The Brass Rabbit Pub is coming soon to the former site of Bracket Room (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
(Updated at 1:40 p.m.) A new bar is coming to Clarendon, moving into the space formerly occupied by the Bracket Room.
Brass Rabbit Public House is coming to 1210 N. Garfield Street. At this point, little information is known about an opening date or specifics. It appears their Facebook page and Instagram were just created late last week, providing few details.
The restaurant’s website does say that the restaurant will serve “elevated pub fare with a healthy twist.” This includes “unique salads and lettuce wrap creations.” For those that don’t want to stick to rabbit food, there will also be burgers, wings, and sandwiches.
“To keep the place hoppin’,” as the website notes, there will also be 14 beers on draft, craft cocktails, house-infused cocktails, and an extensive wine list.
It will also have brunch, happy hour, and NFL and NHL game packages on the TVs.
The Bracket Room closed earlier this year after about seven and half years in Clarendon. It first opened in September 2013, saying it was offering a higher-end, “female-friendly” experience. It was co-founded by Chris Bukowski of “The Bachelorette” fame.
RASA’s Crystal City exterior and patio (Photo courtesy of Rey Lopez/Rasa)
Rasa’s signature dishes (Photo courtesy of Rey Lopez/Rasa)
Rasa’s National Landing interior with artwork (Photo courtesy of Rey Lopez/Rasa)
Rasa’s signature dishes, soft serve, and drinks (Photo courtesy of Rey Lopez/Rasa)
Rasa, a fast-casual Indian restaurant, is opening in Crystal City later this week.
The D.C.-based eatery will open its third location — its first in Virginia — at 2200 Crystal Drive on Friday, July 2. Rasa initially announced its expansion into Arlington nearly two years ago.
In April, the restaurant applied for a permit to sell beer, wine, and mixed drinks which dropped the hint that they were on the verge of opening.
“We’ve had our eyes on opening a RASA in Virginia for years, and National Landing feels like the perfect launching pad,” said Rasa co-founder Sahil Rahman. “It is one of the most exciting neighborhoods in the country, and we look forward to feeding the community soon.”
Rahman and co-founder Rahul Vinod opened the first Rasa in December 2017 in D.C.’s Navy Yard, near Nationals Park. The second location opened in August 2020 in the District’s Mount Vernon Triangle neighborhood.
The new restaurant is 1,550 square feet with seating for up to 32 diners. The design and menu “mirrors” the other two locations, notes a press release.
The menu is bowl-based, Indian fare with eye-winking names like “Aloo Need Is Love” (vegan with sweet potatoes, eggplant, beets, lentils, and tamarind ginger chutney) and “Tikka Chance On Me” (chicken tikka with spinach, radishes, toasted cumin yogurt with mint cilantro chutney).
There will also be a rotation of vegan soft serve dessert, like at the Mount Vernon location, including mango lassi and masala chai flavors.
The restaurant is exploring collaborating with “notable local Virginia-based brands, vineyards, breweries, distilleries, farmers, and other celebrated artisans” for future menu items.
Local artist Nandita Madan, who is Rahman’s aunt, designed custom artwork for the new space, including a large canvas painting paying homage to the restaurant’s name.
Crystal City’s Rasa was initially set to open last year, but the pandemic influenced the timing.
“From safety concerns to supply chain, building out this restaurant during COVID was an absolute rollercoaster, filled with many ups and downs”, said Rasa co-founder Rahul Vinod. “We are incredibly grateful to our team at Rasa, the National Landing BID, JBG Smith, and the community for all of the support as we navigated the pandemic, and we can’t wait to finally welcome folks into our new home soon.”
Rasa’s opening comes as developer JBG Smith’s post-HQ2 vision for Crystal City and the rest of National Landing begins to take shape, charting a more modern, mixed-use and pedestrian-oriented course for what had been seen as an aging collection of concrete-constructed offices and parking garages.
JBG recently released a video detailing more of its plans. In May, plans for two mixed-use towers from JBG Smith were approved by the County Board. Earlier this month plans for a new park began to crystalize, Alamo Drafthouse announced its Crystal City opening date, and a popular New York bakery opened.
Signs previewing the arrival of Mumu Cafe under MOM’s Organic Market (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Signs previewing the arrival of Mumu Cafe under MOM’s Organic Market (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
A new eatery called Mumu Cafe is set to open in August in the space underneath MOM’s Organic Market near Courthouse.
The forthcoming eatery is located at 1924 N. Uhle Street in the Verde Pointe development along Lee Highway, which is within walking distance to the Courthouse Metro station. Owner Jermaine Williams said the soft opening for is set for Aug. 2.
“The cafe promotes a fast-casual themed service where customers can come and get something made-to-order or grab something quickly from our grab-to-go station,” he said.
