The Bistro- Off topic and fun posts!

[mskatiemae]

16 minutes ago, BWIVince said:

 

I remember the flagship Dayton's store -- my first trip to Minneapolis was a few years before Dayton-Hudson rebranded everything (except Target and Mervyn's) under Field's.  That was the intersection where Mary Tyler Moore (tying this back to Crystal) tossed her tam, right?

Yes and there is a statue there now of Mary tossing her Tam. I'm of a certain age where I was glued to her show on a weekly basis. So I am happy MTM is the Serenity's godmother.

https://www.minneapolis.org/honoring-mary-tyler-moore/mary-tyler-moore-locations-in-minneapolis/

 

 

[BWIVince]

8 minutes ago, KenzSailing said:

When White Flint opened it got a lot of publicity for having valet parking.  Remember that?

 

I do, but my parents were too cheap/poor to use it...  What I remember about it was the section of the parking we couldn't park in and had to drive past each time we went.  lol

 

Along the same lines, there was a full service restaurant on that third floor terrace originally, and we NEVER ate there.  If we were going to the movies or the shops in "Georgetown" (more on that in a sec), you had to walk through it to get from the elevators.

 

As a little kid interested in architecture (and fountains lol), the coolest part to me were the themed "neighborhoods" like Via Rialto with the "canal" fountains, and Georgetown upstairs where Dave and Busters eventually went in.  I was real small when Georgetown was converted from retail to professional office space, but I can remember some of the original stores up there that had to move (like Esterman's).  

 

The original Eatery was HUGE, terraced, dim and dramatically lit.  It was the first of that scale for a mall in suburban DC -- I think I was a teenager before Montgomery Mall got a real food court.  It was also chopped in half when I was a kid.

 

The brutalist architecture of the atrium was kind of unique -- most of the malls here that followed or were expanded later were mostly steel and glass, with little actual design in the construction vs. decor.

 

It was one of the few malls here I can remember with multi-story NON-anchor stores with their own elevator...  I remember Raleighs was on the first and second floors, and riding the (boring, regular) store elevator out of boredom with my mom while my dad had suits fitted.  I'm sure the purpose of the walk was to go look at something she wanted to look at, but the elevator was clearly the highlight of the excursion for me.  lol

 

Vince

[Texas Tillie]

1 hour ago, BWIVince said:

 

 

I can remember shopping with my mom at Lord & Taylor when I was a little kid -- it was definitely in her rotation too.  The funny memory I have is that it was just about the only store I saw her use her American Express at, since Lord & Taylor didn't take the "Washington Shopping Plate" like Woodies, Hecht's, Garfinkel's, Raleigh's, etc..  LOL. (That was before department stores took Visa or MasterCard yet at all here.)

 

The Lord & Taylor where I grew up was the last piece of its mall that hadn't been demolished, because of a lawsuit, but that was a short-lived win.  The mall (White Flint) had our region's first Bloomingdale's and the east coast's only I. Magnin, among many other unique features.  Time marches on, I guess.

 

Vince

 

Oh, my goodness, I don't know what it's actual name was here in Houston, remember its being called the charge -a- plate. It had "divots" out of the top indicating where you had an account - v, half moon, square. Don't remember which was which - Sakowitz, Battelstein's, Foley's, Needless Markup😲, etc.

My mother would give it to me and I'd go with a friend on the bus downtown. She trusted me not to buy anything that wasn't acceptable. This was when I was 14 or so. Not letting a 14 year old ride the bus downtown these days!!

 

Patty

[Keith1010]

I was there when White Flint Mall opened. Do you remember a restaurant iutvRo kville Pike called G D Graffiti.  It was Italian.  Great salad bar.  Wait staff dress as mobsters.  Samples of the deserts I think were shown in a violin case.  It closed a few years later but loved it vi still have a paper menu. 
 

Keith

[KenzSailing]

1 hour ago, BWIVince said:

Along the same lines, there was a full service restaurant on that third floor terrace originally, and we NEVER ate there.  If we were going to the movies or the shops in "Georgetown" (more on that in a sec), you had to walk through it to get from the elevators.

 

 

 

That restaurant and the valet parking are among the few things I remember.  Also, I remember the Williams Sonoma store there. A few years later (and decades ago) Laurel and I bought a big set of All Clad cookware there (we had been getting by on the junk we each had when single.)  I distinctly remember the joy of lugging that box thru the mall to the car.  Also, in front of us at checkout, George Will was buying a big set of All Clad.  Yeah, in a suit and bow tie.  Bet he didn't carry it himself.  

