7-Eleven closes in downtown Silver Spring

A 7-Eleven store has closed in downtown Silver Spring. The convenience store was located at 8484 Georgia Avenue. Signage has been stripped from the building, and the storefront windows have been covered. It looks like 24-hour convenience store Hakim 1-Stop Shop arrived just in time at 8433 Georgia Avenue!

Lucy Ethiopian Restaurant closed in Silver Spring

Lucy Ethiopian Restaurant has closed at 8301 Georgia Avenue in downtown Silver Spring. The windows are papered over, but there is no message posted for customers. Google states that the restaurant is "temporarily closed." The restaurant's website is currently down, however.

AAA office closes at Wheaton Plaza North Building

The American Automobile Association has closed its longtime office at 2730 University Boulevard West, Suite 102, in the Wheaton Plaza North Building (now known as the Westfield Wheaton North building). In an age before GPS, Google Maps, and Expedia, AAA provided essential travel services, including customized TripTik maps for your road trip. These were quite a step up from the gas station fold-out maps and oversized state atlas books that were quite unwieldy to use, especially while driving. It's the end of another holdover from the golden age of Wheaton, and I see AAA's suite is now available for lease.

Wheaton Plaza North Building is another of those golden age holdovers. Completed in 1964, the 11-story building was going to be the tallest office building in Montgomery County when developers Isadore Gudelsky and Theodore Lerner broke ground on the project. Its modified Georgian-inspired architecture cut a sharp appearance, along with the iconic Howard Johnson hotel across University, on the midcentury Wheaton skyline. Architect Arthur L. Anderson, along with Lathrop Douglass and John Bennett, designed the building and the Wheaton Plaza mall it shares the property with.

The building still hosts the medical and government tenants it has specialized in attracting over the last 62 years, and, of course, the mall is still going strong. Alas, Howard Johnson has joined other Wheaton icons like the Anchor Inn and Barry's Magic Shop in the demolition scrap pile. So pour out a HoJo Cola for the obliterated hotel, and, well, you can still get a AAA TripTik...on your phone.

TD Bank closes at Ellsworth Place in Silver Spring

TD Bank has closed at Ellsworth Place mall in downtown Silver Spring. Their space has been cleared out, and is now available for lease. The departure of the bank and Outback Steakhouse have left a very vacant feeling around this entrance to the mall. TD Bank has been closing branches in the area, including two in downtown Bethesda, so it probably wasn't a failure with this location specifically that led to the closure.

Outback Steakhouse closes in Silver Spring

Outback Steakhouse has closed at 8661 Colesville Road at Ellsworth Place mall in downtown Silver Spring, according to a sign posted at the premises. Signage for the restaurant has been stripped from the building. Tables are still in place in the outside dining area, but without chairs.

The closure is a major shock. This is a prime location across from The Fillmore concert venue. The interior fit-out of the space was lengthy and expensive. And all for naught. Outback remains open in Aspen Hill.

Solaire Social food hall closes in Silver Spring

The food hall fad continues its epic crashout in lower Montgomery County. The latest victim is in downtown Silver Spring. Solaire Social has shuttered in the ground floor of the Solaire 8200 Dixon apartment tower. The food hall was designed as a prominent architectural feature, adding to the awkwardness of the closure. 

I'm not sure if we can blame the Montgomery County Council, and the moribund economy and anti-business environment they've created, as with so many of the other business failures countywide. The Council certainly didn't help matters, but the food hall concept seems to be something County residents just don't want, a sort of overpriced cafeteria. As for Solaire Social, the electricity is still on inside and out, despite the closure. Like Motel 6, they'll leave the light on for you.

Fantasticks closes in Silver Spring

Fantasticks has permanently closed at 915 Ellsworth Drive at Downtown Silver Spring. The space has been cleared out, and signage has been taken down. Fantasticks retains two other locations in the region, Rio Lakefront in Gaithersburg, and One Loudoun in Ashburn. The custom gelato bar's Silver Spring location opened here last summer.

Euro Style temporarily closes in Silver Spring

Euro Style is temporarily closed at 8429 Georgia Avenue in downtown Silver Spring. The fashion boutique will reopen for normal business hours this coming Saturday, October 18, 2025. No reason was given for the closure. The boutique carries upscale European fashions for men and women.

Bete Ethiopian Cuisine & Cafe closes in Silver Spring

Bete Ethiopian Cuisine & Cafe at 811 Roeder Road in downtown Silver Spring has closed, according to a sign in the window. Known for its cozy dining space that was more like eating at someone's home than at a commercial restaurant, Bete Ethiopian had a very successful 16-year run in a very tough dining market and business environment. Fortunately, Silver Spring has a number of Ethiopian restaurants remaining, perhaps the most in Montgomery County. Two were recognized as among the best in the D.C. area earlier this year by The Washington Post's Tom Sietsema.

Italian Kitchen closes in Silver Spring

Italian Kitchen at 8201 Fenton Street in downtown Silver Spring was closed during business hours last evening. The closure is permanent, according to Google. A family-owned restaurant, Italian Kitchen opened in 2015, exactly a decade ago. Signage is still up, and there is still furniture in the dining room, but most of the windows are covered.

