Paris Baguette in Bethesda

Paris Baguette, located at 4925 Fairmont Avenue in the Woodmont Triangle part of Bethesda offers coffee and baked goods as well as sandwiches. I went last week and had a croissant with ham and cheese in it. 

One really nice thing about Paris Baguette is they have a large area of self service croissants and other bakery items that you can choose from. After selecting what you want, just bring it to the register to pay.

Sandwiches and cakes are also available, you have to ask at the counter.  One thing I didn't see much of were baguettes, I only saw a single basket of them. 

Outside Paris Baguette. It is located in the Sophia Bethesda building across the pedestrian walkway from Ellis Bethesda.

Taste of Bethesda, Today until 4pm

The 32nd annual Taste of Bethesda is today, Saturday, October 5th. It is going on now and runs until 4pm.  Come and taste food from a large selection of Bethesda restaurants.  Tickets are 5 for $10 and tastes are from 1-4 tickets each (mostly 3 or 4).

Lots of people and lots of good food.  I especially liked the crab cake sliders (2 for 4 tickets). All the way at the end of Norfolk was maman bakery which had mini croissants, chocolate chip cookies (with or without nuts) and chocolate croissants.  They get my vote for best deal there.

I also saw guy with a life-sized Trump cut-out that you could take your picture with.  Smile and give a thumbs up, or frown and give a thumbs down, great fun for everyone.

Well Hello, Kitty

 

The Hello Kitty Cafe has arrived in Bethesda for the day.  The food truck is on Bethesda Row right at Bethesda Avenue and Bethesda Lane.  It is open from 10 am to 7 pm today only.

I walked by there before 9 am, over and hour before it opened and there was a line of people stretching down the sidewalk and around the corner onto Arlington Road.  

The people in line were well prepared to wait, most had chairs and some head umbrellas too. My first indication that something was up was when I saw a woman dressed entirely in pink get out of her car with a red stool and start walking towards it.  Almost everyone in the line was a woman and many were wearing pink.

Taste of Bethesda was today

 Taste of Bethesda made it's triumphant return to the Woodmont Triangle area of Bethesda on October 7th 2023.  The day started off rainy and cloudy, but by the start of the festival the rain had stopped.  By early afternoon the sun was poking through the clouds eventually being sunny and breezy.

 

Spanish Diner was there and served up chicken Paella all afternoon. They (and Jaleo before them) have long participated and make paella in a huge pan.

This is the first Taste of Bethesda post-covid. the event was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 because of the virus, then in 2022 the weather put the kibosh on the festivities.

It was crowded there and popular food stands had long lines, but everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.

 

Tout de Sweet served up a variety of macarons and pastries. This one was made with pistachio and was a bit greener than it looks in the photo.

 

 

 

 

 

Visiting the new Trader Joe's in downtown Bethesda

Last night I went to visit the new Trader Joe's at 7900 Wisconsin Avenue.  This is the second Trader joe's on Wisconsin Avenue in Bethesda.  The old Trader Joe's remains open.

When you enter the store, there is a mural on the wall that says "Your Culinary Chariot Awaits" and below that are, you guessed it, the shopping carts.

On the walls above the food are various Bethesda themed murals.  Here is one of downtown bethesda from East-West Highway.  Instead of the new Marriott Headquarters there is a giant salt shaker.

The store opened for the first time at 8 am last Thursday, March 17, 2022.

One thing I do find odd is where checkout counters are.  Once you pay you have to make your way down a very narrow aisle to get to the exit.  I suspect that when the store is busy there will be a traffic jam there.

 

That's a lot of candy canes

 Christmas is over, and somehow the Giant Food at Georgetown Square ended up with a huge overstock of candy canes.  That's a lot of candy canes.  Most of them are peppermint, but there are boxes of cherry ones mixed in (and the cherry ones are very good).

