Mezeh in Ballston Quarter (staff photo by Vernon Miles)
Mezeh in Ballston Quarter (staff photo by Vernon Miles)
Mezeh in Ballston Quarter (staff photo by Vernon Miles)
Mezeh Ballston Grand Opening (image courtesy Mezeh)
Fast-casual Mediterranean grill Mezeh is scheduled to open tomorrow on the Glebe Road side of Ballston Quarter mall (4238 Wilson Blvd).
The grand opening is scheduled to run from 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m., with the restaurant then reopening from 5:30-8 p.m. According to a press release and signs around the restaurant, visitors can get a free bowl with purchase of a drink, though steak or lamb bowls are $1.50 extra.
A growing chain, Mezeh started in Northern Virginia and has locations throughout Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina. The company’s first stand-alone restaurant opened in Crystal City (2450 Crystal Drive) in 2015.
In Ballston, Mezeh will face some stiff competition in the “fast-casual Mediterranean grill” market. Cava at 4121 Wilson Blvd attracts a consistently large lunch crowd and Arlington-based Lebanese Taverna’s quick-service concept LEBTAV opened at the corner of Wilson Blvd and N. Quincy Street last month.
Albisu tells ARLnow that the restaurant’s design is nearly complete and the interior build-out will begin soon. He still expects the restaurant, in the former Yona space at 4000 Wilson Blvd, to open at some point this spring.
Opening a new restaurant with an unusual concept, in a space slightly off the beaten path along N. Quincy Street, in a neighborhood full of new restaurants, is a bold move. But one doesn’t win the RAMMY award for Chef of the Year and become a James Beard award nominee by being basic and unchallenging, and Albisu thinks Arlingtonians will embrace the idea of the egg as an ingredient for all times of the day.
“Just like any other concept or anything I embark on, I put my perspective out there,” said Albisu, whose nickname as a child was “huevos,” for his love of the humble egg.
“I just want to make a really cool concept,” he said of the egg-centric idea. “It’s a food that makes everything better.”
So what kind of dishes can you expect? A Latin-accented version of green eggs and ham; a crispy egg roll with chorizo and poblanos; bacon, egg and cheese empanadas; egg salad topped with caviar; and, yes, tacos — with an egg-based “Huevos yellow sauce.”
“As a chef and restaurateur, you want to put your spin on it,” said Albisu. “There will be some curveballs and other things on the menu that will also attract people.”
There will also, of course, be various types of coffee, along with a “modest bar” serving craft beers, mimosas and Bloody Marys.
Albisu, who grew up in Falls Church and would regularly go out to eat in Arlington, says he hopes this is the beginning of even more restaurants here. While some might be disappointed that Ballston is not getting a Taco Bamba — the existing Chipotle leaves something to be desired — he says to stay tuned.
“If what I do is interesting to everybody there, and hopefully it is, we can expand what we do in the future,” he said. “We’re always looking in Arlington. It deserves the best it can get.”
Olive Express at 1100 N. Glebe Road (staff photo by Ashley Hopko)
Olive Express at 1100 N. Glebe Road (staff photo by Ashley Hopko)
Olive Express at 1100 N. Glebe Road (staff photo by Ashley Hopko)
It actually opened three months ago, but unless you work on the western side of the 1100 block of N. Glebe Road, in the Ballston area, you probably don’t know it exists.
Olive Express Mediterranean Café, a small local restaurant and catering chain that also has locations in Reston and Herndon, opened in October at 1100 N. Glebe Road, in a long-vacant ground floor retail space.
Well off the beaten path but exceedingly convenient for those who work at the office building — home to the headquarters of Arlington Economic Development and government contractor CACI — the restaurant offers salads, sandwiches, bowls, Illy coffee and Italian gelato.
More from a press release, sent last night:
Residents of Ballston should prepare themselves for a new Mediterranean flavor in town. Olive Express Mediterranean Café has announced the opening of its newest location – 1100 N. Glebe Road, Arlington VA 22201.
