Tennis legend Serena Williams was apparently served up some Peruvian chicken at Virginia Square’s El Pollo Rico this past weekend.

An Instagram story posted on Williams’ account on Sunday (July 31) afternoon shows her inside of the local Peruvian chicken spot on N. Kenmore Street getting served up a heaping portion of chicken and rice.

The IG story was first spotted and tweeted by local restaurant and bar influencer Barred in DC.

Wow – @serenawilliams stopped by El Pollo Rico

Bet one of @alexisohanian Comm School buddies who lives in the DC has taken him to there before pic.twitter.com/WMpKXDLtPk

— Barred in DC (@BarredinDC) August 1, 2022

Williams is in town to support her equally-famous sister Venus, who is playing in the Citi Open in D.C. tonight. Serena surprised onlookers yesterday when she showed up on the Rock Creek Park courts to practice with her sister.

It’s unclear what lead her to El Pollo Rico, though Barred in DC guesses that her husband Alexis Ohanian (co-founder of Reddit and a UVA alum) may have had something to do with it.

ARLnow reached out to the restaurant this morning, but the manager there said he was unaware of the sports great stopping by. ARLnow also emailed owner Victor Solano but has yet to hear back as of publication.

Serena did some sightseeing in the District over the weekend as well, posting videos of her scootering around while checking out the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial in the rain. It appears that McLean resident Mark Ein, who runs the Citi Open, was also with her.

Always love showing the tourists around my town…..@serenawilliams @CitiOpen pic.twitter.com/wHZXIMsrQ1

— Mark Ein (@Markein) August 1, 2022

ARLnow has reached out to Ein and his representatives to see if perhaps he’s the one who suggested the well-known local spot, but also has yet to hear back.

This isn’t El Pollo Rico’s first brush with fame. The late Anthony Bourdain featured the restaurant on his Travel Channel show “No Reservations” back in 2009.

This unassuming Peruvian chicken eatery is located on a side street off of Fairfax Drive and in the back of a low-slung building. It opened in 1988 and has continued to be a popular spot since.

(Updated at 2 p.m.) Washington Nationals all-star outfielder Juan Soto says in a new video that he recently moved into a new house in Arlington.

The video, below, shows Soto visiting a mini golf course and a frame shop in the county. Specifically, the mini golf at Upton Hill Regional Park and Italo Frame in Clarendon. The video also features shots of Ballston and a visit to Caribbean Plate restaurant in Falls Church.

The video of Soto’s “day off in Arlington” was published by the sports site Bleacher Report and sponsored by Wells Fargo, which scores some product placement when Soto goes to pay for things.

Soto, one of the brightest young stars in baseball, will soon play in his second All-Star Game. The Nationals have been trying to sign him to a long-term contract extension, which would likely be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

It’s unclear where exactly in Arlington Soto now lives. The video gives no hints of it as he visits the store to get several pictures framed for his new home.

Local real estate agent Matt Leighton, who has previously written about other athletes and their Arlington homes — including former Nats slugger Bryce Harper, who once lived in a penthouse condo in Rosslyn — says the county is particularly attractive for athletes given its proximity to the District, urban amenities and, in some cases, relative privacy.

“Arlington is very popular for D.C. athletes, especially for Caps and Nats players,” Leighton tells ARLnow. “Usually, Commanders players will live out closer to their practice facility in Ashburn while Wizards players will live closer to Capital One area in Downtown D.C. Although John Wall, Marcin Gortat and a few other Wizards have called Arlington home in recent years.”

“The luxury condo buildings in the Courthouse and Rosslyn area are prime spots for D.C. athletes to call home,” Leighton continued. “If the player gets a contract extension, they may buy a house in Arlington. Country Club Hills, Williamsburg, Lyon Park and Bellevue Forest are all popular among athletes as they are conveniently located and offer some level of privacy.”

Leighton added that he is “not sure” where Soto lives. Wherever it is, Soto presumably thought out the privacy implications of his move more so than a young, budding Capitals star a decade and a half ago.

“I guess nobody told [Alexander] Ovechkin about privacy when he bought a home in 2005 as a 20-year-old on a major cut-through street in Ballston,” Leighton said. “Ovechkin’s Arlington house, which has been rented out ever since Ovechkin moved to McLean, will be coming up for sale in the near future.”

