Business in Brief: Flavor Garden renovation, Comet IPA, and Comet’s predecessor

Cooking up improvements: Wednesday night is jazz night at Flavor Garden (4400 Connecticut), but last Wednesday there was no activity visible from the restaurant’s windows. As we got closer, we saw that the windows had been papered over, and there was a sign on the door.

On that sign was some good news: Flavor Garden is closed temporarily for renovations.

We’ve reached out to the owner for information on what’s planned, and a projected reopening date. Flavor Garden is in the Van Ness Days Inn, which itself has been undergoing a renovation. In February 2023, the regional director of the hotel’s management company, Coakley Williams, told Forest Hills Connection that it would additionally address the restaurant’s ceiling, artwork and some other items.

An IPA of one’s own: Comet Ping Pong (5037 Connecticut) has teamed up with Right Proper Brewing on a new beer. The first official pour was on December 15th.

Even @RightProperBeer's famously anti-social house cat 😾 lightens up 😺 when the new Comet Ping Pong IPA is on the menu. 😻

This new locally brewed IPA is made with Comet & Galaxy Hops and will be on tap exclusively at Comet starting TOMORROW NIGHT! 🍻🐈‍⬛🍻 pic.twitter.com/0pxI61Xay9

— Comet Ping Pong (@cometpingpong) December 14, 2023

Before it was Comet: It was the Thai Room. We encourage you to read the comments on the Popville post.

Archeological Finds Vol. 86 – Old Thai Room Sign https://t.co/pPrr1pzJIS

— PoPville (@PoPville) December 13, 2023

Readers choice: Bread Furst (4434 Connecticut) makes Washingtonian’s list of reader favorites.

Calling all pinball wizards: The MOM’s Organic Market in College Park has a pinball room where founder Scott Nash stashes around 40 games from his personal collection, and invites the public to play. The “pinball speakeasy” will be closing, however, as the property owner has leased the space. Where will it go? The Washington Post reports Nash is searching for space in the same shopping center, but if that doesn’t work out, we can think of a few vacant retail spaces by and near an incoming MOM’s store.