Good Take-Out Places in Silver Spring Area

I moved to Silver Spring about a month ago and already, I am tired of fast food and the same chain restaurants. I live in Northern Silver Spring (Briggs Chaney area) with Laurel and Burtonsville not too far away and I am looking for good take-out and dine-in restaurants. Any suggestions?

I live in the same area, and it's a bit of a culinary wasteland. Siebel's in Burtonsville has been around for a long time, not bad (and their ice cream is excellent). Old Hickory Grille on Rt 198 (near the intersection with Old Columbia Pike) is probably the best choice in the area. The Pennsylvania Dutch market in the Burtonsville Shopping Center has very tasty prepared food available, but they're only open three days a week. (word of advice: if you need to hit the post office on Saturdays, use the one further down Rt 198 at Peach Orchard Road - the parking lot of the Burtonsville Shopping Center is packed on Saturdays because of the market, and the one in Colesville on NH Ave near Randolph is just chaotic)

For Asian food, go to Wheaton. Pacific Garden in the Briggs Chaney shopping center is okay, but nothing special. (I tried the Chinese place in the Burtonsville Crossing, and it was horrible) It's worth making the drive to Wheaton for Ruan Thai or Hollywood East.

There's an Italian deli in Cloverly, on NH Avenue just north of the Safeway, but I can't remember the name. Oh yes, and Pasta Plus in Laurel is a good alternative to the chains. (unfortunately my husband is more of a chain guy - luckily Silver Diner makes a good caramel French toast) Cameron's Seafood in Briggs Chaney Plaza does good spiced shrimp and fried fish, and has steamed crabs available all year (in the summer, go to the truck in the office park just south of Randolph Rd - they have better crabs)

For your sweet tooth, there's Rita's Italian Ice in Burtonsville (I think it's in the same strip mall as Old Hickory Grille), York Castle Ice Cream in Beltsville (Rt 1 at Powder Mill Rd), and the snowball stand in Burtonsville on Rt 29 in the summer.

For Chinese (eat-in or take-out), the Peking in Burtonsville on 198 in the strip mall that has Subways is, the best in the area. Very good quality meats and seafood. This is the only Chinese restaurant that I have been to in Montgomery County that makes Shrimp and Lobster sauce correctly (with ground pork and black beans and the shrimp is large) and it's delicious.

Also, looks like Rita's is now closed for the winter. I think they're only opened from Spring through September.

Wheaton is right on for so much!

Also in the Asian range: Good Fortune for Chinese (sorry, not sure what type). There is a vietnamese place just one block west of GA Ave, but I wasn't overly impressed.

However, you do have El Pollo Rico up there, also just to the west of GA Ave, just to the south of University.

To the east of GA Ave, and to the south of University, there is El Pulgarcito for sublime Salvadoran. In that same block, around on the backside in relation to EP is another place which is Salvadoran/Tex Mex(ish) that is very good as well. I've known those places, and will drive the beltway to go there at times, but there are so many more that I'm sure are good.

Don't, however, go to Anchor Inn - apparently used to be good, but is hellish now in service and food.

The Anchor Inn closed last month as the owners sold the lot for a reported eight million plus. The food was marginal but the attached bar (also closed) was pleasant enough.

This merits more than a passing mention. I grew up in Silver Spring and remember trips "up Georgia avenue into the country" in the mid '50's with my parents when the Anchor Inn first opened. This was long before Wheaton Plaza was built (early '60's) and Wheaton was really just a crossroads with the Anchor Inn it's landmark.

Another D. C. area landmark is gone.

The closing of the Anchor Inn is the third in the past year or so of established sea food restaurants in the Silver Spring area. Fred and Harry's on Colesville ROad and the newer Crisfield's in downtown Silver Spring preceeded the Anchor's closing. The old old Crisfield's still survives. The opening of the Red Lobster in the new downtown mall is not an improvement. Fortunately, Wheaton has a good number of ethic places to enjoy--for now.

