Ballston

New membership program launches at several Arlington bars, providing beers and pizza slices

By Matt Blitz
1/5

(Updated, 8:50 p.m.) The company behind several Arlington bars is launching a membership service that aims to position its portfolio as a casual social club, of sorts.

The D.C.-based hospitality group Tin Shop — which owns Pentagon City’s Highline RxR, Quincy Hall in Ballston, the soon-to-open Astro Beer Hall in Shirlington, and seven other D.C. area food-and-drink spots — is starting the “Tin Shop Social Club,” a $39.99/mo service providing drinks and food to members.

The aim is to give regulars (and would-be regulars) a deal that keeps them coming back.

At Highline and Astro Beer Hall, for example, members are able to get a daily free beer while at Quincy Hall there’s a buy one pizza slice, get one free deal.

There will also be “additional perks,” like monthly happy hours, members-only lines, and, eventually, early access to tickets at a new D.C. concert hall.

“We thought long and hard while our doors were closed during the COVID-19 pandemic about how to create a community to bring back a sense of togetherness and unite people,” Tin Shop co-founder Peter Bayne tells ARLnow. “Essentially, we created this membership to bring our customers together from our various spaces across D.C. and Virginia — aiming to create a real sense of community.”

The goal is to amass 10,000 members and to have weekly member events at each of the spaces, notes Bayne.

Subscriptions have become somewhat of a restaurant industry trend. Locally, Arlington-based Lebanese Taverna launched a membership program late last year.

The popularity of such programs was part of Tin Shop’s thinking in launching their own.

“Clubs and memberships are what people want to be a part of. People want to meet like-minded individuals and join groups where they can meet up and have a good time,” says Bayne.

She calls Tin Shop’s program “the DMV’s new not-so-stuffy, country club social club.”

Tin Shop has recently grown its presence in Arlington. While Highline opened in Crystal City back in 2015, Quincy Hall served its first slices this past spring. The new Astro Beer Hall in Shirlington remains slated to open sometime this fall in the former Capitol City Brewing space.

For Tin Shop, a successful membership program means creating a community of regulars that are grabbing a beer at Highline together one day and a slice at Quincy Hall the next.

“Success looks like a large membership base that can come together weekly at any of our venues and get to know each other,” says Baybe. “What are bars if not a place to come together and have a good time? Meet new friends, maybe a new date? We feel as though this membership can help drive this point across — and ultimately build a network for individuals.”

It’s Advanced vs. Amazon after delivery van towed from Buckingham apartments

By ARLnow.com
1/7

An Amazon delivery van was reported stolen yesterday near Ballston. Except it wasn’t stolen. It was towed.

The tow pits two Arlington institutions against each other — infamous local towing company Advanced Towing and, in the other corner, newer arrival Amazon. It also raises a general policy question: should delivery vehicles parked improperly on private property get towed?

The incident happened around 2 p.m. yesterday at a residential complex in the Buckingham neighborhood.

“At approximately 2:01 p.m. on August 16, police were dispatched to the 4300 block of 4th Street N. for the report of a stolen delivery vehicle,” Arlington County Police Department spokeswoman Ashley Savage tells ARLnow. “Prior to officers arriving on scene, dispatch advised the vehicle had been towed from private property. Officers were then placed back into service.”

Soon thereafter, the van could be seen impounded in the Advanced Towing lot in Ballston.

Advanced says that the van was towed because it was parked in a fire lane on private property, and that the company tows regardless of whether the driver is making deliveries.

“The Amazon driver left their delivery vehicle unattended in a fire lane/no parking zone, rather than park in one of the open spaces,” the company said in a brief statement to ARLnow. “Amazon vehicles are not exempt from following the law or rules of someone’s private property.”

Signs at the address police were dispatched to do, in fact, explicitly state “No Parking — Fire Lane” and “Towed at Owner’s Expense,” though the exact location the van was parked prior to being towed is unclear.

ARLnow reached out to Amazon for comment but has not received answers to our questions as of publication.

