Where the Old Georgetown Grille Breakfast Went

"Thank you for your kindness and support. We warmly recommend our neighbors at Lilit Café just one block away." That was the sign taped to the window at 7755 Old Georgetown Road after Old Georgetown Grille closed in early October, as Bethesda Magazine reported when it went by the empty dining room. For more than 20 years the Grille ran a diner on the ground floor of a three-story office building, serving omelets, pancakes, home fries, club sandwiches and a crab cake sandwich.

That sign is a good map for the month since. Downtown Bethesda added several morning options this year, and each one is a counter. If you want eggs, pancakes or French toast on a plate at a table, that kind of breakfast is now down to two addresses.

The Grille Pointed Up the Street

Lilit Café sits at 7921 Old Georgetown Road. It describes itself as a deli and café that also runs a beer, wine and convenience store, with sandwiches, crab cakes, lamb chops, chicken kabobs and gluten-free dishes and desserts. Its breakfast menu covers much of what the Grille served: a full American breakfast, eggs Benedict, waffles, pancakes, French toast, omelets and breakfast sandwiches. Breakfast starts at 9 a.m. and runs all day, and the café is open until 8:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 7:30 p.m. on Sunday.

The 9 a.m. start is the catch. Lilit covers the Grille's menu, and it fits a late morning or a weekend brunch. It does not open early enough for a breakfast before work.

The Early Seat Belongs to Tastee Diner

For a booth at 6 a.m., the remaining option is Tastee Diner at 7731 Woodmont Avenue. Its homepage lists the Bethesda diner as open every day from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. The Tastee name goes back to 1935 in the Washington area. Two locations remain, in Bethesda and Laurel, and the company calls itself one of the last original American diners.

Between them, Tastee and Lilit cover the whole day of sit-down breakfast. Tastee handles the early start and the late evening. Lilit handles the long middle of the day with a menu that overlaps most with the Grille's. Nothing that opened downtown this year serves breakfast in that format.

Summer Brought Counters, and Good Ones

The year's openings did add a lot of morning food. All of it is ordered at a register and eaten on the move or at a small table.

Call Your Mother opened on August 3 at 4828 St. Elmo Avenue, in the former Hardwood Artisans space, which had earlier been home to Design Within Reach and Johnny Rockets. The MoCo Show noted that the opening brought the brand back to Bethesda after its pink "Lil' Deli" trolley left Old Georgetown Road for Riverdale Park following a five-year run. Weeks after it opened, Call Your Mother won Best Bagel in the Washington City Paper's 2026 readers' poll, which covered shops across D.C., Maryland and Northern Virginia. The Bethesda shop opens at 6:30 a.m. every day and closes at 2 p.m. on weekdays and 3 p.m. on weekends. The menu runs from bagel sandwiches like the Jetski and the DelRay Club to babka muffins and locally roasted coffee.

PopUp Bagels opened on Friday, August 14, at 7607 Old Georgetown Road on the ground floor of the Solaire apartment building. It is the Connecticut-based chain's first Maryland location. Bethesda Magazine reported that the opening had been pushed back twice, first from July 24 and then from August 7. The format is its own. You tear off pieces of the bagel and dip them into a tub of cream cheese or butter, and the specialty schmears rotate. The Bethesda location is open from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.

Two established counters were already here:

• Bethesda Bagels at 4819 Bethesda Avenue on Bethesda Row is open daily from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. with egg-and-cheese and other breakfast sandwiches. It was also a finalist in the City Paper poll.
• Breads Unlimited at 6914 Arlington Road opens at 7 a.m. daily and sells breads, pastries and sandwiches.

Downtown now has four bagel options within a short walk of one another, and Call Your Mother's 6:30 a.m. opening is the earliest of the group.

How the Morning Looks, Door by Door

Arranged by opening time, the new layout is easy to see. The earliest door belongs to the one sit-down diner, which stays open until 10 p.m. The middle of the morning belongs to the counters.

Shake Shack is the latest arrival on this stretch of Old Georgetown Road. Bethesda Beacon reported that it opened on Friday, October 2, after its original June date was pushed back four times. It fills 3,500 square feet in the former SunTrust Bank space on the ground floor of Element 28, next to Sweeteria, PopUp Bagels and Chipotle and steps from the Bethesda Metro station. Its location page lists 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily, so it covers lunch and late evening rather than the early morning.

What Replaces the Grille's Corner

The Grille's building is the last piece of a larger site. Developer Stonebridge has put together the parcels at the corner of St. Elmo Avenue and Old Georgetown Road. The neighboring buildings that once held Bethesda Florist and Nazlymov Fencing had already been demolished when Bethesda Magazine visited in October. The Planning Board approved a 17-story building at 7749 Old Georgetown Road in January 2025. Planning documents describe 270 apartments, 41 of them moderately priced dwelling units, along with 6,000 square feet of ground-floor commercial space and a 145-space underground garage.

Bethesda Magazine reported that Stonebridge principal Doug Firstenberg expects to demolish the Grille's building in early 2027, once the remaining tenants have moved out. He expects demolition and construction to take a little more than two years, with the first residents possibly moving in during spring 2029. Developers have described the project as a "gateway" building for drivers coming into downtown Bethesda.

So the corner where Bethesda ate diner breakfast for two decades will be a construction site for most of the next two and a half years. When the building finishes, its 6,000 square feet of street-level commercial space will sit about a block from Lilit Café, the same café the Grille's closing sign pointed customers to. Until then, a sit-down breakfast in downtown Bethesda means Tastee Diner at 6 a.m. or Lilit Café from 9 a.m. on.

Changes like this one show up in how a block is used every day well before they appear in a building permit, and following them closely is part of how Lauren Pillsbury advises clients on Bethesda's downtown corridors. If you want to talk through how the Old Georgetown Road redevelopment fits into your own plans, schedule a consultation.