A food hall in Rosslyn will soon undergo a major transformation.
Assembly, the food hall at Rosslyn City Center (1700 N. Moore Street), will be closing on Friday, March 1, a PR rep tells ARLnow. In its place will rise a new food hall called Upside on Moore.
All of the existing concepts at Assembly — from the Fog Point oyster bar to Charo’s Taqueria to Big Day Coffee — will close, we’re told. They are set to replaced by Ghostburger, Stellina Pizzeria, Laoban Dumplings, Lucky Danger, Kam and 46, La Michoacana and another coffee shop.
An opening of the revamped food hall is scheduled for Tuesday, March 19.
More from a media advisory:
Treat yourself to President Biden and Vice President Harris’ favorite burger for lunch or grab a Michelin-rated Margherita pizza before hopping on the metro. Meet a few friends for a happy hour of Chef Tim Ma’s famous dumplings or spring rolls and some nostalgic Filipino nachos or host your birthday on the terrace with all your favorite tacos.
The Bar at Upside on Moore will feature wines, beers, and specialty cocktails curated and created by Elli Benchimol of Georgetown darling Apéro. […]
The 30,000 square foot space is operated by DMV born and bred Mothersauce Partners, the hospitality group behind Thompson Italian, City-State Brewing Company, and other favorites in the DC area and beyond. The space features both indoor seating, an outdoor terrace, bar seating, and several conference rooms. The space is fully customizable for private events of all sizes and occasions. The space is fully customizable for private events of all sizes and occasions.
A website and Instagram account for Upside on Moore are expected to launch soon.
Mothersauce Partners was founded by local restaurant and nightlife vet Nick Freshman, who was also behind the recently closed Crystal City cafe The Freshman.
The Washington Business Journal reported in December that the owner of the Metro-adjacent Rosslyn City Center building had tapped Mothersauce Partners “to freshen up the design, branding and concept curation at the food hall.”
The change comes as the lunchtime and happy hour crowd in Rosslyn is expected to swell, with the arrival of another major corporate headquarters. CoStar Group is set to eventually have 650 employees working four-day-a-week in person, in the Central Place building across the street from the food hall.
Before the pandemic, it looked like Rosslyn would be home to three separate food halls. In addition to Assembly, which was opened in 2021 by Chicago-based DMK Restaurants, the neighborhood was slated to get Common Ground and Happy Endings Eatery, both in the Central Place development.
The former never opened and the latter has rebranded as The Happy Eatery, de-emphasizing the food hall concept.
After more than a decade and nearly 500 articles, one of our longest-running columns, Startup Monday, is ending — at least for now.
Since 2013, ARLnow has profiled scrappy entrepreneurs with thoughtful ideas and new businesses at every stage of a startup’s life cycle, from raising a seed investment fundraising round to landing on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing companies to outgrowing the “startup” descriptor when they merge, get acquired or list their shares on a stock exchange.
Through the column, written by ARLnow staff and supported by longtime sponsor Monday Properties, we have covered some companies before they made it big. Profiled when it was just five years old, today, Privia Health is publicly traded on the stock market. Once a small outfit out of Rosslyn, PerformYard — founded to disrupt how HR is managed — moved to Ballston, nabbed $95 million and celebrated its revenue growing by five times in the last four years.
A few had brilliant strokes of luck: Zoobean, which nabbed a coveted investment from outgoing Shark Tank shark Mark Cuban, is still going strong and still headquartered in Arlington. Since Cuban’s investment, the company ended its subscription service, renamed itself Beanstack and now focuses on partnering with libraries and offering software solutions that motivate kids to read.
ARLnow covered Ballston food tech startup HUNGRY when it launched in 2016 and long before its founders, brothers Shayan and Eman Pahlevani, scored major celebrity investors including actress Issa Rae and NFL player DeAndre Hopkins, along with scores of other performers, TV show hosts and major athletes.
Other Startup Monday subjects never went national but cemented themselves in Arlington. Sol Schott’s Columbia Pike bakery, ACME Pie Company, is a household name for locals and the baker is still thinking of ways to expand his brand — most recently getting in on the ground floor of a membership-based arcade business located inside his shop.
Amid these success stories, dozens of other companies never gained the same traction and were integrated into other platforms or sold to larger companies.
