Inside the restaurant, cleaning equipment is scattered around after its closing and the unlit Mister Days sign reflects in the window
A sign posted on the front door announces Citizen Burger has closed up shop
Clarendon’s Citizen Burger Bar is now closed, per a sign on the door.
“Our time with you has come to an end,” reads the sign on the front doors of the restaurant at 1051 N. Highland Street. “We want to thank you so much for visiting us and supporting us for the last 5 years!”
The notice said its last day was Sunday. Phone calls to the eatery went unanswered, and the number appeared to be disconnected.
The restaurant posted a copy of the sign on its Facebook Friday, noting it was “a sad day for us here in Clarendon.”
Inside the restaurant, chairs could be seen stacked up between cleaning materials last night (Monday). The unlit sign of Mister Days, which closed in April across the street, reflected in the burger joint’s windows.
Owner Anderson McClure told ARLnow.com before the restaurant opened that his goal was to “broaden people’s horizons when it comes to simple, ‘classic American’ fare.”
The closing adds to the agony this week for local connoisseurs of the bovine, who are mourning the impending closure of Courthouse staple Ray’s the Steaks.
Ray’s the Steaks Closing — “Washington will soon lose a carnivorous institution. Ray’s the Steaks, an unfussy Arlington chophouse that’s operated in the neighborhood for 17 years, will close after service on Saturday, June 15, says chef/owner Michael Landrum.” [Washingtonian]
DOJ Announces APS Settlement — “Today the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia announced a settlement agreement with Arlington Public Schools that will bolster English language services to the district’s approximately 5,000 students who are not proficient in English.” [Dept. of Justice]
Flags Fly Half Mast for Va. Beach — Flags at Arlington County buildings are flying half mast in honor of the victims of the Virginia Beach mass shooting. [Twitter]
Parking Is Point of Contention for Redevelopment — “Some surface parking at the Crystal House apartments is set to stick around, even as the Crystal City property gets redeveloped — and that’s worrying Arlington planners reviewing the project.” [Washington Business Journal]
‘Move Over’ Month in Arlington — “Move Over Awareness Month, recognized each June, is a statewide safety campaign designed to reduce the risk of injury or death to emergency personnel by raising motorist awareness of Virginia’s Move Over law.” [Arlington County]
New Priest for Arlington Cathedral — “Effective Thursday, June 27, 2019 and in accordance with the clergy appointments made by the Most Reverend Michael F. Burbidge, Bishop of Arlington. the Very Reverend Patrick L. Posey, V.F., will be leaving his current position as Pastor of Saint James Catholic Church in Falls Church, to become the new Rector of the Cathedral of Saint Thomas More in Arlington.”
Washington Sports Club in Clarendon is closing down (Screenshot from Google Maps)
Washington Sports Club in Clarendon is closing down (Screenshot from Google Maps)
Washington Sports Club in Clarendon is closing down (Screenshot from Google Maps)
The Washington Sports Club in Clarendon is closing down for good later this month.
The gym at 2700-2800 Clarendon Blvd is slated to shutter its doors by June 30, staff told ARLnow today (Monday) after notifying members this weekend of its plans.
Gym manager Diamond Thompson said that memberships are transferable to chain’s other sports clubs.
Clarendon, however, is Washington Sports Club’s only location in Virginia, according to the franchise’s website. The company also operates six gyms in D.C. and three gyms in Maryland.
Thompson said he couldn’t comment on why the gym was closing. A spokesman for the company could not be reached in time for publication.
The gym is across the street from the ongoing Market Common Clarendon renovation project. Crews are turning the building into a four-story office retail development called The Loft which is expected to open by next summer.
High-end gym Equinox is reportedly planning to open at Market Common Clarendon, but so far few details about the plans have been revealed.
Kora — an Italian eatery at 2250 Crystal Drive in Crystal City — seems closed, but with no visible indication of whether the closure permanent or not.
In addition to the doors being locked and the website saying “closed,” staff at Jaleo — the tapas restaurant next door — said the restaurant had been closed for at least a couple of weeks.
Kora bills itself as a restaurant, bar and lounge, with a menu offering various pizzas and pastas. The restaurant was founded by Morou Ouattara, a quasi-celebrity chef who also owns Lily and the Cactus in D.C.’s NoMa neighborhood.
The restaurant was most recently in the news this past January when it, along with several other Crystal City restaurants, offered free food for federal employees affected by the shutdown.
Both Twisted Vines and BrickHaus closed last year, which at the time Wagner said was part of a plan to regroup and focus on the new Josephine’s Italian Kitchen. All of the restaurants were located within a few blocks of each other on Columbia Pike, where Wagner lives.
