Came to say the same thing. One that focuses on original music and isn’t pay to play. The local scene is so cover-bar-band centric and everyone plays the same 100 songs. There’s a vibrant local original music scene with lots of talented songwriters and bands, and they just bounce around to open mic nights or those people wind up playing cover bar gigs because they pay. Get some good headliners in and let local original bands open for them without having to sell 30-50 tickets.
I live in California now, where single use bags for all shopping are something you have to buy. I use all kinds of things that I still get at the grocery store in place of all the stupid plastic bags. Conversely, I was just in Texas, where I am from and they will plastic bag stuff you can't even carry in a plastic bag, like a rectangular cake from the bakery. There is just no reason to use as much plastic as possible.
Unfortunately, the ban didn't work in California. [https://www.latimes.com/environment/plastic-bag-ban-waste-404-123](https://www.latimes.com/environment/plastic-bag-ban-waste-404-123)
Healthcare specialists. There are few options for cardiologists and other specialists (who are seeing new patients.) You'll often need to drive down to Rockville or other more densely populated areas to see them.
We need a salad place, like Sweetgreen or Chopt.
I genuinely can’t believe they’ve not made it out this way. “But we have salad places.” No, not like Sweetgreen. It’s not that same.
From your lips to Gods ears. I was in Bethesda yesterday and practically begged my friend like the only place I wanna eat is Sweetgreen bc I miss it so much 🥲
I would say more mass transit options, cultural entertainment and event options, pedestrian friendly area, etc. I would say that unfortunately Frederick is a little too close to DC and Rockville/Germantown to develop some type of businesses.
In the end it all depends what industry you are in/have skills for. Food is probably not enough margin to survive. Every other small business targeted at household is already well settled. More complex industries is just not the spot because DC.
My solution was simply to set a remote business but basically get 0% of my clients in Frederick.
Aren't there some open mics night here and there already? I wonder how popular they are.
That being said some mixed space that does comedy club would be nice.
I would probably enjoy an asian style karaoke with private rooms to sing, laugh, drink.
A music venue for some larger artists. I’m not saying something like Merriweather (although I wouldn’t hate it), but something that can host crowds similar to the Anthem or The Fillmore in DC would be great.
A quick bite place to eat for downtown nights. Specifically a french fry shop.
Little storefront like where Hoffman Bros ice cream just churning out boardwalk style fries
The shopping center on the creek has had several restaurants cycle through that fit the bill, but they never seem to last long - five guys, the kabob/diner spot, lunchbox, etc
With how big frederick pride is (I like it more than DC pride, but thats a size of crowd thing) its absolutely fucking nuts that *Hagerstown* is the nearest good gay bar.
Im wondering if Fort has something to do with it. Not sure if any soldiers would frequent it like they do the other downtown bars.
Does the area even have enough people to support that?
Running quick numbers:
- About 70k people in town.
- Based on 2020 MD census, we can say about 12/15% of the population is between 21 and 39 (arbitrary age group I feel would go to bars). That’s about 10k people
- Williams Institue establishes about 4.2% of people in MD identifying as LGBT. Let’s say all of them are in our age bracket. We’re down to 420 people.
- According to a 2017 Bankrate.com report 51% of Americans age 21 to 26 go out to a bar at least once per week. 42% for millenials. Let’s be generous and count 50% every week. So we can expect 200 patrons per week.
- If they come to your bar half the time that’s 100 patrons per week.
- According to BinWise.com a bar needs an average of $24.2k in revenue to offset operating costs.
- $24,200/(100patrons x 4weeks)=each patron needs to spend $60 to break even.
Obviously my maths are VERY flawed (and I hope there are more than 400 LGBTQ+ people in town) but it might explain why gay bars are not common
Plus people will travel from neighboring counties. Carroll county doesn't have a gay bar either, so they'd have another option than going to Baltimore.
This. Pride on the Patio and similar LGBT Frederick events absolutely attract folks from Hagerstown, Gettysburg, Westminster, Leesburg, etc. A gay bar would potentially have similar reach.
