We, The Pizza location under construction at 4201 Wilson Blvd.
We, The Pizza location under construction at 4201 Wilson Blvd.
We, The Pizza is still coming to the Ballston Exchange, but a little later than originally planned.
Signs had originally been up at 4201 Wilson Blvd saying the pizza chain would open sometime in fall 2018. But fall 2018 came and passed, and the construction is still underway at the location.
Micheline Mendelsohn, Deputy CEO for We, The Pizza’s parent company, Sunnyside Restaurant Group, said no exact date has been set but the company is now eyeing mid-to-late September for an opening.
We, The Pizza will also be joined by a new CorePower Yoga near Dunkin’ Donuts on the northside of Ballston Exchange.
Listing Prices Around HQ2 Skyrocket — “From June 2018 to June 2019, the median asking price for a single-family home in Zip code 22202, home to Amazon’s planned Northern Virginia headquarters, skyrocketed a whopping 99.9 percent–essentially doubling over that period–according to a new report from listings service Bright MLS.” [Curbed, Bloomberg]
Board OKs Child Care Parking Changes — “The Arlington County Board today voted to reduce the parking requirements for child care centers, in keeping with the County’s Child Care Initiative to promote the expansion of accessible, available, high-quality child care throughout the County.” [Arlington County]
New Pizzeria Open on Lee Highway — Chicago’s Pizza With A Twist opened a couple of weeks ago on Lee Highway, next to Maya Bistro. The Indian-Italian fusion restaurant serves unique dishes like a chicken tikka masala pizza. [Instagram]
New Pike Bus Stops Approved — “The Arlington County Board today approved a $1.6 million contract with Sagres Construction Corporation to build the first four of 23 transit stations planned for Columbia Pike. Construction is expected to begin this fall and be completed by fall 2020.” [Arlington County]
Arlington GOP Sitting Out County Races — “For the most part, Arlington Republicans will be sitting out the November general election – the party did not field candidates for the County Board, School Board and most legislative races on the ballot, although there are several non-Democrats who are running that might attract GOP support.” [InsideNova]
Swanson Middle School Teacher Honored — “Congratulations to @SwansonAdmirals teacher Mary Beth Donnelly who was named the 2019 Virginia History Teacher of the Year.” [Twitter]
Injured D.C. Fire K-9 Stops GW Parkway Traffic — Updated at 9 a.m. — “Traffic stopped on the George Washington Parkway near Reagan National Airport Tuesday afternoon so a medevac helicopter could land, but the patient wasn’t human — it was a very special dog. The 6-year-old German shepherd named Kylie works for D.C. Fire and EMS as a cadaver dog… [she] seriously hurt one of her hind legs while helping another law enforcement agency conduct a search.” [WTOP]
Staff at the restaurant said they started cooking up the first pizzas in March, though a “now open” sign still adorns the front entrance.
The pizzeria advertises a lunch special of $7.99 for a one-topping pizza with an option to add a soda for 99 cents. It also offers paninis and other sandwiches for around $8.
Located at 3217 Washington Blvd, just off Clarendon’s main drag and next to Spirits of ’76, Stone Hot Pizza is open from 10:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday, and 10:30 a.m. to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.
(Updated at 2:25 p.m.) A new pizza place, Pizzetta, is set to open on Pentagon Row sometime within the next month.
The restaurant is planned to open at 1201 S. Joyce Street next to the Smallcakes Cupcakery and a man who identified himself as a co-owner said he hoped to have the location open by the end of the month.
“After 12 years of providing its signature pizza dough to Washington-D.C. based pizza shops, the owners of Casamia Catering will soon open Pizzetta, its first storefront location offering fresh rustic pizza,” said a PR rep for the shopping center.
No menu was readily available or could be found online, but the co-owner said the restaurant will be focused almost exclusively on pizza. He added the owners had hoped to do “other stuff” but restrictions in the lease have kept the scope narrow for now.
A new eatery called Quincy Hall is set to open in the Quincy Street Station building in Ballston
A new eatery called Quincy Hall is set to open in the Quincy Street Station building in Ballston
A new eatery called Quincy Hall is set to open in the Quincy Street Station building in Ballston
A new eatery called Quincy Hall is set to open in the Quincy Street Station building in Ballston
A new eatery called Quincy Hall is set to open in the Quincy Street Station building in Ballston
A new eatery called Quincy Hall is set to open in the Quincy Street Station building in Ballston
A new pizza restaurant and beer hall is coming to Ballston next year, according to a set of mustachioed storefront wrappings.
