The Old HMT Transformed!

Oh happy day! Roscoe’s Pizza officially opened today in the old HMT location at 7040 Carroll. We moved out June 2, 2008, so it’s been almost a year! Paul the Elder walked in this afternoon with a takeaway pizza, and at almost the same time my friend Adam stopped by the store, so we decided to check out the new place. Here’s a little photo essay of our lunch:

Stream displays the pizza Paul picked up—a “Capricciosa” with tomato, mozzarella, artichokes, mushrooms and Italian ham. Yum! We all tried it and I decided I needed more—therefore the lunch excursion!

The outside of the 7040 location. The offices of the Takoma/Silver Spring Voice newspaper are now upstairs--where we used to have our lessons rooms, bookkeeping office, and where Greg Artzner & Terry Leonino (aka Magpie) used to live.

Here’s the bar near the front entrance. They don’t have their liquor license yet, but we look forward to enjoying fine wines and such there in the not-too-distant future. The bar is approximately where our shipping/mail order department used to be located. Somehow that just seems appropriate (heh heh, just kidding Paul!!)

This wall used to hold our banjo selection!



Here’s the view of the main room. I didn’t really get a picture of the kitchen, which is located where our back office and my old desk used to be.



That back wall used to be the home of our repair closet and the Infamous Wall O’ Squeezeboxes.



Rounding the corner, we get to the bathrooms, which is where our book room used to be. I did not make use of the facilities, but I have no doubt they are far more luxurious than our old ones.



Then to the left is their separate dining room which you will recognize as our old guitar room! Hopefully soon they’ll have enough customers to open this up.

I knew the space was going to blow me away—they put an enormous amount of work into this place (kudos John Mangan & crew!). It was definitely surreal walking around the space that I worked in for 9 years, and which had been there for a total of something like 34 years. Check out our posts from June 2008 to see what the space looked like before we moved out. I'm looking forward to enjoying some great food & drink here for years to come!

Oh yes, and there was food. Adam and I split a mixed salad which had a yummy house dressing and just a bit of fresh parmesan…




…and we ordered the “Cafone” white pizza which was supposed to have smoked mozzarella, Italian sausage and rapini. Due to a delivery mix-up they didn’t have sausage, so we substituted grilled chicken. It was delicious indeed. Great thin crispy crust, fresh ingredients, yum! Their pizzas are priced between $8-$12 and feed 2 moderate appetites. They also have a selection of Mediterranean appetizers, salads, panini sandwiches and desserts. I look forward to trying out the whole menu.



The staff was all incredibly friendly; they seemed very excited about their opening day. We met the owner, Ed Gossman. He said they should have their website up and running soon, and they also have plans to have live music.

Well, congratulations to Roscoes—please come out and patronize this great addition to Old Town Takoma Park!!