Bethesda’s Praline Bakery & Bistro to expand with new Virginia location
Former White House pastry chefs Patrick Musel and Susan Limb plan to open their second Praline Bakery & Bistro location in Virginia’s Mosaic District in the summer of 2016. The chefs and business partners announced the new location last week. Like the Bethesda spot, it will offer pastries, cookies, macarons, cakes and a variety of sandwiches, breads and salads. Musel and Limb met while working at the White House under executive pastry chef Roland Mesnier. The two later opened Praline Bakery on Sangamore Road in 2006.
T.J. Maxx now open in Silver Spring
The discount fashion retailer T.J. Maxx has opened its Silver Spring store at Ellsworth Place. The store opened last week on the first floor of the shopping center formerly known as City Place at 8661 Colesville Road. The store is closed Thanksgiving Day, but it opens at 7 a.m. for Black Friday shoppers.
T.J. Maxx is the latest in a string of openings planned for the center, which has been undergoing a $45 million facelift. Other businesses scheduled to open during the next six months include Dave & Buster’s and the arts and crafts store Michaels.
Rockville game maker nets record breaking sales for “Fallout 4”
Bethesda Softworks has had a big month. The Rockville-based video game developer announced earlier this month it shipped 12 million launch-day and preorder copies of its latest game, “Fallout 4,” which was released Nov. 10. Those shipments account for about $750 million in first-week sales, according to the company.
In a Nov. 13 statement, the game maker said it broke the record for most concurrent PC players playing the game through the gaming service Steam at one time, with more than 470,000 people playing.
“We’re extremely proud of Todd Howard, game director at Bethesda Game Studios, and his experienced team of developers for their talent and dedication in creating this extraordinary game,” Vlatko Andonov, president of Bethesda Softworks, said in a statement.
New “smart” Verizon store opening in Bethesda
Verizon is scheduled Wednesday to open one of its new “smart” stores in Bethesda. The store will offer wireless phones and mobile access plans, but the new store design eliminates cash registers behind counters—like Apple stores—and adds a number of different gadgets.
The stores will offer fitness technology, Bluetooth speakers, toys, games and devices for monitoring home energy. The store at 6932 Wisconsin Ave. will be the first “smart” location to open inside the Beltway, according to the company.
Inside a Verizon Smart store. Photo via Verizon.
