cafe

A new Korean coffee shop is drawing long lines in Ballston

By James Jarvis
1/4

A Korea-based coffee chain quietly opened its first permanent U.S. outpost in the Ballston neighborhood last month, drawing long lines and rave reviews.

Gute Leute Coffee Bar, located at 800 N. Glebe Road next to Mussel Bar & Grille, held its soft opening on Saturday, Dec. 23.

Although Gute Leute translates to “good people” in German, the coffee chain was conceived in Seoul, South Korea.

The cafe’s menu offers a variety of teas and coffee drinks, including espressos and lattes. A unique highlight is a weekend-only, three-course tasting event, available only with a reservation.

Dubbed the “Omakase” coffee experience, which translates to ‘I leave it up to you’ in Japanese, customers who book online can savor a variety of seasonal espresso drinks, including the Pine Cone, served in a sour sugar-rimmed glass, the Granita with lemon sorbet, and the Gute Leute, a blend of cream and cookies over a butterscotch base.

Sang Moon, a Fairfax resident and co-owner of Gute Leute, told ARLnow he was one of the original investors of the coffee chain back when it first opened in Seoul in 2021. Five Gute Leute stores are currently operating in Seoul, according to Sang.

After working with company’s corporate headquarters for years, Sang said he approached the CEO about bringing the concept to the U.S.

“It was a little bit unique,” he said. “We have nothing similar here.”

At the behest of the company’s CEO, Sang and his business partner, Sean Moon, conducted multiple market tests — pop-up cafes — in New York City last year.

“It was very successful,” Sang said.

Having successfully demonstrated the viability of the concept in the U.S. market, Sang was given the green light by the Gute Leute CEO to open his own franchise in Arlington.

It appears to have been a good decision so far: over the weekend the cafe’s Instagram account warned of 20-45 minute waits for coffee due to a “surge of customers.” That’s despite opening with little fanfare during the holidays, on the “quiet” western side of Glebe Road, where businesses have struggled in the past.

Despite complaints about the wait, online reviews have raved about “some of the best coffee” in the D.C. area.

While Gute Leute currently only offers coffee, Sang says the plan is to add pastries to the menu soon.

“Right now, we’re trying to focus on quality and service,” he said. “But we plan to offer croissants, breakfast sandwiches and pastries.”

Before Gute Leute, Sang operated the Korean fried chicken restaurant Noori Chicken in Annandale, which closed last week. He also co-owns the quick-serve Courthouse restaurant Bibimix with Sean, who himself owns the Korean bakery Paris Baguette in Fairfax.

Gute Leute joins a growing list of coffee options in the Ballston area, including the upcoming Roggenart Bistro & Café, the outdoor stand Ballstonian, and Slipstream, near the intersection of Wilson Blvd and Glebe Road.

Hat tip to John Peck

NEW: The Freshman has closed in Crystal City

By ARLnow.com
1/4

Crystal City hangout The Freshman has permanently closed its doors.

The all-day cafe/bar/restaurant just announced on social media that it has closed, just under three years after opening in the spring of 2021, in the midst of the pandemic.

Owner and namesake Nick Freshman, in announcing the closing today, noted the lengthy delay in opening caused by Covid-19.

I am sad to announce that The Freshman has served its last espresso; we are permanently closed. I want to thank my staff for their tireless dedication, my investors for their unwavering support, my landlord JBG SMITH for their steadfast partnership, and lastly our loyal customers who made it a joy to be open every day.

When I began planning The Freshman in 2018 the landscape was very different. As the world changed, our team adjusted, pivoted, iterated, and endured. Now, with significant construction in our building on the way, it is time to move on. The good news is that Mothersauce Partners is growing, and you can look for our fingerprints on a number of exciting new projects; projects that are also new homes for many of the staff at The Freshman.

We hope to see all of you soon at our newest project in Rosslyn opening in Winter 2024!

Freshman’s Mothersauce Partners is revamping The Assembly food hall near the Rosslyn Metro station, the Washington Business Journal reported last month.

American Real Estate Partners has tapped Mothersauce Partners, the hospitality company behind The Eleanor, Thompson Italian and City-State Brewing Co., to oversee the roughly 27,000-square-foot space at Rosslyn City Center. AREP owns the building, 1700 N. Moore St., and opened the food hall in 2021.

