Vernon Miles is the ALXnow cofounder and editor. He's covered Alexandria since 2014 and has been with Local News Now since 2018. When he's not reporting, he can usually be found playing video games or Dungeons and Dragons with friends.
A new stand-alone Starbucks appears to be coming to the location of a former bank branch along Lee Highway.
Permits have been filed to replace the former BB&T Bank at 5515 Lee Highway with a coffee shop.
(Updated 12 p.m.) True Food Kitchen — a health-food chain — is planning to open its new Ballston Quarter location next Wednesday (May 8) at 11 a.m.
The restaurant has a seasonal menu that includes a variety of vegan and vegetarian choices, like tofu bowls and cheese-less pizzas, in addition to a selection of burgers, sandwiches and entrees with and without meat.
With any luck, Ballstonians can get their pancake fix at the IHOP (935 N. Stafford Street) by the time the weekend rolls around.
The restaurant was closed after a fire on April 9 — the second fire since October. Renovations are now underway, making for the second such extended closure for construction since the first fire.
https://www.facebook.com/ArlingtonVA/videos/439977093443591
Calling 911 isn’t always as simple as picking up the phone and dialing the numbers.
The two Kriser’s stores in Arlington are being rebranded as “Loyal Companion,” with a grand opening planned to give away free pet food.
The rebranding is part of a change for all East Coast locations of Kriser’s. The new brand includes the natural pet food focus of Kriser’s with other parts of “holistic pet wellness.” From the brand’s website:
Sponsored by Monday Properties and written by ARLnow.com, Startup Monday is a weekly column that profiles Arlington-based startups and their founders, plus other local technology happenings. The Ground Floor, Monday’s office space for young companies in Rosslyn, is now open. The Metro-accessible space features a 5,000-square-foot common area that includes a kitchen, lounge area, collaborative meeting spaces, and a stage for formal presentations
ChurnZero — a Crystal City-based company aimed to specifically combat customer attrition through better software management — recently scored $7 million in Series A funding.
Virginia Hospital Center has announced a new partnership with local first responders to more effectively handle mass casualty incidents like terrorist attacks or active shooter situations.
Arlington’s new Hospital Response Task Force is “believed to be the first of its kind in the nation,” organizers say. It was formed in response to lessons learned from mass casualty situations elsewhere, during which wounded would flood emergency rooms and overwhelm hospital staff.
Arlington’s sometimes controversial Public Spaces Master Plan was approved in a unanimous vote by the County Board on Thursday (April 25).
The idea of the update is to provide a framework for the county’s plans to preserve natural resources and public activities as part of the broader comprehensive plan. However, the meeting launched discussions over whether the county relies too much on paved public spaces, and how sports fields and mountain biking fits in.
An annual 5K race through Fairlington is scheduled for Saturday (April 27) to support Ellie McGinn — a local fifth-grader with a rare degenerative brain and spinal cord disease.
The race raises money for A Cure for Ellie, a foundation supporting research at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore that aims to cure McGinn’s disease: leukodystrophy. The race is now in its sixth year and researchers are now in the process of testing new therapies.
By next summer, the formerly 2-3 story office building across from the Whole Foods in Clarendon is slated to reopen as a four-story, mixed office-retail building called The Loft.
Today, however, it’s a noisy demolition — one that briefly caught on fire last week.
(Updated 9 a.m.) A new gym called The Conditioning Room is planning to open on June 1 at the former Cosi space (2050 Wilson Blvd) in Courthouse.
The gym will start with two programs, a strength conditioning program called TCR Strong and a full-body conditioning program called TCR 360.
The growing “paint and sip industry” is making its way to Arlington with a new Muse Paintbar location in Ballston Quarter.
The art-studio-slash-bar first showed up in county permits last fall. A spokesperson for Muse Paintbar confirmed that the bar is planning to open in July, though no more specific date has been chosen and construction at the location hasn’t begun.
