Italian Restaurant Coming to Columbia Pike
A new Italian restaurant is coming to 3111 Columbia Pike.
Padrino’s Fine Italian Cuisine hopes to first open its doors at some point near the end of June, according to owner Sami Khan, who said he’s excited to be opening a restaurant on the Pike.
“This is a beautiful place,” he said of the still-developing strip.
Khan says he expects to hold a formal grand opening during the first week of July. Also in July, Padrino’s will seek a live entertainment permit from the County Board, to allow live music, karaoke and other forms of indoor entertainment.
Padrino’s expects to have its first internet presence — a Facebook page — within two weeks.
Khan’s previous Arlington restaurant attempt, Cleopatra’s Mediterranean Bistro, closed earlier this year. Khan said the small shopping center off Glebe Road that housed Cleopatra’s was not conducive to his business.
The former occupant of 3111 Columbia Pike, the hookah lounge/pool hall/nightclub/restaurant Club 31-11, closed in March after just a couple of months in business. We reported at the time that the club had neglected to apply for a live entertainment permit when it opened, thus making it a target of several police inspections.
Still Awaiting Construction at Trader Joe’s Site
A liquor license application notice is taped to the window, but that’s just about the only sign of progress at the future Trader Joe’s on N. Highland Street in Clarendon.
Interior construction of the hotly-anticipated grocery store has yet to begin. In November a Trader Joe’s rep told the County Board that they hoped to have the store open by “mid-2011.” Now, that seems highly unlikely.
Reached for comment yesterday, all Trader Joe’s spokeswoman Alison Mochizuki could tell ARLnow.com is that the store is on track to open by the end of the year. She said the company never actually promised an earlier opening.
A closer look at construction permit applications reveals that the company only started applying for its permits last month. As of this writing, the building permit is still listed as ‘rejected’ due to numerous discrepancies. County inspectors have also rejected the store’s fire prevention, mechanical and plumbing plans.
We’ve reached out to an Arlington building official but have yet to hear back.
Arlington: Booze Supply Route and Dumping Ground During Prohibition
Arlington resident Garrett Peck is a nonfiction author, a self-described “history dork,” and — apparently — quite the booze enthusiast.
Following up on his book The Prohibition Hangover: Alcohol in America, Peck has just released “Prohibition in Washington, D.C.: How Dry We Weren’t.” The book chronicles the history of temperance, vice and law enforcement in the Nation’s Capital from about 1917 t0 1934. The book includes dozens of historic images and even contains 11 vintage cocktail recipes.
Peck will be participating in an author talk and book signing at Arlington Central Library (1015 N. Quincy Street) starting at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, June 9. We asked him to tell us a bit about the role Arlington played in the history of prohibition. Turns out we were the place where D.C. dumped some of its contraband beer.
“As you probably know, Arlington wasn’t heavily settled yet during the era of national Prohibition (1920-1933), though it certainly was growing: the neighborhoods along the streetcar line between Clarendon and Georgetown grew up as leafy suburbs during this period.
Virginia actually started Prohibition earlier than national Prohibition: we went dry in 1916. This closed down all the breweries and distilleries in the state – including the Arlington Brewing Company that was just over the Key Bridge from Georgetown, where the Key Bridge Marriott is now in Rosslyn. Rosslyn at the time was a bit of an industrial zone, as an offshoot from the C&O Canal crossed the river to connect to Alexandria, and there was a rail yard, lumber yard, a Noland Plumbing factory, and of course the brewery. (There’s a great aerial photo of Rosslyn from 1930 in James Goode’s book “Capital Losses”; you can clearly see the Arlington Brewing Co. building, which at the time was producing Cherry Smash, a non-alcohol beverage). Another brewery – the Robert Portner Brewing Company in Alexandria, which was one of the largest breweries in the South, was also closed. Congress declared Washington, DC to be dry on November 1, 1917, and the remaining four breweries in DC all stopped their brewing operations. Only one survived Prohibition: the Christian Heurich Brewing Company, which was where the Kennedy Center now is, and operated until 1956.
Memorial Day Weekend Crawfish Boil in Courthouse
Bayou Bakery in Courthouse (1515 N. Courthouse Road) will be holding a crawfish boil this weekend to help celebrate Memorial Day Louisiana-style.
