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Falls Church may be pint sized compared to Arlington, but the Little City next door has the county beat handily in a new list of the region’s best restaurants.
Three Arlington restaurants appear in Washingtonian’s just-released 100 Very Best Restaurants list. Twice as many Falls Church restaurants appear in the same pages.
That’s despite solid Northern Virginia representation on the “Very Best” list.
“Some of the year’s coolest spots — Joon in Tysons, Ellie Bird in Falls Church, Kirby Club in Fairfax — debuted in the Virginia suburbs,” the magazine noted in its introduction. In all, 21 Virginia eateries were listed.
Those in Arlington are:
- Cafe Colline
- Ruthie’s All Day
- Padaek (which recently opened in Arlington and has another location in Seven Corners)
The six in Falls Church are:
Former Clarendon mainstay Mister Days appears to be opening in a new location, nearly five years after its closure.
An LLC associated with Mister Days, Celtic LB Group INC, recently applied for a liquor license for the currently vacant restaurant space at 1101 N. Highland Street.
Tiffany Lee, daughter of Mister Days founder Bobby Lee, said in an email to ARLnow that her father “is once again at the helm.” She noted that she is “not involved in the new one.”
The previous occupants of 1101 N. Highland Street include Clarendon Grill, which shuttered in 2018 after 22 years, and The Pinemoor, which closed its doors in July after three years. The Pinemoor was the last occupant of the large restaurant space, which features both an inside bar and an outside patio bar.
In late November, readers noted an old Mister Days sign in the space.
Mister Days first opened in an alleyway off Dupont Circle on Nov. 21, 1977 serving prime rib, ham sandwiches, a soup and a salad. In the years that followed, Mister Days moved to 18th Street NW between L and M Streets NW before opening in Arlington in 2000.
Mister Days grew a strong following and remained a local staple for over 40 years. The Arlington sports bar closed permanently in April 2019.
The original bar served famous guests like movie star and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, as well as former Washington football greats like Sonny Jurgensen and John Riggins. It also had live entertainment from singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter early in her career.
In light of the recent snowstorms, a number of Arlington restaurants participating in this winter’s Metropolitan Washington Restaurant Week are extending their promotions for an extra week.
The event, organized by the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington (RAMW), will now run from today (Monday) through Sunday, Jan. 28.
“The decision to extend Winter Restaurant Week is reflective of our commitment to the well-being and enjoyment of our restaurant community and its consumers,” RAMW President and CEO Shawn Townsend said in a press release. “This extension is an opportunity for more people to safely enjoy what our local restaurants have to offer, showcasing the resilience and adaptability of our industry.”
Roughly half of Arlington’s eateries that participated in the initial Winter Restaurant Week are extending their offers, as of this article’s filing. The continuing restaurants will retain their previous promotions, including three-course lunches and brunches at $25 or $35 and dinners for $40, $55, or $65.
The list of Arlington restaurants extending their promotions is below.
- La Cote D’or Cafe, French/Mediterranean, $25 and $35 brunch, $25 and $35 lunch, $40, $55, and $65 dinner
- Makers Union Arlington, American, $25 lunch, $40 dinner (paired wine or cocktail included)
- Matchbox Pentagon City, American, $40 dinner
- Osteria Da Nino, Italian, $40 dinner
- Rustico-Ballston, Pizzeria, $40 dinner
- Ruthie’s All-Day, American/Southern, $25 lunch, $40 and $55 dinner (paired wine or cocktail included)
- Sabores Tapas Bar, Latin/Spanish, $25 lunch, $35 brunch, and $40 dinner (paired wine or cocktail included)
- SER Restaurant, Spanish, $25 brunch, $25 lunch, and $40 dinner (paired wine or cocktail included)
- Sfoglina Rosslyn, Italian, $25 lunch, $55 dinner (paired wine or cocktail included)
- The Salt Line-Ballston, seafood, $25 lunch, $55 dinner (paired wine or cocktail included)
- Yume Sushi, Japanese, $35 brunch, $35 lunch, $40, $55, and $65 dinner (paired wine or cocktail included)
At least two dozen Arlington eateries are taking part in the semi-annual Metropolitan Washington Restaurant Week that kicked off yesterday.
This week-long culinary event, spanning from January 15 to 21, is organized by the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington. RAMW is a regional trade association dedicated to representing the restaurant and food service industry across the D.C. area, according to its website.
