Signs posted for “Food Corner Kabob House” in a Ballston apartment building.
Signs posted for “Food Corner Kabob House” in a Ballston apartment building.
A local kabob chain appears to be opening a new location in the base of a Ballston apartment building.
Signs posted at the space at 933 N. Quincy Street indicate that “Food Corner Kabob House” will soon open its doors in the area.
Banners promise both gyros and “famous Afghan kabobs” will be offered at the new eatery. Food Corner also operates locations in Annandale, Centreville, Vienna, Springfield and Dupont Circle, according to its website.
The space, located on the ground floor of the Quincy Plaza Apartment building, hasn’t been especially kind to restaurants over the last few years.
The Lebanese restaurant Badaro shuttered there in November after roughly a year in business. A NKD Pizza location there also closed in May 2017.
The owners of the recently shuttered A-Town Bar and Grill in Ballston now say they’re transforming the restaurant into a German food hall.
The space at 4100 Fairfax Drive will soon become “Bronson,” offering up craft beer and traditional German fare, co-owner and chef Mike Cordero announced in a news release today (Wednesday).
Cordero and his partners opted to shut down A-Town late last year, after opening its doors back in 2012. Co-owner Scott Parker chalked the change up to the fact that the bar’s lease was set to expire when 2019 rolled around and the building’s landlord was interested in giving the location a bit of a refresh.
The swap will involve the full renovation of the space, including the addition of “large communal tables” and expansion of its seating capacity to hold about 250 people in all.
“We’ve had seven great years at A-Town Bar and Grill but it’s time for a change,” Cordero said in a statement. “We look forward to the new year with introducing the new Bronson business model, innovative design and fun atmosphere and serving the Arlington community.”
Bronson “will offer German-American casual cuisine, specialty cocktails and craft draft beer, which can be served at the restaurant or for sale as a take away in traditional German growlers,” the release said. The bar will also include “popular taproom games, including foosball, cornhole, darts, bocce and shuffleboard.”
Cordero said that construction on the new eatery is kicking off right away, and he hopes to have it open by “early April.”
Parker and Cordero are partners on a whole host of other popular Arlington night life spots, from The GOAT and Don Tito in Clarendon to Barley Mac in Rosslyn.
Yume Sushi in East Falls Church (courtesy of Isobel Leandra)
Yume Sushi in East Falls Church (courtesy of Isobel Leandra)
Planned menu offerings at Yume Sushi (via Yume Sushi)
Planned menu offerings at Yume Sushi (via Yume Sushi)
After a few more months of delays, a new sushi restaurant is now set to open today (Monday) in East Falls Church.
Yume Sushi plans to hold a soft opening today at its location at 2121 N. Westmoreland Street, according to spokeswoman Isobel Leandra. She said the eatery then expects to hold a more formal grand opening sometime in “mid-January.”
The restaurant has been working to open since last fall, but has consistently run into permitting and construction challenges. Yume originally hoped to start serving up sushi in late October, but Leandra says that “a combination of permitting and a few other changes behind the scenes to ensure we could roll out all the stops” prompted the additional delays.
The eatery is backed by executive chef and co-owner Saran Kannasute, who was previously the executive chef at Alexandria’s The Sushi Bar.
He plans to serve up not only a large collection of sushi roles, but will also offer “Omakase dining,” stemming from the Japanese phrase that roughly translates to “I shall leave it up to you.” The two-hour sessions give chefs complete creative freedom in creating specially tailored menus for diners.
Yume will be located in the same building as a South Block juice bar, and will be just down the street from the East Falls Church Metro station.
Signs posted at the storefront, located at 1800 Wilson Blvd, promise that “Saigon Noodles and Grill” is “coming soon” to the space.
The restaurant doesn’t seem to have a web presence as of yet, but county permit records show that Hien Nguyen applied for a permit for a new 80-seat restaurant in the space on Nov. 5. County officials have yet to sign off on that request.
Bistro 360 closed back in late May, after owner Art Hauptman decided to shutter the restaurant after four years in business.
