The Brass Rabbit in Clarendon (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Inside of Brass Rabbit Pub in Clarendon (photo courtesy of Brass Rabbit Pub)
Inside of Brass Rabbit Pub in Clarendon (photo courtesy of Brass Rabbit Pub)
Inside of Brass Rabbit Pub in Clarendon (photo courtesy of Brass Rabbit Pub)
The Brass Rabbit in Clarendon (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Brass Rabbit Public House in Clarendon is now open, filling the space once occupied by the Bracket Room.
Back in July 2021, ARLnow reported that a new bar and restaurant was moving into 1210 N. Garfield Street and, a few months later, that ownership was aiming for a mid-February opening. That goal wasn’t quite met, but after a bit of a delay Brass Rabbit finally opened its doors last week on Tuesday, March 22.
The pub comes from local restaurateur Reese Gardner, who owns a number of other Arlington eateries and watering holes, including Copperwood Tavern and Dudley’s Sport and Ale in Shirlington, Quinn’s on Corner in Rosslyn, and Clarendon’s The Pinemoor, just a couple of blocks from Brass Rabbit.
Photos show that rabbit-themed decor and bunny puns dot the interior. The menu also aims to be fit for a rabbit, described as “elevated pub fare with a healthy twist.”
The all-day menu includes lettuce wraps, carrot fries, a number of different salads, soups, sandwiches, wings, and burgers. The brunch menu is similar, plus the addition of carrot cake french toast. To drink and “keep the place hoppin’,” there are more than a dozen beers on tap, hand-crafted cocktails (like the “Rabbit-Hole Fashioned”), and a hefty wine list.
Brass Rabbit replaces the Bracket Room, which closed about a year ago. That restaurant and bar opened nine years ago and was co-owned by Chris Bukowski, who is probably best known for his ‘Bachelorette’ appearances — and who is not the only reality TV personality to own an Arlington restaurant.
The Bracket Room was known as a place to watch sports, the Bachelor, and for garnering noise complaints from neighbors.
The Rosslyn Business Improvement District (BID) is once again hosting a series of movie nights in June at Gateway Park (1300 Langston Blvd).
This year’s line-up includes the following films, which all emerged victorious through a March Madness-style bracket:
National Treasure
Space Jam
Encanto
Mamma Mia
This year, residents were given the opportunity to not only vote on what movies were shown, but predict what the winners would be — much like the annual tradition of submitting a bracket predicting which team will win the college basketball championship. The three most accurate brackets win a gift card to a Rosslyn restaurant.
The bracket was broken up into four categories — family, sports, romantic comedies, and D.C. area-based — with National Treasure, Space Jam, Encanto, and Mamma Mia winning its respective group.
While voting on which movies will be shown in June concluded yesterday (Thursday), residents can still vote on which will be the ultimate winner.
Exact dates of when each movie will be shown have not been announced yet.
Rosslyn’s movie series at Gateway Park dates back at least a decade, to 2012. After taking a year off due to the pandemic, the series returned in 2021 with an abbreviated version.
Rosslyn BID is not the only community organization that will be hosting outdoor movies this summer.
The Columbia Pike Partnership’s movie nights are also set to return for their 12th year on Saturday nights starting in July, the organization has confirmed to ARLnow. The series will run July 9 through August 27 while alternating locations between Penrose Square and Arlington Mill Community Center. The calendar of movies will be announced later this spring.
In the past, the National Landing BID and Ballston BID have also both hosted summer movie nights. Ballston BID told ARLnow that they will not be hosting movies this summer, while the National Landing BID said they don’t have details to share as of yet.
County records show that Darby applied for a building permit earlier this month for the construction of a restaurant at 3185 Wilson Blvd, the one-time home of the expansive, long-time local nightlife and event venue.
In December 2020, Darby’s company Monument Realty purchased the building where Clarendon Ballroom was located for close to $7 million, the Washington Business Journal reported. The company then signed a 21-month lease with the owners of the Lot, the outdoor beer garden down the street, to operate a series of themed pop-up bars out of the space as longer term plans were figured out.
But that lease expires later this year and now it appears Darby could be moving into the Wilson Blvd location himself.
When reached for comment about the possibility of a new Darby-owned restaurant, a Monument Realty representative told ARLnow that they would be “in touch when we have additional information to share.”
Darby and wife Ashley star on the Bravo reality show “The Real Housewives of Potomac.” Ashley Darby recently confirmed that she will be returning to the show’s seventh season. Production on the new season is expected to start soon and Ashley said that locals can expect to “see some cameras around the summer.”
