Highs & Lows in Pentagon City (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Highs & Lows in Pentagon City (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Highs & Lows in Pentagon City (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
A new “weird” shop specializing in collectibles and snacks from around the world has opened at the Pentagon City mall.
Highs & Lows is now open on the mall’s third floor, across from the children’s clothing store The Children’s Place. This is the fourth location of Highs & Lows, after two stores in Springfield and the original on Richmond Highway in Alexandria
The Pentagon City shop primarily sells snacks and treats from “all seven continents,” per an employee at the Richmond Highway location, while the others focus more on collectibles, antiques, and apparel.
The Arlington location opened late last week, a mall spokesperson told ARLnow.
“Highs & Lows is quickly becoming the weird place you can’t help but love! Come in and bear witness to the wackiest place around! Look up, Look down, Look all around, because if you don’t, you may just miss that one perfect thing for you,” reads a description of the store description on the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City’s website.
It also notes that the store has the “biggest selection of exotic sodas and snacks” in all of Virginia. That includes numerous snacks and candies from Japan.
Highs & Lows isn’t the only small, independently-owned business that has announced its move to the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City in recent months. Steel Life Booksellers is also planning an opening at the mall soon.
A new Starbucks as opened at 4000 Wilson Blvd in Ballston (staff photo)
A new Starbucks as opened at 4000 Wilson Blvd in Ballston (staff photo)
A new Starbucks as opened at 4000 Wilson Blvd in Ballston (staff photo)
There’s now a new spot to get a Caramel Ribbon Crunch Frappuccino in Ballston.
The new Starbucks at 4000 Wilson Blvd held its grand opening this morning (Monday). It’s located in the ground floor retail space of the View Apartments, in the former home of Lebanese Taverna’s quick-service concept LebTav, which closed earlier this year.
ARLnow first reported in late February that a Starbucks was set to move into that location.
Starbucks store No. 71315 has some indoor seating and an outdoor patio. Seating, in general, appears to be rather limited, however.
This morning, employees were outside the store shouting “happy opening day” and providing free samples to passers-by.
The new location gives the densest census tract in Virginia and the entire D.C. region its own adjacent Starbucks.
There are at least four other Starbucks stores within walking distance, however. Among them: next to the Virginia Square Metro station, at the bottom of the Marymount University building at the intersection of N. Glebe Road and Fairfax Drive, inside of the Westin Hotel on N. Glebe Road, and adjacent to the Ballston Metro station.
There are also several other non-Starbucks coffee options nearby, including Compass Coffee, Dunkin’, and Slipstream, which opened in March.
Gyu San is now open in Ballston (staff photo by Vivian Hoang)
Gyu San is now open in Ballston (staff photo by Vivian Hoang)
A new Japanese barbeque restaurant has started sizzling in Ballston.
Gyu San BBQ opened late last month at the corner of N. Glebe Road and Wilson Blvd, a restaurant spokesperson confirmed to ARLnow.
ARLnow first reported last September the restaurant was coming to the space that was formerly occupied by Bangkok Bistro, which closed in 2020.
It’s in the Ballston Point building, which it shares with the coffee shop Slipstream, which opened recently, albeit on the opposite side of the triangular building. World of Beer, at the building’s “point,” closed in April.
Gyu San is from Ivea Restaurant Group, which owns a number of other restaurants in Arlington and across the region. That includes Chinese dim sum eatery Tiger Dumpling and Japanese izakaya-style restaurant Izakaya 68, which are set to open next to each other on Washington Blvd in Clarendon. No word yet on when those establishments might start serving.
While Gyu San BBQ has only been up for a short time, Yelp reviews are already generally positive.
“Fun new spot in Ballston that did not disappoint,” reads one. Several reviews did note that it gets busy on weekends.
Gyu San is competing with at least one other local Japanese barbeque restaurant, Gyu-Kaku, which opened several years ago in Clarendon.