Hauptman subsequently struck a deal with the D.C.-based Parlay Sports Bar and Lounge to open a “pop-up” bar in the space. He’d originally hoped to make the arrangement more permanent, but it ended up lasting only a few weeks.
Starting today (Thursday), Chick-fil-A is back open in Ballston.
The fast food restaurant is welcoming hungry diners once more as part of the new Ballston Quarter development. The new outpost of the chain is located at 671 N. Glebe Road, on the development’s ground level and accessible via both its Glebe and Wilson Blvd entrances.
Chick-fil-A was long one of the most popular spots in the former Ballston Common mall, opening there more than 27 years ago, according to a press release.
Unlike the old location, however, the new space has a 50-seat dining area as well. The restaurant also includes a designated pickup counter for mobile orders.
Anyone swinging by the chain today can expect “a day of Chick–fil-A surprises,” the release said, including giveaways.
The restaurant will be open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. each day, except Sundays, and serve breakfast until 10 p.m.
Chick-fil-A joins Punch Bowl Social among the first eateries to open in the new development, with businesses slowly starting to open to customers over the course of the last month. Ballston Quarter’s full “food hall,” an upscale food court, isn’t set to open until February.
A new bar and restaurant could be on the way for Ballston Quarter, as businesses in the development slowly start to open to customers.
An establishment dubbing itself the “Ballston Service Station” is planning to move into the newly converted Ballston Common mall, according to a permit application.
The restaurant is seeking to serve both wine and beer “on and off premises,” records show, but there aren’t many other details available about the company. However, it does seem to have ties to Andrew Dana, the co-owner of D.C.’s Timber Pizza Company and Call Your Mother Deli — Dana’s phone number is listed as the contact on the Ballston Service Station permit application.
Dana is already planning on bringing a Timber Pizza location to Ballston Quarter, which will be located in the development’s “Quarter Market,” an upscale food court.
It’s unclear if the two restaurants will be connected, however — neither Dana nor a spokeswoman for Forest City, the company backing Ballston Quarter, responded to requests for comment.
Some stores and restaurants in Ballston Quarter have started welcoming their first customers in recent weeks, though the exact timeframe for the rest of the development to open for business remains murky.
The Quarter Market is currently slated to open in February, and Forest City hopes to have everything open by this coming spring.
The former Tortoise and Hare space in Crystal City, soon to be home to Fiona’s Irish Pub (courtesy photo)
Fiona’s Irish Pub current location in Alexandria (courtesy of Martin White)
Fiona’s Irish Pub current location in Alexandria (courtesy of Martin White)
A new Irish pub is on the way for Crystal City, aiming to set up shop in the neighborhood’s long-time row of local restaurants on 23rd Street S.
The space once occupied by the Tortoise and Hare Bar and Grill at 567 23rd Street S. will soon become home to the second location of Fiona’s Irish Pub, a restaurant and bar currently based in Alexandria.
Owner Martin White, a native of Ireland, told ARLnow that he’s hoping to get the new pub up and running somewhere in “early to mid-January,” and he’s eager to move in to what he termed “the best block in Crystal City.”
“You probably have every chain in the world on Crystal Drive, and that’s fine, you need chains,” White said. “But that 23rd Street block with all those independent restaurants, it’s got a great vibe to it. It could almost be an old part of New York or D.C.”
White is no stranger to the neighborhood’s dining scene — he says he helped open Crystal City’s Hamburger Hamlet back in 1991 and ran King Street Blues over on Crystal Drive for years. But the impending redevelopment of the area forced that restaurant out of its space this summer, and White found himself looking for other options.
Considering that his original location of Fiona’s was “going gangbusters” over in the Kingstowne Shopping Center in Fairfax County, White says he decided to expand the concept elsewhere.
“There’s this vision for it being the local village within the city, and that grabbed my attention, big time,” White said. “The more independents there, the better.”
He was able to secure the lease at the 23rd Street space months ago, and has been hard at work rehabbing the location ever since. White says the announcement that Amazon would indeed be moving in nearby didn’t hurt his prospects, either.