This is not the first time Advanced has towed an Amazon van. ARLnow reported on a delivery van towed from an apartment parking lot in Falls Church in 2019.

Asked about delivery vans being towed and local towing policies, Savage referred readers to the county website.

“You can find information regarding private tows, also known as trespass tows, from private property on the County website and in County Code § 14.3-5. Removal of Trespassing Vehicles,” she wrote. “If a vehicle owner believes their vehicle was towed in error, they can report to Arlington County Police for investigation by submitting an online complaint or calling 703-228-4266.”

Advanced has long maintained that its local notoriety is the result of its efficiency in properly towing vehicles that are improperly parked and thus trespassing on private property. A lawsuit brought by former Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring for alleged predatory towing practices only resulted in a $750 fine — which owner John O’Neill touted as vindication.

The towing company also won some recent plaudits for a driver’s actions to help a man threatening to jump from an overpass.

ARLnow’s photographer, meanwhile, spotted another Amazon van getting away with some improper parking just steps from where the other van was towed. While looking for the original towing scene, we snapped an Amazon van parked on the private drive of the 4300 block of 4th Court N.

“Private street — no parking in alley — towing at owner’s expense,” read a sign at the entrance to the driveway. It was placed by Advanced’s competitor, A-1 Towing.

Noisy utility covers that have annoyed neighbors in Ballston for years could get finally fixed

By Matt Blitz
The banging metal covers on Wilson Blvd near the intersection of N. Randolph Street (staff photo)

A set of utility covers in the middle of Wilson Blvd that have bothered residents for nearly a decade may finally get a permanent fix.

For Alex Korolkoff, the banging noise from cars and buses driving over the covers is so loud — even on the 10th floor of his Ballston apartment building — he’s resorted to fans and white noise machines to drown it out.

Carlos Moran said the “constant heavy banging” coming from near the corner of Wilson Blvd and N. Randolph Street, across from Ballston Quarter mall, “affect our quality of life” and prevent him from sleeping in his home.

Another nearby resident compares the situation to war.

​”It feels as if we are being held hostage, like POWs, in our very own apartments, bound by our leases and forced to live with the continual banging,” they wrote ARLnow. The noise happens day and night given that the metal covers are along one of Ballston’s most highly-trafficked corridors.

The banging is particularly loud when bearing the brunt of buses and trucks, with the noise bouncing off Ballston’s high-rises.

“There’s such disruption that we deal with 24/7, while trying to work from home, we can’t sit on our small balcony without it being even louder, and sleeping is difficult,” one nearby neighbor wrote ARLnow. “The noise is truly endless because traffic never ceases.”

And it’s been a problem for nearly a decade. ARLnow first reported on the loose plates in 2013, when they were deemed a “temporary measure” and would be fixed soon. The covers were also listed as one of Arlington’s most wanted road repairs.

Nine years later, though, they are still there, loose, and driving some neighbors nuts.

The plates are the responsibility of nearby apartment building Ava Ballston, both Arlington County and the building’s parent company AvalonBay — which happens to have its headquarters across the street — confirmed to ARLnow. The flat sheets of metal are protecting Dominion Power equipment that help provides electricity to the building.

Over the years, ARLnow has received periodic emails from Ballston residents complaining about them.

One 2019 note speculated that the surrounding apartment complexes might have a hard time renting out units because of the noise. Another from October 2021 called the plates “steel drums.”

Another annoyed neighbor wrote in November 2021 that they put together a petition with more than 110 signatures of neighbors asking the county to do something to “right the wrong for a longstanding steel plate noise issue… it is distressing for those residents who need to rest, sleep, and work from home.”

ARLnow’s initial 2013 story was also spurred by an email from a reader.

“The noise within the apartments is now incredibly loud,” wrote a resident of the building that was then-called Archstone Ballston Square in March 2013. “This is a project that residents and the county were told would go on a few weeks — it’s [now] nearly 18 months later.”

(more…)

Veteran-owned Ballston consultancy aims to invert typical sales model

By Mavis Chan

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups, founders, and other local technology news. Monday Properties is proudly featuring 1515 Wilson Blvd in Rosslyn. 

