, tamales and other Salvadoran specialties, plus a full breakfast menu and a small selection of grocery items. B L D $ LacoMelza Ethiopian Cafe, 7912 Georgia Ave., 301326-2435, www.lacomelza.com. Traditional Ethiopian cuisine served in a modern and attractive setting. J R L D $ La Malinche, 8622 Colesville Road, 301-562-8622, www.lamalinchetapas.com. 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 $$ Langano Ethiopian Restaurant, 8305 Georgia Ave., 301-563-6700, www.langanorestaurant.com/. Named for the popular Ethiopian vacation spot, Lake Langano, this longtime restaurant offers fine Ethiopian cuisine such as doro wat (spicy chicken stew) and tibs (stewed meat) in a cozy white- and red-accented dining room. Lunch specials on weekdays. L D $ Lebanese Taverna Café, 933 Ellsworth Drive, 301588-1192, www.lebanesetaverna.com. See Rockville listing. ❂ J L D $ Mamma Lucia, 1302 East West Highway, 301-5620693, www.mammaluciarestaurants.com. See Bethesda listing. J L D $$

Mandalay Restaurant & Café, 930 Bonifant St., 301585-0500, www.mandalayrestaurantcafe.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 $

Piratz Tavern, 8402 Georgia Ave., 301-588-9001, www. piratztavern.com. Decorated to the hilt with scabbards, skeletons and booty, this pirate-themed tavern opened by husband-and-wife graphic artists offers frequent live entertainment and a secluded back terrace. ❂ J L D $

McGinty’s Public House, 911 Ellsworth Drive, 301-5871270, www.mcgintyspublichouse.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. Happy Hour from 3 to 7 p.m. Monday through Friday. ❂ J R L D $$

Quarry House Tavern, 8401 Georgia Ave., 301-5878350, www.quarryhousetavern.com. A great dive that serves organic burgers and dozens of beers; frequent live music. D $

Mi Rancho, 8701 Ramsey Ave., 301-588-4872, www. miranchotexmexrestaurant.com. See Rockville listing. ❂ J L D $ Mrs. K’s Restaurant, 9201 Colesville Road, 301-5893500, www.mrsks.com. An elegant, antique-filled option for special occasions and sublime 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. ❂ J R L D $$$ Olazzo, 8235 Georgia Ave., 301-588-2540, www. olazzo.com. The Silver Spring location of the Bethesda restaurant draws crowds to its dark and intimate space with classic Italian-American fare and Tuesday martini specials. ❂ J L D $ 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.paccispizzeria.com.

This stylish eatery turns out top-notch pizzas from a wood-burning oven. ❂ J (upon request) L D $ Pacci’s Trattoria & Pasticceria, 6 Old Post Office Road, 301-588-0867, www.facebook.com/Paccis Trattoria. Classic Italian dishes, including homemade meatballs and sausage, from the owner of Pacci’s Pizzeria, also in Silver Spring. L D $$ Parkway Deli & Restaurant, 8317 Grubb Road, 301587-1427, www.theparkwaydeli.com. Voted “Best Deli” for 2014 by Bethesda Magazine readers, Parkway features a bustling back dining room, around for decades, 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 (see Upper NW D.C.), Pete’s fourth and latest restaurant 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, phohiephoa.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 $

Romano’s Macaroni Grill, 931 Ellsworth Drive, 301562-2806, www.macaronigrill.com. See Gaithersburg listing. J L D $$ Samantha’s, 631 University Blvd. East, 301-445-7300, 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 $$ Scion, 1200 East West Highway, 301-585-8878, www. scionrestaurant.com. A contemporary American eatery from sisters Joanne and Julie Liu, who also own a popular Dupont Circle restaurant with the same name. Look for everything from wasabi Caesar salad to lobster reuben to spicy yogurt chicken. R L D $$ Sergio’s Ristorante Italiano, 8727 Colesville Road, 301-585-1040. A classic red-sauce Italian restaurant that manages to feel special, with soothing wall murals and high-quality service, despite a basement location inside the Double Tree Hotel. Ravioli with asparagus and cheese in a tarragon sauce is popular. L D $$ Sushi Jin, 8555 Fenton St., 301-608-0990, www. sushijinnextdoor.com. Spare, clean and modern, with terrific udon noodle soup and impeccable raw fish. L D $$ sweetgreen, 8517 Georgia Ave., 301-244-5402, www. sweetgreen.com. See Bethesda listing. L D $ Tastee Diner, 8601 Cameron St., 301-589-8171, www. tasteediner.com. A 1930s-era lowbrow classic open 24 hours and featuring friendly service and typical diner food. ❂ J B L D $ Thai at Silver Spring, 921-E Ellsworth Drive, 301-6500666, www.thaiatsilverspring.com. The Americanized Thai food is second to the location, which is superb for people-watching 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 $$ Thai Derm, 939 Bonifant St., 301-589-5341, www. thaidermusa.com. This local favorite serves homestyle Thai food in a pleasantly modest dining room off a quiet street near downtown. The large menu includes noodle dishes like pad Thai and savory-sweet salads. Lunch specials daily. ❂ L D $ The Big Greek Café, 8223 Georgia Ave., 301-5874733, www.biggreekcafe.com. Owned by the Marmaras brothers, whose family operated the decadesold Golden Flame restaurant, the café serves a hit parade of Greek specialties, including a top-notch chicken souvlaki pita. ❂ J L D $ The Classics (Editors’ Pick), 8606 Colesville Road, 301-588-7297, www.theclassicsdc.com. The restaurant features great steaks and seafood served without the pomp in a basic white dining room. Serious drinks and fresh seasonal American fare. D $$$

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The Daily Dish, 8301 Grubb Road, 301-588-6300, www. thedailydishrestaurant.com. A neighborhood favorite serving seasonally inspired, locally sourced comfort food. Full-service catering, too. ❂ J R L D $$ The Greek Place, 8417 Georgia Ave., 301-495-2912, www.thegreekplace.net. Big portions of better-than-average food at reasonable prices. The bifteki pita sandwich, a seasoned ground lamb and beef patty with tzatziki, tomatoes and red onions, is especially good. ❂ J L D $ The Society Lounge, 8229 Georgia Ave., 301-565-8864, www.societyss.com. Former collegiate and professional basketball player Jason Miskiri opened this restaurant and lounge with a Caribbean accent. ❂ L D $$ Urban Bar-B-Que Company, 10163 New Hampshire Ave., 301-434-7427, www.iloveubq.com. A fast and friendly spot to meet for smoked meats, especially the ribs. See Rockville listing. J L D $ Urban Butcher (Editors’ Pick), 8226 Georgia Ave., 301-585-5800, www.urbanbutcher.com. Hip, eclectic setting provides the backdrop for this New Age steak house, with its home-cured salamis, sausages and other charcuterie, plus imaginative meat dishes made from local animals of yesteryear breeds. Space includes a lounge, bar, meat curing room, retail counter and dining area. B D $$ Vegetable Garden, 3830 International Drive (in Leisure World Plaza), 301-598-6868, www.vegetable gardensilverspring.com. Popular vegan, vegetarian and macrobiotic Asian restaurant relocates from Rockville to a fresh-looking dining room done in pink and green. The health-focused menu features a wide variety of eggplant and asparagus dishes, plus vegetarian “beef,” and “chicken” dishes often made with soy and wheat gluten. L D $$ Vicino Ristorante Italiano, 959 Sligo Ave., 301-5883372, vicinoitaliano.com. A favorite neighborhood redsauce joint that hasn’t changed in decades, featuring some fine seafood choices in addition to classic pasta dishes. Families welcome. ❂ L D $ Woodside Deli & Restaurant, 9329 Georgia Ave., 301-589-7055, www.thewoodsidedeli.com. Famous for its matzo ball soup, terrific clubs and Reuben sandwiches since 1947. J B L D $

Upper NW D.C. Aggio (New), 5335 Wisconsin Ave. NW (in the Chevy Chase Pavilion), 202-803-8020, www.volt-aggio.com.

Located in the former private party room at Range, this formal and sophisticated space is celebrity chef Bryan Voltaggio’s “restaurant within a restaurant.” Look for modern takes on Italian standbys like steak Florentine, prawns with polenta and pasta carbonara, and inventive combinations such as lentils with charred octopus and sprouted wheat berries or beef cheek with farro and bone marrow. Review, page 265. D $$$ American City Diner, 5532 Connecticut Ave. NW, 202244-1949, www.americancitydiner.com. Retro diner complete with blue-plate specials such as Salisbury

steak and stuffed peppers; malts and egg creams.