“Everybody knew what was going on with Amazon, but it was a hope,” White said. “We’d already signed the lease and the contract before it was announced. That was just a happy coincidence.”
As for the restaurant itself, White says the new location will be virtually the same as first Fiona’s. That means he’s aiming for a “traditional Dublin Irish pub” to honor his hometown, complete with a stage for live music, plenty of beer on tap and a “significant Irish whiskey collection.”
“Everything, all our food will be all fresh made,” White said. “Everything will be made in-house daily.”
While Crystal City may well have other bars and restaurants, White expects that commitment to freshness will help Fiona stand out.
“When you think about it, farm to table has been going on for hundreds of years in Ireland,” White said. “That’s how we grew up, and that’s how we’ll be.”
I-CE-NY is set to start dishing out ice cream today in Shirlington.
The unique ice cream chain, which serves “smashed and rolled ice cream” with mix-ins like fruit, cookies and candy, started in Thailand before expanding to New York City in 2015 and then other U.S. cities.
Debuting on the same day as Shirlington’s Light Up the Village event, the shop plans to offer a “Buy One, Get One Free” rolled ice cream promotion today (Nov. 29), a spokeswoman for Federal Realty told ARLnow.
With more than 250 locations across Asia and more than 20 locations in the U.S., this is I-CE-NY’s first D.C.-area location.
I-CE-NY offers a number of signature pre-set ice cream and mix-in combos, including “Mango Sticky RI-CE” and “Strawberry Cheese-CE Cake,” per its website.
The ice cream gets made by pouring the ice cream base — including flavors such as “Thai I-CE Tea,” “Biscoff Cookie Butter,” “Cookie Spree,” “Want S’mores” and more — with a choice of mix-in ingredients on a custom-designed metal plate that can get as cold as -15 degrees Fahrenheit, the spokeswoman said. It is then chopped, smashed, flattened and served in chubby rolls.
Shatner: Arlington E-Bike Rules ‘Barbaric’ — E-bike enthusiast and Priceline pitchman William Shatner, better known as Star Trek’s Captain James T. Kirk, said via Twitter yesterday — in response to a tweet from the sassy Arlington Dept. Environmental Services Twitter account — that Arlington’s prohibition on e-bikes on local trails is “barbaric.” [Twitter]
Kojo Coming to Crystal City — WAMU 88.5 is bringing the Kojo Nnamdi Show to Crystal City for “a town hall-style discussion about how local officials, businesses, and community members in Northern Virginia and the region are reacting to Amazon’s decision.” Those wishing to attend the taping can register online. [Kojo Nnamdi Show]
Upgrades for Ballston Senior Housing — “The Arlington County Board [Tuesday] approved a low-interest loan of $3.025 million in federal Community Development Block Grant funds to help renovate The Carlin, a 162-unit, 10-story building located at 4300 N. Carlin Springs Road. The Carlin serves low income elderly residents who are 55 years and older.” [Arlington County]
‘Arts District’ Near Crystal City? — “Even before the specter of Amazon’s second headquarters put stars in everyone’s eyes in Crystal City, Stratis Voutsas and Georgia Papadopoulos, managers of a trust that owns many buildings on the neighborhood’s ‘restaurant row,’ were dreaming up a plan to bring more people across U.S. Route 1 to the neighborhood… The trust wants to build an open-air park and plaza on a parking lot and site of a Greek restaurant the trust owns behind some of the 23rd Street restaurants. It would have artist spaces tucked below, facing onto 22nd Street.” [Washington Business Journal]
Amazon News Roundup — Amazon’s HQ2 search was about “selecting locations with specialized kinds of talent that meet certain needs,” and “Crystal City… puts Amazon closer to tech talent, but also to government leaders, cloud customers, and the U.S. Department of Defense.” Crystal City is built upon the former Abingdon Plantation and the new Amazon presence “affords us the opportunity to recognize and memorialize the lives of those enslaved there.” Meanwhile, a former JBG executive who left to help build a $3 billion development in Tampa is returning as the company prepares for Amazon’s arrival.
