Windsor, a women’s clothing store bound for the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City mall.
Windsor, a women’s clothing store bound for the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City mall.
Windsor, a women’s clothing store bound for the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City mall.
A new women’s fashion boutique is on the way for the Pentagon City mall.
Signs posted in a space on the third level of the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City advertise that Windsor will soon open in the mall. The shop will be located next to a Lids location and the Life in D.C. store.
Windsor is set to open by April 1, according to the mall’s website.
The store is “a family-owned business dedicated to fostering a shopping environment that celebrates a woman’s unique personality,” the site says. It offers dresses, tops and bottoms, jackets, accessories and more.
This will be Windsor’s first location in Arlington, but third in the Northern Virginia area. It also operates stores at the Tysons Corner Center mall and the Fair Oaks mall.
The new Ted’s Bulletin restaurant that will soon open up shop in the Ballston Quarter development also looks to be getting an attached bakery.
Signs posted at the storefront, located at 4238 Wilson Blvd, advertise a new “Sidekick Bakery” bound for the space next to the Ted’s location.
Details about the bakery, and how it might differ from the baked goods offered at other Ted’s Bulletin locations, are sparse at the moment. The local chain is already renowned for its homemade Pop-Tarts and other pastries (in addition to its array of comfort food offerings and alcoholic milkshakes), but “Sidekick” appears to be a new concept for the restaurant.
Federal records show that Ted’s Bulletin filed for a trademark for the “Sidekick Bakery” name last May, but the application offers few other details on the bakery.
The restaurant chain did not respond to a request for comment seeking more information on Sidekick.
Signs posted at the soon-to-be Ted’s location at Ballston Quarter say that the restaurant is set to open sometime this spring. The chain won permission to set up outdoor seating at the development last fall.
The new eatery will be located just above entrances to the newly opened “Quarter Market,” the development’s much-anticipated new food court. One restaurant is now open in that “food hall” space, but it remains unclear when the other 13 restaurants bound for the food court will start serving up meals.
Other stores at Ballston Quarter have slowly been opening to customers since the fall.
(Updated at 11:45 a.m.)Invicta will soon start selling its high-end watches — well, high end to a working journalist anyway — at the Pentagon City mall.
Signs posted at a space in the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City indicate that the timepiece retailer will open on the mall’s second level soon. The new shop will be in between the Pandora Jewelry location and the Papyrus stationary store.
The shop will be the chain’s second in Northern Virginia, with another location at the Tysons Corner Center mall.
Invicta offers a variety of different of watch styles for men and women, with prices ranging from around a hundred dollars to well over a thousand. That, of course, is lower end than the nearby Tourneau watch store, which carries watches worth tens of thousands of dollars and was once robbed of more than a half-million dollars worth of merchandise.
(Updated at 4 p.m.) The Haagen-Dazs ice cream shop in the Pentagon City mall has shut down for renovations.
All evidence of the small store on the first floor of the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City is now gone, but an employee says they’re hoping to reopen by the end of the week.
The shop is located near the mall’s Sunglass Hut and the new dumpling eatery Yong Kang Street.
An ARLnow reader first reported that the store was closed last Wednesday (Feb. 27). An employee subsequently told ARLnow that the store “is being updated to the newest Haagen-Dazs finishes,” including “counters, wall tile, floor tile and equipment.”
Anyone hoping to get their ice cream fix from Haagen-Dazs in the meantime will now have to venture to the store at the Pentagon, or to one of the company’s two D.C. locations — or to a local grocery store.
