Clarendon

Clarendon Whole Foods to Add New ‘Arlington Pub’

By ARLnow.com

The Whole Foods Market at 2700 Wilson Blvd in Clarendon is building a new “beer room” overlooking the store.

The “Arlington Pub” will be located on the second floor area of the store and will offer local draft beers, wine by the glass, bottled craft beer, growlers and an organic coffee bar in a “pub style atmosphere.” The pub will also offer “tasty nibbles” for patrons. All beer will come from a 200 mile radius.

Whole Foods is planning a grand opening celebration for the pub on Thursday, Sept. 20. The event, which is open to the public, will feature raffles, beer mug giveaways, beer and food tastings, and meet and greets with brewery representatives.

“Pull up a stool, fill up a mug and join Whole Foods Market Arlington in celebrating the official opening of Arlington Pub,” the store said in an invitation to the event.

The coffee bar will open at 8:00 a.m. daily, and the pub will remain open until 9:30 p.m.

Photo courtesy Erin Johnson

Homeless Children Raise Money for Special Olympics

By ARLnow.com

Homeless children from a shelter in Arlington will be donating more than $500 to the Special Olympics this afternoon.

The children live in Sullivan House, a shelter for homeless families in Clarendon run by the Arlington-Alexandria Coalition for the Homeless. Together with parents, volunteers, and AACH staff, thirteen children between the ages of five and 13 ran a lemonade stand outside the shelter throughout the summer. They raised just over $1,000, according to AACH Lauren Marigot Barth.

“They learned about customer service, managing money, and marketing,” Barth said. “They also did a really good job!”

The children voted to donate half of the money raised to the Special Olympics. A representative from the organization — which organizes athletic competitions for children and adults with intellectual disabilities — will be on hand at Sullivan House this afternoon to officially receive the donation.

The rest of the money will help to fund a trip to Busch Gardens.

Photos courtesy Arlington-Alexandria Coalition for the Homeless

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Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Treasurer’s Charity Mailing a ‘Win-Win’ — Arlington County Treasurer Frank O’Leary says fliers for the Animal Welfare League of Arlington and the Arlington Food Assistance Center that went out in the mail with county vehicle decals this year represent a win-win for the community. The nonprofits paid the cost of printing and the extra cost of mailing the decals with the fliers. [Sun Gazette]

Fight at RiRa Irish Pub — A fight broke out at RiRa Irish Pub (2915 Wilson Boulevard) in Clarendon around 8:15 last night. Witnesses tell ARLnow.com that two drunk patrons got in a fight inside the bar. As the fight spilled outside onto the sidewalk some passersby might have gotten involved. Numerous police officers responded to the scene and at least one of the of the fight participants was transported to the hospital. An Arlington Falls Church Young Republicans meeting was taking place inside RiRa at the time of the fight, but the group and its members were not involved, we’re told.

AHC Seeks Volunteer Tutors — AHC Inc., an Arlington-based affordable housing nonprofit, is looking for more than 100 enthusiastic, responsible volunteers to help tutor teens in the evening or to work with elementary students in the afternoon. AHC’s tutoring programs for its residents start on Monday, Sept. 17. More information about volunteering is available on the organization’s web site.

Flickr pool photo by Ddimick

Bronx Pizza to Open Next Week

By ARLnow.com

After some delays caused by permitting issues, the owners of Bronx Pizza in Clarendon are hoping to open next week.

Owner Mike Cordero tells ARLnow.com that he expects to open the pizzeria on Wednesday, Aug. 22.

Located at 3100 Clarendon Boulevard, Bronx Pizza is intended to be an Arlington version of a neighborhood pizza joint like the one Cordero started working at in the South Bronx at the age of 13. Cordero says the closest thing to Bronx Pizza in Arlington right now is the Italian Store (3123 Lee Highway). What Bronx Pizza lacks in Italian groceries, however, it makes up for in decorations — including photos on the wall of Mickey Mantle, Tony Soprano, the Rat Pack and New York City’s George Washington Bridge.

