bb.q Chicken is opening in Virginia Square (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
A new Korean fried chicken restaurant in Virginia Square hopes to be hot and ready by next month.
A new location of the fried chicken franchise bb.q Chicken is aiming to open in Virginia Square in late May, a restaurant spokesperson confirmed ARLnow. It’s coming to 3503 Fairfax Drive, in the former location of Cosi, which closed three years ago.
The location remains under construction, the spokesperson said. The restaurant is known for its Korean-style fried chicken and has applied for a permit to serve alcohol.
This will be the first bb.q Chicken location in Arlington, though there are currently five others in Northern Virginia including in Falls Church and Centreville. Those are run by different franchise owners than the one coming to Arlington, however. There are more than 130 locations nationwide.
ARLnow first reported bb.q Chicken was crossing the road into Arlington back in January. The original aim was to open in April, but the debut has been pushed back by at least a month.
The Virginia Square location will be run by married couple Lydia and Harrison Om. It’s their first restaurant after running a grocery store in D.C., they told ARLnow earlier this year.
Kong Dog is opening at the Pentagon City mall (photo courtesy of Kong Dog)
Kong Dog at the Pentagon City mall is marking its opening this week by giving away free corn dogs.
The Korean corn dog restaurant announced that it would be opening its first Virginia location this weekend in the Pentagon City mall food court. It will be located near the end of the food court, close to the Forever 21 store.
To celebrate, the eatery says it will be serving up free corn dogs to the first 200 customers in line starting at 4 p.m. on Friday.
Per a press release:
To celebrate its grand opening, Kong Dog’s Pentagon City location (found in the Fashion Centre food court) will be giving away free corn dogs to the first 200 customers in line during its soft opening on Friday, April 28. With its trendy, delicious, and homemade corn dogs, Kong Dog is opening its doors in Pentagon City as a ‘new bite to grab’ offering corn dog lovers a selection of fun and flavorful toppings that make for a customizable experience unlike any other, The new food-lovers destination will also host a grand opening the next day, Saturday, April 29.
The restaurant will officially open to the public at 11 a.m. on Saturday.
In January we first reported that Kong Dog was setting up shop in the mall. It was originally set to open up in February but inspections and other delays pushed it back several months, a restaurant spokesperson told ARLnow.
The eatery sells Korean-style corn dogs with toppings like cheese, fried potato, hot Cheetos, and ramen. With U.S. locations mostly clustered in Illinois and New Jersey, the Pentagon City location is the first in Virginia. Locally, there is a location in Silver Spring and another opening in Georgetown later this year, the spokesperson said.
Kong Dog is not the only Korean-style corn dog restaurant in Arlington. Oh K-Dog and Egg Toast opened in Ballston Quarter last year and said it was also working to open a Crystal City location, though that does not appear to have materialized yet.
A look around Metropolitan Park and Amazon HQ2 in Pentagon City (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
It appears another new restaurant is coming to Amazon HQ2.
Makers Union has applied for a Virginia ABC permit for a location inside Amazon’s second headquarters at 510 14th Street S. in Pentagon City.
The pub is owned by the local restaurant group Thompson Hospitality, which also operates Matchbox, Big Buns Damn Good Burgers, Wiseguy Pizza, and a number of other local restaurant concepts.
This would be the second location of Makers Union, the first location of which is in Reston. The menu consists of gastropub-styled lunch with more upscale choices for dinner.
ARLnow has reached out to Thompson Hospitality to confirm the opening and other details but has yet to hear back as of publication. Eater reported last year that the company was “in talks with Amazon to put some of its restaurants into HQ2.”
Reston-based Thompson Hospitality launched three decades ago with the purchase of several Bob’s Big Boys. It has since become a nearly billion-dollar company, with most of its restaurants still in the D.C. area. The group has recently added locations in Florida and Ohio, with more expansion potentially on the way.
Locally, it recently opened a couple of new restaurants in McLean.
Over the last year, Amazon has announced a slew of new businesses and restaurants that are coming to the first phase of the company’s second headquarters, dubbed Metropolitan Park.
Amazon’s Metropolitan Park office complex is on track to open this summer along with many of the businesses. However, the second phase of the company’s massive Pentagon City presence is currently on “pause.”
Bluefish Bistro appears to be opening at Centro Arlington (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
A restaurant called Bluefish Bistro is looking to make a splash on Columbia Pike, but details remain murky.
A new eatery going by the seafood-sounding name is opening on the ground floor of the Centro Arlington development at the corner of S. George Mason Drive and Columbia Pike, per photos and the development’s updated site plan.