Classic movies free with dinner. ❂ J B L D $ Arucola, 5534 Connecticut Ave. NW, 202-244-1555, www.arucola.com. Authentic Italian in a casual setting, with a changing menu that includes creative treatment of traditional dishes, homemade pasta and pizza from the wood-burning oven. ❂ J L D $ Blue 44, 5507 Connecticut Ave. NW, 202-362-2583, www.blue44dc.com. Classic American favorites in the old Senor Pepper space. ❂ J R L D $$ Buck’s Fishing and Camping, 5031 Connecticut Ave. NW, 202-364-0777, www.bucksfishingandcamping. com. Hip takes on comfort food such as roast chicken (locally raised) and “camp” steak, with fun twists that include grilled chorizo and tempura squash blossoms, in an artsy-chic setting. D $$$ Café of India, 4909 Wisconsin Ave. NW, 202-244-1395, www.cafeofindiadc.com. Cute corner café with two levels of dining. Features an extensive menu, including vegetarian and Tandoori entrées, dosas, samosas, tikkas, curries and kabobs. ❂ L D $$ Chads Friendship Heights, 5247 Wisconsin Ave. NW, 202-362-8040, www.dcchadwicks.com. Neighborhood hangout sometimes compared to Cheers, but with a full menu beyond bar food, including salads, steaks, seafood and sandwiches. ❂ J R L D $$ 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. ❂ R L (weekends only) D $ DeCarlo’s Restaurant, 4822 Yuma St. NW. 202-3634220, www.decarlosrestaurant.com. Family-owned neighborhood staple, with traditional Italian menu and upscale/casual atmosphere. Signature dishes include agnolotti, veal Bolognese, broiled salmon and hand-made pasta. ❂ L D $$ Eurasian Hotpot, 4445 Wisconsin Ave., 202-9667088, www.eurasianhotpot.com. The extensive Vietnamese menu features pho, egg and rice noodle soups, vermicelli dishes, entrée salads, broken and fried rice entrées and choices for vegetarians. You can also devise your own soup by choosing among broths, meat, vegetables and starches. Then you do the cooking in hotpots brought to the table. ❂ L D $ Guapo’s Fine Mexican Cuisine, 4515 Wisconsin Ave. NW, 202-686-3588, www.guaposrestaurant.com. See Bethesda listing. ❂ R L D $$ Jake’s American Grille, 5018 Connecticut Ave. NW, 202966-5253, www.jakesdc.com. Burgers, steaks and sandwiches in a restaurant named after the owner’s grandfather, an accomplished Navy test engineer. J R L D $$ Le Chat Noir, 4907 Wisconsin Ave. NW, 202-2442044, www.lechatnoirrestaurant.com. Cute, cozy neighborhood bistro run by French restaurateurs, with traditional fare like steak frites, bouillabaisse and braised lamb cheeks. R L D $$ Macon Bistro & Larder (New), 5520 Connecticut Ave. NW, 202-248-7807, maconbistro.com. Southern and French cuisine converge at this airy, charming restaurant in the historic Chevy Chase Arcade. Ra-

clette and fried green tomatoes share space on the appetizer menu, and steak frites is offered alongside short ribs with grits for main courses. Owner and Executive Chef Tony Brown harks back to his early Georgia childhood and far-flung travels as the son of an Army doctor for inspiration. ❂ D $$ Maggiano’s, 5333 Wisconsin Ave. NW, 202-966-5500, www.maggianos.com. Old-style Italian fare that’s a favorite for large groups and private celebrations. J L D $$ Masala Art (Editors’ Pick) 4441-B Wisconsin Ave. NW, 202-362-4441, www.masalaartdc.com. Fine Indian dining featuring tandoor-oven specialties and masterful Indian spicing. L D $$ Murasaki Japanese Cuisine and Sushi Bar, 4620 Wisconsin Ave. NW, 202-966-0023, www.murasakidc.com.

Wide variety of specialty sushi rolls plus full menu, including teriyaki, tempura, noodle soup and other authentic Japanese dishes in tastefully understated décor. ❂ L D $$ Parthenon Restaurant, 5510 Connecticut Ave. NW, 202-966-7600, www.parthenon-restaurant.com. Neighborhood eatery taken up a couple notches, with an extensive menu full of authentic selections familiar and exotic, including avgolemono (egg/lemon soup), tzatziki, moussaka, dolmades and souvlaki. ❂ J L D $$ Pete’s New Haven Style Apizza, 4940 Wisconsin Ave. NW, 202-237-7383, www.petesapizza.com. New Haven-inspired pizza with crusts that are crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside. Salads, pasta and panini also served. ❂ J L D $ Range (Editors’ Pick), 5335 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Suite 201, 202-803-8020, www.voltrange.com. Celebrity chef Bryan Voltaggio’s extravaganza, featuring multiple open kitchens, 300 seats and an enormous wine list. The restaurant was chosen for “Best Cocktail” in 2014 by the magazine’s editors. L D $$$ Rosa Mexicano, 5225 Wisconsin Ave. NW, 202-7779959, www.rosamexicano.com. Upscale Mexican chain known for its tableside-prepared guacamole and stylish decor. J R L D $$ Satay Club Asian Restaurant and Bar, 4654 Wisconsin Ave. NW, 202-363-8888, www.asiansatayclub. com. Comfortable/casual with a menu that spans Japanese sushi, Chinese moo-shi vegetables, Thai curries and Vietnamese spring rolls. L D $ Tanad Thai, 4912 Wisconsin Ave. NW, 202-966-0616, www.tanadthaicuisine.com. Extensive menu includes noodles, rice, curries and vegetarian entrées, and even a Thai lemonade cocktail. ❂ L D $$ Tara Thai, 4849 Massachusetts Ave. NW, 202-363-4141, www.tarathai.com. See Bethesda listing. ❂ R L D $ Terasol (Editors’ Pick), 5010 Connecticut Ave. NW, 202-237-5555, www.terasolartisans.com. Charming French café serving soups, salads, quiches and a few entrées, along with jewelry and pottery from local artisans.

Live music on Fridays and Saturdays. ❂ J B L D $ The Dancing Crab, 4615 Wisconsin Ave. NW, 202-2441882, www.thedancingcrab.com. Informal family restaurant that looks as if it has been relocated from the beach, with a fresh seafood menu that includes hardshell and soft-shell crabs in season. ❂ J L D $$

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shop

talk

By Cynthia Hacinli

Lighten Up This summer is all about white.

Python embossed iPhone 5 case from Gigi New York, $35 at Saks Fifth Avenue in Chevy Chase and www. saksfifthavenue.com

Asymmetrical ruched jersey “body-con” dress from Theory, $150 at Saks Fifth Avenue in Chevy Chase and www.saksfifthavenue.com

▲ Lovisa embossed-leather ankle-strap pump from Alexander Wang, $495 at Saks Fifth Avenue in Chevy Chase and www.saksfifthavenue.com

Enamel bracelet from Kate Spade, $48 at Nordstrom in Bethesda and www.shop.nordstrom.com

▲ Piped aviator sunglasses from Ray-Ban, $180 at South Moon Under in Bethesda and www.southmoonunder.com

All Courtesy Photos

▲

▲

▲

Medium Reese Satchel from Michael Kors, $328 at Neiman Marcus in Friendship Heights and at www.neimanmarcus.com

▲

▲

Crisp and cool, the shade is right for just about anything: dresses, sandals, handbags, cuffs, sunglasses—even an iPhone case.

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Fit with Flair

all courtesy photos

Picture This Looking for that perfect print for the living room? Bethesda resident Nadya Sagner is willing to do the legwork. A journalist by trade, Sagner started writing a lifestyle blog, www.bluelocketart.com, in 2011, naming it in honor of her grandmother who gave her a blue-and-gold enamel locket when she was a child. After about a year, Sagner began doing informal art consulting for friends, who urged her to start a business.

That’s when the blog morphed into an art consulting firm based in Sagner’s home.

Sagner does a free one-hour consult with clients in person or by phone or Skype, then charges a $75 hourly fee to locate art, usually from online sources. She doesn’t charge a commission and clients buy the art themselves.

In addition to shopping on Etsy, Sagner likes sites such as 20x200.com and ugallery.com, where prints—and sometimes originals—sell for $100 or less. She recently trolled online for ethnic textiles that usually cost thousands and found similar pieces for under $200. She also contacts artists directly: “I had admired one California artist’s paintings for years, but her work was way out of my price range. I recently e-mailed her and asked what prints she had for sale that I could afford…and now her print is in my living room.”

Don’t we all wish we could find that perfect fit? That’s the idea behind Numari Custom Fit Women’s Wear, an online company that sells dresses in numerous styles that can be custom ordered. The company was started by Arti Anand, who graduated from Gaithersburg High School and, in 2010, the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business; and Komal Models wear two variations of Kushal Raj, who received a masthe Maison Lace Sheath style. ter’s in business administration in 2011 from George Washington University School of Business and now lives in Clarksburg.

To order a dress, go to the company’s website, www.numari.com, pick a style and decide on sleeve and hem length. Submit your measurements (Numari’s website offers instructions) and place your order.

You can also book a virtual appointment with a salesperson online or an in-person appointment at your home or office. Dresses range from $160 to $235 and include various styles, such as the sheath, fit-andflare, drop waist and A-line. Fabrics include lace, linen and ponte knits.

Orders ship in three weeks, and shipping and returns are free.

Openings Charm, the Georgetown-based jewelry, accessories and gifts boutique with such fashion-forward designers as Jennifer Zeuner, Dogeared Inc. and Gorjana, has opened a store-in-a-store at REDDZ Trading on Woodmont Avenue in Bethesda.

REDDZ is known for high-end designer resale finds from names like Gucci, Manolo Blahnik and Chanel. …Meanwhile, at Westfield Montgomery Mall, Bethesda-based Joyful Bath Co. has debuted a kiosk selling all-natural organic bath salts, scented soaps and gifts. Rochel Roland, a Kensington resident who turned her hobby into a business, uses ingredients like honey, green tea, gingerroot, vanilla and coconut milk. The kiosk is located near the Brookstone store in the Nordstrom wing. …In Chevy Chase, Merritt Gallery/Renaissance Fine Arts brings traditional-to-contemporary art on canvas and paper as well as sculpture to the Chevy Chase Collection on Wisconsin Avenue. The gallery, which also has locations in Baltimore and Haverford, Pa., is known for works by such names as Picasso, Renoir, Matisse and Warhol as well as more obscure artists. Museum-quality framing and preservation are also available. …And at Downtown Crown in Gaithersburg, Floyd’s 99 barber shop has opened. The Denver-based chain offers hair care services to men and women, with a bit of rock ’n’ roll style. n

Cynthia Hacinli lives in Chevy Chase and has written for GQ, The New York Times and National Geographic Traveler. Send Shop Talk ideas to editorial@bethesda magazine.com.

