Snow is expected mainly before 1pm, with a high near 32, and a northeast wind of 6 to 9 mph becoming northwest in the afternoon. There is a 90% chance of precipitation and 1 to 3 inches of new snow accumulation is possible. Friday night, there is a slight chance of snow before 1am, with cloudy skies during the early evening, followed by gradual clearing and a low around 19. Expect a northwest wind of 9 to 13 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph, and a 20% chance of precipitation. See more from Weather.gov.
💡 Quote of the Day
“We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.” – Ronald Reagan
🌅 Tonight’s sunset
Thanks for reading! Feel free to discuss the day’s happenings in the comments.
Here in Arlington, real estate is a spectator sport. Let’s take a look at some of the most and least expensive townhouses sold last month (December 2023).
Lantern Restaurant and Bar, located at 320 23rd Street S. (staff photo by Madisson Weyrich)
A new restaurant is set to fill a decade-long vacancy in Crystal City.
Lantern Restaurant & Bar, owned by Shen Zhao and Bing Liu, is moving into a storefront at the base of an apartment building at 320 23rd Street S., last occupied by Matsutake Hibachi Steak and Sushi until its closure in 2014.
The property, next to a Virginia ABC store and across from a Hilton hotel, appears to have sat vacant since.
Window dressings on the property say Lantern Restaurant & Bar is “coming soon.” Neither the owners nor the leasing agents for the space responded to requests for comment before deadline.
The new bar-restaurant is moving into the base of an apartment building plagued by stubborn business vacancies. Around the corner, storefronts have been vacant since the departure of Bar Louie and Legal Sea Foods.
Crystal City has seen several restaurant closures in the wake of Covid. Most recently, The Freshman closed earlier this month and San Antonio Bar & Grill shuttered its location in the underground Crystal City Shops in December.
Not far away, however, the neighborhood received an infusion of new dining options last October when developer JBG Smith opened a 1.6-acre outdoor food hall and park in the Crystal City Water Park. There, visitors can get everything from duck-fat fried chicken sandwiches to Indian-style crêpes filled with lentils and chutney to gelato.
The wine bar, owned and operated by Wendy Buckley since 2009, was recently purchased by Linda Urbanski and Ryan Gesinski. The sale was finalized Jan. 2.
Located at 1025 N. Fillmore Street, Screwtop offers a full wine bar, brunch, lunch, dinner and a retail wine shop with hundreds of wines. It also carries a variety of artisan cheeses, meats and gourmet goodies.
Buckley, the original owner and operator, opened the wine bar after noticing few Clarendon spots geared toward wine lovers and women.
“I wanted to create a casual place where you could enjoy a really great glass of wine without having to go to a fancy restaurant downtown, and thus the idea for Screwtop was born,” Buckley said in a newsletter to customers. “With Screwtop, I wanted to take the intimidation out of wine and turn the enjoyment of wine into a lighthearted and approachable experience.”
That approach is in the bar’s name, which plays with the stereotype that finer wines only come corked while lower-tier options have screw caps.
“My goal was to create a place where no matter your knowledge of wine you felt at home here,” Buckley said. “And that our team treated everyone that came through our doors like a regular. A regular ‘Cheers’ of the wine bar scene.”
Urbanski, one of the new co-owners, said she doesn’t plan on making significant changes, only to “make enhancements of what is already currently in place.”
“I love that Screwtop strives to be an affordable wine bar, has an absolutely delicious menu, and hosts numerous wine tasting events,” Urbanski said in a separate emailed newsletter. “I am truly thrilled to have the opportunity to have Screwtop continue on as a go-to wine bar for the Arlington community.”
Urbanski grew up in Vienna and has lived in Clarendon with her husband for over a decade, per the email. She has a background in managing large business operations.
“We will continue to be committed to delivering an exceptional experience to every visitor, by providing unique wines and continuing the tradition of creating a warm and inviting atmosphere,” Urbanski said. “I’ve already had the pleasure of meeting so many lovely customers over the past couple of months, but I am genuinely looking forward to meeting even more of the wonderful people that Wendy has been telling me about that contribute to the vibrant Screwtop community.”
Expect a mostly cloudy day with a high temperature around 37 degrees and a gentle south wind at 3 to 6 mph. Snow is likely to arrive after 1am on Thursday night, accompanied by a low temperature of about 29 degrees and light, variable winds. There is a 60% chance of precipitation, with possible new snow accumulation of less than half an inch. See more from Weather.gov.
💡 Quote of the Day
“The purpose of our lives is to be happy.” – Dalai Lama
🌅 Tonight’s sunset
Thanks for reading! Feel free to discuss the day’s happenings in the comments.
Twilight over snowy Rosslyn and Courthouse (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
You will be seeing three new bylines on ARLnow stories in the coming days.