The 1,450-square-foot restaurant is set to be next to H&R Block and Vietnamese restaurant Pho Saigon Pearl while across from the Harris Teeter. The business also has applied for a liquor license with the company name listed as “PJW Corp.”
Other than that, though, no other details have surfaced.
“At this time, we don’t have any information to share,” a Centro Arlington spokesperson told ARLnow in an email.
ARLnow has reached out to a company linked with the restaurant in public records, PJW Corp, but has yet to hear back as of publication.
The three-year-old, six-story development is home to a Harris Teeter, several doctors’ offices, an Orangetheory fitness studio, a veterinarian’s office, and apartments.
Tuna Restaurant in Cherrydale (photo courtesy of Sak Vong)
Tuna Restaurant in Cherrydale has been sold to a new owner, who is reopening with a more Thai-focused menu today (Friday).
The restaurant at 3813 Langston Blvd that served Laotian and Japanese cuisine was put up for sale only a few months after it initially opened, replacing Maneki Neko Express. Owner Sak Vong told ARLnow in late February that he was selling because of a “new business opportunity overseas.”
And, fairly quickly, it found a buyer in Leesburg-resident May Ditnoy, who also owns a catering company with her mother.
The plan, Ditnoy told ARLnow, is to reopen today after being shut down for a week to “upgrade” the menu and make minor layout changes. The restaurant will keep the “Tuna” name for the moment and will serve Thai and Japanese cuisine, similar to the previous menu.
This is Ditnoy’s first restaurant, but she couldn’t pass up the opportunity of a fully built-out kitchen that served a similar cuisine to what her and her mom plan to cook.
“[Building] a brand new restaurant is definitely a lot of investment and money, so this is big for us,” she said. “We are very fortunate to find Tuna Restaurant, though it could be in better condition, we can definitely improve and work with it. The fact that they served Laotian and Japanese cuisine is good too.”
The neighborhood is also a big plus, Ditnoy said. In recent weeks, she’s walked the neighborhood and eaten a number of different places in Cherrydale. Her experiences have convinced her to reopen Tuna.
A new name is “in the works,” but Ditnoy didn’t want to delay opening her first restaurant by waiting on name change paperwork. Both she and her mom are excited those first customers to come in today.
“This is a great spot for us,” Ditnoy said. “All in all, this is going to be a great place for us to start.”
A new restaurant might be coming to the old Rincome Thai space on Columbia Pike (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
A new restaurant might be coming to the old Rincome Thai space on Columbia Pike (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
A new restaurant may be moving into the former home of Rincome Thai on Columbia Pike.
A business going by the name “Yoi Yoi” has applied for a permit to serve alcohol at 3030 Columbia Pike, according to Virginia ABC records. That was until recently the address of Rincome Thai, which occupied the corner space inside the Days Inn for nearly four decades. It closed in February due to the owners retiring.
Currently, Rincome signage remains up at 3030 Columbia Pike, and there are chairs, tables, and a bar still inside the space.
Details about Yoi Yoi and when it might open remain spotty. The individual listed as the owner of Yoi Yoi also appears to own a noodle and sushi restaurant in D.C.’s Tenleytown neighborhood called “Absolute Noodle.”
ARLnow has reached out to the owner several times but has not heard back as of publication.
Employees at the Days Inn that the restaurant is connected to were also unaware of any details about the restaurant moving in. Rincome Thai’s former owner did confirm to ARLnow that another eatery was taking over but didn’t know any other information beyond that.
Whatever is moving into the Columbia Pike space will have big shoes to fill. Rincome Thai was well-known and popular for the better part of nearly 40 years. Owned by two Korean-American sisters, the restaurant fused two cuisines together creating a unique menu that had a loyal neighborhood following.
But the owners felt that it was time to retire earlier this year.
“My sister and I can still walk and enjoy going on vacation,” co-owner Mihee Pansiri said. “I don’t want to quit when I can’t walk. Then, I wouldn’t be able to do anything.”
Construction is nearly complete on the 3,000-square-foot second location of the Ballston-based donut shop, which is coming to 1400 S. Eads Street, managing partner Charles Kachadoorian told ARLnow. The plan is to open there in late May or early June, he said.
Like Peruvian Brothers, that hoped-for debut aligns with Amazon’s schedule for the first phase of its new Pentagon City office complex, also known as “Metropolitan Park.” Back in July, it was announced Good Company and a number of other local businesses were opening at HQ2 Phase 1.
The eatery first opened on N. Glebe Road in Ballston in 2019 and has since become popular as well as crowded on weekends, with lines and seating sometimes spilling onto the sidewalk.
That history played a big part in how this new location is being approached and designed, Kachadoorian said.