The couple opened Oz, featuring cuisine from Michael’s native Australia, in 2015. Its trials and tribulations ended up being a storyline on season two of the show, before the eatery closed in 2019. It’s unclear whether the new restaurant will feature into RHOP’s upcoming season.
The Oz space on Clarendon Blvd — a four minute walk from from the Ballroom space — has sat dormant ever since, but will soon become the first D.C. area location for Asian restaurant chain Wagamama.
Gulf Branch Nature Center (Staff Photo by Jay Westcott)
Supporters of Gulf Branch Nature Center are pushing to expand the hours of Arlington nature centers, as the 2023 county budget proposes to keep hours at pandemic levels.
In a letter to the community last week, Friends of Gulf Branch Nature Center president Duke Banks took issue with the County Manager’s proposed budget, which would keep the county’s two nature centers open only three days a week. That’s in contrast with the centers’ six day a week schedule prior to the pandemic.
The reasons for the cuts are due to safety and practicality.
A new Department of Parks and Recreation directive, as director Jane Rudolph noted in a budget work session earlier this month, is that two staff members are now required to open a county facility when previously only one was needed. That policy was put in place in response to a sexual assault that occurred at the Barcroft Recreation Center in 2019.
The other is that with more virtual programs — and school field trips still restricted, in part due to a bus driver shortage — nature center staff are more often going into schools instead of students coming to the facilities themselves.
Banks says that his organization understands the challenges, but believes it’s important to hire a few extra employees to keep the nature centers open as often as possible.
“Friends of GBNC understands the need for safety, and we laud nature center staff members on their flexibility in continuing to provide programs during COVID — both to the public and schools. However, these emergency initiatives don’t justify closing Arlington’s remaining nature centers three days a week,” Banks says in the letter. “Our nature centers anchor the creative new programming, providing essential facilities like exhibits, restrooms and shelter (during storms) and serving as a physical focal point that makes nature accessible to everyone, young or old, rich or poor.”
As Rudolph brought up at the work session, staffing and hiring remains a challenge across the department (as well as in the county as a whole). She noted that the department is making an effort to “meet people where they are” by taking nature center programming out of the facilities and into community centers, as well as schools.
“There is nature center programming happening, it just isn’t always happening in the nature center,” Rudolph said at the work session.
Banks and Friends of the Gulf Branch Nature Center disagreed with the approach, saying that structured programming shouldn’t be a driver of when the nature centers should be open.
“Many folks visit nature centers without attending a program and thus would be denied access to the nature centers at a time when the public’s visits to our parks have significantly increased during COVID,” Banks said in the letter. “With our highly urbanized environment and the pandemic-related fallout, children need the respite of enjoying nature now more than ever.”
The two county-run nature centers, Gulf Branch and Long Branch, averaged about 21,000 visitors annually in 2018 and 2019, according to a county report.
Rudolph made a point to say that the operational changes may not be permanent. The department is currently evaluating not just how many days the nature centers should be open, but their hours as well.
The centers are currently open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., with no evening hours, but Rudolph said that there’s a possibility of using some money to keep the centers open later this year, after kids are out of school and parents return from work. This could make centers more accessible without opening on additional days, officials said.
Friends of the Gulf Branch Nature Center is not the only organization advocating for bring nature centers hours back to pre-pandemic levels. During the work session, representatives from the county’s Park and Recreation and Forestry and Natural Resources commissions also expressed a desire to have the nature centers open longer.
Supporters of Gulf Branch Nature Center are asking those who agree with them to send an email to the County Board and County Manager expressing “how important it is to keep our nature centers accessible to the public and how disappointed you are by the proposed cuts to the nature centers’ public hours.”
West is coming to George Mason University’s campus on Fairfax Drive in two weeks, on Thursday, April 14. As the event listing notes, he’ll be in conversation for two hours with the school’s director of the Race, Politics, and Policy Center Dr. Michael Fauntroy and speaking on “the current state of American democracy, human rights, and critical race theory.”
West will also be taking audience questions.
The event is in-person, free and open to the general public. Registration is required, though. Masks are required and attendees need to a Covid health survey prior to coming.
The event at Van Metre Hall Auditorium featuring the well-known author and political activist was first announced back in October. Last summer, West resigned from Harvard University where he was a professor, saying the Ivy League school was experiencing a “intellectual and spiritual bankruptcy of deep depths.”
