Quench, Cocktail-Centric American Bistro in Traville Village Center in Rockville - Chef Ed Hardy Comes From Bistro Vivant, And The Business Has Been Sold - Closed

[jayandstacey]

Quench has been open a few months now and I finally got the chance to enjoy it.

The pedigree is there with personnel links to Bucks F&C, Volt, Black's and others. The menu is clean and appealing and there's a strong focus on mixology. The space is pretty much an open single room with a bar centered along the back wall and tables along the sides and front.

So why in Rockville? I'd say they're swimming against the tide here, given how the MoCo rules around bars work. Don't get me wrong though - I'm glad they're here and I hope to support the effort as it is worth it. I'd swear the MoCo rules make it so the only way a bar can survive is to sell burgers and 2lbs of fries with it - a la Greene Turtle, Applebees, TGI Fridays, etc, etc. Quench is NOT that.

They're right across from Cava. That's nice and maybe together they'll turn that little area into a better-than-average restaurant/bar desitination place. Maybe they already have. I enjoyed brunch, where I had a perfectly cooked omlette (I'm picky about that) with apples and bacon, with a simple side arugala salad with small, sharp bits of shaved reggiano (or parm, I'm never quite sure.) You can see the influences: my favorite breakfast ever was at Black's Bistro, where the eggs were the best I've ever had. The menu looks like and includes things seen at Voltaggio's places, such as deviled eggs.

The service was good/efficient and the folks I spoke with were very nice.

They are all-in with neighborhood involvement, social media, etc. It may take that kind of effort to overcome the tendancy to have the bar be the star and then MoCo brings it down. But if they can do it like Cava, where the food is excellent AND the bar is hopping, then they should do just fine and are a welcome addition to the area.

[hm212]

I was at Quench last night using up a living social. I honestly did not have a high bar in my mind walking in and was not disappointed. There was nothing bad here, but there was nothing that I would call super special either.

Daughter had the hamburger and I thought it was ok, nothing special. I did have the steamed clams in a nice beer broth, it was very nice but to note there were two clams that didn't open. There was a nice breaded pork cutlet that had very nice taste and I would order that again.

Desserts might be there niche here, had an ice cream sandwich - Red velvet pressed into a cookie with cream cheese ice cream. Shared this with daughter and we very much enjoyed. Not over sweet but very pleasant. They also had a peanut butter dessert that I promised myself I would go back just to get that.

The service was nice, imperfect but very pleasant and suburbian.

This is not cheap eats, dinner for two $70 with tip and we did not drink. - Reasonable with living social, at full price not so sure.

The brunch menu caught my attentions and am going to make it a point to try the brunch menu one of these weekends.

[Lori Gardner]

Headed to Quench last night after a movie. Arrived at 8:30 pm to find it was closed for a private party. I follow Quench on Twitter and would have appreciated a warning regarding the closure. Instead, earlier in the day there was a tweet about the evening's festivities - no mention of anything private. I was disappointed as this was to be my first visit. I'll get there eventually, I'm sure, but the momentum is gone.

[jayandstacey]

Headed to Quench last night after a movie. Arrived at 8:30 pm to find it was closed for a private party. I follow Quench on Twitter and would have appreciated a warning regarding the closure. Instead, earlier in the day there was a tweet about the evening's festivities - no mention of anything private. I was disappointed as this was to be my first visit. I'll get there eventually, I'm sure, but the momentum is gone.

Unless I'm missing something, this was a 'public party' that started at 9pm. Did they refuse you at the door or did you not wish to pay the cover? Or maybe they were setting up for it? Regardless, that's not a good first impression. Stopping at a bar/restaurant at 8:30 on Saturday is hardly a time to be turned away.

[rockcreek]

I went to Quench last night for their Mixology class recently offered on Groupon. The kitchen was closed, so I can't speak to the food, but the class was absolutely a blast. It was more of a demonstration/tasting than a class, but they let you climb back there and create your own cocktail, which was then voted upon by the staff (Mike, Matt, and Gillian.)

I can say this: it's pretty well stocked back there. We made a variant of a Gold Rush which included Domaine de Canton and cardamom bitters. Got a mention, but did not finish in the money. (ROBBED, I tell you.) Matt and Gillian (the staff) know their way around a good drink.

I'll have to go check out the food. But definitely go for a sipper.

