Remember back in May when a car came crashing into the front window of Rhodeside Grill? Well, it almost happened again.
A tipster sent us this photo of a two-car accident in front of the popular Wilson Boulevard hangout this morning.
“Glad the vehicle didn’t go through the window again, since the building’s exterior has recently gotten a facefilt (new paint, awnings),” our tipster writes. “But I’ll think twice about eating on the patio so close to this intersection!”
Police are reporting that traffic lights are on flash at the intersection of Wilson and Washington Boulevards in Clarendon.
The county’s Department of Public Works is responding to the scene.
Update at 2:10 p.m. — It’s been at least 45 minutes since the original call went out. The lights are still flashing.
Update at 2:40 p.m. — Thanks to @goremy, we’re hearing that the lights are working again.
Say goodbye to Arlington Motorcar Service, Medical Service Corporation International and the Fashion Dreams tailor. The three small buildings on the 1700 block of Wilson Boulevard are expected to be torn down by the end of the year to make way for a new office building.
Last week Skanska USA applied for a demolition permit at the site. Barring any major obstacles, the buildings are expected to be gone by the end of the year.
In its place, Skanska, the American division of the Swedish construction conglomerate, is building a five-story office building that will include ground-level retail and 230 underground parking spaces. The project will also include the construction of a new road — an extension of Quinn Street that will break up the long block and connect Wilson Blvd with Clarendon Blvd.
The original developer, who sold the project to Skanska this summer, had originally hoped to attract a small grocer and a restaurant or two. It’s not clear if a grocer would be interested in the space, but Skanska will have to fill 28,000 square feet of retail space somehow.
Skanska says the building should be completed by mid-2012. The company is trying to obtain a minimum of a LEED Gold environmental certification.
Despite challenging economic conditions nationwide, Skanska says it’s moving ahead with the project based on the strength of the Arlington market.
“We firmly believe in the strength and long-term value in Arlington,” Skanska regional manager Rob Ward said in a statement. “This area is one of the best sub markets in the country, with low vacancy rates and high demand.”
Whitlow’s is expanding — upward. The 15-year-old Wilson Boulevard institution has just received the building permit for a long-anticipated rooftop deck.
The wooden deck will have casual tiki bar theme and will be called “Fu Bar,” owner Greg Cahill tells us.
It will be massive — with room for up to 286 people. Food will be served and there will be about 50 tables for outdoor dining. The menu will remain the same as Whitlow’s this year, with changes possible for next year.
Construction is set to begin Monday and Cahill hopes to have the deck open in September.
Photo by Monika & Tim
Arlington is home to a relatively new establishment that may be the country’s only restaurant dedicated exclusively to Tunisian cuisine (at least the only one with a web presence and decent SEO).
Chez Manelle (2313 Wilson Blvd) opened in Courthouse late last year. It is a small, independently operated eatery, with a unique vibe, a unique menu and some good old-fashioned friendly service.
It’s a bit of a hole in the wall, just off the Courthouse main drag and well down the road from Clarendon. The front of the restaurant — a two-tone awning amid beige stone brick — does not do the interior justice. The owners have added planters and some outdoor seating, but making the place look like the unique ethnic restaurant it actually is seems to be an uphill battle.
The restaurant has fared well on Yelp, getting high marks for all the reasons stated above. But one particular complaint seems to resurface among the few negative reviews: bland, greasy food.
The blog DC Dives recently posted a review of Chez Manelle, and came to the same conclusion. Here’s an excerpt.
When reviewing restaurants I have tried to avoid making definitive factual statements, because after all my review is just my opinion. However, with Chez Manelle I can say as fact that it is unquestionably the best Tunisian restaurant in the DC area. Sadly it’s not because of its great food, but because it is the ONLY Tunisian restaurant in the area. Located in Clarendon near the courthouse metro, the restaurant is ideally located, yet when we arrived at 8:00 the only people in the restaurant were the 4-5 waiters standing around watching TV. That should have been our first hint, but we decided to go ahead and order several appetizers and a couple of main entrees.
Read the rest of the review here.
We’d love to see Chez Manelle stick around long enough to perfect its food offerings. Amid the influx of pizza restaurants, burger joints and bakeries, the value of having such a unique spot in town should not be overlooked.
The strange case of Haze Restaurant, Bar and Lounge is coming to a close.
Essentially an old house gussied up in goth black paint and gaudy decorations, Haze looks severely out of place between the Arlington Arts Center and a soon-to-be yoga studio (formerly Curves). It was apparently meant to be a lounge-y kind of a place, which could have brought some nightlife to the relatively dead section of Wilson Boulevard near the Virginia Square Metro, but it was brought down by some very poor planning.
