West of Arlington, in the 2.2-square mile city of Falls Church, there’s a food and dining community blooming with long-loved eateries and up-and-coming stars.
It’s a city of diverse eateries, where businesses support each other and where locals return to friendly, familiar spots and also seek out fresh flavors.
“I love that Falls Church has a whole bunch of unique, small businesses,” Falls Church Mayor Letty Hardi told ARLnow. “I love it when there’s a family behind the restaurant, or a really interesting story, and you know that you’re supporting someone’s livelihood.”
Rebecca Tax, longtime co-owner of Clare and Don’s Beach Shack, sees her fellow restaurateurs as family — making it impossible for her to say what her favorite Falls Church dining spot is.
“We have a camaraderie, like we all literally know each other,” Tax says. “I just want to make sure everybody is properly adored, because we’re so lucky.”
For those new to town or otherwise uninitiated when it comes to dining out in Falls Church, consider this an education on the local staples you must know about.
Clare and Don’s Beach Shack
Clare and Don’s came to be in the early 2000s when Rebecca Tax and her brother, David Tax, sought to bring a Florida-style seafood joint to Northern Virginia that wasn’t too formal or too close to fast food.
Clare and Don aren’t people, but a play on words honoring the Arlington neighborhood, Clarendon, where the restaurant got its start before moving to the Little City.
Inspired by the co-owners’ childhood, the venue at 130 N. Washington Street is laid back, often featuring live music in the expansive outdoor seating area in what was once a parking lot. It serves all kinds of seafood, but perhaps the most-loved dish is the blackened mahi-mahi tacos, one of the restaurant’s most popular orders for over a decade.
The tacos are so well liked that years ago, Tax won a bet with her brother on whether the restaurant could sell more margaritas or more fish tacos between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
“I took fish tacos, he took margaritas, and I blew him out the water,” Tax says.
Above all, Clare and Don’s prides itself on its customer connections, something Tax describes as “the most important part of our job.”
“We realized and came to really treasure the fact that we are a community gathering place,” Tax said. “We have customers who were like, in college, unmarried, started dating. Now, their kids are in college.”
Ireland’s Four Provinces
Ireland’s Four Provinces owner Colm Dillon — a native of Cork, Ireland — says pubs are central to the Irish psyche. They seem to have nudged their way into the Falls Church psyche, too.
The decades-old Irish pub on 105 W. Broad Street is home to pints of Guinness, some great fish and chips, and a warm, familial ambience.
A museum-like curation of Irish art, prints and memorabilia cover the walls, some of which came from Dillon’s mother’s own collection. Most notable, Dillon says, is the framed copy of President John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address.
In the wintertime, Irish stews sell like hotcakes. Beef stew made with Guinness is a popular choice, but Dillon says the best item on the menu is Kinsale seafood stew.
That’s a medley of fish, shrimp and mussels accompanied by potatoes and leeks and doused in white wine cream. It is named after a fishing village considered the gourmet capital of Ireland.
Regulars rely on consistency. When the menu changes, there’s “consternation,” Dillon jokes, recalling an unsuccessful attempt to change the pub’s fries about 20 years ago.
When the switch was made, diners kept telling him, “someone messed up the fries.”
“By the third table, I walked back into the office, called the sales guy and said, ‘give me my old fries back,'” Dillon says.
For Dillon, fostering a sense of community at “4P’s” matters more than any business metric.
“It’s not about, ‘We did 300 tonight for dinner,'” Dillon says. “Did we make friends with 20 people? That’s more important to us.”
The Eden Center
Falls Church is lovingly monikered the Little City, but “the U.N. of places to eat” might fit just as well to honor the city’s diversity of cuisines, Mayor Hardi says.
You can’t talk about Falls Church without mentioning the Eden Center, a historic strip of over 100 authentic Asian American restaurants and vendors on Wilson Blvd.
The center, founded in 1984, is modeled after Vietnamese shopping districts and marked by a plaque honoring the history and contributions of Vietnamese immigrants in the region. In its time, Eden Center became “the largest source of Vietnamese goods on the East Coast,” the marker says.
Hardi describes it as a “mid-Atlantic destination.”
“People come from all over and make it a day trip,” Hardi says. “People will do their grocery shopping and eat out and spend an entire day there, if they’re living a little further away.”
For those hoping to plan a visit, a full list of takeout menus and a map of Eden Center stores can be found online.
And you can’t miss…
- Dogwood Tavern, another Falls Church institution that celebrated its 15th anniversary last year. The tavern refers to itself as “a celebration of the Old Dominion” and offers comforting appetizers, burgers and all kinds of seafood dishes. 132 W. Broad Street.
- Ellie Bird, the 2024 RAMMY-winning New Restaurant of the Year. This contemporary restaurant was co-founded in 2023 by husband and wife Yuan and Carey Tang. Named after the couple’s daughter, Ellie Bird’s menu takes inspiration from American and Asian cuisines. The duo’s first restaurant, Rooster & Owl, has a Michelin Star and is well-established in D.C. 125 Founders Avenue.
- Northside Social, the Falls Church outpost of the Clarendon staple: a day-to-night destination offering coffees, teas and brunch fare in addition to wine and wood-oven pizza. The cafe offers up plenty of indoor and outdoor seating with a relaxed ambience and decadent baked goods. 205 Park Avenue.
- Thompson Italian, self-described as “a casual spot where anyone can stop in for a great meal and a glass of wine without fuss and pretense.” But make no mistake: the no-fuss Italian eatery has received widespread acclaim since its 2019 debut, including from The Washington Post, Northern Virginia Magazine, and a James Beard nomination for Outstanding Pastry Chef of the Year. 124 N. Washington Street.
- Spacebar, a chill, cozy hangout that specializes in craft beer and grilled cheese. 709 W. Broad Street.
- Rare Bird Coffee Roasters, a small coffee roaster and bakery that opened in 2021 and has solidified its reputation since. Expect lines on weekends. 230 W. Broad Street.
