Lost Dog Cafe’s owner is weighing his options as ongoing Columbia Pike construction and region-wide challenges for restaurants have him concerned about his bottom line.
The restaurant at 2920 Columbia Pike experienced a 10% drop in sales from 2023 to 2024, and if the current trend continues, owner James Barnes expects that number to dip another 8.75% by the end of this year.
Depending on how the next few months go, Barnes said that 2026 might bring some hard choices — including the possibility of closing Lost Dog.
Restaurants throughout the D.C. area are already preparing for fewer customers and heightened costs driven by uncertainty at the federal level. However, Barnes’ top concern right now is more local in nature, having everything to do with the roadwork and safety barriers that have been blighting his business for the past several months.
“We might shutter our doors, as they say, because it’s affected our business in such a negative way,” Barnes told ARLnow. “After another year, there’s going to be some tough decisions to make.”
The Columbia Pike Multimodal Improvement project is scheduled to reach substantial completion later this year. The ultimate goal of the project is to create “a safer, more accessible route” through sidewalk widening, enhanced pedestrian crossings and reconfigured traffic lanes, among other objectives.
For the time being, however, the construction is impacting a core source of Lost Dog’s revenue — about 70% to 80% of which comes from carryout and delivery.
“It’s gotten to the point where the drivers for Uber, DoorDash, they won’t even come,” Barnes said. “They’ll just, like, ignore the call … they think [the intersection’s] a disaster, and like, they don’t want to be a part of it.”
Barnes isn’t alone. The multimodal project has been a subject of contention between county officials and the Pike’s small business owners for several years.
“It’s like, South Arlington’s ‘Big Dig,‘” Acme Pie Co. owner Sol Schott told ARLnow.
Schott’s pie shop recently relocated from 2803 Columbia Pike to 2406 Columbia Pike. The former location dealt with restricted sidewalks and storefront roadwork for about two years.
Ultimately, Acme’s relocation was motivated by leasing and planned redevelopment. Still, Schott thinks the construction-related issues contributed to a 50% decrease in retail sales that Acme experienced since 2023.
He sees this as contradicting Arlington leaders’ stated values.
“I hate to get political, but I always have felt like that Democrats try to take care of the smaller people, and small businesses is that too,” he said. “I still think that I have just not received any help.”
Several business owners connected grievances to deeper concerns about the county’s support for South Arlington. Many conversations about Pike construction have a tendency to drift back to abandoned plans for streetcar on the busy road.
“I don’t think the County Board views Columbia Pike as a valuable piece to their small business plan,” Adam Luber, co-owner of William Jeffrey’s Tavern, said.
In an email to ARLnow, county spokesperson Claudia Pors said the county “understand[s] the frustrations” that have arisen at Pike businesses like Lost Dog Cafe.
“We’re appreciative of people’s patience as we work toward project completion later this year,” she wrote, adding that the county has partnered with Arlington Economic Development to offer assistance to struggling business.
AED BizLaunch program director, Tara Palacios, emphasized that the organization is available to offer marketing and promotional services. Another AED program, ReLaunch, offers small business grants and business consulting resources.
“I think our challenge sometimes is just getting that word out, so people know that we do have these resources available to them,” Palacios said.
Lost Dog’s lease is slated to last until 2030. Barnes hopes to be around for that but isn’t entirely sure how he’ll get there.
Even post-construction, he fears it will be difficult to bring deterred drivers back to the Pike.
“We’re gonna try,” he said. “Even then, it’s not like you flip a switch and all of a sudden, the delivery business comes back.”