We’re told that the owner undertook renovations on the building before any county permits were issued (or even requested), a big no-no. County staff then tried to work with the owner to get the building into compliance, but he decided instead to shutter the place. That was last year.
Then, on Friday, the Arlington County Parks Department informed the Ashton Heights Civic Association that the county had purchased the quarter-acre property. It will be used to connect Maury Park and Herselle Milliken Park, two tiny swaths of recreational space located on the same block between North Monroe Street and North Lincoln Street.
“The acquisition is consistent with the Public Spaces Master Plan, the Virginia Square Sector Plan and your neighborhood plan,” Park Development Division Chief Lisa Grandle told the AHCA.
Once the building is “deconstructed” — taken apart in a way that allows for more building materials to be recycled — the entire property will be converted to a park. Even the prime real estate next to Wilson Boulevard.
“The entire parcel will be used as park space in the near term, although the immediate frontage on Wilson Boulevard may be reconsidered in the long term if the remaining retail/commercial parcels on the block are consolidated and redeveloped,” Grandle wrote in an email to ARLnow.com.
This morning a reader asked about a “bizarre” construction project happening at the corner of Wilson Boulevard and North Quinn Street, near Ray’s Hell Burger.
We dutifully checked it out and yes, it was pretty weird. First of all, you don’t typically see that much construction debris sitting out in the open near a main thoroughfare. When we arrived workers were busy laying brick next to the building and doing some sort of metal work inside. We asked the workers what was being built — and got no response.
We checked with the county zoning records system to see if any building permits had been issued for the address — and couldn’t find any (Update: Per the discussion in the comments section, it looks like a building permit was applied for last year and approved this year). We would have asked a zoning employee about it, but for about two hours no one in the office has answered the phone.
The building was previously a service station. Does anybody know what it’s going to be once this work is completed?
Dominion has brought in a crane to fix a transformer at Wilson Boulevard and North Randolph Street, across the street from Ballston Common Mall.
During the repairs, one lane of westbound Wilson Boulevard will be closed. The work is expected to wrap up between 5:00 and 5:30 tonight.
Meanwhile, the blown transformer has knocked out power to a building in the area.
President Obama and Russian president Dmitry Medvedev had lunch at the recently-reopened Ray’s Hell Burger on Wilson Boulevard around noon today.
Obama ordered a cheddar cheeseburger with onions, lettuce, tomato and pickles, according to White House pool reports. Medvedev had a cheddar cheeseburger with onions, jalapeno peppers and mushrooms and a Coke.
Lunchtime crowds gathered on Wilson Boulevard to watch as the two presidents returned to the District via motorcade around 12:30.
Two couples visiting the area from North Carolina were seated at a table right next to the two world leaders.
“We were able to meet [President Obama] and shake his hand — it was just an awesome experience,” said Ricky Wadford, who also talked to Medvedev had his baseball cap signed by Obama.
President Obama is apparently quite a fan of Ray’s. He dined there last year with Vice President Joe Biden.
Two of the photos below are courtesy of Barry Skidmore of People Powered Arlington. See video of the motorcade after the jump.
A brief thunderstorm that brought torrential rains to the area has knocked out power to more than 1,600 Dominion customers in Arlington.
The storm also knocked out traffic lights on Four Mile Run Drive, George Mason Drive and Wilson Boulevard. Police are directing traffic at a number of intersections, including several in the Courthouse area.
County offices at Courthouse Plaza are currently without power. A county communications system has also been affected by the outages.
Update at 3:40 p.m. — Power has been restored to county offices in Courthouse. A number of traffic lights are still flashing.
Now that the Hollywood Video in Courthouse has closed, you may be wondering what is going to replace it. At Saturday’s county board meeting, we got a preview.
An expansive, five-story residential complex with ground-floor retail is planned for the site. In addition to stores and restaurants on the sidewalk level, it will feature about 200 residential units, two open courtyards and an underground parking garage.
1900 Wilson Boulevard, as the project is known, is a being spearheaded by ZOM Mid-Atlantic, which bought the prime plot of land two years ago for nearly $22 million. Currently, the site is home to Hollywood Video, this small office building and a sizable surface parking lot.
The project will also involve the construction of a brand new road. The developer’s plan calls for a stretch of North Troy Street to be built between Wilson and Clarendon Boulevard, breaking up the “superblock” that now extends uninterrupted from Rhodeside Grill to Wendy’s.
The board spent more than 75 minutes discussing the project’s site plan on Saturday. Board members are expected to vote on the plan at their June 12th meeting.
