coffee

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

Van Leeuwen ice cream shop and Tatte café among six new businesses looking to open in Crystal City

By James Jarvis
1/4

Six new businesses, including the popular chains Tatte Bakery & Cafe and Van Leeuwen, are setting up shop in Crystal City.

Promotional signs for the new shops are visible in the ground-floor windows of one of the two 300-foot residential towers at 1900 Crystal City Drive. Approved in 2020 and under construction by 2021, the towers — set to open early next year — will house 811 residential units and nearly 40,000 square feet of retail space.

The complete lineup includes a trio of D.C.-based businesses — Chinese-French fusion restaurant Bar Chinois, Cuban café and bar Colada Shop and a nail salon called nailsaloon — plus New York City-based botox spa Peachy, which recently opened its second location in D.C.

Tatte, Van Leeuwen and Colada Shop have filed permits to operate along the pedestrian walkway behind the north tower — known as The Grace — at 269 19th Court S., according to county permit records.

JBG Smith, the predominant property owner in Crystal City and Pentagon City, declined to comment.

Boston-based bakery Tatte, known for its coffee, sandwiches and pastries, operates 11 locations in the D.C. area, including one at Clarendon Crossing, which opened in 2021.

Van Leeuwen, an ice cream chain headquartered in New York, currently operates three outlets in D.C. and plans to launch a fourth at Union Station. The Arlington outpost would be the brand’s first in Virginia.

Colada Shop operates six locations in the D.C. area and, as part of its Arlington expansion, plans to open a new location in Clarendon.

Hat tip to Matt Miller

Rappahannock Coffee to close this month as another café prepares to move in

By James Jarvis
Rappahannock Coffee along Columbia Pike (staff photo by James Jarvis)

Rappahannock Coffee is set to close at the end of November, making way for a new café with a different name.

Located at 2406 Columbia Pike, the independent coffee shop first opened in May 2001, according to its website. Owner Gi Lee said that after two decades of brewing coffee, he is ready to retire.

“I’m too old,” Lee told ARLnow as he served a line of caffeine-deprived customers Tuesday morning.

While ARLnow could not confirm the exact last day of operation, Lee’s landlord, Yao Yao, said it would likely be in the final week of November.

The same week Rappahannock Coffee closes its doors, a new café plans to open under a different name, according to Yao.

“He’s gonna sell coffee and sandwiches… his plan is to start his business here as soon as possible,” Yao said.

Jose Lopez, the owner of the upcoming café, did not respond to requests for comment before our publication deadline.

A handful of other retail stores along Columbia Pike surround Rappahannock Coffee, including vape shop Thicker Cloudz and electronic repair shop Wireless Rxx.

At one point, the commercial strip that houses the businesses was slated to become a mixed-use development. Local developer B.M. Smith submitted plans to Arlington’s Historic Affairs and Landmark Review Board in 2013 and in 2020 the County Board approved a special use permit.

B.M. Smith sold the properties to Yao in 2020, he said. The new owner put the plans on hold in 2022, citing economic conditions.

Yao maintains that he has no plans to revive the mixed-use development proposal any time soon, citing high interest and construction costs.

“The business environment and the economy are not very conducive for to the new development at this time,” he said.

The new café will operate in the interim and will have big shoes to fill. Over its nearly two decades in business, Rappahannock Coffee built a loyal following that has kept it afloat despite competition from the Starbucks that opened in the Penrose Square development across the street in 2015.

For Rappahannock, its following comes down to its in-house roasts.

“Big corporate coffee shops can’t control the time between roasting and brewing, giving up on achieving true coffee flavor,” the website reads.

Super Garden Market in Virginia Square returns under different owner and concept

By James Jarvis
1/4

A new deli and coffee shop has opened in Virginia Square and it is hoping that Arlington mid-century nostalgia will bring in customers.

Super Garden Market has opened at 3444 Fairfax Drive, in the former Coffee Beanery location that closed earlier this year.

The new name references the original Super Garden Market and Deli — which operated in the same location for 47 years, before closing over three decades ago. Although the new coffee shop shares the same name as its predecessor, Asefaw Redai Sultan, the shop’s owner, clarified there’s “no relation” between the two.

“We are renewing the name,” Sultan said. “Everyone remembers the older name… we hope they’ll come back.”

