You Know You’re From Lexington Park …
Businesses along Great Mills Road are feeling the upswing of the base returning to full weekday access at all Pax River gates. The uptick is apparent coming out of the historic Gate 2 where downtown Lexington Park boasts its own Verizon store and the new Dairy Queen is situated for the warm weather hinted at last weekend.
Also benefiting from the ease of lunchtime Gate 2 access is the recent, returning-to-its-roots newcomer, Showtime Deli. It’s just a matter of time before the celebrities start showing up to order their own sandwiches — Ike and Tina Tuna, The Terminator, Action Jackson, and King Kong Kosher Dog.
Meanwhile, Showtime Deli in its return engagement, packs in the luncheon diners along a counter and fills a raft of tables in the midday sunshine; packing dozens more thick meat sandwiches (cushioned always with a sharp, Kosher pickle) in TO-GOes walking out the hallway of Showtime Stars.
“All we gotta do now,” says proprietor Jonathan Gelrud, “is get one of our breakfast sandwiches in customers’ hands.”
That’s the trick — and how to perform it is explained below — to make it in and out of Showtime Deli, a warm breakfast sandwich in hand, without adding to the difficulties of the traffic snarl leading into that final queue up into Pax River. (The trick is explained below.)
Showtime and other expanding businesses in Lexington Park are feeling some of the benefits of NAS Pax River gates re-opening for workday lunch. A half-dozen eateries closed when the limited base access at Gate 2 and Gate 3 for the past few years snarled traffic. The slow traffic made the drive off-base beyond the time workers had for lunch.
A quick zip-in-zip-out lunch time traffic flow helps Showtime. Once motorists become more familiar with the FDR Boulevard access, owner Jonathan Gelrud says he expects the on-the-way-in breakfast trade will pick up as well.
Here’s the quick-in-quick-out breakfast drop-in for those commuting into Pax River on Great Mills Road during busy mornings: Coming up Great Mills Road toward Gate 2, make the left at FDR Blvd. and then pop a quick right up the parking lot shared with the Showtime Deli parking lot. When you leave, don’t bother with a left back onto Great Mills Road, try a right turn on FDR which will bring you up to the FDR light at Route 235 take another right and set yourself back into the Gate 2 queue, albeit from the Route 235 angle, but now with a warm breakfast sandwich and hot cup of Joe.
Call ahead: 301-862-3354
