8 replies to this topic

[Kev29]

It's not just any old Maggie's; it's *the* Maggie's - the legendary Tenleytown pizzeria that was there from 1950-1998.

In 1964, Joe Trilling purchased the pizzeria from the original owner, Phil "Maggie" Magenello, and owned it for 34 years.

Jeff Trilling, owner of the new Bethesda Maggie's, is Joe's son, so there is more than just a nominal link to the old institution.

You stumbled across a noteworthy story, mnnchas!

And the teenagers who drank there in the 90s are now thirty and fortysomethings living in Bethesda

[DonRocks]

And the teenagers who drank there in the 90s are now thirty and fortysomethings living in Bethesda

I can safely say that at this time yesterday, I couldn't have possibly imagined we'd have threads for V3 and Maggie's.

Can't wait to see how much customer overlap these two places have.

[mtureck]

Interesting...turns out it's really more of a Wing Hub/Maggie's hybrid.

http://www.bethesdam...ing-as-Maggies/

[Lydia R]

Interesting...turns out it's really more of a Wing Hub/Maggie's hybrid.
http://www.bethesdam...ing-as-Maggies/

Thanks, mtureck for linking to Carole Sugarman's article in Bethesda Magazine. I was catching up on the City Paper's Young & Hungry blog and found Stephanie Haven's take on the "rebranding" of Wing Hub.

The switchover, first reported by Bethesda magazine, will mean more than a name change. Maggie's will remain a sports bar, just one that Trilling hopes will be more accessible to women. It will have the same wings as Wing Hub but several new additions, like New York-style pizza and a tiki bar on the patio. “So many girls I know wouldn’t come in more than once or twice a month,” says Trilling. “I asked them if they’d come in if I changed the restaurant name to Maggie’s, and their instant reaction is, ‘Absolutely.’”

The name is an homage to a Tenleytown pizzeria called Maggie's, first opened in the 1950s, that Trilling's father owned from 1964 to 1979. After he sold it, the original Maggie's continued to operate until 1998. “Playboy had them as the No. 1 one bar in the country for a ridiculous number of years," Trilling says. (Although he probably shouldn't tell that to the women he's trying to attract to the restaurant.)

Here's Stephanie Haven's photo that accompanied her Y&H blog post:

[Joe H]

I first went to Maggie's in '63 as a junior in high school with a friend who was a freshman at A. U. We went a lot, sometimes with others and were never carded. Although I didn't like beer we thought we would impress girls-mostly from A. U.-who walked in and saw us drinking. The key was we would never let anyone take the mugs away. With four of us at the table and a couple of hours we could fill the entire table top. We thought we were cool.

And macho.

At some point on these trips we realized we needed "dinner" and Maggie's had pizza for $ .50. Yes, fifty cents. It was good, or at least it seemed so when we could buy two pies for a buck. Should I mention that a Mighty Mo was fifty five cents then?

Maggie's was an institution in the '60's. My first job was at the Hot Shoppes at Wisconsin and Van Ness (Broadcast House today) with occasional trips with my A. U. friend after work. In truth I never liked beer but I did like their cheap pizza.

[The Hersch]

Maggie's was an institution in the '60's. My first job was at the Hot Shoppes at Wisconsin and Van Ness (Broadcast House today) with occasional trips with my A. U. friend after work.

Wasn't that Hot Shoppes where McDonalds is now, next door to Broadcast House?

[Joe H]

Wasn't that Hot Shoppes where McDonalds is now, next door to Broadcast House?

The Hot Shoppes and its parking lot were on the ground that Broadcast House is now on. I'm not sure exactly where the McDonald's is.

[The Hersch]

The McDonalds sits in the middle of a parking lot that's on the southwest corner of Wisconsin and Van Ness. Broadcast House is its neighbor to the south. I'm pretty sure that before it was a McDonalds it was a Roy Rogers, another Marriott brand. It's too bad that it's not easy to look this kind of thing up.

[zoramargolis]

It was Roy Rogers when I first moved to DC in 1996. McDonald's was where ZBurger is now. After RR closed and McDonald's moved to that property, the space that currently houses ZBurger had a couple of different non-food businesses for a number of years.