Apartment Fire in Nauck — Firefighters extinguished a fire in an apartment Monday evening. The fire broke out around 5:15 p.m. on the 2100 block of S. Quincy Street, in the Nauck neighborhood. No injuries were reported. [Twitter]
Board Members Reluctant to Give Themselves a Raise — “Rather than seeking higher pay, current Arlington board members might take the opposite route – start scaling back their workload. ‘There is definitely a renewed emphasis on, ‘what is our role?” [County Board Chair Christian] Dorsey said at the Jan. 17 forum, responding to a questioner who suggested board members of recent years are more mired in the nuts-and-bolts of governance than their predecessors.” [InsideNova]
Local Restaurant Delivers Free Pizza to Air Traffic Control — Over the weekend Joe’s Place Pizza and Pasta delivered free pizza to the air traffic control tower at Reagan National Airport, where controllers have been working without during the government shutdown. [Instagram]
Restaurant Week Extended — Winter Restaurant Week has been extended until Sunday, Jan. 27 due to the government shutdown and last week’s snow. [Twitter]
Jerry’s Subs and Pizza in Courthouse, which closed in 2019
Jerry’s Subs and Pizza in Courthouse, which appears to have closed.
Jerry’s Subs and Pizza in Courthouse appears to have shut down.
The restaurant, located at 2041 15th Street N., was not open during normal business hours yesterday (Monday).
Workers also seem to have broken down the shop’s counter, and construction materials are strewn about the restaurant. The phone number listed for the location has been disconnected.
The lone Jerry’s location in Arlington, which sits directly across from the county courthouse and jail, previously closed for remodeling in September 2017. It reopened a few months later under new management, according to a series of Yelp reviewers.
Anyone looking to get a hold of the chain’s pizza or sandwiches won’t have to go too far, however.
Jerry’s also operates a pair of restaurants in Alexandria, and one in Reston as well, though that location recently closed due to a small fire.
The vegetable-focused fast casual eatery The Little Beet could soon open a new location in the Pentagon City mall.
The restaurant applied for a permit to bring a new eatery to the first floor of the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City in late December, according to county records.
Andy Duddleston, the chain’s founder and chief brand officer, confirmed that he is indeed “considering a location” at the mall.
“Stay tuned,” Duddleston told ARLnow.
A spokeswoman for the mall’s management company said they’re “unable to share information on businesses rumored to be joining the center.”
The Little Beet opened its first Arlington location in Rosslyn in the fall of 2017 in the Central Place development. The restaurant also operates a D.C. eatery, with a variety of other locations in New York City, where the company got its start.
Its menu is largely dominated by salads and bowls, with a whole host of vegetarian and vegan options for diners.
Vacant space in the base of a Ballston office building at 4401 Fairfax Drive.
A new soup and salad-focused restaurant is on the way in Ballston.
Signs posted at the base of an office building at 4401 Fairfax drive advises all “soupies and foodies” that “Zoup! Eatery” plans to open in the space soon.
The restaurant could open its doors as soon as spring 2019, according to Zoup’s website.
The chain, which offers dozens of different soup, salad and sandwich options, operates locations across the country.
Yet the Ballston space would be its first in Arlington, and second in the Northern Virginia area — there’s another Zoup! out in Sterling.
The building set to welcome the restaurant was once home to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, one of a variety of federal agencies to leave Arlington over the last few years.
The then newly-renovated Wendy’s now open on Columbia Pike in 2019 (staff photo)
The newly renovated Wendy’s now open on Columbia Pike.
The newly renovated Wendy’s now open on Columbia Pike.
The newly renovated Wendy’s now open on Columbia Pike.
The newly renovated Wendy’s now open on Columbia Pike.
The newly renovated Wendy’s now open on Columbia Pike.
The newly renovated Wendy’s now open on Columbia Pike.
(Updated at 2:25 p.m.) A new and improved Wendy’s is now open on Columbia Pike, and the fast food chain is holding a major giveaway to celebrating the restaurant’s grand opening next weekend.
The new location includes an all-new dining area, complete with TVs, music, free Wi-Fi and a faux fireplace. The fireplace in particular seemed to surprise some customers today; at least one person in line pointed at it and said she did not expect a Wendy’s to look so “fancy.”
A company spokesman says the restaurant will hold a “grand re-opening event” next Saturday (Jan. 19).
Wendy’s plans to offer the first 100 customers in line for the event by 10 a.m. free food for a year.
The chain operates three restaurants around the county in total.
Signs posted for Riverside Hotpot Bar in Clarendon.
A storefront at 1028 N. Garfield Street in Clarendon, soon to be home to a hot pot bar.
A storefront at 1028 N. Garfield Street in Clarendon, soon to be home to a hot pot bar.
A new Chinese hot pot restaurant looks to be on the way for Clarendon.
Signs posted at a space at 1028 N. Garfield Street say that “Riverside Hotpot Bar” will soon set up shop there, and is currently hiring employees.