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Special Advertising Section

Private Schools l

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ion o ati lat u p rr o e P h e t eac Siz n den ss t /t us tio a Stu n l e l C gio filia d i a g l u t e Af v t o •s •A •T •R

The Academy of the Holy Cross

9-12

Girls

Kensington, MD

527

19

11:01

Catholic

Barrie School

18 mos Grade 12

Co-ed

Silver Spring, MD

330

16

lower 13:1, upper 10:1

None

Beauvoir, the National Cathedral Elementary School

PK - 3

Co-ed

Washington, D.C.

395

20

10:1

Episcopal

Bullis School

2 - 12

Co-ed

Potomac, MD

755

15

7:1

None

Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School

K-12

Co-ed

Rockville, MD

1,100

18

8:1

Judaism

Connelly School of the Holy Child

6-12

Girls

Potomac, MD

300

13

7:01

Catholic

The Diener School

K-6

Co-ed

Potomac, MD

47

8

3:1

None

Edmund Burke School

6-12

Co-ed

Washington, D.C.

300

14

6:1

None

Geneva Day School

Age 2 - K

Co-ed

Potomac, MD

270

12-18

4.5:1

None

Green Acres School

PK-8

Co-ed

North Bethesda, MD

320

12

6:1

None

The Harbor School

PK-2

Co-ed

Bethesda, MD

110

14

6:1

None

Holton-Arms

3-12

Girls

Bethesda, MD

645

15

7:1

None

Lowell School

Age 2.5 Grade 8

Co-ed

Washington, D.C.

340

16

6:1

None

Massanutten Military Academy

7-12, post graduate

Co-ed

Woodstock, VA

130

10

5:1

None

McLean School

K-12

Co-ed

Potomac, MD

340

10

7:1

None

Nora School

9-12

Co-ed

Silver Spring, MD

60

8

5:1

None

Norwood School

K-8

Co-ed

Bethesda, MD

440

10-12

6:1

None

Primary Day School

PK-2

Co-ed

Bethesda, MD

155

19

6:1

None

Randolph-Macon Academy

6-12, post graduate

Co-ed

Front Royal, VA

359

13-15

9:1

United Methodist Church

The Siena School

4-12

Co-ed

Silver Spring, MD

93

10

10:1

None

St. Anselm’s Abbey School

6-12

Boys

Washington, D.C.

250

16

6:1

Catholic (Benedictine)

St. John’s College High School

9-12

Co-ed

Chevy Chase, MD

1,080

21

12:1

Catholic

St. Patrick’s Episcopal Day School

PK-8

Co-ed

Washington, D.C.

515

16

7:1

Episcopal

Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart

PK - 12

Co-ed PK, Girls 1-12

Bethesda, MD

660

16

7:1

Catholic

Washington Episcopal School

PK-8

Co-ed

Bethesda, MD

260

16

6:1

Episcopal

Washington Waldorf School

PK-12

Co-ed

Bethesda, MD

275

18

9:1

None

Westmoreland Children’s Center

PK-5

Co-ed

Bethesda, MD

225

15

3:15

None

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ne)

Special Advertising Section

Essential Information on

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27 Independent Schools

ges n ts) n gua tio uden tio n i i a u t t nl d l Tu 12 est y s ua eig re nn Grade ow (5-da or offe l f A • • •

Y

N

$20,725

N

Y

$19,650

N

N

Y N

ite

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ne

ho

•p

Spanish, French, Latin

academyoftheholycross.org

301-942-2100

$27,810

Spanish, French, Chinese, Independent Study

barrie.org

301-576-2800

$32,345

N/A

Spanish

beauvoirschool.org

202-537-6485

Y

$31,580

$35,060

Spanish, French, Latin, Chinese

bullis.org

301-299-8500

Y

$23,050

$29,750

Spanish, Hebrew, Arabic

cesjds.org

301-881-1400

Y

N

upper $28,550, middle $25,700

$29,075

Spanish, French

holychild.org

301-365-0955

N

N

Please inquire

N/A

thedienerschool.org

301-299-4602

N

Morning shuttle from VA

$33,575

$35,765

Spanish, Latin, French

burkeschool.org

202-362-8882

N

N

$6,500

N/A

Spanish, Chinese, Sign Language (ASL)

genevadayschool.org

301-340-7704

N

Y

$17,000 (Half day), $26,500 (full day)

N/A

Spanish

greenacres.org

301-881-4100

N

N

$11,390 (Half day), $20,860 (Full day)

N/A

Spanish

theharborschool.org

301-365-1100

Y

Y

$35,155

$36,875

Spanish, Chinese, Latin, French

holton-arms.edu

301-365-5300

N

Y

$16,900 (Half day, Pre-Primary)

N/A

Spanish

lowellschool.org

202-577-2000

Y

Boarding Bus

$31,500

Spanish,French, Portuguese, Russian, German

militaryschool.com

540-459-2167

Y

Y

$25,000

$35,000

Spanish, Latin, American Sign Language

mcleanschool.org

240-395-0698

N

N

$28,500

$29,000

Spanish, German

nora-school.org

301-495-6672

Dress code

Morning routes available

$28,540

N/A

Spanish, French, Mandarin Chinese, Latin

norwoodschool.org

301-365-2595

N

N

$18,600

N/A

Spanish, Chinese, French

theprimarydayschool.org

301-365-4355

Y

N

$24,820

$33,474

Spanish and German

rma.edu

540-636-5200 or 800-272-1172

N

N

$32,870

$34,430

Spanish

thesienaschool.org

301-244-3600

Coat and tie

Shuttles available

$24,000

$25,000

Spanish, Latin, French, Arabic

saintanselms.org

202-269-2350

Y

Y

$16,625

$16,625

Spanish, French, Latin

stjohnschs.org

202-363-2316

N

N

$17,200

N/A

Spanish

stpatsdc.org

202-342-2831

Y

Y

$23,800

$29,500

Spanish, French, Latin

stoneridgeschool.org

301-657-4322

Y

N

$9,800

$31,340

Spanish, French, Latin

w-e-s.org

301-652-7878

N

N

$22,500

$25,200

Spanish (German available after sixth)

washingtonwaldorf.org

301-229-6107

N

N

$14,000

N/A

wccbethesda.com

301-229-7161

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Private Schools

Join us.

Find out what makes St. Patrick’s—a coeducational Nursery through Grade 8 school in the nation’s capital—a vibrant learning community, committed to the infinite value of every participant.

Learn more about our philosophy of Exceptional Literacy and apply online by visiting our website, www.stpatsdc.org.

For more information, contact Xiomara Hall, Director of Admission and Financial Aid, at hallx@stpatsdc.org or 202.342.2831.

The Holy Cross

DI F F E R E NC E

St. Anselm’s Abbey School.

Where a rigorous curriculum keeps students challenged and engaged.

Where a warm community encourages every boy to be himself.

Where dozens of sports, arts, and clubs give rise to confident leaders.

Where a strong Benedictine tradition grounds values and inspires faith.

JOI N U S for

OPEN HOUS E

sunday NOVE M B E R 2 nd 10 AM to 1 PM

ACADEMYOFTHEHOLYCROSS.ORG/OPENHOUSE

Where Bright Boys Become Exceptional Men. Visit us: www.saintanselms.org • admissions@saintanselms.org

All-Girls

Grades 9 –12

301.942.2100

4920 Strathmore Avenue

Kensington, MD 20895

.

Grades 6-12 | 40-Acre D.C. Campus | AM Shuttle from Bethesda

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Private Schools

McLean School Transformative.

A K-12 college preparatory program that emphasizes small classes, differentiated instruction and individualized program enhancement for both traditional learners and those with mild to moderate learning differences.

Connect with Us! 240.395.0698 admission@mcleanschool.org

8224 LOCHINVER LANE

Schools.indd 291

POTOMAC, MARYLAND 20854

www.mcleanschool.org

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Private Schools

Massanutten offers:

 

College-Level Dual Enrollment



Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (JROTC)

 

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Program

100% College Acceptance Rate $940,000 in Scholarships

LOWELL SCHOOL

Enrolling Day & Boarding Students for this summer!

Did you know?

We have a new program for 21/2-year-olds!

Some spots still available for September.

1640 Kalmia Road NW | Washington, DC 20012 202.577.2000 | www.lowellschool.org Age 21/2 through 8th Grade

Toll Free: (877) 466-6222 admissions@militaryschool.com

Massanutten Military Academy

614 S. Main St. Woodstock VA 22664 www.militaryschool.com

DISCOVER CHARLES E. SMITH JEWISH DAY SCHOOL • Values-Based Education • Diverse Jewish Community

• Inspiring Teachers • Robust Academic Program

The accolades are piling up for Holy Child’s Girl-Centered • Active • Engaging • Joyful

MIDDLE SCHOOL

Educating young women grades 6 through 12 9029 Bradley Boulevard • Potomac MD 20854 • 301.365.0955

www.holychild.org

A K-12 independent day school in Rockville, MD WWW.CESJDS.ORG • 301-692-4870

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Private Schools

the joy of

learning Your child could experience the joy of learning… as early as September. Why wait another year?

“I didn’t know school could be so great!”

Washington Episcopal School Parent

Apply Now for fAll 2014 Call 301-652-7878 to schedule a visit

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

School | Camp | Institute for Advanced Montessori Studies

Located in Silver Spring just minutes from the Beltway and ICC, we are a private, independent school serving students age 18-months through Grade 12, a summer day-camp serving children ages 4-14, and a professional training and certification center for aspiring Montessori educators. To learn more, visit www.barrie.org, or stop by our campus at 13500 Layhill Road, Silver Spring.

