Bethesda Bagels
Bethesda Bagels owner Stephen Fleishman wasn’t looking to open another Bethesda store back in 2018. The company, which Fleishman and his wife, Fran, started in 1982, had just opened a branch in Rosslyn and rebuilt its flagship store in Bethesda. Fleishman’s son Danny (now the president of the company) and his wife, Katie, were about to have twins. But a landlord “offered us a deal we couldn’t pass up,” Stephen Fleishman says of Bethesda Bagels’ fifth location and second in Montgomery County, an outpost in Bethesda’s Wildwood Shopping Center that opened in October. Why is there a buzz around the new store? For one thing, it’s more convenient than the original Bethesda location for many customers. But mostly it’s the food, especially the handmade New York-style bagels that are boiled, then baked on stone shelves. Most things are made in-house, including the roasted turkey breast (hand-carved in front of you) and various protein salads (chicken, egg, tuna and whitefish). “We are doing things the same way we did in 1982,” Stephen Fleishman says, “and the customers really appreciate that.”
10241 Old Georgetown Road (Wildwood Shopping Center), Bethesda, 240-858-4741, bethesdabagels.com