There were amusing and serious Kickstarter campaigns — among them, for an urban planning-themed take on “Cards Against Humanity” and a phone-based breathalyzer. Attempts to disrupt the landscaping and tailoring industries, in the style of ride-sharing app Uber, struggled to take off.
Such is the fate that every entrepreneur with an idea risks tempting when they get started, however.
Startup Monday was able to have that breadth of coverage thanks to a sponsorship agreement that gave ARLnow free rein to select who to profile. We could give equal weight to bright ideas such as portable cup holders for airplane and to to businesses solving entrenched problems in health care, including the physician-patient experience in women’s health or gaps in comprehensive diabetes care.
This column also became an unofficial history of the changes Arlington’s local economy has experienced. After thousands of Dept. of Defense workers left major office buildings in the 2010s, Arlington rebranded itself as a tech hub, especially in the wake of the arrival of Amazon, with a particularly strong presence of cybersecurity and defense-oriented startups, securing planes and trains and military installations and power plants.
ARLnow thanks Monday Properties for the long-standing partnership and the hundreds of stories of startup successes and failures — including, in a fitting final installation, today’s story of a new beginning for veterans of a long-shuttered game company.
There’s a chance that Startup Monday makes a return down the road, but for now the column is signing off. While we might not be able to chronicle it on a weekly basis, the march of innovation locally — at the smallest local startups to Arlington’s more established tech firms — continues unabated.
When friends Alex Lopéz, Carlos Olarte and Ernesto Valenzuela opened Sabores Tapas Bar last year on Columbia Pike, they did not anticipate becoming a community staple so soon.
Since its debut last February — replacing a former Taqueria el Poblano location — the tapas bar was named one of the top 100 places to eat in the U.S. in 2024 by Yelp. Sabores ranked 48 on the list of 100 and was the only Northern Virginia restaurant to be featured.
Sabores was also named to Northern Virginia Magazine’s 2023 Best Restaurants list, cementing it as a new mainstay in the Penrose neighborhood.
“It was amazing news, we got really excited,” Olarte said. “It didn’t sink in completely until when it was announced and we saw the hype and started receiving phone calls from people that we knew, from customers calling us.”
Sabores samples regional cuisine from Spain and several Latin American countries, including Colombia, Venezuela and Honduras, from which López, Olarte and Valenzuela hail, respectively.
This is the first restaurant the trio has opened, though the restaurateurs have a combined 70-80 years of experience in the food and beverage industry, particularly in managing and opening restaurants, Olarte says. They worked together at a Brazilian steakhouse in Fairfax as well as Jaleo in Crystal City, which closed in 2021.
After the Yelp ranking, the business at 2401 Columbia Pike saw an immediate increase in customers, including upticks in large parties and reservations.
“We really, really welcome that push,” Olarte said. “People are being great. A lot of regulars, a lot of people coming in. It makes sense.”
As Sabores Tapas Bar welcomes more repeat customers, the restaurant become a place where “everybody knows everybody,” he continued.
“We really have become part of the neighborhood,” Olarte said.
Following the Yelp write-up, Sabores started serving bottomless brunch on Saturdays and Sundays and is working on launching a new lunch menu.
“We realize that a lot of people in the area are looking for something quick, so we’re adding more sandwiches, more salads, and also like a pre-fixe menu so people can pay a fixed price and get like three tapas of their choices so they can get in and out — something really quick and affordable,” Olarte said.
In the future, Olarte says he and his business partners are considering expanding Sabores as well perhaps opening other concepts. Right now, however, they are focusing on keeping up with the excitement at the current tapas bar.
“We’re hoping, right now especially with this, to start getting to a level that we feel comfortable that we can spare a little bit of our efforts for the new ventures,” Olarte said.
Despite these plans, the trio is still focused on serving Columbia Pike.
“This is our home,” Olarte said. “We can’t wait to see you again and again and again and again.”
A D.C.-area pizza shop known for its pepperoni cups and specialty slices appears to be opening in Virginia Square.
Andy’s Pizza will replace the now-closed Ballston Place Gourmet, a local deli operated by the Chang family since 2004. It sold everything from wine and local beer to breakfast platters, Korean bibimbap, condiments and microwave popcorn.
