Crystal City

Winter Restaurant Week to feature 18 Arlington restaurants

By Matt Blitz
Ruthie’s All-Day (courtesy photo)

Eighteen Arlington restaurants are participating in this winter’s Metropolitan Washington Restaurant Week from Jan. 17 to 23.

As in the past, there are usually three different tiers of menu: lunch or brunch, dinner, and a higher tiered dinner menu. More information and most menus are available on the event’s website.

With Covid cases continuing to break records, many local establishments are offering their restaurant week menus for take-out and delivery, in addition to dine-in options.

The Arlington restaurants listed as participants are below, sorted by neighborhood.

Arlington Heights

Ballston

  • Rustico is offering a three-course, $40 dinner menu, along with cocktail and wine pairings. There’s also take-out and outdoor dining available.
  • SER Restaurant is offering a three-course, $25 lunch menu and a $40, three-course dinner menu with $15 wine pairings.
  • The Melting Pot is offering a three-course lunch menu for $25 and a three-course dinner menu for $40 per person. For an extra $5, get chocolate fondue.
  • The Salt Line in Ballston, which opened in October, is offering a two-course lunch menu for $25 and a three-course dinner menu for $40. The heated outdoor patio space is available for dining.

Clarendon

  • Spice Kraft Indian Bistro is offering special Pongal Festival menus, a five-course vegetarian meal for two for $45 and a non-vegetarian meal for two for $55. There’s also special wine and cocktail pairings. The menus are available for take-out and delivery.
  • TTT Clarendon is offering a lunch for $25 that comes with a protein, two sides, and a dessert and a dinner for $40 that comes with all of that plus a margarita.
  • Ambar, known for Balkan cuisine, has an “unlimited plates” lunch option for $25 and a dine-in option for $55. Plus, a take-out option for two for $60 or, add in a bottle of wine, and get it for $70.

Crystal City

  • Crystal City Sports Pub, which narrowly avoided a fire last month, is doing a three-course menu priced at $40 for one or $70 for two people. There is outdoor seating and the menu is available for take-out.
  • McCormick & Schmick’s on notes it is participating, including with take-out options, but no menu has been posted as of publication.

East Falls Church

Pentagon City

  • Matchbox is offering a $40, three-course dinner and outdoor seating remains available.
  • Epic Smokehouse on S. Fern Street is offering a $55, three-course dinner with wine and cocktail pairings.

Shirlington

  • Big Buns in Shirlington (as well as its location in Ballston) is offering $25 lunch and $40 dinner menus, all available for dine-in, take-out, and delivery.

Morning Notes

By Brandi Bottalico
Hawk withdrawing (Photo courtesy of Huskerdont/Flickr)

Towers Coming to Site in National Landing —  “Developers have closed on the purchase of a vacant site near Crystal City and Potomac Yard in Arlington, a transaction that paves the way for a new two-building project there.” [Washington Business Journal]

Anti-Vaccine-Mandate Rally Growing — “The event, called ‘Defeat the Mandates: An American Homecoming,’ plans a march from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial… [A spokesperson] says the group has more than 36,000 signups; a permit application filed with the National Park Service… says it expects 20,000 people.” Organizers have been encouraging attendees to stay in Arlington. [Washingtonian]

Keep Uncollected Bins Out — “Curbside recycling/trash/organics collection resumed Monday, Jan. 10, following last week’s storms. Keep any carts left unemptied this week at the curb through Saturday, Jan. 15. The County’s contractor is making progress collecting about twice the regular tonnage but runs are slower, trucks fill faster and Covid has affected staffing.” [Arlington County]

MLK Mass This Weekend — “On Sunday, January 16, Bishop Michael F. Burbidge, Catholic Diocese of Arlington, will celebrate a Mass in Observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More. The annual Mass honors the life and legacy of the late civil rights leader who was slain almost 54 years ago.” [Catholic Diocese of Arlington]

Shred and Recycling Material Drop-Off — Each Arlington resident can shred up to two boxes or bags of paper or unload a small truckload of inert materials for free at a regularly held recycling event this Saturday. [Arlington County]

