business closing

Farmbird in Ballston is closed and it’s unclear whether it will reopen

By ARLnow.com
1/2

Has Farmbird flown the coop in Ballston, or will it rise from the ashes?

The chicken-centric restaurant, which first opened on the ground floor of the Ballston Exchange complex last summer, has been closed for the past few days. It was still closed this morning, when several men could be seen inside sitting and talking around a table.

Reached via email, restaurant co-founder Andrew Harris told ARLnow that Farmbird is working to reopen.

“Unfortunately, we sustained a minor fire on Saturday, 4/9/22 but are working to re-open ASAP,” he wrote this morning. The Ballston location is still listed on Farmbird’s website.

But a local restaurant equipment auction website tells a different story.

“This restaurant is closing and will make a complete liquidation of all late model equipment,” says an auction webpage that clearly shows the interior of Farmbird in Ballston.

D.C.-based Farmbird — which specializes in grilled chicken dishes served in a fast casual setting — opened the 4121 Wilson Blvd location, its first in Arlington, last June. It replaced Miami-based fast-casual health food restaurant Dirt, which closed in January 2020 after less than a year in business.

Farmbird won acclaim for its “gourmet” and health-conscious approach to fast casual dining, and was listed near the top of Yelp’s “Top 100 Places to Eat in the U.S. for 2020” list, a month prior to the start of the pandemic.

As of publication time, Harris has not replied to an email seeking clarification about the restaurant’s status.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com
A window washer outside of a Ballston office (staff photo)

Metro Project Not Great for Pedestrians — “This @ArlingtonDES Ballston multimodal project isn’t providing a great pedestrian experience.” [Twitter]

Moon Shot — “Incredible view of the moon in Clarendon tonight.” [Twitter]

Arlington Real Estate Remains Hot — “The county this month ranked at the regional tippy-top of the T3 Home Demand Index, created by the Mid-Atlantic multiple-listing service Bright MLS… Arlington garnered a score of 230 for March activity; figures were reported April 12. That’s up from 176 a month ago, confirming that seasonal trends are back in the local market: strong activity in spring and summer and lower levels in autumn and winter.” [Sun Gazette]

Nearby: Dogfish Head Alehouse Closing — “After 15 successful years in business, Dogfish Head’s Falls Church Alehouse has made the difficult and emotional decision to close our doors… Our last day of service will be Sunday, May 15.” [Twitter, Annandale Today]

Rainy Afternoon on Tap — “Skies will be overcast in the morning, and a steady rain will develop by the early afternoon and continue for the rest of the day. Temperatures will be quite cool, with highs in the upper 40s and a gusty east wind at 10 to 20 mph.” High of 48 and low of 41. Sunrise at 6:28 am and sunset at 7:49 pm. [Weather.gov, Capital Weather Gang]

Jewelry store closing next month after nearly three decades in the Lee Heights Shops

By Matt Blitz
1/4

Facets Fine Jewelry is closing in May after 27 years in the Lee Heights Shops.

The shop on 4530 Cherry Hill Road is shuttering due to owners Suzanne and Tom Arnold retiring after six decades making, designing, and selling jewelry. The plan, according to the owners, is to be open until at least Mother’s Day (May 8) and then continue for a week or two after, until most of the merchandise has been sold.

The store has been named one of Arlington’s best jewelers  several times by Arlington Magazine.

But now it’s time to pack it in, the owners say.

“Age and attrition,” Suzanne tells ARLnow about why the couple, ages 75 and 80, are retiring and closing up shop. “We’ve kept rolling with it as long as we can because we really love it.”

In 1995, after working for other local jewelry shops, the couple came upon the shopping center and decided to go out on their own.

“I remember thinking that ‘this looks just right,'” she says. “‘It has a real neighborhood feel.'”

They opened Facets Fine Jewelry in September 1995 and she remembers the store filling up with folks buying Christmas gifts. Tom says the store survived for nearly three decades at the shopping center, including the difficult last two years, due to the neighborhood and long-time clients.