Mothersauce hopes to freshen up the design, branding and concept curation at the food hall. Details are still being worked through, and AREP and Mothersauce said it is premature to reveal more details of the partnership ahead of a more formal launch in the new year. […]

The change comes more than three years after AREP tapped another firm to establish a food hall from inside what was then known as Rosslyn Metro Center, a 40-year-old mall that’s since gotten a major makeover.

The Freshman was one of the first restaurants to announce an opening in Crystal City, following the announcement of Amazon’s HQ2, the main office complex of which opened in nearby Pentagon City this past summer. Leased Amazon offices remain open in Crystal City.

New Panera to open in Ballston this week and its first customers will get free meals for a year

By James Jarvis
1/3

(Updated at 4:05 p.m.) Like a phoenix rising from the ashes — or a Barnes & Noble returning to Georgetown — Panera Bread is making its triumphant return to Ballston.

The fast-casual bakery-cafe chain announced today that it is gearing up for a grand opening this Thursday (Dec. 21) near the Ballston Metro station, at the corner of N. Stuart Street and Fairfax Drive.

(This morning, the company said it would be opening on Thursday. Earlier afternoon, it said the opening date was bumped back a day, to Friday. An hour later, the company said the original date was correct.)

To celebrate the grand opening, Panera is offering a special promotion in which the first 50 customers will receive free meals for a year, per a press release.

The promotional offer — redeemable for up to one free “You Pick Two” meal per month for 12 months — will only be available this Thursday and Friday. Recipients must have a MyPanera account to participate. The free food offer will then run from Christmas Day next week until Dec. 25, 2024.

Between 6-10 a.m., guests can also spin a prize wheel for a chance to win other items such as, free tumblers, cookies and bagels.

The new Panera, at 4250 Fairfax Drive, will take over the space formerly occupied by Cosi, which shut its doors in late 2019 after the company filed for bankruptcy. Cosi, a chain known for its flatbreads, sandwiches, soups, and salads, also closed its other Arlington locations in Rosslyn, Courthouse, Virginia Square and Crystal City.

Panera used to have a location in the old Ballston Common Mall, which closed in 2016 before the mall’s transformation into Ballston Quarter.

Currently, Arlington is home to one other Panera, in Rosslyn.

“We are thrilled to be opening a new Panera in Arlington,” a company representative said in the press release. “We are excited to grow our presence in this wonderful community and look forward to delivering the great tasting food and impeccable service our Virginia guests have come to expect from Panera.”

Upscale market and café Foxtrot coming to Ballston

By James Jarvis
Foxtrot “opening soon” sign in Ballston (staff photo by James Jarvis)

Upscale market and café Foxtrot plans to open a new location in Ballston.

“Opening soon” signs are up in the space previously occupied by the fast-casual chicken sandwich shop Farmbird, which closed in 2022.

Foxtrot — which advertises itself as a high-end corner store, market and café with a swift delivery service — has expanded into Virginia over the last two years with locations in Old Town Alexandria and Rosslyn.

The Ballston outpost would be the Chicago-based company’s third in Virginia and ninth location in the D.C. area. In all, the company operates 23 stores across the U.S.

Foxtrot did not respond to a request for more details before publication.

The boutique market joins a handful of other coffee shops, stores and restaurants that have announced openings in the Ballston neighborhood this year, including Greenheart Juice Shop, Panera Bread and Roggenart Bistro & Café.

New European-inspired bakery and cafe ‘coming soon’ to Ballston

By James Jarvis
‘Coming Soon’ signs in the windows of Roggenart Bistro and Café, set to take over the space previously occupied by Republik Coffee Bar (staff photo by James Jarvis)

Maryland-based bakery and coffee retailer Roggenart Bistro & Café is set to make its Arlington debut in Ballston.

It is moving into the previous home of Republik Coffee Bar, at 4401 Wilson Blvd, next to restaurants Big Buns Damn Good Burgers and Nando’s PERi-PERi. Republik and its Tysons counterpart permanently closed earlier this year.