Return of 7000 Series Delayed Again — “Metro General Manager and Chief Executive Officer Paul J. Wiedefeld said today he will not resume the placement of 7000-series trains into passenger service for about 90 days to allow Metro engineering and mechanical experts time to focus on root cause analysis and acquire technology to measure 7000-series wheelsets. During the 90-day period, Metro will accelerate efforts to restore 6000-series railcars to increase the availability of newer cars in the fleet and improve reliability for customers.” [WMATA, Washington Post]

It’s Friday — Today will be mostly sunny, with a high near 46. North wind 8 to 17 mph, with gusts as high as 29 mph. Sunrise at 7:25 a.m. and sunset at 5:10 p.m. Tomorrow will be mostly cloudy, with a high near 27. North wind 7 to 10 mph, with gusts as high as 18 mph. On Sunday, snow is likely after 1 p.m. [Weather.gov]

Photo courtesy of Huskerdont/Flickr

Anti-vaccine mandate rally participants staying in Arlington

By ARLnow.com
The COVID-19 vaccine (via Arlington County/YouTube)

A group will be protesting vaccine mandates in D.C. later this month but staying in Arlington — due to forthcoming vaccine mandates in D.C.

Defeat the Mandates, D.C. is planning a rally in the District on Sunday, Jan. 23. The group describes the rally on the National Mall as a bipartisan event that will have a “wide range of featured guests” including “recording artists, prominent doctors, journalists, pro athletes, actors and premier thought leaders.” It will feature “a series of inspiring ‘TED talks’ and musical performances.”

“Stop the mass firings. Stop segregating by vaccination status. Stop calling Americans ‘unpatriotic’ for making a personal medical choice,” says the recently-created group’s website.

But the group encountered a problem in organizing the rally: in late December D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that proof of coronavirus vaccinations will be required to enter many District businesses, including restaurants, starting in mid-January.

That prompted a shift to Arlington.

“Due to the upcoming Vaccine Mandate put in place by the Mayor of DC, we have moved all of our hotel blocks to Arlington, VA,” the rally’s website says. “We wanted to supply hotel blocks near DC so that all of our guests, regardless of vaccination status are welcome. The new mandate goes into effect on 1/15/22 and requires proof of vaccination or negative covid test to enter all restaurants, bars, gyms and indoor meeting spaces.”

The website lists hotel packages at two hotels in the Crystal City area: the Renaissance Arlington Capital View and the Embassy Suites Crystal City.

So far the group has not released a list of speakers or a count of how many people are expected to attend, though it has attracted a fair amount of chatter on social media and forums like Reddit.

Of course, not everyone thinks a mass gathering of unvaccinated individuals during a Covid wave is a good idea.

“This is a disaster waiting to happen,” said one Twitter user.

About 92% of Arlington’s adult population has received at least one vaccine done, a likely contributor to the low rate of Covid hospitalizations during the current record-breaking wave.

Trio of knife-wielding suspects keep ACPD busy

By ARLnow.com

Arlington police have not had much of a holiday break.

An eventful weekend has given way to a busy week, with three additional notable incidents over the past couple of days, each involving knife-wielding suspects.

The first happened near Crystal City on Monday night, when police say a drunk man with a knife injured two people.

From an ACPD crime report:

MALICIOUS WOUNDING, 2021-12270168, 2900 block of S. Eads Street. At approximately 9:45 p.m. on December 27, police were dispatched to multiple reports of an individual armed with a knife attempting to enter a vehicle. Upon arrival, officers located the suspect and detained him without incident. The investigation determined that the victim observed the male suspect in the parking lot of a business with a knife in his hand. The victim entered his vehicle and was approached by the suspect, who allegedly struck the rear window with the knife. The suspect began to yell at the victim, then shattered two of the vehicle’s windows. The victim then exited his vehicle to find safety inside a nearby business, when the suspect approached and struck him in the face. The victim sustained minor injuries and later declined the treatment of medics. The suspect then approached another business in the 2800 block of S. Eads and attempted to gain entry. When he was refused entry by an employee, the suspect allegedly threatened him with the knife and continued to yell and act disorderly. While attempting to restrain the suspect with the help of an additional witness, the employee sustained minor lacerations that did not require the treatment of medics. [The suspect], 41, of Oxon Hill, Md., was arrested and charged with Malicious Wounding (x2), Attempted Malicious Wounding, Destruction of Property, Attempted Carjacking, and Drunk in Public. He was held on no bond.