In the morning, Mumu Cafe will serve freshly made doughnuts, pastries, bagels and breakfast sandwiches, as well as smoothies, açaí bowls, drip coffee, cold brew and espresso drinks. After 11 a.m., the cafe will offer lunch and dinner options, such as hot sandwiches and flatbreads.
Mumu Cafe will take over the spot that was vacant since Naked Lunch, an organic vegetarian and vegan eatery closed almost exactly two years ago. It opened on Lee Highway with MOM’s Organic Market in 2015
The addition is right in Williams’s backyard, as he lives in the apartment building connected to the café. When he saw the “for lease” sign go up last year, he got in touch with MOM’s, which leases the space and agreed to let him set up shop there.
Williams brings to his venture years of experience in the hotel business, managing food service.
“I’ve been in hospitality for over 10 years,” Williams said. “The last five years, I have been in a hotel as a banquet manager in Rosslyn, which was cut short last year because of the pandemic.”
Mumu Cafe’s hours are currently set for 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday and Sunday from 7 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
(Updated at 10:25 a.m. on 6/18/21) Brioche Cinnamon Rolls and Dark Chocolate Explosion Cookies are coming to Crystal City this weekend with the arrival of a brand new Mah-Ze-Dahr location.
The popular New York-based bakery founded in 2013 takes its name from an Urdu expression meaning a taste you can’t quite describe but want to experience again and again — it is a representation of what the restaurant hopes to offer with its sweet treats.
This time the bakery isn’t limiting itself to pastries. The Crystal City location, which opens Saturday at 1550 Crystal Drive, will be the company’s biggest shop to date — bigger than others in New York City and D.C.’s Navy Yard. It will also have the broadest menu.
The company is expanding into breakfast and lunch foods adding salmon and cream cheese-filled croissants and sandwich flights exclusively to the Arlington menu.
“We always think its fun to have things you can only have in one place,” said Mah-Ze-Dahr founder Umber Ahmad. “It helps the community feel wanted and special in that way.”
Customers will be able to sit inside or outside the 2,600 square foot bakery, which has exterior seating for 36 and interior seating for 55.
This Mah-Ze-Dahr will also have an extra large kitchen to serve not only its local customers but to also provide pastries to other D.C. area retailers.
Ahmad says the bakery will soon announce its partnerships with several local D.C. coffee chains and hotels. In the meantime, it will be doling out delectable goods from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day.
Poppyseed Rye is coming to the former Buzz Bakery space in Ballston (staff photo)
Poppyseed Rye is coming to the former Buzz Bakery space in Ballston (staff photo)
Poppyseed Rye is coming to the former Buzz Bakery space in Ballston (staff photo)
Buzz Bakeshop has closed in Ballston and a new cafe from some familiar local names will be replacing it.
Poppyseed Rye, which describes itself as “a craft sandwich and fresh flower café,” plans to open this fall at 818 N. Quincy Street, a block from Ballston Quarter mall.
“We’ll make tasty sandwiches, salads, toasts, and charcuterie… and serve beer, wine, seltzer, and champagne,” said Scott Parker, a partner in the shop who also co-owns a variety of Ballston businesses, including Bearded Goat Barber, BASH Boxing, and Bronson Bierhall, as well as Don Tito in Clarendon.
“At our shop Akeda will sell bouquets, vases, candles, and other household goods,” Parker said.
The cafe will be open from 11 a.m.-10 p.m. daily and will focus on lunch and dinner. The sandwich-focused menu will be offered all day. A weekend brunch is possible down the road, according to Parker, who notes that there will be a small patio area outside.
The space was formerly occupied by Buzz Bakery, which opened in 2011 and offered coffee, baked goods and other treats. Now known as Buzz Bakeshop, the cafe has a location on Slaters Lane in Alexandria that remains open. The Ballston location is listed on the Buzz website as “temporarily closed.”
The ownership group behind Poppyseed Rye includes Parker, Lee Smith, Jon Rennich, and Gary Koh, who co-owns Bronson Bierhall with Parker. The group is also working with chef Johnny Spero and Aslin Beer Company on the forthcoming Pentagon City brewpub Nighthawk Pizza.
More collaborations with notable chefs, artisans and producers may be on the way from the group, Parker hinted. But for now, he’s focused on getting the new venture off the ground.
“As Ballston continues to grow and become more vibrant, we’re excited to bring our unique new sandwich and flower shop to Wilson Boulevard,” said Parker.