“This is our home,” he said. “[When we opened in 1995] everyone took us in. It’s just been wonderful and I can’t say enough.”

Tom got started designing jewelry in the 1960s in Beverly Hills, California. In fact, he hand-designed pieces for some of the biggest stars of the day.

“He remembers John Wayne ordered a little gold charm [from him]… to be given to all of the cast and crew of [a film] he worked on,” says Suzanne. “He was very generous.”

Tom also was a jeweler for Jane Russell, one of Hollywood’s leading ladies in the mid-20th century.

Suzanne says one of her favorite parts of selling jewelry is that it’s so personal.

“Customers aren’t just anonymous souls,” she says. “You become part of people’s lives because you really do mark special moments in their lives.”

For the next month, Suzanne will be just enjoying saying goodbye and selling off as much jewelry as possible, at up to a 70% discount.

When that final day comes in May, the couple says they will be sad but will be looking forward to their big retirement plans — staying local and spending their new-found free time touring museums, going to plays, and eating fancy meals.

“We are going to play tourist in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia,” Suzanne says.

Rosslyn CVS to close after more than two decades inside of 1100 Wilson Blvd

By Matt Blitz
1/2

The CVS inside of 1100 Wilson Blvd in Rosslyn is closing next month after more than twenty years in that location, the company confirms.

The store is located in the lobby of the same building as local TV station WJLA (ABC 7), near the busy intersection with N. Lynn Street. It has been there since December 1999, according to the company.

“We’ve made the difficult decision to close our pharmacy at 1100 Wilson Blvd. in Rosslyn, VA on April 15,” a CVS spokesperson said in a statement to ARLnow. “All prescriptions will be transferred to the nearby CVS Pharmacy at 1788 N. Pierce St. in Arlington, which is just three blocks away, to ensure that patients continue to have uninterrupted access to service. All employees are being offered comparable roles at other CVS locations nearby.”

The exact reason for this particular closure wasn’t directly addressed in the statement, with the spokesperson noting that “maintaining access to pharmacy services in underserved communities is an important factor we consider when making store closure decisions.”

The company also cited population shifts, a store’s density, local market dynamics, and the proximity of other CVS stores as reasons.

The remaining CVS in Rosslyn on Pierce Street is relatively new, having opened in the last few years. While just a few blocks away from the closing store, it’s something of a journey, given the steep hill one has to walk up from N. Lynn Street.

All told, there are 15 other Arlington CVS locations.

Sitting at 31 stories, 1100 Wilson Blvd is one half of a pair of twin towers and a well-known Rosslyn skyline landmark. Besides being the long-time home of WJLA, it’s also home to cybersecurity company Shift5, pasta house Sfoglina, a satellite location for the University of Virginia’s business school, and Raytheon.

Taqueria el Poblano is closing its Columbia Pike location this spring

By Matt Blitz
Taqueria el Poblano on Columbia Pike (staff photo by Matt Blitz)

(Updated on 8/7/22) Taqueria el Poblano is now expected to stay open until the end of August. The restaurant and property owner BM Smith agreed on a lease extension.

Original:

Taqueria el Poblano is closing its Columbia Pike location later this spring, its co-owner confirms to ARLnow.

A decade ago the local staple known for its margaritas and its Southern California-inspired Mexican cuisine opened at 2401 Columbia Pike, amid a wave of new businesses centered around the then-new Penrose Square development. But the restaurant has decided to not re-up its lease for another ten years.

A two-step of decreased revenue and increasing rent drove the decision, co-owner Thomas Stevens says.

While the lease ends March 31, the restaurant and property owner BM Smith agreed on a 60 day extension to allow Taqueria El Poblano to remain open for Cinco de Mayo.

The restaurant is planning to close at the end of May, but not before a proper send-off Stevens promises. The several month lead time gives both staff and regulars a chance to say goodbye.

“We are sad and our regular customers are sad,” he says. “But it’s a business and we just couldn’t make ends meet here.”