[schulju]

First visit to Quench last night and found it to be a real delight...looking forward to an already planned brunch date there next month. We sat at the bar where the afore-mentioned Gillian took excellent care of us and enjoyed speaking with her and Michael about their vision for the restaurant and their future plans. The focus here is on quality local ingredients and everything that can be made from scratch, is. The menu is updated frequently and the version posted on the web site is not exactly what you'll see in the restaurant.

Cocktails: These are truly "hand crafted" cocktails with thoughtful house-made ingredients. My favorite of the evening was the French 76 with a kumquat puree. My companion had the Fall's Calling which tasted like Autumn in a glass.

Food: We ordered a number of small plates to share. Each of these is currently featured on the online menu, so I won't detail the ingredients here.

Ahi Tuna Tartar - the tuna was beautifully fresh. My friend enjoyed this immensely. Unfortunately, medical issues prevent me from indulging in anything raw, so I can't comment on the taste.

Braised Pork Belly - this was my favorite dish. The pork had a great flavor and melted in my mouth; it was not the least bit "chewy" (reference to a recent pork belly discussion on another thread). The slaw provided a nice bite of acid.

Goat Cheese Souffle Dip - I had no idea what to expect form this dish and was pleasantly surprised by it. The dip had a surprisingly light texture and was very tasty without too much of the bite that some folks don't appreciate from goat cheese. The dish is served with a generous portion of apple slices and addictive crostini.

DC Wings - This is the only dish I wasn't completely happy with. The portion was generous and the wings themselves were juicy and meaty. But I prefer a dryer, crunchier wing. These are pan-sauteed in the sauce so they come out pretty wet. The sauce was okay, but the flavor was sort of one-note.

Quench would be a great addition to any neighborhood..but in MoCo, it's a destination not to be missed.

[QuenchNation]

Hello Rockwellians! Allow me to introduce myself ... I'm Michael, I own Quench in Rockville, and I'm posting this with the express permission of Mr. Rockwell! I just wanted to take this opportunity to reach out to the great crew on this site for any thoughts, ideas, suggestions, etc. on how we can improve our restaurant. As you may have heard, earlier this month we were awarded the Best New Restaurant award by the Maryland Restaurant Association. We were nominated by our peers and voted in by the public, so this was a special honor, but not one that will go to our heads; we know we need to be better, and we truly rely on the community to help us be the best we can. We actually have a "Quench Advisory Board" that helps us (and helps try new food and drink), so please email me at michael@quenchnation.com if you're interested in getting involved.

In the meantime, I'll end with this plug: we're pretty good! We're ranked #2 in Rockville on Trip Advisor, and while I'm not sold that we're the best new restaurant in MD, we're trying, and we have great food and drinks at reasonable prices ($10 lunch for the whole menu). We also do great happy hour, a fun musical brunch on Saturdays, open mic night Tuesdays, 1/2 off wine on Wednesday and assorted other fun things (music, DJ's, stand up comedy, etc.). To be in the loop "like" us on Facebook, and please always feel free to reach out to me.

Thanks - thanks to Don for this opportunity -- and I hope to meet you soon!

Michael

[jayandstacey]

Michael, thanks for the extreme effort and investment; and nice to internet-meet you. The effort shows, is appreciated and I hope it is paying off. You had a bunch of easier counties to choose from when opening but you picked here - and thank you for that.

I'll be by again soon...I see a bunch of local friends attending your events. Things like your upcoming "Yappy Hour" (bring your dogs to the patio) makes for a good neighborhood and hopefully makes you some money.

[Lori Gardner]

Hi Michael,

as you know, I am a Quench fan. This board is a great place to help build visibility and support for your restaurant. Your effort to seek input is much appreciated. I'm hoping to get to Quench for brunch sometime soon!

Lori

[DanielK]

Had a fine but not memorable meal here tonight.

Best dish was the special fries - covered in buffalo chicken and blue cheese. Indulgently rich bar food, nice kick to the sauce, and crispy fries.

Hushpuppies were fine, but somewhat underseasoned, and considering they make nearly everything from scratch, I would have expected some fresh corn in the batter! Crispy chickpeas were very crispy, but completely devoid of seasoning. The wedge salad was very good, but either the dressing was too thin or they didn't drain the lettuce properly, because it was a bit watery. Guinness wings had a really nice flavored sauce on them, and were hard fried, but the promised "spicy" was missing. But these were quibbles - I'd probably order any of them again. The only real disappointment was the MD crab roll. Basically, crab salad on a roll, but there was far too much binder and seasoning and the crab was totally lost.

Note: we had just come from a tennis match (well, showers after a tennis match) and didn't feel like drinking, though the cocktail menu looked decent.