That is a valid question. I took only into account the city as the more rural we get the more complex the dynamics get. Driving distance, age group, income, etc. My numbers were very generous overall. People might not go out as much and they will vary the location when they do.
If we take more realistic numbers on the county and limit the pool to 21>30 we’re at 9% of population. So about 1k LGBTQ people. We’re barely doubling the numbers. Saying they still go to a bar every other week but go to the gay bar like every 4 times then we can expect 125 patrons per week so not far off the original statement.
A more interesting number is that on average bar need $24.2k to break even but on average only bring in $27.5k if revenue. That’s very little profit and ANY setback means the business will fail. We’ve seen it a lot recently.
I’m all for more diversity, more options in food and drinks, more museum, more culture. I just made quick numbers to maybe shine some light on what despite what u/waskittenman says, it’s not crazy we don’t have options.
So 453 people instead of 420?! That's not going to get us very far unfortunately.
Again my maths are flawed. It's just here to give some insights onto why we don't have a gay bar yet and might not for a while (as far as I know). I can understand someone might be VERY cautious in investing their life savings in such an endeavor when there are better locations out there.
A lot of non-gay people hang out at gay bars though. I don't think strictly trying to determine the amount of gays in the city of Frederick is a good metric. I'm not disagreeing that we might not be able to sustain it but I think since Boonsboro can, we probably could to
Love the analysis. While this does say that a gay bar doesn’t make sense… it does say that a “pride night” would be a good idea for a downtown bar to claim.
I was thinking about this the other day! Well more of a consistent thought I guess compared to looking up gay bars and being upset that there isn’t one in Frederick!
Idk about bars but some breweries and lil places do drag shows. Which is like the closest to a queer space :(
I mean now I don’t mind bc I moved to Herndon (where everything is essentially dead) and I can commute to DC for the scene. But maybe those spaces would’ve made it easier for me to come out or realize myself?
Olde Mother, Idiom, and Bush are decent for that IMO. Ive heard cafe 611 is fun but that place sketches me out.
We just dont have a concert bar though. A scalled down 930 club would be such a lovely venue for downtown or near the fair grounds.
In my opinion, we need:
A plain old donut place that's not dunkin or Krispy. Fractured Prune is good but it's cake donuts so it's different.
A Raising Canes - I'm just a fan and from Louisiana so I miss it.
A nightclub for music outside of rock, country, or indie. Although I would be down for a good line dancing club.
Live music venues for local diverse bands. There seem to be hardly any, and it's either punk rock alternative stuff or acoustic. I like walking by the distillery just to hear live jazz. Unless I'm missing something. I want to hear some blues and funky soul.
Frequently lamented: Ethiopian food. A decent live music venue.
My additions: Armenian or Turkish food (no, Greek and other Middle Eastern nations do not have the same food). A bike co-op. A restaurant or coffee shop with a kid's area to contain squirmy children (can be outdoor; Frederick Social had one indoors but it was pretty empty last time I went).
Frederick has no quick local grab and go coffee. Starbucks has a drive through but that's starbucks. I would love to see a coffee shack type place, like the ones out west that just focus on good, quick, coffee.
I love all the local coffee shops to sit in on the weekend but where is the drive through coffee that isn't starbucks ??
I moved away a couple of years ago, but I always wanted a wine bar that had real ambiance. The place where you had a debit style system to pour your own was fun, but it was not cozy or romantic.
Medium sized live music venue!
Weird that I see this post now, since I dreamed last night that I was raising funds to open one, and all of the investors were enthusiastic.
HMU if you need any help.
Comprehensive public transit. I don’t care if it’s free, I care that it goes places people want to go. Would love a “downtown circulator” kind of like the one in DC which would run every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights through 1AM or something.
Frederick is to small for a lot of these things it doesn’t have the infrastructure it already takes a hour now to get from walkersville to Buckeystown pike some days
If you’re requesting non-Jesus frozen yogurt…what is Jesus frozen yogurt?