The restaurant will take the place of Bowl’d, a fast-casual eatery that shuttered back in 2017, just a few blocks away from Clarendon’s main drag.
Riverside also operates a location in Gaithersburg, though another Riverside restaurant in Fairfax appears to have closed recently.
The eatery offers all-you-can-eat hot pot dining, according to its website, with a full array of vegetable, meat and seafood options to cook table-side.
The county has yet to issue any permits for the new restaurant, but records show that Riverside did apply for a building permit for the space in August.
Ballston’s 4040 Wilson Blvd, part of the Liberty Center development
Ballston’s 4040 Wilson Blvd, part of the Liberty Center development
The Salt Line seafood restaurant is planning an expansion to Ballston next year.
The eatery is now set to open at the base of an office building at 4040 Wilson Blvd, part of the Liberty Center development, according to a news release. Chef Kyle Bailey is aiming to have the new location open by spring 2020.
Bailey opened up his first Salt Line location, specializing in oysters and other creative fish offerings, in D.C.’s Navy Yard in 2017, and it’s since earned a slew of accolades from diners and critics.
Bailey and his partners at Long Shot Hospitality are aiming for the Ballston restaurant to be about the same size as the original, with room for 100 patrons inside and another 100 diners in an outdoor patio space during warmer months.
“We’re especially excited to activate the great outdoor space here in downtown Ballston, replicating the open-air plaza that’s been so popular at the D.C. location,” Long Shot Hospitality’s Gavin Coleman wrote in a statement. “It’s going be a real neighborhood gathering place.”
The Shooshan Company is still hard at work constructing the building at 4040 Wilson, with plans to eventually open the entire 20-story structure for residential, retail and office tenants sometime next year.
The company also owns several other mixed-use buildings in the area as part of the six-block Liberty Center development.
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.
Piola pizzeria in Rosslyn, which has since closed (photo via Facebook)
A note on the door of the Piola restaurant in Rosslyn (courtesy photo)
Longtime Rosslyn pizzeria Piola has now shut its doors.
The restaurant, located at 1550 Wilson Blvd, announced the move on its social media channels last Wednesday (Dec. 26). Piola had operated out of the space for the last 12 years.
“To our many regular customers and social media fans, we are very grateful for the support you gave us,” staff wrote in a Facebook post. “This day would have come much sooner if it wasn’t for you! We apologize for not informing you sooner, but hope you understand that the cards were not in our favor.”
Piola was known for its pizza-heavy brunches, beer specials and large World Cup watch parties every few years.
It’s now the second long-tenured restaurant on the block to close down in recent years; Cafe Asia shut down next door back in 2016. The Bash Boxing gym and South Block smoothie shop have since moved into that space.
Piola’s former home also sits across from a massive redevelopment project that will someday become bring three new residential towers, a new fire station and an improved Rosslyn Highlands Park to the area.
The pizza chain also seems to have shuttered its D.C. location, according to its website. Piola is a Miami-based company, with several South Florida locations, and a few in Texas and North Carolina as well.
Wagner owns both businesses (which sit just steps away from each other at 2803 Columbia Pike and 2900 Columbia Pike, respectively), and the closures will leave him with just the newly opened Josephine’s Italian Kitchen in the Penrose Square shopping center still operating in the area.
Wagner says he made the “difficult” decision to shutter BrickHaus after concluding that it “never took off the way we expected and hoped it would,” a development made all the more painful by the months of permitting and construction woes he endured to open the bar.
He said Twisted Vines remains quite popular on the Pike, however, but he started to feel its current space didn’t have enough room for it to grow. And with its lease up at year’s end, and a new restaurant just down the road, he saw an ideal opportunity to regroup.
“We have a great new venue in Josephine’s and figured it was a great opportunity to take Twisted down there until we can find it a new home,” Wagner said. “Twisted has been part of the Pike community for a long time and it should be back.”
Wagner dubbed his new Italian eatery, which first opened in late October, as a “home away from home” for Twisted Vines during the transition. He plans to move much of the wine shop’s offerings to the restaurant, and will keep hosting the bar’s wine club and regular wine dinners at Josephine’s.
“Josephine’s is Twisted with value added, basically,” Wagner said. “It’s a better space, with a lot more room for us.”
He’s hoping to find a new location for Twisted Vines sometime in the coming months. But, in the meantime, all the shop’s whiskey will be half off over the next few days, then all wine be marked down by 50 percent this weekend. The location will also play host to one final dinner on New Year’s Eve to celebrate the restaurant.
Wagner will also hold a “New Year’s Eve blowout” at BrickHaus, with 50 percent off all checks. He said he wouldn’t necessarily be opposed to bringing back a similar beer garden to the Pike going forward, but given the challenges he faced at BrickHaus, he’s not optimistic about the prospect.
“We’re always interested in new opportunities,” Wagner said. “We listen to people and find out what people want and give it a try. If that doesn’t work, then we keep trying. The ultimate goal is to find a concept that resonates with the community.”