Perfectly decent upscale bar food, and the room was not too loud, so will likely return at some point.

[QuenchNation]

Greetings, Rockwellians.  Michael from Quench with a little update on what's going on in Rockville!  Quench has had a great summer, and while growth and expansion remains in the plans, for now we're still operating from the mothership at 9712 Traville Gateway Drive, with more info always to be found at http://www.facebook.com/quenchnation.  Here's some of what's going on with us:

SPECIAL EVENTS

•  Friday September 6:  Quench and BCreative Present the debut of First Fridays "“ starting at 10:00 enjoy deep drink specials and a DJ spinning 80's and 90's party favorites
• Saturday September 14:  Local son, farm owner and open mic favorite John Norman headlines a solo gig at 9:00
• Thursday September 19:  We're proud to host the premier watch party for The Regulars, coming in 2014 to a major cable network we'll tell you about as soon as we're allowed to!  Stars of the program including Oscar Santana (from WJFK radio and the Mike O'Meara Show) will be in the house when the show debuts on our TV at 10:00 PM.
• Rob Burnett returns to honor us with happy hour and dinner music on Friday September 20
• Rob Maher's gang of funny people will do their best to make you laugh at Comedy Night on Saturday September 21. 

"REGULAR" EVENTS

•  Tuesday: Open Mic is better than ever, with prizes and one paid Quench gig a month at stake for weekly favorites, with the grand prize "¦. A chance to record a CD on our dime at our studio!  So step up your game, bring your talent and mostly importantly, bring your friends, because the crowd will let us know who wins each week.
• Wednesday:  Hump Day Happy Hour "“ we extend happy hour drink prices to 8:00 to help you get closer to the weekend!
• Thursday:  Half-priced wine, all day and all night.
• Weekends at Quench are better than ever, with live music most Friday nights, Saturday brunches and Saturday nights.  And now, we're pleased to announce the debut of Football Sundays, with a full menu, plus game day specials and $3 beers during the games

AND DON'T FORGET:

•  Tuesday "“ Friday we feature $10 Lunch and our awesome Happy Hour (with $3 bar snacks, $3 beers and $3 off all cocktails and wines by the glad)
• We are available for your parties (at our place or at yours).  For special events at Quench, contact Lindsey Wolf (Lindsey@quenchnation.com) and for catering contact Kris Pokress (Kris@quenchnation.com). 
• We need volunteers to join the Quench Advisory Board.  For the "price" of being willing to spread the news about us (online and off!) you'll be first to try new food and drink and help us shape our seasonal menu additions.  Email Michael@quenchnation.com for more. 
• Exciting news to come about some major Quench events and expansion "“ so keep reading, keep spreading the word and keep coming back!

Thanks for an amazing summer "“ we're honored by how busy we've been and the generous praise we've received. Let's keep it going this fall "“ and as always, please reach out to us with any ideas, suggestions, requests, etc.  Thank you!

[mtureck]

Hushpuppies were fine, but somewhat underseasoned, and considering they make nearly everything from scratch, I would have expected some fresh corn in the batter!

No! Don't do it!

A hush puppy is a hush puppy, and a corn fritter is a corn fritter, and never the twain should meet.

[DanielK]

I really want to like this place, but right now it's just not going to fall into a regular rotation. Did a late lunch here today when Cava (across the street) was between service.

The Quench Burger was cooked to medium rare as requested, and reasonably tasty, but pretty small for $12. As a comparison, a cheeseburger with fries at BGR is $11, and the burger is probably twice the size. The fries were very good, and the clearly house-made pickles were probably the best thing on the plate. The aioli dipping sauce tasted suspiciously like ranch dressing.

The "hot dog bites" were corn dogs, slightly underfried so the batter wasn't really crispy. $6 on the menu but $7 on the receipt, you get 4 half-sized dogs in an order. The fry basket it was served in was very cute.

Even though we were the only table there when we arrived (3 others came in while we were there), service was fairly distracted. Water was only refilled when requested, and a replacement coke (the mix was way off, and are we really at $3 for a coke in a casual restaurant?) took a long time to appear. In fact, the burger arrived before the dogs, but it was a solid 20 minutes after ordering (again, our ticket was the only one in the kitchen when we placed the order).

Nothing was bad, but nothing especially compelling either.