USPS Decides to Relocate Rosslyn Post Office — “The U.S. Postal Service will relocate the Rosslyn Station Post Office, located at 1101 Wilson Blvd, to a yet-to-be-determined location as close as reasonably possible to the current site.” [USPS]
Netherlands Carillon to Go Quiet, Temporarily — “Bells that have been ringing high atop an Arlington hill for nearly 60 years will soon go temporarily silent as they embark on a journey thousands of miles long… The 50 bells will be taken down by crane and sent by ship to a foundry in the Netherlands, where they will be cleaned and retuned.” [WJLA]
New Memorial Bridge Lane Closures — “Work is moving ahead on the Arlington Memorial Bridge, which means that the overnight traffic pattern will change to accommodate construction lanes. Starting on Monday, March 11, the National Park Service will reduce the number of lanes that drivers can access from 9 p.m. until 5 a.m.” [WTOP]
Ballston Tech Company Acquired — “Comcast today announced it has acquired BluVector, a company that uses advanced artificial intelligence and machine learning to provide cybersecurity protection to companies and government agencies.” [BluVector]
‘Pizza With Police’ Event Planned — “Pizza with the Police, similar to the popular Coffee with a Cop series, is an informal event designed for Arlington’s residential and business communities to meet and interact with members of the police department, ask questions, discuss their public safety concerns and get to know their neighbors.” [Arlington County]
Amazon VP Tweets from Crystal City — “Delicious lunch at Federico Ristorante Italiano in #CrystalCity! It was fun to hang out with @FreddieFlamingo and see one of the great local restaurants that the future #AmazonHQ2 employees will be able to enjoy very soon!” [Twitter]
Ballston Quarter’s Quarter Market, which is now open.
A sign at Ballston Quarter.
Timber Pizza Co. pizza over at Ballston Quarter
A sign at Ballston Quarter.
Ballston Quarter Quarter Market food hall
Ballston Quarter Quarter Market food hall
Mi and Yu Noodle Bar at Ballston Quarter mall
Ballston Quarter Quarter Market food hall
Ramen bowl from Mi and Yu Noodle Bar at Ballston Quarter mall
Ballston Quarter’s long-awaited food court is now open, but the wait continues for most of its restaurants.
The space, dubbed “Quarter Market,” occupies 25,000 square feet in the renovated Ballston Quarter mall. As of today (Monday) Mi & Yu Noodle Bar is open for business, but all other eateries remain shuttered as construction continues and “coming soon” signs adorn the industrial digs.
Developer Forest City described the food court as an “indoor/outdoor eatery” with 14 restaurants scheduled to open:
Forest City previously told ARLnow that Quarter Market will “begin to open” on Feb. 27 after public signs promised a February opening date for months. But diners showed up that day to blocked-off entrances, and Forest City revised its timeline for the “food hall” until early March.
Delays have plagued the mall’s redevelopment with Forest City missing its September and October store opening deadline, with some stores opening in mid-November. The company also planned to open its pedestrian bridge spanning Wilson Blvd in time for that fall opening, but the bridge remains under construction five months later.
The County Board approved permits in September allowing six restaurants in the mall to build outdoor seating for diners in the 5,000-square-foot public plaza off of Wilson Blvd, despite some county staff who worried private outdoor dining would cut into the public plaza area.
The September permits will allow Bartaco in Quarter Market to serve diners outdoors in warmer weather, along with five restaurants in other parts of the mall: Compass Coffee, South Block, Ted’s Bulletin, True Food Kitchen, and Union Kitchen, according to the mall’s online directory.
Hot dog food truck Swizzler and sushi burrito chain Buredo also previously announced they would be joining Quarter Market, but are not listed on the online directory.
The lineup of restaurants has fluctuated over the past several months: in May, Forest City announced that Chick-Fil-A, French Exit, Mezeh, Slapfish, South Block, and All About Burger were all slated to join. Those eateries will now be located elsewhere in the development.
Crystal City now has a new restaurant open on its burgeoning 23rd Street S.
Los Tios Grill opened its doors in mid-February in a small space at 515 23rd Street S. The location was once home to Cantina Mexicana, which closed last December, after first opening under a different name in 1978.
The menu offers a variety of Tex-Mex favorites, and some Salvadoran specialties, from fajitas to quesadillas and more. The restaurant also boasts a full menu of tequila, margaritas, sangria and draft beers.
Los Tios got its start in Alexandria, where it has two locations. The small chain also recently opened a restaurant in Leesburg.
The eatery will sit adjacent to the newly re-opened Federico Ristorante Italiano, formerly Cafe Italia, and its opening represents the latest in a series of big changes for the popular block.