Details about Roggenart’s opening remain sparse but the company, which operates four locations in Maryland, filed a permit with Arlington County on Thursday to start work on the space

The café’s owners did not respond to ARLnow’s request for additional information. Roggenart has existing locations in Columbia, Ellicott City, Savage, and Towson, Md.

The menu for the European-style café and bistro includes a range of breakfast and lunch items, including eggs benedict to a cast-iron grilled reuben. The establishment also offers baked goods such as croissants and danishes and espresso-based drinks.

Roggenart joins a growing list of coffee options in the Ballston area, including newcomers like the outdoor stand Ballstonian and, just across Wilson Blvd from the future café, Slipstream.

Hat tip to Jeff Keith

Panera Bread looks to replace former Cosi in Ballston after three-year vacancy

By Jo DeVoe
1/2

A Panera Bread appears to be moving into the old Cosi location in Ballston, according to online permit records.

The permit, filed with Arlington County, describes the work as “interior alterations for new tenant fitout for restaurant Panera Bread.”

The restaurant will take up 3,426 square feet of space at the former Cosi outpost at the base of an office building at 4250 N. Fairfax Drive, near the Ballston Metro station.

A call and an email to Panera Bread were not returned before deadline.

Despite multiple locations within close proximity in D.C., Arlington is home to only one Panera outpost, in Rosslyn. Others ring around the county in Falls Church, Bailey’s Crossroads and Alexandria.

Cosi, the fast-casual restaurant chain built on flatbread sandwiches, closed up shop in Ballston in December 2019. Its locations in Crystal City and Virginia Square followed suit in early January of 2020.

The closures occured as the company filed for bankruptcy protection. A Rosslyn location continued operating as the sole D.C. area outpost on this side of the Potomac River until closing in early 2021.

Hat tip to Leslie K.

Mah-Ze-Dahr in Crystal City goes beyond baked goods with all-day fare

By Hallie LeTendre
1/4

(Updated at 2:20 p.m.) Fans of the New York-based bakery Mah-Ze-Dahr can now enjoy breakfast, lunch and dinner daily at its offshoot in Crystal City.

The restaurant at 1550 Crystal Drive broadened its menu offerings this past Thursday — two years after opening with a more limited menu of pastries, baked goods and coffee drinks.

The Crystal City outpost was initially supposed to serve breakfast through dinner, though those plans were derailed by Covid, co-owner Michael Reginbogin told ARLnow.

Since the bakery opened a year into the pandemic, when most workers were still remote, he and his partners chose to stick to baked goods — including donuts some say are New York City’s best and Oprah-endorsed pastries.

“We scaled the menu to a bakery only because the guests just would not have been there enough to enjoy them,” Reginbogin said.

Thankfully, he said, the café survived Covid and, with the expansion, can cash in on the return to in-person work and the recent opening of the first phase of its Arlington HQ2.

“We’re moving in the right direction,” he said.

Mah-Ze-Dahr, rechristened Mah-Ze-Dahr Café, now serves bread pudding french toast, salads, sandwiches, quiches, steak frites and more, all day long.

Reginbogin said Mah-Ze-Dahr Café had a successful (re)opening day last week.

“Everything has been going well. We have already sold out of a few items. The demand is definitely there,” Reginbogin said. “The all-day flexibility of the new menu seems to be hitting a homerun with locals and office workers returning to the area.”

No changes to the space were necessary beyond hiring more staff to serve more customers, Reginbogin said.

Across the river in D.C., Mah-Ze-Dahr has a bakery and a bistro called Bistro Du Jour, according to its website.

Huge ‘athletic country club,’ spa, cafe and coworking space sets opening date in Clarendon

By ARLnow.com
1/4

(Updated at 11 a.m.) An athletic club and coworking space totalling more than 100,000 square feet says it will be opening this summer in Clarendon.

Construction on Life Time at 1440 N. Edgewood Street has been underway for some time, following the August 2021 announcement that it was coming to a renovated office building that’s part of The Crossing Clarendon retail center.

Billing itself as an “athletic country club,” Life Time will have high-end fitness facilities including multiple studios, childcare facilities, a salon and spa, a cafe and lounge, and — rounding it out — a 28,000 square foot coworking space.

A preview center for the club is now open, Life Time says, and an opening is expected mid-summer. A press release announcing the opening is below.