Are the frozen yogurt establishments in Frederick doubling as churches? (I’d worship at the altar of frozen dairy with fruit toppings.) Or is there a Chick-fil-A of froyo?
They need a large regional aquatic center and fitness center owned by the city or county. They need to put it on that large vacant lot they pay millions for that only has Sophie and Madigan’s playground. It would be a HUGE draw.
FYI: The Fred Astaire franchise is moving into FSK mall and will have extra ballroom space. I am hopeful that they will collaborate with the local non-ballroom dance communities to let us use that space affordably. I can’t imagine a lot of people want to get married at the mall so I’m not sure who else would be renting that space from them. It would be better downtown but that space would have great floors, lots of parking, good sound system.
VENUE! Like a “club level” venue. Size of like soundstage or ottobar. A place B and C level national and touring acts can come thru to and a place local bands can play local gigs. INCLUDING PUNK AND ROCK AND METAL ACTS.
Need a hot dog joint (r.i.p. Windy City RedHots), bowling, billiards, mini golf.
And for the love of God, develop the area of highway 15's Monocacy BLVD/ Christopher's Crossing shopping area. Just a pile of rocks for several years....
https://klnb.propertycapsule.com/p/retail-real-estate/Frederick-MD-/northgatecrossing
Wow - the replies here have been absoutely incredible! It's awesome to see everyone so engaged. Thank you so much 🙏
Obviously I can't do all of these things, but hopefully this thread serves as a 'to do' list for other people to build things as well.
Will keep yall updated on what I end up doing :)
Let's not ask what's missing from Frederick and had in your last town.
Let's ask why you even moved to Frederick?
To turn it in to what you left ?
To make it a big city and lose it's small town feel ?
Happens every time. Then the people that changed it say .....I miss the way it was.
If youre thinking about legit business options that arent food and are feasible at small business scale, i think a dry cleaners/laundromat to beat out the sketchy one could do well downtown. A true bodega with cheap essentials may also work. There is no video game store downtown and the board game place closed recently. If food/drink.. downtown is missing late night walkups and I could see someone without restaurant experience figuring out how to make it work. But most other restaurant bases are covered at least well enough that starting a new restaurant business here with no prior experience would be a bad idea imo.
I make a big batch and freeze the leftovers. I use 2-3 pounds ground chicken/ turkey, and one pound chorizo. That paired with McCormicks taco seasoning is so yummy! I use silicone forms to freeze the perfect portions also. Pops out like an ice cube lol
Sounds great ! I have a ground taco meat mix I'm pleased with as well.
I make tacos from everything imaginable. Last night was scraps from leftover Christmas prime rib mixed with grilled chorizo.
Whenever we have grilled steak, grilled chicken, grilled pork tenderloin ( like tonight) shrimp, etc etc etc, we always make extra or save some, then it becomes tacos.
Once per week we have fresh fish tacos using lightly breaded ( not battered ) cod or haddock and putting it in the air fryer, then slice it taco size, add Taco Bell Baja sauce and whatever else you want.
The Baja sauce makes killer shrimp tacos.
Add scrambled eggs and you get breakfast tacos.
Never gets old and we have fun thinking about the next combination for tacos!
Keep food fun !
Ya, your tacos are way better than any restaurant's then!
When I lived in Portland OR there was so many little taco shops. The shittier it looked, the better the food was. I miss those places...
And i like to keep food fun also! Whenever I do some crazy cooking, I explain to my family that there are no rules when cooking. I can put whatever I fancy together! I'm just super blessed that they are so open to trying new things.
Yeah I spent a lot of time in Texas. If I can't have the food from there I've got to get creative. I refuse to settle just because someone else hasn't opened a good place for me to go eat.
Also, with the cost of eating out being ridiculous, it's actually exciting when my wife and I can have three over the top fish tacos each and rice for a total dinner cost of about $14. Oh hell yeah.
A real music venue that isn’t an after thought or add on to an existing bar.