Three journalists joined the site this week, two in a full-time capacity and another as an intern.
Madisson Weyrich is our new Food and Drink Editor, a newly-created position that will mostly serve ARLnow but will also involve reporting on restaurants, small businesses and events for our sister sites ALXnow and FFXnow.
Madisson has a background in food, lifestyle and culture writing and comes to us from Crystal City-based PBS. She lives in Arlington with her husband and her corgi, Tater, and spends her time trying — and writing about — new food.
Dan Egitto joins as a reporter for ARLnow, alongside James Jarvis and Assistant Managing Editor Jo DeVoe, who will be departing in a couple of months.
Dan is returning to the East Coast after a year in California at the Vallejo Times-Herald. Hailing from Central Florida originally, he studied at Duke University and got his start in hyperlocal reporting at the Palatka Daily News in Florida. His background includes public safety and local government reporting, and he is deeply interested in learning how to survive an Arlington winter.
Savannah Taffe joins us as a spring semester intern as she completes her senior year at the University of Missouri in Columbia. She is currently studying Broadcast Journalism but is branching out into online news to widen her horizons.
Please join us in welcoming Madisson, Dan and Savannah!
Co-founders of The Pinball Basement, Fred Freimark (left) and Jason Good (staff photo by James Jarvis)
A new pinball arcade on Columbia Pike is putting a spin on the traditional pay-per-play arcade experience.
Nestled inside ACME Pie Company at 2803 Columbia Pike, The Pinball Basement is a membership-based arcade that caters to both pinball wizards and newcomers to the game.
Players can enjoy unlimited gameplay without needing cash or coins for $40 a month or $10 a day.
Co-founded by pinball enthusiasts Fred Freimark and Jason Good, the arcade in Penrose is outfitted with nine themed machines, ranging from classics such as Jurassic Park to modern hits including Deadpool.
Good, who embraced the pinball world within the last decade, and Freimark, a lifelong player, first crossed paths last January while playing in a local pinball league at CarPool in Ballston.
They quickly bonded over their shared love of the game, and a few months after their initial meeting, Freimark — who owns 18 pinball machines and has a full-time job as a loan officer — shared with Good his long-held dream of opening a standalone arcade.
Good, who purchased a pinball machine during the pandemic, was familiar with how to fix the machines and suggested teaming up to turn Freimark’s dream into reality.
“Fred was running out of space for his machines, so I kind of pitched the idea; I was like, ‘Well, why don’t we open an arcade,'” Good said.
Freimark and Good envisioned a family-friendly standalone pinball arcade where pinball enthusiasts of all skill levels could gather.
They wanted to avoid opening an arcade inside a bar, where most of Arlington’s pinball machines are located. This includes Galaxy Hut in Clarendon, Highline RxR in Crystal City, Punch Bowl Social in Ballston and Quarterdeck in Ft. Myer Heights, according to pinballmap.com.
“All the other pinball places are in bars,” Freimark said. “Families and younger kids can be here, and it can be a whole new generation of people that are comfortable taking their kids to play pinball.”
Co-founders of The Pinball Basement, Fred Freimark and Jason Good, play pinball (staff photo by James Jarvis)
Pinball is making a comeback in America. As part of this nostalgia-driven revival, Good and Freimark say they have witnessed a surge in demand for neutral venues where experienced players can hone their skills and beginners can learn the ropes.
Instead, in most venues today, playing pinball is almost an impulse decision, says Good, where players drop $1 in to play but have “no idea what they’re doing or what’s going on.”
Good wants to change that with his venue.
“I’ll be here 90% of the time… to teach people how to play,” he said. “I want it to be a hangout. I want it to be a place where people can come a couple of nights a week and learn pinball skills.”
The aspiring pinball entrepreneurs spent several months spent researching and scouting potential locations to house 50-100 machines inside but kept striking out. Then, last November, Sol Schott, the owner of ACME Pie Company approached them about leasing the space adjacent to his shop, previously home to Papillon Cycles, which closed earlier that same month.
The leasing price was too high for Freimark and Good so Schott pitched another idea: turning a section of his pie shop into an arcade.
“My whole idea with Acme was it to kind of be like, a community center,” Schott told ARLnow. “When I talked to them about the pinball thing, I was like, ‘Oh, well, that’d be really cool because I already had some pinball machines in there.”
The Pinball Basement initially let people play for free during its soft launch in December but has since transitioned to its fee-based model. The hours are the same as ACME Pie except on Saturdays, when the venue becomes an exclusive space for members from 5-9 p.m.
Since the opening, Schott reports his shop has already seen an increase in foot traffic. He noted the arcade has particularly appealed to younger audiences, including single parents with children who are teaching their kids to play while enjoying a slice of pie.