Life Time (NYSE: LTH), will open its athletic country club and debut Life Time Work, the first D.C. metro area destination and coworking development, later this summer in Clarendon. A preview center, at 1440 North Edgewood Street, Arlington, is now open for prospective members to learn more about both Life Time and Life Time Work and be among the first to join the development.

The Life Time addition will be a main anchor for Regency Center’s The Crossing Clarendon, a multi-block stretch of mixed-used development with shops, restaurants and offices.

The Crossing was selected because of the vibrant neighborhood, ideal for the more than 113,000 square-foot, four-story Life Time destination featuring an 85,000 square-foot athletic country club and 28,000 square-foot premium coworking space.

“Arlington is regarded as a healthy, vibrant and growing community, and The Crossing Clarendon is consistently voted “Best of Arlington” by Arlington Magazine, making it a terrific location for Life Time and our offerings,” said Jeff Zwiefel, Life Time executive vice president and chief operating officer. “We are excited to debut Life Time here with our athletic country club and our premium workspace, which will provide our members with first-class healthy and wellness experiences for themselves and their families.”

Designed for individuals and companies, Life Time Work will feature highly functional private offices, open-plan workspaces, conference rooms, along with multiple, amenities, flexible monthly memberships and access to every Life Time athletic country club nationwide.

The breadth of programs, services and amenities at Life Time Clarendon athletic country club will include:

  • Six dedicated studios hosting more than 100 weekly Life Time Large Group Classes in barre, cycle, group fitness, Pilates and yoga, with additional spaces for Signature Small Group Training programs Alpha, GTX and Ultra Fit.
  • Personal Trainers to lead members through highly personalized sessions across the spacious, state-of-the-art workout floor featuring top-of-the-line cardiovascular and strength training equipment.
  • LT Recovery for athletic performance and recovery featuring metabolic assessments, nutrition coaching, sports and athletic recovery treatments and chiropractic care.
  • [A PR rep tells ARLnow that these items, an outdoor beach club and a basketball court, we’re included erroneously.]
  • Kids Academy with infant and toddler areas and three studios for programming, including a Kids Gym, an activity/movement studio and an art/language studio for children up to age 11.
  • LifeSpa salon and spa services, including hair, nail, esthetician and massage services.
  • LifeCafe and Life Time Lounge with a full-service, fast casual menu featuring wholesome food from protein shakes and smoothies to salad, sandwiches and bowls, and children’s meals.
  • ARORA classes, programs and community for older adults who want to stay healthy and social.

Gallery Market & Cafe on N. Oak Street in Rosslyn seems closed

By Matt Blitz
1/5

A well-regarded corner market in Rosslyn appears to be closed.

When ARLnow stopped by Gallery Market & Cafe at 1800 N. Oak Street earlier this week, the lights were off, chairs were stacked, and the majority of the equipment was cleared out. The phone number is disconnected as well.

It’s not immediately clear when the convenience store, deli, and dry cleaner might have closed at the corner of N. Oak Street and Key Blvd, though a tipster said it happened at the beginning of the year.

ARLnow has reached out to both the property owner and business owner but we have yet to hear back definitive word about the status of the market as of publication.

There are other Gallery Markets & Cafes in Rockville and in D.C., but they are not associated with the Rosslyn location per an employee at the Rockville store.

The small business had been open for more than a decade at least, per Yelp reviews, most of which have been positive.

“Amazing sandwiches and the nicest owners. Love coming here to support local,” reads one from this past March. “Staff is always courteous about making substitutions (: try the club combo!”

Elsewhere in Rosslyn, a newer, higher end twist on the traditional corner market opened earlier this month nearby. Foxtrot, which describes itself as a “boutique” market, cafe, and convenience store, opened its doors at 1771 N. Pierce Street. It’s about a two-block walk from Gallery Market & Cafe.

Hat tip to Matt Sinisca

La Cocina VA rebrands as ‘Kitchen of Purpose’ as mission expands

By Jo DeVoe
The Kitchen of Purpose café at 918 S. Lincoln Street along Columbia Pike (courtesy photo)

Changes are happening within the Columbia Pike-based nonprofit La Cocina VA.

Since its inception in 2014, the nonprofit has provided culinary job training to Spanish-speaking immigrants and donated the meals made by trainees to people in low-income housing and shelters.