(Updated on 6/4/22) Korean boy band BTS, one of the most famous musical acts in the world, apparently visited Crystal City this week along with R&B singer H.E.R.

The artists could be seen playing arcade games and posing next to a giant beer tower in videos posted to Instagram, Billboard reported, as cited by Washingtonian. The videos were reportedly shot inside the Bowlero at 320 23rd Street S. in Crystal City.

BTS was in town to visit the White House and talk with President Biden about Asian inclusion and representation. While here they also toured some D.C. monuments, went to Topgolf in Ashburn and dined at some local restaurants, according to Washingtonian.

ARLnow hears that BTS and members of their entourage stayed at the Ritz Carlton hotel in Pentagon City.

PR reps for Bowlero did not respond to an emailed request for comment by publication. The bowling alley and arcade has previously made headlines for neighbor complaints about noise and rowdy behavior following its 2020 opening.

220603 H.E.R Instagram (2)https://t.co/7atqg9RVWD#BTS #방탄소년단 @BTS_twt pic.twitter.com/kZkDpaDhfE

— andrea ♡s bts⁷ (new acc) (@ZER0XBLACK) June 3, 2022

https://twitter.com/ZER0XBLACK/status/1532063740824236033

When Grammy Award winner Rihanna wanted to open the first D.C. area store for her lingerie brand, the choice of location was obvious: Pentagon City.

Savage X Fenty will be opening this weekend at the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City mall. It’s the brand’s fifth brick-and-mortar location and the first in the Washington region.

The mall location — a block from Amazon’s under-construction HQ2 — affords it both plenty of local shoppers and a steady stream of out-of-town tourists to check out the e-commerce-oriented brand’s fashionable undergarments in person. It will stock items for both women and men, in an Instagrammable setting.

“Leading with innovation and design, the store boasts five distinct rooms – Ripple, Logo, Swirl, Video, and Evergreen – where shoppers are guided through interactive experiences and photo worthy moments, including a one-of-a-kind mannequin wall,” noted a press release. “The brand will also introduce proprietary chrome and lavender mannequins representative of real bodies that were modeled through 3D technology celebrating all body types and furthering its commitment to inclusivity.”

The store will be opening on Saturday.

The press release is below.

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Racking up millions of views this summer, hit HBO miniseries “The White Lotus” follows a group of travelers vacationing at a Hawaiian resort. As they attempt to escape from their problems, their problems instead confront them in ways they never imagined.

This dark comedy, released on HBO Max in July, features stars such as Connie Britton, Steve Zahn and Jennifer Coolidge with screenwriting and direction from Mike White, of “School of Rock” and “Nacho Libre.” It also includes a familiar face locally, whose fame continues to grow: Arlington’s very own Brittany O’Grady.

O’Grady, 25, is a graduate of Washington-Liberty High School who acted throughout her childhood at Drew Elementary School, Thomas Jefferson Middle School and W-L. She also danced at Arlington Dance Theatre (which has since closed) and Alexandria’s Metropolitan Fine Arts Center. She later performed at regional theaters including Synetic Theater in Crystal City and Ford’s Theatre in D.C., said Monique O’Grady, Brittany’s mother and a member of the Arlington School Board.

Brittany O’Grady, a true triple threat, had her breakout role last year in “Little Voice,” singer-songwriter Sara Bareilles’s Apple TV+ show about her journey as an up-and-coming artist. O’Grady plays the show’s star, Bess, a character loosely based on Bareilles. Before that, she had a supporting role in the Fox series “Star.”

Most recently, she played a woman in love in a music video for “Love Me Now” by Kygo.

In The White Lotus, however, O’Grady’s character explores very different themes of race and privilege. She plays Paula, a college student who has joined her friend’s family on vacation. Although Paula and her friend Olivia (played by Sydney Sweeney) seem like two peas in a pod, their differences come to light as the story progresses.

Olivia comes from a privileged family, headed by the matriarch and high-powered CFO Nicole (played by Connie Britton). The affluent, white family members recognize this but seem unconcerned with the inequity on which they thrive. Paula, who is not white, feels the family needs to be knocked down a peg — though she also benefits from their status, which she doesn’t realize until later in the series.

O’Grady, who is biracial, says this dramatized environment of unchecked privilege was worlds away from her childhood and young adult life in Arlington.