The neighborhood’s landlords previously cited the expansion of popular Arlington diner Bob and Edith’s on the street as a prime factor in keying the area’s revitalization. Freddie Lutz, who also runs the eponymous Freddie’s Beach Bar, decided recently to help relaunch Cafe Italia to bring more business back to the area.
The former Tortoise and Hare Bar and Grill space at the end of the block will also soon become home to another Alexandria-based bar: Fiona’s Irish Pub.
The “Crystal City Cuts” barbershop, which just opened inside the Crystal City Sports Pub.
The “Crystal City Cuts” barbershop, which just opened inside the Crystal City Sports Pub.
A sign outside the Crystal City Sports Pub.
The Crystal City Sports Pub no longer offers just beers and bites to eat — the restaurant now has its own barber as well.
“Crystal City Cuts” opened up on the first floor of the bar in mid-February, with a small salon in the back corner of the restaurant (529 23rd Street S.).
A sign outside the bar invites patrons to “get a buzz and get buzzed.”
The new barbershop, which only has room for one or two customers at a time, is open Tuesdays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Anyone hoping for a trim on Saturday can swing by from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., or from noon to 5 p.m. on Sundays.
The bar is one of the longest tenured watering holes in Crystal City, and even the county as a whole, and has served up beers since 1994.
The future location of Taco Rock in Rosslyn (photo courtesy of Team Cordero)
The future location of Taco Rock in Rosslyn (photo courtesy of Team Cordero)
The future location of Taco Rock in Rosslyn (photo courtesy of Team Cordero)
One of Arlington’s busiest restaurateurs is bringing a new fast-casual taco joint to Rosslyn.
Chef Mike Cordero plans to open “Taco Rock” in a space at 1501 Wilson Blvd, he announced today (Thursday). He’s targeting a May opening date for the new restaurant, taking the place of the long-shuttered Spinfire Pizza.
Cordero, the co-owner of popular Arlington bars from The G.O.A.T. to Don Tito, is backing the business in partnership with his sons, Nick and Anthony.
In a news release, Cordero’s company promises that the new eatery will feature “affordable, gourmet tacos” served on homemade, blue corn tortillas. Per the release, specialty taco options will include:
The Figgy Piggy — Slow roasted pork with sweet and savory fig glaze
Bourbon BBQ Short Rib — Short ribs with caramelized onions and crispy fried onions
Pork Belly Banh Mi — Grilled pork belly, Vietnamese slaw and cilantro
Ya Mon Caribbean Jerk Chicken — Grilled chicken, cabbage, jerk sauce topped with a mango pico de gallo
TNT — Fresh blue fin tuna seared with seaweed and cucumber wasabi sauce
Land & Sea — Skirt steak and beer-battered shrimp with caramelized onions and horseradish sauce
The menu will include breakfast offerings, homemade ice cream and stuffed churros as well.
Cordero also expects to offer “an extensive tequila bar,” with specialty cocktails and Mexican beers on tap too. The roughly 2,500-square-foot space will include an 18-stool bar and room for about 50 diners.
“Taco Rock offers the best of both worlds – upscale, out-of-the-box tacos without hurting your wallet,” Mike Cordero wrote in a statement. “We anticipate the Rosslyn community will deem Taco Rock as the go-to spot for a quick bite or the place to hang out and grab a tequila or beer.”
The restaurant will be Cordero’s ninth across the Northern Virginia area, and his first fast-casual establishment. It will sit adjacent to a Roti location and across the street from the neighborhood’s Target.
JBG Smith CEO Matt Kelly, left, and Amazon executive Holly Sullivan, center, at a Bisnow event.
Protesters demonstrate at a Bisnow event focused on Amazon.
Protesters demonstrate at a Bisnow event focused on Amazon.
When Amazon first started seriously considering Arlington for a new headquarters, the company went so far as to send employees out to local coffee shops and bars to gauge how people around here felt about the tech giant moving in.
The company’s head of worldwide economic development, Holly Sullivan, says Amazon employees were regularly surveying Crystal City locals about the prospect of becoming the neighborhood’s newest, and largest, occupant. And by the time the tech firm was ready to select Arlington for the project, she had full confidence that Amazon would be greeted with open arms.