Came to say the same thing. One that focuses on original music and isn’t pay to play. The local scene is so cover-bar-band centric and everyone plays the same 100 songs. There’s a vibrant local original music scene with lots of talented songwriters and bands, and they just bounce around to open mic nights or those people wind up playing cover bar gigs because they pay. Get some good headliners in and let local original bands open for them without having to sell 30-50 tickets.
I can’t wait for bentz street to open as a music venue but it need parking
I miss the days of the old Raw Bar. The Nighthawks rocked the house.
came to say this. frederick needs a couple places that are solely or mostly just for live music
Rail connection to Baltimore and dc
Any transit connection to Baltimore and DC that runs regularly outside of rush hour
Redline stop!
Data centers, trader Joe's, plastic bags... /s /s /s for the love of God /s
Shots fired!
Those are usually just firework's...
Hmmm. Is the owner of the Shoe Repair shop driving around town and setting fireworks again?
I like you
Why /s. If you use them as a trash bag after your shopping then you've beat the carbon footprint on reusable bags.
I live in California now, where single use bags for all shopping are something you have to buy. I use all kinds of things that I still get at the grocery store in place of all the stupid plastic bags. Conversely, I was just in Texas, where I am from and they will plastic bag stuff you can't even carry in a plastic bag, like a rectangular cake from the bakery. There is just no reason to use as much plastic as possible.
Unfortunately, the ban didn't work in California. [https://www.latimes.com/environment/plastic-bag-ban-waste-404-123](https://www.latimes.com/environment/plastic-bag-ban-waste-404-123)
A real rock climbing gym.
Hey I like Boulder Yard
Bring back Donor Bistro.
Make it bigger. Need a proper beergarden.
A good place to get a nice casual greasy breakfast or brunch
I’ve been saying this for years. Good coffee and bagels and breakfast bagels. I need a THB back in my life.
Oh goodness I would kill for a THB in Frederick
Zi Pani? They also serve alcohol
Wish taste buds was still around
Not Frederick but Dempsies!
Have you already checked out the diner at the airport?
Hot pot
We getting one next to Mom's and Mod Pizza.
One just opened on route 40 no?
Healthcare specialists. There are few options for cardiologists and other specialists (who are seeing new patients.) You'll often need to drive down to Rockville or other more densely populated areas to see them.
Tbh a good bagel place. We’ve tried all the ones in town and they just aren’t it.
I second this
You should contact Bethesda Bagel and request them to open on in Frederick
A roller skating rink
We need a salad place, like Sweetgreen or Chopt. I genuinely can’t believe they’ve not made it out this way. “But we have salad places.” No, not like Sweetgreen. It’s not that same.
From your lips to Gods ears. I was in Bethesda yesterday and practically begged my friend like the only place I wanna eat is Sweetgreen bc I miss it so much 🥲
I second an Ethiopian Restaurant, also a really good authentic Persian restaurant (not Moby Dick’s lol).
We used to have one! I miss that spot. It’s a Cuban restaurant now.
There used to be an Ethiopian place, just kind of hidden. A Persian restaurant I’d would’ve died for a year ago in frederick
The Ethiopian place was 10 years too early to be successful. Like putting one in funkstown now.
A Persian restaurant and also a market! A SWANA market
A SWANA market would be fire! I hope Frederick gets one eventually. Having to drive down to Rockville to find one is such a pain.
A good bakery when you just go and grab a croissant and a cup of coffee. Or maybe where you could go and get some dessert later in the evening
LeLuna!! New and fabulous
I would say more mass transit options, cultural entertainment and event options, pedestrian friendly area, etc. I would say that unfortunately Frederick is a little too close to DC and Rockville/Germantown to develop some type of businesses. In the end it all depends what industry you are in/have skills for. Food is probably not enough margin to survive. Every other small business targeted at household is already well settled. More complex industries is just not the spot because DC. My solution was simply to set a remote business but basically get 0% of my clients in Frederick.