Then, just before noon on Tuesday, a person with a knife allegedly threatened a food delivery driver in Westover.

ROBBERY, 2021-12280065, 5800 block of Washington Boulevard. At approximately 11:56 a.m. on December 28, police were dispatched to the report of an assault just occurred. Upon arrival, it was determined that the victim was delivering food items to the suspect’s residence when the suspect opened the door and allegedly produced a knife and demanded that the victim leave the items. The victim placed the items on the ground and left the scene before contacting dispatch. Warrants were obtained for the suspect. The investigation is ongoing.

A motive for the first two incidents was not immediately clear.

Finally, last night an 18-year-old suspect was arrested after a fight that led police to surround a home in the Virginia Square area. Police say the suspect injured two officers while being taken into custody.

ASSAULT ON LAW ENFORCEMENT, 2021-12280160, 1400 block of N. Lincoln Street. At approximately 8:47 p.m. on December 28, police were dispatched to the report of an assault with a knife in progress. Upon arrival, officers heard noise consistent with an active fight occurring inside the residence, established a perimeter and gave commands for the occupants to exit. A short time later, the victim exited the home, followed by the suspect. Officers gave the suspect lawful commands and attempted to take him into custody, however, he began to act disorderly and fight officers, striking two officers multiple times. A brief struggle ensued, and the suspect was subsequently taken into custody without further incident. The two officers sustained minor injuries and did not require the treatment of medics. [The suspect], 18, of Fredericksburg, Va., was arrested and charged with Assault & Battery on Police (x2) and Obstruction of Justice. He was held without bond.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com
The Grinch, illustrated in Post-It Notes by Brigid Donaghy on the front of the H-B Woodlawn school building in Rosslyn (photo courtesy Dan Donaghy)

Redevelopment of Parking Garage Proposed — “The owner of a pair of Crystal City hotels along Richmond Highway is moving to redevelop a parking garage on the property into residential, the latest bit of change for the neighborhood as part of an Amazon.com Inc.-inspired development boom. Miami’s Sound Hospitality is on the hunt for a development partner to manage the transformation of a garage that currently serves Crystal City’s Hampton Inn and Suites and Hilton Garden Inn.” [Washington Business Journal]

Parent Group Wants More Class Time — “An advocacy group is pressing the Arlington School Board to add more instructional time to the school system’s proposed 2022-23 calendar. The comments came at the Dec. 2 School Board meeting, in which board members were presented with a staff proposal that meets the letter of state law in providing at least 990 hours of instructional time. But the school system should be going further – holding classes the full 180 days that had been the pre-COVID standard – said Camille Galdes, who spoke on behalf of Arlington Parents for Education.” [Sun Gazette]

Firefighter Unions Call Out Alexandria — “Understaffing within the Alexandria Fire Department put people and buildings at risk during a fire at Crystal City’s restaurant row on 23rd Street earlier this month, according to two unions representing more than 500 Alexandria and Arlington firefighters, medics and fire marshals.” [ALXnow]

Middle School Student Disciplined for Weapon — “On Thursday afternoon, the Swanson Administrative team received a report that a student was in possession of a weapon on their walk home from school. As a result of our investigation and consultation with the Arlington [County] Police Department on Friday, the student was disciplined in accordance with the Arlington Public Schools code of conduct.” [Twitter]

New ACPD Officers Sworn In — “December 10, 2021 marked a significant milestone for the Arlington County Police Department’s 18 newest officers as Session 145 graduated from the Northern Virginia Criminal Justice Training Academy. During the graduation, the officers took their oath to serve and protect the Arlington community and safeguard the Constitutional rights of all.” [ACPD]

Abduction Arrest in Clarendon — “At approximately 3:22 a.m. on December 10, police were dispatched to the report of a check on the welfare. The reporting party advised the female victim was inside a vehicle with a known suspect who would not allow her to exit… [The suspect], 26, of Washington D.C. was arrested and charged with Abduction and held without bond.” [ACPD]