Inside of the Chicken + Whiskey in Clarendon (photo courtesy of Chicken + Whiskey)
Chicken + Whiskey is opening in Clarendon (photo courtesy of Chicken + Whiskey)
Chicken + Whiskey is opening at 3033 Wilson Blvd in Clarendon (photo courtesy of Chicken + Whiskey)
(Updated at 1:15 p.m.) Chicken + Whiskey is preparing to open in Clarendon later this week, a co-owner confirmed to ARLnow.
The new South American rotisserie chicken restaurant and whiskey bar at 3033 Wilson Blvd aims to start serving this Friday (June 9), co-owner Des Reilly said, provided a Virginia ABC liquor is in hand by then. A grand opening is set for next weekend, June 16.
In September, ARLnow reported that Chicken + Whiskey was crossing the river to get Clarendon to open its first location outside the District and fourth overall. The menu consists of Peruvian-styled chicken, arepas, and sandwiches, plus a full cocktail and whiskey bar.
What makes Chicken + Whiskey different, said Reilly, is the chef.
“I bet you five bucks we are the only fast-casual restaurant on the East Coast that has a Michelin star,” he said. “Chef Enrique Limardo is really the uniqueness of it all.”
Limardo is “commonly credited as the pioneer of modern Venezuelan cooking in the U.S.,” so says the Huffington Post. He’s also the head chef at Immigrant Food and D.C.’s Seven Reasons, which was named one of the most important restaurants of the last decade by Esquire.
“Getting a guy like that who can make $8.50 Peruvian chicken with all the beautiful… Venezuela sides, that’s different,” Reilly said.
The nearly 6,000-square-foot space the restaurant is moving into was once Hunan Number One, which closed three years ago.
Reilly said that Clarendon had been “on their radar” for years and they very nearly leased out the exact same space in early 2020. However, the pandemic put expansion efforts “on the backburner.” When they came back a few years later, the 6,000-square-foot space at 3033 Wilson Blvd was still available.
The other businesses in the neighborhood are a big reason why ownership is so optimistic about Clarendon and this block of Wilson Blvd in particular.
“We always look at the other operators in the area. We like to see other brands… doing well, other restaurants thriving,” Reilly said. “There’s Ambar… Bar Ivy, which is in the same building as us… Wilson Hardware is across the street. There’s a whole sort of plethora of other great restaurants and bars that populate this area and makes it a real sort of critical mass location for us.”
While Chicken + Whiskey is set to hold its “soft opening” this Friday, there will be giveaways, food specials, and entertainment during its “grand opening” on June 16. That includes branded swag, a chance to win free chicken for a year, a $150 bar tab, and a lunch special of a chicken meal with two sides for five dollars.
As Reilly kept pointing out, the draw of Chicken + Whiskey will be the food at a decent price.
“To have a [chef] so highly rated doing a restaurant of a per person average of really $16… it’s pretty remarkable,” he said.
New restaurant Mpanadas on Columbia Pike (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Mpanadas on Columbia Pike finally appears to be opening.
The small “South American-inspired cafe” at 2602 Columbia Pike is planning a soft opening for Thursday, June 15 and a grand opening that weekend, a restaurant spokesperson confirmed to ARLnow. The opening date is also listed on the restaurant’s Facebook page.
In addition, a “very special guest” will be in attendance. If posted images are any clue, that special guest may be of the animal variety. The restaurant’s logo features a llama eating an empanada.
The restaurant has been a bit of a mystery ever since new signage and brown paper covering the windows appeared on the 724-square-foot storefront last summer.
It was in July 2022 when ARLnow first reported that the Peruvian carry-out was making the move into the former home of a Boost Mobile. However, since then, details have been scarce.
Over the past 11 months, we have received a number of emails from hungry neighbors wondering when the eatery next to Domino’s might open. Now, the answer appears to be just in a matter of weeks.
A few other answers were also provided to ARLnow by Gabriela Rojas, the restaurant’s “brand designer” and the owner’s niece. Mpanadas is owned by Marcelo Herbas, with several of his family members also helping. This is his first restaurant; he previously owned a number of mobile phone stores on Columbia Pike.