When Marine veteran Brendan McElroy started working on the sales side of the consulting industry, he quickly realized that although he enjoyed the more interactive part of his job, he did not like the “typical consulting-sales model.”

McElroy described the model as consultants “[complicating] people’s problems.”

As a result in 2019, he founded and became the CEO of the management consulting company called Franklin Consulting, LLC. A year later in April, it merged with the Seattle-based consulting firm T.S. Marshall & Associates, Inc., which specialized in professional training and coaching.

Out of the venture, Ballston-based Franklin IQ was formed, according to a news release. Franklin IQ provides services in several areas of management consultancy, including strategic planning, employee engagement and workforce planning, according to its website.

“Our real passion is working with leaders on things like organizational development, leader development, learning and developing, or managing massive complex changes like return to work or employee engagement,” McElroy said.

What distinguishes Franklin IQ from other consulting firms is its mindset, he believes. “We don’t start with a product and say, ‘Hey, can you buy my product?'” Instead, his company first seeks to “understand the issue” in order to “offer unique and tailored approaches” to solve his clients’ issues.

Similarly, the consulting firm uses a nontraditional way of hiring people, relying less on putting up job notices and waiting for people to answer. There are 18 people working full-time, as well as a network of experts in different subject matters for different projects, McElroy said.

“Everyone around here kind of does it the same way, it’s tough to do this in a labor market where you’re recruiting through fairly traditional means,” he said about hiring practices.

Encouraged by the methods used in many Silicon Valley startups, McElroy said he believes in the importance of everyone in his company to network, especially in connecting with experts in different fields.

The firm’s approach appears to be working.

During the pandemic, the Department of Veterans’ Affairs requested the company’s consultancy on PTSD treatment, sexual assault response and prevention, as well as suicide prevention for about 600 veteran health clinics in the United States. Franklin IQ helped transition the clinics from primarily conducting face-to-face interactions to a virtual environment.

“We’ve really gone from the point where we’re really focused on communications outreach to now we’re training on really complex and modern therapeutic techniques for how to diagnose and treat mental health issues,” McElroy said.

Currently, around 40% of the company’s clients are from the defense industry, another 40% from federal healthcare and the rest are miscellaneous private businesses, McElroy estimates. Franklin IQ has provided consulting services to the first two sectors for the longest, McElroy said. The company has worked with over 45 government agencies, according to its website.

Even though it is now based in Arlington, McElroy’s company started off in nearby Alexandria. As a Service Disabled Veteran Owned Small Business, the consulting firm got its start by joining the national Bunker Labs program which supports veteran-owned businesses.

(more…)

Arlington eateries gearing up for summer Restaurant Week

By Mavis Chan
Ruthie’s All-Day (courtesy photo)

The annual summer Restaurant Week is a week away.

The regional event will be held between Monday, Aug. 15, and Sunday, Aug. 21 and is currently set to feature nearly a dozen Arlington restaurants.

During the event, the participating restaurants are expected to offer lunches for $25 and dinners for either $40 or $55.

The participating Arlington restaurants include:

  • Big Buns Damn Good Burgers (Ballston and Shirlington) — serving burgers, burger bowls, cocktails, shakes and fries. Menu not yet released.
  • Epic Smokehouse (Pentagon City) — will offer a three-course meal, charging $25 for lunch and $55 for dinner.
  • La Cote d’Or Café (East Falls Church) — three-course menus of traditional French cuisine, priced at $25 for lunch and $40 or $55 for dinner.
  • McCormick & Schmick’s (Crystal City) — a seafood restaurant that offers a $55 dinner option. Menu not yet released.
  • Mussel Bar and Grill (Ballston) — a Belgian restaurant offering three-course menus at $25 for lunch and $40 for dinner.
  • Osteria da Nino (Shirlington) — three-course meals of Italian cuisine, priced at $40 for dinner.
  • Ruthie’s All-Day (Arlington Heights) — the award-winning restaurant that specializes in Southern cuisine will offer $40 and $55 dinner options. Menu not yet released.
  • SER Restaurant (Ballston) — three-course meals of Spanish cuisine, priced at $25 for lunch and $40 for dinner.
    The Freshman (Crystal City) – a café that serves bar food, sandwiches and pastas. Menu not yet released.
  • The Melting Pot (Ballston) — three-course menus of fondues, priced at $40 for dinner and $5 extra per person for a chocolate fondue.
  • Yume Sushi (East Falls Church) — five-course menu of Japanese cuisine for $55 per dinner.