I lived in Wheaton back in the early 90's. I can tell you that even then, Red Lobster probably served fresher, better seafood than Anchor Inn. That place was awful, but I went there once a year because my wife's grandparents loved it.

No loss there.

The Red Lobster is no improvement, nor is the new Phillips is downtown Silver Spring (or is it Sprung now?). I was very excited to try that Phillips, as I have enjoyed the Ocean City locations since childhood, but it was awful. Tiny, flavorless crabcake full of filler and underdone French fries (which cost extra). Have they improved? I only tried that Phillips during its 1st week of business, then gave up.

While the Anchor Inn just closed, it has been gone for sometime. It had become a mess, dirty, and just not very good. I am not sure if the food changed, or people's expectations. There are plenty of older family owned restaurants that are putting out boring, uninspired food, and always have. Until the culinary world started to expand, we did not know better. Now with more ethnic places, and even some chains doing a better job, it is not surprising that these places are closing their doors.

Didn't the same family own Schooner Bay Cafe, the place that took over Leonies? I used to work two doors down from Schooner Bay. I thought that place was pretty blah, but it served it's purpose for after work drinks and horrible carryout pizza.

Yuo, things are changing. My memories aren't quite that long, but I remember my mom taking me to Wheaton Plaza when it was an outdoor mall.

I know it's off topic, but it is sad to see certain places fold up. It's a part of your childhood that you have to wave goodbye to.

Maybe I'll hit the IHOP across the street for old times sake.

Mark

I am not sure about Schooner Bay Cafe, but the same family used to own Raindancer in Rockville, and I believe I once heard that they own the Stained-Glass Pub.
I remember the Farell's at the plaza, it was one of my fondest childhood memories.

Did you know Jerry's when Max owned it, pre 1978? Before Adam Schwartz and Bob Beigleman bought them out? That was probably it's best period even more so than when Abe and his wife who started it on Kennedy Street and moved it to Wheaton.

Joe,
In '78 I was 9 and living in a small town in Scotland. I have heard how good they were when they were at the original. I first had a Jerry's sub at the Aspen Hill location in the very early 80's, and loved it. I still compare other cheese steaks to that one. And few if any have lived-up (including some of the famous Philly shops).

They were actually known for their roast beef sub which changed when the owners changed and expansion began. The roast beef sub had a garlic/mayonnaise/"touch of" ketchup spread and the hot peppers were mixed with pickle juice (serious!). They also roasted their own beef in house at one time. The onions for the cheesesteak, then, sat on the grill all day like they do in Philly. Jerry's did not have pizza either. I used to take "bike hikes" with friends from near Piney Branch and Flower through Sligo Creek park to University just to go there. I think I was about 11 or 12 when I first did this.

The original Jerry's until sold in '78 or '79 was a real D. C. landmark.

I guess the Jerry's I used to go to during high school was after the sale around 79 or 80 in downtown Silver Spring around the corner from the JC Penneys on Bonifant I believe. They served pizza and I thought it was decent stuff. No where near what they're peddling now.

Did they have French Bread Pizza? The one in Aspen Hill used to sell it and it was pure heaven. I concur about the awful stuff they are throwing out now.

Both Silver Spring, Aspen Hill, Bethesda, etc. opened AFTER it was sold. For a while the original in Wheaton was the only one which still did the roast beef sub the "old" way but eventually this disappeared too. Max, the previous owner (who had bought from Abe and his wife-they named it Jerry's after their son), moved to St. Petersburg, FL and, I was told by a friend 20 years ago, opened a sub shop there! Adam Schwartz and Bob Beigleman who bought it had worked there while they were going to MD U. After they took it over they expanded adding stores in Silver Spring on Fenton, Bethesda on East West Highway, Aspen Hill and so forth. When they started their expansion they changed the menu and some of the recipes. They were also passionate about food and at one point opened an office on Montrose in Rockville and spent months and months literally testing pizza. I knew them well and would bring pizza back half baked from Chicago and New Haven which we would finish baking in the oven in their Bethesda store. One trip I actually carried two stuffed pizzas from Giordano's and two from the original Uno's on a plane. EVERYONE on the plane was STARVED by the time we got to D. C. When we finished baking them here they were still better than Geppetto's which was D. C.'s best at the time.

