A new Arlington food hall opened this week with the hope of breathing more life into Rosslyn.
Featuring fresh technology, murals by local artists and a full plate of nine D.C.-area food vendors, Upside on Moore has taken over the former site of Assembly at Rosslyn City Center (above the Metro station).
The idea, says Nick Freshman, founder of the food hall’s operator Mothersauce Partners, is to provide a place where Rosslyn residents and office workers can not only eat but also relax and even work.
“They’ve tried to restart Rosslyn a lot of times,” Freshman said. “I think this is the time we’re going to get it right.”
The redesigned space, which opened Tuesday, offers upgraded WiFi and rows of seats with plentiful outlets in addition to more traditional dining areas. Visitors can scan QR codes to order from any restaurant in the hall on their cellphones, and servers will deliver meals to their seats.
The “hub” of the food hall, in Freshman’s vision, is a cocktail bar with a menu by mixologist Elli Benchimol, owner of Michelin-recognized Apéro in Georgetown. All other offerings — from Ghostburger to La Michoacana to Laoban Dumplings — are also local.
Beyond the main concourse, the food hall has a patio overlooking downtown Rosslyn as well as an upper floor that can host events with up to 500 people.
While thousands of Rosslyn residents live within walking distance, Freshman said they often leave the neighborhood of office buildings and residential high-rises when going out to eat or drink. He believes a revamped, central hangout spot can help change that, providing a destination in its own right.
“Instead of looking past Rosslyn, we are leaning in, and the residential and business community are reacting enthusiastically,” he said. “As an added bonus, we have seen fans of our brands come from all over the area to check the space out. Our hope in curating this lineup was to draw people into Rosslyn from the wider area, and we think that is happening.”
Before the pandemic, it looked like Rosslyn would be home to three separate food halls. In addition to Assembly, which was opened in 2021 by Chicago-based DMK Restaurants, the neighborhood was slated to get Common Ground and Happy Endings Eatery, both in the Central Place development.
The former never opened and the latter has rebranded as The Happy Eatery, de-emphasizing the food hall concept.
American Real Estate Partners, which owns the Rosslyn City Center, partnered with Mothersauce last year to plan an overhaul of the dining area.
Assembly shuttered at the start of this month as the redesign removed all previous vendors, which included the Fog Point oyster bar, Charo’s Taqueria and Big Day Coffee.
As businesses such as For Five Roasters and BurgerFi have popped up in Rosslyn in recent months, Freshman believes the food hall can help drive a shift toward making the area more appealing to locals.
“We can keep them here if we have the right concept and the right programming,” he said.