Owner and chef David Guas will use a traditional recipe of lemons, cayenne pepper, paprika, bay leaves, garlic and salt to spice up the crawfish, which will be sold for $15 per pound with an accompaniment of potatoes and corn on the cob. Seven different types of Abita beer will also be offered.
In addition to the crawfish and beer, Bayou will be selling New Orleans-style sno-balls — thinly shaved ice topped with flavored syrups and a dollop of condensed milk.
To help welcome Rolling Thunder to town, the restaurant will be offering 10 percent off (excluding alcohol) to all vets and riders.
The boil will be held on Saturday from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. and on Sunday from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Fitch Affirms Arlington’s ‘AAA’ Bond Rating
Update at 4:25 p.m. — Correction to previous update: Arlington officials say that Standard & Poor’s has also assigned it a ‘AAA’ rating.
With the sale of more than $200 million in bonds coming up, Arlington got some good news yesterday from one of the bond rating agencies.
Fitch Ratings affirmed Arlington’s ‘AAA’ rating and said that its rating outlook is ‘stable.’
“Arlington County’s outstanding financial management, highlighted by conservative budgeting, timely tax and fee increases, and closely monitored expenditure controls, consistently produces surplus operating results leading to solid reserve levels and liquidity,” Fitch said in a statement. “The significant presence of the federal government serves to insulate the region from economic downturns and attracts high-wage employment opportunities from information technology, aerospace, defense, and consulting contractors. Economic characteristics remain exceptionally strong underscored by very low unemployment, superior wealth levels, and one of the most highly educated labor forces in the nation.”
Arlington receives new bond ratings before every bond sale — typically once per year. Officials expects to receive ratings from the two other rating agencies soon, according to county spokeswoman Diana Sun.
Jimmy John’s Coming to Ballston
(Updated at 10:55 a.m.) A Jimmy John’s Gourmet Sandwiches store is coming to Ballston.
The restaurant will be opening next to a new Sandy Spring bank branch at 550 N. Quincy Street, adjacent to the still under-construction Founders Square office development.
No word yet on an exact opening date for Jimmy John’s, but it just posted a help wanted ad on Craigslist yesterday. The restaurant is seeking sandwich makers, delivery drivers and bike delivery riders.
This is Arlington’s second Jimmy John’s location. The first restaurant opened in Crystal City in November.
H/t to @andrewdobos. An earlier, erroneous reference to Super Pollo has been removed.
‘Eco-Friendly’ Service Offers to Clean Stinky Trash Cans
If you have dirty, smelly trash cans, and don’t want to clean them yourself, there’s a new service that will do it for you for a monthly fee.
Can-Scrubbers LLC recently started operating in Arlington, Falls Church and McLean. The company has a small, oddly-shaped blue truck that uses “high pressure hot water and highly effective degreasing cleaners” in an automated process to clean out filthy trash cans.
Can-Scrubbers says their process is “eco-friendly” since cleaning your own cans will likely “send contaminated waste material into the street and ultimately down storm drains and into our precious streams and rivers.” The company says it stores waste water in the truck, then filters it and sends it through the sanitary sewer. Also, the company says that its cleaning agents are biodegradable.
The service starts at $10 per month.
Morning Notes
Civil War ‘History Mobile’ Coming to Arlington — A tractor trailer turned mobile history museum will be visiting Arlington several times this summer, as part of commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. The History Mobile’s exhibits “look at the war through the eyes of civilians, slaves and soldiers.” [Sun Gazette]
ART Contractor Wins Safety Award — The contractor that operates Arlington Transit (ART) buses won a top safety award on Sunday. The company, Forsythe Transportation, helped reduce safety complaints on ART by 58 percent in one year, according to a county press release. [Arlington County]
Pentagon City Casting Call for Kid Singers — Organizers of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic — held later this summer in D.C. — are looking for kids between the ages of 6 and 12 to sing the National Anthem prior to featured tennis matches. A casting call will be held at the Pentagon City mall from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 4. Multiple winners will be selected. [Legg Mason Tennis Classic]
Flickr pool photo by Mark C. White