Interior of WHINO in Ballston (Photo courtesy of Timothy Yantz/WHINO)
Dragon76 painting a mural above WHINO’s main bar (Photo courtesy of Timothy Yantz/WHINO)
Interior of WHINO in Ballston (Photo courtesy of Timothy Yantz/WHINO)
Interior of WHINO in Ballston (Photo courtesy of Timothy Yantz/WHINO)
Interior of WHINO in Ballston (Photo courtesy of Timothy Yantz/WHINO)
WHINO in Ballston last week, preparing for its opening (staff photo)
WHINO in Ballston last week, preparing for its opening (staff photo)
WHINO in Ballston last week, preparing for its opening (staff photo)
WHINO in Ballston last week, preparing for its opening (staff photo)
WHINO, a 6,200-square-foot combination restaurant and art gallery, is set to open its doors at Ballston Quarter next week.
First announced in August 2018, the venue will combine a 150-seat restaurant and craft cocktail bar serving dishes that “meld American and international flavors” with a pop-art gallery that invites patrons to “inhabit large-scale mural installations.”
WHINO is located on the second floor of the shopping center, at 4238 Wilson Boulevard. It is set to open on Friday, June 18.
It comes from Shane Pomajambo, the D.C.-based art curator who ran Blind Whino and other prominent galleries in the region. Arlingtonians may know him as the person behind the massive street art show in Crystal City a decade ago.
Pomajambo tells ARLnow he picked Ballston as the location for his next venture because of the “great foot traffic” and the neighborhood’s residents are its “core demographic.”
It will serve a late night crowd, at least during the latter half of the week. Thursday through Saturday, WHINO will stay open until 2 a.m.
The venue’s murals encompass a dozen different genres and focus on a new art movement known as “lowbrow/pop surrealist,” according to a press release.
A number of the murals will be rotated out regularly with new art coming in every month creating a “living art gallery,” as Washingtonian reports. The current roster of muralists includes an artist, Dragon76, who just finished a massive mural in Houston in conjunction with a United Nations project.
There will also be a retail component to the venue, with a number of limited-edition sculptures from artists across the world on sale, with prices ranging from $50 to $300.
The restaurant is set to hold 152 diners in an open floor plan that will have six different areas, including a 25-seat kitchen bar, a 51-foot craft cocktail bar, and a 11-seat beverage tasting bar.
The small plate menu comes from executive chef Eleftherios (Terry) Natas, a New Jersey-born Greek American who previously worked for El Centro in D.C. and Mike Isabella’s Graffino. A number of items are influenced by Natas’s Greek background, including smoked octopus and gyro meat wrapped in phyllo dough. There will also be handmade ricotta gnocchi, porchetta sliders and scallop aguachile.
“The menu is designed to encourage exploration as small plates afford guests the opportunity to experience more flavor profiles,” Pomajambo says.
A number of other much-anticipated businesses are planning to open in Ballston in the coming months, including The Salt Line, looking at a summer debut. The popular plant shop REWILD is planning a July opening while chicken restaurant Farmbird is starting to serve this week.
Expanding, D.C.-based grilled chicken restaurant Farmbird is opening its new location in Ballston next week.
The restaurant at 4121 Wilson Blvd, in the Ballston Exchange development, is opening for customers on Tuesday, employees tell ARLnow. It replaces the Miami-based, health-oriented restaurant Dirt, which closed in January 2020.
Farmbird has existing locations at 625 H Street NE and in Penn Quarter in D.C. The company was founded in 2015 and first operated as a catering business for a year at D.C.’s Union Market. It aims to make fast-casual dining more healthy, humane and sustainable.
“Since its founding, Farmbird has strived to change the way people think about chicken by serving only the highest quality, never-frozen birds,” a PR rep said. “Farmbird’s chickens are humanely raised on regional farms with no antibiotics ever and fed an all-vegetarian diet. All of the food served, from salads and sandwiches to Farmbird’s signature grilled chicken plates and roasted vegetable sides, are prepared from scratch with fresh ingredients daily.”
“Farmbird has seen great success at its location on H Street and is ready to bring flavorful food with sustainable origins to Arlington where Ballston Exchange has reimagined the area’s streetscape,” the PR rep added “The space will feature indoor and outdoor seating, accommodating patrons in a safe and socially distanced manner.”
Neighboring businesses in Ballston Exchange — across the street from Ballston Quarter mall — include Philz Coffee, CAVA, and the yet-to-open Hawkers Asian Street Fare.
This morning Farmbird employees could be seen sitting outside the restaurant, sampling the food in anticipation of next week’s opening.
A Bethesda-based sushi restaurant known for its high-end rolls and selection of Japanese liquors appears to be expanding into Pentagon Row.
The new eatery, Kusshi, is planning to open in the space currently occupied by Nepalese and Indian restaurant Namaste Everest (1201 S. Joyce Street), according to Kusshi’s co-founder, Tony Chow.
“We’re hoping [to open] before the end of the year,” he said.
Namaste Everest, the Arlington outpost of Namaste in Alexandria, opened in summer 2019, in the storefront that formerly housed a Noodles & Co. location.
