Thirsty Bernie is turning into Ocean Shack (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
(Updated on 9/5/23) Local watering hole Thirsty Bernie is becoming Ocean Shack.
The former home of the neighborhood bar and restaurant at the corner of N. Glebe Road and Langston Blvd is being turned into a cajun seafood restaurant, a spokesperson said.
Ocean Shack is from the owners of Ocean Crab in Chantilly. That restaurant serves crab, fried oysters, scallops, fried baskets and other seafood. Ocean Shack will be a different concept, we’re told, but have a somewhat similar menu.
Construction is underway in the 1,767-square-foot space at 2163 N. Glebe Road. The plan is to open in late November or early December, depending on how quickly Arlington County processes the required paperwork, according to the spokesperson.
Thirsty Bernie closed back in May after about 15 years of serving pints at Glebe Lee Shopping Center. Co-owner Gobind Ghai told ARLnow then that sales were not high enough to make it financially viable to renew the lease.
The Adagio Ballet School of Dance was also once open in that shopping center before closing in May 2020. It has since rebranded and reopened as the Virginia Dance Conservatory on Little Falls Road near Rock Spring Park.
Illegally parked cars along S. Barton Street and 9th Road S. (screenshot via Twitter/@ArlingtonAF)
Some neighbors and nearby businesses are fed up with drivers illegally parking near the Penrose Square Starbucks.
They say improperly parked cars are leading to traffic jams and a loss of business, while blocking a public space and causing safety hazards.
Recent posts on social media have highlighted traffic jams near the intersection of S. Barton Street and 9th Road S., along Columbia Pike. The posts show several parked cars with hazard lights on, partially blocking traffic on the pedestrian-oriented roadway that connects the Pike and a parking garage for the retail center.
It’s also happening near Penrose Square, a park that features outdoor seating and dining as well as a splash pad for children, as Twitter user @ArlingtonAF points out.
There are currently only a couple legal parking spots along S. Barton Street due to a number being replaced by a Capital Bikeshare docking station a few years back. But a public parking garage is just around the corner.
Cars running stop signs and pulling unsafe driving maneuvers are also common along that short stretch of road, according to the pseudonymous Twitter account.
Slatt told ARLnow that illegally parked cars have become an “extremely common” thing ever since Starbucks opened at that location in 2015. Drivers who park illegally can restrict traffic flow, block pedestrian access, and get in the way of bike lanes.
“We didn’t see these issues much with the previous tenant,” he wrote in an email.
Starbucks’ next-door neighbor also some complaints. Zak Mancini, the owner of Mancini de Paris Salon, told ARLnow that he sometimes sees three or four cars lined up in the middle of the street with no one in them. All the drivers, he said, are in Starbucks, picking up orders.
Mancini said cars are sometimes blocked from turning onto S. Barton Street from the Pike by those illegally parked in the middle of the street. When that happens, the honking starts.
“It’s a big mess, especially on weekends,” he said. “[Customers] come to me pissed off, saying they are going to find a new salon because of the noise and honking.”
Columbia Pike and S. Barton Street (via Google Maps)
Mancini said he’s seen disputes nearly turn into fistfights and has had to call the police a few times. Slatt believes that the county needs to do something about this.
What also really concerns him is the persistent running of a stop sign and unsafe driving seen at the intersection of S. Barton Street and 9th Road S., particularly due to the proximity to a splash pad.
“This is dangerous, especially in large vehicles like pickup trucks and SUVs which tend to pitch struck pedestrians under the vehicle rather than onto the hood, which tends to happen with sedans,” Slatt said.
“This is especially egregious given the direct adjacency to a park filled with happy but unpredictable children,” he continued. “We desperately need Arlington County PD to prioritize enforcing laws that are supposed to prevent unsafe behavior like this.”
The Arlington County Police Department confirmed to ARLnow that the section of S. Barton Street in question is indeed a public roadway and, therefore, enforcement is the responsibility of ACPD. Spokesperson Ashley Savage said that police patrol the area and ask the community to report any transportation safety issues.
“ACPD has previously conducted parking enforcement in the area and educated the businesses and patrons along S. Barton about the parking restrictions,” Savage wrote. “As time and resources permit, ACPD will continue to conduct random rotating enforcement and education in the area with the goal of compliance even when police are not present. Community members can report ongoing transportation safety concerns to police using our online form.”
ARLnow has reached out to Starbucks media relations staff for comment but has yet to hear back as of publication.
The weather forecast predicts a sunny day with a high temperature of approximately 84 degrees and a light north wind at around 6 mph. During Tuesday night, the skies will be mostly clear and the temperature will drop to around 64 degrees, with a gentle northeast wind blowing at 3 to 6 mph. See more from Weather.gov.
💡 Quote of the Day
“The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen.” – Frank Lloyd Wright
🌅 Tonight’s sunset
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New District Brewing in Green Valley (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
New District Brewing will be serving the last of its beer at next month’s Arlington County Fair.
