restaurant

Armed Robbery at Ballston Quiznos

By ARLnow.com

We’re just finding out about a brazen armed robbery in the middle of Ballston Wednesday evening.

A man held up the Quiznos in the National Science Foundation building (4201 Wilson Blvd) around 5:45 p.m., according to police and passersby. Police say the man entered the store, displayed a handgun and demanded money. He then locked the employees in the back of the store, took their cell phones and fled.

No injuries were reported.

Police describe the suspect as “an African American male in his 30’s, 5’8”-5’10”, wearing a black baseball cap, black hooded sweatshirt, black ‘fanny pack’ and jeans.”

Cinco de Mayo at Lunchtime

By ARLnow.com

It’s hard to say whether it was a normal lunchtime crowd or if people were feeling a bit more festive today for Cinco de Mayo, but the Chipotle in Rosslyn was packed to the gills today. A line snaked around three walls of the restaurant as office workers and residents waited patiently for their burrito fix.

Elsewhere along the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor, a healthy crowd sat outside Mexicali Blues in Clarendon, sipping Coronas in the cool sunshine. Santa Fe in Rosslyn, meanwhile, was still doing steady business at 1:15 p.m.

Here CafeBar in Rosslyn’s Artisphere had men in sombreros flashing signs to passersby on Wilson Boulevard, but had a smaller crowd at 1:00 p.m. Just over a dozen patrons were dining in Artisphere’s large WiFi-enabled space. Perhaps the menu — which lists burgers and pizza, but not burritos or quesadillas — was partially to blame.

Manhattan Bagel Closed for Renovations in Ballston

By ARLnow.com

Manhattan Bagel (4201 Wilson Blvd) remains closed as it undergoes renovations and a management change.

Ballston bagel lovers are being forced to cross Wilson Blvd to get their bagel fix at Panera Bread in Ballston Common Mall while the store remains closed.

A half dozen workers were busy inside the store when we stopped by this afternoon. A woman who identified herself as the outgoing manager said the newly-revamped eatery should reopen next week.

Harry’s Tap Room in Pentagon City to Become Harry’s Smokehouse

By ARLnow.com

Arlington’s favorite watering hole for midwestern tourists is getting a new identity.

Harry’s Tap Room at Pentagon City Mall (1100 S. Hayes Street) is being transformed into “Harry’s Smokehouse-Burgers & BBQ.” The newly-branded restaurant will get a menu makeover that will include in-house hickory-smoked spare ribs, pork butt, pork sausage, whole chickens, salmon and beef brisket, as well as “the area’s very best buttermilk fried chicken.”

Diners will get to choose from six different types of meat for their burger: Whitewood Farm corn fed beef, Grayson Farms grass fed beef, Whitewood Farms beef short rib burger, all natural bison burger, all natural turkey burger, and a vegetarian buckwheat chipotle burger.

“We are raising the bar in iconic American food,” Harry’s co-owner Michael Sternberg said in a statement. “We challenged Executive Chef Alex Reyes to create a menu based on a simple premise: really, really good burgers, barbeque, fried chicken and addicting sides. He has, and now we are opening a place dedicated to it.”

The change-over will happen on Tuesday, May 3. So far, no changes are planned for Harry’s Tap Room in Clarendon (2800 Clarendon Blvd).

New Crew at the Ballston Chipotle?

By ARLnow.com

One thing’s clear: Chipotle has been doing a lot of hiring lately.

This month alone, the restaurant chain has held ‘open house’ hiring events in Ballston, Rosslyn, Falls Church, Seven Corners, Reston, Sterling, Herndon and Ashburn.

Why the sudden hiring push?

A Chipotle spokesperson told us that they’re “in an industry where turnover is high.” But recent news reports suggest something else may be going on.

“The feds are cracking down on undocumented workers at Chipotle restaurants in Virginia and the District,” TBD reported last month. “After the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reportedly warned Chipotle it would be targeted… the Chipotles in Columbia Heights and Woodley Park fired 40 employees who could not prove they were legally authorized to work.”

No such mass firings have been publicly reported in Virginia, but one local says there are a lot of unfamiliar faces among the crew at the Ballston Chipotle (4300 Wilson Blvd).

“I’ve been going there for 5+ years and literally most of the same people worked there till a few weeks ago,” Chipotle regular Jamie Cave told ARLnow.com. “When I went in the other night, it was a whole new crew and barely any Hispanic workers (mostly white or Indian). Others have been mentioning that they don’t recognize most of the workers there now.”

A visit to the Ballston Chipotle last night confirmed that, at the very least, the location is understaffed. The line for a burrito around 7:30 p.m. extended nearly out the door.

