Greatest Thing Ever Happens, 20 Years Too Late

If, many years ago, you had told my middle school self that Guns N' Roses was going to perform a club show in downtown Silver Spring, my head would have exploded. And I don't even mean that in the figurative sense - skull fragments would have had to be extracted from the walls.

Well, it may be twenty years after they were last relevant, but GNR will indeed be performing at the Fillmore on February 23rd. Of course, what passes for Guns N' Roses these days is in reality Axl Rose and a rotating cast of musicians.

In Better Days

In my fantasy scenario, Slash, Axl, Duff McKagan and Izzy Stradlin will miraculously work out their differences over a couple of beers at the Quarry House before the gig and agree to perform a one-time-only Guns N' Roses reunion concert before the band name is forever retired. (This is clearly an obsession of mine, as I have written about this multiple times on this blog over the years. The only difference now is that the GNR concert is no longer hypothetical.)

Though that series of events is unlikely to occur, it may still be worth the price of admission to get a glimpse of Fat Axl. Seriously, this is Axl Rose in March of last year.

Silver Spring News 'N Notes

- The Post has published a list of properties, many of which are located in Silver Spring, that will be either partially or fully condemned as a result of Purple Line construction. Presumably this list has been on display at the state planning office in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying 'Beware of the Leopard'. Of course, these homeowners and businesses have nothing to concerned about, as the chimerical Purple Line has no chance of being constructed during their lifetime.

- Who would have thought that a post about the generally-unloved Skew Works closing would elicit 46 comments (and counting)? There were some arguments that Skew Works' location was detrimental to business, but Ghar-e-Kebab, located just a few doors down, was able to more than double the size of its dining area last year. This kind of belies the location argument a bit - I think if its food was better, Skew Works would still be around today.

- The Hilton hotel on Colesville road had recently been renovated and re-branded as a DoubleTree.

- Hey Groupon, don't think no one noticed that you had multiple offers for businesses in "Silver Springs" a couple weeks back, even though some of the descriptions have since been corrected. Plus, this movie theater IS IN WHEATON.

- The February issue of Washingtonian Magazine (the one with the giant pot leaf on the cover) features a "Best of Silver Spring" section. Washingtonian doesn't generally make current content available online, but 8407's Facebook Wall has a preview of the first page.

- The parcel of land at the corner of Thayer Avenue and Fenton Street is up for auction next Monday. The auction will be held "on the premises". Does that mean in the old gas station?

Let's hope the buyer does something with this area ASAP. Right now, the weedy lot is nothing but an eyesore. Of course, any new plans could be indefinitely stalled if the service station is deemed 'historic'...

(Thanks to anonymous commenter on the last post for the tip).

- Radio One recently installed a sign on the building that houses their Georgia Avenue headquarters.

- Is Ike Leggett trying to kill the Metropolitan Branch Trail between Silver Spring and Takoma Park?

- UDPATE: Thank you to another anonymous commenter for pointing out that a La Madeleine will be opening downtown.

Skew Works Didn't Work

Thanks to Twitter user @kscrivs for the photo!

Ah, Skew Works, we hardly knew ye. The Asian grill on Wayne Avenue, which opened less than a year ago, has closed its doors. Can't say I'm particularly surprised - it was alright, but with all the other options around it didn't really distinguish itself in any way. I only went once myself.

Hopefully this space will soon be occupied by a worthwhile tenant whose color scheme will not cause severe eyeball pain. (Perhaps the last proprietors were fans of "The U"?)

Latest City Place Propaganda

This may have been around for awhile, but it's the first time I've seen it.

I really hope their plan succeeds.

Long Transit Center Nightmare to Continue (at least) Until Summer

Construction in October 2010. Photo by Flickr user jmlwinder

It's hard to believe that the groundbreaking for the Sarbanes Transit Center occurred during the last presidential campaign.  Over three years later, bus stops for the Metro station are still scattered all over downtown Silver Spring and pedestrians have to walk hither and thither to get to their train. Now comes word that the opening of the center will be postponed until this early-to-mid-summer. Generally, delays in completing construction projects around here are due to some combination of Montgomery County bureaucracy and obstructionism from "The Community", but this latest prolongation is a result of a contractor error:

[David Dise, director of Montgomery County's Department of General Services] partially attributed the most recent delay to an error that resulted in the concrete not being thick enough around the structure's steel reinforcement bars in eight areas of the facility's upper deck, which construction crews realized when the concrete began flaking off over the last several months. The concrete is supposed to protect the steel from bad weather, Dise said.