[mskatiemae]

24 minutes ago, KenzSailing said:

 

That restaurant and the valet parking are among the few things I remember.  Also, I remember the Williams Sonoma store there. A few years later (and decades ago) Laurel and I bought a big set of All Clad cookware there (we had been getting by on the junk we each had when single.)  I distinctly remember the joy of lugging that box thru the mall to the car.  Also, in front of us at checkout, George Will was buying a big set of All Clad.  Yeah, in a suit and bow tie.  Bet he didn't carry it himself.  

Bet he also doesn't have a Chez. I just have made it to the All Clad cookware tier a year ago, I was always a bit too cheap before it went full mainstream. Now it's all I want to use! Me, you, and George Will know what's good stuff.

[rafinmd]

Today I go not only to an alternate day in June but also for a sunset rather than a sunrise.  On June 8, 2015 I watched the sun go down from MS Prinsendam in Milford Haven, Wales:

 

 

Roy

[ctjon]

Grew up in NYC where, at the time, were the only ones of these stores.  I also remember (barely) when stores weren't open in the evening and never on weekends.  Hours did change before the holiday season but it was a very different world back then.

[BWIVince]

 

 

 

18 hours ago, Keith1010 said:

I was there when White Flint Mall opened. Do you remember a restaurant iutvRo kville Pike called G D Graffiti.  It was Italian.  Great salad bar.  Wait staff dress as mobsters.  Samples of the deserts I think were shown in a violin case.  It closed a few years later but loved it vi still have a paper menu. 
 

Keith

 

I never got to eat there, but I do remember it being kind of mid-pike, like near where House of Chinese Gourmet was.  Not surprisingly, almost all of my memories of restaurants on Rockville Pike are in relation to Asian restaurants on Rockville Pike.  lol. ...Give or take the ones that were former Marriott restaurant concepts.

 

17 hours ago, KenzSailing said:

 

That restaurant and the valet parking are among the few things I remember.  Also, I remember the Williams Sonoma store there. A few years later (and decades ago) Laurel and I bought a big set of All Clad cookware there (we had been getting by on the junk we each had when single.)  I distinctly remember the joy of lugging that box thru the mall to the car.  Also, in front of us at checkout, George Will was buying a big set of All Clad.  Yeah, in a suit and bow tie.  Bet he didn't carry it himself.  

 

LOL!  I have lots of memories of the Williams Sonoma store!  That was like our Sur la Table, back in the day.  White Flint also had our first Pottery Barn.  Montgomery Mall, OTOH, got the Crate & Barrel.  I miss that store too -- driving into DC to the Mass Ave. store is more work than I want to put into shopping at C&B.

 

I think my oldest distinct memory of White Flint was seeing ET there as a little kid, when it first premiered.

 

George Will carrying a set of All Clad is an interesting mental picture!  Too bad White Flint never had the parcel pickup tunnel that Wheaton Plaza had.  haha

 

Vince

Edited June 22, 2021 by BWIVince

[rafinmd]

Recent conversation here has brought something out of somewhat recessed  memory.  Michael Lisicky is an oboist with the Baltimore Symphony but he has a second "career".  He has a long string of books on the history of our great department stores.  I've sometimes wondered if he could ever have a place as a lecturer on Crystal and play a bit of a two-fer role jamming with the bands.  I don't think there's much in the oboe literature to justify a headline entertainment role but I would be fascinated by the possible of a secondary role with the band.

 

Roy

[Keith1010]

Ok back to White Flint.  Was the Newman Marcus located there or across the street?  I have a story but need to refresh my mind on location. 
 

Keith. 

[KenzSailing]

I remember Neiman's as definitely being at WF.  Long gone, of course, as is their second store at Mazza Gallerie (which BTW is being converted to residential.)  Seems like all the viable suburban malls left are those in NoVA (which is firing on all cylinders, especially with the build-out of Amazon HQ2.) 

[BWIVince]

1 hour ago, rafinmd said:

Recent conversation here has brought something out of somewhat recessed  memory.  Michael Lisicky is an oboist with the Baltimore Symphony but he has a second "career".  He has a long string of books on the history of our great department stores.  I've sometimes wondered if he could ever have a place as a lecturer on Crystal and play a bit of a two-fer role jamming with the bands.  I don't think there's much in the oboe literature to justify a headline entertainment role but I would be fascinated by the possible of a secondary role with the band.

