Independent, local restaurants versus national chains

BY ANDREW LINDEMANN

I’ve lived in Silver Spring for nearly 20 of my 25 years, and I’ve done a lot of eating out here, never getting tired of the multitude of options available to me. So when Montgomery County announced the lineup of new chain restaurants coming into the redeveloped area at Georgia and Colesville, I felt a little protective of the establishments I love. That was the genesis of this story.

The new eateries at Colesville Road and Georgia Avenue feature a beautifully restored Art-Deco facade, and are steps away from the AFI Silver Theater and the Discovery Communications headquarters. They are also all national chain restaurants: Austin Grill, Romano’s Macaroni Grill, Red Lobster, T.G.I. Friday’s, Potbelly Sandwich Works, and Panera Bread. Not that soulless corporatism is all bad–that’s what got us Chipotle, the McDonald’s Corporation’s act of supreme gastronomic atonement, which is coming to CityPlace Mall in March. But it’s safe to say that given a national chain and a similar, but clearly superior local alternative, most of us would go local.

The problem is that people who are unfamiliar with an area–say, AFI Silver patrons in town from Fairfax, or Discovery employees transferred from New York–don’t know about local alternatives, and will likely gravitate towards familiar restaurants, however mediocre. But in nearly every case, there is a better local place.

Austin Grill vs. Mi Rancho

Mi Rancho basically cleans the clock of Austin Grill on every aspect of the restaurant experience. Mi Rancho’s fajitas sizzle with better-calibrated spices and more generous helpings of salsa and guacamole. The tacos and burritos have an earthier, fresher flavor–unlike Austin Grill, Mi Rancho doesn’t need to put its burritos in aluminum foil, because they are brought straight from the kitchen. Even the chips sometimes come out still warm, and the salsa sparkles to match. Mi Rancho cooks a whole fish well, too, which is something Austin Grill doesn’t even attempt. Austin Grill offers a great beer selection and more kinds of margaritas, but Mi Rancho’s margaritas fare better.

Atmospherically, the two can’t compare. Mi Rancho has a lovely outdoor patio, now covered and heated for the winter, that’s spacious and cozy at the same time. The furnishings indoors are in authentic earth tones and the wood surfaces have an inviting wear and tear. Mi Rancho has also bestowed the irresistible smell of sizzling, well-seasoned meat to downtown passersby for years and years now. What has Austin Grill ever done for anyone besides served beer on draft, and who cares about that when you’ve got a cold bottle of Negra Modelo in hand?

Romano’s Macaroni Grill vs. Sergio’s

To the best of my understanding, the supreme ambition of Romano’s Macaroni Grill is to surpass Olive Garden. That’s something like resolving to sing better than Britney Spears. How about some authentic Italian food instead? Two blocks up Colesville from restaurant corner, tucked away inconspicuously in the lobby of the Hilton Silver Spring, Sergio’s has been turning out fine pastas and Italian meat dishes for as long as I can remember. In fact, one of my first dining-out memories was being herded into Sergio’s. It was good even to my nine-year-old palate! I haven’t been back recently, but I’m going to go sometime soon just to show Macaroni Grill what I think of its presence.

Red Lobster vs. Crisfield

Let’s see here: you can go to the one restaurant known region-wide as a Silver Spring institution; the high-class joint that thrived in downtown’s heyday and survived the bad years on pure merit; the restaurant immortalized in the fiction writings of bestselling author George Pelecanos. Or you can go to some thoroughly anonymous chain whose advertisements fixate on the disquieting volume of food you can get. Choose Crisfield for the delicate oysters, the fine bisques, or the legendary crabcakes, and eat with a sense of history.

T.G.I. Friday’s vs. Parkway Deli and Tastee Diner

The obvious competitor for T.G.I. Friday’s is actually the Ruby Tuesday’s in CityPlace, but that restaurant has a bad record of making me sick. We’ll ignore it. What do people want when they go to T.G.I. Friday’s? Essentially, tasty fried food of some sort and truly excessive desserts. We have two of those!

A short drive west from downtown, the Parkway Deli serves both fine Jewish food and excellent secular food–simple entrees such as matzoh ball soup, grilled liver, and sandwiches packed with fresh, tasty corned beef or ham. Parkway also offers a pickle bar unmatched in the area. But the crowning glory of the Parkway is its desserts, which see your Friday’s Triple Brownie Fudge Sundae and raise it in actual quality. Cheesecakes, pies, cake no less decadent–some of my favorite dessert memories are of the Parkway Deli. If you’re out to indulge, you can do a lot worse. Such as going to Friday’s!

Smack in the middle of downtown, and even more of an institution, is the Tastee Diner, which was displaced by the Discovery Communications building to its current expanded site next to Mi Rancho. Open 24 hours a day, the Tastee will get you full and feeling better about life by frying anything: burgers, chicken, steak, potatoes, whatever. Some of the waitresses are the old-fashioned diner-type, with salty attitudes but fine service; some are a little cheerier and a little less careful, but it’s easy to forgive.

The expansion means the decor is no longer entirely authentic, but there’s still a jukebox and a 1950s-era counter. And Tastee serves up both homemade pie and wonderful shakes, surpassed in the area only by those served at Gifford’s in Bethesda.

Potbelly Sandwich Works vs. Polonez

Potbelly serves underfilled sandwiches made quickly with pedestrian ingredients for $3.79 apiece. Its only outstanding product is its oatmeal-chocolate chip cookie. Take your sandwich hunger instead to Polonez. Renowned for its Polish products, Polonez stocks extra-flavorful pork products and pungent cheeses, which make for odd yet addictive sandwich experiences. You can also get regular deli meats on your baguette, rye, wheat, white, or croissant, all of which are superior.

They’ll try to upsell you anytime you order deli meat in what they judge as insufficient quantity, but some of the stuff they’ll try to foist off is really good, so if you have an extra five bucks in your pocket you might as well just go with the flow. Also, pick up some mustard.

Panera Bread vs. Mayorga Coffee Factory

Panera serves sandwiches and pastries, but they don’t put much meat in their sandwiches and they seem to think pastries are improved by cramming ungodly amounts of sugar into and around them. So why are there so many people in there so often? Because Panera provides a nice space to lounge around and sip a cuppa joe. Good for them–except Mayorga does it better.

The coffee, as you might expect, completely skunks Panera’s: roasted on the premises fresh as you could possibly wish and with a gourmet’s touch, its pleasures sing out even to those of us who are not java junkies. But the pastries, too, beat Panera both on taste (perfectly fine) and value (much more reasonably priced).

If you have friends who are unmoved by both coffee and pastries, you can nevertheless lounge around with them, as Mayorga always has a selection of quality beers on tap as well. Throw in live music on Fridays and Saturdays, and predictable corporate mediocrity never looked so unappealing

When these new establishments face their established competitors, there is really no competition. After all, these restaurant-come-latelies may know plenty about how to win friends and influence zoning boards, but they don’t know anything about Silver Spring.