Hyattsville’s Shortcake Bakery closed its doors Thursday evening after 13 years in business.

Located at 4700 Rhode Island Ave. since 2011, the bakery saw more than 200 people show up for its last day in operation, owner Cheryl Harrington told the Hyattsville Wire.

“It was overwhelming, but in a good way,” she said.

Harrington had been in talks with her landlord, Stuart Eisenberg, for several months about possibly selling the bakery to someone else and transferring the lease, either for a long-term lease or a short-term extension.

Eisenberg told the Wire that he was ultimately unable to make that work due to his own business needs, and with her health department license ending on Oct. 31, he agreed to release her from the lease with no penalty or further expense on that date.

He said it was Harrington’s decision to shut down. “Her decision to do so was completely independent of my future plans for the building,” he added.

Harrington told the Wire she is still talking with neighboring Maryland Meadworks about whether to continue with their Sunday brunches, which began during the pandemic. But she said for now she’s looking forward to spending time with family and she’s unsure if she would want to reopen in a new location.

This post was updated on Nov. 1, 2024, to also include Eisenberg’s comments.

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The Greene Turtle will open soon in College Park.

Staffers at the Maryland sports bar chain who were in training recently told the Hyattsville Wire that the location will open any day now at the College Park Shopping Center at 7370 Baltimore Ave., just south of Knox Road.

The menu features typical sports bar fare such as nachos, sliders, and chicken tenders for appetizers and tacos, fish and chips, and burgers for main courses.  You can also order platters for 10 to 12 people for special occasions.

The chain also has an extensive cocktails menu and a limited beer and wine selection, although under its Prince George’s County Liquor Board agreement alcohol can only make up about a third of sales.

After starting in Ocean City in 1976, the chain has grown to more than 30 locations, mostly in Maryland but with a handful in Virginia, New Jersey, and Delaware.

The shopping center already has several other chain restaurants: &Pizza, a Cold Stone Creamery ice cream shop, Noodles & Co., a Chipotle and a Cava, Five Guys burgers and a Starbucks as well as a 24-hour CVS drugstore.

Along with the Greene Turtle, the Virginia-based Korean barbecue restaurant Honey Pig is also in the final stages of building out a new location in the shopping center.

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Route 1 residents are already voting in the 2024 presidential election.

Early voting kicked off Thursday in Maryland, where voters are also making their choices in a U.S. Senate race between former Gov. Larry Hogan and former Prince George’s County Executive Angela Alsobrooks, state judges and a ballot measure that would enshrine reproductive rights in the state constitution.

Early in-person voting, which lasts through Oct. 31, can be done at the voting center at the College Park Community Center at 5051 Pierce Ave. It is open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. every day.

Voters can also request a mail-in ballot through Monday, Oct. 29. You do not need a reason. You can sign up to receive one online here, but they must be postmarked, put into a ballot drop box or hand-delivered by 8 p.m. on Election Day.

If you are stressed about your mail ballot, you can track whether it has been received, processed and counted online here.

If you have not yet registered to vote, you can sign up and cast your ballot right up until Election Day, including at an early voting center. You can find a helpful voters’ guide from Maryland Matters here.

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Sports apparel store Rally House opened in College Park earlier this month.

The Kansas-based retailer, which specializes in official college and pro sports-licensed merchandise, moved into the first-floor retail space under the Landmark Apartments.

The space was previously occupied by a Target Express, which closed in May of last year.

Rally House, which is the official retailer of the Big Ten NCAA conference, has more than 250 locations in 22 states, including a number of college towns.

In addition to shirts, hats and other gear for the University of Maryland and Baltimore and Washington’s pro sports teams, the company said the store also has “locally inspired” merchandise for “area destinations and landmarks.”

The city of College Park gave Rally House a business development grant of up to $130,000 to pay for renovating the 13,000-square-foot retail space.

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One of Route 1’s smallest art galleries is the size of a small window display case.

Located in Hyattsville on Gallatin Street between the SoHy Arts Building entrance and Gremlins Tattoo Lounge, the Peep Show gallery showcases a single artist for a month or two.

