food

From olive oil to ‘House of Gucci,’ this mother-daughter duo is giving Arlington an Italian flair

By Jo DeVoe
1/2

Julia Franchi Scarselli announced her return home from high school one day calling out to her mom, or mamma, in a thick Italian accent.

She had just transferred from a class of 50 kids in a small British private school in Milan to the much larger Washington-Lee High School, now Washington-Liberty.

“I remember driving up to the school thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, this is an airport? Like, where did I land? I don’t know anybody,” Scarselli tells ARLnow.

Scarselli grew up in Milan with her father and Sara Gay Forden, who had spent two decades covering the fashion industry and luxury goods. This became fodder for her 2001 book “House of Gucci: A Sensational Story of Murder, Madness, Glamour, and Greed” and the basis for the eponymous 2021 movie starring Jared Leto, Adam Driver and Lady Gaga.

Forden moved to Arlington to cover antitrust for Bloomberg in D.C., bringing Scarselli with her. The two clung to stateside vestiges of Italy when they were homesick, frequenting the Italian Store for wine and cheese and an Italian church in D.C. just to hear the language.

Scarselli struggled with her Italian and American halves, says Forden, but was quick to pick up cultural differences. Forden recalls that when her daughter burst home, saying mamma, she made the following observation:

“Americans, when they get an idea in their head, they just go for it in a straight line, bound and determined. Nothing will dissuade them until they reach their goal. Italians really know how to live.”

“Julia,” Forden replied, “if you figure out how to bring those two things into balance, you will figure out how to live.”

This balancing act has animated Scarselli’s career path and life since. It lead her to start an organic extra virgin olive oil company, Libellula, which bridges her American and Italian roots and maintains her Arlington ties.

Libellula olive oil bottle (courtesy photo)

Going to the roots

Libellula sells organic extra virgin olive oil produced by six Italian family farms, which use sustainable methods to preserve ancient olive groves threatened by climate change.

Customers can purchase gifts and subscriptions, adopt groves and take retreats where they can participate in the harvest, taste fresh-pressed olive oils and learn how to pair them.

Scarselli has been working on Libellula since she was a student at Smith College, though the brand officially launched a year and a half ago. Its U.S. warehouse, in Maine, has been a boon for the local economy, leading the Maine International Trade Center to recently name the company the Foreign Direct Investor of the Year.

Today, Scarselli oversees bringing oil to fine-food retail partners around the U.S. when not at her day job with the World Economic Forum in Geneva. Her father, who lives in a medieval town outside Rome, works with the farmers. She travels between Italy and the U.S. for work, taking time to visit her mom in Arlington.

“It’s like bringing together the best of both worlds: the Italian love for food and community and appreciation for culture and nature.. and the American desire to to seek those out,” she said. “I think there is no one like an American that can like pragmatically get stuff done, right?”

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The Arlington County Fair is returning in two weeks

By Caroline Gage
Scenes from the Arlington County Fair in 2022 (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

The Arlington County Fair will open to the public on Wednesday, Aug. 16, continuing a four-decade tradition.

The fair — which features games, rides, food, musical performances and fun for all ages — runs through Sunday, Aug. 20 at Thomas Jefferson Community Center.

The fair is held both outdoors, where the rides and food vendors are, and indoors, where local businesses set up shop and prizes — for everything from cheesecakes to needlework to potted plants — are awarded.

The hours for the outdoor fair activities are as follows.

  • Wednesday, Aug. 16: 5-10:30 p.m.
  • Thursday, Aug. 17: 5-10:30 p.m.
  • Friday, Aug. 18: 2-10:30 p.m.
  • Saturday, Aug. 19: 10 a.m.-1 p.m. (sensory friendly hours); 10 a.m.-10:30 p.m.
  • Sunday, Aug. 20: 11 a.m.-1 p.m. (sensory friendly hours); 11 a.m.-10 p.m.

During sensory friendly hours, the fair aims to limit loud music and other noises.

Visitors can expect the traditional roundup of entertainment and competitions, as well as a variety of food and drink options. Admission is free, according to the fair’s website. Ride tickets can be purchased for $1.25 online or on site, with each ride typically costing 3-6 tickets, according to the website.

Cole Shows Amusement Company is set to provide the rides and games again this year for adrenaline junkies.

