Around Town

‘Stageplate Bistro’ Coming to Ballston

Stageplate Bistro logo (photo via Facebook)A restaurant and bar called “Stageplate Bistro” is coming to Ballston.

According to web listings and an ABC permit application, the restaurant will be opening at 900 N. Glebe Road, which currently houses a new Applebee’s and the former Il Forno restaurant.

The new eatery will serve American cuisine at moderate prices and will feature a sidewalk cafe, according to the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington website. It will seat more than 150 and serve wine, beer and cocktails, according to the ABC permit application.

Stageplate Bistro is the successor to Backstage Bistro Cafe, a small restaurant near Dulles International Airport that also was the home base of a catering company that specialized in catering for events and touring entertainment acts.

Backstage Bistro closed in October and posted the following message to customers on its website.

We would like to sincerely thank all of our amazing cafe guests at Backstage Bistro Cafe Dulles for their kind support of our little cafe and catering company in Dulles, VA. Most of our guests knew we were incubating our first restaurant out of our retail little cafe which sits in front of our Dulles catering kitchen. We are so happy the cafe was so well received and greatly appreciate all of your feedback on our menu, style and concept! We are now very excited and proud to announce that our little café, Backstage Bistro Café Dulles, is all grown up and will now proudly be a full-service restaurant in Arlington, Virginia!

Our new full-service restaurant and bar will be located at 900 N. Glebe Road, Arlington, VA 22203 and is slated to open in December 2016. We hope to see you there!

There was no answer this afternoon at a phone number listed for the restaurant.

Despite hopes of opening next month, based on past restaurant opening precedent — owing in part to over-optimistic owners and a persnickety Arlington County permitting office — we would expect Stageplate Bistro to open no sooner than early 2017.

Logo (top) via Facebook