Participating restaurants have advertised three-course lunches and brunches for $25 or $35 and three-course dinners for $40, $55 and $65.
Menus and pricing are specific to the Restaurant Week event, and some menus include cocktail or wine pairings with a meal. Below are the Arlington restaurants listed as participating in the event, so far.
- Ambar Clarendon, Eastern European, $25 lunch and $35 dinner
- Buena Vida Clarendon, Mexican, $40 dinner
- Circa at Clarendon, American, $35 lunch, $55 and $65 dinner
- Corso Italian, Italian, $35 lunch, $55 dinner
- Epic Smokehouse, barbeque/seafood/steakhouse, $25 brunch, $25, lunch, $55 dinner (paired wine or cocktail included)
- La Cote D’or Cafe, French/Mediterranean, $25 and $35 brunch, $25 and $35 lunch, $40, $55 and $65 dinner
- Lyon Hall, American, $55 dinner
- Makers Union Arlington, American, $25 lunch, $40 dinner (paired wine or cocktail included)
- Matchbox Pentagon, American, $40 dinner
- Morton’s, steakhouse, $55 dinner
- Mussel Bar and Grill Arlington, Belgian, $25 lunch, $40, $55 and $65 dinner
- O’Malley’s Pub, $40 (paired wine or cocktail included)
- Osteria Da Nino, Italian, $40 dinner
- Potomac Social Tavern, American, $40 dinner (paired wine or cocktail included)
- Rustico-Ballston, Pizzeria, $40 dinner
- Ruthie’s All-Day, American/Southern, $25 lunch, $40 and $55 dinner (paired wine or cocktail included)
- Sabores Tapas Bar, Latin/Spanish, $25 lunch, $35 brunch and $40 dinner (paired wine or cocktail included)
- Sfoglina Rosslyn, Italian, $25 lunch, $55 dinner (paired wine or cocktail included)
- Spice Kraft Indian Bistro, Indian, $65 dinner (paired wine or cocktail included)
- The Liberty Tavern, American, $35 lunch and $55 dinner
- The Melting Pot Arlington, Fondue, $55 dinner (paired wine or cocktail included)
- The Salt Line-Ballston, seafood, $25 lunch, $55 dinner (paired wine or cocktail included)
- Whino, international, $40 and $50 dinner
- Yume Sushi, Japanese, $35 brunch, $35 lunch, $40, $55 and $65 dinner (paired wine or cocktail included)
Copperwood Tavern in Shirlington is under new ownership.
Viswanath Vasireddy, of Aldie, Virginia, tells ARLnow he finalized the purchase of the restaurant on Dec. 26, after learning the business was for sale from a broker with whom he had previously worked.
“I looked at it and it seemed like a good business,” he said of the New American restaurant at 4021 Campbell Avenue in the Village at Shirlington shopping center.
For now, just the ownership has changed and he retained the restaurant’s employees during the transition, he said. While the menu is the same, he has asked the chef to see if there are any new dishes to introduce.
Vasireddy says he is currently on-site 3-4 hours a day, applying for licenses — a liquor license application filed last week is currently pending, Virginia ABC records show — and transferring account ownership for various vendors.
The restaurant was formerly owned by Reese Gardner, whose Wooden Nickel Bar Company also owns Dudley’s Sport and Ale in Shirlington, Quinn’s on the Corner in Rosslyn and Brass Rabbit Pub in Clarendon. He has plans to open a new restaurant in Tysons while continuing to expand outposts of Greenheart Juice Shop.
“After 10 successful years with Copperwood, it was time to sell and move on,” says Gardner. “The industry has completely changed and the days of having two concepts within steps apart just isn’t realistic anymore. Cost of goods, staffing plus the annual rent increases make it tough enough with just one in each area.”
Wooden Nickel Bar also owned the now-closed Pinemoor in Clarendon, which opened not far from Brass Rabbit just a few months into the pandemic.
Gardner says he had also hoped for success with The Pinemoor and Brass Rabbit close together but the Pinemoor ultimately closed. He attributed this to a concept that did not quite connect with customers, the restaurant and landlord not coming to better terms, and being unable to sell.
This winter, Gardner aims to get his Tysons restaurant — Ox & Rye, next to the Capital One Hall — open soon and aims to open the Courthouse location of Greenheart Juice Shop in February.
Amid those new openings, he is also focused on his existing restaurants “and most importantly, being a dad.”
