A longtime Italian restaurant in Clarendon has officially changed its name.
Faccia Luna became Alto Fumo on January 1, but not much has changed other than some new food options.
Boubker Errami, who has been involved with the restaurant since it opened in 1992, said the restaurant will now offer dishes like oysters and fried calamari as well as staples like pizza and pasta.
He also said the eatery at 2909 Wilson Blvd will have new salads and small plates and an expanded happy hour featuring numerous craft beers. No other aspects of the restaurant, including the furnishings, will change, he said.
As of Tuesday (January 2), the menus on display had been updated with the new name, but the old awnings remained with the Faccia Luna name. Alto Fumo also has a new Facebook page.
Faccia Luna’s Facebook page, meanwhile, posted on Monday, thanking customers and encouraging them to visit Faccia Luna in Alexandria.
Thank you Faccia Luna Arlington customers for your loyalty, support, and for making us a part of your family traditions.
Starting January 1, 2018 Faccia Luna Arlington will be closing its doors. You can still enjoy our great wood-fired pizzas, and classic Italian pastas at Faccia Luna Trattoria in the heart of Old Town Alexandria.
Errami said the changes come as Clarendon continues to add newrestaurants and bars, and as Alto Fumo’s owners look to expand their customer base.
“We have great loyal customers, we’re just looking for more to come in the door, because we’ve been here since 1992,” he said. “We want to stay the neighborhood spot for this area.”
With uncertainty still swirling about whether taxpayers can deduct property tax prepayments, Arlington County is offering refunds for those who have already made deposits.
County Treasurer Carla de la Pava said the county has already collected around $18.2 million in prepayments from 2,300 accounts, with it still unclear whether taxpayers can deduct those prepayments from their 2017 federal taxes.
And unlike some other jurisdictions, de la Pava said, Arlington is offering refunds on prepayments for those who have changed their minds about paying early. She said around 75 people so far have requested a refund.
“This bill was passed through Congress, and it was very quick and it caused a lot of uncertainty,” she said. “I do not want that uncertainty to penalize Arlington citizens.”
Under the new GOP tax bill, State and Local Tax (SALT) deductions are capped at $10,000. For many Arlington taxpayers with pricey homes, this means they will lose part of their deduction next year and thus potentially pay higher federal taxes.
The Treasurer’s Office issued an advisory on how to request a refund on December 28, the morning after a ruling by the IRS limiting deductions to property taxes assessed in 2017.
Arlington is unable to assess 2018 property taxes until the County Board sets the tax rate in April, and de la Pava said with so many things still up in the air, it was better to give taxpayers options.
“It’s interesting, because what I’ve heard from many people is that they are certainly not going to request a refund right away because I think there’s a sense in the community that… things might change,” she said. “I even had one customer suggest that there might be something brewing in Congress that would make that IRS advisory stale information. There’s a lot of uncertainty still.”
The full advisory issued by the Treasurer’s Office is after the jump.
As the weekend approaches, Arlington County could be at risk of another dusting of snow.
Local crews and their VDOT colleagues have been pretreating roads due to the snow potential Saturday. The recent low temperatures may create slick conditions, officials warn.
Any snow is forecast to arrive overnight tonight, and VDOT is warning drivers to do the following:
If conditions are icy, avoid driving for safety. Otherwise, give yourself plenty of time to get to your destination and reduce speeds significantly.
Continue to check weather forecasts. Pavement and air temperatures have been below freezing all week.
Take it slow on bridges, ramps, and overpasses, and other known trouble spots.
Ensure gas tanks and windshield wiper fluid tanks are full, and always use your headlights.
In this shortened week, these were our most read stories:
Months after going on an apparent and indefinite “hiatus,” Ray’s Hell Burger appears to be officially leaving Rosslyn.
The restaurant at 1650 Wilson Blvd is now available for lease, albeit with the Ray’s awnings and signs still up, including one noting the hiatus.
Earlier this year, the Washington Business Journal reported that owner Michael Landrum wanted out of his lease on the spot, across the street from the redeveloping Wilson School site. That storefront was across from the original Hell Burger, which was visited twice by then-President Barack Obama.
Customers can still visit a Ray’s Hell Burger on K Street NW in D.C., as well as Ray’s the Steaks at 2300 Wilson Blvd in Courthouse. The latter received renewed praise from Northern Virginia Magazine earlier this year as one of its 50 best restaurants of 2017.
A free ride-hailing app in the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor will be closed until April, according to a message posted when customers try to hail a car.
Sprynt launched in June, promising free rides along the corridor in electric vehicles that look a bit like a stretched-out golf cart with doors.
It initially offered short jaunts around a handful of Orange Line corridor neighborhoods, including Ballston, Virginia Square, Clarendon, Courthouse and Rosslyn. Within five days, the iOS app had over 700 downloads.
But when an ARLnow reporter tried to hail a ride today (Friday), a message popped up that the service is “not currently operating. Normal operating hours today are closed. We will be back in April 2018!”
Sprynt staff did not respond to requests for comment, and there is no mention of a closure on its social mediaaccounts or website. Its last Facebook post touted free rides during the holiday season.