“We have a lot of that local knowledge now,” Sullivan assured a crowd of hundreds of business executives and government officials at Bisnow’s HQ2-Apalooza event today (Thursday) in Potomac Yard. “Even before we announced our Arlington plans we felt welcome here.”
That sort of confidence in the community’s response was critical to Sullivan and the rest of the company’s executives — after all, when Amazon officials feared that New York City leaders were insufficiently welcoming for the other half of the company’s headquarters, Jeff Bezos’ firm simply pulled the plug.
“We think we could’ve gotten New York done, but at a certain point you have to ask, at what cost?” Sullivan said. “We want to locate in a community that also supports us.”
The company certainly received a warm welcome at Thursday’s event. Billed as a chance for business leaders to learn “how you can benefit” from Amazon’s arrival in Arlington, the high-priced gathering of executives offered a largely rosy picture of how the company might change the D.C. region.
Of course, not everyone around the county is quite so eager to see Amazon move in, and some of the company’s critics made their presence felt at the otherwise chummy event. A handful of protesters with the “For Us, Not Amazon” coalition temporarily disrupted the proceedings, holding signs and chanting “Pay to play is not okay, we want a public hearing today.”
Sullivan joked that she was glad the event “welcomed some of our friends that like to follow me around the country,” but the demonstration was organized by local activists, who have grown frustrated with Amazon’s approach to engaging with the community.
This is now Sullivan’s second appearance in as many weeks at a ticketed event for local business leaders, and some critics (and even county officials) would rather see the company engage directly with the communities that might be most affected by Amazon’s impact on the region’s housing market.
Sullivan argues, however, that the company has indeed already done some of that outreach work and is committed to doing more. For starters, she says the company plans to create a “steering committee,” pulling together Amazon executives, local government officials and education leaders to discuss the future of the new headquarters and its impact on the region.
Considering that the company has yet to outline any plans for aiding affordable housing efforts in the area, or even what its exact plans for construction in Arlington might look like — the company is still waiting on the County Board to approve an incentive package for the the new headquarters to formalize many of its plans — advocates in the region are enthusiastic to hear that the company is ready to come to the table with local leaders.
“Amazon has an opportunity to create a model of a tech community that is inclusive, that’s different than what we’ve seen in Silicon Valley and Seattle,” said Nina Janopaul, the CEO of the Arlington Partnership for Affordable Housing.
For officials who have long struggled with working across jurisdictional lines, that sort of collaboration could also be quite meaningful, said Stephen Fuller, one of the region’s preeminent economic forecasters.
He argued during the event that Amazon’s promised 25,000 jobs may not put a strain on the region’s housing all on their own, but that the tens of thousands of additional jobs that flood into the area to support Amazon may well challenge the area.
For instance, Fuller’s researchers project that new companies moving into the region to support Amazon could induce demand for as much as 41 million square feet of new office space in the area — for context, Amazon plans to build anywhere from 4 million to 8 million on its own.
“The growth is really coming and we need to take a moment to think about this beyond Amazon,” Fuller said.
Paul Tecchio, the new restaurant’s general manager, told ARLnow just signed a lease to move in a few days ago, and hopes to have it open for business by “the first or second week of April.”
The new BBQ restaurant moving in got its start as a food truck serving up smoked meats across the Northern Virginia area and D.C., Tecchio said. It’s backed by Dylan Kough (pronounced “cow”), a former financial consultant who decided to try and bring Kansas City-style BBQ to the D.C. area.
Kough opened his first brick-and-mortar location of Smoking Kow in Alexandria last year, and still operates two food trucks as well. He also worked with Tecchio, himself a “classically trained chef who has worked in kitchens around the DMV for almost 7 years,” to open the Alexandria location and will partner with him once more on this new restaurant.
“Dylan and I have poured a lot of heart and hard work into getting the first location to where it is today and we are very excited to be bringing our ‘que to Arlington,” Tecchio wrote in an email.
Smoking Kow’s menu includes a variety of BBQ staples like brisket, pulled pork and chicken and ribs, with a whole host of platters, sandwiches and even tacos on offer.