As for Copperwood Tavern’s new owner, Vasireddy, he already owns a trio of restaurants in Northern Virginia: New American spot Clarity in Vienna, pan-Asian place Inchin’s Bamboo Garden in Herndon and an Indian restaurant Bawarchi Biryanis in Ashburn.
He says he had experience in the restaurant business back in India, before immigrating in 2008 to the U.S., where he has since worked in information technology.
“I thought about pursuing my dreams a little bit,” Vasireddy said, starting at Bawarchi Biryanis in February 2022 and taking over Inchin’s Bamboo Garden and Clarity last year.
Around the time he was working to close the purchase of Copperwood Tavern, he quit his job at Capital One to focus on restaurant operations full time.
“Business is good,” he said. “I have some expansion plans for 2024 and 2025.”
Chicken + Whiskey in Clarendon “temporarily” closed last week, leaving its future uncertain.
Situated at 3033 Wilson Blvd, the D.C.-based South American rotisserie chicken and whiskey bar concept made its debut in the Northern Virginia dining scene last June.
Since its opening, however, the Clarendon outpost — one of four Chicken + Whiskey locations in the D.C. area — has experienced “lackluster sales,” according to a press release.
“Rather than continue to absorb dramatic financial losses throughout the typically slower winter months, the company has decided to conserve its resources, close the doors, and re-open at more appropriate time,” the company said in the release.
Co-owner Desmond Reilly said the Clarendon location’s failure was surprising.
“We thought Clarendon would love our Peruvian Chicken concept,” he said in the release. “We are going to rethink our product offerings and hopefully come back stronger than ever!”
.@ARLnowDOTcom another new restaurant gone in Clarendon. @chicken_whiskey pic.twitter.com/V3q3qSrzfu
— ᖇEᐯO.ᗰᗩᑕ (@SCG703) January 5, 2024
Led by Chef Enrique Limardo, also the head chef at Immigrant Food and D.C.’s Seven Reasons, the restaurant chain serves Peruvian-style chicken, arepas and sandwiches and has a full cocktail and whiskey bar.
Limardo also co-founded the newly opened restaurant Surreal — described as an “elevated diner” concept — in Crystal City.
Chicken + Whiskey is managed by SRG Concepts, which also operates several other restaurants in D.C. and Maryland, including the Vietnamese street food restaurant Doi Moi, The Walrus Oyster & Ale House and Bennie’s Pizza.
Bennie’s Pizza is also “temporarily closed” for the holidays and is working out some “culinary details” before reopening, according to the restaurant’s Instagram.
Within the last few months, Clarendon has seen the closure of a handful of other businesses, including Mediterranean restaurant Cava Mezze, the international bakery Le Pain Quotidien and outdoor goods store Orvis.
Though located at an address across from the Clarendon Metro station, Chicken + Whiskey is in the rear of the building, fronting N. Garfield Street in the former Hunan Number One space. Another restaurant in the same building but closer to the Metro station, Bar Ivy, closed just over a month ago.
Hat tip to @SCG703 and various other tipsters
Fast-casual Korean restaurant Rice Crook has quietly closed its location inside Ballston Quarter Market.
The restaurant, a creation of noted local chef Scott Chung that was known for its customizable rice bowls, moved into the food hall at 4238 Wilson Blvd in 2019. Now, all that remains is a sign above its former stall.
There was no closure announcement on the restaurant’s Instagram page and Chung did not respond to a request for comment. Chung also owns Bun’d Up in Westpost (formerly Pentagon Row) and, in a spare room of that restaurant, a speakeasy-style bar, restaurant and mahjong hub called Sparrow Room.
Ballston Quarter General Manager TaVida Rice confirmed the closure is permanent and revealed several forthcoming additions to the food hall.
Japanese crêperie T-Swirl is set to open this spring and D.C.-based Dumpling District is slated to open in the fall. Hal & Al’s BBQ, which serves halal brisket sandwiches, ribs and mac and cheese bowls, opened last month.
Korean BBQ restaurant Top Pot, meanwhile, is set to open in a restaurant space along the Glebe Road side of the mall, next to Chick-fil-A. And laser hair removal company Semper Laser is slated to open this spring in the mews area near Lenscrafters, Rice said.
None of the new businesses will take over Rice Crook’s former spot, and the shopping center is still looking for a replacement, she noted.
Hat tip to Jason Gooljar
Crystal City hangout The Freshman has permanently closed its doors.