“It was fairly opposite to my upbringing,” said O’Grady. “I loved growing up in Arlington. I am so grateful to the mentors I had when I worked with different companies around the area. I was always challenged. I continue to challenge myself, grow and learn from those around me.”

Being forced into uncomfortable conversations about race and privilege, however, is something she says she’s familiar with.

“I definitely feel like I have experienced circumstances that Paula faced on vacation, like sitting at a table and hearing atrocious, tone-deaf things come out of people’s mouths,” she said, while adding of her drug-using character that “I think we have different hobbies and approach issues differently.”

In the show, Olivia tells her father Mark (played by Steve Zahn) that Paula felt uncomfortable watching the hotel staff — many of whom are native Hawaiian — perform a traditional Hawaiian dance for them at dinner. Mark replies that they shouldn’t feel bad about it because things are the way they are and there’s nothing the family can do about it. Paula is visibly upset by his response.

Paula’s activist spirit is something else O’Grady says she relates to.

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Arlington Traffic Still Way Down — “New numbers provided to 7News by the Virginia Dept. of Transportation (VDOT) show… weekday traffic in Arlington County in June 2021 was still down 26% versus June 2019. But that was an outlier – in Fairfax County traffic was only down 12%, Loudoun County just 8%, and Prince William County was basically back to normal, falling just 3% versus June 2019.” [WJLA]

A-SPAN Rebrands — “What began life three decades ago as the Arlington Street People’s Assistance Network, or A-SPAN, has assumed a new identity: PathForward… ‘We came to the conclusion that we needed a new name to match all that we do,’ the organization’s board chair, Tim Denning, said.” [Sun Gazette]

Route 1 Makes NYT List — “The New York Times this May compiled a list of ’50s-era American highways being re-thought in an age when environmental concerns and past racial injustices in land use are at the national forefront. Arlington’s section of Route 1, that elevated structure that pierces Crystal City, made the cut.” [Falls Church News-Press]

AWLA Reunites Raccoon Mom and Baby — From the Animal Welfare League of Arlington: “Officer Elpers got some amazing footage of this mama raccoon reuniting with her baby this morning.” [Facebook]

Local NAACP Awards Scholarships — “The Arlington branch of the NAACP recently awarded nearly $60,000 in college scholarships to Arlington high-school students.” [Sun Gazette]

Big Donation to VHC — “Virginia Hospital Center (VHC), a community-based hospital providing medical services to the Washington, DC metropolitan area for 75 years, has received a transformative gift of $5 million from long-time donor Lola ​C. ​Reinsch to promote the Hospital’s campus expansion efforts.” [Press Release]

Darby Family Visits ACFD Station — “Ashley Darby is having plenty of family fun with her kids this summer. The Real Housewives of Potomac cast member [and Arlington resident] recently took to Instagram to capture their latest outing that left her two-year-old son, Dean, completely ‘lost for words’… ‘What a fun time we had at the Arlington County Fire Station 4 with our friends!’ she wrote in the caption.” [Bravo]

(Updated at 2:30 p.m.) In the latest episode of PBS’ Finding Your Roots, historian Henry Louis Gates Jr. helped guide six-time Tony-winner Audra McDonald on a tour of her family lineage — a journey that led her to a golf club in Arlington.

McDonald’s trip through her family tree started with her maternal grandfather, whom she credited as a major influencing force on her life. Her grandfather, Thomas Hardy Jones, was described by McDonald as “born into the depths of the Jim Crow era” but managing to build a respected career as an educator in historically Black institutions.

Her awareness of her mother’s paternal lineage ended there, but Gates took McDonald further to meet her great-grandfather: Clarence Jones.

“After stints as a miner and chauffeur, Clarence supported his family and paid for his son’s education by working in a locker room in a segregated golf club in Arlington, Virginia, where it seems he somehow managed to thrive,” Gates said.

Clarence Jones worked at Washington Golf & Country Club, the first golf club in Virginia and a prestigious regional institution that counted presidents Wilson, Taft and Harding as active members.

The club was segregated, however, and Clarence Jones worked at the club but could never play there. Only starting in the mid-1970s were Black and Jewish applicants granted membership, according to a book by former Northern Virginia Sun publisher Herman Obermayer.

Even so, Gates’ team found a newspaper article from the time that profiled Jones, in which he was described as indispensable and well-loved by the golfing community.

