New year brings extended calendar to downtown’s outdoor markets

By Jennifer Deseo | Jan 4, 2010
Photo: How do you like them snowy apples? From the Dec 5, 2009, farmers market in downtown Silver Spring. Credit: J. Deseo/SSP.

Photo: How do you like them snowy apples? From the Dec 5, 2009, farmers market in downtown Silver Spring. Credit: J. Deseo/SSP.

Resolved to eat more fruits and veggies in the new year? Silver Spring’s farmers market can hook you up starting this weekend. Want some cool tchotchkes for your crib? The Fenton Street Market hits you with that in the spring.

On Saturday, FreshFarm holds its first installation of a year-round farmers market in the Downtown Silver Spring shopping center. Expect the locally grown goods to hit Ellsworth Drive at 10:00 a.m., one hour later than usual, a market spokesperson told The Penguin.

FreshFarm considered a year-round market last summer, when it surveyed local shoppers with an informal “pin the dot” poll. Most respondents seemed to dig the idea of 12 months of markets, though a few felt cold weather would make shit out of the experience, according to The Penguin’s unofficial tally of survey results.

Some of that wintry weather already made its presence known to market patrons on Dec 5, 2009, when a relatively small snowpocalypse dropped four inches of slush on apples and greens. The weather that day drew fewer shoppers than usual onto Ellsworth, despite a concurrent crafts fair on that street. (more…)

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Vendors, visitors flood Fenton Village craft mart

By Jennifer Deseo | Dec 30, 2009
Photo: A jewelry vendor at the Fenton Street Market. Credit: J. Deseo/SSP.

Photo: A jewelry vendor at the Fenton Street Market. Credit: J. Deseo/SSP.

Editor’s note: Fenton Village scored a sweet deal in September when the Fenton Street Market opened. Part craft mart, part yard sale, it was popular enough to spawn weekly sales starting spring 2010.

Saturday morning was all about baubles, bicycles and hand-knit scarves at the inaugural Fenton Street Market.

About 40 vendors set up shop in a paved parking lot on Fenton and Silver Spring Avenue. Many sold beaded jewelry, scarves and wool yarn, while others peddled paintings and photographs. A few offered used tchotchkes, Hawaiian shirts and VHS tapes. (It’s what people used to watch before they streamed shows off Hulu.)

Meanwhile, a steady stream of people snaked around vendors’ tables and inspected da goods. Dozens more in their cars circled the block and spilled onto East Silver Spring’s residential streets in search of coveted parking. (more…)

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Muralist creates refuge in Fenton Village alley

By Jennifer Deseo | Dec 29, 2009
Photo: Muralist Joel Bergner gets busy in the alley. Credit: R. Pace/SSP/

Credit: R. Pace/SSP.

Editor’s note: Penguin photog Ron Pace first spotted this piece of street art going up outside Fenton Village’s Kefa Cafe in early June, but the real eye grabber was the artist’s tricked-out car.

At first glance, some people notice bright colors and broad faces beaming from the dingy alley off Bonifant Street. Others notice the kid carrying an AK-47 over his shoulder.

Either way, the mural sprouting outside Kefa Cafe in Fenton Village has drawn the neighborhood’s attention. Each figure on that brick wall has a story to tell. So does the guy painting them.

Joel Bergner has painted murals in San Francisco, Chicago and The District, most with a nod to the immigrants who make up those neighborhoods. They also reflect his peripatetic life, as he rolls from one city to the next in his pimped-out ride. (more…)

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Gratuitous Shot

By Jennifer Deseo | Dec 16, 2009
Copyright (c) 2009 by Flickr user Spoffy. Reposted with permission.

Copyright (c) 2009 by Flickr user Spoffy. Reposted with permission.

While The District’s gay and lesbian community celebrates Tuesday’s baby step towards same-sex marriage, Silver Springers can take comfort in knowing there’s a Drag City in Fenton Village.

But the only T here is steeped in hot water and scented with jasmine. (more…)

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Georgia Ave office building to bolster Fenton Village park

By Jennifer Deseo | Dec 9, 2009

UPDATE — A development group and the county’s planning board agreed to a deal that will shift public space from outside a Georgia Avenue office building to a park in Fenton Village.

Image: Coming soon to Georgia Avenue. Courtesy of MNCPPC.

Image: Coming soon to Georgia Avenue. Courtesy of MNCPPC.

The agreement, forged at the Nov 19 planning board hearing, allows an office building planned for 8621 Georgia Ave to align its facade with neighboring buildings, without surrendering 20 percent of its 30,400 square-foot lot to public use, as required.

Instead of giving up 6,080 square feet of Georgia Avenue streetscape, the agreement calls for only 1,760 square feet of onsite public-use space, planning board documents read.

In exchange for the extra street frontage, the 8621 Limited Partnership development group must pay nearly $583,000 into an “amenity fund” that will help finance redevelopment of the Fenton Village Urban Park, two thirds of a mile from the planned office building. (more…)

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Downtown pizzerias show varying signs of progress

By Jennifer Deseo | Nov 17, 2009
Photo: Flippin' close to the finish. Credit: J. Deseo/SSP.

Photos: Flippin' close to the finish. Credit: J. Deseo/SSP.

UPDATE — On one end of downtown Silver Spring, a franchise pizzeria is poised to fling open its doors and sling a few pies into its ovens. At the other end, a locally owned parlor sprouts slowly from scratch. It’s the tale of two pizzerias on different tracks of development.

On Colesville Road near Ramsey Avenue, Flippin’ Pizza promises to deliver “a slice of New York” to Discovery HQ employees and other area office workers. A quick visual inspection Friday revealed workers adding final touches to the small restaurant’s lighting. An exposed-brick wall framed posters of the Brooklyn Bridge (holler!) and the New York skyline. Two wide wooden paddles hung on a wall behind the counter, next to flat, stacked pizza ovens.

A brief glimpse on Monday morning showed an orange ladder leaning against Flippin’ Pizza’s dining room wall.

Electrical workers inside the restaurant said on Oct 28 that the place would open for business the following week. Almost three weeks later, the place still isn’t open. However, Penguin ninja and Twitter buddy @joshourisman reported seeing employee training inside the place last week. (more…)

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