“Maybe you’ll get the occasional person sitting at the bar and get a piece of pie and a cup of coffee or soda or whatever, but it was a small percentage,” he said. “And there’s more of that now.”
Expect sunshine and a high near 29 degrees during the day, accompanied by a west wind blowing at 7 to 11 mph and gusts reaching up to 20 mph. As the night progresses, clouds will increase and the temperature will drop to around 19 degrees, with a southwest wind blowing at a gentle 5 to 7 mph. See more from Weather.gov.
💡 Quote of the Day
“The only thing you get to take with you when you’re gone is what you leave behind.” – John Allston
🌅 Tonight’s sunset
Thanks for reading! Feel free to discuss the day’s happenings in the comments.
The standalone building that used to house a bank and a barber shop in the Lyon Village Shopping Center in Spout Run (via Google Maps)
A Cold Stone Creamery location is moving into a vacant standalone building at the Lyon Village Shopping Center, permit records show.
It will take over the half of 3141 Langston Blvd — near Spout Run Parkway — that used to be home to a bank. The other half of the building was once home to a barber shop. This building is a few paces from the main strip, which is home to the Italian Store, Big Wheel Bikes and BGR Burgers Grilled Right, as well as a CVS, a Giant and a Starbucks.
Mohammed Haque, the owner of the forthcoming ice cream shop location, says he is looking to open sometime after May, taking into account six to eight weeks for getting permits squared away and three months to ready the space.
Haque, who used to live in Arlington, said he knows the area very well. After exhausting his options closer to Ballston, where he could not find sufficient space at an affordable rent, he settled on the old bank location in the shopping center.
While he awaits permits, the building already is seeing some signs of interior demolition. This will include taking down partitions, doors and finishes — including the columns outside — as well as some minor mechanical and electrical work, according to permit records.
This week-long culinary event, spanning from January 15 to 21, is organized by the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington. RAMW is a regional trade association dedicated to representing the restaurant and food service industry across the D.C. area, according to its website.
Participating restaurants have advertised three-course lunches and brunches for $25 or $35 and three-course dinners for $40, $55 and $65.
Menus and pricing are specific to the Restaurant Week event, and some menus include cocktail or wine pairings with a meal. Below are the Arlington restaurants listed as participating in the event, so far.
Illustration of local businesses in the winter (generated with DALL-E)
Arlington’s local business scene is always in flux, with stores and restaurants regularly opening, closing, or changing hands.
Changing economic conditions often lead business owners to sell, whether for retirement, to focus on other projects, or just to pass their business on to someone new who might be able to revive its fortunes.
In our latest series installment, we’re taking a look at local businesses newly listed for sale on BizBuySell, an online marketplace. These listings provide details about the businesses, though they usually don’t reveal their names.
In our previous update in September, we found ten businesses for sale, including restaurants and service companies. Today, we have seven more.
The business has generated loyal customers and large customer base through word of mouth, and some travel from as far as 2.5 hours away to buy the rolled ice creams and drinks (including bubble teas, milkshake, Japanese crepe, chopped Ice, slushy). Children enjoy the experience of us making the Freshly hand rolled ice-cream show in front of them. The business consists of 3 concepts in one location.
ABSENTEE OWNED while averaging $3,700,000 in annual sales with a cash flow of $625,000. Indoor seating for 276 patrons as well as outdoor seating for 180. Numerous full service bars throughout the establishment as well as over 40 TVs & projectors for sporting events. Private event areas as well as a section for live entertainment such as bands & DJs.
Revolutionary designed co-working office space, work space, and meeting rooms for innovative professionals and entrepreneurs…in a prime DC-area location. One of the first franchise concepts in the co-working industry. This can be an absentee ownership for someone looking to add to their portfolio, and business can be run with just 2 employees.
This 4-Time Arlington Magazine Top Vote Getter is one of a small handful of high-end gift stores in the affluent Northern Virginia area, primarily serving McLean, Falls Church and North Arlington.
Great opportunity to buy an established business already built to the highest standards, with a loyal customer base, prime for accelerated growth with “return-to-office” trend improving dramatically over prior 2 years. Owner has to sell due to pending relocation to West Coast.
This thriving café features a diverse selection of all-natural healthy breakfast and lunch items, crafted from locally sourced, high-quality ingredients. From gourmet toasts and refreshing smoothie bowls to robust salads and savory sandwiches, they cater to health-conscious tastes. The café also boasts an extensive range of fresh cold-pressed juices, smoothies, and coffee drinks, including hot drip, nitro cold brew, and espresso.
An exceptional opportunity awaits with the sale of a reputable and fully licensed franchise school. This established early childhood education center in Arlington, Virginia, enjoys a strong reputation for delivering quality care and education to children. With stable revenue streams, a dedicated staff, and a proven curriculum, this turnkey investment offers a prime location for access to residential areas and business districts.
