new restaurant

Takohachi Japanese Restaurant hoping to open within month at Penrose Square

By Matt Blitz
Takohachi Japanese Restaurant sign at Penrose Square (staff photo by Matt Blitz)

Takohachi Japanese Restaurant is planning to reopen along Columbia Pike, albeit at a different shopping center.

The restaurant expects to open within the next month at Penrose Square, the owner tells ARLnow, provided it can secure the proper county permits in time.

The sushi restaurant was one of the last holdouts at Westmont Shopping Center prior to the development’s demolition to make way for a six-story mixed-use building. It there in early July, but it was reported at that time that Takohachi was set to move into the space formerly occupied by Josephine’s Italian Kitchen, below the Giant supermarket.

That space in the Columbia Pike development hasn’t been occupied in more than two years and has been somewhat of a revolving door in terms of tenants. Prior to Josephine’s, Marble & Rye and Red Rocks had been in the space. Both eateries closed without making it two years in that location.

The newly-renamed Columbia Pike Partnership helped Takohachi make its move down the Pike.

“Columbia Pike Partnership has been actively engaged with Takohachi, the owner, their representatives, BM Smith, and the County in effort to welcome Takohachi to its updated location on Columbia Pike,” writes CPP spokesperson Andrea Avendano to ARLnow. “We are glad to assist Takohachi in continuing to call Columbia Pike home.”

Initially, Takohachi was expected to open earlier this fall, but supply chain issues (recently, a common refrain) and securing proper permits pushed the timeline by a few months.

While the sushi restaurant has found a new home after exiting Westmont Shopping Center, Mom’s Pizza hasn’t. The pizza and Greek restaurant was on the Pike for more than three decades before being ousted due to the redevelopment. The owners of Mom’s are currently selling a few of their more popular dishes online, but told ARLnow back in March they had no plans to retire and wanted to revive the restaurant elsewhere.

Tacombi in Crystal City could start serving tacos in December

By Jo DeVoe
1/4

(Updated at 1:55 p.m.) After roughly two months of delays, New York City-based taqueria chain Tacombi could open in Crystal City in December.

The taco spot is moving into a 3,000 square-foot space inside the revamped Central District Retail shopping plaza, also known as “Crystal Square.”

“We will be (happily!) swinging open our taqueria doors early next month,” a spokeswoman said in an email.

A Twitter user snapped a photo a few days ago outside the the taqueria’s new location, where Tacombi’s menu and job listings are posted. The restaurant will be serving up tacos — including fish tacos proclaimed as Manhattan’s best by New York Magazine — as well as quesadillas and burritos.

https://twitter.com/ddimolfetta/status/1459982984598142978

Tacombi’s opening is a few months behind schedule as work to complete the restaurant’s interior continues. This summer, the spokeswoman said the restaurant was expected to open in September.

Twice this fall, the taqueria has requested the county defer approving its permit request to establish outdoor seating on the Crystal Drive streetscape while construction and inspections progress inside.

“The applicant requests additional time to complete construction, inspections, and the Certificate of Occupancy for the indoor portion of the Tacombi restaurant,” according to staff reports that went before the County Board in October and November. “Once the primary use is established, the applicant will pursue approval of the subject use permit for an outdoor café.”

Plans for outdoor seating in front of Tacombi at 1550 Crystal Drive (via Arlington County)

Last weekend, Arlington County Board members approved a request to defer approving Tacombi’s outdoor seating permit until they meet again on Dec. 11.

Tacombi got its start on the beaches of Yucatan, Mexico. The owner sold tacos from a Volkswagen Bus and eventually opened his first taqueria in the mid-2000s in New York City. Nine other locations have since opened in NYC.

The chain set its sights on Crystal City — in the same retail plaza as a CVS, NYC bakery Mah-Ze-Dahr and a Solidcore gym location — because of the rapid growth it’s experiencing, the spokeswoman previously told ARLnow.

“While National Landing is part of a cosmopolitan world capital, it also maintains the neighborhood quality that best allows us to share authentic Mexican culture,” the spokeswoman said.