“It’s almost twice the size… compared to our tiny little spot in Ballston,” he said. “We’ll have more seating, indoor and outdoor seating, and we will have a great flow which we are excited about. Folks tend to get cramped up here in Ballston.”
The larger space will allow the cafe to have dinner service as well, a feature of the Ballston location prior to the pandemic. The menus will be pretty much the same at both locations.
“The [food] will be very, very similar. I’m sure there will be small things,” Kachadoorian said. “But, for the most part, the bulk of the menu is the same. The donuts are the same and the same coffee.”
The new Pentagon City location isn’t the only one that Good Company will be opening in the coming months. The company just completed construction on a new commercial baking facility in Tysons that will allow the majority of the baking to shift to that location. The hope is that it will open as soon as next week and alleviate some of the customer congestion often found in Ballston.
“We [currently] make everything in Ballston. We’ve spilled out of the kitchen into the dining room, so it’s time to get some more capacity,” Kachadoorian said.
Beyond baking for the two Good Company locations, the Tysons facility will also pick up the slack with the wholesale items the shop sells to area coffee shops and for catering. One of those places that Good Company provides pastries to is Misha’s in Old Town Alexandria.
Kachadoorian said he expects the company’s wholesale offerings and commitments to increase “dramatically” over the next few months due to the opening of the new Tysons commercial baking facility.
There’s also a plan to open a Good Company location in D.C. in the spring of 2024, but exact plans have not been finalized as of yet.
For the moment, what Kachadoorian is most excited with the new Pentagon City location is getting to know the community.
“It’s a new neighborhood. What’s really fun thing when you open a restaurant is getting to know everybody from the area,” he said. “So, we hope that, just like it has in Ballston, it becomes a really cool spot for people to gather and weave the fabric of the community a little bit.”
Giuseppe and Mario Lanzone in the space that will be Peruvian Brothers inside of Amazon’s HQ2 (photo courtesy of Giuseppe Lanzone)
Peruvian Brothers at The Stand (photo courtesy JBG Smith)
Peruvian Brothers co-owner Giuseppe Lanzone with alpacas (Photo courtesy of Peruvian Brothers)
Empanada eatery Peruvian Brothers is set to return to Arlington this summer.
The fast-casual Peruvian restaurant owned by two brothers is planning to open in the first phase of Amazon’s HQ2 sometime in the summer, co-owner Giuseppe Lanzone told ARLnow. That timeline appears to follow Amazon’s schedule for opening its gleaming new office complex at 1400 S. Eads Street.
The new 2,000-square-foot restaurant on the first floor of the new building will have a full menu and a cocktail bar, serving pisco sours, among other drinks. This marks a return to the neighborhood for Peruvian Brothers, which previously occupied a stand at the Crystal City Water Park before the park underwent renovations.
Last July, it was announced that the restaurant was one of several moving into HQ2. The recently-announced delay for the second phase of the headquarters didn’t impact Peruvian Brothers since it’s moving into the almost-completed first phase.
“We are very much looking forward to going back into the National Landing area because the last they know we only had a small stand selling empanadas and some drinks,” Lanzone said. “Now, we are bringing our whole menu and a whole new bar concept. We hope all the neighbors… come enjoy a drink, a bite of food, and hang out.”
Giuseppe and fellow co-owner Mario Lanzone are originally from Peru and moved with their family to McLean in 1997. Prior to becoming a restaurateur, Giuseppe was a two-time Olympic rower for Team USA.
In February 2020, the brothers opened their first brick-and-mortar spot in La Cosecha, a Latin American market in D.C. Then, the pandemic hit and shut down the newly-opened location.
Thankfully, Lanzone lived in Crystal City and often jogged by the then-unoccupied stand in the privately-owned water park. The brothers struck a deal with park owner JBG Smith to serve a limited menu of empanadas and a few drinks out of the small space.
They were there for about two years before closing, but it led to an even bigger opportunity with the brothers moving into the largest restaurant space they’ve ever occupied.
The new restaurant will feature a similar menu as its La Cosecha location, which includes sandwiches, rotisserie chicken, and ceviche along with empanadas, but with at least one new addition.
“One of the things that were very popular with my brother and I growing up in La Punta on the coast of Peru were croquetas y pulpos, Peruvian croquettes,” Lanzone said. “It’s like an octopus burger, so to speak, which is absolutely delicious.”
The space will be designed with art and murals influenced and done by fellow Peruvians, he said.
Lanzone admits it’s been a bit of a challenge to build out the expansive space, from the back of the kitchen all the way to the front doors, but the reward is that they get to show off their shared heritage and culture to all who come by.
“We are very much looking forward [to bringing]…a little bit of a taste of where my brother Mario and I grew up… and where we come from,” Lanzone said. “From day one, teaching and sharing our Peruvian culture to everybody else that hasn’t been there yet. And, hopefully, one day will get to go there.”