Unlike the original grocery store and deli, Super Garden Market sells breakfast sandwiches, salads, smoothies, pastries and coffee.

Eventually, Sultan plans to expand the menu to include lunch items and is waiting for the state to greenlight a liquor license to sell beer and wine.

Sultan, a resident of Arlington for two decades, acquired Coffee Beanery from a friend he said was eager to leave the coffee industry. He filed for a new business license with the state this past June, according to the State Corporation Commission website.

Sultan says he began refurbishing the space in July. Super Garden Market held its grand opening this past Sunday.

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

Clarendon’s Bar Ivy now open ‘morning, noon and night’ with new breakfast options

By James Jarvis
1/6

In honor of its new breakfast menu, Clarendon eatery Bar Ivy is offering free coffee this week to customers who buy their new bagel sandwiches.

The RAMMY-nominated restaurant, which opened last year, announced Tuesday that its doors will now open at 7:30 a.m. from Tuesday through Saturday, with a new menu of bagel sandwiches and specialty coffee drinks.

From open until 3 p.m., patrons can grab sandwiches such as a maple shoyu pork belly bagel with Gruyere cheese and an over-easy egg or a cured salmon bagel with miso scallion cream cheese and an heirloom tomato, per a press release.

Customers can wash these bagels down with new specialty espresso drinks as well as iced chai and matcha lattes. They can take their breakfast order to-go or eat it inside, taking advantage of free Wi-Fi to get some work done.

Lunchtime service at the “West Coast-inspired eatery,” previously limited to Thursday through Saturday, was also extended to include Tuesday and Wednesday, running 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The menu includes a rotating soup of the day, sandwiches and burgers.

Bar Ivy opened in the summer of 2022 on more limited schedule, open for happy hour and dinner on Tuesday-Wednesday and lunch through dinner Thursday-Saturday.

It is not changing its closing hours Tuesday through Saturday, which range between 9:30-11:30 p.m. Nor will it change its 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday schedule, for now.

A spokesperson for Bar Ivy told ARLnow the restaurant is considering longer hours Sunday evening, though no final plans have been confirmed.

Happy hour, which includes $5 “shorty” beers and $11 espresso martinis, now runs all day from open until 6 p.m.

NEW: At long last, Astro Beer Hall to open in Shirlington next Tuesday

By Jo DeVoe
1/6

(Updated at 3:10 p.m. on 9/15/23) The long-anticipated Astro Beer Hall will open next week in Shirlington, serving decadent donuts by day and “astronomic” sandwiches and apps late into the night.

Ahead of the Tuesday opening, owners Elliot Spaisman and Peter Bayne are running around, making finishing touches on the 14,000-square-foot, galactic-themed space, while the team trains and awaits deliveries.

“We’ve got a lot going on over here,” Spaisman tells ARLnow.

The Village at Shirlington location is the second for the hall, which debuted in D.C. in 2019. The owners are bringing over some famed foods — including fried chicken sandwiches made with savory doughnuts — and debuting new bites. There will also be arcade games and, eventually, billiards.

The beer hall, with a sprawling 140-seat patio and adjacent coffee shop, took over the old Capitol City Brewing Co. space at 4001 Campbell Avenue, which closed five years ago. The Tuesday opening caps off two years of work in the midst of Covid and supply chain and permitting issues, the co-owners say.

The owners say they’re more than ready to open their doors.

“There’s a million pounds off my shoulders. It’s been such a whirlwind and a beast to get this thing open,” Bayne said. “It was so frustrating along the way, so to get to this moment where we can have a beautiful spot we can open up, feels so good.”

He and Spaisman opened the first Astro Beer Hall location all of four months before Covid lockdowns. While the location is faring well now, Bayne said the downtown D.C. scene is still stifled post-pandemic and he is excited to come to Arlington, which he says is “where it’s at.”

“This is nice because it’s a dense residential area in Shirlington with commercial and offices, a nightlife strip, and a ton of great options around us,” Bayne said. “It’s a hub people want to go to on a Friday or Saturday. It’s a little bit of something for everyone.”

That seems to be the plan with Astro Beer Hall, too.

There will be a coffee shop open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., serving baked goods, compliments of a doughnut-frying robot, and Compass Coffee beverages.