The menu will have Bolivian and South American influences, with a focus on empanadas. Rojas said that there will be a variety of flavors, making it more them more “spin offs”of traditional empanadas. The full menu and website should be live in the next couple of days, said Rojas.
Mpanadas will be open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
It’s taken almost a full year to open the eatery due to permitting “struggles,” Rojas said, echoing the challenges of numerous other recently-opened restaurants.
A new pet urgent care is opening in Buckingham (photo courtesy of Urgent Animal Care of Arlington)
A new pet urgent care is opening in Buckingham (photo courtesy of Urgent Animal Care of Arlington)
A new pet urgent care is hoping to open this weekend in Buckingham.
Urgent Animal Care of Arlington at 249 N. Glebe Road hopes to start caring for furry best friends by the weekend, per co-owner Kayleen Gloor. The business claims it’s the first “sole dedicated [animal] urgent care in any capacity within Arlington,” though others like Bond Vet in Clarendon bill themselves as combination urgent and primary care for pets.
The veterinarian urgent care is from the team behind Clarendon Animal Care, which has locations in Clarendon and on Columbia Pike.
ARLnow first reported the pet urgent care was making its move to Buckingham back in January. It’s in the space once home to a SunTrust Bank branch, which closed more than four years ago. Following the style of the shopping center, the clinic is topped by art deco neon signage that glows at night.
While initially the opening was planned for the winter, the need to upgrade power led to a push.
“Delays were due to increased power needs due to the equipment we have (new HVAC and X-ray machine), so we were waiting on the power upgrade in order to get final inspections,” co-owner Natasha Ungerer told ARLnow via email.
An urgent care clinic for a pet differs from an emergency room in terms of the severity of the issue and what can be treated. The clinic is intended for “pets in stable condition that cannot wait to see their regular veterinarian,” per the website, with issues “that fall between a primary veterinarian practice visit and an emergency.”
The conditions that can be treated at a veterinarian urgent care include:
Serious cuts
Vomiting and diarrhea
Trouble walking
Difficulty urinating
Prolonged low appetite
Limping
Mild injuries
Ear and skin problems
The clinic is appointment-based but walk-ins are often still available. The hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays, and Mondays with weekend hours running from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The hope is to go to seven days a week, so adding Tuesday and Wednesday hours, starting in mid-July, Ungerer said.
A Chicken Salad Chick location is coming to Arlington (photo courtesy of Chicken Salad Chick)
A Chicken Salad Chick location is coming to Arlington (photo courtesy of Chicken Salad Chick)
The “nation’s only fast casual chicken salad restaurant” is coming to Arlington.
Atlanta-based Chicken Salad Chick is set to open a location in Arlington next spring, a spokesperson tells ARLnow. So far there’s no word on exactly where in the county it would be opening.
“At this moment we don’t have an exact location available to announce,” the spokesperson wrote. “However, a new Chicken Salad Chick is coming to Arling[ton] in spring 2024.”
And that isn’t the only Chicken Salad Chick set to debut locally in the coming years. The chain is bringing eight restaurants in total over the next half-decade to both Arlington and Fairfax Counties, according to a press release.
Then, the plan is to open even more locations further north in Maryland, Delaware, and Pennsylvania.
The chicken salad franchise’s menu consists of a dozen different flavors of chicken salad that be scooped or made into a sandwich, plus a variety of soups and pimento cheese dips.
Chicken Salad Chick first began in 2008 in Auburn, Alabama after founder Stacy Brown was warned by the local health department to stop selling chicken salad out of her house. She opened her first restaurant shortly after. In the 15 years since the company has significantly expanded to include more than 200 restaurants across 17 states.
The closest current location of Chicken Salad Chick is in Glen Allen, Virginia, just north of Richmond.
The franchisees behind the new D.C. area restaurants have local and family ties.
“Behind the development agreement is Devon Chamberlin, her father, Patrick Cavanaugh, and her father-in-law, Barry Chamberlin. All have close ties to the community, born and raised across Arlington and Fairfax Counties,” said the press release. “Patrick and Barry’s relationship dates back well over 20 years when they met through mutual friends. Over the years, their families have spent a lot of time together. Barry’s son, Milton, and Devon began dating a few years ago, which has culminated in their recent wedding on November 5, 2022.”