 

Roy

 

I've seen them do combo-assignments like that before, but I don't know they formulate such opportunities.  That does sound cool though -- I don't know much about oboes.  A neighbor of relatives near Annapolis had a farm house built in 1711 that had regular supernatural reportings of hearing oboes playing, and oddly that's a positive memory that comes to my mind.  😮

 

Vince

[BWIVince]

1 hour ago, Keith1010 said:

Ok back to White Flint.  Was the Newman Marcus located there or across the street?  I have a story but need to refresh my mind on location. 
 

Keith. 

 

30 minutes ago, KenzSailing said:

I remember Neiman's as definitely being at WF.  Long gone, of course, as is their second store at Mazza Gallerie (which BTW is being converted to residential.)  Seems like all the viable suburban malls left are those in NoVA (which is firing on all cylinders, especially with the build-out of Amazon HQ2.) 

 

Close...  I think you guys might be thinking of I. Magnin.  Our only Neiman's store was that one in Mazza Gallerie.  Bloomingdales and Lord & Taylor were the two big anchors on the ends the whole history of the mall, and I. Magnin was the original tenant for the center anchor spot on the second and third floors above the Via Rialto.  The street entrance for I. Magnin was on the Rockville Pike side, and you entered via the escalators over the fountains.

 

When I. Magnin closed, the whole space became a Borders.  I can't think of anything that even went in that space after Borders closed,  but I might be forgetting something.

 

Did that help queue up the story?  Mazza Gallerie was an even higher end version of White Flint in some ways, was that maybe what you were thinking of?

 

Vince 

[BWIVince]

...Or maybe thinking of Lord & Taylor?  I just remembered they were the one with a store in both Friendship Heights and White Flint.

[KenzSailing]

3 hours ago, BWIVince said:

 

 

Close...  I think you guys might be thinking of I. Magnin.  Our only Neiman's store was that one in Mazza Gallerie.

 

Drat!  I knew I was out on  a limb with you patrolling the beat.  But WF definitely had the area's first Bloomie's.  I remember articles about the arrival of the Big Brown Bag.

 

3 hours ago, BWIVince said:

...Or maybe thinking of Lord & Taylor?  I just remembered they were the one with a store in both Friendship Heights and White Flint.

 

Nah, I'm clear on L&T being stand-alone just to the west of Mazza.  It's gone too, of course.  That plot is going to bring $$$.  They had a ridiculously large parking garage attached.

[mskatiemae]

7 hours ago, BWIVince said:

 

I've seen them do combo-assignments like that before, but I don't know they formulate such opportunities.  That does sound cool though -- I don't know much about oboes.  A neighbor of relatives near Annapolis had a farm house built in 1711 that had regular supernatural reportings of hearing oboes playing, and oddly that's a positive memory that comes to my mind.  😮

 

Vince

As a former flute player, it would be great to hear oboe music. A wonderful wind quintet? Team up with the string quartet for a nonet? 

 

A Bach sonata for oboe and violin:

https://onlineradiobox.com/track/2018006051367629088/?cs=us.mprclassical

[Keith1010]

9 hours ago, BWIVince said:

 

 

Close...  I think you guys might be thinking of I. Magnin.  Our only Neiman's store was that one in Mazza Gallerie.  Bloomingdales and Lord & Taylor were the two big anchors on the ends the whole history of the mall, and I. Magnin was the original tenant for the center anchor spot on the second and third floors above the Via Rialto.  The street entrance for I. Magnin was on the Rockville Pike side, and you entered via the escalators over the fountains.

 

When I. Magnin closed, the whole space became a Borders.  I can't think of anything that even went in that space after Borders closed,  but I might be forgetting something.

 

Did that help queue up the story?  Mazza Gallerie was an even higher end version of White Flint in some ways, was that maybe what you were thinking of?

 

Vince 

Vince, that makes sense.  I forgot about that one.  Was that in Bethesda?  

 

I remember going when they opened Neiman Marcus.  It was a big deal because back then we had heard of it with its Texas roots and that fancy, dancy, fancy, dancy Holiday Catalog.  Oh those were the days.

 

Keith

[rafinmd]

Today's sunrise is from the 2015 Prinsendam B2B, taken on June10, a sea day:

 

 

Roy

[BWIVince]

11 hours ago, KenzSailing said:

 

Drat!  I knew I was out on  a limb with you patrolling the beat.  But WF definitely had the area's first Bloomie's.  I remember articles about the arrival of the Big Brown Bag.