A commercial electric permit posted on the window of the former deli at 901 N. Pollard Street was issued on Jan. 12. The storefront is largely vacant with the exception of some bare equipment and furnishings.
Neither the permit holder nor the property owner have responded to requests for comment, but a Virginia filing for “Andys Pizza Pollard St LLC,” filed last July, is consistent with LLC filings for other Andy’s Pizza locations in Virginia.
The forthcoming pizzeria joins eight existing Andy’s Pizza locations: five in D.C., one in Maryland, and two in Virginia — at Tysons Galleria and in Old Town Alexandria.
It is unclear when Ballston Place Gourmet shuttered but it could have been upwards of one year ago, per a social media post.
Hat tip to several tipsters
Former Clarendon mainstay Mister Days appears to be opening in a new location, nearly five years after its closure.
An LLC associated with Mister Days, Celtic LB Group INC, recently applied for a liquor license for the currently vacant restaurant space at 1101 N. Highland Street.
Tiffany Lee, daughter of Mister Days founder Bobby Lee, said in an email to ARLnow that her father “is once again at the helm.” She noted that she is “not involved in the new one.”
The previous occupants of 1101 N. Highland Street include Clarendon Grill, which shuttered in 2018 after 22 years, and The Pinemoor, which closed its doors in July after three years. The Pinemoor was the last occupant of the large restaurant space, which features both an inside bar and an outside patio bar.
In late November, readers noted an old Mister Days sign in the space.
Mister Days first opened in an alleyway off Dupont Circle on Nov. 21, 1977 serving prime rib, ham sandwiches, a soup and a salad. In the years that followed, Mister Days moved to 18th Street NW between L and M Streets NW before opening in Arlington in 2000.
Mister Days grew a strong following and remained a local staple for over 40 years. The Arlington sports bar closed permanently in April 2019.
The original bar served famous guests like movie star and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, as well as former Washington football greats like Sonny Jurgensen and John Riggins. It also had live entertainment from singer-songwriter Mary Chapin Carpenter early in her career.
A round of recovery funds may soon be coming to long-time small businesses in National Landing.
Potentially up for grabs is $75,000 in funding from the National Landing Business Improvement District. The proposed initiative, which the Arlington County Board is set to consider on Saturday, would build on the ReLaunch program, which provides grants to small local establishments.
“While the current ReLaunch program is funded and is offered to all eligible businesses in the County,” a county report says, “the BID intends to prioritize National Landing businesses to increase the marketing to and availability of the program resources for this important segment of the small business community, which may need technical assistance to retool their businesses to remain competitive in a changing market.”
The funds are meant to assist “legacy” businesses “impacted by changing market conditions exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic,” the report continued.
Eligible businesses must be at least 10 years old, have fewer than 10 employees and have a primary location within the boundaries of the National Landing BID, which span Crystal City and parts of Pentagon City and Potomac Yard, the county says. They must also “in good business standing,” operating with up-to-date business licenses and current on, or on a payment plan for, all county taxes.
The BID, in partnership with the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington, has previously handed recovery funds to numerous Crystal City and Pentagon City establishments. Two rounds of the “Love Local” relief program each divvied out $100,000 in 2021 and 2022.
The latest batch of funding would go through the Arlington Economic Development BizLaunch Division, which would then distribute the $75,000 this year.
The county report noted the importance of supporting National Landing during a time of intense development and investment, including, most recently, the announcement that the Washington Capitals and Wizards would move to Alexandria — predicted to be a boon for the hospitality industry in the National Landing area.
“The area is experiencing transformative growth, with over $12 billion in public and private investment underway, including Amazon’s second headquarters, a surge of new residential construction and retail offerings, and major park and multimodal transportation investments that are enhancing a thriving residential, hotel, and business community,” the report says. “The BID is strengthening the experience and identity of National Landing.”
Screwtop Wine Bar in Clarendon is under new ownership.
The wine bar, owned and operated by Wendy Buckley since 2009, was recently purchased by Linda Urbanski and Ryan Gesinski. The sale was finalized Jan. 2.