GMU is in the midst of transforming its Virginia Square campus, having started on a $235 million expansion earlier this year. The expansion will include a new 400,000 square foot building that will house the university’s new School of Computing and faculty from Institute for Digital InnovAtion. The building is expected to be completed by the summer of 2025.
Images from the Columbia Pike Documentary Project (courtesy of Columbia Pike Documentary Project)
Traditional Bolivian dance, image from the Columbia Pike Documentary Project (courtesy of the Columbia Pike Documentary Project)
Achmed Osman, a Sudanese refugee, image from the Columbia Pike Documentary Project (courtesy of the Columbia Pike Documentary Project)
Bolivian dance parade, image from the Columbia Pike Documentary Project (courtesy of the Columbia Pike Documentary Project)
Rozina Nigussie, image from the Columbia Pike Documentary Project (courtesy of the Columbia Pike Documentary Project)
Prio Bangla festival, from the Columbia Pike Documentary Project (courtesy of Columbia Pike Documentary Project)
The Columbia Pike Blues Festival, image from the Columbia Pike Documentary Project (courtesy of the Columbia Pike Documentary Project)
There are few people who know more about how Columbia Pike has changed in recent years than Lloyd Wolf, director of the Columbia Pike Documentary Project.
Since 2007, Wolf and a team of photographers, interviewers and community activists have spoken with hundreds of residents and taken thousands of pictures of South Arlington’s main thoroughfare.
As part of the project, they’ve kept a running blog, published books, and conceived numerous exhibits all aimed at discovering what makes Columbia Pike so special.
“The Pike is this nexus of immigration and diversity. And people are basically getting along and we thought ‘This is something we really should examine in-depth,'” Wolf tells ARLnow about how the project got started more than a decade ago.
Columbia Pike has a well-earned reputation for being among one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the country. It’s estimated that there are people from more than 130 countries speaking at least a hundred languages living on or in the Columbia Pike corridor. Famously, the Pike and its corresponding 22204 ZIP code has gotten the nickname for being the “world in a ZIP code.”
Wolf says one of the most gratifying aspects of the project for him is the ability to listen and learn about cultures and communities from around the world; the traditions, the rituals, the successes, and the challenges. Plus, his team is made up of people whose backgrounds include being Syrian, Vietnamese, Laotian and Japanese.
To Wolf, this perfectly encapsulates what makes Columbia Pike so special.
“If we weren’t doing this project, maybe we wouldn’t have a chance to meet. I have this line ‘This is what peace looks like,'” he says. “To the Pike, people come. It’s not perfect, but by and large, the groups interact well.”
This is a testament to the Arlington community as a whole. In a county where diversity is valued, appreciated, and celebrated, Wolf notes, differences don’t divide but unite.
“I’ve heard immigrants say that ‘I don’t feel different here because everyone is different,'” he says.
Barry Oliver with Kasia Shaw and Gabrielle Goodson of PathForward holding keys to his new home (courtesy of PathForward)
Barry Oliver with Kasia Shaw (courtesy of PathForward)
Local nonprofit PathForward has helped an Arlington man who has experienced homelessness for more than 15 years finally find a place to call his own.
Earlier this month, the organization tweeted that it was able to find a new home for Barry Oliver, who was often seen in the Ballston, Virginia Square and Clarendon neighborhoods. He moved into a subsidized apartment in Arlington the prior week.
GOOD NEWS FOR A CHANGE: Barry Oliver is settling into his own apartment after living on the streets of Arlington, Virginia for 15 years. Two women — Kasia and Gabrielle from PathForward — worked tirelessly to provide him with a home and medical care. #homelessness#Arlingtonpic.twitter.com/57Bu9Regh8
“It probably was the happiest and most rewarding [experience] I’ve had in a long time,” PathForward Senior Director of Medical Services Kasia Shaw tells ARLnow.
She had helped Oliver with his medical needs as well as finding a home. “To be part of that transformation and change Mr. Oliver’s life was just so great.”
Oliver had experienced homelessness for nearly 17 years due to a myriad of medical, health and professional challenges, including back problems, job loss and having his only mode of transportation — his moped — stolen several times.
In a video produced by PathForward last month, Oliver describes how a feeling of hopelessness can be pervasive after such a long period of time.
“After that length of time, you no longer think that something is going to happen,” he says. “Because nothing has happened in 17 years to change your situation…I figured I would be homeless forever… PathForward has absolutely saved my life. Absolutely.”
