Ruthie’s All Day exterior rendering (courtesy photo)
Ruthie’s All Day interior (courtesy photo)
Chef Matt Hill and business partner Todd Salvadore
Ruthie’s All Day exterior rendering (courtesy photo)
Ruthie’s All Day interior (courtesy photo)
Ruthie’s All Day interior (courtesy photo)
Ruthie’s All Day interior (courtesy photo)
Ruthie’s All Day interior (courtesy photo)
Ruthie’s All Day interior (courtesy photo)
An ambitious new restaurant is coming to an unlikely place: a former chocolate factory and paint store.
Ruthie’s All-Day — a family-friendly neighborhood restaurant serving breakfast, lunch and dinner — plans to open this fall at 3411 5th Street S., a historic building that most recently housed a Sherwin-Williams store, in the front parking lot of the newly-renovated Dominion Apartments.
Behind the restaurant are two veterans of the local food scene: Matt Hill, formerly Executive Chef for Liberty Tavern Restaurant Group, which operates The Liberty Tavern, Northside Social, Lyon Hall and Liberty Barbecue; and Todd Salvadore, formerly a general manager for Chef Robert Wiedmaier’s RW Restaurant Group. Both Hill and Salvadore also worked at Charlie Palmer Steak in D.C.
Located along S. Glebe Road, between Columbia Pike and Route 50 in the Arlington Heights neighborhood, Ruthie’s will be a sit-down restaurant with a bar, a takeout counter, an outdoor patio, and a wood-burning hearth. It is expected to open in phases, starting in September with outdoor dining, takeout and catering.
Signature offerings include wood-smoked barbecue and southern-style dishes, in addition to seasonal cocktails, a curated wine list, and a rotating selection of draft beer.
“Ruthie’s All-Day will feature a take-out counter with Counter Culture coffee, ridiculously delicious breakfast biscuits, stone ground grits, house-made sausage, crispy fried chicken sandwiches, vinegar spiked pulled pork sandwiches, and hearty salads,” said an announcement Wednesday morning. “In the evening, Ruthie’s will be Chef Hill’s modern take on a meat and three which will include pepper smoked prime grade brisket, fresh Chesapeake rockfish, char-grilled gochujang rubbed spare ribs, southern style mac and cheese, white-soy braised greens, and more.”
Outdoor bar at The Pinemoor (photo via The Pinemoor)
Indoor bar at The Pinemoor (photo via The Pinemoor)
Dish at The Pinemoor (photo courtesy The Pinemoor)
Reese Gardner had planned to open The Pinemoor in March but… well, you know. After months of pandemic-related delay, Gardner said today (Thursday) is finally the day to throw open the new Clarendon restaurant’s doors.
For a little over a year, signs have announced that The Pinemoor would be inhabiting the space that was once Clarendon Grill at 1101 N. Highland Street. Gardner said the restaurant is launching today with its full menu after months of consideration for when the right time would be to reopen.
Eventually, Gardner said he had to reckon with the fact that there likely wasn’t going to be a better time to open in the near future.
“We don’t see anything going back to normal,” Gardner said.
Opening with the current restrictions aimed at curbing the likelihood of spreading coronavirus means an expectation of lower-than-hoped-for revenue.
“The Pinemoor has two bars, an outside bar and an inside bar,” Gardner said. “The set up for restaurants is [for customers] to enjoy a cocktail or glass of wine while the table is getting ready. When you remove that from the restaurant experience they end up sitting at their table longer and it takes away 25-30% of your numbers off the top.”
At least at first, Gardner said the focus will be on the in-person restaurant experience with appropriate social distancing and utilization of the restaurant’s patio, as opposed to trying to subsist on takeout and delivery, as others are doing.
“We’re going to focus on in-restaurant experience for the first couple months,” Gardner said. “It’s a scratch kitchen with a protein-heavy menu — all à la carte — and family-style sides like truffle mac and cheese… We’re focusing on the in-dining experience over the next sixty days and then probably roll out to-go and cocktails.”