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Private Schools

SAVE $100** Bethesda 4921 Auburn Avenue 301-657-2424

WHEN YOU CALL BEFORE 09/15/2014

Accredited by

Call To Schedule A Visit 301.365.1100 www.TheHarborSchool.org 7701 Bradley Blvd. • Bethesda, MD 20817

sienna_Bethesdamag3.375 x 4.625_Layout 1 7/15/13 9:31 AM Page 1

TouR Day:

Weekly Tours: Tues. & Thurs. at 9:30am

Wed. 9:30 am

For more information: admissions@thedienerschool.org 11510 Falls Road Potomac, MD 301.299.4602

www.TheDienerSchool.org

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

www.thesienaschool.org

“To me the greatest testament to a school is the fact that your child wakes up every morning and can’t wait to get there.”

— parent of an 8th grader

1300 Forest Glen Road | Silver Spring, MD 20901 | 301-244-3600 Serving bright college bound students with language-based learning differences in grades 4-12.

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Private Schools

Equipping Our Students To Excel Three years ago, St. John’s was one of the first schools in the area to incorporate a school-wide 1:1 iPad program at no additional cost to our families. For our students, the benefits include: • Global collaboration with experts expands the learning environment • Digital organization and online storage allow access to course notes and materials both at home and at school • More than 90% of courses use cost-effective eBooks • Access to online audio and digital content teaches concepts in interesting and creative ways • Networking capabilities allow students to work online with students from St. John’s and other schools

2607 Military Road, NW | Chevy Chase, DC 20015 Opening Minds | Unlocking Talents | Building Leaders

Admissions Office: 202-363-2316 | www.stjohnschs.org

IA JOYFUL AMLEARNER. A FAITHFUL FRIEND. A GLOBAL CITIZEN.

Empowering leaders to serve with faith, intellect, and confidence.

OPEN HOUSES

UPPER SCHOOL · October 19, 12:00 pm ALL-SCHOOL · November 11, December 10, January 16, 8:45 am View the Open House schedule at

www.stoneridgeschool.org/openhouse

www.stoneridgeschool.org Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart is a Catholic, independent, college preparatory school for girls, Grades 1-12, with a coeducational Pre-Kindergarten, Kindergarten, and Early Childhood Program, located in Bethesda, MD. Multiple round-trip bus routes available in DC, MD, and VA.

“The Beginning is the Most Important Part of the Work” —Plato

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

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Private Schools

ng the community since 1970 Ser vi

• NAEYC Accredited • Half-Day & Full Day Preschool • School Day Pre-K

• Before & After School School-Age Program • Camp Westmoreland • Low teacher-tochild ratio

3 Locations in Bethesda

301-229-7161 More information at:

www.wccbethesda.com

Approved & licensed by Division of Early Childhood Development/ Office of Child Care of the Maryland State Department of Education

11th Grade Student Government Co-President Dancer Peer Mentor

Lily VISIT WWW.BULLIS.ORG 10601 Falls Road | Potomac, MD 20854 301-299-8500

Sunday Family Open House

10/26 • 1:30–3:30 PM 2014 Bethesda Magazine Readers’ Pick, Best K-8 Private School

Find out more! www.greenacres.org

Limited spaces available for fall

Pre-K — 8th Grade

301-881-4100 11701 Danville Drive North Bethesda, MD

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Private Schools

© Jeff Mauritzen

I will find a way or make one.

800-272-1172

www.rma.edu

7303 River Road | Bethesda, MD 20817 www.holton-arms.edu College Preparatory School for Girls Grades 3-12

Encouraging a lifelong love of learning Programs for 2s-Kindergarten • Full- & Half- Day Programs • 2-, 3-, or 5-Day Options Summer Camp • Weekly & Daily Options Voted Best Preschool by readers of Bethesda Magazine, 2012 & 2014

Call for an individual tour!

301-340-7704

11931 Seven Locks Road, Potomac, MD 20854 office@genevadayschool.org • www.genevadayschool.org

www.ThePrimaryDaySchool.org

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Private Schools

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what Bethesda’s

reading

Paperback (Fiction and Nonfiction)

Hardcover Nonfiction

Hardcover Fiction

Top-selling books in May at the Barnes & Noble in Bethesda compared with Barnes & Noble stores nationwide and at www.bn.com

Barnes & Noble Bethesda

Barnes & Noble Nationwide/www.bn.com

1. The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt 2. The Target (Will Robie Series #3), David Baldacci 3. The Invention of Wings, Sue Monk Kidd 4. Chestnut Street, Maeve Binchy 5. Natchez Burning, Greg Iles 6. Unlucky 13, James Patterson, Maxine Paetro 7. All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr 8. Someone, Alice McDermott 9. ‘Til the Well Runs Dry, Lauren Francis-Sharma 10. Field of Prey (Lucas Davenport Series #24), John Sandford

1. Unlucky 13, James Patterson, Maxine Paetro 2. The One & Only, Emily Giffin 3. Field of Prey (Lucas Davenport Seris, #24), John Sandford 4. The Target (Will Robie Series #3), David Baldacci 5. The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt 6. Natchez Burning, Greg Iles 7. The Skin Collector, Jeffery Deaver 8. Chestnut Street, Maeve Binchy 9. The Invention of Wings, Sue Monk Kidd 10. Walking on Water, Richard Paul Evans

1. Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt, Michael Lewis 2. Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty, Arthur Goldhammer 3. A Fighting Chance, Elizabeth Warren 4. Where Does It Hurt? An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Fixing Health Care, Jonathan Bush, Stephen Baker 5. You Are Not Special...and Other Encouragements, David McCullough Jr. 6. Spartan Up! A Take-No-Prisoners Guide to Overcoming Obstacles and Achieving Peak Performance in Life, Joe De Sena 7. The Closer, Mariano Rivera, Wayne Coffey 8. Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises, Timothy F. Geithner 9. Think Like a Freak, Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner 10. Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar, David Perlmutter, Kristin Loberg

1. One Nation, Ben and Candy Carson 2. Instinct: The Power to Unleash Your Inborn Drive, T.D. Jakes 3. The Closer, Mariano Rivera, Wayne Coffey 4. Think Like a Freak, Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner 5. Finding Me: A Decade of Darkness, A Life Reclaimed, Michelle Knight, Michelle Burford 6. Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty, Arthur Goldhammer 7. Stress Test: Reflections on Financial Crises, Timothy F. Geithner 8. Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar, David Perlmutter, Kristin Loberg 9. A Fighting Chance, Elizabeth Warren 10. Flash Boys: A Wall Street Revolt, Michael Lewis

1. Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn 2. Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in Mumbai Undercity, Katherine Boo 3. Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 4. Barron’s AP U.S. Government and Politics, 8th Edition, Barron’s 5. Orphan Train, Christine Baker Kline 6. Catching Air, Sarah Pekkanen 7. The Argentine Triangle: A Craig Page Thriller, Allan Topol 8. The Jewish Daughter Diaries: True Stories of Being Loved Too Much by Our Moms, Rachel Ament 9. Assholes: A Theory, Aaron James 10. Barron’s AP U.S. Government and Politics with CD-ROM, 8th Edition, Barron’s

1. The Conscious Parent, Shefali Tsabary 2. Out of Control: Why Disciplining Your Child Doesn’t Work... and What Will, Shefali Tsabary 3. Kaplan GRE Premier 2014 with 6 Practice Tests, Kaplan 4. 10-Day Green Smoothie Cleanse, JJ Smith 5. Looking for Alaska, John Green 6. Divergent, Veronica Roth 7. The Fault in Our Stars, John Green 8. The Book Thief, Markus Zusak 9. Bugged: How Insects Changed History, Sarah Albee 10. A Game of Thrones 5-Book Boxed Set (Song of Ice and Fire Series), George R.R. Martin

Source: Barnes & Noble Bethesda

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to-do list

Compiled by Cindy Murphy-Tofig

JULY | AUGUST

July 2 Sept.

26

The Nighthawks are scheduled to rock July 11 at Rockville Town Square’s Friday Night Live free outdoor concert.

winner Robert Cray unite for a soulful show. $32-$68; $28.80-$61.20 for Stars members.

Best of Strathmore Tribute Shows, 8 p.m.

Aug. 16. The concert will feature the music of Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, The Band and others, as performed by Julia Nixon, Mary Ann Redmond, Owen Danoff and others. $15-$29; $13.50-$26.10 for Stars members.

Nancy Scimone, 2 p.m. Aug. 3. Glenview Mansion, Rockville Civic Center Park, 603 Edmonston Drive, Rockville. Vocalist Nancy Scimone is known for her rich soprano and vibrant stage presence.

Free. 240-314-8682, www.rockvillemd.gov/arts.

DANCE

Whether it’s reggae, swing, zydeco, rock or Latin, you’ll find the music that moves you during free outdoor concerts in Bethesda, Rockville and Silver Spring this summer. The Bethesda Summer Concert Series kicks off at 6 p.m. Thursdays through July 24 in Veterans Park. In North Bethesda, The Music Center at Strathmore offers Strathmore Free Outdoor Concerts, including the Aug. 13 UkeFest, at 7 p.m. Wednesdays through Aug. 20 at the Gudelsky Concert Gazebo. Rockville Town Square’s Friday Night Live performances, with classic groups including The Nighthawks, begin at 6:30 p.m. and will run through Sept. 26. The Silver Spring Summer Concert Series is at 7 p.m. Thursdays through Aug. 14 in Veterans Plaza. Bring blankets and lawn chairs. For more information on the Bethesda offerings, go to www.bethesda.org; for the Strathmore Free Outdoor Concerts, go to www.strathmore.org; for Rockville, visit www.rockvilletownsquare.com/events; and for Silver Spring events, check out www. silverspringdowntown.com.

