Compass Coffee in Ballston (staff photo by Ashley Hopko)
Compass Coffee in Ballston (staff photo by Ashley Hopko)
Compass Coffee in Ballston (staff photo by Ashley Hopko)
Compass Coffee in Ballston (staff photo by Ashley Hopko)
Compass Coffee in Ballston (photo courtesy Ballston Quarter)
Compass Coffee in Ballston (photo courtesy Ballston Quarter)
Compass Coffee has opened in Ballston.
The cafe at the corner of Wilson Blvd and N. Randolph Street opened over the weekend, an employee told us, after more than a year of anticipation. It’s located at 4100 Wilson Blvd, on the ground floor of the Origin apartment building that was built as part of the recent renovations to what is now Ballston Quarter mall.
To celebrate the opening, Compass will be offering a “free coffee day” tomorrow, from 6 a.m.-7 p.m., according to a mall spokesman. Customers will be able to receive a drink of their choice during that time.
The new cafe will offer the same drink selection as other Compass Coffee locations — including the Rosslyn location at 1201 Wilson Blvd that opened in 2018 — but its food menu will vary slightly, ARLnow previously reported. Beyond standard coffee shop staples, drink offerings include nitro cold brew coffee (also available in a growler), apple cider, matcha latte, maple latte, and nutella mocha.
Work is nearly complete on the interior of the space at the corner of Wilson Blvd and N. Randolph Street, on the ground floor of the Origin apartment building that was built as part of the recent renovations to what is now Ballston Quarter mall.
The new cafe will offer the same drink selection as other Compass Coffee locations — including the Rosslyn location at 1201 Wilson Blvd that opened in 2018 — but its food menu will vary slightly depending on the needs of the Ballston neighborhood, Stephanie Junkin, the manager of the new location, said. Customer favorites such as cold brew coffee and croissants will be offered in Ballston.
The cafe will host a “Free Coffee Day” on or soon after the day of its opening. Customers will be able to receive a drink of their choice at no charge on this day, Junkin said.
Compass is currently in the process of hiring baristas for the Ballston location.
Yesterday we told you about a new Clarendon cafe called This is Fine Coffee, but more importantly we told you about one of their signature drinks: an espresso, orange juice and caramel concoction called the Bumble Coffee.
It’s apparently popular in Eastern Europe, and fairly rare here stateside.
The immediate reaction in our office was that of horror upon hearing about an espresso drink made with OJ. But reporter Vernon Miles now swears by it, so much so that as this post is being written he’s en route to the office with several Bumble Coffees for a tasting by now-intrigued colleagues.
We were wondering how other Arlingtonians felt about this. Would you try a Bumble?
Bumble Coffee, a mix of espresso, orange juice, and caramel at This is Fine Coffee (staff photo by Vernon Miles)
This is Fine Coffee (staff photo by Vernon Miles)
This is Fine Coffee owners Anna Tsybko (left) and Jason Blevins (right) (staff photo by Vernon Miles)
This is Fine Coffee (staff photo by Vernon Miles)
This is Fine Coffee interior (photo via Facebook)
This is Fine Coffee logo (photo via Facebook)
Okay, hear me out: orange juice, espresso and a dash of caramel over ice.
Reactions in the ARLnow office were mostly negative, but the reporter who actually tasted it at the new This is Fine Coffee in Clarendon now swears by it.
The small coffee shop — which replacedBlümen Cafe at 2607 Wilson Blvd. — had its soft opening today, but co-owners Jason Blevins and Anna Tsybko said they’ve already started seeing more customers than they were expecting.
Blevins chalks some of that up to his Java Shack background: he worked at Java Shack from 2012 to 2014, before the local coffee shop was taken over by Commonwealth Joe and ultimately closed last year. Blevins said he wanted This is Fine Coffee to have a laid-back vibe similar to Java Shack and to serve as a local gathering place and an exhibition space for artists, some of whom already have art on display in the cafe.
Many of the customers at This is Fine Coffee are former Java Shack regulars, Blevins said, at which point two of the customers nodded in confirmation.