Cafe via Roma forced to temporarily close due to Silver Spring Purple Line construction

Cafe via Roma at 911 Bonifant Street in downtown Silver Spring has temporarily closed due to the disruption of the Purple Line light rail construction outside of its doors. The restaurant will be closed until further notice, according to a sign posted in the window, which identifies that construction as the reason for the closure. Businesses in that area between Georgia Avenue and the Silver Spring Library have been among those hit hardest by the barricades and heavy construction activity. Both of the Yelp reviews posted for the restaurant prior to the closure noted the difficulty those patrons had in locating the restaurant, and in finding a nearby parking space, as did six of the twenty-seven Google reviews posted.

Quarry House Tavern still temporarily closed in Silver Spring

Quarry House Tavern at 8401 Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring is still temporarily closed due to a plumbing emergency. They had hoped to reopen Friday, but the plumbing had other plans. "Another day, another flood," the tavern wrote on Instagram.  The tavern is now hoping to reopen tomorrow, Sunday, April 27, 2025. 

Quarry House Tavern in Silver Spring to reopen Friday

Quarry House Tavern at 8401 Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring is temporarily closed due to a plumbing emergency. The tavern is expected to reopen tomorrow, Friday, April 25, 2025, if all goes according to plan. "Being a basement bar is not for the faint of heart," Quarry House said in announcing the temporary closure. 

Walgreens closes in downtown Silver Spring (Photos)

Walgreens has closed at 8701 Georgia Avenue in downtown Silver Spring. It was open for just under a decade at this high-traffic location. Customers' pharmacy records have been transferred to the chain's store at 1329 University Boulevard E. in Takoma Park - not exactly convenient. There is a closer location at 1015 Ripley Street in Silver Spring.

This is one of the few business closures that can't be blamed on the Montgomery County Council, or the County's moribund economy. Walgreens announced in December that it would be closing 1200 stores nationwide over the next three years. 500 are expected close in 2025.

Officially, the reason is increased competition from Amazon, Walmart, and Target pharmacies. But the closures likely have more to do with a recently-announced acquisition of the chain by a private equity firm. These vampire firms are known to suck all value that can be liquidated from a company - by firing employees, closing stores, and selling off inventory and real estate - transfer the profits to investors, and then discard the husk. Such a fate has befallen Sears, Kmart, and Toys R Us in recent years, just to name a few.

Picture People closes at Wheaton Plaza

Picture People has closed at Westfield's Wheaton Plaza mall. Its space has been cleared out inside. The portrait studio was located on Level 1 in the Target wing of the mall. Picture People opened this location about three years ago. This brings back memories of when operations like Sears Portrait Studio were fixtures at malls across America. "What the hell happened to us? What happened to the American Dream?" "It came true - you're lookin' at it."

Wheaton Dunkin' Donuts temporarily closed for renovations (Photos)

The Dunkin' Donuts store at 2405 Reedie Drive in Wheaton has temporarily closed for renovations. This is an ongoing series of renovations to the franchisee's Dunkin' Donuts locations across Montgomery County. In addition to the remodeling, expect signage to be updated with the new, shorter "Dunkin'" branding that drops the "Donuts" half of the name. This store was a popular stop for drivers of the Metrobus L6 route during the 1980s, and with good reason.

Wiseguy Pizza closes in Wheaton

Wiseguy Pizza has closed at Westfield's Wheaton Plaza mall. It appears the pizzeria was the latest victim of the moribund Montgomery County economy and the high cost of doing business in MoCo. The problem wasn't the authentic deck oven pizza, as the rave online reviews indicate. 84 Google reviewers gave Wiseguy Pizza an average 4.7 stars out of 5. Real New York pizza, by-the-slice in the food court - what could possibly go wrong? Well, Montgomery County's anti-business climate can make the already-slim profit margins of the restaurant business disappear faster than a slice of Wiseguy Pizza in the hand of Davey Pageviews! 

Visionworks closes at Wheaton Plaza

Visionworks has closed at Westfield's Wheaton Plaza mall. It appears to be the latest victim of the moribund Montgomery County economy. That's because the Texas-based eyewear chain's overall financial performance has been strong nationwide. Visionworks hasn't closed many stores; in fact, it had a net gain of 28 new store openings last year, for a total of 773 locations. It also ended 2023 as one of the Top 10 optical retailers in America, even finishing ahead of the much-hipper Warby Parker, according to Vision Monday.

Bank of America Financial Center closes in downtown Silver Spring

The Bank of America Financial Center at 8788 Georgia Avenue in downtown Silver Spring has closed. However, the Bank of America ATM at the site remains operational. The windows and doors of the bank have been papered over. Bank of America is expected to close over 60 branches nationwide this year, after shuttering more than 100 last year.

Earthbound Trading Co. closes in Wheaton

Earthbound Trading Co. has closed at Westfield's Wheaton Plaza mall. The "artisanal crafts, bohemian fashion, and globally inspired home decor" retailer opened here in 2019. Their space has been cleared out, but signage is still up out front, along with "STORE CLOSED" notices. The Texas-based chain closed its Lawrence, Kansas location earlier this year, but has plans to open a new store near Pittsburgh in 2024, so the firm doesn't appear to be in financial distress.