Sloppy Mama’s co-owner Joe Neuman in front of the restaurant and food truck
Customers at the Sloppy Mama’s food truck (Staff photo by Vernon Miles)
Customers at the Sloppy Mama’s food truck
Sloppy Mama’s nearly completed on Lee Highway
Wood for the grill at Sloppy Mama’s on Lee Highway
The Sloppy Mama’s brick-and-mortar location at 5731 Lee Highway is about two weeks from opening, according to co-owner Joe Neuman.
The sit-down restaurant announced in January will be the second Sloppy Mama’s location in Arlington, but Neuman said the restaurant will be very different from the Ballston Quarter eatery.
“We will have a full barbecue menu,” said Neuman. “The food hall is a quick service location with a limited menu for a lunch crowd. Here, we’re not in a hurry.”
Sloppy Mama’s started out as a food truck, which currently sits outside the restaurant and will still hang around for events after the restaurant opens.
Neuman said the new location will have a little bit of everything and serve meat by the pound rather than plate. The larger space will allow Sloppy Mama’s to offer a wider variety of barbecue options, so Neuman said in contrast to the traditional plate combo style meals, if someone wants to come in for just slabs of cooked meat, they can get just slabs of cooked meat.
Inside, the restaurant has a very traditional southern barbecue joint feeling, with a metal food counter and long wooden tables in one big, open room.
According to Neuman, the contractors for the restaurant are just making the finishing touches of the restaurant, like sanding and staining the table.
“It’s a lot of little things,” Neuman said. “Finger’s crossed: we’ll open just after Father’s Day.”
Sahar Al-Furaiji (center), her daughter Zuha (left), and UPS store employee William (right)
Lee Highway UPS Store owner and Iraqi immigrant Sahar Al-Furaiji
Sahar Al-Furaiji opened a UPS store in Lee Heights Shops in March
Nestled in Lee Heights Shops, between a jewelry store and a bistro, sits an unassuming UPS Store with a big story.
Store owner Sahar Al-Furaiji opened the packing, shipping and printing shop, at 4532 Lee Highway, in March after months of trying to find the right location in Virginia, and years of trying to find a safe home for her family fleeing terrorists in her home country of Iraq.
“In our first year here my dad saw a UPS Store and said, ‘Wow I want to own one of those,’ and I thought he was joking,” said Al-Furaiji’s 15-year-old daughter Zuha, who works at the store after school.
Al-Furaiji, not her husband, ended up opening one of the franchises after painstakingly comparing locations across Virginia for the right population density and job opportunities to support a shipping business.
She credits her experience with logistics and business management running a non-profit in Iraq with making the transition to owning a small business here an easier one.
The non-profit connected services funded by the American embassy like career training for Iraqi widows. But the Al-Furaiji family’s cooperation with Americans made them unpopular, and they had to flee their home in Baghdad because of threats in 2006.
Her family then moved to Kurdistan in northern Iraq for awhile, but the safety didn’t last long.
Al-Furaiij said her husband received a call from an ISIS member one night. The voice on the phone said, “You have leave in 24 hours or you have to be ready for what will happen to you and your family.”
Three years and a visa process later, the family of five touched down in Virginia and stayed in Chantilly before finding what Al-Furaiji hopes is her forever home in McLean.
“When we came here, one of the neighbors invited us over and it touched my heart, you know, that she had her pictures of her babies from day one through high school,” said Al-Furaiji. “All the steps into high school, in the same place, in the same wall, in the same house, and in the same room.
“I put all my history in one package in storage in my house,” she said.
Now Al-Furaiij wants her children to go to college and take advantage of opportunities she and her husband, who now teaches part-time at the University of Virginia, never had.
But for now, business at Al-Furaiij’s store on Lee Highway — UPS Store No. 7086, per its email address — has doubled each month and it’s no longer “horrible” to handle the fast-paced English of hurried customers.
“After three months I feel really good,” she said. “I don’t have any problems.”
“She never lost her balance of being a great mom and a hard worker,” said Zuha, adding that her mother regularly works 16-hour days. “My mom is a hell of a mom.”
VDOT has officially kicked off construction on the new Washington & Old Dominion Trail bridge over Lee Highway.
A new county video, above, shows renderings of the white bridge with decorative safety walls over the highway. The bridge is expected to accommodate the approximately 2,000 daily trail users.