Bethesda Summer Concert Series, Veterans Park, at the corner of Norfolk and Woodmont avenues; Strathmore Free Outdoor Concerts, The Music Center at Strathmore, Gudelsky Concert Gazebo, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda; Friday Night Live, Rockville Town Square, 200 E. Middle Lane, Rockville; Silver Spring Summer Concert Series, Veterans Plaza, Silver Spring Civic Building, Ellsworth Drive and Fenton Street

MUSIC Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, The Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda. 301-581-5100, www.bsomusic. org.

All-Baroque, 8 p.m. July 10. Pieces to be performed include Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins and Corelli’s Concerto Grosso. $25-$45.

All-Beethoven, 8 p.m. July 24. The program includes Piano Concerto No. 3, Overture to Fidelio and the “Pastoral” Symphony. $25-$45.

The Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda. 301-581-5100, www.strathmore.org.

John Hiatt & the Combo and the Robert Cray Band, 8 p.m. July 20. Seasoned all-American rocker John Hiatt and Grammy

THEATER The Music Man, 8 p.m. July 11, 12, 18, 19, 25 and 26; and 2 p.m. July 20 and 27. F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre, Rockville Civic Center Park, 603 Edmonston Drive, Rockville. Con man Harold Hill plans to skip town after convincing everyone he’s going to form and train a new band, but love gets in the way. Presented by Rockville Musical Theatre. $20-$22. 240-314-8690, www.rockvillemd. gov/theatre.

The Veil, 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2 p.m.

Sundays, July 18-Aug. 17. The Writer’s Center, 4508 Walsh St., Bethesda. Conor McPherson’s work, set in a haunted mansion in 19th-century rural Ireland, weaves Ireland’s colonial history into a story of love. Presented by Quotidian Theatre Company. $30; $25 for seniors and students. 301816-1023, www.quotidiantheatre.org.

ART Ripple, through Aug. 17. Gallery hours noon-4 p.m. Wednesdays, noon-8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays, and noon-4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.

VisArts at Rockville, 155 Gibbs St., Rockville. The exhibition showcases several artists whose works are inspired by knitting circles, quilting bees and other groups as ways to produce textiles and create social interaction. Free. 301-315-8200. www. visartsatrockville.org.

sam holden

sounds of summer

Rockville Civic Ballet, 7:30 p.m. Aug. 2 and 2 p.m. Aug. 3. F. Scott Fitzgerald Theatre, Rockville Civic Center Park, 603 Edmonston Drive, Rockville.

The ballet company will present its summer production. $13-$17. 240-314-8690, www.rockville md.gov/theatre.

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SAVE THE DATE Third Annual Montgomery County Business Hall of Fame Wednesday, October 29, 2014 11:30 AM The Universities at Shady Grove Conference Center 9630 Gudelsky Drive, Rockville, MD 20850

The Montgomery County Business Hall of Fame, co-founded by Grossberg Company LLP, CPAs and Monument Bank, is a celebration of people who have made a real impact on the Montgomery County business community.

WHAT IS IT?

The 2014 honorees are: Mark Choe, Owner, Mark’s Kitchen Dottie Fitzgerald, Vice President, Fitzgerald Auto Mall David Reznick, Co-founding Partner, CohnReznick Ola Sage, CEO, e-Management Annie Totah, Founder & President, AST Partnership for Brighter Tomorrows

WHY SUPPORT IT?

Net proceeds from the MCBHF benefit the scholarship programs at The Universities at Shady Grove (USG), the University System of Maryland’s regional educational center that brings nine Maryland public universities and more than 70 academic degree programs directly to Montgomery County.

The same type of vision that led to the creation of USG – to do something truly unique and extraordinary – is the type of vision our honorees all share.

PRESENTED BY Member FDIC

Sponsorships to honor these great contributors are available.

For more information, visit our website at www.MCBusHallofFame.com, or contact Lenore Dustin at 301-571-1900 or lmd@grossberg.com

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July | August

JULY

4

The Beach at High Tide, July 8-Aug. 2. Gallery hours noon-6 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays. Waverly Street Gallery, 4600 East West Highway, Bethesda.

The exhibition will feature woodcuts, drawings and etchings by Ann Zahn. Reception from 6-9 p.m. July 11. Free. 301-951-9441, www.waverly streetgallery.com.

Bethesda Art Walk, 6-9 p.m. July 11 and Aug 8. Various galleries in downtown Bethesda open their doors on the second Friday of every month.

Free. 301-215-6660, www.bethesda.org.

Capitol Arts Network, 12276 Wilkins Ave., Rockville. Gallery hours are 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Fridays-Sundays.

301-661-7590. www.capitolartsnetwork.com.

Even pets get in the spirit for local Fourth of July celebrations.

HOLIDAY FLARE

Celebrate Independence Day with a parade and fireworks in Takoma Park, or live music and fireworks in Gaithersburg and Rockville. Takoma Park’s 125th annual parade begins at 10 a.m. at the corner of Carroll and Ethan Allen avenues, travels along Carroll and Maple avenues and ends at Ritchie Avenue. Evening performances start at 7 p.m. at Takoma Park Middle School and will include a gymnastics team, an Andean music group and the Takoma Park Community Concert Band. Fireworks start around 9:30 p.m. Gaithersburg’s festivities kick off at 5 p.m. at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds.

Bring a picnic or buy food there, and enjoy live music and family activities; fireworks begin after dark. Rockville’s program opens at 7 p.m. at Montgomery College, with fireworks around 9:15 p.m. For more information on these events, visit www.takomapark4th.org; www.rockvillemd.gov/events; and www.gaithersburgmd.gov/leisure/ special-events/independence-day.

Takoma Park Middle School, 7611 Piney Branch Road, Silver Spring; Montgomery County Agricultural Fairgrounds, 16 Chestnut St., Gaithersburg; Montgomery College, 51 Mannakee St., Rockville

Off the Wall, July 11-29. The exhibition will feature works in photography, painting, mixed media and other media.

Re-Made and Recycled, Aug. 1-29. The exhibition, which will feature different media, is a juried gallery exhibition.

Glenview Mansion Art Gallery at Rockville Civic Center Park, 603 Edmonston Drive, Rockville. Gallery hours are 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and 9 a.m.-9 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays. Free. 240-314-8682, www. rockvillemd.gov/arts.

Richard Weiblinger, Aug. 3-29. Weiblinger’s photography typically captures changing moments in the world.

Patricia Hilton, Aug. 3-29. Hilton’s more recent paintings have been created near the mountains of western Maryland, and along the Savage and Potomac rivers.

CHILDREN AND FAMILIES The BFG, 10:30 a.m. Wednesdays-Fridays, 1:30 and 4 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, through Aug. 10. No performance July 4. Imagination Stage, 4908 Auburn Ave., Bethesda. Additional performances will be 7 p.m. July 18; 11 a.m. July 12 and 27 and Aug. 2 and 9; 10:30 a.m. July 15, 22 and 29 and Aug. 5. Sophie is surprised to see a giant outside her window, and the giant is surprised to see her. Together, Sophie and the Big Friendly Giant embark on a journey to save kids from equally big—but much less friendly—giants. Based on the book by Roald Dahl. $10-$22. 301-280-1660, www. imaginationstage.org.

Kids Night at Rockville Town Square, 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays, through Aug. 20. Rockville Town Square, 200 E. Middle Lane, Rockville. Stop by for musical performances and magic shows.

Scheduled performers include Rocknoceros (July 2), Oh Susannah (July 9), the Diggity Dudes (July 16), Mr. Knick Knack! (July 23), Silly Bus (July 30), Michael Rosman’s Magic & Entertainment Show (Aug. 6), family magician Eric Henning (Aug. 13)

and Motion Mayhem (Aug. 20). Free.

The Puppet Co. Playhouse, 7300 MacArthur Blvd., Glen Echo. 10 and 11:30 a.m. Fridays, 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. $10; group rates available. 301-634-5380, www. thepuppetco.org.

The Wizard of Oz, through July 19. Embark on an adventure with Dorothy and her friends during the 75th anniversary of the release of the film.

Little Red & the Pigs, July 24-Aug. 31. Has the Big Bad Wolf gotten a bad rap? B.B. Wolfe tells his side of the story.

Mouse on the Move, 10 and 11:15 a.m. Saturdays and Sundays, through Aug. 10. Christopher and Dana Reeve Studio Theatre, Imagination Stage, 4908 Auburn Ave., Bethesda. Mice Nellie and Amelia want to explore the world outside their mouse hole, so they decide to go to the moon—since it’s made of cheese. Recommended for ages 1-5. $10-$12; $5 for a lap seat for children younger than 12 months. 301-280-1660, www. imaginationstage.org.

Pinkalicious, 11 a.m., 2 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays; and 10:30 a.m. Mondays; through Aug. 31. Also 7 p.m. July 11 and Aug. 8. Adventure Theatre, 7300 MacArthur Blvd., Glen Echo. Pinkalicious can’t stop eating pink cupcakes and soon finds herself with a case of pinkitis, which turns her pink from head to toe. Based on the book by Elizabeth and Victoria Kann. $19. 301634-2270, www.adventuretheatre-mtc.org.

The Puppet Co.’s Tiny Tots program. 7300 MacArthur Blvd., Glen Echo. Performances begin at 10 a.m. and are 30 minutes. Recommended for children up to age 4. $5 per person, including babies in arms.

Old McDonald’s Farm, July 5 and 16, and Aug. 9, 20 and 31. Meet Al E. Cat and his barnyard buddies.