Some of the restaurants listed above are pairing their meals with wine or cocktails. All the eateries, except The Melting Pot, offer delivery, takeout or outdoor spaces in addition to indoor dining.

Organized by the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington, which also hosted the RAMMY awards, the event is sponsored by public and private groups, such as the D.C. Mayor’s Office, the National Landing Business Improvement District and Airbnb, according to its website.

Over 200 restaurants from the D.C. metropolitan area are participating this year, according to a RAMW tweet.

An immersive “Squid Game” is coming to Ballston

By Matt Blitz
1/4

If you want to be transported into the dystopian, violent world featured in Netflix’s “Squid Game,” head to Ballston starting next month.

The “immersive group gaming” experience Immersive Gamebox (formerly Electric Gamebox) at Ballston Quarter is set to debut its newest game on September 21 and it’s one based on Netflix’s popular streaming series.

“Groups of two to six players will navigate challenges inspired by the series including Red Light Green Light, Marbles, and the ‘Squid Game’ itself, among others,” reads a press release. “Players will use the company’s proprietary motion-sensing technology and touch screens surrounding the interactive digital smart rooms, or Gameboxes, where players must test their reflexes and skills to advance — all without the need for headsets.”

The full-scale game is only for players 16 years and older and will become part of Immersive Gamebox’s permanent collection, a company spokesperson told ARLnow.

“Squid Game” is a fictional South Korean show about hundreds of vulnerable people manipulated into playing deadly children’s games to win cash. The series on Netflix premiered last year and is nominated for an Emmy.

“People are constantly seeking new and different ways to remain invested in their favorite content,” Immersive Gambox CEO Will Dean said in a press release. “To reimagine Netflix’s most popular show in an entirely new format offers customers more ways to stay connected to Squid Game.”

The London-based Immersive Gamebox opened its 2,217 square-foot space in Suite 2233 of Ballston Quarter (4238 Wilson Blvd) back in March. There are now 13 locations in both the U.K. and the United States, including the recently-opened one in New York City.

Dean told ARLnow earlier this year that the company chose Arlington as a spot of one of its locations because of “its reputation as a young, vibrant, family friendly community.”

Inside the facility, players will find a series of rooms that can host two to six players for games that last 30 minutes or an hour. Players don motion-tracking visors to play games projected onto the four walls of their “gamebox” room.

Besides Squid Game starting in September, players can also choose games involving aliens, a trip to Mars, and Angry Birds. Ticket prices range from $20 to $40, depending on age and game. The Ballston location is open until 9 p.m. every night.

County returns to pre-pandemic process for outdoor tents, leaving some restaurants frustrated

By Matt Blitz
The outdoor temporary tents at SER in Ballston in 2021 (image via Google Maps)

Arlington is returning to the pre-pandemic process for restaurants to apply for outdoor tents, a move that has left at least a couple of local restaurants unhappy.

For the last two years, the county has made an effort to streamline the application process for outdoor tents as part of helping restaurants set up temporary outdoor seating areas, or TOSAs.

Back in December, however, the process for applying for outdoor tents was separated from the TOSA process, which was recently extended to February 2023. Arlington, meanwhile, is letting its Covid state of emergency expire on Aug. 15.

“The application process is returning to the pre-pandemic process that has always been in place. The process for tents was streamlined to help businesses during the pandemic,” County spokesperson Jessica Baxter tells ARLnow. “As they were before the pandemic, applications for tents must be submitted via the temporary structure/tent here. The guidelines for tents remain the same and have not changed.”