Wagner said the decision to close was brought about by family issues and he hopes that the closure will allow him more time to focus on other priorities.
Following the closure, Wagner said he’s still on the lookout for new opportunities in the area, but for now, there’s nothing planned.
Wagner is still deciding what to do with the neon “Gelato” sign in Josephine’s, which he called the “most Instagrammed” thing in the restaurant.
The one-woman clothing company based in Cherrydale is planning to shut down by July after the rest of the inventory is sold off.
Lisa McLaughlin, the store’s founder, said as the store passed its five year anniversary in April, she discovered that she’d lost her enthusiasm for the business.
“That surprised me,” McLaughlin told ARLnow. “I looked at stuff coming up, like we were going to need to rebrand or rename, so it was kind of a combination of things but mainly I just realized on a business level that it’s a lot of work to continue growing a brand. You have to have a passion to do that, and I just felt like I wasn’t the right person to do that.”
McLaughlin said one of the early mistakes was not trademarking the company’s name, so she was in conflict with similarly named companies and often received reviews meant for the other companies.
“I loved doing business in Arlington,” McLaughlin said. “When I started this company we made about four shirts and did one event. I didn’t know if anyone was going to get this concept. But people loved their neighborhoods. The Arlington community was very supportive.”
In retrospect, McLaughlin said she would have hired someone to help manage the company.
“I would set it up differently,” McLaughlin said. “I’d have hired at least one person, even if it’s part time, to help with day to day. I’d have spent time on a business plan and think through how will I actually use my hours on what things.”
District Line Co. is currently working on selling off its inventory in a farewell sale. McLaughlin said anyone using the code “farewell25” on the website will receive a 25 percent discount on merchandise.
(Updated at 3:15 p.m.) Rosslyn’s Kona Grill is gone for good, the restaurant confirmed in an announcement one tipster forwarded this afternoon.
“Want to thank all our guests for their patronage and hope you’ll visit Kona Grill again when you are near our other locations,” the company’s announcement read.
Tipster Rob Stern said he saw received the announcement as a rewards club member and he is sad to see the restaurant go.
“I’d made a point to go to Kona Grill when I was in town for visits, from Raleigh, NC,” said Stern. “I’ve also enjoyed their Orlando location. Their salmon and macadamia nut chicken were two of my favorites.”
Four other tipsters sent ARLnow pictures of the signs that thank people for their patronage, saying, “We are sorry but we are now closed!!”
The restaurant, located at 1776 Wilson Blvd, served a mix of American fare like sliders and pan-Asian dishes like sushi and pad Thai noodles, according to its menu.
The news comes two weeks after its Arizona-based parent company Kona Grill Inc. announced the chain may file for bankruptcy after reporting $32 million in losses last year and closing eight other restaurants, reported the Phoenix Business Journal.
As of today (Monday), calls made to Kona Grill’s Rosslyn location went unanswered and the restaurant was no longer listed on the chain’s map of locations.
A Yelp reviewer noted yesterday (Sunday) that “stuff is packed up in large plastic tubs, and furniture is being loaded onto a box truck.” The restaurant’s Facebook has not posted since mid-February.
The Rosslyn location originally opened in 2015. At the time, Kona’s general manager Joesph Ortega said Rosslyn was scouted because, “It’s a growing area, young and upcoming” which he hoped would gel with the restaurant’s “very hip or retro feeling.”
The restaurant celebrated Kona Grill Inc.’s 20th birthday in September in Rosslyn, according to Rosslyn BID’s social media.
There’s nothing posted about it on the door or on social media, but Bean Good Coffee Pub in Rosslyn is closed, perhaps permanently.
Tipsters tell ARLnow the independent coffee shop quietly closed its doors within the past week.
“The furniture is gone, the place is empty, and it looks like they moved out,” one tipster said.
Bean Good’s phone number directs callers straight to a full voicemail box. Its formerly active social media accounts have gone silent.
The cafe was located at 1737 Wilson Blvd, in the Colonial Village Shopping Center. It opened in 2011 after replacing the former Greenberry’s cafe, which had been open for 8 years prior to its closure.
Robert Lee gestures at the crowds packed in for last call after 43 year in business
Hundreds crowded the bar on Friday
One of Mister Day’s employees, Carol, has worked there for the last 34 years
Mister Days collected patrons that felt like family after the years, including, from left to right: Mickey Berra, Michael Tramonte, John Hauser, and George Cranwell
Mike Rowe pulled out the 30-year-old thank you letter he saved from Lee’s daughter from when he tended bar
Upstairs younger professionals and couples gathered for last call
Mister Days closed last Saturday after 43 years in business
(Updated a 9:45 p.m.) Mister Days shuttered its doors this weekend, but not before toasting the bar’s 43 years in D.C. and Arlington with a pair of final parties on Friday and Saturday.
