The Robert Wiedmaier Restaurant Group is renaming Brasserie Beck in Gaithersburg and changing its concept.
The restaurant’s owners are ditching the fine dining Belgian concept modeled off its sister restaurant and namesake in Washington, D.C., and replacing it with an American casual dining concept called Boulevard Tavern.
Chef Robert Wiedmaier said Tuesday the change is designed to make the restaurant more approachable to local diners.
“We’re going to bring a little more American flavor to the place,” Wiedmaier said.
The restaurant owners plan to lower its average price point from around $45 per person to about $30 to $35 per person for an entrée and a drink. Wiedmaier also said they’ll reduce the number of Belgian beers on the menu and bring in more American craft beers.
RW Restaurant Group partner Brian McBride and chef Matt Newland, formerly of Wildwood Kitchen, have created the new menu for the expansive restaurant, which seats 300 and includes a large outdoor dining area. The new menu includes burgers, chicken wings, Maryland crabcakes and grilled calamari. Wiedmaier’s signature mussels will remain on the menu.
Wiedmaier said the restaurant is in the midst of changing the concept and expects to have it fully converted to Boulevard Tavern in about a month. The restaurant remains open.
He also said changing the concept will help to align the restaurant with the other tavern that the restaurant group recently acquired—River Falls Tavern in Potomac.
The shift comes a little more than a year after Brasserie Beck opened in the Montgomery County suburbs.
Frank Shull, a partner in the restaurant group, said Tuesday the original plan for the restaurant was to open it as Boulevard Tavern, but they switched it to Brasserie Beck after buying into a belief the neighborhood wanted a more high-end concept.
“We should have stuck with our original plan,” Shull said. “It’s a tough lesson and I hope this concept will be more approachable and family-friendly.”
In a little more than a year, the restaurant group has opened or taken over three restaurants in Montgomery County in addition to Brasserie Beck: Urban Heights and Villain & Saint in Bethesda and River Falls Tavern. Brasserie Beck at 311 Kentlands Blvd. is the former longtime home to O’Donnell’s Sea Grill.
The restaurant group also operates Wildwood Tavern and Mussel Bar and Grille in Bethesda.
