(Update on Wednesday) Looks like casual dining chain Not Your Average Joe’s is coming to the old Hamburger Hamlet space in Bethesda’s Georgetown Square Shopping Center.
Not Your Average Joe’s founder and CEO Steve Silverstein confirmed the Massachusetts-based restaurant is close to executing a lease for the 8,500-square-foot space with the hopes of opening in March 2015.
Cristina DiSandro, a manager with the Vornado/Charles E. Smith property management company leasing the space, told BethesdaNow.com on Tuesday that crews are completing a general demolition inside the restaurant to remove all remaining fixtures left over from Hamburger Hamlet.
The construction — and a dumpster full of debris in the Georgetown Square Shopping Center parking lot — has drawn attention to the building at 10400 Old Georgetown Rd. Hamburger Hamlet closed in December 2013 after fellow California-based chain Du-par’s attempted to revive it by making it a 24-hour diner and eatery.
Original Hamburger Hamlet owners Marilyn and Harry Lewis opened the restaurant — the chain’s first location on the east coast — in 1973.
DiSandro said it will probably take until early next year for the new restaurant to open. The interior has to be completely rebuilt.
Not Your Average Joe’s started in 1994 and has 21 locations along the east coast, with 15 in Massachusetts. Silverstein opened the group’s first Maryland location two years ago in the Kentlands community of Gaithersburg.
Silverstein said he decided to start the restaurant to bring a neighborhood place with great food and reasonable prices to the suburbs.
The menu is mostly American style, with salads, pizzas, burgers, sandwiches and pasta dishes. It also features a gluten free section.