O’Donnell’s Market Opens

The O’Donnells are back in Montgomery County.

The family that for decades operated popular seafood restaurants in Bethesda and Gaithersburg opened their new market at Potomac Woods Plaza in Rockville Wednesday.

Bill Edelblut—the grandson of Tom O’Donnell, who founded the family’s first restaurant in D.C. in 1922—is running the market with his daughter, Ashlee Edelblut. Bill Edelblut retired after the family closed its Gaithersburg restaurant in 2013, but the market brought him back to work.

“I’ve always wanted to open a market,” Edelblut said. “A year of retirement was great, but during the second year I started to get a little antsy.”

Customers entering the market, at least on Wednesday, were immediately greeted with the smell of rum buns. The raisin and cinnamon treats, popularized at the “Sea Grill” restaurants, were being pulled out of an oven inside the bakery area near the entrance.

Across from the bakery is a long display case filled with fresh fish. Wednesday’s selection included tuna, salmon, snapper, oysters, little neck clams and shrimp. There were also ready-to-cook crab cakes—another one of the specialties from the restaurant.

Behind the bakery and seafood area is where prepared foods and meat, imported from Aspen Ridge Natural Beef in Colorado, will be sold. And in the back of the market there’s a salad bar and dine-in counter with about eight seats where visitors can eat or have a drink—the market has an on-premise beer and wine license. Sandwiches are also offered at the market.

The market currently doesn’t have a menu. Ashlee Edelblut said this is by design because the market’s products will change based on the seasons and what’s available from their suppliers.

Rum buns coming out of the oven in the bakery. Credit: Andrew Metcalf

The market was conducting a soft opening Wednesday—so features such as the meats and salad bar weren’t in place yet, but Bill Edelblut said they expect to have the market fully stocked by the beginning of next week.

The chef, Mary Howley, came to the market after working at Four Streams Country Club in Darnestown. 

The market has shelves where dry goods including spices and rubs will be sold and it offers Maryland staples such as Fisher’s Popcorn. It also offers catering for parties of up to 25 people. Ashlee Edelblut says she hopes to expand catering services to serve parties for as many as 100 people once the market is in full swing.

The market is at 1073 Seven Locks Road, Potomac, near the Park Potomac development. Bill Edelblut said he was attracted to the location because of its proximity to residential neighborhoods and office parks.

O’Donnell’s Market exterior. Credit: Andrew Metcalf