The construction is part of the project to widen I-66 eastbound between Exits 67 and 71, which began last year. As part of the construction, some disruptions are expected for trail users and drivers in the area.
Per Arlington County:
Bicyclists and pedestrians should expect a temporary trail realignment and detours during construction. The first trail detour has closed the W&OD Trail between Little Falls Street and Lee Highway (near mile marker 5.5) and for a short portion on the east side of Lee Highway. In addition, Fairfax Drive will be closed to traffic, Lee Highway will have short traffic stoppages at night, and there may be lane closures on side streets.
“Once the project is complete, cyclists and pedestrians can expect a much-improved experience on this portion of the W&OD Trail,” the county said in a press release.
James Moore holds up his favorite book next to the picture of his father, James Moore Sr., who first opened the shop
Jennifer Sauter-Price says she hopes to share “mirror and window” books with kids through the program
A collection of diverse books at Moore’s Barber Shop (file photo)
James Moore sits on one of his barber chairs underneath a firefighter’s helmet on the wall
A copy of the Green Book sits on an empty barber chair
Inside the barber shop, a rotary phone and long time clients share a space that’s withstood the test of time
Longtime Lee Highway business Mr. Moore’s Barber Shop is piloting a new program pairing kids coming in for haircuts with free books.
“We specifically chose Moore’s Barbershop because it is an Arlington institution,” said Jennifer Sauter-Price, who founded the nonprofit behind the program, Read Early And Daily. “Everyone knows about it, and he has customers for years and others who drive from far away for his services.”
The nonprofit began dropping off books at the barbershop earlier this month and lets kids pick out their favorite to take home. Sauter-Price says she handpicks books that showcase diversity and partners with organizations like First Book and Scholastic Literacy Partnerships, which buy copies for them.
“The goal is to give away as many books as possible,” said James Moore, who was interested in the idea of bringing books to barbershop to spark conversations and help teach kids communication skills.
He told ARLnow that for him it started with Dorothy Hamm, the civil rights activist who integrated Stratford Junior High School and for whom the School Board voted to re-name the school after last year. Moore says he was in the school band, which used to practice at Hamm’s house.
“When I go to practice she would always say, ‘What did you learn at school today?’ and I would say some generic answer, and she wouldn’t let me go until I told her what I learned at school,” Moore said. “So I do the same thing now.”
Moore asks kids to take the books home with them, and to give a kind of “oral book report” about what they read the next time they’re sitting in his chair.
When asked what his 86-year-old father thought of the new book program, James Moore, Jr. said his dad though it was “great.”
As for the future? Sauter-Price is planning to add more community bookshelves around town at a laundromat, the Arlington Clothesline, Mount Olivet Methodist Church, and the Arlington Food Assistance Center.
“One thought is to include a postcard with future books so families can let us know what they think by mailing back the postcard, but we are still working out those details,” said Sauter-Price.
“What will have to happen is the program will have to mature,” said Moore, who hopes to expand to books for teenagers and adults. As an avid history reader, he says he’d like to introduce more adults to books by Malcolm X and the Green Book.
A copy of the Green Book was perched on an empty chair when this reporter visited, and it sparked a conversation with several of the men waiting for haircuts who hadn’t heard of it before.
“In order to be a successful barber you have to be able to communicate with people, learn about people,” said Moore afterward.
Moore also serves as a captain at Fire Station 8 on Lee Highway and says he plans to retire next year. But when that happens, he says he’ll keep the barbershop going, and hopefully will continue the communications flowing.
“If everyone does one little thing, it makes a big impact,” he said.
A rendering of possible new development at Glebe Road and Lee Highway (via Arlington County)
A rendering of possible new development at the Lee Heights shopping center (via Arlington County)
A rendering of possible new development at Cherrydale’s “five points” intersection (via Arlington County)
Arlington County is seeking volunteers to participate in focus groups and provide feedback on proposed changes to Lee Highway.
Residents can sign up online if they want to represent their neighborhood in discussions about future plans for the roadway and land use around it.
Last August, former Board member John Vihstadt called Lee Highway “the next big planning frontier” but said it was important to be “sensitive” to the neighborhoods bordering the roadway.
Feedback formally kicked off in February, when the county began hosting “Plan Lee Highway” community events to discuss ideas for redeveloping housing and retail areas along the corridor between the East Falls Church Metro station and Lyon Village near Rosslyn.
