At J. Hollinger’s Waterman’s Chophouse in downtown Silver Spring, I ask George Manolatos, the director of operations of Hollinger Group Restaurants, which cut is used for the steak frites—the simple dish of grilled beef, herbed garlic butter and french fries that’s ubiquitous on American and French bistro menus—and receive a pleasing response: teres major. From the chuck, that muscle is almost as tender as, but much more flavorful than, much pricier filet mignon. (Butchers sometimes call it the petite tender.)

I’ve not had a finer steak frites than at J. Hollinger’s, which opened in the Lee Building in May. My knife, unlike with chewier cuts often used for the dish (such as hanger, flat iron or flank), glides effortlessly through the meat, whose umami beefiness melds beautifully with the sweetness and pungency of its garlic-parsley butter. Chef John Manolatos, George’s brother, gets the crispy frites right, too, because he makes them in-house instead of shortcutting with frozen fries. (He soaks the fries in water for two days, blots them dry and par-cooks them in 325-degree canola oil. Then they’re fried to order at 350 degrees to crisp them.)

Jerry Hollinger, who owns The Daily Dish in Silver Spring and The Dish and Dram in Kensington, says the owners of the Lee Building approached him and another restaurateur in mid-2019 to submit a proposal for an upscale restaurant in their building. “I felt like a seafood and steakhouse concept would do well, considering what was there before,” says Hollinger, referring to the steakhouse that operated there between 2006 to 2018, first as Ray’s the Classics, and later as The Classics after a change in ownership.

J. Hollinger’s seats 130, including 18 at a curved peninsula bar in a room that offers high-top seating and a view of the kitchen. The main dining room is a study in cool colors. Lining one wall are six large, U-shaped booths upholstered with tufted gray and blue velveteen in a cloud-like pattern. Sheer gold curtains drawn back on both sides of each booth are elegant (albeit impractical) decorations. Sculptural trees fashioned from copper wire, a built-in wall fireplace, abstract paintings from Chevy Chase-based artist Jenny Wilson, and woodwork created by a Mennonite woodworker in Pennsylvania add touches of refinement to decor that strikes the right balance between casual and upscale. (It’s refreshing to see carpeting instead of concrete flooring.)

Hollinger, who is 55 and a resident of Silver Spring’s North Woodside neighborhood, has a winning chef in John Manolatos, 47, who was born and raised in Silver Spring and graduated from John F. Kennedy High School. “I always wanted to cook from the age of 14, watching Yan Can Cook and The Frugal Gourmet on television,” says the chef. At age 20, he scored a job as a prep cook and dishwasher at Cashion’s Eat Place when it opened in Washington, D.C., in 1995. With James Beard Award-winning chef Ann Cashion mentoring him, he rose to executive chef by 1999 and then bought the restaurant with George in 2007. In 2016, the business was struggling, and Cashion took over the lease. John Manolatos still owns Pop’s SeaBar, a boardwalk-inspired seafood eatery he opened next door to Cashion’s in 2014.

Like Cashion, Manolatos’ hallmark is using what’s available seasonally and not indulging in elaborate manipulations. That’s fine with Hollinger, himself a chef, who has for years been making weekly visits to produce auctions in his native Lancaster County in Pennsylvania. A trip there in mid-July yielded heirloom tomatoes, zucchini, Asian eggplant, farm eggs, peaches, sweet cherries and blackberries. That weekend, Manolatos put Andalusian gazpacho, tomato and feta salad (a nod to his Greek heritage), dorade fillets with zucchini, and fruit crostata on the menu. 

My late spring and early summer visits benefit from Manolatos’ use-’em-if-you-got-’em strategy. A thick, ultra-tender, apple cider-brined grilled pork chop comes atop sauteed kale, fresh English peas and delicate lemon spaetzle (little flour dumplings). It’s festooned with fresh morels, prized for their smoky, nutty earthiness, and a rich brown cream sauce. Ora King salmon arrives on a bed of local greens, pickled radishes and roasted carrots. 

Good sourcing is the starting point for many a dish at J. Hollinger’s. For one starter, Manolatos dips plump Chesapeake oysters in buttermilk and then cornmeal mixed with flour before deep-frying. For another, sweet Virginia Chesapeake clams take center stage on housemade spaghetti; the butter, red pepper flakes and garlicky toasted breadcrumbs play supporting roles in this star turn. (Superlative raw materials, alas, can’t save a wan Manhattan-style clam chowder.)

Another appetizer appeals for its whimsy: a surf and turf riff of fried shrimp toast triangles alongside a tender chunk of barbecued pork belly. Its accompaniments—kimchi with daikon radish and cabbage and a “mostarda” made with fresh tomatoes, mustard seeds and dried mustard—make the unusual pairing come together in a dance of sweetness, fattiness, heat, salt and acid. 

Now to steaks. J. Hollinger’s offers an 8-ounce Wagyu culotte ($32), a 6-ounce Black Angus tenderloin ($38), a 14-ounce bone-in Kansas City strip ($48) and a 22-ounce cowboy rib-eye ($75). These are garnished with a grilled scallion and some roasted garlic cloves. Side dishes, such as mac and cheese and spinach sauteed with golden raisins and pine nuts, are à la carte. On a first visit, sauces, such as housemade steak sauce, béarnaise and red wine demi-glace, were à la carte at $4 a pop. On the next, steaks came with the housemade steak sauce. (I’d prefer a sauce and side dish of the diner’s choice factored into the steaks’ prices instead of nickel-and-dime pricing.) I can attest to the strip’s bold, heady flavor (it’s dry-aged for 48 days) and Manolatos’ on-point béarnaise, but my money is still on the $28 steak frites.