Teddy Bear’s Picnic, July 6 and Aug. 10.

Baby Bear’s friends bring food for a picnic and entertain each other.

Bunny Business, July 9 and Aug. 24. Bunnies, birds and flowers celebrate spring.

Baby Bear’s Birthday, July 12 and Aug. 6.

Join Baby Bear as his friends perform circus tricks as a birthday surprise.

Winter Wonderland, July 19. The King of Winter and the Snow Queen welcome Jack Frost and other friends.

Mother Goose Caboose, July 26 and Aug. 27. Meet Mother Goose and friends Leonardo the Lion, Kelly the duckling and others.

Penguins’ Playground, July 27. Come explore a super-secret playground hidden on the South Pole.

Merlin’s Magic, July 30. The famous magician and his dragons put a new spin on old tricks.

lloyd wolf

to-do list

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.

AUG

8-16

From carnival rides to pig races, the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair has something for everyone.

Fair Weather When the scent of funnel cake perfumes the air and screams rise with every roller coaster drop, you know it’s fair season. The Montgomery County Agricultural Fair runs from Aug. 8-16 at the fairgrounds in Gaithersburg. Come for the animal exhibits, crafts, cheesecarving contests, demolition derby or veggie races (car bases provided; bring your own vegetable or get one from race organizers). Admission is $10; free for children 11 and younger. Parking is $10 cash at the fairgrounds and free if you park at Lakeforest Mall and take the shuttle. Fair hours are 3 p.m.-midnight Aug. 8 and noon-midnight Aug. 9-16. Check the website for information on discounted days for families, senior citizens and members of the military. For more information, visit www.mcagfair.com or call 301-963-FAIR.

neiGhbOr, wife mOther, spy.

- Melissa Boyle Mahle, CIA, Operations Officer

Montgomery County Agricultural Fair, Montgomery County Agricultural Fairgrounds, 16 Chestnut St., Gaithersburg

Panda-Monium, Aug. 13. Panda bears, a magician and the world’s oldest juggler are part of a circus.

Clowning Around, Aug. 23. Join Burlington the Bear, Bingo the Dog and a clown named Gus under the big top.

Animal Crackers, Aug. 30. Hobey the Hound, Donna Dodo and Carmen the performing bear put on a vaudeville show.

Strathmore Backyard Theater for Children, 9:30 and 11:30 a.m. Thursdays on the Backyard Theater Stage at The Mansion at Strathmore, 10701 Rockville Pike, North Bethesda. $8; $7.20 for Stars members. 301-581-5100, www.strath more.org.

adam fagen

Mister G: ABC Fiesta, July 10. The kidfriendly bilingual rocker is making his Strathmore debut.

Story Pirates, July 17. The Story Pirates take ideas from the audience and create an adventure.

Tim and the Space Cadets, July 24. Follow along to songs about pizza parties, summer vacations and new sneakers.

Asanga Domask/Serendib Dance in Rhythm of Lanka, July 31. The company performs a collection of traditional and folk Sri Lankan dance.

Free for All in the Parks, 7:30 p.m. July 10, 17 and 24. Bring a blanket and insect repellent and enjoy a free performance. Swing/jazz/blues band Bumper Jacksons will perform at 2 p.m. July 10 in the Rockville Center, 1150 Carnation Drive. Magician Dave Thomen will perform July 17 at Lincoln Park Community Center, 357 Frederick Ave., Rockville. Blues guitarist James Mabry will perform July 24 at Calvin Park, 1248 Gladstone Drive, Rockville.

240-314-8660, www.rockvillemd.gov.

Junior Detective Day, 1 p.m. July 27. Kentlands Mansion, 320 Kent Square Road, Gaithersburg.

Join officers from Gaithersburg’s police department to learn about neighborhood safety, watch K-9 demonstrations, explore police vehicles and see some of the equipment officers use daily.

Suitable for children ages 5-13. $10. 301-2586350, www.gaithersburgmd.gov.

LITERARY

REAL SPIES. TM REAL STORIES.

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Café Muse, 7 p.m. July 7 and Aug. 4. Friendship

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July | August

AUG.

Family Movie in the Park, 8:30 p.m. July 18.

Isreal Park, 357 Frederick Ave., Rockville, behind Lincoln Park Community Center. Bring blankets and chairs and enjoy a family-friendly movie on the big screen. $3. 240-314-8620, www.rockville md.gov/recreation.

Bethesda Outdoor Movies, 9 p.m. July 22-26, Woodmont Triangle, at the corner of Norfolk and Auburn avenues. Scheduled movies are Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (July 22), Moonrise Kingdom (July 23), Citizen Kane (July 24), Pitch Perfect (July 25) and Top Gun (July 26). Free. www.bethesda.org.

Visitors can sample local wines at the Uncorked Wine & Music Festival.

WINE TIME Sample wines from local vineyards, check out cooking demonstrations and listen to live music during the Uncorked Wine & Music Festival from noon to 6 p.m. Aug. 23 (rain date Aug. 24) in Rockville Town Square. Nearly 20 area wineries and more than 6,000 people participated in the event last year. Admission to the cooking demonstrations and live music is free; the wine tasting is $15 and includes a commemorative wineglass (for the first 3,000 attendees). You must be 21 or older for the wine tastings. For more information, visit www.rockvillemd. gov/events.

SEASONAL Rockville Farmers Market, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

Wednesdays, 225 N. Washington St., in front of Dawson’s Market; and 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays at the corner of Route 28 and Monroe Street, Rockville. Offerings include goat cheese, baked goods, produce, coffee, jams and jellies. www.rockville md.gov/farmers.

Fulks Corner Farmers Market, 1-6 p.m. Thursdays. At the corner of Route 355 and Fulks Corner Avenue, Gaithersburg. Offerings include jams and jellies, meat, herbs, flowers and plants, cider, fruit butters and baked goods. www.gaithersburgmd. gov/leisure/markets/farmers-markets.

FRESHFARM Market, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Saturdays.

Ellsworth Drive, between Fenton Street and Georgia Avenue, Silver Spring. Offerings include produce, eggs, breads and pastries, honey and preserves. www.freshfarmmarkets.org.

Main Street Farmers and Artists Market, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays. Main Street Pavilion, 301 Main St., Gaithersburg. Meats, fruits and vegetables, cut flowers, honey and eggs, plus jewelry, knitted items, woodworking items and other work by craftspeople. www.gaithersburgmd.gov/leisure/markets/ farmers-markets.

Kensington Farmers Market, 8 a.m.-noon Saturdays. At the historic Kensington train station on Howard Avenue. Offerings include artisan breads, seafood, prepared foods and produce. www.explorekensington.com/farm ers_market.php.

Bethesda Central Farm Market, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Sundays. Bethesda Elementary School, 7600 Arlington Road. The year-round market’s offerings include baked goods, fruits and vegetables, seafood and some meats. www.central farmmarkets.com. ■ To submit calendar items, go to BethesdaMagazine.com.

AUG.

Rockin’ COuntry

Uncorked Wine & Music Festival, along Gibbs Street and Maryland Avenue in Rockville Town Square

30

Ready for some country rock ’n’ roll?

The iconic group Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and bluegrass crooners Chatham County Line team up at The Music Center at Strathmore at 8 p.m. Aug. 30. Known for songs like “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” “Mr. Bojangles” and “I Saw the Light,” the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band has been performing since 1966 and popularized the country rock/roots rock sound. Chatham County Line’s latest CD, Tightrope, was to be released in late spring. Tickets are $38-$58; $34.20$52.20 for Stars members. For more information, visit www.strathmore.org or call 301-581-5100.

Heights Village Center, 4433 S. Park Ave., Chevy Chase. Monthly literary program with open readings following featured readers. In July: Rick Black and Joshua Weiner. Featured readers for August are to be determined. Free. 301-656-2797, www.wordworksdc.com/cafe_muse.html.

OUTDOOR MOVIES Movies on the Square, sundown Thursdays (around 8:30 p.m.), through Aug. 21, Rockville Town Square. Scheduled films are Frozen Sing-ALong (July 3), The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (July 10), Gravity (July 17), The Great Gatsby (2013 version; July 24), The Lego Movie (July 31), Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (Aug. 7), Star Trek Into Darkness (Aug. 14) and Despicable Me 2 (Aug. 21). Free. www.rockvilletownsquare.com/events.

Pike Central Farm Market, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays. 5992 Executive Blvd., North Bethesda. More than 40 farmers and producers offer fruits, vegetables, bread and other goodies. www.cen tralfarmmarkets.com.

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

The Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda

RAPHAEL TAL (uncorked); courtesy of nitty gritty dirt band

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6/11/14 12:06 PM

driving RANGE

Courtesy of Schooner Woodwind

The sails of the schooner Woodwind fill with wind (left) as a passenger takes a photo.

summer breeze This bank shows the distinctive architecture of Shepherdstown, which is said to be the oldest town in West Virginia.

Feeling adventurous? An overnight sail can be a fun and different way to explore Annapolis and the Chesapeake Bay.

By Amy Brecount White

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driving RANGE

A

billow of storm clouds writhes darkly at our backs as we drive toward Annapolis on a Saturday afternoon in July. I feel a slight tinge in my chest at the thought of going out on rough water, but my husband, Pete, who has open-water sailing experience, is pumped. This is real wind.

We’re scheduled for a sunset sail on the Woodwind, a 74-foot staysail schooner that has plied the waters of the Chesapeake Bay since 1993. But right now it’s happy hour and we have some time to kill.

