"Thank you for your kindness and support. We warmly recommend our neighbors at Lilit Café just one block away."
That sign was taped to the window of Old Georgetown Grille at 7755 Old Georgetown Road after the diner closed in early October, Bethesda Magazine reported. For more than 20 years the restaurant served omelets, pancakes, home fries, club sandwiches and a crab cake sandwich from the ground floor of a three-story office building.
The places that now serve breakfast along this stretch of Old Georgetown Road look different. Most are counter shops, several of them a short walk south, and the two newest sit on the ground floors of apartment buildings. The lots next to the diner have already been cleared, and its own building is next in line for a building of the same kind. The rest of this post walks through that change, stop by stop.
A closing three years in the making
Nobody in the neighborhood should have been surprised. The diner had been expected to close since 2023, when its redevelopment was first proposed, Bethesda Magazine noted, and the owner had told Bethesda Today at the time that he expected to close at the end of 2025. In the end the restaurant stayed open more than nine months past that date.
The office building was the last piece of a group of parcels at the corner of St. Elmo Avenue and Old Georgetown Road. The neighboring buildings, once home to Bethesda Florist and Nazlymov Fencing studio, had already been demolished by early October. The Bethesda-based developer Stonebridge has planned a 17-story building with 270 apartments for the site, and principal Doug Firstenberg said demolition of the final building should begin in early 2027, after the remaining office tenants move out. He expects demolition and construction together to take a little more than two years, with residents moving in around spring 2029.
What will replace the diner at street level is 6,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space, under an underground garage with 145 parking spaces. No tenant has been announced. For anyone wondering what the corner could hold in 2029, the newest openings farther south on Old Georgetown Road offer a preview.
Farther south, the newest counters sit under apartments
PopUp Bagels opened at 7607 Old Georgetown Road, on the ground floor of the Solaire apartment building, with a soft opening on August 13 and a grand opening on August 14. It is the Connecticut-based chain's first shop in Maryland, according to the Bethesda Beacon. Getting there took a while. The shop first planned to open July 24, pushed that to August 7, and then had to delay again. The format is classic bagels with cream cheese or butter sold by the tub. You tear off pieces and dip them. The shop also has a Bethesda-only flavor, the Chesapeake Spiced Schmear.
A short walk south, Shake Shack opened on October 2 at 7535 Old Georgetown Road. Its 3,500-square-foot store fills the ground floor of Element 28, the Bethesda Beacon reported after months of delays. It opens at 10 a.m. and covers the other end of the day. On opening day it gave $1 from every sandwich sold to KID Museum.
Around the corner on St. Elmo Avenue, Call Your Mother came back to Bethesda on August 3 with a shop at 4828 St. Elmo Ave. It is the earliest opener on this list.
The morning, hour by hour
Lined up by opening time, the corridor now starts serving at 6:30 a.m. and keeps going until midnight on weekends. These hours come from each business's own listings or recent local coverage, and they can change, so check before you go.
| Stop | Address | Opens | Closes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Call Your Mother | 4828 St. Elmo Ave. | 6:30 a.m. daily | 2 p.m. weekdays, 3 p.m. weekends |
| PopUp Bagels | 7607 Old Georgetown Road | 7 a.m. daily | 4 p.m. |
| Lilit Café | 7921 Old Georgetown Road | 9 a.m. daily | 8:30 p.m. Mon.–Sat., 7:30 p.m. Sun. |
| Shake Shack | 7535 Old Georgetown Road | 10 a.m. daily | 11 p.m. Sun.–Thu., midnight Fri.–Sat. |
The bagel shops cover the early morning and close by mid-afternoon. Lilit Café opens later and stays open into the evening, which makes it the closest match on this list to an all-day neighborhood diner.
Lilit Café, the diner's own recommendation
The one place Old Georgetown Grille chose to name is one block away, at 7921 Old Georgetown Road. It is no newcomer. Bethesda Magazine describes Lilit as a nearby gluten-free deli and beer-and-wine store. On its own site, Lilit lists sandwiches, crab cakes, lamb chops and chicken kabobs, along with gluten-free gelato, desserts and gluten-free grocery items.
Of everything nearby, Lilit's menu has the most in common with the diner's. Both offer a crab cake, a plated meal and a place to sit down. Its hours stretch from morning into the evening, and it is the one stop here that also sells beer and wine to take home.
Rosetta Bakery on Fairmont
One more spot to know about arrived earlier in the year. Rosetta Bakery x Best Buddies opened on May 5 at 4901-A Fairmont Ave. It serves Italian pastries, breads, sandwiches, pizza and coffee. Through its partnership with Best Buddies International, the bakery supports inclusive employment. For a morning that runs to an espresso and a pastry rather than a bagel, Fairmont Avenue now has an answer.
What comes after the demolition
Firstenberg described the Stonebridge project as a "gateway" into downtown Bethesda. "This building is going to be seen from a long way away," he told Bethesda Today in January 2025, as Bethesda Magazine recounted this month. Plans call for one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, and 15 percent of the units, 41 in all, will be moderately priced dwelling units under the planning documents.
The same layout is spreading across downtown. In October the Planning Board approved a 26-story mixed-use tower at 7201 Wisconsin Ave. with up to 450 apartments and 12,000 square feet of commercial space, Bethesda Magazine reported. The plans include a 25-foot setback and two rows of trees along Willow Lane. The developer has not given a construction timeline.
So for the next couple of years, the corner of St. Elmo Avenue and Old Georgetown Road will be a construction site, while the newer ground-floor counters to the south do the morning business the diner used to do.
Dates on the downtown calendar this season
The Bethesda Urban Partnership calendar has a few downtown dates worth planning around between now and mid-December:
- Wednesday, November 11: A Veterans Day observance at Veterans Park, 10:45 to 11:30 a.m.
- Saturday, December 5: Winter Wonderland & Holiday Market on Norfolk and Cordell avenues, noon to 4 p.m., with Santa, ice sculpting, music and a Holiday Market with URBN Market and 50 artisans.
- Friday, December 11: The December Art Walk, an evening walking tour of downtown galleries and studios, 6 to 8 p.m.
Details and any updates are on the Bethesda Urban Partnership events page. The Veterans Day observance falls on a Wednesday morning, late enough to pick up a bagel on St. Elmo or Old Georgetown Road first.
If you live near Woodmont Triangle and want to talk through what the coming construction on Old Georgetown Road could mean for your street or your plans, Katie Bocock and our team are glad to listen and help you think it through. Contact Us anytime.