Another outpost in the D.C. area — a Bethesda location — was also set to open in September but was delayed.

A new &pizza is now open in Rosslyn

By Matt Blitz
&pizza in Rosslyn (staff photo by Matt Blitz)

A new &pizza location is now open in Rosslyn.

The newest Arlington location of the fast-casual pizza eatery, first reported in May, opened yesterday (Monday) at 1800 N. Lynn Street. It replaces Little Beet, which closed in September 2020, and marks &pizza’s 12th Northern Virginia location.

“With 58 shops, including 12 in northern Virginia, Rosslyn felt like the perfect location to expand our local footprint,” an &pizza spokesperson tells ARLnow. “At our Friends & Family event on Sunday 11/14, we were overwhelmed by the support of the Rosslyn community, serving up more than 600 free pies to local residents.”

Other locations in and around Arlington include Ballston, Seven Corners, and at Reagan National Airport.

Balloons encircled the entrance of the eatery yesterday, marking the opening.

https://twitter.com/RosslynVA/status/1460296655547379714

The locally based pizza chain is known for its customizability, letting customers choose from a wide variety of toppings, as well as various sauce, cheese and crust options. The pizza is then cooked assembly-line style as you stand in line.

The first &pizza opened in D.C. on H Street NE in 2012 and, in less than a decade, has expanded to nearly 60 locations from Virginia to New York. There are potentially a lot more on the way.

Salad spot Chopt is coming to Ballston

By ARLnow.com

Signs are up for a new Chopt location in Arlington.

The salad purveyor, popular with lunchtime office crowds, appears to be coming to the ground floor of the Ballston Exchange complex, next to Shake Shack and across from Ballston Quarter mall.

It’s unclear when it will open. No additional information about the new location could be found on the Chopt website and the company has not responded to an inquiry from ARLnow.

Chopt has existing locations in D.C. and Northern Virginia, including in Rosslyn at 1735 N. Lynn Street. Other locations include McLean, Vienna and — opening today — Kingstowne Town Center, just south of Alexandria.

In Ballston the new Chopt will compete with existing salad spots Sweetgreen (4075 Wilson Blvd) and Sweet Leaf Cafe (650 N. Quincy Street), each a couple of blocks away.

Pines of Florence is coming back, opening in Cherrydale as soon as this weekend

By Matt Blitz
1/3

(Updated, 11/16) Long-time local restaurant Pines of Florence — and its owner — are each making an unlikely comeback.

The Southern Italian eatery will once again be cooking, this time in Arlington’s Cherrydale neighborhood, after stints in Virginia Square, Columbia Pike, and Old Town Alexandria, owner Jimmy Khan confirms to ARLnow. It’s coming to 2109 N. Pollard Street, the space formerly occupied by the recently-closed Portabellos restaurant, in a one-story shopping strip just off of Langston Blvd.

The plan is to have a “soft opening” this Saturday, Nov. 20, says Khan, where customers can bring their own beer and wine (there will be a service fee).  Khan expects to have their liquor license in about two weeks and will have a “grand opening” then.

The opening comes a year and a half after Khan suffered through a protracted and nearly fatal battle with COVID-19.

“I had a 6% chance of living,” he tells ARLnow. “I was on a ventilator for 40 days. The doctors say it was a miracle I lived.”

During that time and his recovery, he took a long look at his life and decided he needed to do more for his family. That’s why he decided to reopen Pines of Florence.

“God gave me another life, so I wanted to do something for my kids, the next generation,” says Khan.

Pines of Florence’s last location was on King Street in Alexandria in a building that was set for redevelopment. While that was a big reason the restaurant shuttered in June 2020, the closing was also related to Khan’s own battle with COVID and his co-owner (and uncle) retiring.

After some time away, Khan is ready for a restart.

“Being a restaurant owner is in my genes,” he said. “I quit for a while, but I’m re-energized.”

Khan says the plan is to open even more restaurants in the coming years.