Located at 1025 N. Fillmore Street, Screwtop offers a full wine bar, brunch, lunch, dinner and a retail wine shop with hundreds of wines. It also carries a variety of artisan cheeses, meats and gourmet goodies.
Buckley, the original owner and operator, opened the wine bar after noticing few Clarendon spots geared toward wine lovers and women.
“I wanted to create a casual place where you could enjoy a really great glass of wine without having to go to a fancy restaurant downtown, and thus the idea for Screwtop was born,” Buckley said in a newsletter to customers. “With Screwtop, I wanted to take the intimidation out of wine and turn the enjoyment of wine into a lighthearted and approachable experience.”
That approach is in the bar’s name, which plays with the stereotype that finer wines only come corked while lower-tier options have screw caps.
“My goal was to create a place where no matter your knowledge of wine you felt at home here,” Buckley said. “And that our team treated everyone that came through our doors like a regular. A regular ‘Cheers’ of the wine bar scene.”
Urbanski, one of the new co-owners, said she doesn’t plan on making significant changes, only to “make enhancements of what is already currently in place.”
“I love that Screwtop strives to be an affordable wine bar, has an absolutely delicious menu, and hosts numerous wine tasting events,” Urbanski said in a separate emailed newsletter. “I am truly thrilled to have the opportunity to have Screwtop continue on as a go-to wine bar for the Arlington community.”
Urbanski grew up in Vienna and has lived in Clarendon with her husband for over a decade, per the email. She has a background in managing large business operations.
“We will continue to be committed to delivering an exceptional experience to every visitor, by providing unique wines and continuing the tradition of creating a warm and inviting atmosphere,” Urbanski said. “I’ve already had the pleasure of meeting so many lovely customers over the past couple of months, but I am genuinely looking forward to meeting even more of the wonderful people that Wendy has been telling me about that contribute to the vibrant Screwtop community.”
Arlington’s local business scene is always in flux, with stores and restaurants regularly opening, closing, or changing hands.
Changing economic conditions often lead business owners to sell, whether for retirement, to focus on other projects, or just to pass their business on to someone new who might be able to revive its fortunes.
In our latest series installment, we’re taking a look at local businesses newly listed for sale on BizBuySell, an online marketplace. These listings provide details about the businesses, though they usually don’t reveal their names.
In our previous update in September, we found ten businesses for sale, including restaurants and service companies. Today, we have seven more.
1. Ice cream roll, bubble tea, & Japanese crepe store for sale ($65,000)
The business has generated loyal customers and large customer base through word of mouth, and some travel from as far as 2.5 hours away to buy the rolled ice creams and drinks (including bubble teas, milkshake, Japanese crepe, chopped Ice, slushy). Children enjoy the experience of us making the Freshly hand rolled ice-cream show in front of them. The business consists of 3 concepts in one location.
2. Absentee Owned High Cash Flow Restaurant & Bar ($1,479,000)
ABSENTEE OWNED while averaging $3,700,000 in annual sales with a cash flow of $625,000. Indoor seating for 276 patrons as well as outdoor seating for 180. Numerous full service bars throughout the establishment as well as over 40 TVs & projectors for sporting events. Private event areas as well as a section for live entertainment such as bands & DJs.
3. Upscale Coworking Shared Office Space Business in Thriving Area ($980,000)
Revolutionary designed co-working office space, work space, and meeting rooms for innovative professionals and entrepreneurs…in a prime DC-area location. One of the first franchise concepts in the co-working industry. This can be an absentee ownership for someone looking to add to their portfolio, and business can be run with just 2 employees.
4. Profitable Award-Winning Neighborhood Gift Store ($255,000)
This 4-Time Arlington Magazine Top Vote Getter is one of a small handful of high-end gift stores in the affluent Northern Virginia area, primarily serving McLean, Falls Church and North Arlington.
5. Established Upscale Flexible Workspace Business For Sale ($980,000)
Great opportunity to buy an established business already built to the highest standards, with a loyal customer base, prime for accelerated growth with “return-to-office” trend improving dramatically over prior 2 years. Owner has to sell due to pending relocation to West Coast.
