Popular local cover band Gonzo’s Nose was the last band to play at the “old” Clarendon Grill. A restaurant rep says the new Grill will still host bands and have a dancefloor — but refused to divulge any additional details.
Clarendon Grill will remain under the same management, the rep said. It’s unclear whether it will retain its name.
Owner Tracy DeBernard and daughter Holly were quietly manning their produce stand today, outside the Clarendon Metro Station.
DeBernard said she was allowed to return last week after Cooperative Extension agents from Stafford and Spotsylvania counties inspected her 400 acre farm and determined that she was growing all her own produce. Other vendors at the farmers market had alleged she was keeping prices artificially low by importing her produce from other farms.
Remember our Arlington’s Cutest Dog Contest? How can you forget the spirited, adorable competition, right?
To honor all the great contestants, we’ve invited them to join us at Wylie Wagg Clarendon (2509 N. Franklin Rd.) at 6:00 tonight for a fun, informal reception. Dog food and people refreshments will be served courtesy of Wagg.
BGR The Burger Joint and Burapa Thai Restaurant are the latest businesses to sign leases at the still under-construction development, which is expected to be ready for occupancy by the end of the year.
This will be BGR’s second Arlington location. The now-busy Lyon Village store, which opened earlier this year, is only a mile away from the planned Clarendon location.
The restaurant will be expanding with a huge, 10,000 square foot location in Rockville this fall, and another location in Merrifield that will deliver in 2012. But Clarendon is also a big target for co-owner Drew Kim.
“Clarendon is a hotspot for us,” Kim said. “We’re actively searching in Clarendon, we just don’t have a lease signed. There are a couple spots we’re looking at.”
Board members repeatedly reassured owner Scott Vasko that Flatbread was exactly the type of business that Arlington County is trying to attract. In the end, however, promises made to local homeowners in 2004 were upheld, and a patio between the restaurant and an adjacent house will remain an undeveloped “buffer zone.”
In a concession to Flatbread, the board granted the more lenient of two possible scenarios for sidewalk seating in front of the Clarendon restaurant. Flatbread will be allowed to set up tables on 25 feet of sidewalk in front of 11th Street North (the other scenario called for 15 feet). Combined with sidewalk seating also approved for North Fillmore Street, Flatbread will likely have a total of four outdoor tables and 10 seats. The patio could have sat 24.
In one corner are the supporters and management of American Flatbread, the wood-fired pizza restaurant that bills itself as a “community hearth” and is best known for its locally-sourced, organic ingredients. In the other corner are county planners and a majority of local homeowners (others support Flatbread), who don’t want the restaurant to open an outdoor patio on their relatively quiet section of North 11th Street in Clarendon.
At stake for neighbors is the tranquility of the neighborhood and, possibly, the area’s steep property values. At stake for Flatbread is its viability as a business in Clarendon.
If you’re a music lover, chances are there’s a concert tonight that will pique your interest.
At 6:30, the Village at Shirlington holds its second outdoor concert of the summer. Local group the JazzKnights will perform in the plaza in front of the Shirlington library.
The market decided to prohibit a vendor, C&T Fruits and Vegetables, from returning this week after other vendors complained about C&T’s low prices and questionable product sourcing. They said C&T’s ability to sell off-season produce proves that they broke market rules that require all produce be locally-grown by the seller.
The dispute became public when a TV reporter showed up with camera in tow and began asking people if they thought a vendor should be expelled for having low prices (spoiler: most people said they did not have a problem with the low prices).
This will be Cava’s third location, with the other two located in Rockville, Md. and on Capitol Hill. Owner Ted Xenohristos told WBJ that Clarendon offers “a perfect demographic.”
“It’s like a little city over there,” he said.
It started when farmers market vendors started complaining about C&T Fruits and Vegetables, which was selling produce at prices that other growers could not match.
The Clarendon Alliance, which runs the market, tried to convince C&T owner Tracy Debernard to raise her prices so that long-time vendors would not be squeezed out. When Debernard refused, she was told that this would be her last week at the market.
In an exasperated email sent to customers this morning, restaurant management claims they were misled by building owners about the ease with which they would be able to obtain an outdoor seating permit. The email bemoans the “mixed signals, confusion and thousands in lost revenue” caused by the year-long, fruitless effort to get a permit.
The homeowner’s association president for the townhouses across the street from the restaurant “has made it his personal goal to use his new position of HOA president to attack all of our seating,” the email says. The Clarendon-Courthouse Civic Association has also joined the effort to block outdoor seating, despite efforts to find a compromise, according to the email.