I also remember a bagel place on Reedie Drive and I've always wondered what happened to it. The interesting thing about Wheaton now is how few standard American places exist except for maybe Ferdinand's (food on a par with the Anchor Inn) and some of the bars.

The "character" of Wheaton is totally different today from what it was in the '50's and '60's. Even in the '80's, too, for that matter. I moved from Silver Spring to Reston in '88 and find it remarkable how much areas like Wheaton, Langley Park and elsewhere have changed. I think many people are not aware that Silver Spring was once promoted as Maryland's second largest city and had THREE department stores downtown (Hecht's, Penny's and Sears at second avenue and colesville rd.). Even with all of the construction, for me, it still lacks the "vibrancy" or feeling that it had in the early '60's. Blair had 2,700 students in three grades in 1964. With over 1,000 in my senior class almost nobody lives in Silver Spring anymore. Many live in or near Bethesda today which has evolved into what I might have thought Silver Spring would have become but didn't-for many reasons. Anyway, this is a discussion for another board. Sorry.

Joe,
1000 people in your senior class, my school did not even have than many in all of the classes.

There was a lot of activity at the end of World War II. There were over 300 at my reunion!

my mommie said that it was Eddie Leonard's around the corner from JC Penny's. Not Jerry's.

Eddie Leonard's was on Cameron Street across from the Silver Spring bowling alley. Jerry's was on Fenton just off of Colesville.

Right, right, right, Jerry's was on Fenton. I've only lived there, what, all my life?

great place to get dinner when you're camping out overnight for concert tickets in front of Hecht Co.

As a matter of fact, yes!!

Several times!

I grew up in Wheaton in the 60's when ethnic food there meant Pop's Pizza for Italian, Buddha restaurant in Glenmont for Chinese, Schnitzelbank for German, and Anchor Inn for seafood. First bagels were at a place off of Georgia/Viers Mill. There was also Hot Shoppes cafeteria. Farrell's ice cream was a latecomer--I was in Junior high and the kids church group went there on an outing. Didn't they have a special called a "Pig's Trough" where they'd sound a siren? REALLY special occasions were Hogates in DC for seafood, Haussner's in Baltimore for German, and Peter Pan Inn in Urbana (still have a picture of Mom and Grandma in their best hats in front of the peacock cage there). Later in the 70's it was Flagship on the Pike for sunday lunch rum buns then GD Grafiti's or Phineas. Funny how back then ethnic food meant something European.....

Well......actually I remember ethnic food meaning Chicken Chow Mein from the China Royale at Piney Branch and Flower and really, seriously adventurous dining was my parents driving down to the Ebbitt Hotel in D. C. for "blow out your mouth hot" REAL MEXICAN! Well, in truth, this was mild by today's standards and the restaurant (whose name escapes me-Don Pedro's?) was eclipsed by Tippy's Taco House when it opened on Flower Avenue about 1961. For a 9th grader Tippy's was a revelation for REAL ethnic food. In fact the Flower Avenue Pizza Kitchen lost a lot of business the day it opened! Cheese acquired a whole new meaning for me with my first bite of chile con queso at Tippy's!

But Peter Pan was great as was Martin's Dairy in Olney, both in the '50's. AND, a bbq joint in Langley Park called Emory's (aka Sweeney's) that today I swear was on par with anything in Memphis. I still remember my mother talking to the owner who handed her a bottle of Coke WITH ICE STUCK TO IT, AND him saying that Coke tasted better when it was iced down rather than being refrigerated. That kind of passion and dedication influenced me, an impressionable third grader! I also remember smoke in the place that was thick from the pit being opened and pork shoulders being pulled out with a fork to have a slice lopped off-just like Archibald's in Northport, AL.

Once upon a time D. C. really was part of the south.

