Columbia Pike

Columbia Pike Blues Festival returns this summer, back to be fully in-person

By Matt Blitz
1/5

The Columbia Pike Blues Festival is back to being fully in-person for the first time in three years.

The mainstay Arlington music festival, which is put on by the Columbia Pike Partnership in partnership with the county, will take place on Saturday, June 18 from 1-8:30 p.m.

All of the performances are set for the Pike’s main stage, unlike the last two iterations of the festival. While neither was officially canceled, the events were completely or partially virtual due to the pandemic.

This year’s version will feature headliner Shemekia Copeland — the Blues Foundation’s 2021 “Entertainer of the Year” — as well as Eric Scott, D.C.-based Robbin Kapsalis & Vintage #18, local band Shakin’ Woods, and Anthony “Swamp Dog” Clark.

Local vendors and restaurants will provide food and drinks, plus there will be beer from New District Brewery and a wine list curated by the Pike’s Rincome Thai.

There will be a “Kids Zone” and an “art alley” along 9th Road S. featuring the Arlington Art Truck and work from the Columbia Pike Documentary Project.

2022 is being marketed as the festival’s 25th anniversary due to the format changes over the last two years. The first Columbia Pike Blues Festival was held in 1995.

Beyond Saturday’s day-long festival, a number of other events are being planned over the weekend to celebrate the event’s quarter century anniversary.

On Friday, there’s set to be a special blues festival performance at William Jeffrey’s Tavern. For Sunday morning, a Juneteenth history walk led by the Black Heritage Museum of Arlington is being planned. There will also be live music at the Columbia Pike Farmers Market and at Café Sazón on Sunday morning.

To finish the weekend, there will be a free screening of the 1980 musical-comedy “The Blues Brothers” at the Arlington Cinema and Drafthouse.

The Columbia Pike Blues Festival is the largest blues festival in the D.C region, according to its website. It often prompts some neighborhood road closures. Upwards of 7,000 people have attended past festivals.

NEW: There was an FBI operation on Columbia Pike this morning

By ARLnow.com
1/3

It’s unclear why, but the FBI was out in force along Columbia Pike this morning.

Photos show several unmarked federal law enforcement vehicles, including a Lenco BearCat armored SWAT vehicle, in front of the Siena Park Apartments on the 2300 block of the Pike.

An agent in camouflage and tactical gear could be seen holding a shield inside the open doors of the moving BearCat.

Arlington County police deferred comment, noting that “the police activity is part of an active FBI investigation.” The FBI, in turn, confirmed the activity but said little else.

“The FBI is present at the 2300 block of Columbia Pike, Arlington, VA, conducting court authorized law enforcement activity,” Washington Field Office spokesperson Samantha Shero tells ARLnow. “The FBI cannot comment further due to an ongoing investigation.”

More details about the investigation are unlikely to be released today or tomorrow, Shero noted.

The last widely reported FBI investigation in Arlington happened in the Ballston area in March 2021.

Hat tip to John Antonelli

Atilla’s is closing next month after almost five decades on Columbia Pike

By Matt Blitz
1/3

Atilla’s Restaurant and its grocery store are both closing next month after nearly 50 years on Columbia Pike.

The well-known Turkish businesses are shutting the doors at 2705 Columbia Pike on May 29, long-time restaurant manager Sarah Engi confirmed to ARLnow.

The reason is redevelopment. The one-story retail strip that’s been Atilla’s home since the mid-1970s is set to be demolished in the coming months to make way for “The Elliott,” a six-story residential development that was approved by the Arlington County Board last month.

Engi said ownership is looking for a new space, hopefully as close as possible to the original Columbia Pike location. However, they are also looking in Fairfax County due to the cost of rent in Arlington being potentially prohibitive. The new business would focus on carry-out and retail.

The sit-down portion of Atilla’s Restaurant closed during the pandemic and never re-opened. There are no plans to revive that part of the business at the new location, Engi says.

In 1998, the original owner Atilla Kan sold the business to Zulkuf Gezgic. However, the restaurant’s namesake has stayed with the business ever since making bread, hummus, and other items.