The new Pines of Florence will, like the previous iterations, serve pizza, sandwiches, and homemade pasta dishes, as well as beer and wine. It will replace Portabellos: An American Cafe, which closed just this past September, after 15 years serving the Cherrydale and Maywood communities.

Khan says he stands by his June 2020 words about wanting to do more for his community, including creating jobs and helping those less fortunate, particularly after his near-death experience.

“[This restaurant] is going to be meaningful for my family and the community,” he says. “I want to help.”

Inca Social expected to open in Rosslyn next month

By Matt Blitz
1/2

Inca Social expects to start serving modern Peruvian cuisine on Wilson Blvd by December 21, though there will be a free preview this weekend.

The Peruvian restaurant and bar is looking to open its Rosslyn location by late December, co-owner Fito Garcia confirmed to ARLnow. It originally hoped to open in late October, but supply chain issues and a slight miscommunication pushed it by a couple of months.

The free preview will take place this Saturday from 12-4 p.m. on the restaurant’s outdoor patio, featuring tastings, music, dancing, and an appearance from a llama.

Inca Social is moving into the former Kona Bar and Grill space at 1776 Wilson Blvd, which rolled out of Arlington in April 2019.

Garcia is also co-owner of Courthaus Social on Clarendon Blvd in Courthouse, which opened in 2015. He tells ARLnow that they’ve always wanted to bring Inca Social to Arlington.

“I’m a big fan of Arlington and we were looking at multiple spots,” Garcia says. “We are very picky about what we want.”

The 7,600-foot restaurant will serve cocktails, empanadas, ceviche, and other Peruvian favorites. There will also be a focus on Nikkei cuisine, a fusion of Japanese and Peruvian, including sushi and ceviche, that’s becoming popular in Peru, says Garcia.

The menu will differ slightly from the original Vienna, Va. location in that it will highlight more modern cuisine.

“What’s blowing up in Peru is what you are going to find here,” he says.

There will be a large indoor bar with windows that serve the outdoor patio, Garcia notes. The bar will specialize in serving pisco sours.

There will also be a to-go market where customers can purchase a ceviche kit which will include bottles of Inca Social’s leche de tigre marinade, Eater previously reported.

The interior of the restaurant pays homage to Machu Picchu, the 15th-century citadel in the Andes mountains of Peru, and will feature a wall of moss, says Garcia. There may eventually be a projection screen outside, if the owners are successful in obtaining a permit.

The restaurant is currently hiring and recently held an interview open house. Inca Social’s first location near the Dunn-Loring Metro station opened in early 2019.

New restaurant and flower shop Poppyseed Rye to open this week in Ballston

By ARLnow.com
1/3

If you were looking for a place to procure a hearty sandwich, a lovely bouquet and a cold beer with the same swipe of a credit card, the wait is almost over.

Poppyseed Rye, a new restaurant and flower shop concept, is opening this week in the former Buzz Bakeshop space at 818 N. Quincy Street in Ballston. It will officially open to the public on Friday (Nov. 19), though a couple of private “soft opening” events are likely earlier in the week.

The shop will specialize in fresh flowers and craft sandwiches, while also featuring home goods, toasts, cold press juice, charcuterie, beer, wine, and champagne. That’s according to co-owner Scott Parker, who’s also a partner in Don Tito and a trio of other Ballston businesses: Bearded Goat Barber, BASH Boxing, Bronson Bierhall.

Parker is opening Poppyseed Rye with partners Alex Buc, who formerly ran Jetties sandwich shops in D.C., and Akeda Maerdan, who owns Farida Floral in Fairfax. The opening can be seen as a vote of confidence in Ballston as a place that can support the kind of businesses that one might more commonly see in the city.

(Part of the neighborhood is, in fact, more population-dense than anywhere in the District.)

“Ballston is on fire,” Parker told ARLnow over the weekend. “We’re so excited to open in this buzzing neighborhood, and bring the best sandwiches and fresh flowers you can find in the area.”