Window dressing on 4001 Fairfax Drive Pizza announced that “Quincy Hall” is slated to open in the ground floor of the Quincy Street Station in early 2020. The pizza and beer joint is slated to open in the same space once occupied by Thai restaurant Tara Temple, which closed two years ago.
Tara Temple’s distinctive red metal awning still decorates the suite’s front doors, but the windows are now blocked with polka-dotted paper with the new eatery’s name and mustachioed characters.
Information on the new eatery is scarce. As of Wednesday, the website on the storefront wrapping was listed as a parked domain and did not contain any information except for an animated GIF of a sleepy kitten falling over.
The restaurant is slated to open next to the new Bright Horizons daycare, which is coming to the adjoining suite of the building that the County Board approved over some neighborhood objections in January. Bright Horizons plans to care for 145 children and build a 4,700-square-foot playground in the courtyard near the side entrance of Quincy Hall.
Local nightlife, fitness and tonsorial mogul Scott Parker, who is working to open a new German beer hall called Bronson nearby in the former A-Town space, said he welcomed the addition to the increasingly crowded Ballston nightlife and restaurant scene. More going-out options could help previously workaday Ballston establish itself as an after-hours destination like Clarendon, he said.
“That’s the hope, that the neighborhood will become such a draw that it will help everyone,” Parker told ARLnow, adding that he isn’t worried about the competition.
Parker said Quincy Hall was being opened by Tin Shop, the same company that’s behind Penn Social and the popular Franklin Hall beer hall in D.C., as well as Highline RxR in Crystal City, though thus far that could not be independently confirmed by ARLnow.
A new location of Wiseguy Pizza appears to be coming to Pentagon City.
The local New York-style pizza chain opened a shop in Rosslyn in 2015 and also has three locations in D.C. The new Wiseguy Pizza is located on the ground floor of the Witmer, the new 26-story luxury apartment building at the corner of 12th Street S. and S. Hayes Street, according to signs covering a storefront on the ground floor.
The restaurant is “coming soon,” according to the signs, but so far no opening date has been announced.
The apartment building, at 710 12th Street S. near the Metro station, is now leasing with rents for one-bedroom apartments listed as ranging from $2,025-$3,100.
The Angelico La Pizzeria on Lee Highway is gone, but a new pizza place could be opening soon in its place.
Staff at another Angelico La Pizzeria confirmed that the restaurant closed for good at the end of April.
But construction crews are already at work on renovations for another restaurant. Owner Mandeep Singh said the current plan is to convert the location into a Chicago Pizza With a Twist, a franchise that offers pizza, Indian food, and fusions of the two — like a Chicken Tikka Masala pizza.
Singh said the restaurant is currently planning to open sometime between June 5 and 10.
A new Domino’s Pizza in Ballston is now bringing in the dough on N. Quincy Street.
The pizza shop is located at 550 N. Quincy Street next to Jimmy John’s and nearby the Founders Square development.
Staff told ARLnow today (Thursday) that the store will have a grand opening soon but a date hadn’t been picked yet. After the grand opening, staff expects the store to be open Sundays through Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 1 a.m., and Fridays and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 3 a.m.
In the meantime, staff says the store will sling pizzas from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. every day as part of a soft opening.
As of today (Thursday) two delivery cars in the parking lot are outfitted with the trademark Domino’s signs — a parking arrangement previously approved by the County Board.
The eatery is the latest to open amid a flurry of restaurants openings in Ballston.
Pupatella Pizzeria, when it opened on Wilson Boulevard (file photo)
Enzo Algarme of Pupatella Pizza (courtesy photo)
(Updated 4 p.m.) One of Arlington’s most successful restaurants is coming to one of the county’s least successful restaurant locations.
Neapolitan pizzeria Pupatella, which was a popular food truck before opening its acclaimed bricks-and-mortar location in Bluemont in 2010, is opening a second Arlington location in the restaurant “Bermuda Triangle” at 1621 S. Walter Reed Drive. The opening is planned for this summer.
“The restaurant is 2,200 square feet and will seat approximately 60 guests inside,” a press release said of Pupatella’s new location in the Nauck neighborhood. “The location also features a covered patio area that will have seating for another 40 or so guests.”
Pupatella also announced plans today to open a 2,700 square foot location at 1821 Wiehle Avenue in Reston by early 2020, as part of a new expansion push fueled by a $3.75 million investment.
“More company-owned locations are currently being pursued in Fairfax County, Montgomery County and Washington, D.C.,” said the press release.
“The community in Arlington has been so wonderful to us over the past decade that it was a simple decision for us to open a South Arlington location,” Pupatella founder Enzo Algarme is quoted as saying in the press release. “The area is exploding with growth, and we want to be sure that growth includes great pizza!”