Sales at Taqueria el Poblano’s other two locations, in the Lee-Harrison Shopping Center and in Del Ray, remain solid and those nearly 20-year-old locations will remain open for the foreseeable future, we’re told.

Stevens believes the Pike’s “transient” nature is a reason why Taqueria el Poblano didn’t survive on Columbia Pike. The location has fewer regulars than the other locations, Stevens says, and the volume of sales needed to cover rent per square foot just wasn’t there.

“For whatever reason, this one doesn’t do the same business as the others,” Stevens says.

A representative for BM Smith says that Taqueria el Poblano has always been a good tenant and was one of the first when Penrose Square reopened after a two million dollar facelift.

As of this moment, the space remains available to rent starting June 1, but BM Smith expects it to be filled quickly after Taqueria el Poblano moves out.

In the meantime, Stevens says the restaurant is going to relish the last weeks on the Pike. Formal announcements are forthcoming about Cinco de Mayo festivities and the goodbye party.

“We will have a farewell to the neighborhood, a send-off party,” he says. “We will miss it here.”

Ballston pierogi stand Rogi has closed, but its owner hopes to keep serving the area

By Matt Blitz
1/4

Pierogi stand Rogi at Ballston Quarter’s food hall has closed, chef and owner Ed Hardy tells ARLnow.

The pierogi stand’s last official day was Super Bowl — Sunday, February 13. There were several reasons behind the decision to close the eatery after only a little over a year of operations, Hardy says.

One is that the brand is focusing on getting its USDA certification in order to be able sell its filled pastry products in stores. Additionally, the last two months — during the Omicron wave — were particularly hard on the business even compared to the last two pandemic years, a sentiment echoed by a lot of local eateries.

“We took some moon shots and took a risk,” Hardy said of his effort to make a pierogi stand work in the competitive Ballston market.

While Hardy is from Richmond and spent a large portion of his career in New York, he’s no stranger to Arlington — and he’s hoping to remain active here.

Prior to Rogi, he was teaching classes at the Ballston location of Cookology Culinary School. Shortly after the pandemic shut down in-person classes, Hardy shifted from teaching to cooking and opened a “ghost kitchen” inside of Cookology serving up pierogies calling it “Zofia’s Kitchen.”

A short time later, space at nearby Ballston Quarter opened up and Hardy moved all operations there, officially becoming “Rogi.”

With Rogi’s closure, Hardy had planned to replace his pierogi concept with a series of collaborations and pop-ups from other regional restaurateurs, but those plans are currently in flux while details are being worked out with Ballston Quarter. He remains hopeful that this pop-up plan will bear fruit soon, though its future is unclear.

Should he get the go-ahead, among the first up would be an international meatball-centric concept called “Chef Ed’s Flyballs,” followed by empanada, crepe and other pop-ups centered around specific foods.

Ballston cafe with an, ahem, unusual logo is now shuttered

By Matt Blitz
1/4

A Ballston business with a logo that raised eyebrows for more than a decade due to its resemblance to a certain male appendage has closed.

Market Place & Cafe at 901 N. Glebe Road is now shuttered, its refrigerator cases and hot buffet both empty.

While some may miss the lunch buffet or the convenient drink options, the business is perhaps best known for its unusually phallic logo. Located near the corner of N. Glebe Road and N. Vermont Street since at least 2009, Market Place was inexorably linked to the logo, which features an especially tall chef’s hat with a rounded and slightly bifurcated top, and a similarly tall face that’s bulbous at the bottom, between a stylized, curled moustache.

The odd choice of logo did not escape the attention of Yelp reviewers over the years.

“Welcome to Dong Deli. Despite the ridic logo, the food isn’t that bad,” reads one 2011 review.

Eight years ago, when ARLnow went to inquire about how and why the business went with this logo, the reporter was thrown out of the store even before getting the question out.

Earlier this week, ARLnow visited the corner cafe again, but signs on the door noted that the business was closed. The listed phone number was also out of service.

“We are… closed,” the signs said. “Thank you!!!”

