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This is just a reminder to contact the county council members regarding their plans for parking lot 13. I'm hearing that the most effective message to send right now is to simply tell them to postpone their vote on the Wheaton parking lot 13 proposal (the vote is currently scheduled in 5 short days on the 20th). They should not vote on this issue until they have had a dialogue with the community, explained what they feel are the benefits of their plan, and hear input from local Wheaton residents on their vision for the downtown area.
I've been told that all emails should be sent by end of day tomorrow (Friday) to have a shot at getting the council to take this item off their agenda for Tuesday.
Here's the link with email contact information.
In a decision that was expected by many to pit funding for a Bethesda elevator against funding for the Wheaton bus bay platform (an essential element to redevelopment plans by BF Saul), the county council on Monday instead decided to throw out months (maybe even years?) of planning by the county and extensive input from local residents and business owners by recommending a totally different vision of redevelopment for Wheaton.
Instead of providing the $42 million in funding to construct the platform over the metro bus bays, a key first step in BF Sauls redevelopment plans, they instead voted to pay $55 million to build an office building for the planning department and county services, a garage and a town square. The office, below-grade garage, and town square would all be located on the parking lot 13 site.
The BF Saul project would have injected more evening foot traffic into the area through the opening of a hotel on top of the bus bay platform, mid-rise apartment building in parking lot 13 with ground floor retail and restaurants, and a new town square in parking lot 13. It would have also substantially increased daytime use of the area through the construction of a large, two-tower office building on top of the bus bay platform. In the process of many meetings and discussions about these projects, the planning department expressed interest in building a new headquarters in the bus bay area at the "tip" of the triangle where Viers Mill and Georgia split.
The county council's version that they sprung on everyone Monday would ditch the planned development over the bus bays completely and instead put their building on parking lot 13 and their own version of a town square in the parking 13. No funding would be provided for the bus bay platform.
It's official...the Royal Mile will be reopening this Friday, March 16th! An anonymous comment to my post the other say they've heard that at least half of the original staff will be back, which is great news. I plan on being there (along with most of Wheaton probably) this Friday to celebrate the reopening of this neighborhood institution. I'm hoping that their burger remains as tasty as ever and that they keep the great beer selection that they always had (something that Limerick was sorely lacking when I went there last weekend, but that's a future post).
I will, of course, be posting my experience at the reincarnated Royal Mile after their reopening. After that, I hope to refocus my energy into blogging about something OTHER than the Royal Mile for a while. Cheers!
After a wonderful 3-week trip to the other side of the world, I'm back in the swing of things here in Wheaton. What better way to re-enter the blogosphere than with a Royal Mile update? Thanks to a tip by an anonymous poster, intrepid man-on-the-street Mr. WC stopped by the restaurant location late this afternoon to investigate the report of a crew at work in the restaurant.
Mr. WC happened upon Michael Moore, who was taking a smoke break outside of Limerick. The big news is that he is now the former owner of the Royal Mile. Moore said that he found a buyer, and described them as someone with some experience in the restaurant industry. From the sound of things, the new owner will be keeping the Royal Mile name and Mr. Moore even said that the owner is getting in touch with former staff to try and rehire as many of them as possible. The new owner has a crew at work to make needed repairs to the restaurant and Moore said the owner hopes to reopen the restaurant by St. Patrick's Day.
The Royal Mile's website doesn't show any updates, but we'll keep an eye on the store front and report on any updates that might get posted on the windows.
If all of this is true, I think this is the best possible outcome of what sounded like a very difficult situation just before the restaurant closed. Of course, only time will tell what the reincarnated Royal Mile will be like, but keeping the name and trying to rehire former staff is certainly a good start.
I'm heading off on a 3 week vacation to the land of the Hobbits. Be back at the end of February!
Well, as Good Eatin in Wheaton hinted in a post last week, it appears that Gloria's Island Hut has indeed closed, but with hopes of reopening at some point in the future. It's unfortunate timing after being mentioned (along with Ren's Ramen) as one of the Post's food critic Tom Sietsema's "Tom's Cheap Eats".
Mr. WC has continued his intrepid reporting by getting in touch with Island Hut owner Gloria via email, and she provided this response:
"We apologize for the delay in notifying our customers. A message was supposed to be placed on our website. We had many issues with Greenhill Realty and had no choice but to close our doors.
We are considering reopening at a later date.
Thank you,
Gloria"
It's interesting that their landlord is Greenhill Realty, whose owner was recently featured in a Just Up the Pike post about their attempts to develop property in Wheaton. Based on stories I've read/heard from some of Greenhill's former tenants, they are fairly unforgiving if a business falls on hard times and gets behind in payments. This is certainly their right as a landlord, but I have to wonder about this strategy when many of their properties in Wheaton sit vacant.
I promise that I will be posting about something other than Royal Mile within a few days, but the Gazette website has just posted an article about the status of the pub. Among the more interesting tidbits is that a co-owner of Flanigan's Harp & Fiddle in Bethesda was in discussions in November with Mike Moore about becoming a partner in the restaurant, but that the talks fell through because of the poor financial position of the Royal Mile.
Other than that, there are some nice tributes and memories from people who have visited the Royal Mile over the years.