Poppyseed Rye will we open from 11 a.m.-10 p.m. daily, starting Friday.

CarPool’s opening in Ballston delayed by supply chain traffic jam

By ARLnow.com
Inside the nearly-completed new CarPool bar in Ballston (Photo via CarPool/Facebook)

(Updated at 3 p.m.) Those waiting on CarPool to make its triumphant return might have to keep waiting for a week — or several.

The beloved bar, which closed its original Ballston-area location on Fairfax Drive in 2017 and moved (temporarily) to Fairfax County, was hoping to open in October. But the global supply chain woes affecting everything from car manufacturing to wire hangers are delaying the opening.

“We are pretty much ready (and have been for a couple weeks now), but have been delayed while awaiting a couple parts needed to repair a couple pieces of kitchen equipment in order to get the final sign-off from the Department of Health,” co-owner Mark Handwerger told ARLnow this afternoon. “This whole supply-chain mess seems to be at the core of the matter, but in any event we are hoping to have things finalized next week.”

Handwerger cautioned that if CarPool is unable to open next week, it will likely have to wait until after the following week’s turkey leftovers are cleared from the fridge.

“It may be after Thanksgiving since I feel certain no one will be doing anything that week and, even if we get things shored up on our end I’m guessing we won’t be able to get inspected and have licenses and the like processed during the holiday,” he said.

The new CarPool is located in the nearly 6,400-square-foot former Greene Turtle and Bistro 1521 space, in the Virginia Tech building at 900 N. Glebe Road.

Photos posted to the watering hole’s social media accounts over the past month show what’s in store when it does reopen: billiards tables, dart boards, lots of TVs, plenty of beer taps, and other old favorites like the antique gas pumps, antique signs, and garage doors. There will also be a large outdoor space and, we’re told, pinball machines.

Photo via CarPool/Facebook

The Crossing Clarendon catches sustainable seafood spot Seamore’s

By Jo DeVoe
The Crossing Clarendon (staff photo)

The Crossing Clarendon says it has “some ‘reel’ good news to share.”

The retail and residential development formerly known as Market Common Clarendon has netted Seamore’s, a New York-based sustainable seafood spot, announcing the new restaurant tenant on social media.

“Born from a love of sustainable and local fishing, Seamore’s brings the ocean back to the urban table with modern, healthy dishes for every eater,” the post said. “From lobster rolls, fish tacos, to their signature tuna poke, this is Clarendon’s best catch and you’ll only find it at The Crossing Clarendon.”

The restaurant is slated to operate in a 2,605-square foot spot at the corner of N. Edgewood Street and Clarendon Blvd — where the old Baja Fresh used to be — on the same strip as the MyEyeDr. and Nicecream. The building has since been renovated, along with the four-story office building behind it.

Regency Centers and Seamore’s were not immediately able to provide additional details about when the restaurant could open.

Seamore’s has a half-dozen locations around New York City, and was founded by a New Yorker seeking better options in Manhattan for local fish.

“For a city surrounded by water, New York shockingly lacks menus with local fish,” the restaurant’s website says. “Seamore’s was born to change this. Founded by native New Yorker, Michael Chernow, who longed for better fish tacos and a reunion of city and sea, Seamore’s brings the ocean back to the urban table in a deliciously modern and healthy way.”

The menu is always changing based on what’s available, according to the restaurant.

Seamore’s says it only sells fish with stable or growing populations that are harvested “in an environmentally conscious manner.”

Popular La Tingeria food truck leaving Arlington for now to open restaurant in Falls Church

By Matt Blitz
1/5

David Peña and his popular La Tingeria food truck that’s been serving tacos in Arlington since 2012 are moving to Falls Church to open a brick and mortar restaurant.

The new location at 626 S. Washington Street is set to open next month (December), Peña tells ARLnow, and will be offering all the favorites for carry-out, including queso birria tacos, chicken tinga, tostadas, frescas, and fried quesadillas.

