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Guerra Steakhouse in Rosslyn Opens With Slow But Steady Start

By Dana Munro
1/4

Guerra Steakhouse in Rosslyn is off to a slow start after opening this past Saturday, but that is partly by design, according to owner Jackelin Barrera.

The steakhouse at 1725 Wilson Blvd does not yet have a sign, or an advertising campaign, but Barrera said she was more concerned with opening before coronavirus cases could once more threaten businesses to limit capacity.

Guerra offers steaks, wines to pair with them, and other classic steakhouse dishes in the former space of Ben’s Chili Bowl, which closed last year.

The restaurant is family-owned and operated.

“All the people who work inside are family,” said Barrera. “I feel like you can tell the love we have for each other when you taste the food.”

The steakhouse’s story has its roots in family, as it is named for her grandfather, Ermides Guerra, a Guatemalan immigrant who loved steak.

So far, Barrera said the most popular dishes have been the jumbo tiger shrimp with a “fuego spicy paste” and the iceberg wedge topped with blue cheese, bacon, grape tomatoes and radish, in a blue cheese dressing. She said the New York strip steak has also received attention.

“Most of the people that have come by have said Arlington has been missing a good steakhouse,” said Barrera.

In addition to serving quality food, Barrera said Guerra is focused on making patrons feel like part of the family.

“We don’t just give you a steak — we give you an experience,” she said.

Currently, the steakhouse only serves wine and beer, but Barrera said her family plans to add cocktails next week. Down the road, she said the Guerra Steakhouse experience could include a clam bake and a tomahawk steak that will be flamed table-side.

“We’ll hopefully have table-side cocktails too,” she said.

The Salt Line in Ballston Now Likely to Open in September

By Matt Blitz
1/3

The Salt Line in Ballston is now “looking at a September opening,” restaurant representatives tell ARLnow.

This another push back from the restaurant’s initial opening in spring 2020. Pandemic-related delays caused that to be moved to 2021. Then, construction delays shifted it again to summer and, now, opening appears to be set for late summer or early fall.

Current construction does appear to be further along than it was two months ago, with ARLnow observing several people working on the outdoor bar.

When the restaurant was first announced in January 2019, the Arlington County Board had to approve the building of the outdoor portion of the restaurant since the plan was for it to be permanent.

The Salt Line is located at the base of 4040 Wilson Blvd. in Ballston, the tallest building in the neighborhood.

The seafood spot comes from D.C-based Long Shot Hospitality and will be the second location of the popular Navy Yard restaurant. That location was the Washington Nationals’ unofficial party spot during their World Series run in 2019, partly due to Ryan Zimmerman being an investor and part-owner.

The 3,800-square-foot space in Ballston will include spread-out booths, a large patio, and outdoor bar and lounge area in response to “COVID-conscious guests requests for more space,” we’re told.

The kitchen will be managed by executive chef Matt Singer and Kyle Bailey of Long Shot Hospitality. The Ballston restaurant will have a menu similar to that of the Navy Yard location, including clam chowder, lobster rolls, rockfish, and clams. The seafood is sourced from a New York-based cooperative supplemented by local, freshly caught fish from Maryland.

There will also be house-made pastas, daily lunch service, and an “expanded selection of crudos.”

Long Shot also just opened a New Orleans-style eatery called Dauphine’s in D.C. in May.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

New Rosslyn Food Hall Nears Opening — “American Real Estate Partners is nearly ready to take the wraps off Assembly, the food hall atop the Rosslyn Metro station, a project that’s been more than two years in the works and was thrown a curveball by the Covid-19 pandemic. Assembly at Rosslyn City Center, a 29,000-square-foot space spread over two levels at 1700 N. Moore St., is slated to open this week for a sneak peak for tenants and next week to the wider public.” [Washington Business Journal]

Northam Announcement in Arlington Today — “Gov. Northam will announce a ‘budget proposal for federal American Rescue Plan funding’ at the Arlington County offices in Sequoia Plaza on Wednesday afternoon, per a press release.” [Twitter]