An Entertainment Tent is set to open on Saturday and Sunday to feature performances from local musicians. The fair will also host free programming for families at the Kids Court, including an obstacle course and performances by Drew Blue Shoes, a regional magician, according to an online schedule.

Scenes from the Arlington County Fair in 2022 (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Fairgoers can indulge in a variety of classic fair foods like fried Oreos, funnel cakes and corn dogs from a variety of vendors and food trucks. If pie is your dessert of choice, enter the annual pie eating contest for $10.

A daily beer garden will serve the very last brews from New District Brewing Co., which closed its doors in May.

Beyond food and drinks, visitors can shop and support local businesses, which will have the opportunity to set up booths and sell their goods at the indoor market from Friday to Sunday. The Night Market, an outdoor shopping expo that began in 2022, will return on Aug. 17, from 5-10:30 p.m.

Community members are invited to showcase crafts, baked goods, foods, fine arts, photography, plants and more for the annual creative exhibits. The theme this year is, “A Fair for All,” according to the fair’s creative exhibit guide. Registrations will be accepted until Aug. 14.

The county fair is aiming to be waste-free this year. Efforts include expanding recycling and compost efforts, banning styrofoam, single-use plastic straws and ketchup packets, and encouraging car-free transportation to and from the event, according to their webpage.

Arlington-based catering company HUNGRY almost profitable after latest funding round

By Hallie LeTendre

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 Three Ballston Plaza. 

After raising tens of millions of dollars, Ballston-based catering startup HUNGRY says it is on the verge of being profitable.

Last week, the company — which partners with chefs who prepare meals for offices and events — announced that it raised $10 million in possibly its last fundraising round. HUNGRY has raised $60 million to date and is now valued at $270 million.

A number of professional athletes, including players from the Portland Trail Blazers, the Seattle Seahawks, the Baltimore Ravens and the Houston Texans, contributed to HUNGRY’s $10 million Series C1 funding round.

The company has also received funding in previous years from rapper Jay-Z and comedian Kevin Hart.

In a statement, co-founder and CEO Jeff Grass he is proud that HUNGRY has attracted the attention of big-time investors and leading investment funds.

“It’s a recognition of the unique strengths of our business model and how far we’ve progressed since inception in late 2016/early 2017,” he told ARLnow. “It represents a step-up in valuation during a time where average valuations have fallen a great deal. It also represents investor confidence in our team and a recognition that, with Return-to-Office driving accelerated growth in office catering, we’re a fast growth company in a fast-growing industry.”

Indeed, Inc. 5000 has recognized HUNGRY as one of the nation’s fastest-growing companies.

Since the recognition last summer, the company has been setting new sales records monthly, Grass said. The company also acquired NatureBox and now delivers health-conscious snacks to offices in a bid to lure workers back to the office after Covid and the embrace of remote work.

HUNGRY founders Eman Pahlavani, Shy Pahlevani and Jeff Grass (photo courtesy HUNGRY)

The startup has expanded to 13 U.S. cities, according to its website. The chefs and meals available vary based on the location of where the order is placed.

Through this expansion, Grass emphasized the importance of HUNGRY’s Arlington roots.

“Most of our senior leadership team works out of our Arlington office,” he said. “We’re proud of where we come from, as Arlington provides us access to some of the best talent in the country.”

Taco Bamba to open next week in Shirlington

By Hallie LeTendre
1/3

Shirlington is getting the newest location of Taco Bamba.

The taqueria is set to open next Thursday (June 29) in the Village at Shirlington, replacing Taco + Piña, which closed last year.

The outpost at 4041 Campbell Ave will be Taco Bamba’s second location in Arlington, after one in Ballston that opened in 2020, and the company’s 10th location in a decade.

“Ten years and 10 locations later, staring down our most ambitious year of growth yet, I’m filled with gratitude for our Taco Bamba family, our guests, and for the opportunity to bring a second location to Arlington,” Chef Victor Albisu said in a statement.

The chef and founder of the burgeoning, taco-centric chain says the Shirlington area is inspiring him to serve up different foods from this particular location, which also has a full bar and patio seating.

“The area has such a vibrant dining scene,” Albisu said. “We look forward to challenging ourselves to provide something new and unexpected to an audience that is already familiar with what we do.”

The Shirlington location’s menu features a mix of Mexican favorites, including al pastor and carne asada, as well as original creations specific to this location, such as a steak, chicken and shrimp-stuffed quesadilla and a foot-long meat spring roll.