Federal Realty Investment Trust, which owns Pentagon Row — recently rebranded “Westpost” — was not immediately available to comment. The Rockville-based company also owns Pike and Rose, the mixed-use development in North Bethesda where Kusshi is currently located.
A restaurant employee from Namaste Everest could not confirm the change.
Chow said he has been eyeing an expansion into Arlington for almost two years, adding that he intends to tap into the area’s “live, work and play” lifestyle.
“Arlington has a lot of business and commerce and has Amazon HQ2 going there as well,” he said. “We like to go to mixed-use developments, which is part of our success at Pike and Rose.”
Chow plans to bring to Westpost a large assortment of Japanese whisky and sake to sip while dining on the restaurant’s traditional sushi rolls and higher-end offerings, like wagyu beef and sea urchin.
“Our staff… have gone through courses about sake, there is quite a lot of knowledge there,” he said, adding that diners will be able to learn about the different drinks and sample them.
Chow has another sushi place in Bethesda named Hanaro, a smaller-scale restaurant.
It appears that Rosslyn is getting a new fast-casual dining option.
A permit application was filed yesterday for a new &pizza location in the Central Place development at 1800 N. Lynn Street.
It was not immediately clear which storefront the pizzeria would occupy, though the former Little Beet space at the corner of N. Lynn Street and 19th Street N. seems to be a likely candidate. The New York-based vegetarian restaurant chain closed its Rosslyn location last year after about three years in business.
The new &pizza will have competition from Wiseguy Pizza, which is just across Lynn Street.
Construction on the outdoor patio of the Salt Line in Ballston
Construction on the outdoor patio of the Salt Line in Ballston
(Update 5/25) The Salt Line in Ballston is now planning a “closer to summer opening,” restaurant representatives tell ARLnow.
First announced more than two years ago, in January 2019, the seafood spot initially was set for a spring 2020 opening but that was delayed by the pandemic. Then, sights were set for spring 2021 (as the website notes).
Now, representatives say that the restaurant’s opening date is being pushed back at least slightly. The restaurant group recently opened their new New Orleans-style eatery Dauphine’s in D.C. and cite “construction delays” as the reason for pushing back the Ballston opening.
The Salt Line, from D.C-based restaurant group Long Shot Hospitality, will be located at the base of the office building at 4040 Wilson Blvd in Ballston.
Photos show construction is well on its way — though, not complete — including on its open air back patio, near the entrance to Vida Fitness. Back in April 2019, the Arlington County Board approved the building of a permanent outdoor cafe, patio, and fixed bar with seating for 100. Approval was needed since the plan was for the outdoor space to be permanent, as opposed to temporary.
Salt Line’s menu includes clam chowder, lobster rolls, rockfish, and clams. The seafood is sourced is from a cooperative based in New York as well as local, freshly caught fish from near Annapolis.
This will be the restaurant’s second location, following the one in Navy Yard which opened in 2017 across the street from Nationals Park. It gained some local fame in the fall of 2019 as the Washington Nationals’ unofficial party spot during their run to being World Series champs. Nats’ first baseman Ryan Zimmerman is an investor and part-owner of the restaurant.
Exterior work on the former Naan Kabob and future Dunkin’ near Clarendon
Dunkin’ Tap System (courtesy photo)
Dunkin’ Mobile Order Station (courtesy photo)
Exterior work on the former Naan Kabob and future Dunkin’ near Clarendon
Donuts Front Bakery Casing (courtesy photo)
What’s old is new again: a vacant restaurant space near Clarendon that was formerly a Dunkin’ Donuts is soon going to be home to a “next generation” Dunkin’ store.
Exterior modifications are currently underway on the standalone restaurant space at 3300 Wilson Blvd, about halfway between the Virginia Square and Clarendon Metro stations.
The space — which has parking and a drive-through — was once a Dunkin’ Donuts, before it closed and was succeeded by a procession of other eateries including Peruvian chicken restaurant Pio Pio, Indian-Pakistani-Bangladeshi restaurant Naan Kabob, and (very briefly) Red Hook Lobster Pound. It has been vacant for at least a year.
A PR rep for Dunkin’ confirmed to ARLnow that the Massachusetts-based chain is making a triumphant return.
“The store is slated to open toward the end of summer,” the rep said, adding that it will be one of Dunkin’s “next generation” store concepts.
Next generation Dunkin’ stores typically feature front-facing bakery cases, tap-based iced coffee and tea pours, and mobile order pickup areas.
There is no shortage of coffee shops in the area. Among others, local favorite Northside Social is two blocks away, and a pair of existing Dunkin’ locations — one in Clarendon and another in Virginia Square — are each about six blocks away.
Hat tip to G. Evan Pritchard. Photos (2, 3, 5) courtesy of Dunkin’.
