Arlington County and Pentagon police are responding to two Noodles and Company restaurants in Arlington due to bomb threats.
According to initial reports, someone phoned in multiple bomb threats to the Noodles and Company restaurants at 2011 Crystal Drive in Crystal City and 1201 S. Joyce Street on Pentagon Row.
The restaurants have been evacuated, we hear, and bomb-sniffing dogs from the Pentagon Force Protection Agency are en route to sweep the area.
W-L Soccer Captures State Title — The Washington-Lee boys soccer team defeated First Colonial 3-1 on Saturday to win the school’s first Virginia 6A boys soccer state title. Despite an injury, Maycol Nunez led the team with two goals. [Washington Post, InsideNova]
Ceremony for W-L Grad Killed in WW2 — A special ceremony will be held today at Arlington National Cemetery to honor the memory of Merrill Walter Hoover, a star athlete at Washington-Lee High School who was killed while serving in the Coast Guard during World War II. Hoover’s body was never found following a ship collision in which he worked selflessly to save his shipmates. [Falls Church News-Press]
Arlington RAMMY Winners — Clarendon’s Northside Social and chef Jonah Kim of Yona in Ballston were big winners during last night’s RAMMY awards, picking up “Favorite Gathering Place of the Year” and “Rising Culinary Star of the Year” awards, respectively. The awards program for Washington’s restaurant industry also honored major Ballston restaurant operator Mike Isabella Concepts. [RAMW]
Worker Rescued in Crystal City — On Saturday, a worker whose lift platform became stuck 30 feet in the air in Crystal City was rescued by Arlington County firefighters. [Twitter]
Cousins Tweets W-L Senior’s Yearbook Quote — “Best of luck at VCU this fall!” Washington Redskins quarterback Kirk Cousins told Washington-Lee senior Joseph Langley, in a tweet, after Langley used Cousins’ famous “You like that?!” moment as his yearbook quote. [ESPN]
More on Applebee’s Ballston Plans — Applebees is opening in Ballston with a “new, urban-focused design.” Why Ballston? “There are lot of Millennials in the area, and it’s an area that has a lot of office buildings as well as residential,” a company spokesman said, as quoted in a 1,070 word magazine article about the restaurant’s Ballston plans. [Arlington Magazine]
CPRO Names New Executive Director — The Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization has named its interim executive director, former Rosslyn BID honcho Cecilia Cassidy, as its permanent executive director. CPRO’s previous executive director, Takis Karantonis, resigned in January after five years on the job, and is currently working for County Board candidate Erik Gutshall’s campaign. [CPRO]
The Panera Bread restaurant in Ballston has closed.
The Panera Bread was located in Ballston Common Mall and was previously expected to stay open during renovations before reopening as Ballston Quarter.
The store’s signage is down and the inside is vacant. The location also no longer shows up on Panera Bread’s website.
When calling the store’s phone number, an automated message states that the Ballston location has permanently closed and that their “customer’s business has been appreciated.”
No word yet on what ultimately led to the permanent closure of the store.
Garvey Out-Raises Gutshall — Arlington County Board Chair Libby Garvey out-raised Democratic challenger Erik Gutshall by more than $20,000 in April and May. Garvey raised $57,143 to $36,751 for Gutshall. Both candidates received donations from about 300 people. [Washington Post]
More People Biking to Work — The traffic woes and Metrorail headaches caused by Metro’s SafeTrack maintenance work is apparently pushing more people to commute to work via bike. On Monday, Arlington’s “Bike-o-Meter” near the Key Bridge recorded 2,325 bike trips, double the normal number for a Monday around this time of year. The pleasant weather probably helped, too. [WJLA]
Outdoor Lab Exceeds Fundraising Goal — Saturday’s fundraiser for the Arlington Outdoor Lab shattered the $50,000 fundraising goal, garnering pledges of $84,000 for the educational facility. [Falls Church News-Press]
New Chef at Water & Wall — John Leavitt, previously of Provision No. 14 in D.C., is taking over kitchen duties at Water & Wall in Virginia Square from proprietor and chef Tim Ma. Expect a new menu to roll out next month. [Northern Virginia Magazine]
Credit Union Branch Opens in Crystal City — The Lafayette Federal Credit Union has opened a branch at 2231 Crystal Drive in Crystal City. The 80-year-old local financial institution will mark the opening of its seventh branch with a grand opening celebration next Thursday, June 16 at noon. [Layfayette FCU]
NKD Pizza, the pizza chain formerly known as Naked Pizza, has closed its Pentagon City location.