The all-day cafe/bar/restaurant just announced on social media that it has closed, just under three years after opening in the spring of 2021, in the midst of the pandemic.
Owner and namesake Nick Freshman, in announcing the closing today, noted the lengthy delay in opening caused by Covid-19.
I am sad to announce that The Freshman has served its last espresso; we are permanently closed. I want to thank my staff for their tireless dedication, my investors for their unwavering support, my landlord JBG SMITH for their steadfast partnership, and lastly our loyal customers who made it a joy to be open every day.
When I began planning The Freshman in 2018 the landscape was very different. As the world changed, our team adjusted, pivoted, iterated, and endured. Now, with significant construction in our building on the way, it is time to move on. The good news is that Mothersauce Partners is growing, and you can look for our fingerprints on a number of exciting new projects; projects that are also new homes for many of the staff at The Freshman.
We hope to see all of you soon at our newest project in Rosslyn opening in Winter 2024!
Freshman’s Mothersauce Partners is revamping The Assembly food hall near the Rosslyn Metro station, the Washington Business Journal reported last month.
American Real Estate Partners has tapped Mothersauce Partners, the hospitality company behind The Eleanor, Thompson Italian and City-State Brewing Co., to oversee the roughly 27,000-square-foot space at Rosslyn City Center. AREP owns the building, 1700 N. Moore St., and opened the food hall in 2021.
Mothersauce hopes to freshen up the design, branding and concept curation at the food hall. Details are still being worked through, and AREP and Mothersauce said it is premature to reveal more details of the partnership ahead of a more formal launch in the new year. […]
The change comes more than three years after AREP tapped another firm to establish a food hall from inside what was then known as Rosslyn Metro Center, a 40-year-old mall that’s since gotten a major makeover.
The Freshman was one of the first restaurants to announce an opening in Crystal City, following the announcement of Amazon’s HQ2, the main office complex of which opened in nearby Pentagon City this past summer. Leased Amazon offices remain open in Crystal City.
Le Pain Quotidien in Clarendon closed its doors over the weekend.
A notice on the doors of the bakery, located at 2900 Clarendon Blvd near The Crossing Clarendon shopping center, confirms the Arlington outpost of the international chain closed on Sunday.
“We’ve been lucky to call Clarendon our home for years and humbly thank our guests for helping us build a community in the time we’ve spent in this space,” the notice says.
Known for its assortment of baked goods, breads, salads, sandwiches and beverages, Le Pain Quotidien operates about 50 locations nationwide, including what are now six in the D.C. area. The Clarendon Blvd location was the only one in Arlington.
A representative from Le Pain Quotidien declined to provide details about the closure when ARLnow visited today (Tuesday).
Within the last few months, several other businesses have also closed nearby, including Mediterranean restaurant Cava Mezze and outdoor goods store Orvis.
After a three-decade run, the San Antonio Bar & Grill in Crystal City is set to close this Saturday, marking the end of an era.
The Tex-Mex restaurant, a mainstay in the underground Crystal City Shops since 1993, was notified by its landlord, JBG Smith, three months ago that its lease would not be extended past December, according to co-owner Amparo Magne.
Magne, who operates two other San Antonio Bar & Grill locations in D.C. and Alexandria, said no specific reason was given for the non-renewal, but she suspects it might be due to the landlord’s desire to renovate the space.
“That’s what we think,” she told ARLnow. “We don’t know.”
A PR rep for JBG Smith declined comment.
Edwin Magne, Amparo’s brother and business partner, said the notice from JBG Smith was unexpected. Still, he noted there were signs that changes were coming based on the rapid changes in the area, such as the opening of Amazon Fresh, Alamo Drafthouse and the recently renovated Crystal City Water Park.
“I mean most of the stores in the mall are closing down as well,” he told ARLnow.
While his sister has the means to reopen the restaurant in Arlington, Edwin said rising rents — in an area now home to Amazon’s HQ2 and, potentially, a new sports arena in Potomac Yard — may push them further from their original location.
“It’s prime real-estate,” he said.
Wherever they reopen, Amparo and Edwin hope it won’t be too far from their loyal customers in Crystal City.
“We don’t want to go far away,” Amparo said. “We want something near.”
They are currently looking at Clarendon as a potential option, but no final decisions have been made.
“We just got to find a good place for us that’s gonna fit, that’s going to be good for our employees as well and it’s going to be close enough for our guests that we used to always have,” Edwin said.