Arriving in Annapolis Harbor, we grab a beer at Pusser’s Caribbean Grille, a dockside restaurant offering a prime view of what the locals affectionately call Ego Alley. Yachts, kayaks, paddle boards and sailboats all vie for space in this narrow waterway, creating the maritime equivalent of rush hour on the Beltway. Savvy boaters know to bring only their dinghies into the fray. But the less experienced captains who routinely venture in

to show off their big, fancy boats—and then have trouble maneuvering their way out—provide endless entertainment for the shore-bound spectators sidled up to the bar in T-shirts and flip-flops, quaffing Pusser’s signature rum Painkillers.

From this vantage point, we watch a large sailboat carrying a wedding party as it cruises around the moored boats in Spa Creek, the Bay inlet that borders one side of town. The bride and groom wave in our direction as the bar chatter turns to the 2005 movie Wedding Crashers, in which the schooner Woodwind II made a cameo appearance as the personal yacht of the character played by Christopher Walken. (A scrapbook of the filming can be found on board the boat.)

Pete and I are overnight guests aboard its less-famous twin, Woodwind, where we are greeted by a shipshape crew, neatly decked out in khaki shorts and white polo shirts. We stow our gear in our assigned “stateroom”—an amusing euphemism for quarters the size of a walk-in closet, as are typical on a boat—while Nathan,

our young and energetic overnight captain, shows us how the head (bathroom) works and how to use its pump-operated, hand-held shower wand.

Returning to the deck, we choose seats near the middle on the starboard side.

With its polished mahogany woodwork, the vessel feels like the sort of yacht that Jay Gatsby might have owned. The clouds above are still dark and foreboding, but

andrew mehri, flickr

Boat owners like to show off by cruising Ego Alley in Annapolis Harbor.

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Courtesy of Schooner Woodwind

andrew mehri, flickr

Woodwind sets sail on the Severn River.

the crew is raring to hoist the four sails.

A schooner is a sailboat that

has more than one mast, with the foremast as long as or shorter than the aft mast. Schooners sail fast and shorthanded, so three sailors could easily manage this boat, although this day brings many more on board to cater to the 40-some passengers (mostly day-

trippers) who’ve assembled on deck.

Nathan recruits a few willing landlubbers to help hoist, and we’re off.

The ubiquitous scent of crabcakes wafts past us as we make the tight turn into Spa Creek. To our left, a mated pair of ospreys perch atop a channel marker. I turn to trace the charming steeples and domes of the Annapolitan skyline, whose profile is pleasantly devoid of high-rises.

“Careful with the staysail boom,” a crew member cautions, reminding us that in high winds it can swing powerfully, and without warning.

“And if you should plan on going for an unplanned swim, we will pick you up like a fish,” the main captain, Ken Kaye, adds with wry assurance. “It will be as humiliating as possible.”

Tanned and lean, Kaye takes a light-

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hearted approach to the serious stuff and seems to enjoy the corny jokes that he has probably repeated a hundred times by this point in the season.

“Best sound of all,” Kaye says, his ears tuned to the sharp snap of the sails as they fully catch the breeze. We correct our course slightly, so that the red “telltales”—pieces of cloth that hang from the foresail—are pointed straight back, confirming that we’re aligned with the wind for maximum speed.

The name Woodwind isn’t just a play on the boat’s mechanics. It’s also a nod to the captain’s history. In his former life, Kaye taught instrumental music to fourth- and fifth-graders in Connecticut (his New England accent is the real deal) and also played the French horn, the only brass instrument allowed in woodwind ensembles. In 1992, he and his wife, Ellen, both longtime sailors, retired from teaching to chase their dream. It was their daughter—now “Capt. Jen” on Woodwind II—who introduced them to the boating culture of Annapolis, which, 20 years ago, offered little for tourists craving a seaward experience.

“The sign welcoming you to Annapolis says it’s ‘America’s Sailing Capital,’ but you couldn’t go sailing unless you had your own boat,” Kaye explains. Recognizing an opportunity, he and Ellen had a schooner built to spec and set sail with their first

paying customers in July 1993. Within five years, they were commissioning a second vessel to keep up with demand. (Jen became a captain in 1996 and now challenges her dad on Wednesday nights in the Annapolis Yacht Club races. And, yes, they do take passengers out.)

“Ready for a tack! Make sure you’re seated!” Nathan yells. The sails luff (flap) as we tack and come about. I brace my feet against the side while we heel toward the churning gray-green waves.

Somehow, in the middle of all this rolling and pitching, Nathan manages to serve drinks from the cash bar without spilling a drop.

Once we reach the mouth of the Bay, the captain invites us all to “take a turn at the helm.” I watch a few fellow newbies, then make my way back to the stern, plant my feet to steady myself and take over.

“Fix your eye on a distant point and stay on line with that,” Kaye advises.

Focusing on a red buoy in the distance, I grasp the wide metal wheel. As the wind and waves tug at the boat, I’m reminded why sailing is an Olympic sport. It takes real upper-body strength to stay on course.

At the same time, there is something intrinsically pure and free about sailing.

The whoosh of wind over water sweeps my mind of cobwebs, and a gust whips

my hair as I breathe in deeply. It occurs to me that a sailboat is the ultimate green-energy vehicle. I am truly playing a wind instrument.

“Nine point seven knots!” Kaye yells a few minutes later. “We are sizzling!”

To our right, a huge tanker rides high on the water, and we speculate on where it is headed and what it carries. A rude speedboat cuts across our bow, violating right-of-way laws and leaving us a choppy wake to cross. My eyes scan the length of the ever-impressive Bay Bridge as—too soon for me—we head back toward the Severn River.

Although the darkest clouds have pushed north of us, it starts to sprinkle.

Within minutes, a crew member passes out ponchos by “Ralph Le Rain.” The middies at the Naval Academy aren’t out and about, but we do have a prime view of their beautiful campus, including the stadium and the distinctive green dome of the Academy Chapel, as we tack from one side to the other, zigzagging our way around the peninsula and back to dry land.

At the dock,

the day passengers exit while Nathan offers dinner recommendations. He tells us and the two other couples who are spending the night on board to return by midnight.

For a town that’s so water-centric, there’s a strange dearth of waterfront dining options. We opt for a 15-minute walk across the bridge on Compromise Street—a passage so named because its creation in 1845 involved a right-of-way compromise between waterfront landowners and the City Council—and into the quiet Eastport neighborhood. There we find cozy Vin 909, a restaurant tucked into a refurbished Sears Roebuck bungalow, featuring a strong wine list and local fare such as Chesapeake littleneck clams and artisan cheeses.

After dinner, we take our time strolling back to the harbor, peeking into the McMansion-sized yachts whose crystal chandeliers hang as emblems of their owners’ healthy egos and wallets. Pete reminds me of a common saying in the boating

Courtesy of Schooner Woodwind

Guests enjoy an alfresco breakfast aboard Woodwind after an overnight stay in Annapolis Harbor.

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A night aboard the Woodwind truly is a luxury. We can pretend for a moment that it’s ours, without having to worry about expense or upkeep. world that goes like this: “The two happiest days in a man’s life are the day he buys his boat and the day he sells it.”

That said, a night aboard the Woodwind truly is a luxury. We can pretend for a moment that it’s ours, without having to worry about expense or upkeep.

(Replacement sails for one boat alone cost $20,000 every four to five years, and the schooners are valued at $1.2 million to $1.5 million each.)

Although it’s late, we can’t resist hanging out on the deck and chatting with Nathan as laughter from the bars carries over the shimmering black water. A few smaller sailboats are moored nearby, their masts clanking in the diminished breeze under the glow of an orangey

half-moon. I watch the hypnotic play of moonlight on rippling waves as a water taxi skims to and fro across Ego Alley.

An overnight stay on

a boat is a cramped affair that requires a healthy appetite for adventure and nostalgia. Every square inch is precious, and the wooden hull comes to a point at your feet. It’s definitely amenable to those who like to “sleep tight,” as the saying goes.

The air conditioning in our cabin isn’t working, so we open the hatch above us while Nathan tinkers. Luckily the clouds are dry, and the breeze is delightful. Lying there listening to the harbor noises, I much prefer our berth to the nearby Marriott. With all the rock-

ing and water, sleeping on a sailboat is a little like returning to the womb. All night I feel the rhythmic swells beneath me—a lull that remains with me for days afterward.

Up and dressed early the next morning, we chat happily with our fellow passengers over a breakfast of crab-andasparagus quiche and a coffee cake the crew has nicknamed “apple crack.” We linger, eating slowly and well, savoring the atmosphere. The salt-tinged air feels fresh and cleansing. I wonder if I can fit a late-season sail into my schedule. n Amy Brecount White lives in Arlington, Va., and hopes to race with Capt. Ken and Capt. Jen this summer.

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The view from Main Street in downtown Annapolis.

RANGE

If YOu GO GETTING THERE

WHERE TO STAY The Schooner Woodwind (80 Compromise St.; 410-263-7837, www.schooner woodwind.com) is docked at the Annapolis Marriott Waterfront Hotel and sails through Oct. 26. The boat can accommodate six overnight guests on Saturday evenings. (They’ll take a fourth couple if the guests know each other.) Each stateroom has a double bed and a shared bathroom (one bathroom for two couples). The fee of $299 includes a sunset cruise and a gourmet breakfast the next morning. Overnight parking is $25 in the lot next to the Marriott, but spaces are not guaranteed.

WHERE TO EAT & DRINK Chick & Ruth’s Delly, 165 Main St., 410-269-6737; www.chickandruths.com.

Known for its colossal burgers, shakes and sandwiches named after local politicians, the diner is a popular spot for locals and boaters. A formal recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance is led every morning.

Dry 85, 193B Main St., 443-214-5171; www.dry85.com. The Prohibition-style speakeasy specializes in bourbon (you can order flights of top-shelf options such as Pappy Van Winkle, Willett or Maker’s), burgers, upscale pub food and a few creative entrées. Try the pork osso bucco for $19.