“[He is a] shoe shiner, story teller, match-maker, gambler and good friend all rolled into one,” Gates read from the newspaper. “Wherever you go around the nation’s capital, golfers ask about Clarence.”

McDonald said many of those traits described in Clarence Jones were passed down to his son, her grandfather.

Records showed that Clarence Jones’ parents were both born in D.C. shortly after the Civil War, but the paper trail ended there as their parents were likely enslaved.

McDonald said that learning about her great-grandfather was bittersweet knowing that he was held back by the racist institutions of his era.

“There’s a part of me that’s amazed and proud of my great-grandfather,” McDonald said, “but a part that hurts for him too.”

The struggle to desegregate Arlington occupies not only local historical significance, but apparently a place of honor in the foyer of comedian Amy Schumer.

As noted by the Twitter account of Arlington’s planning office, Schumer recently posted posted a photo on Instagram yesterday that highlights a painting hanging on her wall.

The painting is by artist Julian Joseph Kyle — who specializes in work related to slavery, Jim Crow, and the Civil Rights movement — and based on a photo by Washington Star photographer Gus Chinn.

It shows a Black protestor, Dion Diamond, sitting at a segregated lunch counter at the Cherrydale Drug Fair in Arlington on June 10, 1960. The protester, who was part of an integrated group called the Non-Violent Action Group, is being harassed by white patrons.

Desegregation activists in Arlington continue to inspire: here, comedian @amyschumer shares art by Julian Joseph Kyle in her home. The painting is based on a photograph taken during the Arlington lunch counter sit ins in June 1960. See https://t.co/xMUbXGNkdG pic.twitter.com/GwhmswXTmC

— Plan Arlington VA (@planArlingtonVA) March 16, 2021

Last year marked the 60th anniversary of a series of lunch counter sit-ins in Arlington, during which demonstrators endured harassment from white students, police officers, and Neo-Nazis.

The demonstrations continued through the summer and eventually some stores that had discriminated against Black customers changed their policies and integrating their lunch counters.

Schumer, who has previously faced controversy for making racist caricatures, said in a social media post that the painting hangs by her front door as a constant reminder.

“It’s called Lunch-In (Man At Segregated Diner) it’s by our front door so I see it before I go out into the world,” Schumer wrote.

Image via Amy Schumer/Instagram

Broadcasting legend Larry King died on Saturday, at the age of 87. Though his status as a television celebrity is well established, less well known is where he rose to fame: here in Arlington.

King moved to Arlington from Miami shortly after his Larry King Show picked up national syndication from the Arlington-based Mutual Broadcasting System in 1978.

King’s show was produced in the Mutual Broadcasting studio at the top floor of the office building at 251 18th Street S., next to the Crystal City Metro station. Back then, the building’s street address was known as 1755 South Jefferson Davis Highway, the Crystal City Underground shopping plaza had recently opened, and the neighborhood was only beginning to emerge as a major commercial center.

“Mutual radio moved to Crystal City when no one was there and nothing was there — there were four buildings and the Crystal underground,” recalls Tammy Haddad, King’s radio producer in the early 1980s and later the founding Executive Producer of his CNN show.

It was from that studio that the late-night Larry King Show was broadcast across the country until it went off the air in 1994. Initially, it aired from midnight to 5:30 a.m., though the hours shifted over the years. The radio show featured an extended interview followed by live listener call-ins, and eventually aired on more than 500 radio stations nationwide.

The quirky program was a hit: King’s following grew so quickly — with millions of listeners staying up into the wee hours — that the open call-in portion of the show would crash the circuits of the entire 703 area code, at least according to King.

When Larry King Live launched in primetime on CNN in 1985, King would drive from the CNN studios in D.C. to Crystal City to host the radio show. Famous for his work ethic, King kept that grueling schedule up for years.

While working out of Crystal City, King lived in the Rosslyn area. For a couple of years he lived in The Virginian apartment building, before moving to the nearby Prospect House condo building, famous for its monumental view of D.C. and the Iwo Jima memorial.

King later briefly moved to McLean before decamping for Los Angeles, according to Patrick Piper, who produced King’s radio show after Haddad. (An Associated Press article from 1991 noted that King was arguing to have one of his divorces heard in Arlington “where he lives and works,” instead of Philadelphia where his estranged wife still maintained a residence.)

Stories from King’s radio days abound.