Those guidelines are enforced by the Arlington County Fire Department and fire marshall. Among the rules: a tent cannot be larger than 900 square feet and there needs to be a separate permit and inspections for gas heaters.

There is also a limitation on how long an outdoor temporary tent can be up: only six months (180 days) out of the year. What’s more, a business can’t apply for another permit to put up another tent until a six-month period has lapsed since the last tent was taken down.

These rules exist, said Baxter, because of the statewide fire code and there’s not much the county can do.

“The six-month temporary tent allowance is part of the Virginia Statewide Fire Code, which the County is required to follow. If an applicant wishes to make the tent more permanent, they can apply for a building permit and enter that process,” she wrote. “At this time, no tents should be up, with the exception of restaurants that received a building permit and single, pop-up tents smaller than 120 square feet.”

Of course, the fire code seems to be in conflict with the desire of many to dine outdoors, while being protected from the elements. With the state health department still reporting more than 100 Covid infections per day in Arlington, eating outside is widely viewed as a less risky alternative to indoor dining.

Baxter said the county is “actively working to create longer-term solutions that offer permanent outdoor dining options,” but temporary outdoor tents are not part of that effort because of the restrictions laid out in the fire code.

With most of the outdoor tents coming down in December, many businesses could have started reapplying for outdoor tents for the upcoming fall and winter season in June.

But reverting to a pre-pandemic process and guidelines has left a couple of restaurants that talked with ARLnow confused, frustrated, and at a loss on how to explain this to customers.

One is Medium Rare, the local steak restaurant with locations in Maryland, D.C., and one in Arlington’s Virginia Square neighborhood.

In the previous pandemic years, the restaurant did have an outdoor tent for diners, but Medium Rare had to take it down this past December, said owner Mark Bucher.

The outdoor temporary tents at Medium Rare in Virginia Square in 2021 (image via Google Maps)

He told ARLnow that compared to other local jurisdictions, Arlington’s TOSA process, as well as the one to apply for outdoor tents, is “complicated and cumbersome.”

Bucher also wondered what the logic was behind the directive that a restaurant a tent had to come down after six months.

“Arlington has always been so restaurant-friendly, so this goes against everything,” he said. “Why put up a tent, take it down, and pay to put it back up again?”

As the weather turns cooler again, and as Covid and other respiratory diseases ramp up, customers are going to want to sit outside in a heated tent, he said. But Bucher worries that a number of restaurants are not going to go through the process to get a temporary tent again, and diners are going to take their business to other nearby jurisdictions.

For his part, Bucher said Medium Rare in Virginia Square will not be reapplying to put up an outdoor tent.

(more…)

New stand-alone Ballston spa in former Sichuan Wok building to hold grand opening

By Mavis Chan
1/4

The newly-constructed Azure Dream Day Spa in Ballston is set to hold a grand opening celebration next Friday, Aug. 12.

The spa is located at 901 N. Quincy Street, a short walk away from the Ballston Metro station, in an extensively renovated, stand-alone building that used to house Sichuan Wok.

The Chinese restaurant closed in 2018.

The grand opening is scheduled to be held between 5-9 p.m. next Friday. The event is set to include tours of the facility, as well as live music, raffles, food and drinks, and discounts on services, according to an event listing.

A flyer listing special deals for Azure’s grand opening (via Azure Dream Day Spa)

The spa was founded in 2010 by Arash Hosseinzadeh and Leila Espari, a certified electrologist, according to its website. It was previously located in the Courthouse area but moved to its present location in Ballston in May this year, co-owner Leila Espari tells ARLnow.

The spa provides a range of services, including facials, hair removal, massage and nail care. It is open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays and until 5 p.m. on weekends.

Arlington artist brings her talent to social media, sharing scenes from around the county

By Pia Kramer
1/3

When Diana Gamerman was little, she wanted to do exactly what her older sister did.

The Arlington resident has a studio in Alexandria called DianaArt, where she sells her work, but it’s on Nextdoor where she have been gaining a degree of local fame.