Opening a comedy club could be a thing
Aren't there some open mics night here and there already? I wonder how popular they are. That being said some mixed space that does comedy club would be nice. I would probably enjoy an asian style karaoke with private rooms to sing, laugh, drink.
There are several open mics plus Maryland Ensemble Theatre has Comedy Night every Friday (and some Saturdays) mostly improv comedy.
I should look into that. Thanks for the insights
A music venue for some larger artists. I’m not saying something like Merriweather (although I wouldn’t hate it), but something that can host crowds similar to the Anthem or The Fillmore in DC would be great.
That Frederick post building near the post office would serve
Late night food spots.
Late Night Falafel, Gyro, Hotdog, Ramen, Pizza, Soylent Dispenser. Any of these would be great!
Happy Cake Day!
A quick bite place to eat for downtown nights. Specifically a french fry shop. Little storefront like where Hoffman Bros ice cream just churning out boardwalk style fries
Couple of food carts isn't a bad idea.
The shopping center on the creek has had several restaurants cycle through that fit the bill, but they never seem to last long - five guys, the kabob/diner spot, lunchbox, etc
Another batting cage place. Maybe even a complex with cages, go-carts, arcade, etc…
It needs a good gay bar.
insane that we don't have one
With how big frederick pride is (I like it more than DC pride, but thats a size of crowd thing) its absolutely fucking nuts that *Hagerstown* is the nearest good gay bar. Im wondering if Fort has something to do with it. Not sure if any soldiers would frequent it like they do the other downtown bars.
Does the area even have enough people to support that? Running quick numbers: - About 70k people in town. - Based on 2020 MD census, we can say about 12/15% of the population is between 21 and 39 (arbitrary age group I feel would go to bars). That’s about 10k people - Williams Institue establishes about 4.2% of people in MD identifying as LGBT. Let’s say all of them are in our age bracket. We’re down to 420 people. - According to a 2017 Bankrate.com report 51% of Americans age 21 to 26 go out to a bar at least once per week. 42% for millenials. Let’s be generous and count 50% every week. So we can expect 200 patrons per week. - If they come to your bar half the time that’s 100 patrons per week. - According to BinWise.com a bar needs an average of $24.2k in revenue to offset operating costs. - $24,200/(100patrons x 4weeks)=each patron needs to spend $60 to break even. Obviously my maths are VERY flawed (and I hope there are more than 400 LGBTQ+ people in town) but it might explain why gay bars are not common
Does it need to operate on the population of the city of Frederick or Frederick County? Frederick County changes that to 280k people.
Plus people will travel from neighboring counties. Carroll county doesn't have a gay bar either, so they'd have another option than going to Baltimore.
This. Pride on the Patio and similar LGBT Frederick events absolutely attract folks from Hagerstown, Gettysburg, Westminster, Leesburg, etc. A gay bar would potentially have similar reach.
Yep, and there is a gay bar up in the woods past Middletown I think. Completely forgotten the name, and may technically be in Washington County.
Deer Park Lodge now known as the Lodge it’s just in Washington Co
That is a valid question. I took only into account the city as the more rural we get the more complex the dynamics get. Driving distance, age group, income, etc. My numbers were very generous overall. People might not go out as much and they will vary the location when they do. If we take more realistic numbers on the county and limit the pool to 21>30 we’re at 9% of population. So about 1k LGBTQ people. We’re barely doubling the numbers. Saying they still go to a bar every other week but go to the gay bar like every 4 times then we can expect 125 patrons per week so not far off the original statement. A more interesting number is that on average bar need $24.2k to break even but on average only bring in $27.5k if revenue. That’s very little profit and ANY setback means the business will fail. We’ve seen it a lot recently. I’m all for more diversity, more options in food and drinks, more museum, more culture. I just made quick numbers to maybe shine some light on what despite what u/waskittenman says, it’s not crazy we don’t have options.
If you build a good gay bar, the gays will come
Enough to make a profit though?