A deli and grocery store in Virginia Square will close today (Friday), but is expected to reopen next month.
A sign on the front door of Jen’s Kitchen (901 N. Nelson Street) said all its grocery items including beer and wine must go, with everything half-price.
But Jen’s is set to reopen in late January under new management, the sign reads.
The store between Starbucks and a dry cleaners, on the first floor of the Virginia Square Apartments and just feet from the neighborhood’s Metro station, sells hot food and fresh salad as well as breakfast, lunch and dinner.
It opened in 2015, replacing the former Metro Cafe and Gourmet.
In at least the fourth such incident in Arlington County since 2015, dozens of dirt bike and ATV riders rumbled through Crystal City one Sunday evening in June. The riders followed Route 1, and that day were spotted in various parts of D.C., including downtown. A similar instance of ATV and dirt bike riders in Arlington occurred in April. In the aftermath of the April joy ride, D.C. resident Stephon Williams, 24, received a four-year jail sentence.
Yorktown High School history teacher Thomas Lenihan was charged in January with indecent exposure after allegedly exposing himself to two teenagers in the locker room of the Sport & Health Club on Greensboro Drive in Tysons Corner. Lenihan was placed on administrative leave.
A Shirlington resident found a snake — a juvenile Yellow Anaconda, to be exact — in an apartment toilet in January. An Animal Welfare League of Arlington spokeswoman said the snake was likely someone’s pet that was either abandoned or escaped. No one was injured and the snake, named Sir Hiss, was safely removed from the apartment and taken to AWLA’s shelter. In September, the Arlington County Board banned residents from keeping various “wild and exotic” animals as pets, although they could keep non-venomous snakes.
A wild fight outside A-Town Bar & Grill one Sunday night in March resulted in two suspects being tased by police, including one man who was brawling while wearing a Pikachu onesie. According to police, it started when the man in the Pikachu costume, Steven Goodwine, Jr., tried to pick a fight with the bouncers at A-Town after being kicked out. The incident came just days before a regular review of the bar’s permit by the County Board, and resulted in more regular Board reviews and more stringent regulations. But in June, things appeared to have calmed down at A-Town in its latest review, with no major incidents reported since.
Our most popular story of the year came on March 24, as two homeless people were arrested after police interrupted their (allegedly) very public lovemaking in Rosslyn Highlands Park. Nicole Faircloth, 42, was arrested and charged with assault and battery on police and performing a sexual act in a public place, according to a crime report. Petko Ubiparipovic, 42, was arrested and charged with performing a sexual act in a public place.
The eagle-eyed among you will notice that this article had more than 200,000 views more than No. 2 in our list.
That spike in traffic came after the article was picked up by the Drudge Report, a news aggregation website, and shared with its more-than 1 million Twitter followers.
In just a few months, it has become the most viewed article of all time on ARLnow.com, surpassing a 2015 morning poll asking if towing had become too predatory in the county and a 2014 piece on an Ebola scare at the Pentagon.
Del. Patrick Hope (D) proposed a bill in the Virginia House of Delegates to raise the minimum value of stolen money or goods that constitute a “grand larceny.”
Hope, who represents Arlington in the House of Delegates, filed HB 17 to raise the threshold from its current minimum of $200 to $500. Under current law, stealing goods or money worth less than $200 is a petit larceny.
Grand larceny, a felony, typically carries a sentence of at least a year in prison, while petit larceny is a misdemeanor so generally results in probation, fines or lesser prison sentences.
State Sen. David Suetterlein (R-Salem) has filed identical legislation — SB 105 — in the Virginia State Senate.
Earlier this year, research by the nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts found that raising the threshold does not impact overall property crime or larceny rates, and that states that increased their thresholds reported “roughly” the same average decrease in crime as 20 states that did not.
Park’s upper area, where rope course will go (via NOVA Parks presentation)
Park’s lower area, set for renovations (via NOVA Parks presentation)
Upton Hill Regional Park aerial view (via NOVA Parks presentation)
Photo via Facebook
Photo via Facebook
Photo via Facebook
A “high adventure” ropes course that allows users to swing at the same level as treetops is one of several improvements set for Upton Hill Regional Park.
The park (6060 Wilson Blvd) in Seven Corners, will add a ropes course near its pool. The courses typically have sections constructed in trees or made of utility poles, and are designed to be a challenging activity. The park already has batting cages, mini golf, pools and trails.
In a presentation to the Arlington County Board last month, executive director Paul Gilbert of the Northern Virginia Regional Parks Authority, which manages Upton Hill, said the “high adventure course” has been a priority of people surveyed in the park for two years.
“You’ll be able to go all the way up, essentially, to the tree line and get a stunning view out over Arlington from there,” he told the Board. “We’re really excited. We think this will be a signature feature, something that in Visit Arlington promotions, you’ll probably have pictures of people up there and the wonderful views.”
In addition, that area of the park near the existing swimming pool is set for a new building to handle ticket sales for the course and the batting cages, with a section of that new structure available to rent for private events. The area would also get new outdoor seating and 91 new parking spaces.