The area’s many single-family home neighborhoods and possible increases in density will likely be a topic for discussion now that Amazon’s 25,000 newly promised jobs is a done deal.
“Plan Lee Highway will meet with community members over the course of the planning process to get feedback on proposed potential areas of change along Lee Highway and the types of change that should be planned for in these areas,” notes the county website.
Those who live in the neighborhoods or own businesses along Lee Highway can sign up to join focus groups, and those who don’t but are still interested in the process can sign up to be “notified of other engagement opportunities.”
Previously, the Arlington County Board considered spending millions for dedicated bus and HOV lanes along the highway to move more people and reduce congestion, among other improvements.
The Angelico La Pizzeria on Lee Highway is gone, but a new pizza place could be opening soon in its place.
Staff at another Angelico La Pizzeria confirmed that the restaurant closed for good at the end of April.
But construction crews are already at work on renovations for another restaurant. Owner Mandeep Singh said the current plan is to convert the location into a Chicago Pizza With a Twist, a franchise that offers pizza, Indian food, and fusions of the two — like a Chicken Tikka Masala pizza.
Singh said the restaurant is currently planning to open sometime between June 5 and 10.
(Updated at 6 p.m.) The “Coming Soon” sign in front of the Bob and Edith’s Diner at 5050 Lee Highway could be a bit premature.
The space was once home to Linda’s Cafe, which closed after Bob and Edith’s owner Greg Bolton bought the property last May. A faded sign for Linda’s Cafe is still on display outside of the store.
At the time, it was estimated that the new location could open within six to nine months. But one year later, the inside of the building looks much the same as it did as Linda’s Cafe.
Rebekah Steele, a representative of the restaurant, said that they would not offer an update on the status of the location, but that more information could be available during the summer.
An employee at another Bob and Edith’s — which has diners on Columbia Pike and 23rd Street S. in Crystal City, in addition to other Northern Virginia locations in Alexandria and Springfield — said customers have been asking regularly about the Lee Highway location, but the only timeline they have been told is that the company plans to open within the year.
Avid local Twitter followers may wonder whether the delay has anything to do with a hex, of sorts, from the infamous @LindasCafeVA account, which made it clear that there was some bad blood between the former restaurant and its planned successor:
The last official day of business will be on Sunday, July 29th. I want to thank you all for the constant love and support!! Ps whoever goes to the new 5050 lee highway diner, your mom’s a hoe #loveLindas
Permits have been filed to replace this former BB&T branch on Lee Highway with a Starbucks
Permit in window of former BB&T on Lee Highway
Drive-thru at former BB&T on Lee Highway
Interior of 5515 Lee Highway
A new stand-alone Starbucks appears to be coming to the location of a former bank branch along Lee Highway.
Permits have been filed to replace the former BB&T Bank at 5515 Lee Highway with a coffee shop.
A permit filed on Monday (April 29) seeks approval for extensive renovations to the building and its drive-thru window.
Remodel of existing building for new coffee [shop], interior alteration, new walls, floor, ceiling, electrical, plumbing, mechanical, exterior work, new canopy, new drive through window and associated equipment, trash enclosure, mechanical units.
The Arlington Economic Development website says the new tenant for the 2,609 square-foot building is Starbucks, as does the permit on the window of the building.
Once it opens, it’s unclear what will happen to the nearby Starbucks store at the Lee-Harrison Shopping Center, a block away.
The new cafe would be the first drive-thru Starbucks in Arlington, though there are others throughout the region. The closest is a drive-thru at Barcroft Plaza (6365 Columbia Pike) in Falls Church. Another Starbuck drive-thru is planned to open tomorrow (May 2) at 367 Maple Avenue E. in Vienna.
Maya Bistro, which offers Turkish and Mediterranean cuisine in a sunny, modern setting, recently opened its doors. Spurred by positive reviews on Nextdoor and Yelp, customers flocked to the restaurant Friday night, causing it to run out of some of its menu items, staff said Saturday.
Open for brunch, lunch and dinner, Maya Bistro is family-run and those working in the front and back of the house over the weekend included a brother, sister, father and grandmother.
Menu items include moussaka, sandwiches including falafel and adana, grilled meats on skewers, and several varieties of pide flatbreads.
Maya Bistro is located at 5649 Lee Highway in the Leeway-Overlee neighborhood, in the formerNook Play Space storefront.
New store “Jus4thqtr” sells luxury shoes behind a juice bar and hopes to host art and modeling events.