Inside, a mural by a local artist depicts the restaurant’s rooster mascot battling a crow — an homage to the ever-present murders of crow terrorizing the streets of the Shirlington shopping center and leaving behind their ever-present droppings.

The first 50 customers who order at the register on opening day will get a free travel mug, which can be used for the complimentary coffee all Taco Bamba locations serve daily, with a purchase, until mid-afternoon, a press release said.

This location will be open Sunday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., and from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. People can order online for pickup and delivery.

New zoning changes make it easier to deliver food, operate shared kitchens

By Jo DeVoe
1/3

In another bid to encourage business growth, the Arlington County Board has made it easier to open shared kitchens and catering and food delivery operations.

On Saturday, the Board voted to amend the zoning ordinance to allow these uses by right in mixed-use, commercial and industrial zones throughout Arlington County. The changes streamline the regulatory approval process for several food-related uses, according to a county report.

“The outcomes of expanding food delivery to a by-right use support small business resilience by relieving businesses of unnecessary work,” the report said. That includes going before the County Board to seek approval for each use.

The changes are part of a flurry of approvals in the last 14 months to allow more uses by-right in these zoning districts. So far, the County Board has greenlit uses such as breweries, micro-fulfillment centers, podcasting studios, indoor pickleball and other emerging businesses to operate where they previously could not set up shop or needed special permission to do so.

All these updates happened in quick succession because County Manager Mark Schwartz debuted a faster zoning approval process that streamlined community engagement. The intent was to help Arlington respond quickly to changing market conditions and, ultimately, tackle the high office vacancy rate.

Food service was the next candidate for an update because, the report says, local regulations treated delivery operations like it was still 1988. (The iPhone debuted in 2007.)

Per the report, the zoning ordinance “does not account for the present-day popularity of modern food delivery services,” requiring food delivery not to exceed 20% of a restaurant’s sales.

Restaurants were relieved of that kind of provision — borne from a concern about delivery vehicle congestion — during the pandemic, the report said.

Food delivery has become a permanent part of how Arlingtonians eat, even after Covid dining restrictions lifted. This new way of doing business was under threat by the expiration of the Covid-era Continuity of Governance ordinance that relaxed delivery regulations.

The changes approved on Saturday, then, came in the knick of time for new and existing businesses, as the ordinance is set to expire in August — meaning the county would have reverted to 1988 delivery standards.

Businesses would have had to obtain County Board approval to continue delivery, had the Board voted down the zoning change. Some already did — Foxtrot in Rosslyn, for instance, went before the Board earlier this year to continue delivering beverages, ready-made food and grocery items.

Saturday’s vote also is helping another player in the app-based food delivery ecosystem: trailer-based ghost kitchens, the kind of which you might see in a parking lot between Clarendon and Courthouse. Ghost kitchen operators will no longer need certain permits to continue cooking.

Lao restaurant Padaek and an acai bowl eatery are coming to the Arlington Ridge Shopping Center

By Jo DeVoe
1/4

The well-regarded Lao chef behind Padaek in Falls Church is bringing her food to Arlington Ridge.

Chef Seng Luangrath, who also helms the renowned Thip Khao in Columbia Heights, is opening a restaurant in the Arlington Ridge Shopping Center, according to construction permits and a leasing map.

“Padaek 2.0” is planning to open in “mid-to-late June,” Axios reported Tuesday. It will feature an outdoor patio and will feature some Thai and Burmese dishes, in addition much of the original Padaek menu, according to Axios.

ARLnow was unable to reach a restaurant representative for additional information by publication time. Alexandria newspaper Zebra appears to have been the first to report the Padaek plans in January 2022.

Padaek’s 3,500-square-foot space at 2931 S. Glebe Road was formerly home to Delia’s Mediterranean Grill & Brick Oven Pizza, Tazza Kitchen and Cafe Caturra.

Meanwhile, Padaek is not the only new restaurant coming to the shopping center. Posters in the window of the standalone retail building also advertise the impending arrival of Palm Berries.

The açai bowl franchise from North Carolina will be occupying a 1,000-square-foot spot next to Padaek. The Instagram page for Palm Berries lists an Arlington location as “COMING SOON!!”

Morning Poll: Who has the best bagels in Arlington?

