Paper products are in good supply at Rodman’s, including Caspari cocktail napkins ($5.50 for packages of 15 or 20, depending on the design) and, bottom left, pads of paper placemats by Michel Design Works ($11.99 for a pad of 25). / Photos courtesy of the manufacturers.
Two entire racks of classic Colonial Candle tapers ($2.59 to $3.99 each; $4.69 for metallics) cover one wall of the housewares area downstairs at Rodman’s. Next to them, a wall of just about every kind of glass tray or container or cover for candles. / Photo by Nancy McKeon.
Someone at Rodman’s really likes silicone: There are mini-tongs with colorful silicone “helping hands” from Kitchen Innovations ($4.49). The Zeal ladles and other tools generally range from $9.99 to $12.99. / Photo by Nancy McKeon.
More silicone! This “sunflower” is a lid for pots or bowls. By Charles Viancin, it comes in sizes from 6 inches to 11 inches across. Other Viancin oddities include small Rosebud Fingers ($3.99) for grabbing that hot glass bowl out of the microwave oven. / Photo courtesy of Charles Viancin.
Don’t think I’m shallow just because I love plastic! The acrylic Big Party Tub by Prodyne (13 x 13 x 8 inches, $23.99) can hold a lot of party fun. There’s also an oval version, $19.99. The square plastic party plates (there are bowls and trays too) are by Simply Square, from Maryland Plastics of Federalsburg, Maryland. Ten 10.75-inch plates are $12.99; 10 9.5-inch plates are $9.99. They also come in black. / Photos courtesy of the manufacturers.
And more plastic. Ten 10.5-inch dinner plates are $9.99. The Touch of Class line, by E-Zware Dishes of Brooklyn, includes the Diplomat Collection, the Palatial Collection, the Princess Collection and, I’m sure, more. Dessert dishes, 7.5 inches across, are $6.99 for 10. / Photo courtesy of E-Zware Dishes.
Here’s what I didn’t know I “needed” till I saw them: little Endurance stainless-steel cake-decorating tongs from RSVP International. They’re $5.99 at Rodman’s, and I just saw them for a little over $7 at Amazon.com and elsewhere online. / Photo by Nancy McKeon.
Classic dish towels: Here’s where to find them. They’re $3.99 and $4.49. / Photo by Nancy McKeon.
This is a ceramic 20-ounce footed cone. I have no idea what it’s for, but I love the shape, and it’s $11.99. A 4.2-ounce cone is $4.99. / Photo by Nancy McKeon.
Invite me for dinner this spring and this is what I will bring as a hostess gift: teeny-tiny incense cones with a green-tea fragrance, packaged with a little ceramic bowl to hold the burning incense, in a slim rosewood box. Made in Thailand for Vance Kitira. Okay, I’ll tell you: It’s $6.99, / Photo by Nancy McKeon.
BEFORE THERE WAS Amazon.com (the “everything store”), there was Rodman’s, Washington’s very own everything store.
How many places can you think of that sell Roquefort cheese and Les Trois Petits Cochons pate and also rent out wheelchairs? Sell vacuum cleaners and hold wine tastings? Fill prescriptions (for pets too) and, while you’re waiting, put a new battery in your watch?
Costco comes pretty close, but Rodman’s has better parking and smaller package sizes. And more variety. And prices that are just about as good.
Rodman’s started out as a discount pharmacy back in 1955, but it has long since gone beyond those baby steps, while still being owned by the Rodman family. In fact, the pharmacy is tucked away on the lower level of the Wisconsin Avenue store, next to all the home health aids you might need (sitz bath, anyone? folding cane?).
But that’s not why I go to Rodman’s; I go there for the same reason some of us, ahem, go to Costco: to see what they might have that we didn’t know about and now absolutely have to have.
The food offerings upstairs dazzle in an everyday kind of way: Feldkamp’s real pumpernickel bread slices, the large packages of Italian cookies, big bags of ground turmeric, chocolate seemingly from everywhere, vials of Cook’s vanilla beans (the only ones that look plump and fresh–okay, a friend of mine reps them, but it’s true).
But downstairs, in the housewares section, behind the largest display of Sodastream products I’ve seen around, there are Caspari paper cocktail napkins (and Ihr napkins, if you prefer those), plus coordinated paper plates, an enormous selection of Colonial Candle classic tapers and pillars in a rainbow of colors, and a wall laden with . . . seems to be everything you can put under a candle, over it, around it . . . plus little wax “buttons” to hold tapers in place in the candlestick holder.
Then, among the kitchen things, some Rodman’s buyer has a jones for silicone. There are tiny tongs whose ends are “hands” dipped in the stuff, ladles, spatulas, even measuring spoons.
I went to Rodman’s the other day, just to make sure everything was still in place. The very silly sunflower pot lids? Check. The big acrylic ice tubs for parties? Check. The green tea incense? Check.
But don’t worry: I left some stuff behind for everyone else.
–Nancy McKeon
Rodman’s
5100 Wisconsin Avenue NW
Washington, D.C.
202-363-3466
4301 Randolph Road
(at Viers Mill)
Wheaton, Maryland
301-946-3100
5148 Nicholson Lane
Kensington, Maryland
301-881-6253