 

 

Nah, I'm clear on L&T being stand-alone just to the west of Mazza.  It's gone too, of course.  That plot is going to bring $$$.  They had a ridiculously large parking garage attached.

 

My interest in history and architecture kind of makes me one of the board's bone collectors.  lol. I apologize for how obnoxious that is sometimes.

 

My head spins when I think about the value of land down there.  It's going to be like the Hecht's property development, +15 years of inflation.

 

5 hours ago, Keith1010 said:

Vince, that makes sense.  I forgot about that one.  Was that in Bethesda?  

 

I remember going when they opened Neiman Marcus.  It was a big deal because back then we had heard of it with its Texas roots and that fancy, dancy, fancy, dancy Holiday Catalog.  Oh those were the days.

 

Keith

 

That's the one...  Whether you call that Bethesda or not is the stuff of local lore and knife fights though.  😁  The Neiman Marcus store is technically in DC, but the two Maryland corners of that intersection are definitely inside Bethesda's Census designated boundaries.  That said, I think bodily harm may come to anyone that doesn't refer to it as Chevy Chase or Friendship Heights though...  The same way 2/3 of Rockville is now Bethesda, and "North Bethesda" extends pretty much up to Pennsylvania.  😏 

 

Vince

[Keith1010]

Thanks, Vince.  Oh Friendship Heights brings back good memories as does Chevy Chase.

 

I can't remember where it was but in college sometimes at night we would go to Boeeymonger's for sandwiches or deserts, the there was a place called Royal Warrant or something like that for mixed drinks (yes you had to be 21 but they didn't card us and back then beer and wine at 18).  I remember very large drinks at a reasonable price.

 

I do remember all the stores Saks, Lord & Taylor and then eventually the Neiman.  I couldn't afford anything at Neiman but the day it opened I did get a braided belt which I still have. 

 

And I remember Giant Foods very well.  Our go to store while living in the Maryland, Northern Virginia and WDC areas.

 

Oh those were the days.

 

Keith

 

 

[KenzSailing]

46 minutes ago, Keith1010 said:

Thanks, Vince.  Oh Friendship Heights brings back good memories as does Chevy Chase.

 

I can't remember where it was but in college sometimes at night we would go to Boeeymonger's for sandwiches or deserts, the there was a place called Royal Warrant or something like that for mixed drinks (yes you had to be 21 but they didn't card us and back then beer and wine at 18).  I remember very large drinks at a reasonable price.

 

I do remember all the stores Saks, Lord & Taylor and then eventually the Neiman.  I couldn't afford anything at Neiman but the day it opened I did get a braided belt which I still have. 

 

And I remember Giant Foods very well.  Our go to store while living in the Maryland, Northern Virginia and WDC areas.

 

Oh those were the days.

 

Keith

 

 

 

Booeymonger's was directly across the street from the south side of Mazza, facing onto Wisconsin Av.  It's still there, assuming it survived the shutdown.

 

Giant foods, good enough when it was locally owned, was bought by Ahold years ago.  The change was not for the better.  We now shop at Harris Teeter (Kroeger's slightly fancier brand.)  The promised land everyone is waiting on is the Wegman's going up as part of the redevelopment of the old Fannie Mae site further south on Wisconsin.

 

And as long as we're discussing area retail stores, I'll just mention that, way at the north end of the stretch we've been discussing, where the commercial zoning gives way to residential, the Saks Fifth Avenue is still going strong.   They even took the plywood down from the display windows about one month ago.

 

And wait until you hear where Marriott HQ is moving to...

 

[Keith1010]

29 minutes ago, KenzSailing said:

 

Booeymonger's was directly across the street from the south side of Mazza, facing onto Wisconsin Av.  It's still there, assuming it survived the shutdown.

 

Giant foods, good enough when it was locally owned, was bought by Ahold years ago.  The change was not for the better.  We now shop at Harris Teeter (Kroeger's slightly fancier brand.)  The promised land everyone is waiting on is the Wegman's going up as part of the redevelopment of the old Fannie Mae site further south on Wisconsin.

 

And as long as we're discussing area retail stores, I'll just mention that, way at the north end of the stretch we've been discussing, where the commercial zoning gives way to residential, the Saks Fifth Avenue is still going strong.   They even took the plywood down from the display windows about one month ago.

 

And wait until you hear where Marriott HQ is moving to...

 

Oh too bad about Giant being bought.  I remember when we were there it was independent.

 

I even remember what I used to get from Saks.

 

OK, so another memory.