W&OD Trail Bridge Gets Decked — “Enjoy a smooth ride on the newly-redecked bridge east of Little Falls St in Arlington.” [Twitter]

It’s Tuesday — Today will be sunny with a high of 54 and a low of 38. Sunrise at 7:19 a.m. and sunset at 4:47 p.m. Tomorrow will be mostly cloudy with a high of 55 and a low of 39. [Darksky]

Holiday markets, events and lights are bringing joy to Arlington over next two weekends

By Matt Blitz
Snow falls on the Christmas tree in front of 1100 Wilson Blvd in Rosslyn, in 2020 (Staff Photo by Jay Westcott)

The holiday spirit is alive and well in Arlington, with a number of markets and events planned over the next couple of weeks.

First up is Rosslyn’s holiday market, set for this Friday and Saturday (Dec. 10-11) at 1800 N. Lynn Street. Friday night will feature a celebration for the dogs of Rosslyn, including giveaways for the pups as well as a chance for your canine to take photos with Santa Claus. Saturday will feature a family-friendly performance at Synetic Theater and photos with Santa Claus.

There will also be food, free hot chocolate, and a dozen vendors.

After that, the first annual Ballston Holiday Wreath Market is taking place next Friday and Saturday (Dec. 17-18) at the corner of Wilson Blvd and N. Stuart Street.

Organized by the Ballston BID, the two-day event will include a pop-up outdoor bar, live music from the Arlington Children’s Chorus, a cello performance from local TikTok personality Andrew Savoia, a light art projection from Robin Bell, Santa Claus selfies, and holiday wreaths for sale.

Proceeds from the wreath sales will go towards local nonprofits including Bridges to Independence, Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing, Culpepper Garden, Doorways for Women and Families, and The Sycamore School. Wreaths can be ordered in advance online for pick-up at the market.

Arlington County Police Department’s toy-collecting cruiser will also be there on Saturday, ready to receive wrapped gifts that will be donated to area kids.

Performing at 5 p.m. on Friday, 25-year-old Ballston resident Andrew Savoia became gained social media notability last year with his cello covers of modern pop songs. Washingtonian described his music as “Cardi B meets Beethoven.”

Robin Bell’s light art show will be projected onto the Ballston Macy’s storefront, described as a “celebration of holidays around the world.” Bell is known for sometimes politically charged and profound art projections. He previously projected a beach scene in Ballston in 2020. Bell’s holiday illumination will be displayed from 7-9 p.m. each night.

The outdoor bar will include warm beverages, including alcoholic and non-alcoholic hot chocolate, a “mistletoe spice cocktail,” beer, and wine. The hope is that the Ballston Wreath Market will become an annual Arlington tradition, a spokesperson tells ARLnow.

The National Landing BID, meanwhile, is hosting two events over the next couple of weekends, including a holiday market and a peppermint mocha latte competition.

The latte competition is taking place this Sunday morning (Dec. 12), starting at 11 a.m., outside of 2121 Crystal Drive. It will feature seasonal drinks from Commonwealth Joe, The Freshman, and Origin Coffee Lab & Kitchen. Attendees will be able to sample minty creations from each neighborhood coffee shop and vote on their favorite. The event is free.

The next weekend, on Friday and Saturday (Dec. 17-18), the BID is holding a holiday market outside of 2121 Crystal Drive, with an assortment of live music, shopping, and food.

Friday night’s market will feature music from Laygod, a self-described “cult-fiction rock n roll band,” and Nicaraguan musician Pedro Night. Playing Saturday’s market is Jerel Crockett. More than 25 vendors are expected to offer their wares.

In addition to the events, there are a number of light displays in Crystal City. At Long Bridge Park, more than 6,000 white and blue lights are twinkling along the nearly-mile walk along Long Bridge Park Esplanade overlooking the Potomac River. At Gateway Green, the former location of Summer House at 101 12th Street S., “an immersive winter lights art installation” is ongoing through the holiday season.

Can’t get enough Christmas? Other local holiday events can be found in our Arlington event calendar.