Bonds Likely to Be on Ballot — “Arlington County Board members on July 20 formally requested the placement of four local-bond referendums on the Nov. 2 ballot, which if approved by voters – as seems likely – would lead to a further increase in the government’s debt-service payments… the following bonds will go to voters: $38.7 million for transportation and Metro. $23.01 million for schools. $17.035 million for community infrastructure. $6.8 million for local parks and recreation.” [Sun Gazette]

ART Buses Lifting Capacity Restrictions — “Starting August 1, rider capacity restrictions will be lifted on all ART buses. Seats inside the buses will no longer be blocked off.” [Twitter]

Ceremony Held for Urban Garden — “Project HUG revitalizes underused land at Virginia Highlands Park and illustrates how marginalized space in National Landing’s urban environment can be transformed into vibrant, sustainable, food producing ecosystems. This pilot project serves as a model of modern sustainable agricultural practices to demonstrate how community-driven farming can address food insecurity by leveraging partnerships across public, private, civic, and non-profit communities.” [Press Release]

Va. Unemployment System Struggling — “As the embattled Virginia Employment Commission has been scrambling to move through a massive backlog of unemployment claims, thousands more cases have been pouring in from jobless residents. Staff who review disputed claims have been leaving the agency, and the General Assembly’s watchdog has sounded alarms about measures being taken by the commission to hasten the process in response. Many unemployed Virginians say the commission’s unresponsive call center has stopped picking up the phone.” [Washington Post]

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Road Closures for Biden Event — “The public can anticipate large crowds and increased pedestrian and vehicular traffic in the area related to the event. The following road closures will begin at 1:00pm: Park Drive from N. George Mason Drive to 3rd Street N., 3rd Street N. from N. Park Drive to N. Columbus Street. During the event, the following closure will also be in effect: George Mason Drive from N. Carlin Springs Road to N. Henderson Road.” [Arlington County]

Mahjong Bar Coming to Pentagon City — “Lo and Bun’d Up founder Scott Chung are taking the idea of post-dinner games one step further for their next business venture: Sparrow Room, a mahjong parlor and speakeasy-style dim sum bar tucked away behind Bun’d Up at Pentagon Row. During the day, patrons order Taiwanese-style gua bao stuffed with fried chicken or bulgogi beef at the fast-casual restaurant. Come evening, they can head to the dimly-lit, 42-seat bar for mahjong games, cocktails, and dim sum-style fare.” [Washingtonian]

In-Person Speakers Outnumber Virtual — “Two months after the Arlington County Board resumed in-person meetings, it appears members of the public are more comfortable showing up to voice their opinions. Of the 18 people signed up for the County Board’s July 17 ‘citizen comment’ portion kicking off the meeting, 13 were in-person speakers, the remainder checking in via Internet.” [Sun Gazette]

Fire Union Asks for Recognition — From the Arlington Professional Firefighters and Paramedics Association, following the County Board authorizing collective bargaining with employee groups: “Start the collective bargaining process. We have petitioned the county to recognize us as the union representing all firefighters and paramedics in Arlington.” [Press Release, Twitter]

Flights Still Down at DCA — “The number of scheduled outbound passenger flights departing Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in the third quarter of 2021 is expected to be down 35 percent from the same period in 2019 – among the biggest sustained downturns in the nation, but still a sign of incremental progress.” [Sun Gazette]

Lucky Danger’s Pentagon City Outpost Finally Set to Open This Week

By Matt Blitz
1/3

Lucky Danger’s Pentagon City outpost is finally set to open on Wednesday (July 21), according to a restaurant press release.

The popular D.C.-based Chinese-American pop-up restaurant is taking up residence at Westpost (formerly Pentagon Row) at 1101 S. Joyce Street. It moves into the space previously occupied by Aabee Express Mediterranean, which closed nearly a year ago.

The Arlington location will be the highly-regarded concept’s first permanent location, after the success of their pop-up in D.C.’s Mount Vernon Triangle neighborhood.