Bavarian lime cheesecake with a buttery shortbread crust and a layer of tart lime curd is a lovely way to end dinner at J. Hollinger’s, as is an uber-rich bar of peanut butter mousse, chocolate cake and fudgy chocolate ganache. The sleepers, though, are the homemade ice creams and sorbets. The sampler features tiny scoops of three ice creams (coffee, chocolate and white chocolate peanut butter) and three sorbets (dark chocolate, passionfruit and raspberry). Another sweet bonus at Hollinger’s is free parking in the lot on Georgia Avenue next to the Lee Building. The code to enter it comes with a Resy reservation online or from calling the restaurant for it.

J. Hollinger’s Waterman’s Chophouse

8606 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, 301-328-0035, jhollingers.com

Favorite dishes: Shrimp toast and pork belly with citrus mostarda; housemade spaghetti with clams; steak frites; grilled trumpet mushrooms; apple cider-brined pork chop with morel cream sauce and lemon spaetzle; assorted housemade sorbets and ice creams 

Prices: Appetizers: $9 to $19; Steaks: $28 (steak frites) to $75 (22-ounce cowboy rib-eye); Non-steak entrees: $19 to $34; Desserts: $8 to $12

Libations: Mixologist Alex Georgiadis has put together a list of six playful craft cocktails ($12 to $15), such as an applewood smoked “odd” fashioned made with rye, maple, honey and Angostura bitters, and a gin and tonic made with purple Empress 1908 gin and elderflower-flavored tonic. Two classic New Orleans cocktails, a Sazerac and a Vieux Carré, hit the $20 mark. Assistant manager and sommelier Timothy Clune has curated an intriguing collection of wines that favor Old World (Italy, Spain and especially France) offerings. The 48 bottles on the wine list range from $44 to $242. There are 18 wines by the glass from $10 to $17.

Service: Well informed and pleasant

David Hagedorn is the restaurant critic for Bethesda Magazine.

This story appears in the September/October 2022 issue of Bethesda Magazine.

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I’m a sucker for a refreshing libation and a good pun. So my pre-dinner Herb Your Enthusiasm cocktail, a delightful amalgam of Cointreau, chile-infused tequila, lime juice and herb syrup garnished with fresh pineapple, puts me in a good mood at Planta before I even taste the food. The vibe-y, plant-based restaurant, which opened at Bethesda Row in February, is the ninth location of 10 in a growing chain founded by restaurateur Steven Salm and executive chef David Lee in Toronto in 2016. They have four locations in Toronto, one in New York City (with a second one due to open), four in Florida and several others in the works, including one in D.C.’s West End later this year.

To accompany my drink, I choose two sushi offerings. For one, rectangles of pressed sushi rice topped with thin slices of avocado and miso glaze are torched to create char and caramelization. A smattering of black truffle on top pushes the bites into the realm of sublimity. For ahi watermelon nigiri, strips of watermelon flesh—cunningly dehydrated and draped over pressed seasoned rice—stand in for fish. The effect is stunning—the deep ruby fruit looks just like ahi tuna, down to its faint striations. A simple garnish—a tiny dollop of grated ginger on top—offers a hint of spiciness. Citrus soy dressing brushed on the melon adds umami to the sushi, but not enough to tip the scale from sweet to savory.

Salm embraced a plant-based lifestyle in 2016 after he watched Cowspiracy, a 2014 documentary that outlined the negative impact of animal agriculture on the environment. He directed the culinary team of his restaurant group (which Planta is now part of) to convert 25% of its menus to plant-based items, then teamed with Lee, an acclaimed restaurateur and chef in Toronto, to create Planta, which is 100% vegan. (So are materials used for the restaurants’ interiors.) Rather than proselytize as an activist, says Salm, he chose to create beautifully designed, hip spaces that offer innovative food that happens to be vegan.

He has achieved that goal in Bethesda.

Alden Fenwick Design, based in Sag Harbor, New York, designed the 4,229-square-foot space, which seats 140 inside, including 15 at the bar, and 30 outside. Windows flood the restaurant with natural light. When front glass folding doors are completely open to the patio, there’s a breezy indoor/outdoor feel.

The decor has a Japan-meets-midcentury-modern-meets-Miami vibe. Settees upholstered in channel-tufted, light pink velveteen with a gray geometric pattern and faux-leather bench cushions harmonize with curved, wood-grained midcentury modern dining chairs, hunter green subway tiles in the bar and blush pink walls. Steel blue terrazzo flooring speckled with pink and copper in the bar juxtaposes with the bleached herringbone-patterned wood floors of the main dining area. Rafters are used cleverly as drop ceilings to hide ductwork. Wooden dowels surrounding support structures throughout the space render Doric-like columns modern. A back wall papered with a wild print of green fronds (it reminds me of Blanche Devereaux’s bedroom in The Golden Girls) adds a jolt of movement and color.