Tacombi taqueria to open its doors in Crystal City tomorrow

By Jo DeVoe
1/5

Tacombi in Crystal City will be opening its doors tomorrow (Wednesday).

The long-awaited New York City-based taqueria chain will be open 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. in the revamped Central District Retail shopping plaza, also known as “Crystal Square.”

The taco spot, with indoor and outdoor seating, is the newest retail spot to open within JBG Smith’s recently redone property at 1550 Crystal Drive. It follows on the heels of a CVS, a Mah-Ze-Dahr bakery and a Solidcore gym location. What appears to be an Amazon Fresh grocery store is still under-construction.

Tacombi’s Crystal City menu will reflect its NYC menu, says a spokeswoman. There will be a variety of tacos, including its classic fish tacos, as well as burritos and quesadillas, all of which can also be ordered online via Grubhub.

All will be served on from-scratch corn and flour tortillas shipped from NYC daily until they can be made in Crystal City, Eater DC reports.

To drink, there will be tequila-based cocktails, Mexican beers, sodas and agua frescas. There will not be any opening specials, we’re told.

The grand opening fell behind schedule, as construction and inspections extended beyond the originally anticipated September debut.

These last few weeks, however, the taqueria has not just been busy finalizing its Crystal City location, but also opening two other locations: a second spot in Queens, New York and a new location in Miami’s Design District.

The openings in Arlington and Miami will mark Tacombi’s first ventures outside of New York City, the spokeswoman said.

She added that a Bethesda outpost — originally anticipated to open in September — will open in the spring of 2022. Another D.C. location is set to come to 14th Street NW, according to Eater.

Crystal City to host voice technology conference this week

By Jo DeVoe

Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups, founders, and other local technology news. Monday Properties is proudly featuring 1812 N. Moore Street in Rosslyn.

VOICE Summit 2021, a conference highlighting the latest in artificial intelligence and voice technology, will kick off this evening in Crystal City.

Thousands of technology specialists, marketers and representatives from leading brands are expected to attend the event, which ends Wednesday evening. It is hosted by Modev, a Ballston-based company exploring the future of voice controls.

The event will highlight innovations in the retail, healthcare, travel and entertainment industries driven by conversational AI. It will focus on how tech companies can enhance customer experience and meet growing consumer demands and heightening expectations for conversational technology, like Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant.

For the first time, the local startup’s conference, now in its fourth year, will be held in Arlington. VOICE 2018 and 2019 were both held in Newark, New Jersey and together attracted some 7,000 attendees. The conference was held virtually in 2020 due to the pandemic.

“We’re excited to bring the event to Arlington, Va. and to gather industry back together,” Modev CEO and founder Pete Erickson said in a statement. “Conversational AI has evolved a lot since the start of the pandemic and is now a core component of an overall general business and marketing strategy for brands and enterprises. Large investments are being made across industries to capitalize on voice driven strategy, and companies are committed to enhancing the customer experience.”

Modev says VOICE Summit is the industry’s flagship event, capable of shaping the future of voice technology, AI and “ambient computing,” or any computer activity so deeply integrated into daily life that humans don’t realize they’re using computers.

VOICE Summit 2021 promotional graphic (courtesy photo)

This is the first major tech event to relocate to National Landing — collectively, the Crystal City, Pentagon City and Potomac Yard neighborhoods  — since Amazon announced it would build its second headquarters in Arlington in 2018, according to Arlington Economic Development.

The two-day event will be virtual and in-person at the Renaissance Arlington Capital View Hotel (2800 S. Potomac Ave). The event will feature keynotes, fireside chats, panels and breakout “conversations” that allow the audience to play an active role in the discussion.

Attendees will hear keynote speeches from Silicon Valley startup founders and tech leaders, including Rich Stern, the CEO of Tune-In; Andi Huels, the head of AI at Lenovo; and Audrey Arbeeny, a two-time Emmy Award winner and creator of sounds for the world’s top brands.

“We look forward to bringing leaders together to discuss this shift and helping them chart a path to success in the new year,” Erickson said.

Smart voice assistants Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant are the event’s top sponsors.

Founded in 2008, today, Modev also produces the VOICE Global event, presented by Google Assistant, and the award-winning VOICE Talks internet talk show.