The menu at Bronx Pizza includes New York style pizza by the slice — $2.75 for a jumbo cheese slice, $2.95 for a Sicilian slice and $3.25 for a specialty jumbo slice. Whole New York style pies start at $14.95 for a large 16 inch and $17.95 for an extra-large 20 inch. Specialty options include the Whitestone Bridge pizza (Alfredo sauce, ham, broccoli, Parmesan and mozzarella), the Grand Concourse veggie pizza (fire-roasted peppers, mushrooms, spinach and broccoli), the Tremont Avenue chicken carbonara (roasted chicken breast with carbonara sauce) and the Pelham Bay Park BBQ chicken pizza (BBQ chicken with homemade BBQ sauce).

Other menu options include various types of calzones, rolls, hot 10 inch subs, cold 10 inch hoagies, and Italian pastas, as well as appetizers and desserts like boardwalk style fries, Italian fried cheese balls, fried pickles, homemade cannoli and tiramisu.

Bronx Pizza is located in a relatively small space, but includes a few tables for indoor seating.

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Man Accused of Sex Assault in Clarendon Whole Foods

By ARLnow.com

(Updated at 11:05 p.m.) A D.C. man is in jail after police say he sexually assaulted a woman in the Clarendon Whole Foods and masturbated in a police interview room.

The alleged crime took place inside the store, on the 2700 block of Wilson Boulevard, at 1:50 p.m. on Sunday. According to the police report, a female shopper had bent down to retrieve a bottle of wine when the man — 24-year-old Frank Alex Bouknight — came up behind her and placed his hand between her legs and on her genitalia. Bouknight then laughed and walked away, police say.

Bouknight fled the area in a bus, but then returned and was located by police sleeping on a public bench in front of the nearby Barnes and Noble store, four hours after the assault, according to Arlington County Police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck. Police found “hardcore pornography” magazines inside Bouknight’s backpack, Sternbeck said.

Bouknight’s alleged sexual misconduct continued when he was brought back to police headquarters.

“Once in the police interview room, the subject repeatedly masturbated,” according to the crime report.

Bouknight was charged with sexual battery. He is being held without bond.

Photo courtesy Arlington County Police Department

Local Media Stars Coming to Clarendon for ‘Junkies’ Sundress Party

By ARLnow.com

The Sports Junkies will be hosting their 5th annual Sundress Party at Clarendon Ballroom (3185 Wilson Blvd) tonight, and a number of local TV and radio personalities are expected to attend.

Doors at the Ballroom open at 5:00 p.m. and the event, which is free and open to the public, kicks off at 7:00 p.m. Ladies are encouraged to “get dressed in summer’s finest” and enter for chances to win prizes like gift cards to Victoria’s Secret, Nordstrom’s, Coach, and MAC cosmetics.

In addition to the Junkies themselves — Cakes, E.B., Lurch and J.P. — a number of local media personalities are expected to attend, including Angie Goff and Eun Yang from NBC 4; Bri Carter, Britt McHenry (pictured, with E.B.) and Jummy Olabanji from ABC 7; and Tommy McFly and Kelli Collis from Fresh 94.7 FM.

There will be a cover to enter the Ballroom after 10:00 p.m. Last year the Sundress Party was held at the Georgetown Waterfront.

The Junkies are on the air weekdays from 5:00 to 10:00 a.m. on WJFK 106.7 FM “The Fan.”

Photo courtesy CBS Radio

Italian Restaurant Concept Coming to Clarendon

By ARLnow.com

La Tagliatella, an Italian restaurant concept from Spain, is coming to the former Restaurant 3 space at 2950 Clarendon Blvd.

The restaurant chain, which has some 135 locations in Spain, France and Andorra, is expanding rapidly. AmRest, the restaurant’s European parent company, recently announced that it’s opening La Tagliatella locations in China, India, Germany and the United States. In addition to Arlington, news reports indicate another location is coming to Atlanta.

La Tagliatella is described on the restaurant’s web site as “a chain of restaurants specialising in high-quality Italian gastronomy…  from the [Northern] Italian regions of Piamonte, Liguria, and Reggio Emilia.”

From the web site:

At La Tagliatella, we explore every aspect of Italian gastronomy so as to provide the best tastes and textures directly from their origin. Our attention to such detail starts from the Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, with its own Denomination of Origin (ripened in caves for 24 months), our pizza dough, elaborated with two different kinds of grain to achieve its particular taste and consistency, to Bocconcino, our buffalo’s milk mozzarella made following the genuine traditional Italian recipe.

