Archive for the 'Silver Spring Businesses' Category
Paczki and Pancakes – Fat Tuesday in Silver Spring
February 20th, 2012 Categories: Silver Spring Businesses, Silver Spring Events, silver spring real estate
Tomorrow is Fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday and Paczki Day, the time we all Fatten ourselves up before tightening our belts and giving up things for Lent begining on Wednesday.
A couple of ways to do Fat Day in Silver Spring:
For Paczki or King Cakes
Head to the WOODMOOR Pastry Shop in the Woodmoor Shopping Center for some of their famous, divine, decadently outrageous Paczki. It is the very best, or maybe the only place to get real homemade Paczki in Silver Spring.
Check out reviews of the Bakery and the Paczki at the Woodmoor Pastry Shop
They also make fantastic King Cakes.
For All-You-Can-Eat Pancakes
There are several Silver Spring and Takoma Park Churches with Pancake 
Suppers tomorrow night:
Church of the Ascension on Sligo Avenue in Silver Spring
Grace Episcopal Church on Grace Chruch Road and Georgia Avenue
Takoma Park Presbyterian Church on Tulip Avenue in Takoma Park
Woodside United Methodist Church on Georgia Ave
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For Valentines Day – The Romantic Choice for Dinner in Downtown Silver Spring
February 10th, 2012 Categories: Silver Spring Businesses, Silver Spring Takoma Park Restaurants, Uncategorized
The most romantic place for Dinner in Silver Spring has to be Sergios.
It is intimate, quiet and dark, like a cozy cave, the wait staff are attentive, the drinks are good, the food is Real Native Italian, Generous and Excellent! (especially the veal dishes). The atmosphere is understated thick white tablecloth elegant and romantic.
Nothing beats having that warm, friendly personal greeting from Sergio Toni, the owner, a native of Rome and now a Silver Springer. Sergio has been involved with this restaurant since 1982 when it was Mamma Reginas.
This Silver Spring Restaurant is a hidden treasure – the location is in the basement (off the garage) of the Hilton Hotel in Silver Spring.
Sergio Ristorante Italiano
8727 Colesville Road
Hilton Hotel Garage
Valet Parking
(301) 585-1040
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Laundromats in Silver Spring – You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby
January 13th, 2012 Categories: Silver Spring Businesses
I haven’t been in a laundromat in a long, long time, maybe 12- 15 years.
The last time I needed to use a laundromat I went to the one near the corner of University Blvd & Piney Branch Road and also the one in the 16th Street Strip Mall that was on the level under the McDonalds there. They were both crowded places and kinda dingy and dark. There were 2 different sizes of washers and dryers that took coins. I couldn’t wait to get my laundry done and get out.
I recently went into the new Tropicana Laundromat on Fenton Street to wash some real bulky items (rugs, big comforters and pillows), that my regular washer and dryer can’t handle. I was amazed at how far 
Laundromats have come since I’d been in one!
This place is CLEAN, Bright, Airy, Pleasant and Spacious. You could eat off the floors. They had 2 people outside hosing down and cleaning off the parking lot steps and even the asphalt (that people park their cars on) when I was there. It was immaculate inside and out.
There must be 6 -7 different sizes of washers and dryers, from tiny ones for delicates to the Heavy Duty Super Jumbo size that I used, and there are lots of them! There are huge, long, nice clean folding tables and plenty of those big rolling steel laundry baskets.
There are 3 Big Screen TVS mounted on the back wall and areas to sit and read or watch a big screen while you are waiting for your laundry to be done.
And . . . No more coins to fumble with – you can load money (via credit card)into a card to use in the machines.
I have to admit, when I first saw the sign go up last year I thought it was going to be some kind of an all night Restaurant/Bar. I had visions of Mai Tais, Margaritas, pina-coladas, other tropical drinks and food dancing in my head. I was disappointed at first when I figured out it was a Laundromat.
Tropicana Laundromat
8010 Fenton St
Silver Spring, MD 20910
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The Backyard of Backyard Bounty – Downtown Silver Spring
May 25th, 2011 Categories: Old Vintage Silver Spring Takoma Park Houses, Silver Spring Businesses, Silver Spring Neighborhoods, silver spring real estate
This backyard backs to an alley in McNeill’s neighborhood of Silver Spring, It was a cool thing to watch this small back yard space transfomed into such an abundant oasis, in a neighborhood that is just 2 blocks from the Downtown Silver Spring CBD.
This was really a bare small backyard just a few years ago. Every inch of space has been used cleverly, (even part of the alley) for the landscape and plantings. Even though there is a lot of space used for gardening, there is still a driveway 
to the garage and a large gazebo used for outdoor dining and fun.
It is still early in the growing season and I love watching Edamarie’s garden grow, fill in and florish through the spring, summer and into fall for the past couple years.
Backyard Bounty is a local Silver Spring Business that designs, builds and maintains kitchen gardens and sustainable landscapes.