New store “Jus4thqtr” sells luxury shoes behind a juice bar and hopes to host art and modeling events.
New store “Jus4thqtr” sells luxury shoes behind a juice bar and hopes to host art and modeling events.
New store “Jus4thqtr” sells luxury shoes behind a juice bar and hopes to host art and modeling events.
New store “Jus4thqtr” sells luxury shoes behind a juice bar and hopes to host art and modeling events.
New store “Jus4thqtr” sells luxury shoes behind a juice bar and hopes to host art and modeling events.
Customers walking into the new luxury shoe store “JŪS4thqtr” on Lee Highway may be surprised to be greeted by a wall of juice bottles.
The real way in is through a refrigerator door, which pushes open into a showroom with illuminated shelves of footwear and display cases holding high-end fashion.
Founders Shadi Ello, 24, and Mohamed Sha, 27 told ARLnow that the speakeasy entrance is all part of a feeling of “community engagement” they wanted to cultivate since opening last month. It’s also why they show only display shoes, Ello said, to encourage customers to ask store employees about sizing and color options.
“The minute someone puts that on their foot, it’s a wrap,” said Ello, who explained the store only carries “deadstock,” or never-before-worn sneakers purchased from retailers. “This is not a Foot Locker.”
The store is located in an unassuming, low-slung shopping center at 5139 Lee Highway. Initially, Ello said he was worried about attracting enough customers to a high-end boutique in “deep Arlington” but so far they’ve had enough customers to start running out inventory.
JŪS stocks about 4-5 glow-in-the-dark Yeezy 750 Boosts that run $1,000 and several sneakers from the Off-White Airmax 90 collection for $750. For women, there’s a selection of kicks from Adidas and Travis Scott in size 5 for $500.
The most expensive shoe is the ‘Not For Resale’ Air Jordan 1s selling for $1,500.
“The shoes just generate foot traffic,” said Ello, who acknowledged many of the shoes “are outrageously priced” by design. Most of the store’s revenue comes from its apparel, he said.
The clothing sold at JŪS includes a $35 JŪS-branded shirt, $200 for a leather body vest from Maryland designer Daniel Green’s brand “Insane Cult”, and a $1,000 Dior sweatshirt.
Ello, who grew up in Arlington and attended Wakefield High School, expected most of his customers to be in high school or their mid-20’s, and was surprised by the number of middle schoolers shopping to resell kicks.
He jokes that the 11-year-olds “like to give me a hard time” about the prices but he enjoys them coming by.
“It’s not illegal, and it’s keeping them in a safe, clean environment selling shoes,” he said.
Ello, Sha, and a third co-founder say they signed a lease in the shopping center six months ago.
After three weeks of steady business, they say they’re working on turning the basement into a space for photo shoots and pop-up fashion galleries. The store’s Instagram account has already filled with some of the modeling shots.
Lidl Opens Store at Arlington HQ — “Arlington finally has its first Lidl grocery store — it just happens to be pint-sized… the company took a little more than 1,000 square feet it was using as storage on the ground floor of its HQ to open Lidl Express, a convenience-sized store with a variety of convenience store staples and fresh food.” [Washington Business Journal]
Lee Highway Group Wants More Funding — “The Lee Highway Alliance is seeking what its president calls a modest increase in funding from the county government. But the budget proposed by County Manager Mark Schwartz is heading in the other direction.” [InsideNova]
Crystal City Condo Aiming for Record Sale — “With Amazon’s HQ2 on the way, the seller of Penthouse 3S at the Crystal Gateway Condominiums believes the time is right to go for a record… While $2 million might sound like a hefty number, DeHart stresses that inside DC limits, buyers pay nearly twice as much for Potomac views.” [Washingtonian]
Former ACPD Captain in the News — “The former police chief of Portsmouth, Va.” — Tonya Chapman, a former Arlington County Police captain and the first black woman to lead a municipal police department in Virginia — “says she was forced out by city leaders over resistance to her attempts to overhaul a department riven by racial tension.” [Washington Post]
Instagrammable Arlington Spots — Arlington tourism booster StayArlington has compiled a list of Instagram-friendly locations in the county. [StayArlington]
Nearby: Halal Butchery Approved — “A retail halal butcher shop that slaughters chickens on-site will be allowed to open in a small industrial area of Alexandria, despite strong opposition from nearby business owners and their patrons.” [Washington Post, Patch]