We have designed our menu so that our customers can fully enjoy it with loved ones. Pizzas are made in a traditional forno italiano, our carpaccio with genuine buffalo mozzarella, salads in the shape of the tower of Pisa, made with real grilled vegetables, risottos with duck maigret, truffles, and Iberian cold meat. We have more than 400 combinations of pasta and sauce, panna cotta, tiramisù and home-made ice-cream… our extensive choice, with its generous portions, is perfect to be enjoyed in the company of your loved ones. In addition, all our recipes are cooked with real extra-virgin olive oil.

The company is currently seeking to hire managers for the Clarendon restaurant. According to a help wanted ad, the prospective managers would be flown to Spain for 2-4 weeks of training.

No word yet on when La Tagliatella is hoping to open.

Bronx Pizza, A-Town Bar & Grill to Open Next Week

By ARLnow.com

Update at 2:25 p.m. on 8/17/12 — Bronx Pizza is now expected to open on Wednesday, Aug. 22.

Local restaurateur Mike Cordero is planning a culinary one-two punch next week, with official openings scheduled for two Arlington restaurants in successive days.

First up is A-Town Bar & Grill, the renovated successor to Caribbean Breeze in Ballston (4100 Fairfax Drive). Cordero says the restaurant will likely start serving customers this coming Wednesday as part of a quiet “soft opening,” but will hold its official opening on Friday, Aug. 10.

A-Town will feature an expanded beer list; an “eclectic” menu including sushi, sandwich creations, flatbread pizzas and steaks; a redone outdoor patio; a birchwood bar; historic photos of Arlington on the walls; and lots of flat screen TVs.

Cordero says former Caribbean Breeze patrons “are not going to recognize the restaurant” when they walk in. He acknowledged that he’s taking a risk by replacing the successful Caribbean Breeze, but insists “the odds are in our favor to succeed here and increase our sales.”

“One of the reasons we switched from Caribbean Breeze to A-Town is that Caribbean Breeze was more of a specialty operation,” he told ARLnow.com. “I figured we could support the locals and cater to Arlington, not just to Miami… It will be a place you could eat at every day.”

Bronx Pizza (3100 Clarendon Blvd), which has been “coming soon” to Clarendon since February 2011, will open the doors to its first customers on Saturday, Aug. 11, according to Cordero.

Cordero, who grew up in the South Bronx and started working in a mom-and-pop pizza place at the age of 13, says the opening will feature something unique to Arlington: actual Bronx pizza makers.

“Old friends of mine who have been in the pizzeria business for 20 years, they’re going to come down and help [with the opening],” he said. “The reason we call it Bronx Pizza is I am from the Bronx, two blocks from Yankee stadium.”

In addition to bona fide Bronx natives, the shop will feature plenty of other touches from the northernmost New York City borough, including photos of the Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth, Michael Corleone (from the filming of The Godfather), and the George Washington Bridge.

Cordero is expecting late night food to be a big component of the shop’s business.

“It will be a big bang,” he said of the planned Saturday opening, “considering all those bars and clubs are going to get out at 2:00 a.m. and we’ll be open until 4:00 a.m.”

Interior construction on both restaurants is expected to wrap up by Monday.

Flickr pool photo (top) by Maryva2

Kaine Tours GridPoint in Clarendon

By Aaron Kraut

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate and former Virginia governor Tim Kaine spoke about his economic development record during a Thursday afternoon campaign stop at Clarendon-based clean energy company GridPoint, Inc.

The company sells efficiency-monitoring software to electrical utilities, government agencies and private corporations. According to CEO John Spirtos, it employs about 100 people between its corporate headquarters (2801 Clarendon Boulevard) and its manufacturing facility in Roanoke.

In a statement, Kaine touted GridPoint as an industry leader in energy efficiency solutions.

“GridPoint’s innovative energy management systems are saving companies up to a fifth of their total energy costs per month,” Kaine said. “These are dollars that can be invested back into the business to expand and hire new workers. Their advancements in energy efficiency and conservation technology are absolutely essential to ensuring our businesses can compete in an increasingly competitive global economy.”