When the Green Valley-based brewery officially closed its taproom in May, owner Mike Katrivanos told ARLnow then that the plan was to serve the last of its beer at June’s Columbia Pike Blues Festival and then at the fair. That remains the plan, we’re told.
“We stored away some New District Beer for the Arlington County Fair and will be serving our Last County Fair Beer Garden August 16-20,” Katrivanos wrote in an email to supporters.
This will be the fourth time New District Brewery will run the beer garden at the county fair. They will be serving three different types of beers and a hard seltzer, plus a rosé wine in collaboration with Bluemont Vineyard in Loudoun County.
The brewery is also selling commemorative pint glasses. Only 160 were made and, as of this writing, more than half have already been pre-sold. Katrivanos said in a follow-up conversation that he expects everything to sell out by the end of the fair.
“This will be it… The last [New District] beer for public consumption,” he said.
But that doesn’t mean New District beer will be gone forever. Beyond a few bottles for personal consumption, Katrivanos also saved and donated three wax-sealed kegs to the Arlington Historical Society.
When New District opened in 2016, it became the first production brewery in Arlington in nearly a century. The beer donation is intended to preserve its legacy in the county, Katrivanos said.
One of the kegs will be used for fundraising, the other for preservation, and the last one will be given to the next production brewery that opens in Arlington as a welcoming gift, Katrivanos told ARLnow.
“I mean, that could be me,” he laughed.
There remains a chance that New District will come back. Katrivanos said he’s constantly surveying the county for commercial properties for sale where he could reopen the brewery. Considering the county’s changes to zoning regulations along Columbia Pike in late 2021 explicitly allowing breweries, that’s the current focus.
Katrivanos, however, does not expect a purchase to happen in the near future.
“There are very, very few of those opportunities left. If it were lucky enough to come across the opportunity, I would jump at it again,” he said.
Several local mixed-use developments have approached New District Brewing about opening in their space, but Katrivanos reiterates there’s no interest in leasing again, considering previous negative experiences. Still, the door is not completely closing, even as he prepares to sell the last of New District’s beer in a few weeks.
“A huge thank you to the community for supporting us all of these years,” he said. “I still hope there’s an opportunity that brings the brewery back.”
Anabelle Lombard poses in front of the Supreme Court (courtesy of the Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards)
Local activist Anabelle Lombard was awarded $36,000 for her leadership work with Generation Ratify, a youth organization aiming to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.
The prize comes from the Helen Diller Family Foundation, which awards the prize annually to 15 Jewish teens who have made outstanding contributions through service and leadership.
In an interview with ARLnow, Lombard said receiving the Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Award is “monumental and also just so encouraging.”
“Getting that recognition now and saying that, yes, young people can make change, and we have supporters from who aren’t just young people, that’s really very encouraging,” the Wakefield High School graduate said.
Lombard started Generation Ratify with a group of friends in 2019 after learning that Virginia was the last state needed to approve the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).
The ERA, introduced in 1923, would prohibit discrimination on the basis of sex. Since its founding, Lombard’s organization — which calls itself “the young people’s feminist movement” — has expanded from Arlington to all 50 states.
In January 2020, Virginia voted to ratify the amendment, thus crossing the three-quarters threshold necessary to pass an amendment.
“After Virginia did become the final state necessary to ratify, we moved towards the national struggle to finalize the Equal Rights Amendment as the 28th Amendment, and enshrine gender equality for all people in the Constitution,” Lombard said.
The effort hit a snag, however.
The vote came nearly 40 years after the 1982 ratification deadline imposed by Congress. The U.S. Department of Justice held that it could not become part of the Constitution, even with Virginia’s vote.
Now, Lombard and Generation Ratify are on a mission to lobby for bills that would extend the deadline and make it possible to pass the 28th Amendment.
Doing so requires education and advocacy, she says.
“There’s not a ton of people talking about the ERA,” she said. “I think that’s the first struggle, is that most people think that we actually have the ERA or some version of it.”
To raise awareness and put political pressure on lawmakers, Generation Ratify has hosted virtual workshops to teach young activists about the amendment and shut down Constitution Avenue to demand the ERA’s addition to the Constitution.
Lombard and her peers have organized lobbying days, walkouts and filed two Amicus briefs.
Anabelle Lombard (courtesy of the Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards)
Lombard emphasized that Generation Ratify represents a new era of young activists from all backgrounds.
“Before we started to get involved, the ERA activism world was not diverse at all,” she said. “It’s a lot of older white women, really, and they often push queer liberation and reproductive healthcare to the side when talking about the ERA to really appeal to a wider crowd.”
The young activist contends these issues are “pivotal” to how intersectional this amendment could be. She says Generation Ratify is the only ERA-specific organization that is vocal about involving the LGBTQ+ community, and that inclusivity was on display at the ERA Centennial Convention in Seneca Falls, New York on July 21.
Generation Ratify partnered with two other ERA organizations to put on the event, which celebrated those who have fought for the ERA for 100 years and are finalizing the federal ERA and launching the grassroots fight for a New York state ballot initiative.