Check out the Backyard Bounty Website with more photos including the Front Yard of Backyard Bounty
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Unique, Cozy, Funky and Vintage – Silver Spring Books
March 24th, 2011 Categories: Silver Spring Businesses, silver spring real estate
I’ve always liked this bookstore. The atmosphere, arrangement and smell remind me of the “bookmobile” that used to come to our neighborhood when I was a kid. Remember them? This place is exactly what you think of when you think of a great used book shop. Long rows of tall bookshelves, cluttered, dusty, books piled almost to the ceiling. It’s packed with books, hardbacks, paperbacks, periodicals, reference books, magazines and a huge selection of romance novels. The organization here is a little crazy, but searching for a book is half the fun of visiting this shop. Just browsing in here is a great relaxing escape and I could do it for hours. Rooting through shelves and stacks of miscellaneous books is a experience you can’t put a price on. The prices are decent, higher but sometimes much lower than online used bookstores but competitive if you consider that you don’t have to pay for shipping or wait for your books to 
arrive.
Looking for a specific category or author? You may need to look in two to four different places. Because the store handles books for multiple used book dealers, and they each get their own area of the store, one book or author may exist in a different section for each of the sellers.
Co-owner, Cynthia Parker, is an expert in Romance Novels. She has won an award for promoting romance novels and writers. The award is proudly displayed at the front desk. Cynthia was wearing a pink “Books – The Original Search Engine” T Shirt when I visited. She says they are struggling to stay in business right now.
There used to be a lot of these used bookstores, but they are mostly gone. Remember Bonifant Books? This one moved to Wheaton – then died. I also remember a cool little used bookstore being on that strip of Sligo Avenue where Jackie’s Restaurant is now. It is great to see this one still hanging on after 20 years in business.
Shop this store, and support a local Silver Spring business. It’s definitely a different experience than you will have around the corner at the huge Silver Spring Border’s Store.
This perfect little independent book store is within walking distance of 
Downtown Silver Spring/METRO. Located on the “eclectic” part of Bonifant Street, between Georgia Avenue and Fenton Street. Don’t drive or walk down this street too fast, or you might miss it, the storefront is inset next to the Ambros Tattoo Parlor, just past the Atlantic Gun Shop.
Silver Spring Books
938 Bonifant Street
Silver Spring, Maryland 20910
(301) 587-7484
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Gil’s Restaurant is Worth a Visit
March 9th, 2011 Categories: Silver Spring Businesses, Silver Spring Takoma Park Restaurants
There is a new and “improved” corner in Silver Spring. Gil’s Restaurant has 
opened @ the corner of Silver Spring Avenue and Piney Branch Road. It’s the corner store at the end of the old strip shopping center on Piney Branch Road near the intersection of Dale and Piney Branch.
I hardly recognized this place. It’s was the site of Matchu Pitchu restaurant and then something like Lembada’s (not sure of either spelling), just remember the restaurants there before were “scruffy”, beat up looking, raucous at night and not very appetizing.
The place has been painted, spruced up and there is new landscape in the front. The inside feels cleaner than the places that were there before.
The food was great. It is Tex-Mex & Salvdorean. I had a lunch special platter with cheese enchiladas. The platter had the ususal beans, rice, guacamole and pico de gallo. I won’t name names, but at most of the mexican places in the area, the beans, rice, guac and pico de gallo are usually left on my plate after just a taste, especially the beans. At other places the beans are usually so bland and greasy, I don’t bother eating them. The beans at Gil’s are fantastic, I cleaned my plate. The beans are seasoned to perfection and like none I have ever had before. They are not greasy, bland, dry or hard, they are just right.
The tortilla chips were also excellent, served warm with “warm” salsa, you could tell they were made there and made at least “very recently”. The guacamole and pico de gallo were really FRESH and like the beans, seasoned better than 
I’ve found in other mexican places. The enchilladas were very light, not a hint of heaviness and not greasy.
This is a place that I will go back to again just to try more dishes.
NOTE: They are just getting started in business and don’t have their credit system set up quite yet, so don’t be surprised if your credit card reciept say’s “Gil’s Painting”. The manager came to my table to give me my reciept and explained the situation. They probably do painting too? I’ll bet they did the great paint job on the outside and inside of the restaurant.
Website www.GilsRestaurant.com
8200 Piney Branch Road
Silver Spring, Md 20910
(301)328-5972
*Update:
Seems Gil’s had a hard time opening the place because of this location’s “seedy” “problematic” past and nearby Sligo Park Hills neighborhood complaints. They were only able to open by nixing pool tables, hard liquor and closing earlier than they wanted to.
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Paczki Day Today at the Woodmoor Pastry Shop in Silver Spring.
March 7th, 2011 Categories: Silver Spring Businesses, Silver Spring Takoma Park Restaurants
Today is Paczki Day!
The tradition is the Tuesday before Lent is a time to indulge or Fatten up before tightening belts and giving up things for Lent, which starts on Ash Wednesday.
I know of no better excuse to make a visit to the
Woodmoor Pastry Shop.
The best, or maybe the only place to get Paczki in Silver Spring, is at the Woodmoor Bakery/Pastry Shop in the Woodmoor Shopping Center. They make the most divine, decadent Paczki anywhere in the area.
Check out reviews of the Bakery and the Paczki at the Woodmoor Pastry Shop
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