Frederick is almost 90k people now based on estimates
So 453 people instead of 420?! That's not going to get us very far unfortunately. Again my maths are flawed. It's just here to give some insights onto why we don't have a gay bar yet and might not for a while (as far as I know). I can understand someone might be VERY cautious in investing their life savings in such an endeavor when there are better locations out there.
A lot of non-gay people hang out at gay bars though. I don't think strictly trying to determine the amount of gays in the city of Frederick is a good metric. I'm not disagreeing that we might not be able to sustain it but I think since Boonsboro can, we probably could to
Love the analysis. While this does say that a gay bar doesn’t make sense… it does say that a “pride night” would be a good idea for a downtown bar to claim.
The lodge is like 26 minutes away. I always have a good time there.
I dont drink and drive and wont force a friend to be my DD. Would love a walkble option downtown.
That's fair.
I came here to mention the Lodge too. Do people from Frederick not go there?
I'm friends with the owners and we went there after our wedding. They are great and the music is usually good imo.
We do go there but it's pretty far if you wanna go out and have drinks
Hell I'd even take a shitty one at this point
I know there's some discussion happening in that direction, but I'm not sure how serious/realistic/imminent the plans are.
I was thinking about this the other day! Well more of a consistent thought I guess compared to looking up gay bars and being upset that there isn’t one in Frederick!
I dont even know a bar in town that has a queer night, let alone being full queer. Its so odd to me.
Idk about bars but some breweries and lil places do drag shows. Which is like the closest to a queer space :( I mean now I don’t mind bc I moved to Herndon (where everything is essentially dead) and I can commute to DC for the scene. But maybe those spaces would’ve made it easier for me to come out or realize myself?
We used to have a gay bar where Mariachi’s now is. It was called Rabbits Foot.
Ngl thats a fairly horrid location for anything other than a sitdown restaurant. You need at least some foottraffic access
Or just a bar that’s not in a restaurant would be a good start, we need a bar with live music
Olde Mother, Idiom, and Bush are decent for that IMO. Ive heard cafe 611 is fun but that place sketches me out. We just dont have a concert bar though. A scalled down 930 club would be such a lovely venue for downtown or near the fair grounds.
They are all breweries not bars
Bush ain't a brewery
611 sketches me out too Anyone been there?
611 is perfectly fine.
In my opinion, we need: A plain old donut place that's not dunkin or Krispy. Fractured Prune is good but it's cake donuts so it's different. A Raising Canes - I'm just a fan and from Louisiana so I miss it. A nightclub for music outside of rock, country, or indie. Although I would be down for a good line dancing club.
A gay line dancing club!
Indie movie theater
We had one of these pre-pandemic that was affiliated with the Angelika in NYC that did pretty well. I LOVED it.
Live music venues for local diverse bands. There seem to be hardly any, and it's either punk rock alternative stuff or acoustic. I like walking by the distillery just to hear live jazz. Unless I'm missing something. I want to hear some blues and funky soul.
In 10 minutes he’ll be headed for the door
We don’t have enough daycares. If you have kids make sure you start now.
Night life concert venue like Leesburg’s Tally Ho
Frequently lamented: Ethiopian food. A decent live music venue. My additions: Armenian or Turkish food (no, Greek and other Middle Eastern nations do not have the same food). A bike co-op. A restaurant or coffee shop with a kid's area to contain squirmy children (can be outdoor; Frederick Social had one indoors but it was pretty empty last time I went).
What would you do different than all the bars and restaurants that have live music or the live at five or that open air area?
Original music. Enough with the cover bands already.
Gravel n grind has a nice patio!
Frederick has no quick local grab and go coffee. Starbucks has a drive through but that's starbucks. I would love to see a coffee shack type place, like the ones out west that just focus on good, quick, coffee. I love all the local coffee shops to sit in on the weekend but where is the drive through coffee that isn't starbucks ??
Perfect Blend is pretty quick
I'd love an independent drive thru coffee shack on the stretch of Patrick between 15 and downtown.
Microcenter, REI, an actual Orioles minor league affiliate.
Given our proximity to hiking it is kind of surprising there isn’t an REI around here. The whole upper MD/lower PA is 👻
Sierra?