Meanwhile, the area of the park near its entrance from Wilson Blvd is also set for a revamp. Gilbert said NOVA Parks will add a “high-end” playground, renovate the bathroom building and add new trails, seating areas and game tables.
Gilbert added that the authority is looking to add more lighting, and build a new entrance off Wilson Blvd with a small parking lot at its base, with the current driveway changed for trail use.
“It will be a very dynamic, interesting area,” Gilbert said, noting the authority’s desire to make that part of the park “sort of more of an urban place to hang out.”
But the $3 million plan has already come in for criticism from some quarters. Local activist Suzanne Smith Sundberg said not enough has been done to assess the impact on the park’s trees, planning for transportation needs has been inadequate, and there is a lack of transparency in the way NOVA Parks collected its survey data.
“By adding a new driveway, with an additional curb cut on Wilson Blvd, plus nearly an acre of paved parking, NVRPA will degrade one of the few remaining natural areas in Arlington County,” she wrote.
She added that more should have been done to engage with those who live in the nearby buildings like the Patrick Henry Apartments and the Seven Corners Apartments, among others.
“Whereas I sympathize with NVRPA’s need to generate more revenue, monetizing scarce natural land by converting it into developed land (particularly in an area that is already heavily developed) seems like a very high price to pay for a questionable gain,” Sundberg wrote in a lengthy email provided to ARLnow.com. “Without more precise information, it is difficult to see how this project makes sense from an environmental or economic standpoint as currently envisioned.”
For his part, Gilbert said the project will not interrupt natural resources already in the park. The plan still needs approval from the Virginia Department of Transportation — which controls Wilson Blvd near the park — as well as site plan approval from the county.
The owners of the IOTA Club and Cafe in Clarendon announced in September that the live music venue would shutter at the end of the month, after more than 23 years in business. Despite a campaign to “Save IOTA” earlier this year, Market Common Clarendon owner Regency Centers’ plan to revamp the retail and office development caused uncertainty about its future. In a press release, IOTA owners Jane Negrey Inge and Stephen V. Negrey said they chose to close the club rather than temporarily relocate during renovations and pay higher rents upon moving back.
Brewpub Sehkraft Brewing closed its doors in early January after about a year in business in Clarendon. Its opening had been stymied by months of delays and what its owner described as regulatory wrangling with the county’s permitting office. It brewed its own beer and had wine on tap, as well as three separate food menus for lunch, dinner and the bar. The space at 925 N. Garfield Street was vacant for much of the year, before The Board Room opened in late November.
Politico reporter Helena B. Evich first spotted an adventurous animal hitching a ride on the back of an American Disposal Services trash truck in Rosslyn a little after 11 a.m. one February morning. By the time the driver pulled over, the truck had traveled all the way from Rosslyn to Falls Church, when the Falls Church Police Department’s animal control team safely rescued the raccoon without harm.
Police shot a man dead on the Glebe Road exit of I-395 in May after he pinned an officer against another vehicle with his black pick-up truck. Police had attempted a traffic stop after a “hit”from a police license plate reader. Officers on the scene attempted life-saving measures on the suspect, 28-year-old Daniel George Boak of Centreville, but he later died in the hospital. In September, Commonwealth’s Attorney Theo Stamos found in a report on the incident that officers were justified in shooting Boak as they were in “imminent danger of serious injury or death.”
Autria Godfrey a morning news anchor on WJLA (ABC 7), was charged with trespassing and being drunk in public in late February in Clarendon. The incident happened early Saturday morning, on February 18, at Clarendon Grill. Godfrey was suspended and taken off the air by station owner Sinclair, but returned to the airwaves the following week.
Which story was our most-read this year? Find out in the final part of our countdown tomorrow.
A fishing store is now open in a Cherrydale strip mall that had been planning to host a gun store.
District Angling opened on December 22 at 2105 N. Pollard Street, the former location of fitness business Curves. It sells fishing rods and other equipment, tackle and flies, clothing and other accessories. It also offers courses on fly tying and fly casting, and will host other events for fishing enthusiasts.
The storefront was once set to become the Arlington County home for Nova Firearms, but the landlord pulled the plug on the lease in 2015 after plans to open the gun store prompted heated protests from local residents.
The storefront has sat vacant for the past few years, except for a period as a pop-up holiday gift shop, but it is now home to the fishing store.
The Washington Business Journal reported earlier this year that founder Richard Farino had been looking to open a new store in the region after his Urban Angler store closed last year in Old Town Alexandria. Urban Angler had begun in Arlington in 2008, before relocating south in 2011.
We’re very excited to announce that the buildout of our shop is complete! We are open for business just in time for your last minute holiday shopping, and you once again have a place to find your favorite brands, demo new rods, get information about some amazing fishing destinations locally and abroad, and learn new techniques and tricks to help your fly tying mastery. Now that winter has arrived, we’ll make sure to have coffee.
We’re adding to our inventory and product continues to arrive daily. We’re increasing our fly tying selection, brought on a few new fly fishing brands, and we have some great new District Angling logo gear for you to show off the place you tell stories about the one that got away. We’ve added women’s waders, boots, and clothing, and we have gift cards in case you don’t know what to get your favorite angler this holiday season.
The store will be open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays.