The signature drink at This is Fine Coffee is bumble coffee, the aforementioned orange juice/espresso/caramel mix. This is Fine Coffee’s owners said it’s a popular drink in Russia and Ukraine, where Tsybko is from and where Blevins spent time working on a documentary.
The contents can sound off-putting, so Tsybko says she sometimes makes it for friends and gets them to try it before saying what’s in it. But Tsybko and Blevins fell in love with the drink there and decided to bring it back home to Arlington.
While it sometimes feels like you can’t shake a stick along Wilson Blvd without hitting a dozen coffee shops, Tsybko and Blevins said the intensely personal feeling of This is Fine Coffee sets it apart.
“Many of the decorations here are from our apartment,” Tsybko said.
“We’re not a chain, or aspiring to be a chain,” Blevins said.
The pair said the name is an allusion to the decidedly unpretentious atmosphere of the cafe. Tsybko said it was sort of a self-aware reflection of the way people talk about where they want to meet and get coffee.
While a lot of new coffee shops are very into the science and classification of coffee and the idea of coffee mixing as an art form, Blevins said the name is a throwback to coffee shops as a community-oriented place where people can pull up a laptop and work or meet up with friends.
The Java Shack, a beloved local coffee shop in the Lyon Village neighborhood near Courthouse, is planning to close.
Commonwealth Joe, which took over the cafe at 2507 N. Franklin Road from its original owner five years ago, made the announcement Friday morning after informing staff of its plans.
Java Shack will serve its final mugs of coffee on Nov. 24, unless Commonwealth Joe can find a buyer for the business “that understands and respects the rich heritage of the cafe and the important role it plays in the community.”
One frequent customer said the loss of Java Shack would be a detriment to the sense of community that unique local businesses like it help to build.
“I live down the street from Java Shack and it’s a huge loss for me to know that they’re closing,” Jacob Gersh told ARLnow, noting that he recently filled his fourth punch card at the shop, marking 40 cups of coffee. “It’s such a powerful feeling of connection to the community to be able to sit in their garden.”
Commonwealth Joe says it was not able to negotiate a new lease that would allow it to continue operating Java Shack. It will instead focus on its Pentagon City cafe, near Amazon’s future HQ2, and its growing coffee keg business.
Maintenance of the aging building on Franklin Road — which once housed the headquarters of the American Nazi Party but is now home to Java Shack, a barber and a pet store — has been a challenge for the cafe’s owners.
“The Java Shack holds a special place in our hearts,” said Commonwealth Joe co-founder and CEO Robert Peck. “However apart from the great memories and successes we had at the cafe, our building lease brought some hardships.”
Renegade is “eyeing a late October opening” in the 5,500-square foot space that once housed the popular nightlife destination before it closed in April. The new business is run by chef Patrick Crump, who formerly worked at Clarendon Ballroom, Spider Kelly’s and the now-closed Clarendon Grill, and before that cooked at the famed Inn at Little Washington.
“A renegade is someone who rejects the conventional, and I think the neighborhood is ready for something new and different,” Crump said in a statement today (Friday) of his latest, ambitious venture.
The chef said today (Friday) that his new restaurant at 3100 Clarendon Blvd aims to offer “something different than you traditional wings and nachos” when it comes to the rest of the menu.
The menu itself is set to include an dizzying array of international “stackable bites, skewers, bowls, and housemate dips” from crispy Korean chicken with a moo shu pancake to fried yucca and jalapeño aioli. Other items will be developed from Vietnamese, Thai, Egyptian, and Malaysian cuisine.
Each small dish is expected to cost between $3-5 to encourage patrons to sample several.
“I want spicy, crunchy, bright, and tart. High heat, bold flavors, and something that really grabs you from the first bite,” Crump said.
Pairing with that will be “bright, crisp rosés, rieslings, and sauvignon blancs” on Renegade’s wine list. The bar will also have 12 local craft brews on tap.