That remains the case with the restaurant hoping for a debut in the coming months, co-owner and Peter’s daughter Lydia Chang told ARLnow.
“We’re still on track to open NiHao Crystal City. Our team is working on obtaining the building permit. Will share more about the concept when we’re ready,” she wrote in an email.
The initial plan was for NiHao to be a bit different from the chef’s other local Arlington location, in the Lee-Harrison Shopping Center. It would focus on a modern approach to Szechuan cuisine while providing an “introduction” to authentic Chinese food, Chang told DCist in February, much like the Baltimore location with the same name.
However, Chang’s recent comments to ARLnow also make it seem like the concept could be tweaked by the time it opens late this year or early next.
Peter Chang first began to amass an American following in the late 2000s. For much of his career up to that point, he was one of the most well-known chefs in China. In 2001, he moved to the United States with his family to work as the head chef for the Chinese ambassador. Two years later, he secretly fled the embassy with his wife (a pastry chef as well) and his young daughter.
He took jobs cooking at modest-looking Northern Virginia restaurants in an effort to keep a low profile, but soon his fame and delicious cooking made him a mysterious sensation. Chang eventually opened his first restaurant in Charlottesville, and it quickly became a hit. He opened others, including his first local location in 2015 in the busy strip mall on N. Harrison Street in Arlington.
Peter Chang Arlington remains popular today, along with the other acclaimed restaurants he’s opened over the last decade.
NiHao Arlington will be restaurant 15 when it starts serving in the months ahead. And there are more restaurant openings ahead. Plans are already in the works for other Chang eateries in McLean and Herndon.
Steel Life Booksellers at Pentagon City mall (image via Instagram)
A South American restaurant and a new bookstore appear to preparing to open at the Pentagon City mall.
Maizal Grill is planning to start serving sometime later this month, a spokesperson for Fashion Centre at Pentagon City told ARLnow. It’s opening on the mall’s street level in the former home of Honeygrow, next to Rosa Mexicano, which opened late last year.
Maizal Grill bills itself as serving “South American street food” with a menu that features burritos, arepas, and bowls. This is the restaurant’s second Arlington location, with another eatery inside of Ballston Quarter. That one opened in 2019.
Elsewhere in the mall, a new independently-owned bookstore called Steel Life Booksellers is opening on the first level in between Kay Jewelers and shoe seller Steve Madden. Construction appears to be ongoing, though the mall spokesperson could not provide an exact opening date.
ARLnow reached out to the owner about more information but has yet to hear back as of publication.
In addition, the women’s accessory store New York New York 2 opened this past on the second level next to Savage x Fenty. It’s the sister store to New York New York, also located in the mall.
Last month, Kong Dog opened its first Virginia location at the mall’s food court.
The future home of Arlington Independent Media in Green Valley (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
The future home of Arlington Independent Media in Green Valley (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
The future home of Arlington Independent Media in Green Valley (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
The future home of Arlington Independent Media in Green Valley (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Arlington Independent Media hopes to open its first satellite studio by early fall.
The non-profit video and audio production studio has begun the build-out at 3700 S. Four Mile Run Drive in Green Valley, Arlington Independent Media (AIM) CEO Whytni Kernodle told ARLnow. They are looking to modernize three underused audio-production studios inside Arlington Arts’ Cultural Affairs Division office, with a focus on providing podcasting space.
Construction is expected to take about four months and cost over $200,000. The aim is to be finished and ready to open sometime in September, Kernodle said.
AIM was established about four decades ago and provides programming for two local cable access television stations and operates the radio station WERA 96.7 FM.
In November, the county approved a lease agreement allowing AIM to take over about 1,100 square feet of space at the Arlington Arts location in Green Valley. It follows the county’s vision for an “arts & industry district” along Four Mile Run.
This new studio in Green Valley represents AIM’s commitment to branching out not just in terms of location but also who is using the studios to tell their story.