Several starters at Planta intrigue. Steamed-spinach-and-shiitake dumplings bathed in truffled soy sauce and hot chile oil and heaped with fresh cilantro leaves burst with flavor. Tempura-battered deep-fried broccoli “bang bang” florets in sticky chile peanut sauce are irresistible. For beetroot “tuna tartare,” cubed beets, pine nuts, chopped capers and sesame soy dressing are tossed together and molded into a neat cylinder topped with a layer of guacamole. The dish is pretty and delicious as is, but it can also be piled onto accompanying taro chips. (I don’t get the tuna billing; I’m satisfied with them as beets.) One dish designed especially for Bethesda—“crab” dip—is wide strips of cooked fresh hearts of palm baked with creamy cashew mozzarella and dill and served hot with Old Bay remoulade and taro chips. I love the richness and flavor here, but “dip” is a misnomer. The strips can’t be spread on a chip and have to be eaten with a fork and knife, which I’m happy to do.

For entrees, don’t miss the spaghettini carbonara: perfectly al dente noodles and chopped “bacon” made from tempeh and mushrooms (it has the texture and smokiness of jarred bacon bits) swathed in a creamy, spicy coconut milk-based sauce and topped with almond-based “Parmesan.” (I’d be just as content to consume this carbonara as the meat-based one.) Planta’s burger is a thick, seared-then-baked patty (black beans, quinoa, lentils, mushrooms, chickpeas and herbs) gussied up with the works: lettuce, tomato, raw onions, dill pickles, yellow mustard, vegan mayo and queso sauce. The bun can’t contain the wonderfully sloppy mess, so just go with the flow—consider the crispy truffle fries that come with it a reward for your effort. The California pizza, with a thin, slightly chewy crust, is summer on a plate: zucchini strips, tomatoes, raw red onions, arugula, basil pesto, cherry peppers and thick slices of avocado drizzled with chili oil and crowned with a grilled lemon half.

There is no dessert menu at Planta; servers recite the options to you. The major components of a brownie sundae with soft serve vanilla ice cream (that tasted like coconut) and hot fudge do not live up to my non-vegan expectations in the texture and flavor departments, so it’s not my thing. Cheesecake with sour cherry compote is a better way to go. Dessert may not be the strong point at Planta, but everything else is. Not that it should matter, but all the carnivores who accompanied me to Planta say they’d return enthusiastically.

Planta

4910 Elm St., Bethesda, 301-407-2447, plantarestaurants.com

Overall rating: B+

Favorite dishes: Avocado, beet and lime tartare; Torched and Pressed (avocado nigiri with miso and truffles); steamed-spinach-and-shiitake dumplings; carbonara pasta; California pizza (zucchini, avocado, arugula); Herb Your Enthusiasm cocktail; strawberry cheesecake with sour cherry compote.

Prices: Appetizers: $6.25 to $18.50; Entrees: $20.25 to $25.95; Desserts: $7 to $14.

Libations: Planta has a well-rounded beverage program that includes six craft cocktails ($13.50), among them the Pink Flamingo (vodka, grapefruit juice, hibiscus, lime juice) and a mojito made with rum, mint, lime juice and berry kombucha; and three zero-proof antioxidant tonics ($11), such as the Matcha Mojito (Seedlip Garden 108, lime juice, matcha syrup, mint). There are also four cold-pressed juices ($10), including the Notorious OBG, made from fresh oranges, beets and ginger. The 23 bottles on the wine list (four sparkling, 10 white, nine red) range from $48 to $84, and the 13 wines by the glass are $12 to $16.

Service: Mostly eager, accommodating and knowledgeable.

David Hagedorn is the restaurant critic for Bethesda Magazine.

This story appears in the July/August 2022 issue of Bethesda Magazine.

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I grab a bottle of yellow mustard and carefully top a warm, salted soft pretzel with squiggles of it at The Pretzel Bakery, a Capitol Hill-based eatery that opened its second location—in Potomac’s Cabin John Village—in April. A first bite takes me back instantly to my early childhood in Philadelphia when my mother, born and raised there, introduced the treat to my siblings and me as a mandatory rite of passage. That combination of carb-y warmth, saltiness, malty sweetness and acid proved to be soul-satisfying.

The bakery’s menu features warm pretzels (salted, everything or cinnamon-glazed, $2.50); everything pretzel-encased Hebrew National beef hot dogs, $6; pretzel bombs (spherical Nutella-filled pretzel rolls topped with cinnamon glaze, $3); breakfast sliders (bacon, scrambled egg and cheddar cheese on an everything pretzel roll, $3.75); and calzones (filled with mozzarella, ricotta and Romano cheeses and either roasted red peppers or pepperoni, $8.50). Dips, such as beer cheese, cream cheese and Nutella, are available for $1. Gulden’s Spicy Brown and French’s Yellow mustard are offered for free.

The business is the brainchild of Silver Spring resident Sean Haney, who co-owns the 800-square-foot establishment with Chad Anthony, who lives in Potomac. Haney had come to D.C. in 1998 to work for Marriott after earning a bachelor’s degree in hotel management from Penn State University. Working 80-hour weeks drained the love of the restaurant business from him, and he went to work for an IT firm, where he met and became friends with Anthony. He showed Anthony a business plan he had written for a pretzel shop, and Anthony thought it was a great concept. They opened The Pretzel Bakery in a 400-square-foot space on Capitol Hill in 2012, selling 700 pretzels on the first day from a Dutch door. In 2016, they relocated to a 1,700-square-foot space up the street.