Because of that, Atilla’s menu hasn’t changed all that much, Engi notes. It’s always been Turkish food with Greek influence, since Kan is originally from Greece but his family later moved to Turkey.

The new development is forcing a number of other businesses in that retail strip to relocate, including Legends Kicks, Columbia Pike Partnership, CVS, and the Black Heritage Museum of Arlington, with leases set to expire May 31.

“The Elliott” is set to have 247 market-rate apartments above a grocery store, the relocated CVS, and Burritos Bros, which is moving from a small stand in the parking lot adjacent to Penrose Square.

The grocery store is rumored to be an Amazon Fresh location. When the company was asked, a spokesperson told ARLnow in February that “Amazon doesn’t comment on rumors or speculation.”

With about a month left at the location that Atilla’s has called home for almost five decades, there’s plenty of emotion.

“I’m sad. We are losing family,” Engi says. “Big companies are moving in and smaller businesses are leaving. Things are changing. It’s really sad.”

New Ethiopian restaurant coming to Columbia Pike

By Matt Blitz
1/2

A new Ethiopian restaurant and lounge is opening on Columbia Pike, potentially by the end of the month

Meda Restaurant and Lounge is looking to open by the end of April or early May at 5037 Columbia Pike, in the former home of a long-time bakery. Owner Yohannes Getachew tells ARLnow the restaurant is just waiting on the approval of its alcohol permit.

It’s set to fill the space that was formerly Cinthia’s Bakery II, which closed up shop in the summer of 2020 due to a decrease in business amid Pike road construction and the pandemic.

Meda will focus on “speciality foods” as well being a coffee shop and bakery.

Getachew is the former co-owner of another Ethiopian restaurant in Alexandria near the Van Dorn Metro. That restaurant was named Meda before recently being renamed ZeMeda Market and Restaurant.

The new restaurant on the Pike will be located just up the street from Arlington Mill Community Center and less than a half of a mile from the Fairfax County border. Getachew says he choose this spot because he lives in the area, as does a number of his customers.

Cinthia’s Bakery II was the second location of the Bailey’s Crossroads bakery that remains open, also along Columbia Pike, only a five minute drive away.

Someone has applied for building permits at the former P. Brennan’s space on Columbia Pike

By Matt Blitz
1/3

A mysterious new restaurant may be coming to Columbia Pike, potentially filling the vacant space once occupied by P. Brennan’s.

A business that goes by the name “Nightbird Restaurant & Lounge” applied late last month for a building permit at 2910 Columbia Pike, county records show. That’s the former home of P. Brennan’s Irish Pub, which was open from 2010 to 2017. The storefront has remained vacant ever since.

It appears that Nightbird was recently looking to hire an executive chef, based on the result of a Google search, but that job posting has since expired.

Those behind the potential new restaurant will be inheriting a cavernous, two-level space that’s next to Rebellion on the Pike and across the street from the Arlington Cinema Drafthouse.

Encanto headlines the return of Rosslyn summer movie nights

By Matt Blitz
Rosslyn Cinema in Gateway Park 2019 (photo via Rosslyn BID)

Rosslyn movie nights are returning to Gateway Park this summer, with a selection of voted-on fan favorites.

The Rosslyn Business Improvement District (BID) is once again hosting a series of movie nights in June at Gateway Park (1300 Langston Blvd).

This year’s line-up includes the following films, which all emerged victorious through a March Madness-style bracket:

  • National Treasure
  • Space Jam
  • Encanto
  • Mamma Mia

This year, residents were given the opportunity to not only vote on what movies were shown, but predict what the winners would be — much like the annual tradition of submitting a bracket predicting which team will win the college basketball championship. The three most accurate brackets win a gift card to a Rosslyn restaurant.

The bracket was broken up into four categories — family, sports, romantic comedies, and D.C. area-based — with National Treasure, Space Jam, Encanto, and Mamma Mia winning its respective group.

While voting on which movies will be shown in June concluded yesterday (Thursday), residents can still vote on which will be the ultimate winner.

Exact dates of when each movie will be shown have not been announced yet.