McGarvey’s Saloon & Oyster Bar, 8 Market Space, City Dock, 410-263-5700; www.mcgarveyssaloon.com. An old-

school Annapolis waterside pub serving raw bar selections, sandwiches, burgers, craft beers and oyster shooters.

Middleton’s Tavern & Raw Bar, 2 Market Space, City Dock, 410-263-3323; www.middletontavern.com. The harborside tavern offers sidewalk seating, bar snacks and regional seafood such as Maryland crab cakes, rockfish, oysters and clams. Entrées range from $17.95 to $36.

Pusser’s Caribbean Grill, 80 Compromise St., 410-626-0004; pussersusa. com/locations/annapolis-restaurant. The grill has a prime location, but usually gets mixed reviews for its food. Entrées include steaks and seafood and range from $12.95 to $29.95. The bar is a popular party scene for 20-somethings at night.

Storm Brothers Ice Cream, 130 Dock St., 410-263-3376; www.stormbros.com.

A local favorite for frozen treats. A single scoop is $2.55; a 16-ounce shake is $4.50.

Just try to resist the raspberry truffle.

Vin 909, 909 Bay Ridge Ave., 410-9901846; www.vin909.com. The eatery offers a “farm to table” menu of small plates, pizzas and sandwiches ($7 to $16), and a sizable wine and beer selection. It doesn’t take reservations, but we got a table fairly quickly. The dining room can be noisy.

WHERE TO SHOP You’ll find a host of boutiques, galleries and gift shops in historic downtown Annapolis. For a list, visit www.down townannapolis.org.

Other Overnight Sailing Tours North Bay Bed and Breakfast, 9 Sunset Drive, North East, Md., 410-287-5948; www.northbayyacht.com/Charters/ SailingPackages.shtml. The B&B offers an overnight on dry land and a full breakfast, followed by a half-day of sailing on the 50-foot Gulfstar ketch Journey in the upper Chesapeake Bay. Prices start at $225 per couple for a double.

The Pintita, 2639 Boston St., Baltimore, 410-435-2078; www.sailthepintita.com.

Overnights on the 43-foot Endeavor sailboat, Pintita, are offered from March to November. Guests arrive at 6 p.m. and take a two-hour sail from the Canton area of Baltimore. Couples have the option of dining before or after the sail, and alcohol is BYOB. Capt. Phil greets guests the next morning with blueberry pancakes. The sail and overnight (available any day of the week) are $350 plus tax and a 15 percent gratuity. Tours can also be arranged to depart from Annapolis.

South River Boat Rentals, 2802 Solomons Island Rd., Edgewater, Md., 410956-9729; www.southriverboatrentals. com. South River offers bareboat (without a captain) 26-foot sailboat rentals for overnight use (10 a.m. on the first day to 6 p.m. on the second day). The cost is $650 for four people. You can bring your own food or have meals catered for an additional fee. Longer rentals are available, and you can add a captain for $200 per day. n

thinkstock.com

Annapolis Harbor is roughly 38 miles from Bethesda. From the Capital Beltway, take U.S. 50 East toward Annapolis. After 23 miles, merge onto MD-70 South/Rowe Blvd.

(Exit 24) and go two miles. Turn right onto College Avenue/MD-450. Enter the next roundabout (Church Circle) and take the fourth exit to veer off onto Duke of Gloucester Street. Turn left on St. Mary’s Street and then go right on Compromise Street.

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Once Upon a

time

By Mark Walston

Branching into History

Alice kresse

North Bethesda’s Linden Oak stands the test of time It’s not the stateliest of trees. Its trunk is stubby and knobbed, its branches twisted and gnarled. But as the biggest, oldest tree of its kind in Montgomery County, the Linden Oak has stood witness to history at the intersection of Grosvenor Lane and Rockville Pike in North Bethesda.

During its 300 years, the white oak has seen an old Indian path turn into a Colonial “rolling road,” over which giant hogsheads of tobacco were hauled to port in Georgetown. It has witnessed Gen. Edward Braddock, his aide-de-camp, George Washington, and the British army trudge past in 1755 on their way to defeat during the French and Indian War. It has watched Washingtonians flee in panic as the British sacked and burned the nation’s capital during the War of 1812. Twice a

week, stagecoaches rumbled past it on the pike, carrying mail and passengers from the District to Frederick.

In the mid-1800s, when it was already more than 150 years old, the tree stood at attention as tens of thousands of Union and Confederate soldiers marched by, skirmishing and scouring the surrounding farms for food and horses. It witnessed fugitive slaves as they traveled through the forested valley, following the Underground Railroad to freedom in the North.

In the 1920s, the tree saw the old path turn into a modern highway—Route 355—carrying commuters traveling by automobile to and from government jobs.

Though the origin of its name is obscured in history, some believe it derives from Greek mythology, when

the god Zeus changed the peasants Baucis and Philemon into an intertwining pair of trees, one oak and one linden.

Today, the Linden Oak stands 95 feet tall with branches spreading 132 feet wide, making it the largest white oak in the county and the third largest in the state. (The largest in Maryland had been the Wye Oak, near the village of Wye Mills in Talbot County. It stood 96 feet tall and was more than 400 years old when it was toppled by a windstorm in 2002. A white oak in Cecil County and another in Rock Hall are larger than the Linden Oak.) Little wonder that the white oak was designated the Maryland state tree in 1941.

Other trees in the county may have more impressive rankings. A sycamore located along the C&O Canal near Dickerson Conservation Park in upper Montgomery County was recognized in 2012

by Gov. Martin O’Malley as “Maryland’s Biggest Tree,” standing 137.5 feet high, spreading 108 feet wide, and with a trunk circumference of more than 25 feet.

But the Linden Oak remains a champion nonetheless. It has survived centuries of storms, droughts, blistering sun and bitter winters. The greatest threat to the tree’s existence came in the 1970s with the arrival of Metro. Plans for elevated tracks just south of the Grosvenor station put the route straight through the Linden Oak. But in 1973, Idamae Garrott, a longtime county politician and protector of the environment, led the charge that convinced Metro officials to save the tree. The tracks were built in an arc around the white oak, preserving it for another generation.

In 1976, the Maryland Bicentennial Commission and the Maryland Forest Service celebrated the Linden Oak for its great age, naming it a “Maryland Bicentennial Tree.” n Mark Walston is an author and historian raised in Bethesda and now living in Olney. To comment on this story, email comments@bethesdamagazine.com.

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sarah pekkanen’s

domestic

disturbances

Saying Goodbye Goodbyes always feel bitter-

writhing toddler who was throwing a world-class tantrum.

But your emails have taught me that my family’s story isn’t so unique, after all.

We’re navigating many of life’s rhythms together: Praying for our toddlers to fall asleep because they’re just a wee bit— OK, a lot—more lovable when they’re slumbering. Planning a family vacation and then wondering why we always return home more exhausted than when we left. Trying to grow a vegetable garden to teach our kids about nutrition, only to realize we’ve spent a hundred bucks to produce a misshapen carrot and a handful of tomatoes that were thoroughly enjoyed by squirrels. Wanting desperately to protect our tweens and teens from emotional bumps and bruises, but realizing, heartbreakingly, that we no longer possess magic kisses to soothe boo-boos. (But not that poledancing class—I suspect I navigated that rhythm alone.)

Change is inevitable. I see it all around me. My older kids no longer need supervision when they play street hockey; in fact, they text me that they’re

walking to the Brookville Road diner for a grilled cheese. Sweet Bella’s muzzle is woven through with gray now, and when I come in the front door, she climbs off the couch slowly, her glee tempered by a new hesitance. There’s a goodbye in my future with her, too, and I can hardly bear to think about it.

It’s time to hand over this space to a new writer, and give that person the opportunity to capture life’s rhythms and to connect with all of you. I’ll be turning my full attention to writing novels, but I hope to keep in touch, so please email me anytime at sarah@sarahpekkanen. com. Maybe I’ll even bump into you around Bethesda. I’ll be the one consoling myself with a salted caramel cupcake because I’ve gotten another freaking parking ticket.

Thank you all so much for reading this column through the years. It has been a privilege to write it. n Sarah Pekkanen’s latest novel is Catching Air (Washington Square Press, 2014).

She can be reached at sarah@sarah pekkanen.com.

PAUL HOSTETLER

sweet to me. In a few months, I’ll send my youngest son off to kindergarten.

In a few years, I’ll send my oldest off to college.

Insider trading tip: You should all buy stock in Kleenex.

When I began writing Domestic Disturbances, I didn’t think very far into the future, even though I knew this day would eventually arrive. Life was too jam-packed for contemplation: I was busy burning dinners, chasing after kids at the playground, praying to the pottytraining gods, and fighting the good fight to keep my minivan clean. I never once won that particular battle.

Somehow, months slipped by, and these essays piled up. I wrote about adopting the world’s sweetest black lab, Bella, taking a pole-dancing class (trust me, that was my editor’s idea), and throwing a disaster of a kid’s birthday party on a spectacularly rainy day. I chronicled our adoption of a little stray cat, and move into a new house, which meant leaving behind the pencil marks on a doorjamb that charted the growth of our three kids. Those snapshots, preserved between these glossy pages, created a chronicle of my family’s life.

It’s just one reason why I’m so grateful to have written the Domestic Disturbances column for nearly a decade.

Another reason why is you. I’ve received such kind emails from readers—I’ve cherished every single one— and even was greeted on the street by someone who recognized me from my photo at the top of this column. Naturally, that thrilling moment came as I was fleeing a restaurant, carrying a

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