Were this project being constructed in Guangzhou or Dubai, they'd have probably have had this baby up in six months. Here, we've been forced to deal with the hassle for at least an extra year. This thing has been such a headache, they ought to rename it the Sarbanes-Oxley Transit center (rimshot, please).

Silver Spring News 'N Notes

Eleven55 Ripley

 Wow, actual blog posts!

- Ground has broken on the Eleven55 Ripley project, which will be the tallest building in downtown Silver Spring when it is completed in 2013. One thing I don't get - what exactly do they mean when they claim the building will feature a "state-of-the-art theatre". Is it some sort of cinema available for use by the building's tenants? How exactly would that work?

- Welcome back SoCo Eats, which has returned following a six-month hiatus and ThayerAvenue.com, which returns after a somewhat shorter break. (Not that I can talk.)

- Hey, look, Virginia is stealing even more jobs from Maryland, this time from right here in Silver Spring. God, I really f'n hate Virginia. We should cut off their supply of drinking water, since it comes from OUR river, which they don't feel the need to keep clean.

- It's apparently been open for a few months now, but until very recently I was unaware of the existence of Jewel of India, the new restaurant in Hillandale from the owners of Langley Park's Woodlands Restaurant. Unlike the all-vegetarian Woodlands, which I have been to countless times, this new restaurant serves northern Indian cuisine (meaning it has meat dishes). Has anyone tried it yet? The Post liked it.

Silver Spring's 'Best Restaurants' Now Up to 3

I don't put a whole lot of stock in Washingtonian's "100 Best Restaurants" list, but the fact is that people love subjective rankings and do make real dining decisions based on the contents of the magazine's annual 100 Best issue. With that said, it's still nice to the total number of Silver Spring restaurants on the list increase by one with this year's addition of  8407 Kitchen Bar.

The number of Silver Spring restaurants on the list has fluctuated between two and three over recent years, with five different eateries making the cut, two of which no longer exist:

2007: Jackie's, Ray's the Classics, Ceviche
2008: Jackie's, Ray's the Classics
2009: Jackie's, Ray's the Classics, Nicaro
2010: Jackie's, Ray's the Classics
2011: Jackie's, Ray's the Classics
2012: Jackie's, Ray's the Classics, 8407 Kitchen Bar

Of course, one could say 8407 is in some ways a reincarnation of the old Nicaro (not to be confused with the now-defunct "Newcaro"). Ceviche was of course was doomed to failure because that concept "does not work in malls".

Though they lie just outside of Silver Spring, it should also be noted that both Nava Thai and Ruan Thai, located just blocks from each other in Wheaton, also made the cut.

Silver Spring News 'N Notes

- Now available in a variety of colors - City Sports Silver Spring t-shirts:

- I'm happy to report that the Chipotle in Four Corners is now open for business. It has a more sleek and modern interior than other Chipotles I've been to, and they actually had pretty good music playing (loudly). Glad to have one up in the '01, though one negative consequence appears to be a notably more crowded parking lot at the Woodmoor Shopping center.

- There's a neighborhood called Silver Spring East of Colesville Road? (SSEoCR?)

- Remember all the talk of a youth curfew? That whole effort is basically in limbo for the foreseeable future. I was so sick of hearing about the damn thing I'm just glad it's over, regardless of the outcome. Now hopefully the council can get back to banning panhandlers at intersections.

- Another new law the county may institute is one targeting perpetrators of so-called "flash mob thefts" like the one that occurred last month at the 7-11 up on Tech Road. The new law would make each participant criminally liable for the total value of good stolen, not just the handful of candy bars, etc. they take. I'm wondering how much they followed up on the Tech Road robbery, considering everyone involved was clearly visible on camera.

- Hey look, the latest battle in the Fox-news-manufactured  "War on Christmas" is being waged up in Aspen Hill! A group of uninvited Christmas carolers were ejected from the premises after spreading their holiday cheer inside their local U.S. Post Office.