Over in the beer hall, patrons can watch sports from what Spaisman says is “a massive amount of TVs.” They can play classic arcade games such as skee ball and Ms. Pacman and, in the coming months, billiards in the basement.

Once it is beer o’clock — as early as 11 a.m. on the weekends but 4 p.m. on Mondays — the hall will start serving snacks, sandwiches and salads for lunch, happy hour and dinner.

(more…)

A tricycle-based Turkish coffee purveyor has set up shop in Ballston

By Matt Blitz
1/3

(Updated on 7/25/23) A tricycle serving Turkish coffee has started serving in Ballston.

The three-wheeled coffee contraption is from long-time restaurant veteran and local author Isa Seyran, who told ARLnow late last year he was working on a new concept that would come after leaving his server job at The Salt Line.

This mobile, custom-designed red tricycle offering Turkish coffee and baklava is that new business. It has been parking along the 4000 block of Wilson Blvd after opening earlier this month.

Seyran named the small coffee stand “Ballstonian,” in homage to the neighborhood in which he has lived for over two decades.

The coffee tricycle is currently open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. (or until supplies last) seven days a week.

“I was a waiter for 23 years and worked with some of the greatest chefs in our region. Some of the food I served, like [at] Rasika and Zaytinya, was simply divine, but it was never my thing,” Seyran told ARLnow about why he decided to open a Turkish coffee spot in Ballston.

“So I decided to sing my own song at my own humble stage and wanted to bring a piece of Anatolia, Medietterrenea and Mesopotamia, a cradle of civilization where I spent the first half of my life, to Ballston, where I spent the second half of my life.”

Besides coffee and baklava, Ballstonian also serves cheese pastries and masala chai from a recipe Seyran learned while working at D.C.’s famed Indian restaurant Rasika.

The Ballston resident worked at some of the region’s most popular and renowned restaurants, including ​​Zaytinya, Bombay Club, and Fiola Mare in D.C., before ending his tenure at The Salt Line in Ballston.

Beyond those jobs, Seyran is also an author, playwright, and filmmaker often producing art based on his experiences as a waiter in the D.C.-area. And, now, he’s added entrepreneur to that list.

He told ARLnow that the first few days have gone well so far and he’s been “humbled by the overwhelming support and love Ballstonian received from my fellow Ballstonians.”

But Seyran is not particularly surprised by the reception, noting that no other Ballston business is selling Turkish coffee.

“At The Salt Line… I got to know my client base, their spending habits, who they are and what they want,” Seyran said. “Having done my market research, I knew people were hungry for something different.”

His ambitions go beyond a coffee stand. The hope is one day to set up an “urban oasis” in Ballston with a tent, cushions, coffee, and books where “members of the community could take a breather from the bustling urban landscape around them.”

He also would love to do coffee ground fortune tellings, like he did while working at Zaytinya, and introduce “Bark-lava,” which would be “a bone-shaped, dog-friendly baklava.”

But, for now, all of that will have to wait, including the coffee ground fortune telling.

“That requires time and space to seat people so that I could serve the coffee in a ceramic cup as opposed to a paper cup,” Seyran said. “[A] food truck parked on the side of the road is not suitable for that ancient tradition but I hope to do that in the near future.”

A new Starbucks has opened in Ballston

By Matt Blitz
1/3

There’s now a new spot to get a Caramel Ribbon Crunch Frappuccino in Ballston.

The new Starbucks at 4000 Wilson Blvd held its grand opening this morning (Monday). It’s located in the ground floor retail space of the View Apartments, in the former home of Lebanese Taverna’s quick-service concept LebTav, which closed earlier this year.

ARLnow first reported in late February that a Starbucks was set to move into that location.

Starbucks store No. 71315 has some indoor seating and an outdoor patio. Seating, in general, appears to be rather limited, however.

This morning, employees were outside the store shouting “happy opening day” and providing free samples to passers-by.

The new location gives the densest census tract in Virginia and the entire D.C. region its own adjacent Starbucks.

There are at least four other Starbucks stores within walking distance, however. Among them: next to the Virginia Square Metro station, at the bottom of the Marymount University building at the intersection of N. Glebe Road and Fairfax Drive, inside of the Westin Hotel on N. Glebe Road, and adjacent to the Ballston Metro station.

There are also several other non-Starbucks coffee options nearby, including Compass Coffee, Dunkin’, and Slipstream, which opened in March.