Nearby: New Wawa and New Restaurant — A new Wawa is coming to Vienna, making it the closest Northern Virginia location to Arlington for the beloved convenience store chain. And an acclaimed chef is planning to open a new Italian restaurant on N. Washington Street in the City of Falls Church.
McChrystal Speaks Out Against Lee — Amid the furor over changing the name of Washington-Lee High School, Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who attended W-L, says it’s time to set aside icons like Robert E. Lee and “combat our desire to mythologize our history and our leaders.” [Washington Post]
Soft Opening for Shirlington Ice Cream Shop — Rolled ice cream shop I-CE-NY is scheduled to hold a soft opening tonight in Shirlington from 4:30-9:30 p.m. [Instagram]
Fill the Cruiser Tonight — The Arlington County Police Department is holding one of its three planned “Fill the Cruiser” holiday toy drive events today from 2-6 p.m. at the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City mall. “A cruiser will be located in the food court next to the Christmas tree,” ACPD notes. [Arlington County]
E-CARE Stats — This month’s Arlington E-CARE disposal and recycling event collected more than 100,000 pounds of hazardous household materials and used electronics products. [Twitter]
AFAC Helps Less Fortunate Celebrate Thanksgiving — The Arlington Food Assistance Center gave away 2,500 turkeys, along with other Thanksgiving staples, over the past week. Hunger remains an unresolved issue at a time when Amazon’s future arrival will likely exacerbate inequality and housing unaffordability in Arlington. [Washington Post]
Nearby: Big New Development in Falls Church — “The development team of EYA, PN Hoffman and Regency Centers was chosen by the Falls Church City Council Monday night to orchestrate a dense and diverse $500 million development of 10.3 acres of City-owned land where its George Mason High School currently sits,” near the West Falls Church Metro station. [Falls Church News-Press]
New Elementary School at Reed Site Approved — “The Arlington County Board today approved a new elementary school for up to 732 students at the Reed site, 1644 N. McKinley Road, in the Westover neighborhood. The Board voted unanimously to approve a use permit amendment for Arlington Public Schools to renovate and expand the existing Reed School/Westover Library to create a neighborhood elementary school.” [Arlington County]
Here’s Where Amazon is Coming, Exactly — Amazon will be leasing office space at three JBG Smith buildings in Crystal City: 241 18th Street S., 1800 S. Bell Street and 1770 Crystal Drive. Amazon also agreed to buy two JBG-owned land parcels in Pentagon City that are approved for development: PenPlace and the remaining portion of Metropolitan Park. [Washington Business Journal]
County Board Discusses Legislative Priorities — “A highlight of the County’s package is a call for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution that was proposed by Congress in 1972. Both the Arlington League of Women Voters, and the Arlington Civic Federation have called on the General Assembly to ratify the ERA.” [Arlington County]
Arlington Projects Win at NAIOP Awards — Nine of the 29 real estate development projects lauded at the Best of NAIOP Northern Virginia Awards on Nov. 15 were Arlington projects. [NAIOP]
Neighborhood Conservation Projects Funded — “The Arlington County Board today approved $2.9 million in Neighborhood Conservation bond funds for projects in Cherrydale and Arlington Forest… The $1.84 million Cherrydale project will improve N. Monroe Street, between 17th Street North and 19th Street North… The $1.08 million Arlington Forest project will make improvements to Edison Park.” [Arlington County]
How DIRT Chose Ballston — “DIRT co-founders @jlatulip and @jamcdaniel visited many parts of D.C. and the greater DMV area before deciding to open in Ballston. ‘We noticed very quickly that this was a special community, one that we could call home and grow with. We love the energy of the neighborhood — Ballston is a young, active community, which fits DIRT perfectly.'” [Instagram]
Verizon FiOS Outage — Verizon’s FiOS service suffered a major outage in the D.C. area yesterday. [Twitter, Twitter]