“Coming from Philly, you miss the creature comforts of home. Pretzels for me were that,” Haney says. “The first stop I’d make visiting my parents was to get some pretzels.” He decided if he couldn’t find them in D.C., he might as well make them himself. He experimented over and over, finally coming up with the winning dough (flour, salt, yeast, sugar and water) that he handrolls and shapes into twisted pretzels that rise overnight in the refrigerator before being boiled briefly and then baked.

Haney and Anthony had been looking for a second location for eight years. They chose the Cabin John Village space because Haney, who frequented the shopping center, knew it to be busy. They signed with Edens, the landlord, in April 2021. “Grab-and-go is what we do,” Haney says, “and that is pandemic-proof. Our pretzels already came in brown paper to-go bags.” The space has no indoor seating. There are two small benches in front of the store, perfect for a soft landing.

The Pretzel Bakery, 7961 Tuckerman Lane (Cabin John Village), Potomac, 301-242-3539, thepretzelbakery.com

Restaurant comings & goings

Two vendors have been announced for Commas food hall, which is planning a summer opening in Silver Spring: Gaithersburg-based DMV Empanadas and Trini Vybez, which specializes in Trinidadian fare.

Thai food chain Tara Thai closed its location at rio in Gaithersburg temporarily early in the year, but never reopened and is now permanently closed. Restaurateurs Jackie Greenbaum and Gordon Banks, who own Quarry House Tavern in Silver Spring, announced plans to open a steakhouse in that location by the end of the year.

The owners of Amalfi Ristorante Italiano announced on Facebook that they are looking to relocate later this year out of Montgomery County after 45 years in Rockville and that they are selling “both the building and for the right price even the Amalfi name, including all of our recipes.”

Also in Rockville, Baronessa Italian Restaurant closed in April.

Lahinch Tavern and Grill in Potomac’s Cabin John Village closed in May.

This story appears in the July/August 2022 issue of Bethesda Magazine.

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Smoky, meaty redolence fills the air of the parking lot of Captain’s Market on MacArthur Boulevard in Cabin John as I and many others wait in front of a retired mail truck for our orders of Silver and Sons Barbecue. Chef Jarrad Silver, a 32-year-old Bethesda native and Kensington resident, debuted the truck in March, after having it gutted and reoutfitted to his specifications with a gas-and-wood-powered smoker, fryer, flattop griddle, range and food warmer. He sells at the market on Wednesdays and Saturdays and at other Montgomery County locations (he posts them weekly online) on Thursdays and Fridays.

“It’s my take on barbecue, combining my Jewish background and Middle Eastern cuisine. It’s not kosher but is pork-free,” Silver says.

He uses billowy, homemade challah rolls baked in his Rockville commissary kitchen for sandwiches and serves them with “mains” and platters; pickled vegetables are also included. The hickory-smoked mains, available by the pound/rack/bird (in half or whole), are beef brisket encrusted with salt and five kinds of peppercorns ($15/$28); lamb shoulder that has been marinated in garlic, ginger, cumin and fennel seeds ($17/$32); short ribs that have undergone a seven-day pastrami brine ($17/$32); citrus-brined chicken ($12/$22); homemade merguez (North African lamb and garlic sausage, $17/$32); baby back beef ribs ($32/$50); and pastrami-spiced mushrooms ($14 for 8 ounces). The mushrooms and all the proteins except ribs are also available as sandwiches ($12).

Sample side dishes ($5) are Napa cabbage and chickpea slaw; potatoes roasted in chicken fat and spritzed with lemon juice; mac and cheese; and smoked beets. Three sauces—one ketchup-based, one vinegar-based and one mustard-based—are available. Desserts are smoked walnut baklava ($5), s’mores Rice Krispies treats ($5) and delectable babka bread pudding ($8).

Silver started cooking at 15 (while a student at Bethesda’s Walt Whitman High School) at his cousin’s restaurant, pie-tanza, in Arlington, Virginia, which specializes in wood-fired pizza. He returned there as a manager after graduating with a fine arts degree from Pennsylvania’s Juniata College in 2010. He wanted to make changes, but the family was happy with their successful business the way it was, Silver says. He wound up with a server’s job at D.C. restaurant Graffiato (now closed) and became interested in cooking. He would come in during the day and ask the cooks to let him help in any way possible in order to soak up knowledge and improve his skills. He rose up fast in that company’s restaurant group, which had several establishments in its portfolio. He left in 2018 and became chef of Birch & Barley but was laid off from that restaurant’s company in October 2020 because of the pandemic.

That’s when he came up with the idea for Silver and Sons. During the pandemic, he’d make barbecue in his parents’ Bethesda backyard, where his son and his sister’s three kids could be outdoors and together. “That’s when I started thinking about doing the barbecue thing as a business from home. I wanted to create a concept that would turn into something after the pandemic, a Jewish Mediterranean barbecue place and market,” says Silver, who is looking to supplement the truck with a brick-and-mortar takeout space in Bethesda. (He and his 2½-year-old son, Charlie, are the sons of Silver and Sons. Silver’s parents pitch in. Silver’s wife, Alex, is an E.R. nurse practitioner.)

Silver began selling in early 2021, and the business started gaining traction by March through word of mouth. He would sometimes take his smoker to a neighborhood where organizers coordinated their neighbors to order and support the nascent business, which then outgrew being a home-based operation. That’s how the truck came about.