Olive Express Mediterranean Café is a Mediterranean style restaurant that also specializes in Salad, Panini, and Sandwiches as well as Bowls and Plates. Olive Express Mediterranean Café features award winning falafel, hummus and shawarmas as well as a full Illy Coffee Bar including Nitro Cold Brew and Italian Gelato. Olive Express fuses the mouth-watering taste of Middle East with the exciting new techniques. All items are prepared fresh and fast. Olive Express prides itself on its scratch kitchen and preparing everything from fresh ingredients never frozen. Olive Express features gluten free, lactose free and vegan/vegetarian options/
Olive Express is an upscale counter-service restaurant and catering service that offers quickly prepared healthy and tasty food. Olive Express was founded in the D.C. metro area and provides a full menu of breakfast, lunch/dinner, and a full-service Coffee House. Our food is made from fresh ingredients and is “Simply Good for You.” We specialize in Mediterranean cuisine, with a menu that also focuses on paninis, deli sandwiches, and salads. No preservatives or other chemical additives are utilized. All items are delicious and will fit into a busy schedule.
Olive Express Mediterranean Café’s other locations include Reston, Virginia and Herndon, VA.
Pho Harmony, a carry-out Vietnamese noodle restaurant, is coming to Columbia Pike, according to a sign on the front of 3203 Columbia Pike.
The small commercial building houses a psychic, a tax service, and — formerly — Mongol Nomads Asian Fusion, a restaurant that served Mongolian and, briefly, Caribbean cuisine.
The pho restaurant is “coming soon,” according to the sign. No other information on it could be located in the windows or online.
Lee’s Sandwiches, which bills itself as the “World’s Largest Bánh Mì Chain,” may be coming to Ballston, according to permit filings.
The business is still in the process of applying for permits at 801 N. Quincy Street, where a Subway sandwich shop closed last summer. The windows of the space are covered in paper and no sign of construction activity can be seen yet.
Lee’s Sandwiches serves Asian 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.”
Red Hook Lobster Pound at the Naan Kabob property (staff photo by Vernon Miles)
Red Hook Lobster Pound at the Naan Kabob property (staff photo by Vernon Miles)
Red Hook Lobster Pound at the Naan Kabob property (staff photo by Vernon Miles)
(Updated at 2 p.m.) It appears Red Hook Lobster Pound could be moving into the former Naan Kabob spot at 3300 Wilson Blvd, near Clarendon.
Red Hook Lobster Pound started as a restaurant in Red Hook, Brooklyn, before expanding to D.C. with a food truck that quickly gained popularity, which was then followed by a second D.C.-based truck and a kiosk at the District Wharf.
The trucks serve lobster and other New England specialties, like clam chowder and warm apple cider, as well as “lobstah box” meals that include a lobster roll, two sides or drinks, and a cookie.
Now, Red Hook Lobster Pound signs are up at the Naan Kabob space, and its trucks and food cart are regularly parked there. The company couldn’t be reached for comment, but signs inside the restaurant suggest it will serve as a bricks-and-mortar location for Red Hook Lobster Pound, offering dishes like lobster mac and cheese for $13.95.
For the time being, the company’s online schedule places one of the trucks as serving food at 3300 Wilson Blvd from 6-9 p.m. on Saturday nights.
Naan Kabob “temporarily closed” last October, but never reopened. The restaurant opened in 2017 to replace Pio Pio, a Peruvian restaurant that also had a penchant for temporary closures that became permanent.
There’s no word as to how much the Lobster Pound might have shelled out for its new Arlington spot.
The Pinemoor in Clarendon (staff photo by Vernon Miles)
The Pinemoor in Clarendon (staff photo by Vernon Miles)
The Pinemoor in Clarendon (staff photo by Vernon Miles)
Almost a year after signs for The Pinemoor went up at 1101 N. Highland Street, it looks like progress is being made on the new southern restaurant.
The restaurant replacing Clarendon Grill was originally planned to open last summer, according to signs, but that date came and passed without news. Now, signs of life: the restaurant has recently filed permits to serve alcohol and inside, the restaurant sports new decorations and furnishings.
The Pinemoor is described online as a “cousin” to Copperwood Tavern, a “farm-to-table American restaurant and craft bar” in Shirlington (4021 Campbell Avenue) and, most recently, Ashburn (20465 Exchange Street).
“Copperwood Tavern has a new cousin in the oven and she’s a Southern pistol,” The Pinemoor’s website says. “The Pinemoor is a farm-to-table American restaurant coming soon to Clarendon.”
Emails to Pinemoor’s owner seeking comment have thus far not been returned. It’s not yet known when the restaurant will open.
The new restaurant is at the corner of Wilson Blvd and N. Quincy Street in what was onceTaylor Gourmet.
LEBTAV doesn’t have all the same full-service items as the two other Lebanese Taverna locations in Arlington, in Westover (5900 Washington Blvd) and Pentagon Row (1101 S. Joyce Street). The location offers sandwiches, like shawarma and falafel, and rice bowls for around $10.
