I'm working in Bethesda, MD over the next several months and looking for a
decent wine store and wine friendly resturants. Any and all suggestions
would be appreciated.
Cheers
P. Parker

Don;t have any suggestions for you - sorry - but your post reminded me of my
own travels this very week. Was in Detroit area earlier in the week and had
a business dinner planned. we chose "Mac's" in Saline because of the wine
list (you can view it online at http://www.macsinsaline.com/) - and becasue
they have a 1/2 off special on Tuesday nights. If anyone is ever in the
area, ESPECIALLY ona Tuesday night - highly recommended.

Then was near Baltimore on Wednesday night - and also had a business dinner
need; but absolultely couldn't find a similar schtick; good restaurant with
a great wine list. Settled for cheap beer and great crabcakes instead!



> I'm working in Bethesda, MD over the next several months and looking for a
> decent wine store and wine friendly resturants. Any and all suggestions
> would be appreciated.
> Cheers
> P. Parker
>

Paul Parker wrote:
> I'm working in Bethesda, MD over the next several months and looking for a
> decent wine store and wine friendly resturants. Any and all suggestions
> would be appreciated.

Bethesda now has a few good restaurants with decent wine lists. Jaleo
is a very decent tapas place with a fairly good selection of (mostly
Spanish) wines. Persimmon is a seafood place, again with decent wine
list. Grapeseed is a wine bar, though their treatment of wines isn't
ideal. Dunno about retailers in Bethesda, but if you're there for so
long, get out to MacArthur or Calvert-Woodley: at the very least you
might have an RM Parker sighting.

HTH
Mark Lipton

Hello, Paul!
You wrote on Fri, 13 Oct 2006 20:57:07 GMT:

PP> I'm working in Bethesda, MD over the next several months
PP> and looking for a decent wine store and wine friendly
PP> resturants. Any and all suggestions would be appreciated.
PP> Cheers
PP> P. Parker

I'm not sure about wine-friendly restaurants but Bethesda is not
tremendous for wine stores, tho' they exist but wholesale
purchases by stores have to go thro' the Montgomery County
Liquor Authority. This quaint relic of prohibition means that
there are State Liquor stores too, which are the only places you
can buy hard liquor. IMHO, they are quite good on price and on
selection of recent vintages but I don't regard the staff as
particularly knowledgeable (maybe I am not either!) Some of the
stores, particularly those in Potomac, have some quite high
priced wines.

There are a few good liquor stores just over the border in DC
and there are supposed to be restrictions on purchase there by
Maryland residents, tho' I've never let that bother me! It's a
long time since I heard of anyone being run in. Chevy Chase
Liquors on Connecticut Ave used to be quite good tho' it's a
while since was last there. Calvert-Woodley is a fairly large
store, again on Connecticut and close to the Van Ness Metro
station. The Total wine stores in Northern Virginia are very
large and have decent prices but are some miles away.


James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

E-mail, with obvious alterations:
not.jim.silverton.at.comcast.not

Paul Parker wrote:
> I'm working in Bethesda, MD over the next several months and looking for a
> decent wine store and wine friendly resturants. Any and all suggestions
> would be appreciated.
> Cheers
> P. Parker
>
>
Andy Bassin's McArthur Beverages is down McArthur Blvd (about five
blocks north of the reservoir). Has some decent stocks and is
in the middle of a sale right now. I called up to order two
cases of Mollydooker Boxer and they told me it was going on sale
Saturday and gave me the sale price.

Montgomery county md has unique and very undity wine laws. forget
them.

DC also has unique liquor laws. It is one of the few places in the US
that not only does not have the three tier system, it allows an
importer to sell wine retail(properly lisenced). they are also
allowed to bring wines directly from other states(ca,or, wa) and sell
without going through a distributor.

at the DC border is Circle & Pauls

further in, both calvert woodly and macarthur have decent selection
and have direct imports. schneiders will have a number of direct
imports also, and usually some ca wines that cannot be found
elsewhere.

i don't eat in that part of wash, so have no feeling for wine friendly
restaurants.

however, you should realize the standard price on restaurant wine is
3x wholesale.

If you are near the red line, go to Dino's on ct ave in dc. see
dino-dc.com. they do not do the 3x, and they have a special of any
wine over $50 is 1/3 off on certain days, which gets them to under 2x
wholesale, and close to shelf price. has a phenomonal collection.


On Fri, 13 Oct 2006 20:57:07 GMT, "Paul Parker" >
wrote:

>I'm working in Bethesda, MD over the next several months and looking for a
>decent wine store and wine friendly resturants. Any and all suggestions
>would be appreciated.
>Cheers
>P. Parker
>