“We noticed a lot of our guests were actually driving over from Arlington, Alexandria to D.C. to pick up food,” Lucky Danger’s executive chef Andrew Chiou tells ARLnow. “So, we might as well go to them.”

The restaurant had initially targeted an April opening back when they first announced their expansion in February.

The opening was delayed for two reasons, Chiou tells ARLnow. First, co-owner and local chef Tim Ma’s continued activism work while co-founding Chefs Stopping AAPI Hate took bandwidth and priority. At the same time, the fabrication of custom-built equipment took longer than expected.

Lucky Danger will be take-out and delivery-only — there is no on-location sit down capacity.

Orders will be taken via an “in-person kiosk” at the location for the time being, according to the press release. Online ordering is expected to be available in the “coming weeks.”

Chiou says this was done with not just pandemic-related safety in mind, but also to pay employees more.

“We want to pay our staff more… to make up for lost time from earlier in the year,” says Chiou. “In order to do that, we have to save costs in other places.”

That meant not having a cashier and servers.

The menu at Westpost will be much the same as the one in D.C., but there will be a few additions including pan fried scallion pancakes, deep fried shrimp spring rolls, General Tso’s chicken, and Moo Shu pork wrapped in a housemade pancake. Every order comes with a “fistful of fortune cookies,” per the press release.

Chiou says they often got requests from guests for other favorite Chinese-American dishes and decided to start making them.

“We’re already moving the location to where our guests are. So, might as well also give them the food they want,” Chiou says.

Initially the restaurant will only be open for dinner Wednesday through Sunday, but the plan is to be open seven days a week and for lunch. However, the restaurant is still hiring and is not ready to move to expanded hours quite yet, says Chiou.

The hope is that this Arlington location is just the first in Lucky Danger’s expansion.

Chiou says the thought is to open a number of Lucky Danger outposts across the area, including more in Arlington, that are closer together, smaller, and remain top quality. This could mean food sells out faster (which is often the case in D.C.), but that’s okay.

“We want to open a few more spaces that aren’t too far apart [from each other],” says Chiou. “So that everyone can have access to Lucky Danger.”

Future Ballston Silver Diner Spot Aims for 2022 Opening

By Jo DeVoe

A planned Silver Diner location in Ballston, at the intersection of Wilson Blvd and N. Glebe Road, is moving through county approval processes and aims to open next year.

Developer Saul Centers announced in 2017 that the regional chain would open a spot within its development at 750 N. Glebe Road. Now, Silver Diner is obtaining the needed approvals to move into the ground floor of The Waycroft apartment building.

On Saturday, the Arlington County Board approved a two-part application from the company to allow for the installation of lighted architectural features on the façade of the building as well as the operation of an outdoor sidewalk café.

“Silver Diner is proposing to have a 961 square foot, 68-seat, outdoor café… however, 229 square feet of their outdoor café is proposed to be located within the building’s Wilson Boulevard streetscape, which is County owned right-of-way,” a board report said.

Although the Silver Diner “anticipates operating the restaurant 24 hours a day,” operating on public property will restrict the hours of its outdoor seating between 6 a.m. and 2 a.m., according to the report.

Despite the approvals, a spokeswoman for Silver Diner said the company does not have any updates to share.

“They’re still planning on opening in 2022,” she said.

Once complete, the 6,700-square-foot eatery will join Target, which opened last summer, and Enterprise Rent-A-Car on The Waycroft’s ground floor.

The planned Ballston location is expected to one day replace the currently operating Silver Diner spot in Clarendon. A 224-room hotel and a 286-unit residential building will replace the Silver Diner and The Lot beer garden. The redevelopment is part of a bevy of projects slated to change the look of Clarendon.

‘Uncommon Luncheonette’ Coming to Clarendon

By ARLnow.com
1/2

A new restaurant with a unique name is coming to Clarendon.