The alluring aroma of my order—the $45 sampler platter including a quarter-pound each of lamb, chicken, ribs and merguez, plus slaw, mac and cheese, bread pudding and s’more treats—makes the drive home torturous, but the pleasure I experience at home once I dig in makes the wait worth it.

silverandsonsbbq.com

This story appears in the July/August 2022 issue of Bethesda Magazine.

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The intoxicating aroma of gambas al ajillo—shrimp nestled in piping hot olive oil infused with garlic, bay leaf, red chile and Spanish paprika—arrives at my table well before the small earthenware crock holding it does at El Mercat Bar de Tapas. The crustaceans are perfectly cooked and kissed with spritzes of lemon juice to impart acidity and cut the richness of the tasty oil, which gets sopped up by three accompanying slices of toasted bread. This perfect rendition of a Spanish tapa standby keeps good company with many other flavorful dishes on the menu at El Mercat Bar de Tapas, the Rockville Town Square restaurant opened in January by chef George Rodrigues and his wife, Wanessa Alves.

“When my wife saw the [former] Gumbo Ya Ya space, we checked it out and fell in love with it,” Rodrigues says. “We felt the Spanish vibes. We live five minutes from there and were big fans of La Tasca.” (That Spanish tapas restaurant closed in Rockville Town Square in May 2020.)

Rodrigues, 40, has experience in Spanish cooking. After going to culinary school in his native Brazil, he intended to backpack through Europe and work in restaurants along the way before returning home to open a restaurant. Instead, a friend told him about a job at Mercat a la Planxa, a Spanish tapas restaurant in Chicago helmed by noted chef Jose Garces, where he worked for five years, leaving in 2010. Later jobs took him to Boston and Washington, D.C., working at chef Michael Schlow’s Tico in both places. From 2018 to 2021, he was the chef at D.C. tapas restaurant Boqueria.

Alves designed the 1,800-square-foot, 60-seat restaurant, and its name has sentimental value. Rodrigues proposed to Alves at Barcelona’s huge outdoor market, El Mercat de Sant Josep de la Boqueria, in 2015. On one white brick wall, two sets of dark red shutters frame paintings of Barcelona street scenes. Another brick wall displays bottles of wine. Exposed beams, posts covered with Spanish tiles and a yellow neon “Bar de Tapas” sign contribute to the Barcelona vibe. (An outdoor patio with 28 seats will open when Rodrigues is able to staff it.)

The menu features 22 tapas (11 vegetarian, six meat and five fish), four paellas, three entrees and four desserts. Standouts we’ve sampled include Spanish tortilla, the custardy potato-layered omelet served with saffron and garlic mayo; patatas bravas, crispy fried potatoes with tomato sauce and aioli; cod fritters with aioli; and pork ribs braised in duck fat until ultra-tender, then glazed with apple cider. A seafood paella, its starchy Spanish bomba rice black from squid ink, comes teeming with mussels, clams, shrimp and squid. Another excellent paella is made with roast chicken and chorizo sausage topped with salsa verde. Both paellas reveal the hallmark of well-made versions of the dish: socarrat, a crusty layer of rice at the bottom of the pan. Don’t miss the churros stuffed with Nutella for dessert. The 32 bottles on the wine and sherry list are all Spanish. Cocktails and beer are also available.

El Mercat Bar de Tapas, 101 Gibbs St. (Rockville Town Square), Rockville, 240-403-7436, elmercatbardetapas.com

Comings & goings

A New York City-based bakery and cafe called Maman plans to open this summer in the Bethesda Row space that housed Le Pain Quotidien, which closed earlier this year.

Foxtrot, a market and cafe chain with a few local outposts, is planning to open later this year on Bethesda Row, replacing Mussel Bar & Grille, which closed in April.

Bethesda-based sushi chainlet Raku is predicting a late fall opening for a second Bethesda location—this one in Wildwood Shopping Center—to be called Rakugaki.

Several food outlets have announced plans to open in the Chevy Chase Lake development in Chevy Chase. Baltimore-based ice cream chainlet The Charmery is slated to open this summer and fast-casual chainlet Playa Bowls (fruit bowls and smoothies) plans a fall opening. Danilo Simic and chef Colin McClimans, who own Nina May restaurant in Washington, are expecting to open American restaurant Elena James by the end of 2023.

Hulu Skewer House, which will offer skewered items and Chinese food, is hoping for a late summer opening in the former On the Border space in Rockville.

BabyCat Brewery, which will be Kensington’s first brewery, aims to open by the end of the year.

Little Beet Table, a restaurant with a gluten-free menu, closed in March in The Collection shopping area in Chevy Chase’s Friendship Heights neighborhood.

Goldberg’s New York Bagels closed its location in Potomac’s Cabin John Village in April.

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Stopping in one afternoon to check out the recently opened Edith’s Pizza in Bethesda, I ordered a meat lovers pizza (cheese, pepperoni, sausage, bacon, meatballs, chicken) to take home for dinner. To tide me over while it was being made, I indulged in a slice of garden pizza (cheese, artichoke hearts, black olives, bell peppers, onions, spinach and arugula) that had just been baked on stone in one of the restaurant’s three electric deck ovens. The crust was thin and crispy on the bottom and pleasantly chewy on the circumference, the cheese abundant and gooey. “We use four types of cheese—whole, skim and buffalo mozzarella and provolone—that we shred ourselves because packaged shredded cheese is coated with cellulose to keep it from clumping,” says Kensington resident Jose Molina, who opened Edith’s in March a few doors down from Breads Unlimited, his Bradley Shopping Center bakery.