A spokesman for the U.S. Postal Service confirmed the incident occurred Saturday at branch office in the Aspen Hill Shopping Center. A trio of carolers walked into the building dressed in attire reminiscent of Charles Dickens and began singing.

The only offensive thing here is the is the author's obvious failure to take advantage of a great opportunity to use the word "Dickensian".

- Finally, it's incredible that with the legion of security employed by the Majestic, someone from Team Jacob was still able to abscond with a cardboard cutout of Taylor Lautner from this giant Breaking Dawn display in the theater's lobby.

We Are the 94%

It is patently obvious to anyone that only a small minority of Washington-area residents actually from the region, but Silver Spring has the distinction of having the fifth lowest ratio of "native" residents in the entire country. This factoid comes from the most recent Census by way of the Washington Examiner, which states that a meager six percent of current Silver Springers 25 years or older were born in the state of Maryland.

Unfortunately, I'm not exactly sure where on the Census site I can find locale-specific data such as this to verify, so I'm unsure what was considered to be "Silver Spring" in this case, nor do I know what the four places with smaller percentages were. Of course, by the qualifications used, I would also be considered a "migrant" to Silver Spring by virtue of having been born in D.C., despite having grown up here.

Silver Spring News 'N Notes

- I checked out the new City Sports this past weekend, and it is a great addition to what unfortunately remains a fairly barren retail landscape in downtown Silver Spring. It's a big, open, bright space featuring gear from quality brands like North Face, Patagonia and one of my personal favorites, Timbuk2. I was actually able to buy clothing for myself in downtown Silver Spring, something I have been able to do very infrequently, a few shirts from American Apparel notwithstanding. (Sorry, City Place Marshall's, but I don't need size 5XL jeans.)

There's a large selection of City Sports-branded shirts, and while for now they all read "Washington DC", they will purportedly be stocking Silver Spring shirts in the coming weeks.

The only downside is that, unlike other City Sports I have been to in the past, they don't carry fan gear - things such as hats and jerseys for the teams that D.C. Metro area residents root for. You know, like the Steelers, Cowboys, Red Sox, etc.

- The downtown Silver Spring McDonald's, renowned worldwide for being the Worst McDonald's Ever™, is undergoing renovations to update it with the current, more modern, McDonald's design. A welcome cosmetic improvement, I suppose, but you still couldn't pay me enough to eat there. Now, were it to look anything like this McDonald's, I might very well consider it.

- Speaking of lipstick on a pig, I recently received a flyer in the mail encouraging me to visit the newly-redesigned Four Corners Safeway. While this Safeway may be the most convenient, if not closest, supermarket for me, I generally avoid it unless I quickly need something basic like a gallon of milk. The store is cramped, run-down, and the produce generally looks inedible. Simple staples, such as the aforementioned gallon of milk, are frequently out-of-stock.

Perhaps the work isn't complete (then why send me the flyer??), but the 'renovated' store didn't look a whole lot different than I remembered it. Unfortunately, a wooden floor laid down in the produce section doesn't magically make your fruits and vegetables fresh.

I wish we could have gotten a brand new Safeway like Kensington did a few years back. Their equally-crappy old-timey Safeway was razed and a brand new building was constructed in its place. I guess we'll just have to settle for this half-assed effort.

In fact, the one thing I kind of liked about the Safeway was its retro facade and marina-style roof . Now the former has been eradicated, to be replaced by what I can only presume is some generic Safeway signage.

Then:

Now:

- From the Post review of last Wednesday night's Kid Rock concert at the Fillmore:

Introducing “So Hott,” Rock did the time-honored practice of slipping the venue’s name conspicuously into the lyrics one better, namechecking Silver’s Spring’s Quarry House Tavern as the site where he’d picked up a lady companion to ease the loneliness of the road the prior evening.

I assume someone just provided him with the name of a local joint so that he might indulge the crowd, but perhaps someone can confirm that Kid Rock was actually at the Quarry House on Tuesday night.

- A flash mob of fifty-or-so shoplifters robbed the 7-11 up on Tech Road on Saturday Night. Nice. For those opposing the proposed MoCo teen curfew, incidents like this certainly won't help your cause.

Soon there will be another 7-11 in Silver Spring to flash rob, as a new store is opening in the strip mall at the corner of Georgia and Silver Spring Ave. Why is that strip mall still there, anyway, other than to provide revenue to towing companies?