Interior construction is starting to wrap up at Green Pig Bistro, a new American/French bistro at 1025 N. Fillmore Street in Clarendon.
The restaurant, under the leadership of chef/owner Scot Harlan, is seeking to provide a selection of meat-centric comfort food that is at once familiar and challenging to suburban palates. Harlan, who used to work under celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay, says his biggest investment will be hiring good people in the kitchen — while other details like glassware will be relegated to commodity status.
“I’d rather pay for labor and technique than pay for ingredients and glassware. I’m literally buying used plates from places,” Harlan told the Washington Post in November.
As of last week, Harlan said he was aiming for a mid-March opening. The restaurant, located in the old American Flatbread space, will have a small sidewalk seating area.
A new Chipotle location is coming to the Pentagon City mall food court, according to a construction barrier that replaced what was formerly a cheesesteak restaurant.
When Chipotle opens for business — no word yet on an expected opening date — it will open directly next to a Taco Bell.
It will also face competition from the currently under-construction Lime Fresh Mexican Grill, which is opening in nearby Pentagon Row, and from the sit-down Chevys Fresh Mex, located across the street at the Pentagon Centre shopping center.
A commercial tenant will soon move into a building that’s been the center of a years-long controversy in the Cherrydale neighborhood. A Subway restaurant is coming to the Bromptons at Cherrydale building (3800 Lee Hwy), now known as 3800 Lofts.
The residential space above the restaurant was supposed to be sold as condos, but multiple issues prompted the developer to convert the units to rentals over the summer.
Subway will be the first retail tenant in the building. The space, including the residential portion, sat empty for years due to problems with the building’s structural soundness, multiple lawsuits and a faltering economy.
Work has already begun on the restaurant, but there’s no word yet on an opening date.
One of Arlington’s busiest restaurants is expanding.
Ray’s the Steaks in Courthouse (2300 Wilson Blvd) has added an adjacent bistro dining area called “Retro Ray’s.” While sharing a kitchen with the larger Ray’s, the new bistro will be operated as a separate entity. It will not take phone reservations — opting instead to only serve walk-in patrons — and will only be open for dinner Tuesday through Saturday.
The menu for Retro Ray’s looks very much like that of Ray’s the Steaks. In fact, it is the Ray’s the Steaks menu — from 2005. The offerings and the prices match that of the old 1725 Wilson Boulevard Ray’s the Steaks, circa 2005, we’re told. That means your average steak will be about $3 cheaper than the same steak next door.
Manager Jon Macy says the 50-seat Retro Ray’s is intended primarily to be overflow for the 180-seat Ray’s the Steaks, which is often fully booked with reservations. Ray’s the Steaks books so many phone reservations, in fact, that it takes two employees just to take reservations during the middle of the day, when the restaurant is otherwise closed.
Unlike the current Ray’s, Retro Ray’s has a liquor license and will serve higher-end liquors and cognacs. It will also serve wine, like its neighbor, but the wine list will be shorter and will include a $18-per-bottle house wine in addition to inexpensive by-the-glass options. Retro Ray’s has a small, simple bar with seating for about half a dozen.
Retro Ray’s quietly opened last Thursday and Macy says the eatery has already started attracting sizable dinnertime crowds. He estimated that the restaurant served 150 customers on Saturday of this past weekend. Ray’s the Steaks, meanwhile, will celebrate the 10th anniversary of its founding later this year.
Hope Proposes Cigarette Tax Hike — Arlington’s Del. Patrick Hope (D) is planning to introduce a bill that would increase Virginia’s relatively low cigarette tax. Unlike past years when Hope has proposed a cigarette tax hike only to have it promptly killed by Republicans, Hope is now proposing that revenue from the tax go directly to car tax relief, rather than to anti-smoking programs or Medicaid funding. [WTVR]
Record Profit for Virginia ABC — Virginia’s state-owned ABC liquor stores and restaurant wholesale business saw record sales and a record profit in fiscal year 2011. The Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control says it recorded an all-time high profit of $121 million last fiscal year, amid record demand for wine, liquor and mixers at stores and from restaurants. The state’s top-selling liquor, meanwhile, is Jack Daniels. [Associated Press]
Lime Fresh Now Open in Clarendon — Lime Fresh Mexican Grill officially opened in Clarendon on Monday. The restaurant, at 2900 Wilson Boulevard, is the first D.C. location for the Florida-based chain. Another Lime Fresh location is planned for Pentagon Row. The chain originally got its start in 2004 as a restaurant on Miami’s South Beach. The Clarendon Lime Fresh location will be open from 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., seven days a week.
Lyon Park Community Center Renovations — The County Board is expected to consider a use permit in March for planned renovations to the Lyon Park Community Center. [Sun Gazette]
AHRA Cafe and Sandwich Bar opened today in the WJLA building in Rosslyn (1100 Wilson Boulevard).
The 2,200 square foot restaurant, which replaced Mr. Lee’s coffee shop and two other small businesses in the building’s lobby, will serve breakfast and lunch for hungry Rosslyn office workers.
A search for a website, Facebook page or phone number associated with the restaurant yielded no results.
The Greene Turtle (900 N. Glebe Rd) in Ballston has officially opened for business.
More than 50 televisions hang on the walls and certain booths have individual TVs that patrons can control. TVs along the windows allow fans to keep one eye on game action while keeping the other on action outside.
General Manager Scott Smith says patrons can expect the same service and sports environment people enjoy at The Greene Turtle’s other locations. He wants people in the area to stop by and give the newest one a try.
“There are a lot of sports bars, a lot of sports bars have a lot of TVs, but there’s nothing like this,” Smith said.
The Greene Turtle touts fare above and beyond typical bar food. New York strip steaks and crab cakes are a couple of the less traditional sports bar offerings.