The hours are not posted online, but other LEBTAV locations are open from 11 a.m.-9 p.m. The new option will be a homegrown addition to the increasingly crowded Ballston lunch scene, which includes a CAVA restaurant down the street that has similar offerings and is frequently packed.
(Updated at 4:30 p.m on 11/02/20)Gallery Clarendon, a temporary art space at 2800 Clarendon Blvd, has announced that it will be closing to make way for a new pizza restaurant from New England.
The gallery, a project from the Arlington Artists Alliance, opened at Market Common Clarendon in June 2018 as a way to fill the space until a permanent tenant could be found. At the time, the Arlington Artists Alliance told ARLnow they expected to be open for roughly a year.
The gallery will close at the end of February, the Alliance said.
In May of 2018, with modest expectations and a solely volunteer effort, the Arlington Artists Alliance turned the empty storefront on the corner of Clarendon Blvd. and N. Fillmore into a gallery and artist studios for 50+ local Arlington artists. The positive feedback we received from the community was heartwarming and overwhelming… It was a wonderful experience for the artists and we thank each and every one of you who visited our gallery and studios or attended a class in Clarendon.
A pair of shows currently on display, called Catharsis and Kaleidoscope, will be the final exhibits at the gallery. Both shows are scheduled to have an opening reception tomorrow (Friday). Catharsis’ reception is scheduled to start at 4 p.m. while Kaleidoscope will start at 5 p.m., with both scheduled to finish around 7 p.m.
The Arlington Artists Alliance is currently hoping to find a new home in North Arlington, though its Gallery Underground location in Crystal City remains open.
Cherise Goldbach, general manager of Market Common Clarendon owner Regency Centers, said the new tenant in the space is Colony Grill, a small chain of thin-crust pizza-focused restaurants primarily based out of Connecticut.
The company’s website says it offers a one-size (12-inch) thin-crust cheese pizza, with signature spicy hot oil, and a variety of toppings. The chain also has a salad pizza — the company’s thin crust topped with salad fixings — with no cheese or sauce unless requested.
It will be the only Colony Grill location outside of Connecticut and New York, according to the company’s website. The first Colony Grill opened in an Irish immigrant neighborhood of Stamford, Connecticut in 1935.
“Everyone at Colony Grill is extremely excited to open in Clarendon later in 2020,” said Ken Martin, COO of Colony Grill, said in an email forwarded to ARLnow. “During our search, we absolutely fell in love with the greater Arlington area. It is simply a remarkable part of the country. We look forward to introducing our unique pizza to the neighborhood and becoming a part of the community fabric for years to come.”
The Waycroft under construction in Ballston in August
Construction is starting to wrap up at “The Waycroft,” a new apartment-and-retail development at the corner of N. Glebe Road and Wilson Blvd.
The development is notably set to include a nearly 500-unit apartment building, private-entrance townhomes, a rooftop pool and fitness center, a new 41,000 square foot Target store and a new Silver Diner, but there are a handful of other retail tenants that are also on the way.
Enterprise Rent-a-Car and Visual Health Optometry recently filed construction permits for retail spaces at the development. Visual Health has an existing location nearby, at 3012 Wilson Blvd in Clarendon.
Also signed to fill the new retail spaces, according to a leasing plan, are a 2,200 square foot Grill Kabob restaurant and Mint Nail Salon. The former will be located along Wilson Blvd, next to the future Silver Diner. Additional storefronts on either end of the development are still listed as available.
As of mid-2019, construction the apartment building was expected to wrap up in the first three months of 2020. The storefronts will likely take longer to build out.
While Target and Silver Diner are expected to be major draws, small retailers and restaurants have often struggled on the western side of Glebe Road, which is separated by six busy lanes from most of Ballston.
Goodbye Mister Days, Clarendon Ballroom, Java Shack — and hello food halls, outdoor beer garden, and more restaurants than we can count.
It’s no secret that Arlington has had quite the 2019, and as 2020 gets underway, here’s some of what’s opened, what’s closed, and what’s to come in 2020. For those keeping score, Ballston appears to be the hot spot for new restaurants, in part thanks to the opening of the renovated Ballston Quarter mall.
Closing Time
Some of Arlington’s most iconic businesses closed in 2019, including:
Clarendon Ballroom announced it would be closing after 20 years in business, following one last New Year’s Eve bash