 

In College we would walk a few miles to Wisconsin and (oops maybe Van Ness) but I could be wrong to Roy Rogers.  I loved it.  Hamburgers or Chicken for me, French Fries (large), Cole Slaw, Chocolate Shake.  Now I would not do that today.  I remember you would get a tray and they would place items on a hot warmer and you would see them wrapping them and I thought the food was way above McDonald's and Burger King.  And they had a little area were you could add sliced tomatoes, onion, relish, ketchup, mustard, etc.  I want to say they were bought by Marriott and the eventually I am not sure what happened but there are very few of them left.  Just love it.  

 

Keith

[BWIVince]

1 hour ago, KenzSailing said:

 

Booeymonger's was directly across the street from the south side of Mazza, facing onto Wisconsin Av.  It's still there, assuming it survived the shutdown.

 

Giant foods, good enough when it was locally owned, was bought by Ahold years ago.  The change was not for the better.  We now shop at Harris Teeter (Kroeger's slightly fancier brand.)  The promised land everyone is waiting on is the Wegman's going up as part of the redevelopment of the old Fannie Mae site further south on Wisconsin.

 

And as long as we're discussing area retail stores, I'll just mention that, way at the north end of the stretch we've been discussing, where the commercial zoning gives way to residential, the Saks Fifth Avenue is still going strong.   They even took the plywood down from the display windows about one month ago.

 

And wait until you hear where Marriott HQ is moving to...

 

 

+1 about Giant...  In the context of the changes in retail, I was ok with how Sainsbury tried to keep the quality similar and many of the traditions of the Cohens, but the changes under Ahold have been very disappointing.  Our Wegman's opened years ago, and I think I've been in our Giant once since -- and I can't remember why.

 

1 hour ago, Keith1010 said:

Oh too bad about Giant being bought.  I remember when we were there it was independent.

 

I even remember what I used to get from Saks.

 

OK, so another memory.

 

In College we would walk a few miles to Wisconsin and (oops maybe Van Ness) but I could be wrong to Roy Rogers.  I loved it.  Hamburgers or Chicken for me, French Fries (large), Cole Slaw, Chocolate Shake.  Now I would not do that today.  I remember you would get a tray and they would place items on a hot warmer and you would see them wrapping them and I thought the food was way above McDonald's and Burger King.  And they had a little area were you could add sliced tomatoes, onion, relish, ketchup, mustard, etc.  I want to say they were bought by Marriott and the eventually I am not sure what happened but there are very few of them left.  Just love it.  

 

Keith

 

Roy Rogers is my JAM!!!  (I know Ken is not surprised in the least, and shaking his head.  LOL). I wish I still had my Buckaroo Club card from when I was a kid.  lol. My truck even has a perfectly sized Roys Fried Chicken box holder in the console.  😇  

 

They were my parents go-to fast food chain when I was a kid, but I didn't particularly love them until high school.  Our high school moved to a holding school while my school was renovated, and the local franchisee provided free food for almost all of the school events (unlike the corporate-owned location near my original school).

 

Their history was fun...  They actually started as a Marriott concept, an offshoot from their Hot Shoppes group.  

When Marriott divested the restaurants, they got sold to Hardees, and all the locations became Hardees.

Then when sales tanked, they became "Hardees with Roy Rogers Breakfast."  (No, I'm NOT kidding.  ...and yes, the actual outdoor signs said that.  Seriously.)

Not surprisingly, after that Hardees changed them back to Roy Rogers.

By the mid-90's Hardees started selling off regions of corporate locations (before they ultimately sold their own brand), with our Roy's finally sold off to McDonalds for the real estate in 1996.  Our corp. locations here were closed and converted around 1997 or so.  

 

There was some back-and-forth over the franchised locations though, and eventually our local operator of the Frederick-area franchises bought the rights to the brand from the former owner of Hardees.  He was a former Marriott exec involved with the restaurant side, and his kids have been running the company for years.  They're a great local hospitality company -- I know a few people who work in their HQ.

 

Oddly for a Marriott concept, they actually have my favorite fried chicken of any chain around here...  Though Popeye's is a close second I guess.

 

Vince

 

Edited June 23, 2021 by BWIVince

[Texas Tillie]

As I remember, Roy Rogers was in Texas for a short time only. I think it must have been around 1970 ish. Do remember that people joked about getting a Trigger Burger!! We didn’t have McDonalds for the longest time as someone owned the DBA and wouldn’t sell it 

 

Patty

Edited June 23, 2021 by Texas Tillie