That members of Generation Ratify now number more than 13,000, and that the organization co-hosted a national event in the historical home of women’s rights activism, is a far cry from its humble origins.
“It’s really grown from a couple of kids in Arlington, so that’s pretty amazing,” Lombard said.
Expect showers and thunderstorms after 2pm, with mostly sunny weather and a high of 96°F. The heat index may reach 104°F, while west winds of 7-13 mph may gust up to 20 mph. There is a 60% chance of precipitation, with potential rainfall of up to half an inch. Saturday night, anticipate likely showers and thunderstorms mainly before 8pm, with a low around 72°F and winds shifting from west to north. The chance of precipitation remains 60%, with new rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, but potentially higher in thunderstorms. See more from Weather.gov.
💡 Quote of the Day
“Do what you can with what you have where you are.” – Theodore Roosevelt
🌅 Tonight’s sunset
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Get ready to guard your heart! The newest Adoptable Pet of the Week is Panda, an adorable puppy up for adoption at the Animal Welfare League of Arlington.
This pup is currently in foster and this is what his foster parents had to say:
Meet Panda the puppy who will steal your heart with his big, brown eyes and sweet personality!
Shy at first, once Panda warms up to you, his true happy, go-lucky nature blooms. Unlike other pups his age, Panda is also very chill and enjoys quality calm time with his humans or a yummy chewy treat.
Panda’s Yays: Food, treats, playing with dog friends, and chin scratches while staring into your eyes lovingly.
Panda’s Nays: New places and new people (but only at first!). He says he’s still just a baby and learning about the world.
Panda’s Fun Facts: He already walks very well on leash, isn’t scared or phased by loud noises. He loves other dogs.
Don’t miss out on this sweet, soulful companion dog that wants everyone to love him as much as he loves them!
Want your pet to be considered for the Arlington Pet of the Week? Email [email protected] with 2-3 paragraphs about your pet and at least 3-4 horizontally-oriented photos.
There will be a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 3pm, with mostly sunny, hot conditions and a high near 99. The heat index could reach 106, with a southwest wind of 5 to 8 mph. Precipitation chances are 40% during the day and increase to 50% on Friday night, with storms mainly before 9pm. The night will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 76 and a southwest wind of 6 to 8 mph. See more from Weather.gov.
💡 Quote of the Day
“Living is Easy with Eyes Closed.” – John Lennon
🌅 Tonight’s sunset
Thanks for reading! Feel free to discuss the day’s happenings in the comments.
Expect showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 5pm, with mostly sunny and hot conditions reaching a high near 98°F and heat index values up to 105°F. Southwest winds will range from 10 to 14 mph, gusting to 24 mph. The chance of precipitation is at 60% with new rainfall amounts between a tenth and a quarter of an inch, potentially higher during thunderstorms. Thursday night will see thunderstorms likely before 2am, followed by a slight chance of showers and a low of around 75°F. See more from Weather.gov.
💡 Quote of the Day
“The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” – Aristotle
🌅 Tonight’s sunset
Thanks for reading! Feel free to discuss the day’s happenings in the comments.
Westmont Apartments (photo courtesy of Matt Hagan)
The long-awaited Westmont Apartments on Columbia Pike is now open and ready for move-ins, with a pair of restaurants setting up on the ground floor.
Developer Republic Properties Corporation announced last week that the 258,000-square-foot mixed-use building at the corner of Columbia Pike and S. Glebe Road had opened its doors. The project was first approved about four years ago.
The new construction sits on the former site of the Westmont Shopping Center, which was demolished in late 2021. Apartments are “now available for lease with immediate move-ins available,” reads the press release, with monthly rental rates starting at $2,345.
Westmont is also set to have six ground-floor retail tenants in addition to 250 apartments, a spokesperson confirmed to ARLnow. That includes a now-national burger franchise returning to where it started.
ARLnow reported back in March that Five Guys Burgers & Fries was set to return to near the site of its original location. Five Guys opened its first very small location at the Westmont Shopping Center in 1986. Close to four decades later, there are more than 1,700 restaurants doing close to three billion in sales across the world.
The new Five Guys on Columbia Pike will take up about 2,400 square feet and will be located near the Glebe Road intersection. An opening date for the burger spot has not been finalized yet, per a Republic Properties spokesperson.
While the spokesperson declined to provide any other information about the other five tenants, a recent leasing brochure obtained by ARLnow provides clues to at least two other businesses moving in.
An Allcare urgent care clinic appears to be coming to the S. Glebe Road side of the development. This would be the fourth Allcare clinic in Arlington, with the latest opening in Rosslyn earlier this year.
And two doors down from Five Guys on the Columbia Pike, it appears that a Jersey Mike’s Subs will be opening in a small 1,141-square-foot space. This would be the sub shop’s first location in Arlington.
There remains a 2,164 square foot space, 1,756 square foot space, and a much larger 10,630 square foot space, per the leasing brochure.
A smaller-format grocery store was initially supposed to fill one of those spaces, but it’s currently unclear where that stands.