Rosslyn’s movie series at Gateway Park dates back at least a decade, to 2012. After taking a year off due to the pandemic, the series returned in 2021 with an abbreviated version.

Rosslyn BID is not the only community organization that will be hosting outdoor movies this summer.

The Columbia Pike Partnership’s movie nights are also set to return for their 12th year on Saturday nights starting in July, the organization has confirmed to ARLnow. The series will run July 9 through August 27 while alternating locations between Penrose Square and Arlington Mill Community Center. The calendar of movies will be announced later this spring.

In the past, the National Landing BID and Ballston BID have also both hosted summer movie nights. Ballston BID told ARLnow that they will not be hosting movies this summer, while the National Landing BID said they don’t have details to share as of yet.

Documentary project shows how Columbia Pike is a lens to Arlington’s diversity

By Matt Blitz
1/7

There are few people who know more about how Columbia Pike has changed in recent years than Lloyd Wolf, director of the Columbia Pike Documentary Project.

Since 2007, Wolf and a team of photographers, interviewers and community activists have spoken with hundreds of residents and taken thousands of pictures of South Arlington’s main thoroughfare.

As part of the project, they’ve kept a running blog, published books, and conceived numerous exhibits all aimed at discovering what makes Columbia Pike so special.

Wolf and his team of now-five include Dewey Tron, Xang Mimi Ho, Lara Ajami and Sushmita Mazumdar. They have documented a Bangladeshi-American car parade, a Thanksgiving dinner for new Ethiopian immigrants, a local Piedmont blues style guitarist along with dozens more celebratory moments and personal stories.

“The Pike is this nexus of immigration and diversity. And people are basically getting along and we thought ‘This is something we really should examine in-depth,'” Wolf tells ARLnow about how the project got started more than a decade ago.

Columbia Pike has a well-earned reputation for being among one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the country. It’s estimated that there are people from more than 130 countries speaking at least a hundred languages living on or in the Columbia Pike corridor. Famously, the Pike and its corresponding 22204 ZIP code has gotten the nickname for being the “world in a ZIP code.”

Wolf says one of the most gratifying aspects of the project for him is the ability to listen and learn about cultures and communities from around the world; the traditions, the rituals, the successes, and the challenges. Plus, his team is made up of people whose backgrounds include being Syrian, Vietnamese, Laotian and Japanese.

To Wolf, this perfectly encapsulates what makes Columbia Pike so special.

“If we weren’t doing this project, maybe we wouldn’t have a chance to meet. I have this line ‘This is what peace looks like,'” he says. “To the Pike, people come. It’s not perfect, but by and large, the groups interact well.”

This is a testament to the Arlington community as a whole. In a county where diversity is valued, appreciated, and celebrated, Wolf notes, differences don’t divide but unite.

“I’ve heard immigrants say that ‘I don’t feel different here because everyone is different,'” he says.

However, like much of Arlington, it’s no secret that Columbia Pike is physically changing, with a number of major development projects set to be completed in the near future.

And, recently, Wolf has set out to explore how these changes might impact the communities he’s spent years documenting.

(more…)

JUST IN: Fire reported in parking garage of Columbia Pike apartment building

By ARLnow.com
1/2

(Updated at 1:05 p.m.) Firefighters are investigating the source of dark smoke seen billowing out of a Columbia Pike apartment building’s parking garage.

The smoke was seen coming out of the garage entrance at the rear of the Pike 3400 building, at the southwest corner of the busy intersection of Columbia Pike and S. Glebe Road. A large fire department response was dispatched to the scene around 12:30 p.m., though the smoke has since largely abated.

Initial reports suggest that a boom was heard in the area and that it appears that an electrical transformer on the second level of the garage may have exploded and caught on fire, before the flames were extinguished by a sprinkler system.

In the past, fires that destroyed the electrical transformers of large buildings like this one have caused extended power outlets for residents.

The westbound lanes of Columbia Pike are currently blocked by emergency activity between S. Monroe Street and S. Glebe Road.

“Seek alternate routes,” advised an Arlington Alert.