Gardner said he’s also hopeful that the brunch menu will be a draw early on.
The restaurant is open from 11 a.m.-10 p.m. during the week and 10 a.m.-10 p.m. on weekends.
Today’s opening will be very different from those of Gardner’s other restaurants, like Copperwood Tavern and Dudley’s in Shirlington. There’s a lingering concern that an uptick in local cases could trigger rapid changes in how restaurants are required to operate. Gardner said he still has to order perishable food items every day assuming that the restaurant will be open the next.
On the plus side, coronavirus cases have been trending down in Arlington lately and Clarendon has been drawing large weekend crowds.
“It’s all nervousness,” Gardner said. “The nerves are there. With COVID, you want to make sure your staff is safe and your customers are safe. It’s very unpredictable. It’s going to be an interesting next three weeks.”
Despite everything, Sandra Wolter is hoping to have a coffee shop up and running in the former Java Shack space by Labor Day (Sept. 7).
It’s been a long few months for Sweet Science Coffee, which Wolter co-owns. The local coffee brand launched its own location in D.C. after years in shared spaces just months before the pandemic hit the region. The hopes were to get the location up and running by March, but even the hoped-for September opening is tentative.
“It’s hard to say with everything going on,” Wolter said. “Ideally shooting for Labor Day weekend, roughly two months from now. The groundwork is laid so I carefully say COVID-willing, if nothing happens, we should be able to make that timeline.”
The permitting has taken about 4.5 months, Wolter said, though she’s unsure how much of that is due to COVID-19 and how much of that is the process.
“We’ve applied for permits to upgrade the space,” Wolter said. “We just got those permits last week, so we can move forward with plumbing and electrical work. It’s an old building, so there’s a lot to be done.”
Sweet Science Coffee has also applied for a license to serve wine. The location, at 2507 Franklin Road near Courthouse, has an outdoor area that Wolter is hopeful can be turned into an outdoor patio. The cafe could also potentially focus more on home delivery of items and pre-orders for popular pastries, if in-person business is light.
Wolter said she is lucky that the former Java Shack space won’t have to undergo too many adjustments, with takeout coffee already planned before the pandemic.
“Coffee is a grab-and-go thing early in the mornings, so that works in everyone’s favor,” Wolter said.
What will be put on the back burner, Wolter said, are plans to offer classes for home coffee brewing and other coffee-related events. Those sorts of classes often require close contact and sharing of objects that just don’t work amid a pandemic.
“It’s a weird mixture between excitement and fear,” Wolter said of the opening. “With everything that’s happened… we’re excited to be moving forward. A lot of people in Arlington really like the space and would like it to be a coffee shop again. We’re happy to be able to get back to that and do something. But as a business owner you always crunch the numbers — like what we’re able to do.”
Given the reality of opening during a global health crisis, some things have changed since the restaurant was being planned last year.
“Originally slated to open in the spring, Owner and Pitmaster Andrew Darneille had to reimagine his business model and adapt to COVID-19 times with protocol prompted by guidance from the Commonwealth of Virginia and the CDC,” notes a press release. “In addition to taking necessary health and safety precautions to protect the restaurant’s team and guests, the seating layout has been altered to allow for ample social distancing, menus will be projected on screens to minimize high touchpoints, and a takeout program will be offered with to-go beverage options.”
The food menu — available for lunch and dinner — includes duroc pork belly burnt ends, smoked avocado deviled eggs, grilled peach and prosciutto crostini, St. Louis ribs, wagyu brisket, smoked spaghetti squash, and applewood-smoked chesapeake crab cakes.
There will also be a brunch menu, with “smoked monte cristo and proper chicken and waffles,” and a “distinct and interactive beverage program.”