In December 2019, he walked into PathForward’s facilities (then called A-SPAN) on 14th St N. in Courthouse in obvious pain and had trouble walking. After a number of examinations, it was discovered that he had several herniated discs that would end up requiring two surgeries.
When Shaw first met him, it was clear that Oliver needed help. But he was reluctant to accept it, which isn’t unusual for those who experience homelessness.
“If all of a sudden you lose your housing for whatever reason, it’s a very traumatic experience. And so when people try to help you, you might be weary like, ‘Do I really trust you?,'” says Shaw. “Trust is a big, big component of it.”
After his second surgery in January 2022, Shaw and his case manager Gabrielle Goodson worked to find housing for him that met his needs.
It can be difficult and “time consuming,” says Shaw, to find an appropriate place to live for someone who has experienced homelessness for a long period of time.
Sometimes, they are missing needed paperwork and identification. Apartments usually require a source of income to sign a lease, which is a challenge for some. There are also accessibility and health considerations.
While there are buildings that the organization regularly works with and even owns, Oliver ended up in an Arlington building that the organization hadn’t worked with before.
A week later, Shaw says that Oliver is getting set up nicely in his new home, with donated furniture along with household items that he’s bought himself.
This past July, Arlington Street People’s Assistance Network (A-SPAN) rebranded as PathForward with a continuing philosophy that housing is a path forward for folks. Funding mainly comes from grants, contributions, and contracted services with the county.
The organization says that they find housing for 25 to 30 people a year, but there’s a real concern the need will continue to go up in Arlington, says Shaw.
With new developments and luxury apartments consistently being built in the county, longtime residents are being priced out of housing.
“It’s definitely a challenge,” says Shaw. “What we’re finding is a lot of elderly homeless who have a lot of medical needs.”
PathForward was able to find housing for Oliver. Shaw gets a bit emotional thinking about something he said to her recently.
“He said… ‘You are the only health care professional that I trust,'” says Shaw. “That’s huge and really means a lot. It reaffirms why I’m doing what I’m doing.”
Officer Adam Stone is retiring after more than 30 years with ACPD (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Officer Adam Stone early in his career with ACPD (photo courtesy of Adam Stone)
Officer Adam Stone at the Pentagon after 9/11 (photo courtesy of Adam Stone)
This story was made possible by the ARLnow Press Club. Join today to get the exclusive Early Morning Notes email and to help support more local reporting.
You’ve probably seen, spoken to, been directed by, or maybe even gotten a ticket from Arlington County police officer Adam Stone.
Ubiquitous on Arlington’s streets riding his gleaming blue and white motorcycle, Stone is a well-known presence in the community for his work patrolling, manning road closures, following motorcades, or letting kids try out his ride. He’s spoken up for police officers’ mental health while talking about his own challenges. Stone has escorted presidents, protected citizens’ right to protest, and worked dozens of Marine Corps Marathons and July 4ths.
And, after more than 30 years on the force, Stone is retiring.
As an appreciation of his upcoming retirement, Officer Adam Stone laid a wreath at the @ArlingtonNatl Tomb of The Unknown Soldier. Throughout his 33 years of dedicated service, Officer Stone has supported veterans and military members visiting and living in Arlington. pic.twitter.com/lQ6h3v5pzJ
“Through all the years that I’ve been here, whether it’s good police times, bad police times, everyone in Arlington has always been super, super supportive,” he tells ARLnow, standing in front of his beloved motorcycle, yards away from the Iwo Jima memorial. “Not so much when I’m giving people tickets.”
Stone grew up in Long Island and joined the Arlington County Police Department in 1990, becoming part of the motorcycle unit four years later. And he’s been in the unit ever since, living in the Pentagon City area for the majority of his career.
“I always wanted to do two things in life: be a fighter pilot or be a cop,” he says. “Once I realized how much math was involved in flying, it was definitely police work for me.”
He holds countless memories of years of service. Some are still hard to think about, like the smell of concrete and kerosene after an airplane struck the Pentagon on 9/11. Others make Stone smile, even to this day. He’s met and taken pictures with six U.S. presidents, “still mind-blowing,” he says, and because his job often takes him to heavily guarded areas, he’s had the privilege of visiting places few others have.
“I’ve gotten to use the most secure bathrooms in all of the D.C. area,” he says.
And how are they different from other bathrooms?
“You have to walk through two doors to get there, ” Stone laughs. “And they are clean.”