[schulju]

A long overdue visit to Quench last night.  Ed Hardy is now running the kitchen, and that's a wonderful thing!  I think Michael will readily admit that the turnover in the kitchen has been a struggle for the restaurant, but I'm happy to say the kitchen is now putting out a great product.  We shared an order of the house made crab hush puppies...wow, these were fantastic.  A generous portion that two of us split and could barely finish.  My dining companion enjoyed the Spring salad, it looked beautiful.  I ordered the Mac.  It was a large portion (leftovers will be lunch today).  Tasty without being too heavy, but I probably should have added a protein (several are available), it was a bit "one-note".

We sat at the bar and Joe took excellent care of us.  The bar menu continues to be one of the most inventive in town.  My companion had the Limeade "mocktail" and enjoyed it.  I went for the Caipirina.  A bit different from others that I've had, but really well balanced and tasty.  Joe also provided a sample of their house made limoncello.  Yummy!

In the wasteland of chain restaurants that is MoCo, we are lucky to have a local gem like Quench.

[Kev29]

In the wasteland of chain restaurants that is MoCo, we are lucky to have a local gem like Quench.  

I appreciate that this is kind of a throwaway line at the end of a nice review -- but I really don't think of Montgomery County as a chain wasteland. Maybe that's true in the north and west of the county but in southern, eastern and central portions that's not the case -- especially when you compare with the other suburban/exurban counties in America (try getting good Thai or Peruvian food in DuPage County, IL). You just have to look (and it's not that hard thanks to places like donrockwell.com ) for the family run joints lurking off the main drags. Pizza CS, Joe's Noodle House, Ren's Ramen, 8407, Samantha's, La Brasa, Bob's Noodle, Grapeseed, etc, etc. And when you consider how terrible the liquor laws are for MoCo businesses and how close we are to a major dining city -- it's all the more impressive that there's some good eats here.

[SeanMike]

Judi, I liked seeing your post. Admittedly I'm biased, as I've been friends with Ed for almost 20 years.

I was at Quench a couple of weeks ago to meet with him and Michael and I was impressed to see the number of patrons who stopped by to compliment the two of them on the food. Admittedly that's simply anecdotal evidence, but Marshall seemed to enjoy his food there.

Rockville is a bit far for me but I'm hoping to get up there and try it out myself sometime.

[DanielK]

I really want to like this place, but right now it's just not going to fall into a regular rotation. 

Quoting myself. I was there twice in the last few weeks - once for brunch, and this evening for a crab feast.

Brunch was something of a disaster. We were a large party (somewhere around 10-12), but since there were only 2 other tables sat in the place, and there were 3 servers, this shouldn't have been a problem. Yet we had to constantly ask for water/coffee refills, and the food took nearly 40 minutes to come out. The one person who ordered an appetizer got it AFTER his entree, because they forgot it and he had to ask for it.

I had chicken and waffle plate 16 [boneless, fried chicken breast, homemade waffle, with tabasco butter and a side of maple bourbon syrup, served with mac & cheese and fried green tomatoes]. The chicken was pretty scrawny and dry all the way through, and the breading was plain. The waffle was soggy. The butter and syrup were actually pretty tasty, as was the m&c, but the tomatoes were nowhere to be found.

The crab feast was an advertised special, and you had to buy tickets in advance ($40 for crabs and food, or $75 including bottomless beer). The side food included some excellent grilled corn and sausages, and some passable pasta and potato salads. The crabs weren't very large, but I didn't expect them to be at this price. And a good number of them were pretty "heavy". The problem is that most of them were also overcooked to the point of the crab being mush. We picked out the few on the table that weren't dead, and mentioned it to the waitress, and apparently we weren't the only ones that complained. The next batch was much better, though probably still 1 in 4 was overcooked. They then overcompensated, and the next batch that came out were nearly sushi. Maybe cooking them in large quantities is different, but at home it's pretty simple - you throw them in the pot, and steam them until they turn red. Not 10 minutes after they turn red, and not when they still have blue on the crabs.

Service was excellent tonight, but the food is still far too inconsistent. Can't recommend right now.

[Lori Gardner]

Service was excellent tonight, but the food is still far too inconsistent. Can't recommend right now.

oh too bad.  I've been a few times- and there was a different chef each time.  I really want to like and support Quench, but wish it would even out.

[jandres374]

Looks like changes are coming as it has been sold to a new ownership group.

[DanielK]

Closed in December.

[DonRocks]

7 hours ago, DanielK said:

Closed in December.

For those keeping track, this used to be Beale Street Grill, and before that, Thai Taste.

[MarkS]

It was doomed.  I used to live close by and went occasionally to drink at the bar and watch hockey.