Hard Thymes

Thyme Square Café is supposed to offer free wireless. But who can tell, with the more than a dozen networks available (one from the picturesque car dealership 100 yards away) if any of them are actually provided by the café itself. In any case, its good that there are so many entertainment options at this cute yuppie bistro in Bethesda, since you'll wait for at least an hour for your food to arrive.

I'm still trying to figure out why. The restaurant was completely deserted except for us and a middle-aged couple showing off their new streaming-video cell phone. We sat outside on the asphalt terrace on a pretty, warm day, so there could not have been any climactic difficulties. And yet, when our shrimp pizza finally arrived an hour later after much Blue Moon ale and yawning, it was not only average-tasting, but only barely lukewarm. It was like, despite the entire place being deserted, it had been sitting under the heat lamps for 20 minutes. Very weird.

Anyway, if you have a lot of spare time on your hands and an undiscerning palate, Thymes Square is one of the few places you can eat outside in Bethesda. But I have yet to eat anything in that entire subburb that challenges its title for upper-class boredom and mediocrity.

Sorry, my spell check's out. (Spelling corrected by the spelling and grammar police -- amg)

Thyme Square Cafe | 4735 Bethesda Ave., Bethesda, MD | 20814