Saturday is the last day Montgomery County bagel lovers can visit Call Your Mother’s bright pink-and-blue mobile deli on Old Georgetown Road in Bethesda, according to Andrew Dana, founder of the local chain.
The bagel eatery, parked at 8804 Old Georgetown Road and dubbed “Lil’ Deli” by the chain, is slated to relocate outside of Bethesda, Dana told Bethesda Today on Wednesday. He said the company will announce the deli’s new location Tuesday and hinted he was excited to service a “whole new area.”
“Those little delis really aren’t set up to just sort of be somewhere forever. And so, it just became time … to go test out a new location that could turn into a permanent location,” Dana said.
Call Your Mother was founded by Daniela Moreira and Dana, who opened the first shop in 2016 at 3301 Georgia Ave., in Washington, D.C. The bagel chain now has six brick-and-mortar shops in D.C., a shop in North Bethesda’s Pike & Rose, four shops in Virginia and four eateries in Colorado, including a Lil’ Deli. In addition, Call Your Mother operates stands at the Dupont Farmer’s Market in the District and a stand at the Silver Spring Farmer’s Market.
Dana said the bagel chain considered moving into the vacant Bethesda Community Store & Deli, a historic icon that closed in 2016 and sat on the Old Georgetown Road site. However, construction costs for renovating the 100-year-old store became “too high.”
“It became clear that it wasn’t going to work,” Dana said.
The Lil’ Deli opened in a trolley car near Suburban Hospital in July 2020. The trolley bagel shop was an instant hit in the area for those who didn’t want to travel to Washington, D.C., to visit the popular bagel shop’s original location on Georgia Avenue. When the trolley car shop first opened, Washington City Paper reported the trolley was used for tours of Washington, D.C. and was taking a new life as a “bagelmobile.” In September 2023, the trolley car was replaced with the pink-and-blue trailer currently at the site, according social media post by the bagel chain.
“It’s been a great five years,” Dana said. “We have loved being there, have loved getting to know the neighborhood, but because we couldn’t figure out how to do a permanent location there, it was, unfortunately, time to hitch [the Lil’ Deli] onto a vehicle and on to the next one.”
Dana said Call Your Mother fans who live in the area can visit the chain’s Pike & Rose location, which opened in September 2021 at 11807 Grand Park Ave. The Lil’ Deli is about 4 miles away from the Pike & Rose shop.
Dana expressed his gratitude to the Bethesda community, noting “this will not be the last that you see of us in Bethesda.”
He said the chain is planning to locate a shop closer to downtown Bethesda than the Old Georgetown Road location, but he didn’t provide a timeline for opening that location.
The Lil’ Deli is open from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily.