new restaurant

Backyard BBQ in Williamsburg Shuts Down, But New BBQ Restaurant Moves Into Same Space

By Alex Koma
1/2

Williamsburg is losing one barbecue restaurant, but gaining another in short order.

Smoking Kow BBQ now plans to take over the space once occupied by Backyard BBQ and Catering Company, located at 2910 N. Sycamore Street.

Paul Tecchio, the new restaurant’s general manager, told ARLnow just signed a lease to move in a few days ago, and hopes to have it open for business by “the first or second week of April.”

Backyard BBQ announced plans to close the location after more than 10 years in the space in mid-February, serving up its last meals on Feb. 22.

The new BBQ restaurant moving in got its start as a food truck serving up smoked meats across the Northern Virginia area and D.C., Tecchio said. It’s backed by Dylan Kough (pronounced “cow”), a former financial consultant who decided to try and bring Kansas City-style BBQ to the D.C. area.

Kough opened his first brick-and-mortar location of Smoking Kow in Alexandria last year, and still operates two food trucks as well. He also worked with Tecchio, himself a “classically trained chef who has worked in kitchens around the DMV for almost 7 years,” to open the Alexandria location and will partner with him once more on this new restaurant.

“Dylan and I have poured a lot of heart and hard work into getting the first location to where it is today and we are very excited to be bringing our ‘que to Arlington,” Tecchio wrote in an email.

Smoking Kow’s menu includes a variety of BBQ staples like brisket, pulled pork and chicken and ribs, with a whole host of platters, sandwiches and even tacos on offer.

Photo 1 via @BackyardBBQ_Co

Ballston Quarter Misses Proposed Opening Date for New Food Court, Targets Early March

By Alex Koma
1/3

(Updated at 1:50 p.m.) A potential opening date for Ballston Quarter’s revamped food court has arrived, but its new restaurants still aren’t open to diners.

Representatives for the overhauled Ballston Common mall previously told ARLnow that the new “Quarter Market” would open today (Wednesday). But barriers and signs still block off all entrances to the new, so-called “food hall.”

Several hungry would-be patrons arrived to make such a discovery as lunchtime neared today, only to be disappointed.

Ballston Quarter’s Twitter account tweeted shortly afterward that the 14-restaurant food court will “begin to open within the next week,” pledging to announce the move on its social media channels.

Rachel Buckly, a public relations representative for Ballston Quarter developer Forest City, said late last week that Quarter Market would begin to open Feb. 27. Signs around the development have promised a February opening date for months.

Shortly after ARLnow published a story to that effect, Buckly reversed herself and wrote in an email that “the first restaurants will begin to open their doors at Quarter Market in early March.” But she did not answer questions about what prompted the sudden delay.

Signs around the property now merely list a “spring 2019” opening date for Quarter Market. (Spring starts March 20.)

This is far from the first delay the development’s experienced since it first neared opening late last year.

Initially, its backers promised to open some stores to the public in late October. But the proposed opening date came and went without any news on the mall’s status, before some stores finally opened in mid-November.

Plans for a new pedestrian bridge stretching over Wilson Blvd also encountered some construction delays last year. Workers mounted the bridge on its supports earlier this month, but it’s not quite ready for use just yet.

Idido’s Coffee House and Cafe Opens Near Columbia Pike

By Alex Koma
1/2

A new cafe and coffee house is now open just off Columbia Pike.

Idido’s Coffee and Social House opened its doors recently in the base of the Columbia Place condo complex, located at 1107 S. Walter Reed Drive.

Readers told ARLnow that the eatery opened up this past Saturday (Feb. 23). Its owners have been working to set up the space since March 2017, according to county permit records.

Idido’s offers a fully array of caffeinated beverages, snacks and even beer and wine.

The new cafe sits adjacent to the Pureluxe Nails and Spa nail salon, which is also located on the first floor of the building.

It sits across the street from a BB&T Bank branch and the Avalon apartment building (formerly the Halstead).

Photos via @SRtwofourfour

Ballston Quarter ‘Food Hall’ Set to Open This Week

By Alex Koma
1/3

Update on 2/27/19 — The planned opening has now been delayed until March.

Ballston Quarter’s newly revamped food court, dubbed “Quarter Market,” is now set to open this week.

A spokeswoman for Forest City, the company working to redevelop the former Ballston Common mall, told ARLnow that the food court will “begin to open” on Wednesday (Feb. 27).

She did not, however, provide additional details about which restaurants in the 25,000-square-foot space will be open to hungry customers this week. Stores in the rest of the newly renovated mall began opening last fall, even as others remain under construction, and Quarter Market could follow a similar path.

Dubbed a “food hall,” the new food court is set to welcome a variety of upscale eateries, many of which will offer outdoor seating in the development’s plaza along Wilson Blvd in warmer months.

So far, the developer has confirmed that the following restaurants will be included in the space:

The sushi burrito chain Buredo and hot dog food truck Swizzler also previously announced that they’d open up locations in Quarter Market, but they’re not currently listed on the mall’s online directory.

Compass Coffee, South Block, Ted’s Bulletin, True Food Kitchen and Union Kitchen are all set to have locations nearby as well, with outdoor seating included.

Whenever the development’s restaurants open, they’ll join Chick-fil-A and Punch Bowl Social as eateries serving up food in Ballston Quarter.

New Spanish Restaurant Looks to Add Outdoor Seating in Ballston Quarter Plaza

By Alex Koma
1/2

A Spanish restaurant complete with a “sangria garden” is the latest eatery looking to set up outdoor seating at the new Ballston Quarter development.

The fast casual restaurant Copa is applying for the permits necessary to include outdoor cafe tables in the development’s yet-to-be-opened plaza area, located near Ballston Quarter’s Wilson Blvd entrance.

So long as the County Board signs off on the request at its meeting Saturday (Feb. 23), Copa will become the seventh restaurant to win permission for outdoor seating at the development in recent months. The Board approved similar plans for Bartaco, Compass Coffee, South Block, Ted’s Bulletin, True Food Kitchen and Union Kitchen in October.

Copa is backed by the creators of Bethesda restaurants Butchers Alley and Pescadeli, and is set to offer small plates, homemade sangria and Spanish flatbreads.

It looks set to be located alongside a bevy of other upscale restaurants in the development’s revamped food court, dubbed a “food hall,” which is one of the largest sections of Ballston Quarter that has yet to open since stores began slowly coming online last fall.

Signs posted around the development continue to list February as an opening date for the new “Quarter Market.”

New Coffee Bar Looks Bound for Lobby of Courthouse Office Building

By Alex Koma
1/2

A new coffee bar appears to be on the way for a Courthouse office building.

Workers have been setting up what looks to be a small shop offering espresso drinks and other breakfast options in the lobby of a building at 1310 N. Courthouse Road. The building sits near the county jail and courthouse, and not far from the county government center.

There are no signs posted at the location just yet, nor are there any permit applications pending for the space, according to county records.

However, an ARLnow reader says staff at the building are telling tenants that the space has been leased out to a business planning to offer both coffee drinks and breakfast sandwiches.

The lobby is already home to a “Fooda” pop-up stand, a company that works with local restaurants to temporarily offer a rotating menu of lunch options at office buildings.

The Gold’s Gym in the building could soon be on the move as well — its lease is set to expire there in March, though its staff is hoping to negotiate an extension.

Thai Treasure Opens for Business in Virginia Square Office Building

By Alex Koma
1/3

A new Asian fusion restaurant is now open for business in the base of a Virginia Square office building.

Thai Treasure opened its new location at 3811 Fairfax Drive this week, moving into the space formerly occupied by the Water & Wall restaurant.

The eatery offers a menu with all manner of Asian dishes available, from pad thai to banh mi to a variety of curries. The restaurant also boasts a full bar.

The location is the second in the Northern Virginia area for Thai Treasure, which also operates a restaurant of the same name in Vienna. Owner Nui Bumrungsiri is hoping to offer a bit more expansive menu at the Arlington location, however, with dishes from a variety of different countries.

Bumrungsiri also told ARLnow that she’s hoping to hold a grand opening event for the restaurant sometime in the near future.

Water & Wall closed at the space in February 2017, after roughly three and a half years in business. Burgerim recently opened a new location in the same building as well.

After More Than Two Years of Work, New Pizzeria Looks Set to Open in Clarendon

By Alex Koma
1/2

A local pizza chain finally looks ready to open in a space just off Clarendon’s main drag, after more than two years of construction work.

Stone Hot Pizza initially applied for permits to move to the neighborhood in September 2016, but has made little progress since then. But county records show the restaurant won a commercial business permit on Feb. 1, and a glance inside the storefront at 3217 Washington Blvd shows that construction is ramping up.

The restaurant’s staff did not respond to a request for comment on when, exactly, the pizzeria might finally open.

Stone Hot Pizza also operates locations in Alexandria, Falls Church and Fairfax. Menu items include specialty pizzas, calzones, sandwiches, pastas, salads, wings, meat pies and various appetizers and desserts, according to the chain’s website.

Whenever the new pizzeria starts serving up pies, it’ll be located on a suddenly busy block of Clarendon.

In addition to older businesses like O’Sullivan’s Irish Pub and Spirits of ’76, new restaurants Asiatique and Le Kon recently opened in the base of the nearby Beacon apartments.

Philz Coffee Opens Its Doors in Ballston

By Alex Koma

Philz Coffee has now opened its doors in Ballston, marking the chain’s first expansion into Virginia.

The coffee shop opened this week in the new Ballston Exchange development, located at 4121 Wilson Blvd.

Philz joins Cava and Shake Shack as another popular chain to open a location in the development, once known as “Stafford Place” before the National Science Foundation moved out of the neighborhood and kicked off a slew of changes to the two adjacent buildings on Wilson Blvd.

The coworking space Industrious also recently set up shop in the development.

Other stores on the way for Ballston Exchange include a We The Pizza, the new Bearded Goat barbershop and the health-food focused eatery Dirt.

Philz now boasts five locations across the D.C. metro area.

New Burger Restaurant, Hookah Lounge Looks Bound for Lee Highway

By Alex Koma
1/3

(Updated at 9:35 a.m.) A new fast food restaurant and hookah lounge looks to be on the way to replace a vacant building along Lee Highway.

All About Burger plans to open up a new location at 5009 Lee Highway, according to county permit records.

The records indicate that a hookah lounge is also part of plans for the roughly 11,100-square-foot space, though it’s unclear if it will be attached to the restaurant, or merely operate in the same building.

The Lee Highway location would become All About Burger’s third shop in the county. The small chain already operates a location in Virginia Square, with plans to open another in the revamped Ballston Quarter mall.

All About Burger has several other locations in D.C., and has a bit of an unusual past.

The company’s owners, Mohammad and Ebrahim Esfahani, started out as business partners with Peter Tabibian to run the D.C.-area chain Z-Burger, and even opened the Virginia Square location under that name.

But a dispute between the company’s co-owners led to a severing of the business — Tabibian earned the right to retain the “Z-Burger” name and still runs two locations in D.C., while the Esfahanis’ restaurants became All About Burger instead.

The eatery offers hamburgers, hotdogs, cheesesteaks and milkshakes, according to its menu.

D.C. Bar ‘Rebellion’ Plans Expansion into Old BrickHaus Space on Columbia Pike

By Alex Koma
1/3

A DuPont Circle bar is planning an expansion into the old BrickHaus space along Columbia Pike.

Rebellion will soon open its second location in the D.C. area at 2900 Columbia Pike. Signs posted at the building say the new establishment is due to open in “early 2019.”

Staff at the current D.C. location said in a Facebook message that the bar’s current owners “have been longtime Pike residents and regulars, so they are extremely excited to get the place open and get it open quickly.” Brian Westlye, the founder and COO of the hospitality company managing Rebellion, told ARLnow that the new location should “hopefully” be open by March 1.

The new bar is described as “Rebellion on the Pike” on the restaurant’s website and social media pages.

Rebellion offers up Southern cuisine and a hefty beer selection at its Dupont location, at 1836 18th Street N.W.

BrickHaus offered a similar vision for the area before shuttering at the end of last year.

Owner Tony Wagner closed both his Twisted Vines wine shop and BrickHaus to consolidate his offerings at the nearby Josephine’s Italian Kitchen, and lamented at the time that BrickHaus “never took off the way we expected and hoped it would,” after battling through a series of permitting and construction delays.

Photo 3 via @rebellion_onthepike

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