Gamerman has been painting professionally since she was 22 years old, she told ARLnow. While she owes her initial interest in art to her sister, the now 80-year-old has continued her passion, specializing in watercolor, oil painting and sculpture work. Her work has even been featured in the Museum of Arts and Design in New York.

“[I’ve] done it all,” Gamerman joyfully said.

Gamerman’s inspiration comes from everyday life experiences. What she chooses to paint is influenced by things she likes — if she sees a beautiful landscape, she’ll create art from it. She also takes her inspiration from Wayne Thiebaud, a California artist who specialized in landscapes and cars.

She said watercolor is more convenient to use but she opts for oil pastel when the weather is good — “don’t have to worry about things flying away.”

One painting, of her music teacher, took three years to complete, she said.

Gamerman posts to Nextdoor, the social media website for neighbors, photos of her paintings, which are most often pictures of homes in the neighborhood. From time to time, she posts sketches of people sitting at Compass Coffee or pictures of her sculptures.

The posts have become something of a fixture of the local social network.

One post she made on Nextdoor, of a home in her neighborhood, garnered hundreds of likes and dozens of comments on her talent. Her feed shows dozens of paintings of “what is happening” in her neighborhood, at a development project, at her studio, at a coffee shop.

In another painting, vivid yellows and oranges mesh together to show scenes of workers at a construction site and another with workers doing road work.

“I can show you what is happening in my neighborhood because I love [to] paint the work men because they wear such bright colors,” she wrote with the post.

She called Nextdoor a “wonderful” platform where she can share her work and people reach out to her to commission paintings. Her posts are a way to make extra money and enjoy her time — another hobby of sorts, in addition to playing the banjo and mandolin, she said.

The site is also a place to find a sense of community that transcends the local and national controversies that prompt less neighborly discussions.

“Everybody makes nice comments on Nextdoor,” Gamerman said.

Arlington ‘newbie’ discovers life’s simple pleasures through popular Facebook group

By Pia Kramer
Marc and Gary Shulman (staff photo by Pia Kramer)

Gary Shulman has only lived in Arlington for about three months but has created a popular Facebook group all about the warm and wonderful feelings the county evokes.

Shulman, a retired early education specialist and published poet, was already using his outreach and advocacy skills to connect with Arlington residents in the Facebook group, Arlington Neighbors Helping Each Other Through COVID-19 after he moved to Rosslyn in April.

Without even realizing it, that page became the “Gary Shulman Show,” he said, where he would post all of his and his partner Marc’s adventures. The intention of the page was not for it to become the “blog” of one user. So, others encouraged Shulman to begin a new Facebook page — a page that could remind Arlingtonians what makes the county special.

He started Arlington Through the Eyes of a Newbie on May 13 and gained more than 600 followers within the first day. Now, he has over 700 members that follow his and Marc’s day-to-day life, as well as share helpful tips and suggestions. Shulman and Marc have been able to discover nitty-gritty information — where the best dermatologist is, allergist, dentist, even barbershop.

As he’s explored Arlington, members of the group have recognized him, as if he’s a local celebrity. Some stop and take photos with him to share on Facebook.

“There is a wonderful and caring network [in Arlington] and in many ways, reminds me of my early days in East NY and Canarsie Brooklyn where a sense of community was in every fiber of every neighbor. They all cared,” Shulman posted on his personal Facebook account.

Arlington Neighborhood (courtesy of Gary Shulman/Facebook)

Shulman always fantasized about living in Mayberry, the setting of “The Andy Griffith Show,” where people care about each other, garden, have beautiful homes, and enjoy the simple pleasures of life, he told ARLnow. His Facebook page reminds Arlingtonians to look on the ground and take in their (and others’) neighborhoods, places they pass daily.

He and Marc enjoy trying new restaurants, like Brass Rabbit, and Guajillo, where a post shows them trying out one of its “sangritas.” They also like finding beautiful parks and neighborhoods like Bon Air Memorial Rose Garden and Lyon Village and meeting new friends (especially dogs). Shulman sometimes shares some of his published poems.