Over time, it widened its focus to help immigrants, refugees and unhoused people from all backgrounds. Founder Paty Funegra tells ARLnow the nonprofit was renamed Kitchen of Purpose last month to recognize that shift formally. She also gave a heads-up of some other changes slated for the new year.

Kitchen of Purpose will be putting an $80,000 grant from longtime supporter Bank of America to use to address food insecurity and support workforce development. Meanwhile, the nonprofit will be updating the menu and adding outdoor seating to the café it operates out of its facility at 918 S. Lincoln Street in a bid to attract new customers. Kitchen of Purpose moved into the facility in 2020.

Funegra says the name change was a years-long process that wrapped up last month.

“It didn’t take too long until we had applicants to our program from other ethnicities, immigrants from other places, Americans who speak good English who were interested in food service as career opportunities,” she said.

While La Cocina VA began offering classes in English by 2018, “we were always labeled as ‘La Cocina only serves the Hispanic community,'” Funegra said.

She says many of Asian, Middle Eastern and Eastern European descent — mostly women — have applied to Kitchen of Purpose’s small business incubator program.

“They already utilize food as not only a way of gathering families, but creating something,” she said.

Bank of America’s $80,000 grant will increase the number of meals Kitchen of Purpose can provide to people in affordable housing and homeless shelters, to senior residents and public schools children during the summer. A portion will support the nonprofit’s workforce development program that helps unemployed people get jobs and training in food service and hospitality.

“It definitely is a large contribution,” she said. “We project this is around 10,000 meals that we can provide our clients, using part of this grant.”

With the new name comes a “relaunch” of the café on S. Lincoln Street, which doubles as an incubator for other restaurants, including RAMMY-nominated fried chicken spot Queen Mother’s.

Starting in February, customers can order from the new food menu, with international flavors, Sunday brunch, plus beer, wine and cocktails. The interior will be redesigned and, by the spring, there should be outdoor seating.

“We want to bring more attention to the café,” Funegra said. “Like any other establishment, we’re surviving the pandemic… Some people know about us, but we want to come out with a new look, new name and new personnel to bring clients and raise awareness about us.”

It’s a far cry from where she started: a 167-square-foot kitchen in a church basement. To help small business owners make similar kinds of moves, she says in the near future she wants to provide microloans. That way, they can start building credit and eventually qualify for bigger loans.

“They have the talent, knowledge and passion, but because of their condition, they face barriers to obtain a small seed capital loan,” she said. “We’re exploring opportunities to create a fund that would allow us to inject capital — $5,000 to $10,000 loans — to these entrepreneurs so they can start generating business.”

New cafe hoping to open this summer on Crystal City’s restaurant row

By Matt Blitz
1/4

A new cafe and lounge is hoping to open in Crystal City within the next couple of months, the owner tells ARLnow.

Crush Cafe at 546 23rd Street S. comes from Yoseph Abegaz, who owns Flirt Lounge next door. It’s filling a space that was once occupied by a dry cleaners and shoe repair shop. The location was first rented last June and a building permit to alter the interior was first applied for in September.

The new cafe is set to serve coffee, Abegaz tells ARLnow, as well as beer, wine, and mixed alcoholic beverages.

Abegaz described the new cafe as essentially an “expansion” of Flirt Lounge, a hookah bar and lounge that opened in 2016. He declined to give an exact timeframe about when his newest venture may open, only that they are still in the midst of licensing and permits.

It will be at least a “couple of months” before Crush Cafe can open, Abegaz said.

That strip of 23rd Street S. is known as “restaurant row.” With Amazon HQ2 moving in down the road and extensive development happening in the neighborhood, there remains some questions of the aging, low-slung retail strip’s long term viability.

Nonetheless, much like Crush Cafe, new eateries continue to set their sights there.

Beauty Champagne & Sugar Boutique just started serving bubbly earlier this month at the corner of 23rd Street S. and Fern Street. A halal restaurant franchise is hoping to open a new concept by the end of the year on S. Eads Street, just around the corner from Crush Cafe’s new home. A half block down, a Korean rice dog eatery was planning for an early 2022 opening but that appears to be delayed, with the restaurant’s website still not accepting orders.

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