Will the Metroway remain a good investment after the pandemic?

By Matt Blitz
A Metroway bus at the Transitway bus stop at 27th Street S. and Crystal Drive (staff photo by Matt Blitz

Many are predicting that the pandemic will drastically affect how we commute and use public transportation for the foreseeable future.

How that will impact long-term transportation projects, like the Metroway bus rapid transit line and the Crystal City-Potomac Yard Transitway extension to Pentagon City, is a puzzle that local officials are trying to put together.

In 2021, according to Metro’s data, bus ridership overall is down by close to two thirds from 2019. And those numbers may not increase a whole lot for at least a couple of years.

“It really is something that we all are literally struggling with to understand,” Arlington County’s Transit Bureau Chief Lynn Rivers told ARLnow. The transit bureau was responsible for building out the initial Transitway infrastructure, as well as the forthcoming Pentagon City extension. “Now… we’re talking 2023 when we’re going to start seeing the same levels [of bus riderships] that we had before.”

Even as more people head back to the office and lockdowns are no longer in effect, traffic patterns have shifted particularly on the roads. There’s now less traffic in the mornings, allowing cars and buses to get to their destination quicker.

“People are changing their patterns and how they are using the service,” Rivers said. “The huge rush hours in the morning and in the afternoon, we may not see that.”

Instead of seeing huge jumps in use during peak times — 6-9 a.m. in the morning and 3-7 p.m. in the evening — Rivers said there may be a leveling-out of how commuters use train and bus transit.

“Throughout the day, there will be constant movement,” she said.

This shift could be at least somewhat permanent and largely due to still a large number of folks continuing to work from home. Those that are going to the office, meanwhile, are spending fewer hours there.

(Nearly half of readers who responded to a ARLnow morning poll in October said they were still working from home.)

In response, and to encourage more people to use the bus system, Metro increased the frequency of the Metroway back in Sep last month (as well as other bus lines). It now runs every 12 minutes on weekdays and 20 minutes on weekends from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., in a bid to encourage ridership.

This shift in commuting patterns comes just as the county unveiled design plans last months for Pentagon City extension of the Transitway. While it comes with a price tag of nearly $28 million, most of the cost will be financed by the state and the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority. Arlington is contributing about $1.8 million to the project, according to county officials.

Nonetheless, that’s still a significant use of tax dollars at a time when commuting is down and there are plenty of competing priorities. When the rapid bus transit system in Arlington was first conceived more than a decade ago, an airborne illness was not infecting millions across the globe.

With the knowledge that Covid spreads more easily in indoor settings, there could be hesitation among some commuters to be in crowded spaces with strangers despite relatively high local vaccination rates.

“Are we really going to cram back on a bus?” Chris Slatt, Arlington Transportation Commission chair and founder of Sustainable Mobility for Arlington County, asks rhetorically. “Are we going to want to be crowded into a Metro train as we were two or three years ago?”

John Vihstadt, former County Board member who vehemently opposed the Columbia Pike streetcar project, which he helped to scuttle, agrees that shifting commuter behaviors could make the Transitway not as a sound an investment as it once appeared.

While an avid public transit user himself and, generally, in favor of bus rapid transit — opponents of the streetcar argued that BRT along the Pike was a cost-effective alternative to a light rail system — Vihstadt thinks the county needs to do more modeling and forecasting of people’s commuting patterns before moving ahead with the build out.

“We can’t stick our heads in the sand and just expect that everything is going to ultimately return to the status quo,” he tells ARLnow.

(more…)

BREAKING: Fire on Crystal City’s 23rd Street restaurant row

By ARLnow.com
1/4

(Updated on 12/5/21) Firefighters battled a significant fire Saturday night on the 23rd Street S. restaurant row in Crystal City.

The fire was reportedly in the building that houses Andalusia Hookah Bar and Top Thai restaurant on the 500 block of 23rd Street. Those businesses are immediately adjacent to Crystal City Sports Pub and Federico Ristorante Italiano.

Firefighters from several local jurisdictions helped to finally extinguish the smoky, two-alarm blaze. The fire has caused unsafe conditions for firefighters inside the building and flames can now be seen coming from the roof, according to scanner traffic.