More from the press release:
Smokecraft Modern Barbecue (1051 N Highland St, Arlington, VA 22201) is excited to open its doors to the public on Friday, July 31. Smokecraft Championship BBQ, which won over 70 awards in 2019, including being named a KCBS Pork Team of the Year Finalist, and Reserve Grand Champions at the York County BBQ Festival just last month, seeks to continue pushing the limits of barbecue with their first brick and mortar location. Smokecraft will offer a diverse menu to satisfy every taste for lunch, dinner, and brunch, accompanied by dynamic beverage offerings and an expanded takeout menu.
Originally slated to open in the spring, Owner and Pitmaster Andrew Darneille had to reimagine his business model and adapt to COVID-19 times with protocol prompted by guidance from the Commonwealth of Virginia and the CDC. In addition to taking necessary health and safety precautions to protect the restaurant’s team and guests, the seating layout has been altered to allow for ample social distancing, menus will be projected on screens to minimize high touchpoints, and a takeout program will be offered with to-go beverage options.
“We are excited to finally be able to share our award-winning barbecue with the local community,” says Owner and Pitmaster Andrew Darneille. “While these are challenging times to open a restaurant, we will continue to evolve our brand, while never waiving in our commitment to use the highest quality products to produce an amazing barbecue dining experience.”
The details are scarce, but a new restaurant appears to be coming to Ballston Quarter mall.
Permits have been filed for a restaurant called Superette at 4238 Wilson Blvd, the mall’s address. The restaurant will seat somewhere between 1 and 100 people and will serve beer, wine and cocktails, the permit suggests.
No other details about the restaurant, which does not yet have a public web presence, were immediately available.
An LLC associated with the new restaurant, however, is linked to local restaurateur Sam Shoja, who owns Emilie’s in D.C. and, according to Eater, “three D.C. area franchises of Jinya Ramen Bar and two locations of kebab Sheesh in Northern Virginia.” Shoja also previously owned a stake in Ballston Quarter eatery Hot Lola’s.
Noted chef Kevin Tien recently split from Emile’s, which he founded and co-owned with Shoja. Eater noted that in return for Tien’s stake in the restaurant, “Shoja has given Tien his 40 percent share in Hot Lola’s, the chef’s Sichuan-style hot chicken sandwich brand with a stall in a Ballston food hall.”
A retail broker whose contact information was listed on the permit for Superette did not respond to a request for comment.
Ballston is getting a new taco spot later this summer.
Chef Victor Albisu has scrapped plans to open Huevos, an all-day egg restaurant concept, and is instead going with the tried and true: a fifth location for his popular Taco Bamba chain. The 1,500 square foot eatery at 4000 Wilson Blvd will feature a 35 seats, another six at a bar, and a small patio.
The decision was made due to the financial pressure restaurants are facing during the pandemic, as well as the popularity of a Taco Bamba drop-off zone in Ballston, Albisu said.
More from a press release:
Award-winning chef Victor Albisu announces plans to bring the next location of his popular taqueria, Taco Bamba, to The View at Liberty Center in the Ballston neighborhood of Arlington, Va. this summer. Located at 4000 Wilson Blvd., Suite C (entrance on N. Quincy St.), the 1,500-square-foot fast casual will feature a bar program, a small patio and a brand new menu of nuestros tacos, in addition to the taqueria’s traditional favorites. The space was slated to be the first location of Albisu’s all-day egg concept, Huevos, but he pivoted to an existing concept in light of the pandemic’s impact on the hospitality industry.
“As restaurants struggle to find a foothold during this unprecedented time, we felt it was a better business decision to open another location of a well-known and trusted concept, rather than introduce a new one,” Albisu said. “Our team has been working on the Huevos menu for months. We even took first place at the Coca-Cola Beachside BBQ at South Beach Wine & Food Festival in February with a Huevos dish. It was a tough decision, but we’ll find another location for Huevos.
Right now, we are excited to bring a new Taco Bamba menu to Ballston. Arlington is a neighborhood where I’ve always wanted to open a location. We’ve been operating a weekday satellite drop zone outside the space since April, and it’s been very popular. My favorite part of opening any new Taco Bamba location is creating the new menu for that neighborhood, and this has been an especially fun one to write.”