The pizzeria, in the Pentagon Row shopping center at 1101 S. Joyce Street, opened in July 2011, touting unique pizza recipes and all-natural ingredients. Subsequently a Ballston/Virginia Square location opened in 2012.
Today, the Pentagon City’s location was closed, with brown paper covering the windows and a sign posted on the door.
“Thank you so much for your past patronage — we’ve enjoyed serving you at this location for the past five years!” the sign read. “We would love to continue serving you as a carryout guest at our Ballston location.”
The Ballston NKD Pizza store is located at 933 N. Quincy Street.
Signs are up for a new pizza restaurant on Columbia Pike.
1000 Degrees, a quickly-expanding New Jersey-based pizza chain, will be opening “soon” on the ground floor of the Pike 3400 apartment complex. Interior construction appears to now be underway.
1000 Degrees has over 100 locations nationwide. The business is based around $7.99 personalized pizzas which are cooked in two minutes.
Customers can build their own personalized pizzas or choose from 15 neapolitan flavors including margherita and tuscan chicken. Breadsticks, wings and build your own salads are also offered.
The restaurant has yet to announce an official opening date. The Arlington location’s Facebook page was last updated on March 31.
The Arlington County Fire Department is on scene of a reported electrical fire in the basement of Thai Square Restaurant (3217 Columbia Pike).
Firefighters responded to the restaurant just before 1:30 p.m. for a report of smoke coming from the basement. There were no visible flames when firefighters arrived; the source of the smoke was believed to be electrical in nature.
The building was evacuated and no injuries have been reported.
Columbia Pike was shut down between S. Walter Reed Drive and S. Glebe Road as a result of the fire department response. Lanes have since reopened.
Photos courtesy Andrew Pang
A man was seriously injured after trying to stop a diner who ditched his check at El Rancho Migueleno restaurant (3709 Columbia Pike) Friday night.
The incident happened just before 11:30 p.m. Police say the victim was a friend of the restaurant’s owner and was sitting outside on the restaurant’s patio when he saw a dispute unfold between the owner and a man who refused to pay his bill.
The victim intervened in the dispute, chasing the suspect into the parking lot and standing in front of his car. At that point, police say, the suspect drove forward, knocking the victim down. The suspect then drove over the victim’s legs and fled the scene, said Arlington County Police Department spokeswoman Ashley Savage.
The victim suffered serious but non-life-threatening injuries. He was transported to Inova Fairfax Hospital. The suspect remains at large.
From an ACPD crime report:
HIT AND RUN, 160527072, 3700 block of S. Columbia Pike. At approximately 11:25 p.m. on May 27, a male victim chased after a suspect who left a restaurant without paying his tab. The victim approached the suspect’s vehicle and they began to exchange words regarding the incident. The male suspect attempted to drive away and the victim stood in front of the vehicle in an effort to prevent him from leaving. The male suspect then struck the victim with his vehicle, drove over the victim’s legs and fled the scene. The victim’s injuries were non-life threatening. The suspect is described as a Hispanic male in his twenties, approximately 6’0″ tall and weighed 180 lbs. He was wearing a white shirt, blue jeans, and had a sleeve tattoo on his right arm.