By ARLnow.com
Everything bagels (Photo by Ryan DaRin on Unsplash)

Yes, it was part of a big chain, and yes, it might not top many “best of” lists, but the closing of Bruegger’s Bagels in Ballston last month took another Arlington establishment that made bagels fresh and in-house off the board.

One within walking distance of the ARLnow offices, at that.

The closure also got us thinking: which local spot has the best bagels?

Clearly bagel loyalties run deep, and with hot competition now just over the Arlington border — the Call Your Mother trailer at the Chesterbrook Shopping Center in McLean had a large line on Mother’s Day this past weekend — it’s time to do a heat check on Arlington’s local spots.

Which of the following places has your undying bagel love? Feel free to let us know in the comments if we’ve missed an option.

Photo by Ryan DaRin on Unsplash

P.F. Chang’s now open at National Airport

By Vernon Miles
P.F. Chang’s in National Airport (courtesy photo)

(Updated at 9:45 a.m.) You can’t get an trans-Pacific flight from National Airport, but with a new P.F. Chang’s location opening in the airport, you can at least get a taste of (very Americanized) Chinese food.

The popular chain opened in Concourse E (Gates 46-59) of the airport. It’s the second location in Arlington after one in Ballston (901 N. Glebe Road) and joins a bookstore and a burger joint as some of the new offerings in the airport this year.

The new 5,800-square-foot restaurant will have restaurant staples like Mongolian beef and lettuce wraps.

“The much-anticipated addition of P.F. Chang’s brings our passengers an appetizing option that completes the arrival of new dining choices envisioned for Concourse E,” said Chryssa Westerlund, executive vice president and chief revenue officer of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, in a press release. “Working in partnership with Marketplace Development, we are proud to further evolve the Reagan National dining experience through P.F. Chang’s beautiful design and elevated cuisine.”

P.F. Chang’s isn’t the only Asian cuisine at National Airport. Matsutake Sushi sits in National Hall just post-security and Wow Bao is a centerpiece of Concourse D.

Our Mom Eugenia finally aiming to open in Shirlington on Thursday

By Matt Blitz
Our Mom Eugenia in Shirlington (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Our Mom Eugenia may finally be ready to “opa” later this week in Shirlington.

The popular, family-owned Greek eatery is preparing to open its newest location on Thursday (March 30), per a press release.

It’s moving into a new 3,604-square-foot space at 4044 Campbell Avenue, next to CHIKO. It’s expected to have a similar, if not the same, menu as the other two Our Mom Eugenia locations in Great Falls and the Mosaic District. That includes an all-Greek wine list.

ARLnow first reported Our Mom Eugenia was making its way to Shirlington in May of last year.

The restaurant was originally planning to open in the fall, but serving was delayed to late 2022 and, then, to February 2023 due to a wait for county permits.

Our Mom Eugenia is named after its co-owner Eugenia Hobson, who was raised on the island of Zakynthos in western Greece.

“Eugenia learned the secrets of Greek cuisine from her grandmother for whom she is named,” reads a press release.

Hobson is a long-time local chef who’s cooked at several D.C.-area Greek restaurants, most prominently Nostos in Tysons. In 2016, she ventured out to open her own restaurant in Great Falls with her two sons.

Besides Our Mom Eugenia, Shirlington is also planning for another notable restaurant opening this spring. The long-planned Astro Beer Hall and its “donut robot” is aiming for a May debut. It’s moving into the space once occupied by Capitol City Brewing Co.

Haute Dogs launches Williamsburg location with unofficial Arlington foodie summit

By Vernon Miles
1/4

Ahead of an official opening this weekend, Haute Dogs hosted a preview event last night with a coterie of Arlington’s underground “foodie” influencer community.

Haute Dogs has become a beloved local institution in Alexandria’s Old Town North neighborhood. The new location at 2910 N. Sycamore Street in the Williamsburg neighborhood takes over the spot previously occupied by Smoking Kow BBQ.

The menu features an array of the eponymous hot dogs, from the classics to the more outlandish, like a veggie dog topped with jalapeño and pineapple.

The official opening is Saturday, Feb. 25, but last night (Thursday) the new restaurant was packed with local food writers getting close-up shots of hot dogs and comparing notes.

At the center of the scene was Chloé Swanson. Chloé is one of Haute Dogs co-founders, along with her mother Pamela Swanson and her stepfather Lionel Holmes.

