One of Arlington’s more prolific restaurateurs has opened an eatery that promises “old-school” Italian cuisine.

Chef Mike Cordero celebrated the grand opening of Carbonara: Old School Italian & Wine Bar — at 3865 Wilson Blvd in Virginia Square — on Monday. The opening festivities continued Wednesday evening with a private dinner party for invited guests.

The 4,000-square-foot eatery features a partial open kitchen, providing views of the culinary workspace, as well as decor described as both “rustic Italian” and “a traditional, film noir experience like a scene out of ‘The Godfather.'”

More from a press release:

Exceptional main focal points include a see-through wine rack with more than 1,000 bottles, a 3-D fireplace and a black map of New York City featured on the back wall. The interior décor also showcases the Cordero family story with exceptional streetscape views on all sides of the restaurant. On certain nights, live entertainers will perform traditional Italian music and classic pop melodies with the likes of Frank Sinatra playing nightly.

“The Caesar-inspired ambiance that combines my old school menu concept with a twist truly provides patrons an exceptional Italian experience,” Cordero said.

In addition to the interior dining space, there’s a 1,500 square foot, 50 seat outdoor patio with two alfresco bars.

At last night’s event, Cordero served a variety of dishes including homemade pasta scooped from a hollowed-out wheel of cheese, Sicilian pizza, and arancini balls. From the press release:

Carbonara offers a substantial menu featuring classic Italian cuisine, focusing on the southern region of Italy, with all food made in-house and fresh homemade pasta prepared daily. Hearty Sicilian pizzas, classic Italian baked dishes like Eggplant Rollatini Parmigiana, zesty Italian sandwiches, decadent tiramisus and savory chicken, veal and seafood dishes top the bill-of-fare. A wide selection of wines from all regions of Italy, featuring a flavorful varietal from Tuscany, nicely pair with each menu item. To better dispense and preserve each bottle, Carbonara showcases a state-of-the-art Cruvinet wine-preserving system, used widely by international sommeliers, that will extend the flavor and life of the vinos served. A collection of specialty aperitivos and craft Italian cordials will adorn the Carbonara cocktail menu that include bellinis, puccinis, negronis and spritzes.

Cordero’s earliest culinary experience consisted of making meatballs at an Italian restaurant in New York when he was 13. The chef told ARLnow in a podcast that when he wasn’t working night shifts at the restaurant and going to school during the day, he spent much of his time playing baseball. He signed with the Seattle Mariners and played minor league ball before injuring his knee. After that, Cordero said the restaurant business started “calling his name.”

He worked his way up, gaining experience from the chefs around him, before opening his own restaurants in Northern Virginia. Today, Cordero owns seven restaurants in the region including local spots like Bronson Bierhall, Barley Mac and Taco Rock.

Sloppy Mama’s Barbeque has started serving breakfast items like buttermilk biscuit sandwiches and hash browns with special dipping sauce.

The new menu is available from 8-11 a.m Wednesday through Sunday. The restaurant’s standalone eatery at 5731 Lee Highway is currently open, while its Ballston Quarter food hall location is set to reopen Thursday. Sloppy Mama’s remains closed at Union Market in D.C.

Co-founder Joe Neuman said the menu will likely be expanded once the stores adjust to serving breakfast. Future items could include more types of biscuit sandwiches, biscuits and gravy, and a breakfast bowl.

Neuman hopes the breakfast menu gives sales a boost after dropping as much as 60% as a result of the pandemic. He noted that Sloppy Mama’s catering service has had zero business through the pandemic, so he needs a revenue increase to help keep his employees working.

Sloppy Mama’s traditional menu features smoked meat like prime brisket, ribs and chicken. Sandwiches dressed in coleslaw and a pickle are available as well as sides like potato salad, collard greens and mac and cheese.

Picture via Sloppy Mama’s/Anela Malik

With many local restaurants closed, finding halal food for iftar during this Ramadan season may be more difficult for some Arlingtonians.

Ramadan started last night (Thursday) and runs through Saturday, May 23.

Dine After Dark, a nonprofit organization encouraging local restaurants to extend their hours for Ramadan, said on its website that the current season of activities is cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic, but listed few local options for ordering food.

Busboys and Poets in Shirlington (4251 Campbell Avenue) is offering options like halal chicken, from fried chicken to chicken soup. Busboys and Poets is open from 11 a.m.-9 p.m.

Dine After Dark also recommended City Kabob & Curry House (3205 Columbia Pike), which is open from 12:30-8:30 p.m.

ARLnow also reached out to few other local restaurants, including those from last year’s roundup:

A employee at Fettoosh (5100 Wilson Blvd) said the restaurant was open for take-out, but encouraged local Muslims to also consider getting a hot meal from Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church (3159 Row Street) instead of driving around looking for open restaurants.

Ravi Chatkhara (303 N. Glebe Road) doesn’t have any specials but says the regular menu (which includes halal options) is available for takeout and the restaurant will remain open until 4 a.m.

Namaste Everest in Pentagon City (1201 S. Joyce Street) has dumplings and halal chicken available from 3-8 p.m.

Our restaurant guide has ordering options for a number of other eateries with halal options.

Photo via City Kabob/Facebook

It’s Ramadan and for millions of Muslims that means fasting from dawn to sunset.

Breaking that fast each day with the evening meal of Iftar is often a community experience. Here in Arlington, a few local restaurants have late-night menus or specials specifically for iftar.