Chris Arnold, the Chipotle spokesperson, confirmed the Immigrations and Customs Enforcement investigation into the restaurant’s hiring practices in the Washington area, but denied that there has been a mass exodus of employees.

(more…)

Mackey’s Public House Closes in Crystal City

By ARLnow.com

(Updated at 9:40 p.m.) Mackey’s Public House (320 S. 23rd Street) has closed its doors in Crystal City.

The pub served its last customers this weekend, an employee said today. The D.C. location at 1823 L Street NW will remain open.

Mackey’s catered largely to the Crystal City lunch and after-work crowds. It had sidewalk seating that was popular on warm weather days. No word yet on why the pub closed, although a recent health department inspection of the restaurant turned up more than a dozen violations, including the presence of cockroaches and fruit flies.

Mackey’s is the second Irish pub to close in the Crystal City area in the past 6 months. McGinty’s Irish Pub, in the Market Square at Potomac Yard development, folded in December.

Photo via Mackeyspub.com

Fire-Scarred Four Courts Reopens With Limited Menu

By ARLnow.com

Ireland’s Four Courts (2051 Wilson Blvd) in Courthouse reopened Friday evening, two days after a grease fire damaged its kitchen.

The pub will be using its downstairs kitchen to offer a limited menu while the upstairs kitchen is repaired. The damaged kitchen is expected to remain closed for “at least a month.” During that time, the pub will open on weekdays from 2:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. and on weekends from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m.

“We are extremely thankful and grateful for the quick response of Arlington fire department,” Four Courts said in a statement. “A investigation is continuing into the fire.”

Photo courtesy @MixMasterZano

Kitchen Fire at Ireland’s Four Courts

By ARLnow.com

Arlington firefighters are on the scene of a “significant” grease fire at Ireland’s Four Courts (2051 Wilson Boulevard) in Courthouse.

The fire started in the kitchen and produced a lot of smoke, but was quickly extinguished once firefighters made their way into the building. Fire damage should be confined to the kitchen, but there may be some smoke damage and a few broken windows elsewhere in the pub.

Police shut down Wilson Boulevard at N. Rhodes Street during the incident to allow fire equipment to position itself around the building.

Photo courtesy @MixMasterZano

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Chamber Launches New Web Site — The Arlington Chamber of Commerce has revamped its web site with a new look and improved navigation. [Arlington Chamber]

Samuel Beckett’s Offers Outdoor Seating — The sidewalk cafe in front of Samuel Beckett’s is open for anyone who wants to take advantage of the warm weather. [Shirlington Village Blog]

Treasurer’s Office Wins Tech Award — The Arlington County Treasurer’s Office won a Technology Solutions Award from the Public Technology Institute for its implementation of a “single, integrated system to collect all County taxes and dozens of County fees.” [Arlington County]

Blog Chronicles Local Brunch Spots — Need help deciding where to go for brunch? Join the Arlington Brunch Club. The “club” is actually a relatively new blog that has, so far, featured reviews for five local brunch spots. [Arlington Brunch Club]

Flickr pool photo by Mark C. White

New Chef Will Revamp Menu at Eventide Restaurant

By ARLnow.com

Eventide Restaurant (3165 Wilson Blvd) has a new chef.

Adam Barnett — whose resume includes Liberty Tavern, West End Bistro in the District and The Inn at Little Washington in Washington, Va. — will take over as executive chef at the three-year-old Clarendon eatery.

The hiring of Barnett comes during a somewhat turbulent time for Eventide. General Manager Dave Pressley left the restaurant in December and chefs Miles Vaden and Justus Frank departed in February. With the exception of that “series of unrelated events,” however, Eventide co-owner Nick Freshman says not much else has changed.

“People leave restaurants all the time,” he said. “There is no concept change. Eventide is not changing. The things that we love about Eventide — the reasons why we built it and the reasons why so many of our customers appreciate it — are still there, and none of that changes.”

Except, there are some changes in the works. After he starts on Tuesday, Barnett plans to run specials of his own creation to supplement the existing menu. Those specials will eventually become the backbone of a new spring menu that will include expanded food, cocktail and beer options.

“We have a new chef who’s going to bring new ideas and new flavors to the menu,” Freshman said. “It’s going to be great… I’d like to see us do some more exciting things with the menu than we’ve done previously.”

Freshman says the restaurant will be organizing special dining events this year, like wine nights, beer dinners, barbecues and oyster roasts. The events will try to take advantage of locally-produced items — for instance, small local breweries may help run the beer dinners.

Eventide’s rooftop, which may serve as a venue for some of those events, will now feature an expanded standing area for bar patrons as well as a rooftop dinner menu for people who want to enjoy a meal. The rooftop is expected to open during the first week of May, weather permitting.

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