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)
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There is one other 7-11 at the corner of Fenton & Sligo Avenues. I spent many a weekend afternoon sitting on the curb there eating Big Bites with chili. (Vomit.
In middle school, that is.
Holy crap: Silver Spring has more 7-11 stores than it does Starbucks?
I personally find 7-11 to be a terrible addition to the neighborhood. It encourages loitering, littering and adds no value to the community.
I’m concerned about the use of a taser in that situation. Tasers are meant to be non-lethal alternatives to guns and billy clubs. Pre-tasers, would that siutation have required the cop to use a gun or club?
Taser abuse is rampant in this country, and people are dying from it. We must not let that become the norm in MoCo.
Jennifer, please consider getting a copy of the police report for the taser incident. People can get badly hurt in fights — whether they are participants or innocent folks who happen to be on the sidewalk nearby.
This world need a non-harmful way of subduing people who are acting violet. I wish the military-industrial complex spent more resources on this.
Editor’s note: Will contact the MCPD for that police report. — JD (May 8, 2009)
Thanks for your comment, Springvale Roader.
Honestly, I don’t know what the situation was at that fight. Was the cop working solo? Did he spot a concealed weapon on the guy? This may have prompted the officer to use his taser, as opposed to step into the fray to break it up.
Agree with 8045. And the pizza joint will bring the same as well, plus Mama Lucia already has great slices only two blocks away.
great piece.
I think Spidey tech is the way to go for non-lethal weapons. Especially if it’s like the Electric Company version of Spiderman’s web slinging, where it starts out as a cartoon and ends up as a big fishnet.
Nobody EVER got away from Spidey, man!
Though I’m not thrilled with either business as I’ll rarely (if evr) use either one, but I AM glad to see long vacant retail spaces finally being filled.
Where Caribou Coffee is at in the Blairs was a 7-11 (before that it was a Highs) for decades and it served its purpose for transit users and nearby office workers grabbing a quick coffee, cigs, or lunch. It was not a source of loitering or crime — I worked around the corner from it for 10+ years. The same folks who owned and ran it – are the ones who have the location on 16th St.
So your latest “Watercooler” has Flippin Pizza going in where the former Polonez Deli and Bakery site on Georgia Avenue near Sligo Avenue….which is it? Or are we getting two?
We’re getting two pizza places: Flippin Pizza on Coleville at Ramsey, and a player to be named later at the place on Georgia near Sligo.