“Uncommon Luncheonette” filed yesterday for a building permit at 1028 N. Garfield Street. That’s the former location of Riverside Hot Pot, which closed last fall after about a year in business, and Bowl’d, which closed in 2017 after about two years.

The permit application seeks permission to make interior alterations but gives no clues as to what the restaurant will serve. There is nothing by the name “Uncommon Luncheonette” that could be found via search engine or social media.

An Virginia LLC by that name was formed last week, however. The address and attorney for the newly-formed company match that of Pentagon City restaurant Epic Smokehouse, which opened in 2012, though it’s unclear whether the two are connected. The owners of Epic Smokehouse could not be immediately reached for comment.

Hat tip to Chris Slatt

NYC Taqueria Chain Tacombi Aims for September Opening in Crystal City

By Jo DeVoe
1/7

(Updated 10:35 a.m.) Tacombi, a New York City-based taqueria chain, is expected to open in Crystal City in a couple of months.

The new spot will be located in the revamped Central District Retail shopping plaza, also known as “Crystal Square.” This recently redone property at 1550 Crystal Drive, owned by JBG Smith, has attracted a number of other retail options that have opened already or are set to open over the course of the year.

A CVS opened in February and hit NYC bakery Mah-Ze-Dahr opened in mid-June. Another location of the boutique gym, Solidcore, is set to open in August, according to a spokeswoman.

A spokesperson for Tacombi said Thursday that it expects to open its 3,000 square-foot space in Crystal City in September.

“All of our taquerias are bright, open and airy spaces where guests can enjoy warm hospitality and a menu with selections from different regions throughout Mexico,” she said. “We look forward to bringing a little piece of this incredible country to our new friends in Arlington, and to swinging open our taqueria doors this fall.”

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.

These openings are happening amid a handful of other openings in Miami and Queens, the spokeswoman said. The taqueria will cement its presence in the D.C. area with a Bethesda location also set to open in September.

“We were drawn to Crystal City’s evolving identity and to its own journey from a largely-industrial zone in the sixties to today’s quickly developing community,” she said. “And 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 taqueria made headlines this year for its work during the pandemic feeding thousands of food-insecure New Yorkers.

Also coming to Central District Retail will be a thus-far unnamed grocery store, rumored to be a possible Amazon Fresh location. The store will be built in the existing office building at 1550 Crystal Drive, according to Arlington County.

“JBG SMITH declines to comment,” a spokesperson for the property owner said when asked about it yesterday.

‘Billy’s Deli/Cafe’ Opens in Old Billy’s Cheesesteaks Space

By Dana Munro
Billy’s Deli/Cafe is now open in Cherrydale (courtesy of Bill Hamrock)

Those who missed Billy’s Cheesesteaks in Cherrydale for the last year and a half can now get a taste of those sandwiches again.

Two weeks ago, Bill Hamrock — the old sandwich stop’s namesake and former co-owner — opened Billy’s Deli/Cafe at 3907 Lee Highway, the same spot where he opened Billy’s Cheesesteaks in 2011.

And Hamrock, who stepped away from Billy’s Cheesesteaks about five years ago, is back at the helm. While the name and menu may be familiar, he tells ARLnow that Billy’s Deli/Cafe is an entirely new business.

“Everything about it is better: new floors, new walls, new roof, new air conditioning. I think the food is better,” he said.

The new cafe is serving Billy’s famous cheesesteaks as well as other trusty dishes Hamrock says he has perfected, such as hot pita sandwiches, during his more than two decades in the food service industry. Hamrock also owns an eatery named for him in Fairfax City, Hamrock’s Restaurant.

In addition to chicken souvlaki, gyros, mozzarella chicken hot pita sandwiches and other fare, the deli and cafe will serve homemade ice cream and fresh-baked cookies, he said.

Back in January 2020 — just before the pandemic — ARLnow reported that Billy’s Cheesesteaks was closing temporarily along with the restaurant next door, Bistro 29. The then-owner, Kostas Kapasouris, told ARLnow the decision was so that he could “make the restaurants better.”