The pizzeria, named after Molina’s wife, Edith, seats 20 inside and six outside. Unable to fulfill requests from customers for cakes, especially birthday cakes, due to space constraints at his bakery, Molina had approached the shopping center’s reps about renting a closed Pilates studio to open a cake shop. But, he says, the landlord didn’t want two bakeries in the same center, so he proposed a pizzeria with a cake business in the back, and they agreed. “The pizza idea came because for years with my wife and two boys [now 26 and 20], we’d rent a movie on Saturday night and I’d make pizza for the family,” Molina says.

Molina immigrated to the States from El Salvador in 1990 and started working at Negril, a Jamaican restaurant in Silver Spring. In 1994, a friend told him about a job opening at Breads Unlimited, a fixture in Bethesda since 1981. Eager to learn about baking, he applied for the job and got it. His first task was to make bagels. “I didn’t even know what a bagel was. I started going to different places to see how they made bagels and started practicing. In two months, we were named one of the 10 best bagels in D.C. in The Washington Post. We went from making 10 dozen to 300 dozen a week,” he says.

Molina learned the baking business inside out, becoming owner Steve Raab’s right hand at Breads Unlimited and its sister spot, New Yorker Bakery, now closed, in Silver Spring. Along the way, he learned how to repair the equipment himself and became a licensed electrician in 2008. Eleven years later, Raab approached Molina about buying Breads Unlimited, which he did in 2020. “Mr. Raab is like family. Sometimes he still comes and makes challahs for us,” says Molina, whose older son, Roberto, manages Breads Unlimited. His younger son, Ricardo, is a business major at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, and plans to go into the family business.

Edith’s menu, which is still being developed, includes a small selection of appetizers and salads ($7.95 to $11.95), but the focus is on pizza. They offer eight 16-inch pies ($17.95 to $25.99): cheese, pepperoni, garden, meat lovers, Margherita, Edith’s paradise (cheese, onions, pineapple, capicola, spicy honey), supreme (cheese, peppers, onion, sausage, pepperoni, ham, mushrooms and olives) and the works (supreme toppings plus bacon, spinach and artichoke), or you can choose your own toppings. Individual slices of several of the pizzas are available, reheated on request. There are also four calzones ($12.95 to $17.95): meat lovers, pepperoni, cheese and veggie. (Cakes, baked at Edith’s, are available for purchase at Breads Unlimited.)

Molina says the pizza isn’t New York style or any other style—it’s his own style. “It’s a plain dough—just flour, salt, sugar, yeast and water. We make it fresh every day,” he says. In the future, he plans to experiment with sourdough crust (using the 60-year-old starter he uses for bread at his bakery) and whole wheat crust. He believes altering a basic dough ingredient will be a gamechanger: “I will get New York water. Our water is filtered but still has too much chlorine and fluoride in it. I found a company in New York that can mimic any water from any city in the U.S.A. by changing the pH level through filtration. That will be great for our product.”

Edith’s Pizza, 6910 Arlington Road (Bradley Shopping Center), Bethesda, 301-686-3224, edithspizzas.com

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The cakes have been baked, the dough proofed and the custard tarts set. Restaurant critic David Hagedorn toured over 30 Montgomery County bakeries to survey the sweets, interview the bakers and find his favorite items.

His pursuits include an experiment in custom cakes, an investigation into the intensive croissant baking process, roundups of rainbow sweets, impulse buys, international treats and tasty breads, a list of sugary selections from notable locals, and a look at two local bakers making names for themselves on camera.

Bakery cravings from notable Montgomery County residents

Lemon tarts, chocolate chip cookies, cherry danishes and more

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The anatomy and cost of a custom cake

We gave a Gaithersburg bakery $300 to create an on-trend cake. Here’s what they made

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What it takes to make a superlative croissant

Sunday Morning Bakehouse has a three-day long baking process to make these buttery, flaky pastries

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Rainbow treats from Montgomery County bakeries

We rounded up six eye-catching desserts that are big on color — and taste great too

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Five sweet treats we couldn’t pass up

We toured over 30 local bakeries — these are the items we couldn’t resist

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International treats from Bethesda-area bakeries

You’ve gotta try the Japanese cheesecake, Greek baklava and Persian cookies

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Breads we love from Bethesda and Rockville bakeries

Our favorite baguettes and loafs — and where to buy them

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How two Silver Spring bakers showcase their talent on screen

A baker’s stint on a Cooking Channel cake competition, plus a café owner has her own YouTube series

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David Hagedorn is the restaurant critic for Bethesda Magazine.

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Randi Brecher, Creative Cakes

Since 2008, 59-year-old Gaithersburg resident Randi Brecher has been the baker-owner of Creative Cakes, which has been operating in Silver Spring since 1981. The master cake-maker has appeared several times on NBC4 and Fox 5 news segments featuring her specialty, gingerbread and gingerbread houses. In 2018, she appeared on the Cooking Channel’s Cake Hunters, a competition in which an engaged couple chooses one of three baker contestants to make their wedding cake. “We all drew up designs and made a miniversion. When I saw the bride’s reaction [to mine], I knew she was going to pick us,” Brecher says. The top tier of the ornate cake, which took 100 hours to decorate, revolved and featured a replica of the bride and groom on horseback.