Marc enjoying a Sangrita at Guajillo (courtesy of Gary Shulman/Facebook)

Shulman and Marc had only moved to Arlington a month before he started his Facebook group. They spent two years and eight months in Palm Springs, where they had originally thought they’d spend retirement.

However sitting in their Palm Springs home, outside temperatures reaching 120 degrees with 0% precipitation, the COVID-19 pandemic trapped Shulman and Marc inside.

“When it’s 120 degrees, you can’t go any place — you’re a prisoner,” said Shulman. “Something was happening to my mental health. Covid happened, and then everything closed down.”

Since moving to Arlington, they’ve been able to get out and about.

It’s no doubt that Shulman’s “fans” know him and Marc to be walkers. Most of his posts begin with some form of “a stroll through…,” “our goal was to walk…,” or “just a short 3 miler today… .” Shulman explained that walking is good for his health and redirects his brain.

As he walks, he appreciates the beauty of people’s gardens and neighborhood homes. He stops and smells the roses. Talking with ARLnow, Shulman emphasized, “the small things are the important things.”

Bon Air Memorial Rose Garden (courtesy of Gary Shulman/Facebook)

Now, after making a move from Rosslyn to their Ballston apartment in June, Shulman sees his Facebook page as a way to showcase how wonderful Arlington is and bring Arlingtonians together. It is a mix of Brooklyn, New York, and Palm Springs, California, with a close community and liveable climate.

Shulman and Marc hope “people will get off their behinds to start walking,” Shulman says. “Just learn and appreciate what Arlington has to offer.”

Ballston’s Buffalo Wild Wings appears to be closing

By Matt Blitz
Buffalo Wild Wings in Ballston (file photo)

It appears that the Buffalo Wild Wings in Ballston will close next month.

Earlier this month, a request was submitted to the county on behalf of the building owner JBG Smith to amend the site plan for the office building at 950 N. Glebe Road. In that request, it’s noted that the 7,318 square foot space on the ground floor of the building that currently is home to Buffalo Wild Wings is set to be vacated when the lease is up at the end of August.

“The [building] has never enjoyed strong street frontage for retail or restaurants, which led to lower sales for the existing tenant and contributed to their decision to vacate at the end of the lease in August 2022,” the statement of justification letter reads.

Upon learning of the restaurant’s intent to close, JBG Smith attempted to find a replacement tenant but was “unsuccessful.” In response, the developer is moving on and asking the county to add “retail equivalent uses” as a permitted use.

The hope is to turn the large space once home to the beer, wings and sports chain into an assortment of “lounges, conference rooms, co-working spaces, and a fitness center” as a way to “substantially upgrade the ground floor experience” for office tenants at 950 N. Glebe Road.

ARLnow has reached out to both Buffalo Wild Wings and JBG Smith to confirm the chain’s departure from Ballston. We’ve not heard back from either as of publication.

Ballston’s Buffalo Wild Wings opened a decade ago based in part on the success of the Crystal City location. It was expected to be one of the company’s top-performing restaurants in the country, per the regional manager at the time.

That does not seem to be the case, at least today. Recent reviews of the restaurant on both Google and Yelp say that it is often devoid of customers, that food items are frequently out of stock, and that the establishment is understaffed. A lack of customers has plagued many — though not necessarily all — restaurants on the western side of Glebe Road, as the Metro station entrance, plus most of Ballton’s businesses and foot traffic, are on the eastern side of the busy artery.

Overall, JBG Smith seems to be looking to spruce up 950 N. Glebe Road. The proposed updates include a 410-square-foot bump out for a fitness center, landscape changes, and an “indoor/outdoor tenant café-style area with operable windows,” along with more conference rooms and co-working spaces.

“These proposed amendments to Site Plan #331 will allow the [building] to compete in a struggling office and retail market,” the request says. “Securing new retail and office tenants during the uncertain economic environment of the last two years has proven difficult for the Applicant, especially given that it lacks tenant amenities (which are now proposed).”

Hat tip to Chris Slatt

View More Stories