Lee told ARLnow that the closing was “bittersweet” and that he plans to focus full-time on resolving some ongoing health issues.
“Hopefully a couple months from now and I get past those issues and then I’ll figure it out,” he said of his future.
The long-time bar celebrated its celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2017 after opening in 1977 in the Dupont Circle area, then moving to Georgetown, and finally settling in Arlington in 2001.
“I used to like to take like an acorn and build an oak tree,” he said. “You get a little idea and it’s kind of crazy but it works.”
Hundreds filled the bar over the course of Friday night to watch a game and drink cold beer from the ice buckets perspiring on the wooden tables. Some flew in from as far as California for last call, and well-wishers from all over the country called Lee several times during this reporter’s interview.
And as the beer flowed through the night, so did the stories.
Carol started as a bartender at Mister Days 34 years ago when she said most of the work women could find in D.C. was for typists. But once she started working for Lee, she said she found friends that made her stick around there ever since.
Mike Rowe bartended at Mister Days’ original D.C. location for 20 years and joked that Lee never fired him even though, “I was late every day. Every day.” Rowe carried in his back pocket a faded, 30-year old thank you letter from Lee’s daughter.
“He’s the only man I know who was successful in an alley,” said Michael Tramonte, of the Tramonte family that owned Georgetown’s Bayou nightclub and currently owns The Italian Store in Lyon Village and Westover.
Mikey Berra, who ran the Kennedy Center backstage, said he used to bring performers to Mister Days and it’s “unbelievable” to think the bar lasted all these years.
“It was a home,” Berra said. “You got to meet so many friends, it was like family. I got to show people our home.”
Every current or former employee who spoke with ARLnow said that Lee had done them a favor, or knew of favors he had done others. Tramonte said he knew the bar owner had helped workers with bills, and rent.
“It was never a loan,” he said. “It was a gift.”
Joe Sweeny also bartended at the D.C. location, a job he said Lee gave him even though he knew was going to leave it within a year.
“Lee is one of the better characters in the business in the last 50 years,” said Sweeney, adding that because of his personality, “They had everyone from Supreme Court justices to homeless people in the bar.”
Mister Days celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2017
Mister Days owner Robert E. Lee
(Updated at noon) Clarendon sports bar Mister Days is closing next week, according to owner Robert E. Lee.
Furniture, fixtures, and some equipment were sold Thursday morning to Arlington chef Patrick Crump of the Clarendon Grill, which closed in October after 22 years in business.
Mister Days will close on April 12 or 13, Lee said, but before that happens there will several parties.
“A series of the last days of Days,” he said.
Crump is expected to open a new restaurant called “The Grill on Highland” in the space within the next two months, Lee told ARLnow.
Mister Days has been a favorite stop for local office workers, weekend partiers, pub trivia contestants, college students and sports fans for almost half a century and has served Hollywood stars like Arnold Schwarzenegger and hosted performances by Mary Chapin Carpenter, according to Lee.
Lee is subletting the space to the new group, but says he’s keeping the “Mister Days” brand name in case he wants to sell it or open another establishment.
“The name comes from the fact we were only open [during] daytime or happy hours,” he said. “Maybe something like that works.”
Lee, who’s turning 80 this year, cited ongoing health issues as a reason for closing the bar and said the decision had nothing to do with rent costs.
He asked patrons to keep an eye on the Mister Days website, which will post details tomorrow about next week’s going away parties.
It first opened in the Dupont Circle area of D.C. in 1977, then moved to Georgetown, finally settling in Arlington in 2001 as it grew from an alley pub to a community institution.
Lee previously said he was weighing whether to invest in renovations or retire.
“Forty-three years is a lot of history,” he said Thursday.
Courthouse Jewelers inside Courthouse Plaza is now closed
Courthouse Jewelers inside Courthouse Plaza is now closed
Courthouse Jewelers at Courthouse Plaza is now closed “permanently,” according to a tipster and online business listings.
The shop on 2200 Clarendon Blvd bought and sold jewelry and was known for its watch repairs.
“It was a venerable institution,” said the tipster. “Bet they changed thousands of watch batteries for county staff over the years.”
As of today (Thursday) the inside of the small shop is empty. The only light left on is the white, block-lettering sign on the awning outside.
The shop’s website also appears to have shuttered. Courthouse Jewelers’ owner could not be reached, the shop’s phone number has been disconnected and its Facebook page has been inactive since 2012.