Another trip to the grocery store

Recently it seems like my biggest adventure has been going to the grocery store.  I never know what I'll find.  This week was no exception.  After reading a bunch of news articles and based on past weeks, I wasn't expecting much meat, however, they were fully stocked.  They had plenty of chicken, pork, and beef.

Other things that were plentiful were fresh vegetables, milk, yogurt and bread.

A bunch of things had limited variety but were readily available, such as frozen pizza, ice cream, pasta/sauce, baking mixes, and frozen fruit.  There was also sufficient rice, but I didn't see brown rice.

The stock of frozen vegetables has been slowly dwindling and remains available but maybe not the brands and varieties you want.

As time stretches on, new things are being added to the limited supply list.  Canned soup and boxed meals such as mac & cheese and pasta mixes are more limited than they were in past weeks.

This week I saw toilet paper for the first time in about a month.  There wasn't a whole lot of it, and it was at the front of the store, not in the normal aisle, but it was there.

There is some things that are totally unavailable.  I didn't see any antibacterial cleaners or paper towels.  There also wasn't any flour for baking (but there was sugar).  One out of stock item that surprised me was tofu, there wasn't any of that.

Also of note: More people are following the directional arrows on the aisle.  They are hard to get used to and once I went down an aisle the wrong way.  I got about 15 feet down when an employee stopped me and asked me to go around the other direction.

This weeks view of the grocery stores

The big change this week is that Giant has made all its aisles one way.  They have put big red arrows on the floor pointing the direction you should go in.  Compliance with the arrows was mixed.  Most but not all people obeyed them but it is a bit of an adjustment, I accidentally went the wrong way once and a couple of times had to go down an aisle I didn't need anything from to get to one that I did need something from.  I do think it makes it a little easier to maintain social distance so I think it is worth it. They also have stickers on the floor in some places indicating a six foot distance.

There is also now a maximum number of customers allowed in the store.  When I was there there wasn't anyone enforcing this, but there were also fewer than the limit so it didn't matter.  During busier times this may be an issue.

Stocking continues to get better with fewer things in limited supply.  There were only two pineapples when I got there, but the rest of the fruits and vegetables are in sufficient quantity.  One thing I did notice is that they have started to run out of less popular items.  I don't know if it is an actual shortage or if they are just prioritizing stocking the basics.  Pastas and sauces had lots of variety available with only a few items out of stock.

A bit change in the rice and beans aisle, especially in the rice.  You can see there is one spot on the shelf that is empty, but plenty of rice.  That doesn't even tell the whole story though, I saw several stacks of cases of rice in other areas of the store and one of the aisle end caps was devoted to rice.  Dried beans are back in stock (except split peas, which this store has had trouble with all winter) and canned beans were also well stocked.  There were two stacks of cases of chick peas on the other side of the aisle, so no shortage there.  In the distance you see some empty shelves where the canned vegetables are, but that is only some brands and varieties, overall there were plenty.

Cake mixes are slowly coming back in stock.  Much better than the past two weeks but nowhere near normal.  There was also a limited supply and selection of flour and sugar. I also couldn't find baking soda which I was shopping for.

Some things are noticeably missing or limited.  First off toilet paper.  I didn't see any of it.  I understand why there was a run on it early on, but I'm surprised that it is still unavailable.  (I also went to Costco a week ago and they were out too).  I did find paper towels at the front of the store with a limit of one, so be sure to check there.  Lysol and Clorox cleaner shelves were empty but a sign said to ask at the register and there was a limit of 1.  I didn't need any so didn't check to see if they were actually available.  Paper plates and cutlery were well stocked, which is an improvement from last week.

Frozen vegetables were pretty picked over, still some but might not be what you want.  Frozen ice cream treats were better than the last couple of weeks but the freezers were out of at least three quarters of the varieties.

This week's grocery update

Overall, the situation at the grocery store continues to improve.  I only took pictures of aisle that were having out of stock situations, so just looking at these photos will make it seem worse than it really is.