Renegade, which Crump originally called “The Grill on Highland,” also aims to book weekly bands for live music on its 20-foot stage. The chef said he hoped to fill the hole left by longtime music cafe IOTA’s closure two years ago.
Once open, the business will operate seven days a week from 6 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday through Wednesday, 6 a.m.-2 a.m. Thursday and Friday, and 7 a.m. to 2 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.
This content was written and sponsored by The Keri Shull Team, Arlington’s top producing residential real estate team.
Stepping inside the industrial-style space, you see a swarm of white coffee cups artfully suspended from the ceiling above a community table. The smell of fresh coffee and the sound of frothing milk washes over you.
This is Detour Coffee, a hidden gem coffee shop and bistro in Clarendon.
Follow John Ma of The Keri Shull Team and Manager Manuel Olivera inside for a look at Detour’s locally-roasted coffee, handmade pastries, delicious food and more. Detour is a great spot to drink, eat, socialize and work.
All the coffee at Detour is locally sourced from Vigilante Coffee of Hyattsville, Maryland.
Standard drip coffee or pour-overs are available. And of course Detour’s skilled baristas are standing by to create traditional espresso drinks like cappuccinos, lattes, cortados and Americanos.
On Detour’s food menu you’ll find an eclectic mix of Mediterranean and South American influences. At the counter you can find beef empanadas, baba ghanoush, labneh, churros and more. In-house bakers make pastries from scratch.
For a detour before work, try a classic breakfast sandwich like The Norwegian, a lox-and-croissant situation, or get adventurous and try the Elvis: Peanut butter and jelly on banana bread with bacon.
When the day’s work is done, you can shut your laptop lid and enjoy Happy Hour specials from 4-7 p.m. every weekday.
Detour also offers brunch every Saturday and Sunday from 10 a.m.-3 p.m., complete with breakfast cocktails — so bring friends!
Want to live in Clarendon, surrounded by amazing places like Detour Coffee? Check out our Clarendon Neighborhood Guide.Contact The Keri Shull Team at (703) 952-7653 or[email protected] and we’ll help you find your next new home!
Renegade Coffee in the works at former Mister Days
Renegade Coffee in the works at former Mister Days
Renegade Coffee and Kitchen is coming to the former Mister Days space at 3100 Clarendon Blvd.
“What we’ve got is full-service espresso with Stumptown Coffee,” said Patrick Crump, executive chef and owner of Renegade Coffee and Kitchen.
The Portland-based Stumptown Coffee is widely lauded, but a rare sight in the D.C. region. Taps are are being set up along the new coffee bar to serve nitro cold brew coffee. The unique offerings could help Renegade stand out, and steady daytime business could help the business afford the high Clarendon rent, but the restaurant faces plenty of competition, including a Peet’s Coffee across the street.
Crump is no stranger to Clarendon. He’s executive chef at Clarendon Ballroom, Spider Kelly’s and formerly Clarendon Grill — which closed in October after 22 years. Crump’s vision for Renegade is a full-service restaurant with an international menu — including cuisine from Morocco to Vietnam. The menu will mostly be small bites from around $3 to $5, he said.
Another part of the restaurant’s aim is helping to revive the local live music scene. The coffee bar only takes up one corner of the restaurant, so the rest is filled with seating, with plans to use some of it as a music venue — taking up the crown left unclaimed in the wake of Clarendon Grill and Iota Club and Cafe’s closures.
“We want to replace Iota for live music,” said Eric Anderson, general manager and partner. “We want to bring that back.”
In the evenings, Crump plans to turn the area into a nightclub to help carry on the Mister Days legacy.
The coffee shop is still working through some permit approvals, but the owners said they expect Renegade to open within five or six weeks. In the meantime, the company is currentlyhiring full and part-time baristas, servers and bartenders.
A fresh new cafe and Asian eatery called Open Kitchen is now open in Rosslyn.
The cafe is tucked away on the ground floor of Arlington Tower (1300 17th Street N.) but seemed relatively busy this morning (Monday), with several customers ordering their coffee and heading upstairs. In addition to Lavazza coffee and espresso drinks, the cafe serves tea and fruit smoothies.