Chloé said the new restaurant is a shift in more ways than just moving across Four Mile Run. While the Old Town North location is located in the epicenter of a rapidly developing section of Alexandria, the Arlington location is in a decidedly more residential community and closer to several schools.

“There are so many schools around and parents didn’t really have a place to get a burger and beer that’s also family-friendly,” Chloé said. “There are not a lot of dine-in options in the neighborhood.”

The different type of neighborhood necessitated some changes in the menu, like the inclusion of new burgers on the Haute Dogs menu. Chloé said, in preparation of opening a new location with a slightly different menu, she opened a ghost kitchen to test concepts. Chloé said the ideas were tested against the jury of D.C. residents, and burgers won out.

“It’s overwhelming and exciting,” Chloé said. “We’ve wanted an Arlington space for a long time, then Covid hit.”

Chloé said during the pandemic, it was all hands on deck with a focus on keeping the main restaurant afloat, but in September they found the Smoking Kow BBQ location.

“We wanted to erase the BBQ identity and wanted to create a different space,” Chloé said, “a different visual look both from Smoking Kow and from our Alexandria location.”

Samara Singer, creator of Arlington foodie Instagram account A Town Bites, said there were a lot of other familiar faces in the local foodie community at the preview event. The Arlington social media foodie circle is a small but fairly tight-knit community, Singer said.

Many started their blogs after Covid started, and Singer said the Haute Dogs debut was a fun chance for many of them to meet each other in person.

Singer said she was excited for the fries and onion rings at Haute Dogs, but also said the location’s milkshakes could help fit a niche in the Williamsburg neighborhood.

“There are not a lot of other great shake locations around here,” she said.

Singer hopes Haute Dogs is able to capture an underserved evening demographic in the area with parents coming by after they’ve put their kids in bed. The eatery will be open at 11 a.m., closing at 9 p.m. Monday-Saturday and at 5 p.m. on Sundays.

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Food security coalition gets to work tackling hunger in Arlington

By Jo DeVoe
Arlington Assembly of God kitchen (courtesy of Stephanie Hopkins)

A new coalition will tackle how Arlington nonprofits and county government distribute food and support people who are food insecure.

The group held its kick-off meeting at Central Library last week, attended by 65 people. It will be focused on three areas: improving food access, increasing outreach to the community and making systemic change through policy advocacy.

The coalition “creates the infrastructure to systematically monitor the needs of Arlington’s food security system, allowing us to not only act more quickly when greater need arises, but also to identify and rectify systemic challenges earlier,” says County Board member Matt de Ferranti, who campaigned in 2018 on ending child hunger by 2022.

Although considered one of the wealthier localities in the D.C. area, several thousand Arlingtonians do not have consistent access to healthy meals and pantry and fridge staples. Arlington has historically supported these individuals through a patchwork quilt of nonprofit grocery and meal distribution programs, while county staff processed food stamp applications and Arlington Public Schools provided free and reduced-price breakfasts and lunches.

That began to change when Arlington County hired a food security coordinator, Stephanie Hopkins.

“My job is to look at the bigger picture,” she tells ARLnow. “One of the things I found when I started was that there wasn’t a good centralization of resources. Arlington Food Assistance Center and smaller churches each promoted their services, while the county promoted its programs, but there wasn’t a list of everything that’s available.”

The first step, says de Ferranti, was hiring Hopkins to get a better baseline of food assistance needs in Arlington. She worked with the Urban Institute to release a study on food insecurity and stood up a task force — comprised of food pantries, community leaders, and school and county staff — to develop a strategic plan to address hunger over the next five years.

“A lot of folks worked adjacent to each other, knew each other, but had few opportunities to work together,” she said. “Through this process, they made friendships and professional relationships where now, if they need something, they call each other.”

But still, Covid and inflation have interrupted this work, de Ferranti acknowledged.

“There has been progress, with a couple of more food service sites that help children, but we have much, much more to do on the goal of ending child hunger in Arlington,” he said. “I am committed to that work and will work with APS, the School Board, and Bethany Sutton in particular on child hunger.”

The coalition is tasked with implementing the strategic plan, which was released in October 2022. By January 2024, Hopkins says she aims to have at least one new food distribution location, at least one new tool for committing resources to residents and more accurate data on meal and grocery distribution trends.

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