Perishable food that is in stock: fresh fruit and vegetables, beef, chicken (they were stocking that while I was there), eggs, milk, bread.  Basically all the perishable food was well stocked though there were the occasional places where some brands or flavors were unavailable, I noticed a limited selection of almond milk.

Also in stock but possibly limited variety: Pasta (mostly just spaghetti available) but plenty of pasta sauce, soup, flour, mac & cheese, tuna, chicken nuggets, frozen meals, frozen pizza.  Cleaning supplies were better stocked than last week but still a bit picked over.  Canned and dried beans as well as canned vegetables are also available in limited quantities and varieties, but more than last week.

This brings us to stuff that was sold out (or mostly sold out)  The top picture on the left is the candy aisle.  The were almost entirely out of candy.  The horror.  I don't know if it is that they are really short on it, or if they just have prioritized stocking essentials.  There was some Easter candy scattered around the store, so if you really need your sugar fix you can get it.  On the right side the empty shelves usually contain boxes of cake and muffin mix.  There were just a couple of options, you can really tell what people don't find appetizing.

Here's the other surprise.  This is the ice cream novelties (ice cream bars and such)  It is almost entirely empty.  On the right side of the pictures is the fake ice cream (halo top, and other non-dairy frozen stuff) There was plenty of that.  Outside of the picture is the actual ice cream.  There was very limited supply of that.

I'm a little surprised that toilet paper (on the right) is still out of stock.  I figured that by now anyone who was going to buy 20 packages already had.  Other paper products like plates and plastic cutlery (on the left) are also out of stock.  I bet they weren't planning on selling so many this early in the year.


Also of note: There were a lot more people wearing masks this week than last week.  It is getting to be fashionable.

How are the grocery stores holding up?

In an effort to have less close contact with people, I haven't been to the grocery store in a week.  Last time I went they were out of stock on a ton of stuff, so I was curious about how well stocked they would be today.  I went early this morning, around 7:30am. First stop was the produce section, as you can see it was well stocked, I didn't see that they were out of anything.

Toilet paper and cleaning supplies were another issue entirely.  I saw no toilet paper or paper towels (although as I was going in, I saw someone leaving with a few roles of paper towels) and there was only a limited supply of Kleenex and paper plates and cups. There were probably only a dozen bottles of sanitizing cleaning sprays. This seems a bit more than they can't put things on the shelf fast enough since I'd expect this to be a priority.

The meat section looked like it might be more of a stocking situation than a shortage.  There was plenty of beef and ham, but no chicken or pork. (also plenty of fish and shrimp).

Pasta's and soups had limited selection, but if you weren't picky about which type of pasta there was plenty, including of the kind that is on sale this week.

Canned vegetables, rice, and beans also seems more like them not being able to stock fast enough, some types and brands there were plenty of (like black beans) Others were out of stock or very low (there were 4 cans of chick peas, I took two).

A few of the other staples I didn't take pictures of, but, there was no flour, plenty of sugar, no eggs, and plenty of bread and milk.  All in all, it looks like things are holding up very well given the circumstances.

So I went to the grocery store this morning....

I went food shopping early this morning and I would say there is no reason to panic about empty shelves.  Yes, there were a lot of products that were out, but it seemed to be more about them being able to restock fast enough.  Take the above picture, it looks like there is no bread right?  But it it because there is a shortage or just because the daily bread delivery hasn't arrived?  I believe it is the latter, because if you look closely you see there is bread at the far end of the shelf.  That is the full stocking of Martin's potato bread products (sliced bread and various types of rolls).

While I was there I saw about 8 people stocking shelves.  The two cards on the left of the above picture is full of pasta sauce and pasta noodles, straight ahead is a pallet of flour and sugar.  I also saw a pallet of various types of tomatoes at the front of the store and two employees were getting ready to restock the prepared lettuces and salads.

At the time I was there they only had matchstick cut carrots which was disappointing.

I also found it interesting that there was no organic milk but plenty of non-organic milk.  I don't know if that is a commentary on the people who live in Bethesda or if they had just re-stocked one type of milk and hadn't yet got to the other.