6. Arlington – All-Natural Healthy Breakfast & Lunch Cafe ($359,900)
This thriving café features a diverse selection of all-natural healthy breakfast and lunch items, crafted from locally sourced, high-quality ingredients. From gourmet toasts and refreshing smoothie bowls to robust salads and savory sandwiches, they cater to health-conscious tastes. The café also boasts an extensive range of fresh cold-pressed juices, smoothies, and coffee drinks, including hot drip, nitro cold brew, and espresso.
7. Established Franchise School Location for Sale in Arlington VA ($N/A)
An exceptional opportunity awaits with the sale of a reputable and fully licensed franchise school. This established early childhood education center in Arlington, Virginia, enjoys a strong reputation for delivering quality care and education to children. With stable revenue streams, a dedicated staff, and a proven curriculum, this turnkey investment offers a prime location for access to residential areas and business districts.
Arlington’s Pupatella has been recognized by an international pizza ranking guide as one of the premier pizza chains worldwide.
The Italy-based guide 50 Top Pizza gave Pupatella and a few dozen other notable pizza chains special mention alongside its “50 Top World Artisan Pizza Chains 2023” list, an annual selection of the best pizzerias in the world.
“Their style, highly appreciated by the public, nods to contemporary Neapolitan-style pizza,” 50 Top Pizza said on its website.
“On the menu, you’ll find pizzas divided between red and white, all traditionally topped with ingredients often of Italian origin,” the website description continued. “The Napoli Street Snack section dedicated to fried items is a must-try.”
Founded by Naples, Italy natives Enzo Algarme and his wife Anastasiya Laufenberg, the pizzeria started as a modest pizza cart near the Ballston Metro station in September 2007.
Almost three years later, the duo opened their first brick-and-mortar location at 5104 Wilson Blvd — which nearly closed at one point — in the Bluemont neighborhood in 2010.
Since its inception, Pupatella has garnered numerous awards and this week, Algarme welcomed the news that Pupatella was mentioned in the guide.
“At Pupatella, we believe in doing things the old-fashioned way, which is why I think we’ve become a staple in our community since opening in 2007,” he said in a statement to ARLnow.
“We also feel it’s important to invest in the community that gave us our start to build long lasting relationships instead of following trends,” he continued. “We try to be the kind of place where people come back to because they grew up going there — and they know the experience they’re going to get when they come to any of our locations.”
The pizza chain has expanded to seven additional locations across the D.C. area, including another in Arlington on S. Walter Reed Drive, and outlets in D.C., Reston, Springfield, the Mosaic District, Leesburg and Richmond, Virginia.
It intends to open four new locations in D.C., Alexandria and Chantilly, Virginia, and Columbia, Maryland, according to its website.
It’s been a banner year so far for online holiday shopping.
Fresh records for online shopping were set on Black Friday and Cyber Monday. There’s some question, however, as to whether the online holiday shopping growth — in total up 7.8% from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, according to Adobe — is a good sign or bad sign for brick-and-mortar merchants.
From Axios:
E-commerce sales don’t tell the whole story.
The segment makes up less than 16% of U.S. retail sales.
The National Retail Federation separately reported on Tuesday that more than 200 million people shopped online and in-person during the five day period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday — exceeding last year’s record number of 196 million. […]
Thanksgiving fell early this year, which may have boosted numbers. Same goes for “favorable” weather, according to NRF president and CEO Matthew Shay.
On the other hand, overall traffic to in-person retail locations was down slightly. From Reuters:
Online shoppers rose 3.1% to 134.2 million during the Thanksgiving weekend, making up for a slight dip in the number of customers who visited brick-and-mortar stores. The period saw about 121.4 million in-store shoppers, down from 122.7 million in 2022, according to the retail body.
Today we’re wondering how these numbers translate locally. Are Arlingtonians shifting more of their holiday spending online? Or are they still supporting local shops?
We have two polls, below, to try to gauge the state of local retail.
Despite weathering the pandemic, small businesses along Columbia Pike are now facing a new set of economic challenges, including rising rent, inflation, new developments and ongoing road work.
Deputy Director of the Columbia Pike Partnership Amy McWilliams sat down with ARLnow’s James Jarvis to delve into the economic hurdles that these small businesses are still confronting, nearly four years post-pandemic. McWilliams offers insight into the enduring strength of the small business community, emphasizing its continued resilience.
Listen below or subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or TuneIn.