Those restaurants with special post-fast menus include:

• Tarbouch Mediterranean Grill (3110 Lee Highway) — An employee said the restaurant has a full-service buffet with soup, sweets, fruit and juice for $24.95. The restaurant is open until 10 p.m.
• Ravi Chatkhara (303 N. Glebe Road) — An employee said the Pakistani restaurant has an iftar menu with specialty omelets and different kinds of food available. The restaurant’s online hours said the restaurant closes at midnight, but the employee said the kitchen is open until 4 a.m.
• Fettoosh (5100 Wilson Blvd) — A Moroccan restaurant with an iftar menu featuring pancakes, Moroccan sweets, juice, and milk. An employee said the restaurant is open late in the evenings with no reservations needed.
• Cloud Lounge (2525 Lee Highway) — An upscale, 18-and-older restaurant and coffee shop with an iftar buffet.

Both Kabob Palace Family Restaurant (2315 S. Eads Street) and Afghan Kabob (2045 Wilson Blvd) said they have no special menus or items for Ramadan, but that they have traditional dishes available after sunset. Afghan Kabob closes at 3 a.m.

Katherine Ashworth Brandt, president and founder of Dine After Dark — a nonprofit organization encouraging local restaurants to extend their hours for Ramadan — said the Busboys and Poets in Shirlington (4251 Campbell Avenue) is participating with extended hours. The restaurant is scheduled to be open until 11 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and until 12 a.m. Friday and Saturday.

Photo via Tarbouch/Facebook

Cassatt’s Café, the New Zealand bistro at 4536 Lee Highway, is rolling out a new dinner menu today.

The restaurant is introducing new dishes with ingredients and preparations from other parts of the globe, which will be offered in addition to the usual New Zealand classics. Behind the additions is a new executive chef, Evan Synder.

Synder has cooked at several local restaurants, including the French-Belgian restaurant Marcel’s in Washington, and Volt in Frederick, Md. The Le Cordon Bleu, Orlando, graduate most recently worked as the sous chef at Jose Andrés’ FISH at the MGM casino in Oxon Hill, Md., according to a press release.

“Dishes like Charred Cucumber with Mint, Dill Yogurt & Casovertrano Vin speak to Chef Snyder’s appreciation of Middle Eastern cuisine (specifically Israeli food) and personal love of bold flavors,” said the press release. Other new, less-than-Kiwi menu items include a $16 octopus shawarma dish and a $14 haloumi cheese plate.

The rollout of the new menu is happening on Waitangi Day, a significant New Zealand holiday celebrated annually on Feb. 6.

The restaurant, named after American impressionist painter Mary Cassatt, has been in business for 15 years. It is located in the Lee Heights Shops.

Photos courtesy Cassatt’s Cafe

Virginia Square restaurant Water & Wall, located at 3811 N. Fairfax Drive, is offering a “pop-up” Chinese menu for lunch until Aug. 29.

The “Uncle Paul’s Kitchen” menu, named for Water & Wall co-owner Tim Ma’s uncle, debuted almost three weeks ago at the restaurant, Ma said. It includes Chinese-inspired dishes, like Kung Pao Pork Belly, and more traditional Chinese fare, like “Uncle Paul’s Zha Jiang,” with prices ranging from $6 to $10.

The Zha Jiang is like a Chinese ragu, which Ma said the Chinese community jokingly calls “Marco Polo noodles, because Marco Polo came to China and took the recipe back, and that’s where Italian pasta comes from.”

The dishes from Uncle Paul’s Kitchen are smaller than regular entrees, reminiscent of dim sum, which allow customers to order two or three at a time. The lunch menu is available daily from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.

“We are essentially running two restaurants here,” Ma said. “We have the kitchen divided for the Chinese stuff and then the rest of the storage space and refrigeration is for the regular restaurant stuff.”

Water & Wall opened eight months ago for dinner, and served only its French-inspired dishes. In mid-June, Ma, his parents, their “old school Chinese” air conditioner repairman, and some Chinese cooks were having a Chinese dinner and had the idea for the pop-up menu, Ma said.

“We were joking around, saying ‘Well this is more like a Chinese restaurant than an American or French place,'” Ma said.

From the idea’s inception, it took Ma two weeks to create the menu, which drew from dishes that his uncle served at his traditional Shandong restaurant “Paul Ma’s Kitchen,” in New York in the 1980s, Ma said.

“He had incredible success there with these homemade recipes,” Ma said. “It was like impossible to get a reservation there.”

The food Paul Ma cooked for his nephew, while living with him at Tim’s Virginia home, also inspired Ma’s lunch menu for Water & Wall.

“He continues to tell me things that I should tweak and things that I should add,” Ma said.

Ma also owns a restaurant serving American food in Vienna called Maple Ave Restaurant. For now, Ma is not sure whether Water & Wall will debut its planned lunch menu of French fusion dishes at the end of the month, or create something else closer to the pop-up menu’s choices.

“This has been really well received thus far,” Ma said. “We have a better response with the dishes my uncle created back in the day.”

(Updated at 10:35 p.m. on 10/27/11) South Block Smoothie and Wrap Co. (3011 11th St. N.) in Clarendon is adding to its list of offerings.

South Block’s new espresso machine just arrived today (Oct. 26), and the eatery plans on serving coffee drinks brewed with Intelligentsia Black Cat Espresso starting in November.

A manager tells ARLnow.com that the staff and atmosphere at the newly opened shop will remain the same, but owner Amir Mostafavi is tweaking the menu. In addition to serving coffee drinks, certain menu items — like Boar’s Head deli meat paninis — will be added.

There’s no specific launch date for the coffee bar and changed menu, but apparently it’s going to happen “sometime before Thanksgiving.”