No Liquor At Wegmans? The Liquor License Request Seems To Have Been Withdrawn

No Wegmans liquor for now, but here comes barbecue

For now, there isn't an active plan to open a liquor store at the Wegmans in Columbia, according to a Baltimore Sun article that came out while I was on hiatus.

In August, I had flagged the liquor license application filed by The Loft Wine & Spirits.  In November, Amanda Yeager reported that the application was withdrawn because of a zoning issue.  Apparently, the county says a liquor store isn't appropriate there.

Reading between the lines, it looks like folks are tussling behind the scenes.  I'm sure Wegmans would like to rent that second-story space, and liquor store owners are pushing the liquor and zoning laws.  Does anyone know updates since mid-November?

But while I was nosing around the liquor board website, I came across some other tidbits about new restaurants, including the Urban Bar-B-Que that looks really close on Rte 108 near Snowden River Parkway and the Mission BBQ on Rte 40 that I'll blog about soon.  Here's fun stuff:

• You may be able to buy a beer while your friends or kids play indoor soccer.  The November hearing that would have been for the Loft turned into a one-item agenda:  a license for the Soccer Dome in Columbia.  It's not my scene, but it seems to be an indoor soccer facility.
• There are new liquor licenses that mention restaurants that are new to me and are either opening or just opened -- Los Compadres in Woodstock, Home Slyce in Columbia, and Pie Five Pizza on Rte 40 in Ellicott City.  I got a little excited that I had discovered a new restaurant called Vantage House until I read closely and saw it's actually a license to serve beer and wine at a retirement community.
• The great coincidence was that Jeffrey Givens of Southern Skies Coffee in Finksburg just emailed me about Los Compadres.  He and his wife basically stumbled on the new Mexican restaurant in the Waverly Woods shopping center just north of I-70 on Marriottsville Road:

We had a few rare hours to ourselves for dinner, and I wanted Mexican. There's nothing good up our way, so we had planned on going to El Azteca in Clarksville.  Just out of curiosity, I fired up the Yelp app to see if there were any more options, and Los Compadres popped up with really good reviews.

Since it was so much closer, we decided to take a chance and I'm super glad that we did. Rommel, the owner, introduced himself and took us through the menu. It's mainly the standard fare, but they also had less common items like sopes and tortas.  My wife got three enchiladas with one each of pastor, carne asada and barbacoa.  I got chile rellenos.

I pretty much hold R&R as the gold standard.  If I graded R&R as a "10," I'd have to say that the food we had was a solid 8.5.  It was all very well seasoned and the flavor profiles were spot on.

The prices were very reasonable, with our bill coming in at $20.

I think the place is a real gem and deserves some good attention from the food press.

 Unfortunately, I think sometimes that the food press is evaporating around us.  I appreciate the Sun and WPost articles because they're becoming fewer and farther between.  I also welcome any reports on these new places in the comments below.

Sometimes, You Get Distracted, And You Need Tacos And Pizza And Ice Cream To Shake You Out

Sometimes, you get distracted, and you need tacos, pizza and ice cream shake you out of it.

It's been a nice fall, but life kept me away even from the fun stuff like HowChow.  It's like Lil' Chow ignoring the Bon Chon fried chicken because he was mesmerized by the television.  Football that he clearly can't understand.

But then people plied me with enough great food that I needed to come back.  Expect short posts.  I'm still working a hobby blog into the new reality.

First up -- R&R Taqueria is moving, expanding and then being replaced by a burger joint in the Shell station.  Junior Barnes left a comment with the announcement last week.  The new R&R will be next door to its current gas station location.  The R&R Taqueria Web site says the new location -- with 126 seats and a party room -- will open in late December or early January "where the Jessup Lhasa is."

I'm actually not 100% sure what that means.  The Shell station sits next to a strip shopping center.  Down the road is new construction, but I don't think it has commercial spots.

Can anyone describe where the new restaurant will go?

(Update:  Through the magic of tweets, Rodrigo told me that the new restaurant will replace the Jessup Deli.  That's a big space.  I'm psyched.)

I personally will be psyched.  I love the R&R food.  Touting the tacos highlighted by reader Alberto Flores has been one of my favorite parts of this blog.  But I ate those tacos sitting at one of the few stools or balancing a delicious tray in my car.  That's not an option when I'm looking for weekend lunch with Lil' Chow so I'll look forward to introducing him to more good stuff -- with a high chair and no televisions to distract him.

Thanks to everyone who has left comments or sent me emails.  I appreciate.  I love the blog.  I love that people enjoy it.  I have been spotting ideas all fall, just never could make the time to sit at the keyboard.  I'm just starting to work through the tips and emails, and I will reply.

Check out the R&R Taqueria Web site for the announcement.  Chef Rodrigo Albarran-Torres says he'll turn the current taqueria into a new restaurant with burgers, wings, fries, milkshakes and other items.  He is also working on a cookbook!