From Bethesda Magazine: How Bethesda’s Praline Bakery & Bistro has lasted 20 years

How Bethesda’s Praline Bakery & Bistro has lasted 20 years

June 12, 2026 2:00 p.m. | Updated: June 12, 2026 12:30 p.m.

Praline Bakery & Bistro’s lemon-blueberry pound cake. Photo credit: Brendan McCabe

The restaurant business is a fantastic way to lose money, sanity and sleep. The vast majority of places fold within two years, casualties of their owner’s ambitions or the public’s fickleness, or sometimes both.

So how has Praline Bakery & Bistro in Bethesda managed to reach its 20th anniversary?

Susan Limb, one of the co-owners and chefs, doesn’t have an easy answer, other than to describe a give-and-take that has unspooled over two decades like a kind of dance: “to be a part of a community that supports you, that you can support back, is so amazing.”

Limb opened the place in 2006 with Patrick Musel, both fresh off their time together in the White House—not as experts in policy, but in pastry. The experience of working at the highest level and under intense scrutiny proved to be good preparation for the rigors of running a bakery.

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But it was a vow the pair made from the very start—to ignore trends and not chase relevance—that was even more important.

Praline’s lemon-blueberry pound cake—adapted from a now-forgotten White House confection Limb once worked on—has been more than their signature item; it’s served as kind of a mission statement in cake form, steeling them to stick to their fad-free philosophy in spite of the risks.

It’s not particularly eye-catching—the Instagrammers are never going to pass it around. But take a bite. There’s a reason it’s never come off the menu. This is comfort food that actually comforts, the kind of reliable pleasure that builds loyalty and devotion rather than buzz.

Praline Bakery & Bistro 4611 Sangamore Road (The Shops at Sumner Place), Bethesda, 301-229-8180, praline-bakery.com

Praline Bakery & Bistro’s Lemon-Blueberry Pound Cake

Makes 2 loaves

Ingredients

For the cake

1 pound all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
8 ounces salted butter at room temperature, plus more for pans
20 ounces sugar
8 ounces sour cream
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
6 large eggs at room temperature
Zest of 2 lemons
8 ounces fresh blueberries

For the glaze

Juice of 2 lemons
1 cup powdered sugar

Directions

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Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Sift together flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl.
In another bowl, beat butter and sugar for 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy.
Mix in sour cream and vanilla, scraping bowl thoroughly.
Alternate adding eggs and flour mixture, scraping bowl after each addition.
Gently fold in lemon zest and blueberries.
Grease two loaf pans with butter. Divide batter between the pans. Bake 40-45 minutes until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let rest 15-20 minutes. Turn out onto wire racks.
Whisk lemon juice and powdered sugar until smooth. Brush over cooled cakes.

This appears in the May/June 2026 issue of Bethesda Magazine.

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Originally published at Bethesdamagazine