North Bethesda

North Bethesda? There’s a place called North Bethesda? North Bethesda is a big joke here with the locals. If you live in the DC Area, you probably know why it’s a joke, but I’m going to talk about that, I’ll tell you the secret about Tower Oaks Lodge as well as everything else you need to know about the community of North Bethesda.

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North Bethesda is a CDP or Census Designated Place. CDP’s can have fluid boundaries but generally North Bethesda includes the triangular area created by the beltway and the two spurs of 270 as well as the area east of 270, with Montrose Road as the northern border and Rock Creek Park on the east. I don’t agree that the boundary goes all the way to Rock Creek Park. On the eastern side of 355, which is your major thoroughfare through North Bethesda, there is a small area that belongs to a super-odd non-contiguous part of Kensington. Then, many homes that are considered Rockville and others that are Garrett Park. I’m going to say that North Bethesda’s eastern boundary actually goes to Rockville Pike and no farther.

North Bethesda is also home to many government agencies as well as the headquarters for Lockheed Martin, Host Hotels & Resorts, and several large non-profits.

Red line Metro runs right through here from Bethesda to Rockville, with a stop in North Bethesda.

Real Estate

There is such a mix of homes here – you have everything from apartments and condos to townhomes and single-family homes. Condos start in the mid $100,000’s for efficiency units and run to the $600,000’s for 2 bedrooms. The condos are either high rises – many of which have amazing views, or they are garden style homes. The average price for all condos is $350,000 and the median is $295,000.

Townhomes cost anywhere between the $700,000’s to $1.5M. The average price of townhomes sold in the last six months is $1.035M and the median is $920,000. There have been some new townhome communities here too, so it’s not all old housing stock in North Bethesda.

Single family homes can start in the low $1M range and run into $2M’s. Many of the townhomes and single-family homes are brand new – having been torn down and rebuilt. The average price here for a single-family detached home is $1.4M. The median price is $1.3M.

The oldest homes you will find here are the 1950’s ranchers. Some of them still exist, but North Bethesda has been a hotbed of development. In the last year alone, 22% of all sales in North Bethesda have been single-family homes built in 2020 or later.

Parks & Fun

Pinstripes has a huge location in Pike & Rose. There’s bowling and bocce, plus really good food.

Strathmore is a music and arts center offering shows and programs. They have free concerts on their lawn on Wednesdays as well as year-round programming with music and art exhibits.

There’s also an Escape Room in Pike & Rose called Escapology. I can never figure these rooms out but it doesn’t stop me from trying!

I’d love to discuss the Kennedy Shriver Recreation Center with their pool but it’s closing this year for a renovation, so we’ll have to table that for an update video in the future. It’s within Wall Local Park but all you can use right now is the playground there.

There’s Wildwood Manor pool which is a membership based pool. You can also head to one of the parks in North Bethesda. Fleming Local Park and Timberlawn, have sports fields and a playground. Tilden Woods has a playground as does Stratton Local Park, Wells Neighborhood Park and Druid Drive Neighborhood Park. White Flint Park is in this tiny area within North Bethesda that has a Kensington mailing address, but don’t let it fool you. This is North Bethesda!

Families & Kids

Public schools here are top rated, Walter Johnson being the main high school serving North Bethesda.

There is Little Town Children’s Museum in North Bethesda too. This is an indoor playspace with 16 different “rooms” that your kids can explore. They have a mock grocery store, fire station, restaurant, and gym among other rooms.

Remember Strathmore with their Wednesday Concerts on the lawn? Well they have Concerts for Kids on Thursdays in the summer as well. They also have a Children’s Chorus with 5 different ensembles offering options for various levels of experience.

Nearby in Bethesda you have a whole host of other options. There is the YMCA which has a robust gymnastics program in Bethesda as well as other sports and classes. Imagination Stage which offers dance and theatre classes. Glen Echo Park has classes and camps in arts, dance, music and there is also an aquarium.

Cabin John Regional Park is one of Bethesda’s most popular parks. The park has plenty of ball parks and courts with summer-time indoor ice skating at the Cabin John Ice Rink! There’s also a great playground for kids and miles of hiking trails and a train to ride.

If that’s not enough, there’s Bowlero Bethesda with 34 bowling lanes.

Food

There are two main locations for restaurants. You will find many along 355 / Rockville Pike. There’s a heavy Asian food influence here with a lot of hot pot and ramen restaurants. The other area where you will find a lot of restaurants is in the Pike & Rose Development where Rockville Pike intersects with Old Georgetown Road. There’s also Fogo de Chao which is Brazilian, Nando’s Peri Peri and a mix of other restaurants in Pike & Rose.

Piccoli Piatti in the Wildwood Shopping Center has some of the best pizza in the area.

You aren’t just limited to what’s in North Bethesda though. Rockville to the north and Bethesda to the south have a ton of restaurants.

Just north of Montrose is one of my homes-away-from-home. Tower Oaks Lodge is part of the local Clyde’s chain. They have awesome décor. If you find the canoes hanging in the back bar kitschy, here’s a secret. They are filled with bras from patrons-past.

There’s also Farmer’s Markets – in addition to four farmer’s markets in Bethesda there’s the Pike Central Farm Market open 9-1:30 on Saturdays.

Grocery stores here include Giant, Whole Foods, Harris Teeter, Target Grocery, ALDI, MOM’s Organic, Rodman’s which is a local chain, Balducci’s and Trader Joes and Fresh Market which are just over the North Bethesda “border” with Rockville.

Something else that’s fascinating to know – this area has a lot of specialized grocery stores. There’s a Russian Grocery Store, Indian Grocery Store and a Mediterranean Grocery Store.

Dogs

The Cabin John Park has a dog park.

Or you can head to North Bethesda to Bark Social and get a beer or coffee while your pup plays in the dog park.

There’s also a nearby dog park in Kensington as well as the trails in Rock Creek or the C & O – Chesapeake and Ohio Canal Path along the Potomac River.

I know what you’re thinking. You are thinking that this all sounds fantastic, but why did I say that North Bethesda is a joke?

Because locally it is – sort of. Do you know how no matter where you are, if someone plays Sweet Caroline, everyone within earshot has to scream Bum Bum Bum? It’s like that whenever you mention anything about “North Bethesda.” Someone will always snort then try to “correct” you and say “You mean Rockville?” And now you can tell them to shut it because North Bethesda is real, it’s been real since the 1970’s when Montgomery County defined the boundaries in the North Bethesda Master Plan. Now you can tell them learned all about it here!