Screwtop Wine Bar (1025 N. Fillmore St) informed its customers over the weekend that it will open a retail wine bar in the old Shoefly spot. A Facebook page has been set up for the store, which will be called Grateful Red. Its website just became active today.
The store is expected to open sometime this summer. Screwtop Wine Bar owner Wendy Buckley said she hopes Grateful Red will be able to open its doors by July 4.
The eight-story complex, developed with financial assistance from Arlington County and the Virginia Housing Development Authority, sits above the Church at Clarendon, which recently celebrated its re-opening. An adjoining building houses the county’s largest daycare center.
The development contains 46 market rate apartments, and 70 affordable housing units. The units, which the developer calls “boutique apartments,” range from studios to three bedrooms. According to the complex’s website, prices run from $2,125 per month to $3,170 per month, with affordable units going for 60 percent of the cost to those who qualify.
The sister establishments will be holding a joint anniversary event at Liberty Tavern (3195 Wilson Blvd) tomorrow night (Thursday, April 12). From 4:00 p.m. until close, the restaurant will be offering two specialty cocktails from its opening menu — the “Pursuit of Happiness” and the “Industrial” — for $5. Starting at 9:00 p.m., at the bar and lounge, Liberty Tavern will also be offering complimentary Liberty pizza, Lyon Hall frankfurters and Northside Social confections.
There’s no cover charge for the event. All three eateries first opened their doors in April — Liberty Tavern in 2007 and Lyon Hall and Northside Social both in 2010.
The no-nonsense, cash-only deli has fascinated some locals with its irregular hours, its general lack of customers, and its ability to remain in business in a high-rent area. But the business may be closing soon after all.
The daughter of the older couple who own the deli has told friends that her parents will be shutting down the restaurant, perhaps by the end of the month, according to our tipster. The owners have simply decided to retire, we’re told.
Arlington native Scot Harlan owns the restaurant and serves as a chef. His co-chef, Will Sullivan, also hails from Arlington.
Harlan has traveled around the world in an effort to perfect his culinary skills and has worked in kitchens of famed chefs like Gordon Ramsay. He made his way back to the area to work at notable local establishments such as 2941 and Inox, but now wants to try his hand at running a restaurant in the community his family has called home for many years.
About a month from now, in early May, a groundbreaking is expected to be held for a new 280,000 square foot mixed-use office project in Clarendon.
In the meantime, the block on which the project will be built (3001-3003 Washington Boulevard) is looking more and more like a ghost town.
A tipster sent along this design rendering, which was posed to Facebook earlier today. Bronx Pizza, on the ground floor of 3100 Clarendon Boulevard, will feature New York-style pizza, subs and pastas. It’s expected to serve food “all day,” including breakfast, lunch, dinner and late night. It’s also expected to offer a delivery service.
There’s still no word on when work will finally get underway at Bronx Pizza — which has been little more than an empty storefront with a “coming soon” sign in the window since early 2011. Building permits for the restaurant were issued last spring but have apparently not been utilized yet. A Bronx Pizza website, meanwhile, is still “under construction.”
There has been some turnover among spas and salons in Clarendon.
The Phantacee Hair Salon and Spa at 3033 Wilson Boulevard recently closed up shop. Signs in the window indicate that a Casal’s dé Spa and Salon location will be opening in its stead.
Oby Lee Coffee Roastery had several locations along the Delaware shore before owner Oby Lee (real name) decided to close up shop. In 2010, the store’s marquee Rehoboth Beach — winner of several “best coffee” awards in the local press — was put up for auction.
Now Lee is planning to open a brand new Oby Lee location at 3000 Washington Boulevard in Clarendon, with a special emphasis on wine. The shop will serve wine from its Italian estate vineyard, as well as charcuterie, tapas dishes, and espresso and coffee roasted on-site. Oby Lee will have customer seating indoors and on an outdoor patio.
In her last blog post, Amy says she would have liked to buy a home in Lyon Village, but it turned out to be beyond her and her husband’s price range. Instead, the couple and their baby girl moved to Bethesda, where they bought a house about six miles away from D.C. proper.
Amy is now launching a new Bethesda blog at www.Bethesdan.com.
The eatery is expected to open for business at or just after 4:00 p.m. This week Paciugo (pronounced “Pah-Choo-Go,” per a sign on the wall) will be serving gelato, cakes and other desserts, coffee and espresso drinks. Next week, the store plans to introduce breakfast and lunch items, including sandwiches.
The company says their sometimes eclectic gelato flavors (from standards like sea salt caramel or stracciatella to the interesting — but currently unavailable — organic maple caramelized bacon or black pepper olive oil) are made on-site daily. Paciguo is a Texas-based chain, but the owner of the Clarendon store lives in Northern Virginia, we’re told.
Last week Slate columnist Matthew Yglesais, author of The Rent Is Too Damn High, wrote about Arlington and suggested that the prevalence of expensive high-end rentals and condos stems from two factors: restrictions on building height and the width of the corridor itself, which is sometimes just 2-3 blocks wide, thanks to zoning restrictions intended to preserve the single family homes on either side of the corridor.
“What you see is a narrow thread of urbanism between Wilson Boulevard and Clarendon Boulevard, with a bit of a thicker blob of urbanism around the Metro station itself,” Yglesais writes. “I don’t really want to condemn this development paradigm because if you compare it to other suburban jurisdictions around the United States, what Arlington has done really stands out as practically best in class. But still the fact of the matter is that these single-family homes adjacent to the corridor of urbanism are sitting on some extremely expensive land.”