DC Tattoo Expo coming to Arlington this weekend

By Matt Blitz
1/4

Thousands of tattoo enthusiasts are expected to flock to Arlington this weekend for the DC Tattoo Expo.

This is the eleventh iteration of the region’s largest body and tattoo expo, which was canceled last year amid the pandemic. It was previously held in Crystal City, but is now moving to the Sheraton Pentagon City (900 S. Orme Street) — which is actually more a mile from Pentagon City, along Columbia Pike.

There will be plenty of tattoo artists, contests, live entertainment, and even a few “Ink Masters,” participants from the long-running reality show.

Organizers are optimistic that up to 15,000 are expected to attend the weekend-long expo, which begins this Friday at 1 p.m. and ends Sunday evening. Masks are encouraged, but not required.

Spokesperson Anna Carswell tells ARLnow that the expo is a safe space where veterans and beginners alike can see and learn about the process of getting a tattoo.

“It’s a place to come and be voyeuristic almost,” Carswell says. “[Tattoos] are not as taboo as they were, but can still be slightly intimidating. Here you can learn what goes into it, the design, and process.”

She says many people come to the expo to get their first tattoo.

There will also be some pretty eclectic live performances throughout the weekend. This includes Captain and Maybelle, world-renowned sword swallowers, burlesque dancer Cervena Fox, and the Miss DC Pin Up Contest on Saturday night.

That’s in addition to contests for best overall body art and best sleeve tattoos.

Carswell says tattoos have become mainstream and popular in recent years, particularly in the D.C. area, but there is still some hesitation among the uninitiated. She says the expo allows people who might be “curious” to learn about and get exposed to tattoo culture.

Arlington County Board greenlights two major residential developments

By Jo DeVoe
1/7

This weekend, the Arlington County Board approved two apartment redevelopments that members lauded as architecturally distinct additions to Columbia Pike and Courthouse.

Members heaped praises on “The Elliott,” a new apartment building replacing the Fillmore Gardens shopping center, a one-story retail strip on the 2600 block of Columbia Pike.

Named for Elliott Burka, who managed the Fillmore Gardens apartments, “The Elliott” will situate 247 market-rate apartments above a grocery store (rumored to potentially be an Amazon Fresh), a renovated CVS store and a new location for Burritos Bros, currently located in the CVS parking lot.

It will also have three levels of below-grade parking.

They commended Arlington-based developer Insight Property Group for realizing community benefits — a public plaza, a pedestrian passageway and a new S. Cleveland Street — and for intending to make room for the existing retail in the completed building.

“This building will be delivering so much more than 247 residential units and the 50,000 square feet of commercial space,”said Board Member Takis Karantonis, who lives near the project. “It delivers the second half of the Penrose plaza, which is arguably, in my opinion at least, one of the most successful public, multipurpose plazas in Arlington County and a true community gathering place.”

Insight Property Group planner Sarah Davidson did not say the name of the grocer coming to “The Elliott,” but she did say the company is “very, very interested” in how to enliven Penrose Square.

Meanwhile, developer Greystar now has the go-ahead to build a glassy triangular skyscraper on the 0.57-acre vacant Wendy’s site in Courthouse, about a block from the Courthouse Metro station. The building will have 16 stories, with 231 residential units and 4,000 square feet of ground-floor retail.

It was approved despite some concerns among residents about the building’s height and the fact that it only provides 75 parking spots and 12 on-site committed affordable units.

“This will be a luxury, very expensive apartment building in Arlington — something we don’t have any deficit of,” said Board Vice-Chair Christian Dorsey. “To the extent that it adds to the housing supply for which there still continues to be strong demand for units at that price point, it helps with our housing strategy and goals for affordable housing indirectly.”

He said he also was concerned there are too few parking spots, but there are underused parking garages nearby to take advantage of.

“My suspicion is the reason people are willing to pay such a premium is to be three minutes from the Metro,” Board Chair Katie Cristol said, adding that “it is incumbent on us [to try to ensure that] it is not only the super wealthy who can live close to transit and all the access it provides.”