Chop't Salads is open in Bethesda

Chop't salads just opened in the Wildwood Shopping Center on Old Georgetown Road in Bethesda, MD.  They specialize in salads, after you choose which one you want off the menu (or build your own) they assemble it right in front of you, then spread it out and chop it up.  This well-mixed salad is what goes into your bowl.

I went their on Wednesday, the opening day, and tried the Cobb salad [670 calories, $9.49] (and the person I went with got the Palm Beach Shrimp salad [240 calories, $9.99] so I got to try that too).  Both were quite good, the bacon on the cobb was cut into very small pieces, but was thick and crisp.

There were some things that stood out in comparison to other salad chains.  The first thing that I noticed was that the salads on the menu didn't all have sweet stuff in them.  I don't really like sweet salad toppings, so this is appreciated.  They also have a large selection of salad dressings, with calorie counts. They also ask you if you want the dressing put on light, regular, or heavy so you don't end up with a salad swimming in dressing if you don't want it. They have some unusual seasonal salads that are only on the menu for a short time, right now there is some sort of thanksgiving dinner salad and several others.

Too bad they have a stupid flash website instead of a real one.

Lunching at Geste in Bethesda

Not quite two weeks ago, Geste Wine & Food opened on 4801 Edgemoor Ln in Bethesda, MD right next to the Chipotle.  I'd been looking forward to it since their menu seems perfect for lunch.  Just enough variety that they aren't a one trick pony but not so much that they can't do anything well.

I've been there twice so far.  The first time I got the Chicken Pummaro Panini, it was very good and filling.  Sliced chicken, fresh mozzarella, fresh tomatoes, fresh basil, and pesto sauce.  I think it could have stood another minute on the panini grill, but I had to get it to go so it could have cooled off a bit before I ate it.

The next time I got the 10 inch Caprese pizza.  It is a white pizza with fresh mozzarella, prosciutto, tomatoes, and basil.  The mozzarella and basil are added after it comes out of the oven and the coldness of that goes with the warmth of the pizza.  This pizza was really, really good I'm looking forward to getting it again.  10 inches of pizza is a lot and I had a bit of trouble finishing it all, I could easily have saved the last quarter of it for another meal.

They also have a limited selection of wine by the glass and have bottles of wine and beer.  It looks like they are still filling out their wine selection.

 

There isn't alot of seating there, I counted 7 tables but some of them were pushed next to each other.  When the weather gets warmer the outside tables that are shared with Chipotle will be a welcome option.

The perfect Halloween treat

I saw these at Hinata Sushi Carryout and Grocery on St Elmo Ave in Bethesda, MD and, given the proximity to Halloween, couldn't resist getting some. They are single serving, snack size dried sardines. Each sardine is about 1.5 to 2 inches long. In addition to the fish, there is a bit of corn syrup and sesame seeds.

Since I got them, I felt obligated to try some. They are crunchy and taste a little bit fishy. If you can get over the fact that you are eating whole fish whose dried out eyes look like they are pleading with you to spare them, they are perfectly edible. I ate about half a package before deciding I had enough. My cat quite enjoyed them and has been asking for more.



According to the nutrition label (The only part of the package that is in english) they have no fat, 3g of sugar, 3g of protein, and 24 calories per serving. A serving is three packages.

Hinata has more than dried fish snacks, they also have fresh sushi and a plethora of other Japanese snacks. If you want something a little out of the ordinary, this is a good place to go.

Taylor Gourmet coming to Bethesda

Taylor Gourmet is a sandwich shop that currently has two locations, both in DC. By mid-July they should have a new location open at 7820 Woodmont Avenue in Bethesda, MD. This is right on the corner of Woodmont Ave and Elm St in the new Equinox Fitness building. I have never been to Taylor Gourmet but judging by the comments I have read it seems like a good place and I am looking forward to trying it.

(via Prince of Petworth)

You can see the full coverage about this construction project.