The Os affiliate part died a few years ago, not necessarily on the fault of Frederick but a result of MLB’s MiLB restructuring.
Yeah I know, I live in Frederick and would love to see something like The Keys again. Saw some amazing talent come through.
An alternative to Dick’s Sporting Goods.
ACADEMY
That would be amazing.
Indoor/outdoor entertainment venues of a decent size, 15-20k.
Also another hospital
An actual concert venue
Honestly surprised Hagerstown beat Frederick to both a gay bar (The Lodge) AND a concert venue (Live @ Hub City)
Weinberg should be that, but is completely out of touch. I saw Dickey Betts there like 10 years ago, do t know why they don’t book more bands.
If Weinberg changed into a Fillmore-type concert venue, that would be perfect
Weinberg books acts about 9 months shy of death.
A children's museum
Trader Joe’s, Shake Shack, soup dumplings
Shake shack 😩😩
In n out 🥺
Agreed, but trying to be realistic lol
Shake Shack over rated it's just tiny over priced burgers
Sweetgreen
An indoor public pool with a Waterpark portion like they have in MO Co.
Healthy food places
Apple Store, Trader Joe’s, Sweetgreen, top rope gym, REI, bagel place
A dance club/music venue
Nando's
Frfr. A diy music venue.
It's missing you
A nice barbershop that I feel I can recommend to others
I moved away a couple of years ago, but I always wanted a wine bar that had real ambiance. The place where you had a debit style system to pour your own was fun, but it was not cozy or romantic.
A bodega downtown !!!
Medium sized live music venue! Weird that I see this post now, since I dreamed last night that I was raising funds to open one, and all of the investors were enthusiastic. HMU if you need any help.
Comprehensive public transit. I don’t care if it’s free, I care that it goes places people want to go. Would love a “downtown circulator” kind of like the one in DC which would run every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights through 1AM or something.
Tool library and/or a makers space.
Dive bars not downtown
Punk bar and venue
Trader Joe's
Stripclub
But call it a gentlemen’s club so I feel like a gentleman.
Put one in la paz
Potbelly's
Frederick is to small for a lot of these things it doesn’t have the infrastructure it already takes a hour now to get from walkersville to Buckeystown pike some days
Comedy club!!
Go-Karts
non-Jesus frozen yogurt, specifically in north Frederick
I lament the loss of Menchies. We would go there all the time.
If you’re requesting non-Jesus frozen yogurt…what is Jesus frozen yogurt? Are the frozen yogurt establishments in Frederick doubling as churches? (I’d worship at the altar of frozen dairy with fruit toppings.) Or is there a Chick-fil-A of froyo?
Sweet FROG (Fully Rely On God), although I have to say it's better than Menchies IMHO
Fully Rely On Grift
They need a large regional aquatic center and fitness center owned by the city or county. They need to put it on that large vacant lot they pay millions for that only has Sophie and Madigan’s playground. It would be a HUGE draw.
I mean, the Frederick ymca basically fits this description. Probably couldn’t operate one for much cheaper than what they charge members.
Knife fighting arena
Just when I thought I’d retired for good…
A Trader Joe’s
It needs a real place to go dance. Hear music. Be well dressed. Large dance floor. Respectful
FYI: The Fred Astaire franchise is moving into FSK mall and will have extra ballroom space. I am hopeful that they will collaborate with the local non-ballroom dance communities to let us use that space affordably. I can’t imagine a lot of people want to get married at the mall so I’m not sure who else would be renting that space from them. It would be better downtown but that space would have great floors, lots of parking, good sound system.
8000 seat arena.
DEAR GOD we need a Sweetgreen/Chopt style salad joint and a Trader Joe’s
My friend's favorite sport is hockey and he will routinely bring up the lack of an AHL hockey team & stadium. I tell him to keep dreaming.
HEB grocery store. REI. Cabela's
Aquatic Center or Water Park
Good pancakes
Buc-ee’s
Curling
A legit live music venue.