In 2021, the Food Network emailed Brecher and asked if she liked gingerbread. “Are you kidding?” she responded. “I’m obsessed!” She auditioned virtually for the network’s Holiday Baking Championship: Gingerbread Showdown with her pal of 25 years, fellow baker Leslie Poyourow, who owned Fancy Cakes by Leslie in Bethesda and is now retired. The two were flown to Knoxville, Tennessee, in May 2021 to film the show, which aired in November.

The theme was “lights,” and they had to use cream puff dough in their design. She and Poyourow made an elaborate multiroom gingerbread house with gingerbread Christmas trees and cream puff light bulbs. “We didn’t win, but I made the biggest mess,” Brecher says.

Creative Cakes, 8814 Brookville Road, Silver Spring, 301-587-1599, creativecakes.com

Beth Yohannes, Lemon Slice Cafe

In any of the 11 episodes (as of late March) of Chef Beth Makes, the YouTube cooking series that Beth Yohannes, the chef and owner of Silver Spring’s Lemon Slice Cafe, launched in November, her charisma and passion are apparent.

In one episode, she is showing a young person how to make a sunburst-shaped tart. “I say, ‘Follow your instinct,’ ” she says brightly as her student tentatively tops a puff pastry circle with berbere (an Ethiopian spice mix), brown sugar and melted butter.

“Don’t worry about it! Come on, loosen up!” With that, her guest applies berbere and butter with abandon.

Episodes, most with Yohannes appearing solo, range between nine and 27 minutes. Some feature baked items, such as a phyllo dough dessert called lemon crinkle and a yeast bread, one version with pesto, another with Ethiopian awaze spice. Others highlight savory dishes from her native Ethiopia.

Yohannes, 55, attended cooking school in London and opened an Ethiopian restaurant there. In 1999, she and her husband immigrated to the U.S., first to Houston and then to Beltsville, Maryland, in 2013. After a 2014 to 2019 stint as the lunch chef at her daughter’s school, St. John’s Episcopal in Olney, Yohannes opened breakfast-and-lunch-only Lemon Slice Cafe in September 2019 in downtown Silver Spring.

Yohannes sees the YouTube series as a way to drum up business and pass her knowledge to her children, now 20 and 24. Two videographers film, edit and post the episodes, taping four at a time one day a month at Yohannes’ cafe. “Everything is done in one take with no script and no corrections,” she says. “I tell my husband I stutter a lot, but I’ll get better with time.” We haven’t noticed any stuttering. Just a star in the making.

Lemon Slice Cafe, 8737 Colesville Road, LL103, Silver Spring, 240-756-1700, lemonslicecafe.com

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Assorted Cookies at Yasaman Bakery

Cross the threshold of Yasaman Bakery, a Rockville mainstay since 1984, and behold display cases filled with Persian treats, including many variations of baklava and a stunning assortment of cookies. Among the goodies: thin and buttery nan-e keshmeshi (raisin cookies); nan-e nokhodchi (small cloverleaf-shaped, cardamom-laced chickpea cookies); bamieh (small doughnuts, some spherical, others diamond-shaped, soaked with rose and saffron syrup); and zoolbia (round deep-fried squiggles of dough—like funnel cake or Indian jalebi—soaked in rose and saffron syrup). ($17 a pound)

Yasaman Bakery, 785 Rockville Pike (Ritchie Center), Rockville, 301-762-5416, yasamanbakery.com

White Lotus Seed Paste Double Yolk Moon Cake at Asian Bakery Cafe

In Rockville, Asian Bakery Cafe serves Cantonese favorites such as pineapple buns, red bean bread and Swiss roll cakes, plus a wide variety of yue bing (moon cakes), filled round pastries baked in decorative molds. Though the delicacies are typically eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival (this year it’s Sept. 10), Asian Bakery Cafe sells them year-round with such fillings as winter melon paste, red bean paste and green tea paste. But the one that intrigues us most has two cured hard-boiled egg yolks surrounded by caramel-like white lotus seed paste. The combination of sweetness, saltiness and richness is irresistible. ($6.80)

Asian Bakery Cafe, 763 Hungerford Drive, Rockville, 301-838-3189, facebook.com/asianbakerycafe

Fig Baklava at Mastiha Artisan Greek Bakery

Laid off from a design job in 2009, Katerina Georgallas looked to her Greek heritage for a side hustle and created Baklava Couture, selling reimagined versions of the classic Greek pastry of phyllo dough, chopped nuts and honey syrup at farmers markets. That blossomed into a full-time business. In 2018, she expanded the product line, rebranded as Mastiha Artisan Greek Bakery (mastiha is the sap from the skinos tree, which grows on the Greek island of Chios), and moved into a tiny pickup-only kitchen in Kensington. We love Georgallas’ chewy, crunchy fig baklava: chopped dried figs, almonds and walnuts spread onto buttery sheets of phyllo, rolled into 3-by-1-inch logs, baked and drizzled with honey lemon syrup. Note: Mastiha is moving to a larger facility in Rockville this summer. ($15 for six rolls)