I don't know about Schooner Bay but I remember Leonie's pizza being very similar to Ledo's. Langley Park today has virtually nothing in common with that era.

My family & I used to go to Anchor Inn for dinner every New Year's Eve in the mid to late 80s. I would always order Crab Norfolk. We had just moved from New Mexico, so at that point it was the best seafood I had ever had. Such great memories.

Crab Norfolk was actually first popularized by O'Donnell's on Pennsylvania Avenue. I have no idea which Norfolk restaurant (if any) they copied it from but I can remember Crisfield ADDING it to their menu in Silver Spring. Later Bish Thompson's in Bethesda and pretty soon it became something of a standard dish for Maryland seafood restaurants in the '50's.

Of all things at my 40 year high school reunion on Saturday I met the girl (well, woman; sorry but girls are always girls regardless of age!) whose parents started Kushner's on Piney Branch road near Flower Avenue. I mention this because Kushner's also had crab/shrimp/scallops/seafood Norfolk style.

It was a big deal for our family to go to Kushner's. I used to enjoy the outings. My fondist memory is when we took my grandma there. We read various menu items to her and she repied, "All I want is just a nice piece of fish". Well, I guess you had to be there and hear her Yiddish accent.

Thanks for bringing that one up. Ig's been a while since I've thought about it.

Mark

[Potomac Bob]

The Norfolk restaurant where Crab Norfolk was invented was called Snowden and Mason where W.O. Snowden created the dish in 1924. Each serving (which included a quarter pound of crab) came in a 1.5-cup oval aluminum pan.

Sounded always like a cool place, and I should've hit the bar before it closed, but man, 8 mil! Wow! Prime spot though, but for that amount I fear something moving in that changes the nearly perfect food landscape of Wheaton (the mall is undergoing substantial change as well).

AI reportedly closed because the county's no-smoking law killed business for their adjoining bar. I believe they had spent thousands of dollars improving the venting per previous requirements set by the county.

Allegedly Cactus Cantina at Aspen Hill Shopping Ctr closed this summer also b/c of the no-smoking law.

I'm a non-smoker, I appreciate the fact that my office & stores & restaurants that I frequent don'
t reek of smoke anymore, but that's just me, and I gather there are Chowhounds who are heavy smokers & resent the strict laws ?

The owners of the Inn gave the staff about two days notice about the closing, mentioning the amount of money they sold the property for, and claiming that a new place would open on the spot by December. But the main reason they gave for the closing was not the smoking issue, but that several people had left the bar drunk and had apparently used guns afterward, making people fearful about being in the vicinity. This I heard from a former waitperson who is still very upset about the quick closing.

Even more likely...the owners of a $8 million sunken asset feared the liability of one of those drinkers mis-using a gun, or more often, a car. One law suit and 25 years of real estate appreciation is gone.

During the late 60's and early 70's, there was a place called Pop's Pizza somewhere in the area of Four Corners in Silver Spring. I seem to recall that it had good New York style pizza. Does anyone remember what happened to it and whether the owners opened up another place that it is still going?

Pop's was on Henderson Avenue in Wheaton about a block off of Georgia. It was excellent-I remember going there in the early and mid '60's. I have no idea what happened to the owners. At the time I thought Ledo's, Leonie's, Luigi's (19th Street), Anna Maria's (Conn. Ave.) and Gusti's were better. For Montgomery county Pop's was the best. Back then, in high school, it was a special treat to take a date into D. C. for dinner. Dinner was almost always pizza with a place called the Old Stein near Dupont circle the second choice!

I remember chowing down at Pop's in Wheaton. I haven't driven by the place in a while, but I seem to remember it being a Korean restaurant after Pop's closed shop.

Mark

Did you ever try Sol d' Italia in Delmercado? I remember being quite pleased with their pizza. I am not even sure if it is still open.

By the way, we work for the same organization, but in different buildings.

[philjr73]

Hunan Garden is good if your looking for good sushi or chinese. Right on 198 in Burtonsville. I was there on Sunday and the place was packed. Sushi was real fresh.