For one, King was cast as himself in the 1984 comedy classic Ghostbusters.

“The people filming the movie Ghostbusters called and asked me to play myself in the movie,” he wrote in his autobiography. “They shot me, cigarette in hand, behind the mike.”

While the setting depicted in the film was definitely the Crystal City studio, Piper wasn’t sure whether it was actually shot in Arlington or on a soundstage. It did look like one of the secondary studios in the office, he said.

Getting to the studio late at night was not easy for the in-studio guests, Haddad remembers.

“The guests used to have to enter the Crystal underground entrance, which was unmarked, it never said Larry King radio show, it never said Mutual radio… and then they’d have to go to the building and [get] let up,” she said. “So you have to really want to be a guest on Larry King to get there.”

Many celebrities arrived via humble Arlington taxis

“We used to send the guests on Red Top Cabs,” Haddad said. “So we pick up Mel Brooks, Danny Kaye, you know, all these guys.”

One regular on-air guest was then-Congressman Al Gore, who lived five minutes away in the Arlington Ridge neighborhood and would drive himself over to the studio late at night.

“Al Gore and Larry had a special relationship,” Haddad said.

Crystal City might not have been as centrally located as downtown D.C., but King wrote that it helped him stay much more plugged in to national news and media than staying in Miami.

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The latest “Art on the ART bus” installations features public icons with ties to Arlington.

A partnership between Arlington Arts and Arlington Transit, the program enlivens commutes with artwork highlighting three different Arlington-based artists at a time. This December, Art on the ART Bus celebrates its 10-year anniversary.

“It’s my job to make sure there’s art on a bus called ART,” Arlington Arts Curator Cynthia Connolly said. “It’s so fun.”

The newest installation, which went up earlier this month, includes depictions of famous Arlingtonians, including:

• Actress and dancer Shirley MacLaine
• Singer-songwriter Roberta Flack
• Actress Sandra Bullock
• Actor Warren Beatty
• Journalist Katie Couric
• Singer-songwriter and local punk rock icon Ian MacKaye

All six were born or raised here, put down roots in the area, or otherwise became famous while living in Arlington.

MacLaine and her younger brother Beatty grew up in the Dominion Hills neighborhood of Arlington. During her upbringing in Arlington, Flack accompanied her church’s choir on the piano. Bullock, who graduated from what is now Washington-Liberty High School, and Couric, who attended Yorktown High School, were cheerleaders. Beatty played football for W-L.

Connolly and her team drafted a list of famous Arlingtonians and picked those who enjoy the most name recognition.

“There is so much hidden history in Arlington,” she said. “I hope people research this more.”

So does the artist behind the installation, dubbed “Pop Arlington:” Ryan Carroll Nelson, who has a studio in Arlington.

Commuters may notice a punk edge to the art. Both Connolly and Nelson were active in D.C.’s punk scene in the 1980s and 1990s, and their connection to Ian MacKaye is personal.

The heart of the scene was MacKaye’s internationally-known indie record label, headquartered in an Arlington bungalow dubbed the Dischord House.

“People are fanatic about the record label, but everyone thinks it’s in D.C.,” Connolly said. “It’s my duty to remind people it’s in Arlington.”

Punk rockers moved to Arlington for the detached houses they could practice in without disturbing the neighbors, Connolly said. Rent was cheaper and they did not have to worry about their instruments being stolen.

She worked at the Dischord House, which became the subject of her book about the scene. During those years that she got to know Nelson, who earned a reputation for his illustrations by drawing concert flyers, T-shirts and album covers for Dischord.

He also illustrated for Teen Beat Records, also based in Arlington, and founded by schoolmates at Wakefield High School.

“His comic-style approach and hand-drawn text is immediately recognizable, and his flyers are coveted collectables among music aficionados,” notes a press release about the project.

“I’ve known Ryan for a long time,” Connolly said. “It seemed the right fit.”

For this series, Nelson underpainted the panels in black and layered white and color on top — a style reminiscent of the underground comic scene of the 80s and 90s, which often featured comics printed in two rather than four colors.

Connolly also called on the DIY attitude of indie punk rockers and comic creators for the ART bus project, which had a tight budget and had to make due with a number of limitations.

“How do you make it happen? You do original artwork and throw it to the wind,” she said.  “That’s all based on my experience in punk rock.”