As for height, County Board members said the building is only 18 feet taller than the office building previously approved for this site. The Rosslyn to Courthouse Urban Design Study, meanwhile, recommends building no taller than 10 stories in this area.

Leslie Arminsky, speaking on behalf of the Radnor/Ft. Myer Heights Civic Association, said there should be 28 committed affordable units on site — rather than the approved 12 — while Board members opined that they should be committed affordable units for more than 30 years.

County staff countered that 30 years is standard for these projects.

While the Planning Commission was “thrilled” with the on-site affordable units — somewhat unusual for this manner of development project, with most developers opting to contribute monetarily to the county’s affordable housing fund instead — commissioners are concerned Greystar will seek a conversion of apartments to temporary hotel rooms if vacancy rates are high amid the initial leasing of the building, commission member Elizabeth Gearin said.

Hotel conversions are slated to be discussed tomorrow (Tuesday) during the County Board’s recessed meeting.

County to seek federal funding for new trail around part of Arlington National Cemetery

By Jo DeVoe

Arlington County is applying for $15 million in federal funding to improve cycling and walking connections around Arlington National Cemetery.

The money would partially fund the construction of a long-proposed Arlington National Cemetery (ANC) Wall Trail along Washington Blvd, which would connect Columbia Pike and the Pentagon City area with Memorial Avenue and the Arlington Memorial Bridge into D.C.

The Arlington County Board is scheduled to review the application on Saturday.

“The ANC Wall Trail will provide a missing link in the County and regional non-motorized network that will complete a bicycle and pedestrian connection between all three of the County’s major development corridors,” the county says in a report.

Right now, the cemetery is an “effective barrier to demand for non-motorized travel to and across Memorial Bridge,” according to the county, as security concerns after 9/11 led the Department of Defense to prohibit travel through the burial grounds.

The trail would run along the western side of Washington Blvd from Columbia Pike to Memorial Drive. Currently, there is a trail on the other side of Washington Blvd, a highway also known as State Route 27, but it gets dicey near Memorial Circle for pedestrians and cyclists looking to access the nearby Mt. Vernon Trail or cross into D.C.

Renderings of Arlington National Cemetery expansion and Columbia Pike reconfiguration project (via National Capital Planning Commission)

The Columbia Pike interchange with Washington Blvd is set to be modified as part of the ANC Defense Access Roads Project, which will also move Columbia Pike closer to I-395, realign S. Joyce Street, build a new S. Nash Street connector road, and remove part of Southgate Road.

This work, funded by the federal government and managed by the Federal Highway Administration, will facilitate the addition of 70 acres to the southern portion of the cemetery, making room for 60,000 burial sites and space for the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial Visitor Education Center.

Road work is underway, and early next year, road users can expect to be redirected from the Pike to side streets near Pentagon City. The new burial ground could open in late 2025.

New cycling and pedestrian facilities and grading for the connection to the future ANC Wall Trail are also included in the project. Part of its scope includes designing the trail, for which Arlington County agreed to pay $500,000.

The county expects final designs to be developed over the next year or so. The overall cost of the trail is estimated at $25 million.

Once the wall trail is built, cyclists and pedestrians will be able to connect to Pentagon City via S. Joyce Street at the southern end of the ANC Wall Trail. It will allow safer bike and pedestrian travel between Pentagon City and Columbia Pike to D.C. and the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor.

North of Memorial Avenue, cyclists and pedestrians would be able to link up to the existing trail alongside Route 110, which provides a connection to the Iwo Jima Memorial, to Rosslyn, and to the larger network of bicycle and pedestrian trails along the R-B corridor, the county says.

The $15 million, if awarded, would come from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s “Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity” (RAISE) program, which has $1.5 billion earmarked to reimburse localities for surface transportation projects.

The Transportation Department caps awards at $25 million, and one state can receive no more than $225 million. Awards must be split evenly between urban and rural areas.

There is a “low likelihood of a funding award compared with other external transportation capital funding programs,” the county report notes.

Arlington applied last year and was denied funding — along with every other application from Virginia, according to the report. Staff will be meeting with federal transportation staff to understand why and plan to use that information for the new application.

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