Bethesda residents will have less ice cream and chicken to eat in the new year, as two longtime eateries closed in late December.
The Ben & Jerry’s at 4901-B Fairmont Ave. shuttered right before Christmas, marking an end to the franchise location owned by Marc Sosin since 1996. “It wasn’t economically viable to stay at this location,” said Sosin, adding that “several years ago, ever since most of the business moved to the Bethesda Row side, there’s been a lot less traffic.” Sosin also owns the Ben & Jerry’s next to the Regal Cinema in Rockville, where he says things are good.
As for whether Sosin considered sticking it out while the Woodmont Triangle section of Bethesda is revitalized, Sosin said, “it will be painful getting there; a lot of buildings will be going down in this area, and there will be a lot of construction over the next few years.”
When I caught up with Sosin as he was clearing things out of the Bethesda store, he said it was a “very emotional decision” and that he wanted all the customers who patronized the place over the years to know how much he appreciated them.
Lenny Greenberg of Greenhill Realty, the landlord of the property, would not comment on what’s replacing the Chubby Hubby and Cherry Garcia.
There are lots of prospective tenants clamoring for the vacated Chicken Out on 4829 Bethesda Ave. Ralph Ours, senior leasing associate for Federal Realty, which owns the Bethesda Row spot, said that “there have been people interested in that space for years.” It’s a hot location. Aside from being on a corner, it’s right next to the parking garage, Ours said. So far, the field has been narrowed down to three or four possible tenants. “It’ll take another 30 to 60 days to get a lease signed,” Ours said.
As for the closing of Chicken Out on December 29, the locally-based chain’s lease wasn’t up until 2012, nor was the rent increased, Ours said. He didn’t want to go into specifics, other than to say that Federal Realty had been working with the restaurant “to find some mutual resolution,” but that Chicken Out’s counter offer to “pay no rent for a long period of time” didn’t work for the realty firm. Ours said that the Chicken Out concept “was from the same era of Boston Chicken and Boston Market. It sort of ran its course. It was pretty popular, but you can now find the same products in any grocery store.”
Rick Hindin, president of Chicken Out, did not refute Ours’ characterization of the lease situation, but said “we were in the process of trying to work out a rent arrangement that would maintain profitability at that location. When it became apparent that we were not able to make a mutually agreeable deal with Federal Realty, we were waiting to hear back from them on an agreeable time frame to leave the location. The next thing that happened was that they demanded we leave immediately. What I regret about that was that we didn’t have the opportunity to say goodbye to our customers and give them notice that we were leaving.”
As for the concept, the company plans to maintain operations at its other 12 locations, where sales are positive, Hindin said. Chicken Out, which opened its first location in the Cabin John Mall in the early 1990s, has just completed the introduction of a new menu that Hindin referred to as “healthier comfort food,” including a new all-natural chicken sanctioned by the American Humane Association.
Stay tuned.