Smoke from the fire could be seen rising into the air throughout the Crystal City area.

The Crystal City Sports Pub was evacuated during the fire as smoke started to fill the building. But co-owner Billy Bayne said the fire department’s quick work and coordination saved his business and others on the row.

“To our knowledge there’s no major damage to the Sports Pub,” Bayne said, while noting that there may be smoke and other damage that needs to be repaired. “Thank God for the fire department and police department… they all are heroes, they did a great job.”

Shortly before midnight the Arlington County Fire Department reported that all fire had been extinguished. So far there have been no reports of significant injuries.

On Sunday afternoon, the fire department returned to the scene after a small fire flared back up.

On Sunday night, the fire department said in a press release that the fire caused nearly $1.8 million in damages. The cause of the blaze is under investigation.

Shortly after 10pm on Saturday December 4th, units were dispatched for a reported fire in a commercial building in the 500 block of 23rd St S. Units quickly arrived on scene and began working to extinguish the fire. Crews began operating in extremely challenging conditions with thick smoke causing zero visibility inside the structure, as well as obscuring views for crews operating on the exterior. A second alarm was requested to bringing nearly 30 fire apparatus and 100 firefighters to the scene.

As interior conditions deteriorated rapidly, crews were forced to evacuate the building and begin using ladder trucks to flow large volumes of water from an elevated position on the exterior. With the bulk of the fire extinguished crews were able to re-enter the structure to knock down any remaining fire. Just before midnight the fire was deemed extinguished, and crews began the long process of checking for fire extension and overhaul operations.

Fire Marshals remained on scene to conduct a cause and origin investigation. The preliminary findings from their investigation list the fire cause as undetermined, and cite damages as being nearly $1.8 million dollars.

More from social media:

Photo (2) via Google Maps

The mysterious new grocery store in Crystal City sure looks like an Amazon Fresh store

By ARLnow.com
1/6

(Updated at 9:30 a.m.) Is Amazon building a flagship grocery store near HQ2? Based on photos showing the inside of the under-construction store, it sure looks like it.

Nothing has been announced, and both Amazon and building owner JBG Smith have been tight-lipped about the thus-far-unnamed grocery store that’s coming to 1550 Crystal Drive, though rumors have swirled throughout the year that Amazon is behind the store.

The company, meanwhile, has been busy opening Amazon Fresh grocery stores throughout the D.C. area. The stores are similar to traditional grocery stores but with technology that lets customers instantly checkout without scanning items.

Crystal City has long been without a grocery store, after the lone Safeway that served the neighborhood closed in 2005. There are grocery stores nearby, however, including Harris Teeter stores in Pentagon City and the Potomac Yard area, a newer Amazon-owned Whole Foods in Pentagon City, and what was formerly a Shoppers supermarket in Potomac Yard.

The Shoppers is becoming — you guessed it — an Amazon Fresh store.

In Crystal City, building permits conspicuously fail to name the store that’s under construction at 1550 Crystal Drive.  But the store is described, as “a new retail shop providing packaged salads, sandwiches, entrees, soups & various beverages [and] self app check-out.” It will also have anti-graffiti window film.

The windows of the store are covered —  with generic images and the announcement of a “specialty grocer coming soon” — but one enterprising local resident was able to sneak a peek inside. He observed an Amazon-like orange wall, plus aisle and restroom signs that look remarkably similar to those in the Amazon Fresh store in Chevy Chase.

Earlier this year another tipster told ARLnow that a friend who was involved in the construction project described it in a way that sounded exactly like an Amazon Fresh store. But the friend was under a non-disclosure agreement — a bit unusual for a grocery store construction project — and did not reveal the name of the store.

As of publication time a PR rep for Amazon Fresh has not responded to a request for comment from ARLnow.

This would not be the first time that Amazon has left a couple of breadcrumbs while being secretive about something involving Arlington.

In 2018, in the midst of the company’s HQ2 search, ARLnow reported exclusively about a spike in web traffic from Amazon computers to a particular story about Arlington winning a top environmental award. Nine months later the company announced that HQ2 would be built in Arlington.

Portions of photos via Google Maps

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