La Tingeria was selected by ARLnow readers as an Arlies award winner in the food truck category earlier this year and was No. 15 on a list of the top-ranked Arlington eateries by Yelp ratings.

Usually parked along S. Courthouse Road next to Penrose Park on weekends, the truck has drawn long lines and a need for a bigger cooking space, Peña says. That led him to take the plunge into a permanent location. He wanted to stay in Arlington, but the rent just too high.

“I tried my hardest to find somewhere in Arlington,” Peña says.

He considered spots along Columbia Pike and in Crystal City, but in the end, went with a three-story space in Falls Church about a mile and a half from the East Falls Church Metro Station.

The first floor will be the restaurant, the second floor will be a tattoo shop run by a friend of Peña’s, and the third floor will be office space. Well-known Arlington-based artist Mas Paz, who initially designed La Tingeria’s logo a number of years ago, painted the restaurant’s interior.

Peña began his career in the local restaurant industry more than a decade ago, serving as a sous chef at Rustico in Alexandria and, then, moving to its Ballston location.

It was during this time, he started perfecting his recipes, serving them up at the end of the day to his colleagues.

“They’re called family meals,” Peña says. “At the end of the day, the [leftovers] or the food that’s going to go bad, you put it all together and make some meal for the employees.”

It was his tinga that was most popular.

“Tinga is the marination of the meat,” he says. “So, when we have beef tinga, we braise the beef for eight hours, shred it up, add caramelized onions, and add chipotle-garlic sauce.”

In late 2012, he struck out of his own and opened a food truck that traveled around Arlington, serving lunch on weekdays in Ballston, Courthouse, Wilson Blvd, and Rosslyn.

Peña was comfortable, he says, and never anticipated opening a restaurant. But then the pandemic struck. He thought, like many, that lockdown would only last a few weeks, but it turned into months.

(more…)

CHIKO, popular Chinese and Korean eatery, opening in Shirlington this week

By Matt Blitz
1/5

CHIKO, a popular D.C.-based Chinese and Korean eatery, is opening its first Virginia location in Shirlington on Wednesday (Nov. 10).

First announced in July, CHIKO is opening at 4040 Campbell Avenue and is taking over space formerly occupied by DAK Chicken, which closed in summer 2020.

“We look forward to being part of Shirlington’s vibrant restaurant scene and hope to be cooking for the greater Arlington community. Danny and I felt this was a perfect spot for our first foray into Virginia,” co-owner Scott Drewno wrote in the press release.

The fast casual restaurant is owned by Drewno and partner Danny Lee, who make up what they call the Fried Rice Collective and who run other concepts in the region.

This is CHIKO’s fifth location, including the fourth in the area. The other regional locations include Dupont Circle, Capitol Hill, and Bethesda. There’s also a shop in California.

“Federal Realty is excited to add another CHIKO location to our DC-metro portfolio,” writes Stuart Biel, Senior Vice President of Federal Realty Investment Trust, which owns the Village of Shirlington as well as Westpost in Pentagon City. “The Bethesda location has seen incredible success during a very challenging time, and we look forward to the same in The Village at Shirlington. CHIKO’s incredible reputation and loyal following mean yet another quality food option in the neighborhood.”

The eatery is known for its dim sum, double-fried chicken wings, and fried rice. Each location has its own speciality fried rice dish, with the one in Shirlington serving up charred siu pork fried rice.

Relatedly, there’s a new “Fried Rice Passport,” which offers a $25 gift certificate for those who try the fried rice at every local location. A new blueberry kaffir lime custard dessert is also exclusive to the Shirlington location.

The restaurant is about 1,500 square feet, has seating inside for 30, and offers carryout as well as delivery. The interior is designed by D.C.-based Natalie Park Design Studio.

Only dinner will initially be available, though lunch and brunch will come later this winter, according to the press release.

At the opening on Wednesday, the first 50 people to come to the shop will receive a free dumpling order.

CHIKO joins Bearded Goat Barber and F45, a gym, among the businesses to open in Shirlington this fall.

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