Kaine also touted his own record of helping to bring GridPoint to Arlington. In 2007, Kaine approved a $500,000-incentive package from the Governor’s Opportunity Fund to entice GridPoint to move its headquarters to Arlington from Washington, D.C.

“My economic development team played a big part in bringing GridPoint’s headquarters here. We considered it a big victory because of the kind of business that it has and the kind of talent that it has,” Kaine told a roomful of GridPoint employees on Thursday. “Where we really have thrived is we just try to bring the best talent here. If you win the talent race, you win the economic race.”

Kaine toured part of the company’s 30,000-square-foot space at the corner of Clarendon Boulevard and N. Edgewood Street with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Spirtos to highlight his “Strengthening Our Economy Through Energy Innovation” plan.

“Oregon and Virginia are really kind of innovation economies and we know that today we aren’t just competing against people sort of 20 miles down the road, or in my case, California or Seattle. But we are competing against the Chinese. We are competing against the Indians,” Wyden said. “The governor is proven in terms of some of the energy investments he’s been able to invest in and make.”

Professional and technical services accounted for a fifth of Arlington County’s jobs, according to the county’s annual profile. Spirtos said that local base of highly-trained workers is one reason why GridPoint fits among Clarendon’s high-end retail shops and restaurants.

“D.C. is a great place to be but it’s a tough place to get [computer] developers to go to work. We needed access to the talent. There’s a lot of folks who won’t cross the river to go into D.C. There’s a lot of folks who won’t cross the river to go into Maryland,” Spirtos said. “And in this location, we have the Apple Store and the Whole Foods and the whole thing and that’s great. This is a great neighborhood. It’s an ideal neighborhood.”

It was revealed this week that Gridpoint has received another $23 million in venture capital funding, bringing its total funding to $263 million, according to GigaOm. In addition to its Virginia locations, Gridpoint has offices in Austin, Texas; Ottawa, Ontario; and Seattle, Washington.

 

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Close Call at Reagan National — Three commuter jets nearly collided at Reagan National Airport on Tuesday afternoon due to a communications failure among air traffic control personnel. The planes were about 12 seconds away from a collision when a tower controller corrected her mistake. [Washington Post]

Ebbin Endorses Krupicka — State Sen. Adam Ebbin (D) has endorsed Alexandria Councilman Rob Krupicka (D) in the Sept. 4 special election to fill Del. David Englin’s former 45th District House of Delegates Seat. “[Krupicka] has been a steadfast ally in the fight for true equality, world-class education system, a cleaner environment, smart transportation solutions, and innovative policies that keep our economy strong,” Ebbin said.

Kaine to Visit Arlington Business Today — Democratic U.S. Senate candidate and former Virginia governor Tim Kaine will be visiting Clarendon-based business GridPoint this afternoon. Kaine, who will be joined by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), will highlight his “Strengthening Our Economy Through Energy Innovation” plan.

Extreme Weather on the Rise in Va.? — Extreme downpours and snowstorms are happening 33 percent more frequently in Virginia compared to 65 years ago, according to a new report by Environment Virginia. The group says the finding supports the idea that global warming is changing weather patterns. “We need to heed scientists’ warnings that this dangerous trend is linked to global warming, and do everything we can to cut carbon pollution today,” said Environment Virginia Field Organizer Laura Kate Anderson. [Environment Virginia]

Then and Now: Virginia Hardware in Rosslyn

By Katie Pyzyk

(Updated at 3:10 p.m.) The photo on the left is of Virginia Hardware at 2016 N. Moore Street, in the 1930s. The store opened at this location in 1924, when Rosslyn Circle still existed. For years, it was run by Harry Goldman, until the business was eventually passed down to his son.

The photo on the right shows what that part of Rosslyn looks like now. It’s the area that is now Rosslyn Gateway Park, across the street from where the new Rosslyn Gateway development is set to go in.

In 1963, Virginia Hardware moved from Rosslyn to 2915 Wilson Blvd in Clarendon, where it remained for decades. Goldman’s family ended up selling the business to long-time employee Rick Iglesias in 1998.

Virginia Hardware closed its doors for good in 2005. Iglesias said a variety of factors, including the high cost of running a small business, forced him to shut down. The Clarendon site is now home to Ri Ra.

Historic photo courtesy Arlington Public Library’s Virginia Room

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