Eventually, both restaurants permanently closed. According to some new signage, a Uighur restaurant called Bostan is set to replace Bistro 29.

“Hopefully, they will be open in the next one, two, three months,” Hamrock said.

Next door, the new Billy’s space is 800 square feet and will cater to carryout, operating on several apps, including ChowNow, Grubhub, Uber Eats and DoorDash.

“We’ll probably add to that as we go,” said Hamrock.

Those who do wish to sit at one of the eight seats inside the Lee Highway location will be greeted by a montage of historical photos of Arlington. Billy’s owner is a self-described history buff, who has written a book on Arlington history, called “We are Arlington.”

“I’m just excited about being back in Cherrydale and back in Arlington,” Hamrock said. “It’s a great neighborhood, great location. I like the neighbors and the community.”

Popular D.C. Chinese and Korean Restaurant Coming to Shirlington

By Matt Blitz
1/5

A popular D.C.-based Chinese and Korean restaurant is coming to Shirlington later this year.

Chiko is set to open in the fall at 4040 Campbell Avenue, in the heart of Shirlington Village. It’s moving into the former location of DAK Chicken, which closed last summer.

This will be Chiko’s fourth location and first one in Virginia.

“We are excited to bring CHIKO to this amazing community,” wrote co-owner and chef Scott Drewno in the press release. “Danny and I felt Shirlington was a perfect spot as our first foray into Virginia. We are looking forward to cooking for you all in Fall of 2021.”

The restaurant is known for its dim sum, double-fried chicken wings, and fried rice. The menu will also include dishes found at the other locations including Cumin Lamb Stir Fry, Soy Glazed Brisket, and Orange-ish Chicken

“Guests will delight in the cleverly crafted menu by Chefs Danny Lee and Scott Drewno composed of a new, exclusive fried rice to this location,” notes the press release. “We will also introduce a new dessert and a few surprises for Virginia.”

The restaurant will be about 1500 square feet and be able to accommodate 30 seated guests while offering “fast-paced carry-out.” The location was designed by D.C.-based Natalie Park Design Studio.

Lee and Drewno make up what they call the “Fried Rice Collective,” which also runs other restaurant concepts in the region.

“Federal Realty is excited to add a second CHIKO location to our DC-metro portfolio. The Bethesda location has seen incredible success during a very challenging time, and we look forward to the same in The Village at Shirlington,” writes Stuart Biel of Federal Realty, which owns the shopping center. “CHIKO’s incredible reputation and loyal following means yet another quality food option in the Village.”

So far there’s no word on an exact opening date.

Chiko is not the only new business set to open in Shirlington come the fall. Bearded Goat Barber is also planning an autumn debut.

Five Guys Appears to Be Opening in Part of the Former Whitlow’s Space

By ARLnow.com

Whitlow’s recently closed in Clarendon, with hopes of opening elsewhere, but its former space will not be vacant for long.

The owner of the building at 2854 Wilson Blvd, which was unable to negotiate a lease renewal with the long-time local watering hole, appears to be dividing the restaurant — which includes a basement, a ground-level floor and a rooftop bar — into at least three separate tenant spaces, according to building permits.

The first tenant is likely to be Five Guys.

The burger chain confirmed to ARLnow that it will be opening a new restaurant in Arlington, but the opening is not expected until next summer.

“We’re a bit far out to confirm any dates, but we’re intending to open a new location in Arlington around summer 2022,” said Five Guys spokeswoman Jessica Lloyd.

The company has grown from one Arlington burger joint in the soon-to-be-redeveloped Westmont Shopping Center to an international chain with more than 1,400 locations in the United States alone. It currently has two Arlington restaurants: one down the street in Courthouse, at 2300 Wilson Blvd, and another at Reagan National Airport.

Permits posted in the windows, bearing the project name “Five Guys,” indicate that the property owner is first planning an asbestos abatement.

So far there’s no word on what else might open in the building, nor whether Whitlow’s is closer to finding a new location.

Hat tip to David Kinney

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