“We pride ourselves on the execution of our food,” Smith said. “We want to bring a different level of service to the area.”
Another aspect that sets this place apart is the customer loyalty program. Customers can purchase one of the famous Greene Turtle mugs and bring it back for future fill-ups.
The Greene Turtle has more than two dozen locations around the D.C./Baltimore region, including two locations along the Delaware shore. The new Ballston location will eventually have outdoor seating when the weather improves.
Although the Greene Turtle will technically be a Redskins and Virginia Tech bar, they guarantee that not just local games will be shown. Every game will be on at least one of the TVs. Smith does point out, however, that Virginia Tech is the building’s landlord so that team will be particularly celebrated.
Besides the new Virginia Tech development, more improvement projects are slated for Ballston. The hope is that the Greene Turtle will gather a solid following, and be considered one of the forefront examples of positive expansion.
“It is an awesome area,” Smith said. “It’s good to get in early.”
(Updated at 2:20 p.m.)There’s no shortage of variety at Hee Been Asian Bistro Buffet, a new restaurant located between Crystal City and Potomac Yard at 3600 S. Glebe Road.
Hee Been’s nearly 80-foot-long dinner buffet features some 85 different items representing three different types of cuisine: Korean, Japanese and Thai. The buffet offerings include soups and salads, a wide selection of freshly-prepared sushi and sashimi, hot and cold noodle dishes, grilled-to-order steaks, various types of seafood and Korean specialties, plus fresh fruit and desserts (tip: try the cold cinnamon tea).
The family-owned restaurant has been off to a relatively slow start since its Christmas Day soft opening, thanks in part to its inconspicuous location. Hee Been is located at the back of the off-street cluster of eateries and shops on the ground floor of the relatively new Eclipse condominium building in the far southeast corner of Arlington County. Though in close proximity to busy Jefferson Davis Highway (Route 1), the restaurant’s existence is hardly noticeable to anybody who doesn’t live in the Eclipse.
Hee Been, with its modern interior and soft background music, is open for both lunch and dinner. The weekday all-you-can-eat buffet prices are $14.99 for lunch and $26.99 for dinner. Weekend prices are a couple of dollars higher. The lunch features most of the selection of the dinner buffet, we’re told, minus some of the higher end items like the crab legs and grilled-to-order steaks.
In addition to the buffet, Hee Been offers a la carte options like Bento boxes and bibimbap. The restaurant also has a full bar with beer, wine and cocktails. Among the specialties are Korean beers like Cass and OB and bottled drinks like Bek Se Ju and Chum-Churum. A happy hour menu, still in development, promises beers as low as $2, cocktails as low as $5 and half-priced wines.
Roti Mediterranean Grill is about 24 hours away from opening its new Rosslyn location.
The restaurant, at 1501 Wilson Boulevard, will open at some point tomorrow, according to a PR rep. The opening will be followed with a “free lunch day” on Tuesday, Jan. 17; customers who line up between 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. will be given a free lunch in exchange for a suggested donation to the charity Adoptions Together.
Roti, a Chicago-based chain, serves “healthy Mediterranean cuisine” in a fast casual environment.
There’s a big restaurant shakeup underway at Pentagon Row. Baja Fresh and PR Grill have closed their doors at the shopping center, while Lime Fresh Mexican Grill and Nando’s Peri-Peri restaurant will be opening later this year.
Baja Fresh, located near the Harris Teeter grocery store, closed on Dec. 31, according to a note in the window. The restaurant’s main sign has already been taken down.
Baja Fresh will be replaced by Lime Fresh Mexican Grill, a fast-growing chain that’s also opening a location in Clarendon. The Pentagon Row Lime Fresh location is expected to open this spring, according to the Pentagon Row Facebook page. The Clarendon location, meanwhile, is now expected to open on Jan. 16.
Florida-based Lime Fresh is backed by the company behind the Ruby Tuesday restaurant chain.
PR Grill closed recently so that the owners could “concentrate on other business,” according to a web site where just about everything remaining inside the restaurant is being auctioned off. PR Grill’s web site is still live, however, touting the restaurant’s “variety of American steak and seafood dining hot off the grill.”
It’s unclear if it will be opening in the old PR Grill space, but Pentagon Row announced this afternoon that Nando’s Peri-Peri will be opening in the shopping center this summer. The local chain bills itself as “the home of legendary, Portuguese, flame-grilled, Peri-Peri chicken.”
The restaurant shakeup comes as Federal Realty, the company that owns Pentagon Row, is preparing to revamp the property’s central plaza area. The company’s proposal to reconfigure the plaza is expected to be considered by the Arlington County Board later this month. The reconfigured plaza would allow for a larger skating rink, among other changes, we’re told.
Update at 2:30 p.m. — A reader points out that Pentagon Row eateries Sandella’s Flatbread Cafe and Maggie Moo’s have also recently closed.
A new coffee shop and a new eatery are coming soon to Crystal City.
Interior construction is underway at a new Seattle’s Best Coffee location at 2450 Crystal Drive. The owners were originally hoping to open the store, which is now hiring, in mid-November. No word yet on when the store is now expected to open.
Also coming soon to Crystal City: a new California Tortilla location. The local Mexican restaurant chain is planning on opening a location on the southern portion of Crystal Drive, according to a source familiar with the plans.
The new California Tortilla — which would join the company’s Courthouse and Reagan National Airport locations in Arlington — will compete with a nearby Chipotle at 2231 Crystal Drive and with the District Taco cart, which makes regular visits to Crystal City.
Interior construction is starting to wrap up at Green Pig Bistro, a new American/French bistro at 1025 N. Fillmore Street in Clarendon.