(Updated at 4:05 p.m.) Surprise! Arlington is about to get a major restaurant opening in the midst of the pandemic.
Cafe Colline, a neighborhood French bistro from prolific local restaurateurs Ian and Eric Hilton, is set to open for takeout next Thursday, June 25. Both phone and online orders will be accepted.
The brothers hope it will open for indoor and outdoor dine-in service — socially distanced per state guidelines, of course — within the next two weeks, pending a Certificate of Occupancy from Arlington County.
After nearly a year of work, finishing touches were underway today at the restaurant, in the former Cassatt’s space at 4536 Lee Highway in the Lee Heights Shops. Plastic was being taken off the windows and metal fixtures were being polished. Aside from getting the occupancy certificate, the main thing left to do is to install new light fixtures.
At 100% capacity, the restaurant will be able to serve 48 people inside at tables and the bar, and 16 outside, on a back patio. When it opens, it will have about 18 indoor seats and 10 outdoor seats open. Ian said he expects to only be open for dinner Thursday through Sunday for the first two weeks or so, and then will “open up for real” after that.
Cafe Colline will serve “classic, traditional French cuisine,” and aims to be a go-to hangout for the neighborhood through a casual atmosphere and reasonable prices. The menu — just published online on the restaurant’s new website — includes entrées like ratatouille, a cafe burger, pasta provençal, and Scottish salmon.
Opening in the middle of a global pandemic “is not the best timing, that’s for sure,” Ian told ARLnow today. “But what are you going to do? At least we’re in Phase 2 now… I lament my poor timing, but here we are.”
In addition to the impending opening of Cafe Colline, the brothers just opened their new Solace Outpost brewpub in the former Mad Fox Brewing space in Falls Church. Amid the new openings — the Hiltons are also behind the new Parc de Ville in the Mosaic District and the still under-construction El Rey taco spot in Ballston — Ian said he fears a potential second COVID-19 wave in the fall.
“That would potentially be the end of the road,” he said of the potential of a new surge in virus cases and a return to a business shutdown. “We would certainly have to contract.”
Ian predicts that up to 30% of all restaurants could ultimately close during the pandemic, regardless. But he remains cautiously optimistic about his restaurants making it through to next spring, when conditions could improve.
If there’s any silver lining of all this, he said, it’s the potential for improved tenant-landlord and diner-server relations, as the role of restaurants in fueling the commercial real estate industry is better appreciated and as frontline hospitality workers are given more respect by picky diners.
“If you bash a place on Yelp right now, it makes you look like one of the worst people on the planet.”
For Ian, who lives in nearby Donaldson Run, Cafe Colline — the brothers’ first Arlington eatery — is being opened where it is “100% out of selfishness.”
“I live just down the street,” he said. “There are not a lot of options around here… My friends constantly pester me, [asking] why don’t we have something of yours that we can get to easily without going into the city.”
“Dealing with the headaches of parking in Clarendon and being shoulder-to-shoulder with the raucous people there on weekends,” is not ideal for the more mature North Arlington crowd, said Ian. “This is a nice little hidden spot, a bit of an oasis around here… It made total sense.”
The latest outpost for the acclaimed local New York-style pizza chain is on the ground floor of the Witmer, a new 26-story luxury apartment building at the corner of 12th Street S. and S. Hayes Street. It’s the second Wiseguy Pizza in Arlington; the first is in Rosslyn.
Owner Nuri Erol says the eatery “did a test opening last week for a few days” but would begin its soft opening week today (Tuesday). It will be open from noon-8:30 p.m., he said.
Wiseguy recently started offering online ordering and curbside pickup. While opening during a pandemic might not be ideal, the pizzeria’s long-term prospects look promising, given the 25,000 Amazon employees that will eventually be working two blocks away.