It may forever remain a mystery why this particular logo design was chosen and kept despite the obvious comparisons to the male anatomy, but customers will still have fond memories of the glory days.

“For all I care, the logo could be a vagina with tentacles and false teeth, I’d still eat here for breakfast,” said a 2014 review.

Hat tip to Peter G.

The Cookery has closed in Shirlington, after deciding not to renew lease

By Matt Blitz
The Cookery has closed in Shirlington (photo courtesy of Cary Kelly)

The well-reviewed kitchen and culinary store The Cookery has closed in Shirlington, having shut its doors for the final time late last month after selling out of all its products.

Owner Cary Kelly says the closure was due to the store’s lease expiring and deciding not to renew for another five years. Instead, Kelly is going into “semi-retirement” with plans to travel more, cook more and write in her food blog Cary in the Kitchen.

The pandemic wasn’t a factor in closing, she says. In fact, sales were about the same or better than previous years — perhaps related to people cooking at home more. Sales in 2020 were about even to 2019 and 2021 sales were the best in five years. Kelly also believes that many folks were worried about the fate of their favorite small businesses and prioritized supporting them.

In early January, the shop announced its closure with the expectation that it would close in about six weeks. Instead, all products and furnishings were sold in less than three weeks. Jan. 23, the store’s last day open, was marked with a champagne farewell and a packed house.

The business opened in 2011 in Shirlington at 4017 Campbell Avenue. It changed its name from Ah Love Oil & Vinegar to The Cookery in 2016. Kelly considered opening in Del Ray or Old Town Alexandria, but decided on Shirlington because of memories spending time there with her mom.

“We chose Shirlington because it was our favorite place to come and shop and eat. I remembered shopping there as a child in the ’50s with my mother,” Kelly tells ARLnow. “I have always loved the small town, close neighbor feel of Shirlington and guessed correctly that it would be a community that would support our business.”

She believes what made her shop special was the community and representing small, local makers.

“I focused on makers of color, unrepresented gender, LGBTQI and immigrants,” Kelly says. “I believe we brought a new awareness to our local community through the stories of these makers and the many fundraisers and awareness-raisers we conducted over the years.”

Of course, the closure is bittersweet and she will miss talking to customers about recipes and planning big holiday meals. Most of the staff that worked at The Cookery have been hired by Le Village Marché, a vintage home decor store located just down the street in Shirlington.

For the moment, the Cookery storefront remains empty. ARLnow has reached out to Federal Realty Investment Trust, which owns the shopping center, about whether the space remains available to rent, but did not receive a response as of publication.

Kelly says the enjoyed her time in retail, despite it being a seven-day week job. She has no plans, however, to open another shop.

“Another store is not in the picture,” she says. “Honestly rents are so high… it’s difficult to make a profit.”

Hat tip to Thomas G.

Crawfish eatery Chasin’ Tails is leaving Arlington for Falls Church

By Matt Blitz
1/4

Seafood restaurant Chasin’ Tails is swimming out of Arlington and about a mile down the road to Falls Church, co-owner Au Dang confirms to ARLnow.

The decade-old restaurant that’s inspired by backyard crawfish boils is heading to Founders Row, a new development just over a mile from its current location at 2200 N. Westmoreland Street in Arlington’s East Falls Church neighborhood. The move is expected to happen possibly in June, depending on permits, with the closing and opening of the restaurants happening simultaneously.

The move was first reported by the Falls Church News-Press.

While it’s not a big move distance-wise, Dang says setting up in the new development is a good opportunity for the restaurant.

“We saw an opportunity at up and coming Founders Row,” he says. “It wasn’t anything about the current situation. It’s just an amazing spot in Falls Church.”

The development will actually be home to three restaurants from the same ownership group, Happy Endings Hospitality. Chasin’ Tails will be joined by Roll Play, which currently has a location in Tysons, and Vietnamese restaurant Nue.

All three are different concepts and will have “separate experiences,” Dang notes.

Dang and his co-owners, which includes his brother, aren’t completely leaving Arlington, though. They still own the Happy Eatery food hall in Rosslyn, which opened in late 2019 under the slightly longer and more risque name “Happy Endings Eatery.”