Chase the Submarine in Pentagon City (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Chase the Submarine is now serving sandwiches inside the cube at Pentagon City.
The sub shop from local chef Tim Ma reopened to the public in February inside the former Bread and Water “cube” at Westpost on S. Joyce Street. The shop currently has only seven sandwiches on its menu, including banh mi, a meatball sub, and peanut butter and jelly.
This is Ma’s second Westpost restaurant having opened the Chinese-American take-out spot Lucky Danger in July 2021.
Along with Chase the Submarine, Ma is planning another concept in the cube. In the evenings, the shop will become a wine and cocktail bar called No Chaser. That is set to open later this year, Ma told ARLnow in January.
Stickers for both the sandwich shop and the bar are now up on the windows.
The noted chef has a history in Arlington. In 2013, Ma opened Water & Wall in Virginia Square. About three years later, though, the restaurant closed, with Ma saying that closing was neither “a celebration or a wake, it’s just a natural progression in its existence.”
Now, Ma is having sort of a renaissance in Arlington with Lucky Danger, organizing a collective of chefs around combating anti-Asian racism, organizing a popular night market in the fall, Chase the Submarine, and — soon — No Chaser.
Carbonara, soon to open in the Ballston/Virginia Square area (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Carbonara, soon to open in the Ballston/Virginia Square area (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
Coco B’s is set to open on the roof of B Live (staff photo by Matt Blitz)
As we slide into brown flip flop season, some hotly-anticipated Arlington restaurants and bars are set to open in the coming months.
Below is a list of the latest updates, compiled by ARLnow.
“Tropical glam” bar Coco B’s in Clarendon hopes to start serving drinks with little umbrellas in May, co-owner Mike Bramson told ARLnow. It was about a year ago when the owners behind the Lot and Pamplona announced they were opening a rooftop bar on top of another one of their ventures, B Live. The two bars were filling a space that was once occupied by legendary Whitlow’s, which moved to the District. Coco B’s was supposed to open this past fall, but construction work and the winter delayed it to spring 2023.
Shirlington’s Astro Beer Hall and its donut robot is also looking at starting up in May, as the owners told ARLnow in February. The beer hall has been in the working since at least December 2021 and is moving into the space formerly occupied by Capital City Brewing Co.
Wagamama in Clarendon is looking at potentially late spring serving date. The British chain focused on Japanese cuisine is taking over Oz’s former home.
Carbonara: Old School Italian & Wine Bar from local chef Mike Cordero, is expecting to get cooking later this summer. It will be located at 3865 Wilson Blvd, near the Ballston/Virginia Square border. The menu, as first announced back in August 2022, is expected to include a veritable tour of Italy and its expected opening date of late summer remains pretty much in line with what was first announced last summer.
Forest Inn fill-in Westover Taco is aiming for tacos to be served by late summer, co-owner Scott Parker said earlier this week. The margarita and taco spot is taking over what was once one of Arlington’s last dive bars.
Kebab-centric Tawle is now aiming for a fall opening in Clarendon. The buzzy eatery from the owners of two of D.C.’s hottest restaurants first announced back in May 2022 that was it was making a new home at the former address of beloved live music venue IOTA Club. The plan was to initially to open Tawle this spring, but the opening has been pushed back to the fall, a restaurant spokesperson tells ARLnow.
Westover Taco is taking over the old Forest Inn space and planning to open late summer (staff photo by Jay Westcott)
It’s not taco time yet in Westover, but the neighborhood’s newest restaurant aims to open in late summer.
With county permits approved, construction can commence at Westover Taco, co-owner Scott Parker told ARLnow. The plan is to gut the former home of Forest Inn and make it all “brand new,” per Parker.
Construction is expected to start in the coming weeks and take about three months. The hope is to be able to open Westover Taco by mid to late August, Parker said.
It was back in August when ARLnow first reported that local serial entrepreneur Parker, along with several partners that run local establishments Cowboy Cafe and Lost Dog Cafe, was opening Westover Taco at 5849 Washington Blvd.
That address had belonged to Forest Inn, the four-decade-old restaurant that was considered one of Arlington’s last dive bars. But in June 2022, the establishment closed its doors for good.
Now, Parker and his team are turning the dive into a margarita and taco hot spot.
Plans for the space have not changed since last summer, he said. The plan includes “blow[ing] out the ceiling and really open up the space and give it a brighter vibe.”
For Forest Inn fans, there may not be much left that will be recognizable when construction wraps.
“I’m not sure if there’s anything from the new spot that would make people remember the old spot,” Parker acknowledged.