Memorial Day in Arlington — It was an active Memorial Day in Arlington. Among the activities: a ceremony was held at the Air Force Memorial; volunteers handed out 30,000 roses to families of fallen soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery; President Obama laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns; and Arlington’s annual Memorial Day ceremony was held in Clarendon. [WJLA, WJLA, New York Daily News, Twitter]
Quarterdeck Owner Opening Restaurant in D.C. –Patrick Morrogh, who owns the Quarterdeck near Rosslyn, is reportedly opening another crab-centric eatery, “District Anchor,” in the former Rumors space at 1900 M Street NW in D.C. [Borderstan]
Arlington Woman Arrested for Handbag Scheme — Federal authorities have charged Arlington resident Praepitcha Smatsorabudh in a major fraud scheme. The feds say Smatsorabudh would buy luxury handbags online, then return high-quality knockoff handbags to the store while selling the real bag online, netting millions of dollars in the process. Per a news report: “The scheme was so prolific that at one point she was a major department store’s top online customer in the entire world.” [ABC News]
Metro Train’s Brakes Catch Fire — Blue Line service was shut down for more than an hour Saturday while Arlington County firefighters battled a brake fire on a Metro train at Arlington Cemetery station. [WJLA]
Home Prices Dip in Arlington — Real estate firm Long and Foster reports a six percent year-over-year drop in Arlington County median home sale prices for April. The number of units sold, however, rose 5 percent. [WTOP]
Deer on the Loose in Virginia Square — A deer was spotted running around the recently-renamed GMU Antonin Scalia Law School in Virginia Square on Monday. [Twitter]
Flickr pool photo by Kevin Wolf
The new beer garden at Spider Kelly’s is officially open for business.
The beer garden, which is located in the back patio of the Clarendon watering hole, first started serving customers last Thursday. With the sun finally shining after some not-so-nice weather this month, hopes are high for big crowds.
“We are really happy it’s here and our hope is that it will be something that our customers want,” said co-owner Nick Freshman.
“The goal in building it was to create a new outdoor space sort of supplemental to the space that we have inside,” Freshman said. “We kept a lot of the theme from the inside to the outside.”
A local graffiti artist, Andrew Funk, was hired to do a custom graffiti mural to add color to the space and to match the graffiti art inside.
The casual outdoor space offers seating for small and large groups. There is a combination of communal style seating with picnic benches and seating around two fire pits. There is also hightop seating at the bar. The large space offers a capacity of up to 300 people.
Beers, sangrias and ciders are served in the beer garden, and the beer list has been substantially expanded. There are 30 offered cans and 16 tap lines. There are also three homemade sangrias: red, white and sparkling.
For those arriving after work, there is a $4 happy hour drink special. The entire food menu is offered outside.
McAuliffe Under Investigation — Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) is being investigated by the FBI and the Justice Department for possible illegal campaign contributions. [CNN]
Board Accepting Feedback on Blue Ribbon Panel — The County Board’s so-called Blue Ribbon Panel was supposed to help the Board set county priorities without getting bogged down in bureaucracy and process. Instead, the panel’s implementation has been delayed and the county is now asking for public feedback on the panel and its charge. [Arlington County]
The Legacy of ACFD’s First Black Firefighters — The Halls Hill/High View Park community held an event this past weekend to honor the Arlington County Fire Department’s first black professional firefighters. Some members of the original group of 14 black firefighters to staff Arlington’s Fire Station No. 8 were on hand for the event. [InsideNova]
Don Rockwell Profiled — Don Rockwell, the mysterious proprietor of the influential Don Rockwell online restaurant forum, lives along Columbia Pike and dines out just about every day for lunch and dinner. At the end of the profile, Rockwell lists some of his favorite local restaurants and dishes. [Arlington Magazine]
Rosslyn Tops for Bike to Work Day — The Rosslyn Bike to Work Day pit stop was utilized by 972 cyclists this year, making it the busiest pit stop in the D.C. region. [Twitter]
Flickr pool photo by James L.