The last decade hasn’t come without its challenges for Louisiana-inspired Chasin’ Tails, but it’s all led to this point of expansion, Dang says.

“We had hard lessons to learn,” he says. “We’ve taken all the knowledge we’ve acclimated to make improvements in interior design and overall branding. This is the best we have to offer.”

Initial funding for Chasin’ Tails came from the $8 million Au and his brother Di won playing poker.

For longtime customers, Dang knows this may be an adjustment but anticipates they make the trip across the border and join them in Falls Church.

“We thank you so much for the support,” he says about the restaurant’s customers. “But we hope they visit us in Falls Church.”

H&R Block on Columbia Pike closed, as redevelopment of building nears

By Matt Blitz
1/3

The H&R Block on Columbia Pike has closed, even with tax season just around the corner.

The signage has been taken down from 2607 Columbia Pike and all the furniture is gone, leaving only beige carpet and scattered cords.

A company spokesperson tells ARLnow that the office is being relocated and is “working as quickly as possible to reopen,” but didn’t give a reason why the tax preparation company closed this particular location.

The closure likely has something to do with the approaching redevelopment of Fillmore Gardens Shopping Center, which housed the tax preparation company’s local storefront.

All the tenants at the shopping center, including Legend Kicks, Atilla’s Restaurant, and the Columbia Pike Partnership (CPP), received a notice to vacate by May 31 of this year, according to CPP’s deputy director Amy McWilliams.

Over the last two years, several have already moved out, including the Salsa Room in early 2020.

The plan is to replace the one-story aging structure, located just west of Penrose Square, with the Elliott, a multi-story, mixed-use building with about 250 apartments and 50,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space. There will be a renovated CVS and a grocery store, according to Urban Turf.

There are rumors that the grocery store could be an Amazon Fresh location. The shopping center is located about two miles from Amazon’s under-construction HQ2 in Pentagon City.

Developer Insight Property Group says on its website that construction on the redevelopment project is expected to begin this year. ARLnow has reached out to the company for more information about plans and the project, but has yet to hear back as of publication.

A spokesperson for the county tells ARLnow the project could kick off as early as February. That’s when the County Board will likely consider a special use permit which will allow developers to finalize engineering, building, and landscaping plans, and demolition by the fall.

“In this scenario, construction would likely conclude by early 2025 at which point the new building could begin to be occupied,” writes Erika Moore, a spokesperson for the county’s Department of Community Planning, Housing and Development.

During construction, CVS is expected to move its pharmacy services to a trailer in the existing parking lot, notes Moore. The trailer will remain open until the project’s completion, at which point CVS will relocate into the new building.

The county couldn’t comment on the status of the other tenants.

Italian market Napoli Salumeria in Pentagon City appears to be closed

By Matt Blitz
1/4

It appears that the Italian market in Pentagon City has closed.

Napoli Salumeria on S. Joyce Street at Westport (formerly Pentagon Row) opened just over a year ago, but now it has seemingly served its last focaccia.

The windows are covered with brown paper, most signage is gone, and the storefront has seemingly been cleared out.

ARLnow has reached out to ownership for confirmation and to get a reason for the apparent quick departure, but has yet to hear back as of publication.

A spokesperson for Federal Realty Investment Trust, which owns Westpost, noted the market was always intended to be a pop-up and not permanent. It’s not known yet what might replace it.

Napoli Salumeria was owned by Antonio Ferraro and served Neapolitan street food — like focaccia and fried mozzarella — as well as sandwiches, homemade sauces, pasta, Italian meats, and cheese.

Ferraro also owned Napoli Pasta Bar in D.C., which was named a Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant in 2018. That eatery closed its doors in early 2021.

While a number of businesses in Westpost have closed in recent months, including Thaiphoon, the development is preparing for a big year of openings, including Nighthawk Pizza, Banditos Bar & Kitchen, and Target.

Hat tip to CartChaos22202

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