Being a motorcycle cop also has added risks. He’s been hit three times, but says he’s gotten away with no serious injuries. He admits that he’s actually never told his mom that he rides a motorcycle every day at work. And when he retires in April, Stone says he will be “hanging up the helmet” and will never ride a motorcycle again.
It’s expected to follow a similar format as last year, with neighborhood restaurants offering food and drink specials throughout the day. In 2021, organizers emphasized that the event would be spread out and more “free-flowing,” as opposed to 2019 when it was more concentrated in one location.
This year, as in past years, there will be live entertainment, local art, and music. Maps, a list of artists, a schedule and additional details are forthcoming, organizers noted in an announcement.
After three decades, the “Taste of Arlington” — a popular annual event that drew massive crowds to sample dishes from restaurants throughout Arlington, arranged in booths along Wilson Blvd — was replaced in 2019 by “Quarterfest” as Ballston’s annual springtime event. The event was canceled the following year due to the pandemic and was restructured as more of a “crawl” of Ballston area restaurants in 2021.
The DC Tattoo Expo is at the Sheraton Pentagon City this year (photo courtesy of DC Tattoo Expo)
The DC Tattoo Expo is at the Sheraton Pentagon City this year (photo courtesy of DC Tattoo Expo)
The DC Tattoo Expo is at the Sheraton Pentagon City this year (photo courtesy of DC Tattoo Expo)
The DC Tattoo Expo is at the Sheraton Pentagon City this year (photo courtesy of DC Tattoo Expo)
Thousands of tattoo enthusiasts are expected to flock to Arlington this weekend for the DC Tattoo Expo.
This is the eleventh iteration of the region’s largest body and tattoo expo, which was canceled last year amid the pandemic. It was previously held in Crystal City, but is now moving to the Sheraton Pentagon City (900 S. Orme Street) — which is actually more a mile from Pentagon City, along Columbia Pike.
There will be plenty of tattoo artists, contests, live entertainment, and even a few “Ink Masters,” participants from the long-running reality show.
Organizers are optimistic that up to 15,000 are expected to attend the weekend-long expo, which begins this Friday at 1 p.m. and ends Sunday evening. Masks are encouraged, but not required.
Spokesperson Anna Carswell tells ARLnow that the expo is a safe space where veterans and beginners alike can see and learn about the process of getting a tattoo.
“It’s a place to come and be voyeuristic almost,” Carswell says. “[Tattoos] are not as taboo as they were, but can still be slightly intimidating. Here you can learn what goes into it, the design, and process.”
She says many people come to the expo to get their first tattoo.
There will also be some pretty eclectic live performances throughout the weekend. This includes Captain and Maybelle, world-renowned sword swallowers, burlesque dancer Cervena Fox, and the Miss DC Pin Up Contest on Saturday night.
That’s in addition to contests for best overall body art and best sleeve tattoos.
Carswell says tattoos have become mainstream and popular in recent years, particularly in the D.C. area, but there is still some hesitation among the uninitiated. She says the expo allows people who might be “curious” to learn about and get exposed to tattoo culture.
Held in conjunction with the National Cherry Blossom Festival, the kite festival is one of a dozen taking place at D.C.-area parks this coming Saturday, March 26.
The event will feature live entertainment, food trucks, origami, art projects, and, of course, kites. It will take place on the diamond fields at the corner of S. Joyce Street and 15th Street S. from 10 a.m.-1 p.m.
This is the Pentagon City park’s second year holding the festival. Upwards of 750 people are expected to attend, organizers tell ARLnow, with the first hundred attendees receiving a kite kit.
“It’s been such a difficult couple of years. This is the first big event Arlington Parks and Recreation has been able to hold outside in a long time,” says Laura Barragan, special events manager at the Arlington Department of Parks and Recreation. ” Our community has been so resilient and resourceful during the pandemic. We should celebrate ourselves and our community. The Blossom Kite Festival is a way we can bring the magic of the Cherry Blossom Festival to Arlington.”
Attendees additionally have an opportunity to learn about Japanese culture, including demonstrations on making origami cherry trees and how to play the wooden ball skill game kendama.
Dogs are welcome and the festival is rain or shine, though in case of severe weather it will be rescheduled for Sunday. The event is being sponsored by Amazon, according to the website.
The event will be taking place after peak bloom has been reached at the Tidal Basin.
BREAKING: The National Park Service declares the cherry blossoms have reached peak bloom! pic.twitter.com/WGqwzsTG0o
.jpg){kind=link}