Algarme did not respond to multiple inquiries from ARLnow.com last week seeking to confirm that they were behind the new restaurant at 1621 S. Walter Reed Drive. A spokeswoman said today that he was out of town.
Eater, which reported the Pupatella news late Thursday morning before the press release was sent to ARLnow, quotes another company co-owner as saying the Walter Reed Drive location will help fulfill “spillover demand” from its busy, original location.
Long lines formed outside Turu’s and Rice Crook Thursday at the Ballston Quarter food hall
Long lines formed outside Turu’s and Rice Crook Thursday at the Ballston Quarter food hall
Long lines formed outside Turu’s and Rice Crook Thursday at the Ballston Quarter food hall
Long lines formed outside Turu’s and Rice Crook Thursday at the Ballston Quarter food hall
Long lines formed outside Turu’s and Rice Crook Thursday at the Ballston Quarter food hall
Long lines formed outside Turu’s and Rice Crook Thursday at the Ballston Quarter food hall
Long lines formed outside Turu’s and Rice Crook Thursday at the Ballston Quarter food hall
Long lines formed outside Turu’s and Rice Crook Thursday at the Ballston Quarter food hall
Two more restaurants are serving up dishes for diners in Ballston: pizza restaurant Turu’s by Timber Pizza Co. and Korean fast casual eatery Rice Crook.
Customers formed long lines at both joints today (Thursday) in the food hall of the newly redeveloped Ballston Quarter mall.
Rice Crook is creation of Scott Chung, who started Union Market’s Bun’d up. His new fast casual eatery serves wraps, salads and rice bowls.
Bowls were the only items on the menu today. Options included Korean BBQ beef, BBQ pork, tofu or mushrooms, or Thai chicken.
Chung said the restaurant takes its name from a Korean saying about food so good it makes people into rice thieves
“Basically everything that you see on the menu is stuff that I eat on the daily,” said Chung, who told ARLnow he hopes the restaurant will introduce Arlington to Korean cuisine. Chung himself is a relatively new Ballston resident, after moving to the area last April in anticipation of Rice Crook’s opening.
Chung’s grandmother from New York travelled down to Arlington for the opening and was helping customers at Rice Crook today, while emphatically recommending the addition of hot sauce.
Nearby in the 10,000 square-foot space of Quarter Market’s food hall, Turu’s by Timber Pizza Co. was holding soft opening from 11-2 p.m. today (Thursday) featuring giant slices of pizza with all the classics — as well as a jalapeño and spice honey recipe.
The pizzeria is a brick-and-mortar venture from Petworth food truck Timber Pizza that will continue the tradition of Neapolitan-style pizza cooked with a wood-fire oven.
Turu’s staff told ARLnow that the pizza eatery will re-open tomorrow (Friday) from 11-2 p.m. again and said the plan is open with “expanded hours” next week.
The Quarter Market’s food line-up has fluctuated over the past year as the development project was beset by multiple delays but as today Hot Lola’s, Ice Cream Jubilee, Copa Kitchen and Bar, and Mi & Yu Noodle Bar were also serving customers.
The outside of Goody’s is now sporting eye-watering lime green and red paint after county zoning regulations forced the pizzeria to cover its colorful, culinary mural.
Tomatoes, olives, mushrooms, cheese, slices of pizza, and gyros adorned the creme-colored walls along with an Italian flag after Goody’s commissioned the mural from a local artist.
The county’s planning department warned the Clarendon staple that Arlington’s zoning ordinance requires permits for artwork that “relates to the advertisement of a business and its services” and that without a permit they’d be forced to paint over the mural.
Alvarez’s husband Danny Sabouni owns Arlington Watch Works next door and told ARLnow that Alvarez had to repaint Goody’s yesterday (Thursday) but she was not fined.
“We can put bicycles or cars outside, whatever else. But we cannot put posters or signs advertising what we sell,” Sabouni said of the zoning ordinance’s requirements. “It’s pathetic.”
A spokesperson for the Arlington County Department of Community Planning, Housing and Development did not respond in time for publication.
Sabouni says Alvarez is considering commissioning a new mural for the eatery, but it’s a difficult process because the language of the ordinance doesn’t clearly distinguish between what’s a sign and what’s art.
“It’s so vague that nobody can understand it,” he said.
Previously, Alvarez said she painted the building to make it more “attractive” to customers, adding “We just wanted to get a little more attention from people walking by.”
County inspectors famously cracked down on artwork judged to be advertising in 2010 when Wag More Dogs on S. Four Mile Run Drive included dogs in their mural.