“After 40 years, we’ve always existed in one space, always in North Arlington,” Kernodle said. “And our membership has primarily been people over the age of 60, mostly retired, mostly white, mostly male, mostly cis-gendered, mostly English speakers, mostly non-military, and mostly non-disabled. We are trying to change that because that’s not reflective of our community.”
And the hope is that this will not be AIM’s only satellite studio, with Kernodle noting that the organization would love to set up studios in Virginia Square, Rosslyn, and Columbia Pike as well.
The aim is to put production facilities in locations that are accessible to communities that maybe didn’t have the ability to make their voices heard in the past.
“Our goal is to prioritize those voices that have been traditionally underserved or miss-served not just nationally but here in Arlington and here at Arlington Independent Media,” Kernodle said.
She also hopes to use the partnership with the county to turn Arlington’s art scene into the envy of the region.
“[Arlington] is not known for arts and industry. The goal of AIM and my goal is to really make Arlington into the Brooklyn of the D.C. area,” Kernodle said. “We have all the diversity and the resources that Brooklyn values and the proximity to the city as Brooklyn does. And we’re just not honing that because it’s not been centralized.”
Along with production studios, AIM also has access to the county’s “Theater on the Run” to screen films.
This past weekend, AIM hosted a showing of the documentary “The R-Word” as an introduction to the new space for the community. The movie depicts the experiences of persons with intellectual disabilities and how representation matters in telling the story of that community.
Kernodle hopes to have more screenings at the theater of this nature, prioritizing “films of marginalized people.”
With the plan to open AIM Green Valley in a few months, Kernodle believes that this is just the beginning of expanding Arlington’s artistic reputation.
“Our goal is to act as an anchor organization for art transformation and social justice,” she said.
The new Foxtrot in Rosslyn is set to open (staff photo by Matt Blitz)
The new Foxtrot in Rosslyn is set to open (staff photo by Matt Blitz)
Foxtrot in Rosslyn can now lawfully deliver you a magical charm crispy cake, thanks to County Board approval.
The Arlington County Board approved a use permit this past Saturday (May 13) to allow the upscale market, cafe, and convenience store to operate a delivery service from its 1771 N. Pierce Street location.
While it appears the market has already been offering deliveries since it opened earlier this year, it was being done under Covid-era rules that suspended enforcement of delivery-related ordinances.
“During the Covid-19 pandemic, Arlington County enacted a Continuity of Government Operations (COGO) Ordinance, which among other things put a stay on Zoning enforcement actions for food delivery services that are allowed primarily by use permit approval in most zoning districts,” reads the staff report. “This application, if approved, would permit Foxtrot Café to operate food delivery services legally following the expiration of the COGO.”
The report also notes that, with food delivery services growing in popularity during the pandemic, the county is in the midst of a study that explores “how food delivery services may be permitted in a manner different than what is currently provided for in the Zoning Ordinance.”
However, since that effort is ongoing and it’s not known when the study will be completed, the County Board went ahead and approved Foxtrot’s permit now.
The approval does come with a notable caveat, however.
Foxtrot initially proposed using a number of parking spots along N. Pierce Street as temporary parking for delivery drivers. The county was not too keen on this, with the report noting that staff observed delivery drivers and their vehicles blocking traffic a number of times.
“This presented issues with vehicles illegally standing and blocking traffic lanes along North Pierce Street… as on-street parking is limited to five (5) two-hour limited parking spaces,” said the report.
Foxtrot has since been able to come to an agreement with the owner and operator of a nearby underground parking garage to allow drivers to park in any available retail space for 15 minutes with validation.
With county staff agreeing that this arrangement will help “mitigate against further congestion and potential traffic violations on North Pierce Street,” the Board approved the permit with a review set for six months from now — which is November.
At that time, the Board will review the “effectiveness of the parking validation mitigation measures as well as the status of the Zoning Ordinance Amendment.”
Foxtrot provides delivery from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. most days, with the service being extended an extra hour or two on weekends. The company estimates that about 8% of its business comes from delivery.