Mastiha Artisan Greek Bakery, 10560 Metropolitan Ave., Rear Unit, Kensington, 301-332-6215, mastihabakery.com

Japanese Cheesecake at Japong Bakery

The No. 1 seller at Japong Bakery, which baker and owner Hung Su opened in Rockville’s Ritchie Center in 2018, is Japanese cheesecake. Su says the shop goes through 200 to 250 of them in a typical week. Baking soda added to the batter gives this cake more rise and a lighter, fluffier texture than American cheesecake, as does steam—a pan of water placed under the cakes in the oven is removed after 30 minutes, and the cakes are then baked 20 minutes longer. Out of the oven, they are branded with the Japong logo, wrapped in thin fabric and placed in a cake box with two steam holes. “It’s so soft and creamy when it’s still warm. Many people prefer it that way,” Su says. “Once it’s refrigerated for a day, the cheese flavor really comes out.” ($13.99 for a 7-inch cake)

Japong Bakery, 785 Rockville Pike (Ritchie Center), Rockville, 301-762-2853, japongbakery.com

Nido de Piña at Melissa’s Bakery

Just inside the giant Asian supermarket H Mart in Gaithersburg, next to its produce section, is something unexpected: an independently operated Salvadoran panadería (bakery) called Melissa’s Bakery. It opened in 2010, but current co-owners and baking brothers Juan and Franklin Reyes took it over in January. The delicious nido de piña looks like a Danish; it’s a round of golden brown, egg-enriched, coconut-flecked dough with chunky, bright yellow pineapple filling in the center. ($.99)

Melissa’s Bakery (inside H Mart in Montgomery Village Crossing), 9639 Lost Knife Road, Gaithersburg, 301-926-3116, melissas-bakery-inc.negocio.site (The website is in Spanish.)

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Assorted Macarons at Tout de Sweet Pastry Shop

At Bethesda’s chic Tout de Sweet bakery, pastry chef and co-owner Jerome Colin offers some of the finest macarons—those elegant, chewy-yet-crispy meringue cookie sandwiches—in the Washington, D.C., area. He rotates flavors often, but there is always a colorful assortment. (Classics, like chocolate filled with chocolate ganache, are always available.) Examples of spring flavors are lime basil filled with white chocolate ganache; coconut with coconut buttercream; strawberry with raspberry ganache (colorful sprinkles on the shell make them look like little birthday cakes); and pistachio with white chocolate ganache and pistachio paste. ($2.05 each)

Tout de Sweet Pastry Shop, 7831 Woodmont Ave., Bethesda, 301-951-0474, toutdesweetshop.com

Cake Waffles at Potomac Sweets

“In Belgium, we are the country of waffles,” says Gerard Partoens, the Belgian baker and owner of Potomac Sweets in Kensington. “In the cookie jars of typical Belgian households, you find vanilla waffles. In an airtight container, they have a long shelf life. They’re an everyday snack with coffee or chocolate milk.” Partoens uses a vanilla pound cake-like batter and a waffle maker to turn out his deeply grooved cake waffles, which he sells plain or completely enrobed in chocolate. ($8 for a five-pack of plain or a four-pack of chocolate waffles)

Potomac Sweets, 10419 Armory Ave., Kensington, 240-669-7625, potomacsweets.com

Dark Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookie at Levain Bakery

The pickiest chocoholic would gush over the dark chocolate chocolate chip cookie from Levain Bakery, the New York City-based chain with a location in Bethesda. They mound 6 ounces of dough made with extra-dark French cocoa powder and tons of semisweet chips to make each cookie, which, thanks to its thickness, has the soft texture of a gooey brownie. It’s heaven on its own, but topping one (two?) at home with vanilla ice cream and hot fudge sauce is next-level choco-mania. ($4.50)

Levain Bakery, 4844 Bethesda Ave., Bethesda, 240-258-6222, levainbakery.com

Lava Cheese Tart or Spam Danish at Teamania

Neil Li and master baker Danny Song opened Rockville’s Teamania, an Asian-European bakery and charming sit-down cafe, in 2019. The place is vast and the choices are difficult, but don’t miss the bright yellow lava cheese tart with its ultrabuttery, crispy cookie crust and rich filling of custard made with cream cheese, heavy cream, eggs and sugar. Tip for people who love sweet and savory combinations: The tasty Spam Danish with sweet ketchup drizzle will satisfy that urge. (Lava tart: $2.35; Spam Danish: $2.95)

Teamania, 130 Rollins Ave., Suite B, Rockville, 240-669-9198, weteamania.com

Maple Apple Walnut Coffee Cake at Woodmoor Pastry Shop

Woodmoor Pastry Shop, the beloved Silver Spring bakery opened by Lee and Shirley Mower in 1954, has remained in the family for three generations. Grandson Jamie Gray now runs the shop, which sells a mighty fine maple apple walnut coffee cake. Danish dough from a secret family recipe is fit into a cake pan, then filled with apples, walnut halves and maple syrup mixed with confectioners’ sugar. “Proofing is the most important part,” Gray says. “Overproof, it deflates. Underproof, it’s chewy.” The cinnamon and allspice-laced cake is so filled with baked apples that it would make a terrific Thanksgiving dessert. ($8.79 for an 8-inch cake)

Woodmoor Pastry Shop, 10127 Colesville Road, Silver Spring, 301-593-7667, woodmoorpastry.com

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