The small hexagonal display window, marked by a bright neon sign, is currently showing collaborative pieces by Katie Aldworth and Francisco Rosario of the Material Things studio in North Brentwood.

The gallery got its start during the pandemic, when Bronwyn King and Krissi Humbard, the co-curators of Studio SoHy, lost access to the small space where they were displaying art inside Vigilante Coffee. The two looked for spaces that could be viewed from outdoors during Covid restrictions and came across the display window.

“We drew inspiration from peep shows of old: the traveling boxes that offered glimpses into the strange, the exotic and the out-of-the-ordinary; and the coin-operated machines that showed beautiful women and forbidden scenes,” Humbard told the Hyattsville Wire. “We wanted to flip what was once seen as exploitative and create a playful space for artists. We thought the window created a perfect environment for that.”

Many artists whose work is displayed come from the closely-knit Route 1 arts community, but they’ve been approached by other artists outside Route 1. And one of the goals with the project is to highlight woman and minority artists.

“The studio’s goal is to reflect the community of artists working and living in the DMV area,” Humbard added.

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Celebrate the autumn harvest with farmers and friends at the Gateway Farmer’s Market “Fall Fest” on Saturday, Oct. 19, from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. at 3716 Rhode Island Ave.

The event will feature music, games, farm-fresh food giveaways, free arts programming for kids, and portrait photography.

Attendees can get a photo for their holiday card, for free. Professional portrait photography will be provided by Nicholas London from FTLA For the Love Of Art.

Kids can drop in to paint reusable tote bags for trick-or-treating, courtesy of the Creative Workshops DC.

Visitors can sample recipes demonstrated by a chef from MiXT Food Hall, featuring seasonal, local market produce, and receive fall food giveaways.

Music will be provided by a local DJ, and the event is produced by Tia Kane from ArtBoxDC. The event will also feature games and prizes for all ages.

The Gateway Farmers’ Market  hosts a weekly lineup of exceptional producer-only farmers from across the region, such as many vendors and artisans from along the Route 1 Corridor.

Recurring local vendors include:

Manifest Bread
The Waterhole Juice
Tae-Gu Kimchi
Zeke’s Coffee
Cocineros Latin Eatery
MiXt Food Hall
Purple Rose Wellness
Finesse Essential Body
Nalim’s Aroma

The Gateway Farmers’ Market runs every Saturday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. through Nov. 30, 2024, and will reopen in Spring 2025.

The event is made possible by the generous support of sponsors like the Town of Brentwood, the Mount Rainier Recreation Committee, Prince George’s County Councilmember Wanika Fisher, #ArtBoxDC, FTLA For the Love of Art, the Creative Workshops DC, and the Coalition Property Group.

For more info or to become a vendor, email the Gateway Farmers’ Market here.

Volunteers will plant trees around Hyattsville for several hours Saturday morning.

Through an effort led by Casey Trees, volunteers will meet at the Hamilton Manor Apartments on Queens Chapel Road at 8:30 a.m. to get training and then plant trees from 9 a.m. to noon.

The D.C.-based nonprofit has already planted hundreds of trees through its work with the city of Hyattsville, including a similar volunteer event in May at the Duck Pond.

It has a similar arrangement with Mount Rainier and a larger effort in Prince George’s County funded by a grant from the Inflation Reduction Act.

Spokesman Vincent Drader told the Hyattsville Wire that residents of the Route 1 corridor may be eligible to have a tree planted for free on their property as well. You can find out if you are eligible online here and see a list of trees here.

“Casey Trees now plants 7,000 trees per year, and we expect to reach over 10,000 trees per year soon,” Drader told the Wire. “All of the trees we plant are urban-hardy trees, meaning they are selected species that can thrive in the urban environment.”

A study found that Hyattsville lost 30 percent of its tree canopy between 2009 and 2018, for a net loss of 236 canopy acres, enough to shade Driskell Park seven times.

You can sign up to volunteer at the event here.

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