Open Kitchen is open Monday-Friday from 6 a.m.-3:30 p.m. for breakfast and lunch. Breakfast offerings include oatmeal, omelettes and egg sandwiches. Lunch items include bibimbap and Japanese bento boxes for around $10.
The little cafe opened last Monday (Aug. 5) and is still working out some of the kinks; staff said wifi for guests is still in the works.
Rendering of coffee shop Kaldi’s Social Club’s new location (Image via Facebook/Kaldi’s Social Club)
Kaldi’s Social House is gearing up to open in Clarendon (Image courtesy of Alex Koma)
Clarendon could be getting a new coffee shop by the end of the year.
A staff member at Kaldi’s Social Club told ARLnow in a social media message that the business is hoping to open an Arlington location by December.
Wrapping outside a ground floor retail space at Ten at Clarendon building at 3110 10th Street announces Kaldi’s is “coming this winter” and features an image of people sharing dishes with cups of coffee interspersed between the plates.
Kaldi’s flagship location in Silver Spring first opened in 2013.
In addition to coffee, the Maryland cafe offers American fare for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and serves cocktails and beer. Staff did not immediately respond when asked if the Clarendon menu will be the same.
“The name Kaldi comes from an Ethiopian legend about a goat herder named Kaldi who first discovered the power of the coffee bean,” owner Tsega Haile wrote on the business’s website, noting that the D.C. area is home to the largest group of Ethiopian people outside the continent of Africa.
Nick Freshman, owner of The Freshman, at the pop-up in Crystal City Shops
The Freshman pop-up in Crystal City Shops
Plans for the full The Freshman restaurant on display in the pop-up
The main location for The Freshman under construction at 2011 Crystal Drive
The Freshman is, both figuratively and literally, a little underground.
The restaurant comes from Nick Freshman, who’s also behind Spider Kelly’s in Clarendon. The Freshman is not planned to fully launch in its permanent home at 2011 Crystal Drive until 2020, but in the meantime the eatery has had a quiet “soft launch” across the street in Crystal City Shops.
The pop-up officially opened this morning (Thursday), at the north end of the shops at 2102 Crystal Plaza, in the former Au Bon Pain space
“We’re in plans and permitting across the street,” said Freshman, “but that process… it takes a long time, even opening in a place that used to be a restaurant. You plan and design and it could take a year.”
The plans to open The Freshman got pushed further back as the building underwent both interior and exterior renovations. Freshman said he had the equipment and a team ready to go but nowhere to set them up.
Their main location and the former Au Bon Pain are both owned by JBG Smith, so when Freshman approached the company about the idea of opening a pop-up in the empty space, the property owner was on board.
The pop-up does not offer The Freshman’s full menu. Freshman estimated it was about 40 percent of what’s to come, with dinner and cocktails planned for the main site, but the pop-up currently serves up coffee and breakfast and lunch options that Freshman said the area seemed in desperate need of.
“There’s no point in doing it if we don’t do it well,” Freshman said. “The challenge is worth it because the community is dying for a viable alternative to [existing] breakfast and lunch options.”
The breakfast and lunch offerings include a tofu scramble with vegan cheese, plus sandwiches or salads for lunch. Prices range from $6 for an egg and cheese sandwich to $14 for a Reuben sandwich.
An unofficial “soft opening ” for the restaurant started on Monday, the same day that Arlington was hit with heavy storms from which the county is still struggling to recover.
“We’re underground, so for a while it looked like we might be underwater, but we stayed totally dry,” Freshman said. “We saw more of a surge [of customers] than expected. But even in dry weather, people use this corridor. If you don’t work or live here, you don’t know about it, but if you do it’s a critical part of your movement.”
Currently, Freshman says the pop-up is planned to stay open through the end of the year, but the stay is largely dependent on how fast or slow progress is across the street.
“Right now, we’re meeting people and listening,” Freshman said. “Every night, we’ve been making tweaks to the menu, but that’s normal opening stuff.”