Former Rosslyn coffee shop owner sentenced to prison in credit card fraud scheme

By Jo DeVoe
1/6

A co-owner of the former Caffe Aficionado in Rosslyn and two accomplices have been sentenced in connection with a multi-year credit card fraud scheme.

On March 15, co-owner Adiam Berhane, 50, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for her role in a conspiracy to commit bank fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia said in a press release yesterday (Wednesday). Berhane faced a minimum of two and a maximum of 196 years in prison, per federal sentencing guidelines.

Two people she recruited in the scheme, Tiffany Younger, 51, and Keith Lemons, 56, received less severe penalties. Younger, of D.C., was sentenced Wednesday to 2 years of probation while Lemons, of Clinton, Maryland, was sentenced to time served and six months of home confinement on March 15.

Berhane conspired to carry out a scheme involving stolen credit card information, federal prosecutors said. The fraud lasted until Oct. 2016, when the well-regarded cafe was shut down following a police raid.

Berhane created fraudulent credit cards using stolen identities of D.C. area residents. She recruited Younger and Lemons to purchase gift cards, expensive luxury goods, and other items from local retail stores using these fake credit cards.

“The fraud caused over hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses to area retailers and financial institutions,” according to a press release from the Dept. of Justice.

This included four banks and a handful of stores, such as REI and TJ Maxx, according to information the Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney provided to ARLnow six years ago.

“As part of the scheme, items purchased with victims’ credit card information would sometimes be returned for refunds to bank accounts that Berhane controlled,” federal prosecutors said.

Berhane used the fraudulent cards to buy gift cards that she redeemed at Caffe Aficionado.

“More than a third of Caffe Aficionado’s income from June 2013 to July 2016 came from a pattern of highly unusual redemptions of American Express gift cards, with the pattern beginning several months before Caffe Aficionado opened in approximately October 2013,” per the press release.

In December, Berhane was convicted on a litany of charges of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, trafficking in unauthorized access devices, aggravated identity theft, unlawful possession of 15 or more access devices and possession of access device-making equipment with intent to defraud.

Berhane was initially charged in Arlington County. Her case dragged on for a few years and the charges were ultimately dropped amid accusations that defense attorneys had to process thousands of pages of documents by hand — a rule set by then-Commonwealth’s Attorney Theo Stamos. Federal prosecutors subsequently took up the case.

Berhane was previously convicted of a credit card fraud scheme in New York City in the early 2000s.

Her business partner, Clark Donat, was not charged in the federal case. He pleaded guilty to multiple financial crimes in 2017, including credit card fraud, money laundering and racketeering. Court records show he received a 25 year prison sentence with 11 years suspended.

Federal prosecutors, FBI officials and Arlington County Police Chief Andy Penn made yesterday’s announcement after U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Trenga sentenced the final defendant.

The case was prosecuted with help from the Montgomery County Police Department, the FBI Cyber Task Force, the U.S. Postal Office of the Inspector General, the Secret Service and Capitol Police, per the press release.

Coffee shop Slipstream hopes to begin brewing next month in Ballston

By Matt Blitz
1/2

Ballston’s newest coffee shop is looking to start pouring next month.

The D.C.-based Slipstream is looking to open on the ground floor of the Ballston Point building, at 4300 Wilson Blvd, within the first two weeks of March, co-owner Ryan Fleming told ARLnow. It will be near the intersection with N. Glebe Road, next to World of Beer, and across the street from the new Silver Diner.

When ARLnow stopped by there earlier this week, construction on the cafe appeared to be closer to being finished, with “now hiring” signs in the window.

The coffee shop is known for its single-origin coffee, breakfast sandwiches, and loose-leaf teas.

While Slipstream currently has three D.C. locations, the Ballston cafe will be its first outside of the District.

In August, when ARLnow first reported Slipstream was coming to Ballston, Fleming said it would be similar to other locations but “adapted slightly to fit the unique neighborhood.”

He also said the company choose the neighborhood because Ballston is growing and has a healthy mix of business and residential buildings.

Slipstream will have to compete with a number of existing coffee shops in Ballston. Those include Starbucks (with an under-construction location at 4000 Wilson Blvd), Compass Coffee and Good Company, but not Philz — which closed back in December.

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