The Silver Spring Penguin

Thursday’s break in the deluge allowed Penguin staffers to stroll the town on coffee break. Thankfully, they had their camera phones in hand:

Coming soon: The Slurpee

One can almost smell the hot dogs rolling on the grill at downtown Silver Spring’s latest 7-11 store, going into the former Noble Roman pizza shop on Colesville Road near Second Avenue. Now, post-office patrons will have a choice between the Big Gulp and a Big Mac from the nearby McDonald’s restaurant.

The soon-to-open convenience store will be the fourth 7-11 store in Silver Spring’s central business district. (There’s one on Georgia Avenue in South Silver Spring, one in The Georgian apartment building on Fenwick Lane and First Avenue, and another on Fenton Street and Sligo Avenue.) Compare that with the ubiquitous Starbucks, which has two full stores — near the Silver Spring Metro station, and on Ellsworth Drive — and a small counter inside the Giant Foods at The Blairs.

Coming soon: Pizza by the slice

If late-night beer and condom runs to 7-11 aren’t your thing, there’s Flippin’ Pizza. The growing chain, which touts its product as “in your face” New York-style pizza, already has stores in California and Virginia. (Because that’s where New York-style pizza is really from.) And now it’s setting up shop on Colesville Road near Ramsey Avenue, between a Qdoba Mexican restaurant and an M&T Bank.

The retail space originally was to be occupied by a Dunkin Donuts franchise, according to several sources. But that deal imploded last year before the dough could hit the fryer.

Going down: High-voltage law enforcement

Late last month, Penguin Twitter buddy @DCDebbie captured this sequence of photos on the north side of Ellsworth Drive, next to the civic center construction site on Fenton Street.

According to Debbie, a group of boys (exact age unknown) began fighting on the corner, across the street from the Chick-Fil-A restaurant. That’s when a police officer drew his taser (below left) and zapped one of the brawlers. It’s unclear whether the cop was responding to a 911 call, or if he had spotted the scuffle by chance. 

In the next pic, the boys are shown eating pavement after being tased. It’s unknown if anyone was charged with a crime, or if the tasing resulted in any injuries.

According to one taser vendor, the electro-gun throws out between 11,000 and 50,000 volts of juice (depending on the model) to take down a dude.

Store photos by J. Deseo for The Penguin. Taser shots courtesy of Twitter user @DCDebbie.

Updated to include one more 7-11 store in the central business district, and to pimp out the taser pics. — JD (May 8, 2009)