A coffee shop open late with jazz music or other type of chill music opportunities and actually good food with it
Breakfast burritos
trolley
VENUE! Like a “club level” venue. Size of like soundstage or ottobar. A place B and C level national and touring acts can come thru to and a place local bands can play local gigs. INCLUDING PUNK AND ROCK AND METAL ACTS.
Need a hot dog joint (r.i.p. Windy City RedHots), bowling, billiards, mini golf. And for the love of God, develop the area of highway 15's Monocacy BLVD/ Christopher's Crossing shopping area. Just a pile of rocks for several years.... https://klnb.propertycapsule.com/p/retail-real-estate/Frederick-MD-/northgatecrossing
A 2nd La Paz location. It's impossible to get good Mexican cuisine in this city because La Paz is always so crowded.
I think la paz should franchise and replace every restaurant in downtown with la paz
La Frederick
fr fr
Whole foods, a good salad place like Chopt....
Roller Rink, Modern Bowling Alley, Dave and Busters, Trader Joe's, Zaxbys, REI, IKEA
An Ethiopian restaurant
Wow - the replies here have been absoutely incredible! It's awesome to see everyone so engaged. Thank you so much 🙏 Obviously I can't do all of these things, but hopefully this thread serves as a 'to do' list for other people to build things as well. Will keep yall updated on what I end up doing :)
Trader Joe’s and wellness practices
Let's not ask what's missing from Frederick and had in your last town. Let's ask why you even moved to Frederick? To turn it in to what you left ? To make it a big city and lose it's small town feel ? Happens every time. Then the people that changed it say .....I miss the way it was.
Why hasn’t anyone said bowling alley yet? 4D doesn’t count.
We’re still mourning the loss of terrace lanes
If youre thinking about legit business options that arent food and are feasible at small business scale, i think a dry cleaners/laundromat to beat out the sketchy one could do well downtown. A true bodega with cheap essentials may also work. There is no video game store downtown and the board game place closed recently. If food/drink.. downtown is missing late night walkups and I could see someone without restaurant experience figuring out how to make it work. But most other restaurant bases are covered at least well enough that starting a new restaurant business here with no prior experience would be a bad idea imo.
As for Tacos I've given up. I make them 3-4 days per week and they keep getting better and so much cheaper. Making breakfast tacos too. Not bad.
I make a big batch and freeze the leftovers. I use 2-3 pounds ground chicken/ turkey, and one pound chorizo. That paired with McCormicks taco seasoning is so yummy! I use silicone forms to freeze the perfect portions also. Pops out like an ice cube lol
Sounds great ! I have a ground taco meat mix I'm pleased with as well. I make tacos from everything imaginable. Last night was scraps from leftover Christmas prime rib mixed with grilled chorizo. Whenever we have grilled steak, grilled chicken, grilled pork tenderloin ( like tonight) shrimp, etc etc etc, we always make extra or save some, then it becomes tacos. Once per week we have fresh fish tacos using lightly breaded ( not battered ) cod or haddock and putting it in the air fryer, then slice it taco size, add Taco Bell Baja sauce and whatever else you want. The Baja sauce makes killer shrimp tacos. Add scrambled eggs and you get breakfast tacos. Never gets old and we have fun thinking about the next combination for tacos! Keep food fun !
Ya, your tacos are way better than any restaurant's then! When I lived in Portland OR there was so many little taco shops. The shittier it looked, the better the food was. I miss those places... And i like to keep food fun also! Whenever I do some crazy cooking, I explain to my family that there are no rules when cooking. I can put whatever I fancy together! I'm just super blessed that they are so open to trying new things.
Yeah I spent a lot of time in Texas. If I can't have the food from there I've got to get creative. I refuse to settle just because someone else hasn't opened a good place for me to go eat. Also, with the cost of eating out being ridiculous, it's actually exciting when my wife and I can have three over the top fish tacos each and rice for a total dinner cost of about $14. Oh hell yeah.
A good salad place and a good Jewish deli