Undeterred by the pandemic, a new outpost of a bánh mì sandwich chain is getting closer to opening.
As we reported in January, Lee’s Sandwiches is coming to 801 N. Quincy Street in Ballston, where a Subway sandwich shop closed last summer. Signs are now up outside the restaurant entrance, one of which says it is “coming soon.”
Lee’s serves “Asian-Euro sandwiches” including its flagship Bánh Mì, and is also noted for its fresh-baked baguettes and Vietnamese iced coffee. The chain opened its first East Coast store at 3037 Annandale Road in Falls Church in 2016.
“Founded in 1983 in San Jose, California, Lee’s Sandwiches is a quick-serve restaurant chain specializing in Bánh Mì, Vietnamese sandwiches and other Euro-Asian food products,” a press release said at the time. “From its beginnings as a food truck, Lee’s Sandwiches is now the largest Bánh Mì chain with over 60 locations in Arizona, California, Las Vegas (Nevada), Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Virginia, and Taiwan.”
While coronavirus has disrupted the businesses of local restaurants across the country, a new one is popping up in Shirlington despite the tough times for the industry.
New fast-casual Mexican restaurant TACO + PINA is scheduled to open tomorrow (Tuesday) on Cinco de Mayo. The eatery is located at 4041 Campbell Avenue, formerly Lotus Grill and Noodles.
“TACO + PINA’s is a labor of love which has been in the works for almost a year and a half now” said owner Graham Bartlett, a protégée of famed chef and restaurateur Richard Sandoval. “While some may question opening during a pandemic I believe it is our destiny to launch on Cinco de Mayo, which this year also falls on Taco Tuesday.”
“We’ve been overwhelmed by the support and constant positive encouragement from the Village of Shirlington community asking when we will open,” Bartlett continued. “We have an opportunity to offer truly great food with high-quality ingredients, and we get to do something positive for our new neighbors during this anxiety-driven time.”
The restaurant will be open from 11 a.m.-10 p.m., according to the website.
Bartlett said the restaurant will offer contactless pick-up and delivery. Takeout options include:
There’s a new option for grab-and-go empanadas and Inca Kola in Crystal City.
The Stand, a small food pavilion in the Crystal City Water Park which formerly hosted a rotating cast of pop-up eateries, is now a full-time location for D.C. area food truck favorite Peruvian Brothers.
The new Peruvian Brothers outpost officially opened this week. While perhaps not the best timing, given the pandemic, the stand does let customers order and pick up meals while never needing to go indoors.
Options on the menu include three types of empanadas — chicken, beef, plus spinach and cheese — as well as an Alfajor cookie and a selection of drinks.
Peruvian Brothers is now open at The Stand in the Crystal City Water Park.
“We are thrilled to welcome Peruvian Brothers to the National Landing neighborhood,” said Amy Rice, Senior Vice President of Retail Leasing at JBG SMITH. “With the opening of their new location, residents will be able to support a local business and enjoy a delicious carry out meal while they get some fresh air during these challenging times.”
The Peruvian Brothers, co-founded by brothers Giuseppe and Mario Lanzone, expanded over the last seven years from operating one food truck to three food trucks, a catering company, and now brick-and-mortar concession stands throughout the region. The Peruvian Brothers’ new location at The Stand will serve authentic “Comida Criolla,” the tastiest part of their Peruvian heritage, which is rooted in Andean, Spanish, African, and Asian influences. The menu includes their renowned baked empanadas, desserts, and drinks, such as Peruvian coffee, for carry out.
“The ability to bring people together through food is incredibly important to us. As National Landing residents ourselves, we want to serve our neighbors fresh, delicious food when they need it most,” said Giuseppe Lanzone, CEO. “We plan to bring many of the Peruvian flavors we miss most from our childhood to The Stand for others to experience, as they remind us of family and home.”
Peruvian Brothers at The Water Park, at 1601 Crystal Drive in Arlington, will be open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. for carry out only.
