Written by Kate Kimberlin
A charcuterie board franchise officially opened its doors in Rosslyn earlier this month.
The second Virginia location of Graze Craze is located within the Le Méridien Arlington hotel at 1121 19th Street N.
The business was two years in the making, according to franchisee Amaan Bhanji. He was in high school when he got started on this venture, making him the youngest Graze Craze franchisee, per a press release.
“I’m so excited to serve the community and create relationships with the many amazing people I meet on my entrepreneurial journey with Graze Craze,” Bhanji said.
Bhanji started working in food service when he in high school. While he originally planned to pursue college, those early work experiences, along with visits to several Graze Craze locations, led him down the path of entrepreneurship.
“I immediately fell in love with the concept, the fresh ingredients, and the creativity that goes into creating stunning charcuterie. I knew opening my own Graze Craze location would be the perfect venture to kick off my entrepreneurial journey,” Bhanji said.
The business offers a menu of different “grazing” boards and boxes curated to fit different flavor and dietary preferences. The boards can also be made for one person or as many as 10. Customers can meet with a “charcuterie expert” who will help customize boards for anything from small gatherings to large events.
Menu offerings are made fresh daily, with a variety of meats, cheeses, fruits and dips that are made in-house. The menu also offers occasional seasonal boards, such as a “Game Day Board,” as listed on the website.
Bhanji said the business will debut a new “Springtime Spread” board tomorrow (Tuesday), with watermelon radish, Italian prosciutto, dried apricots and merlot cheese.
The franchise, founded in 2018 by an Oklahoma Air Force veteran, was launched amid the rising popularity of charcuterie boards. Now with over 40 locations in 18 states, it is considered a top franchise in the “grazing food” category.
Bhanji said the first week of business has been a success and he looks forward to continuing to win new customers.
“It’s thrilling to be part of this young brand that will help bring joy to our community. I love the fact that I will be able to cater events and help relieve stress from our customers while doing something I truly enjoy,” he said.
A new restaurant and bar is expected to replace the closed Rebellion on the Pike in a few weeks.
Cornerstone, at 2900 Columbia Pike, will offer a family friendly atmosphere around dinnertime and a place to grab a drink later in the night, co-owner Pete Fejeran tells ARLnow.
He is hoping to draw in both locals and visitors from nearby counties, many of whom frequent a notable business across the street — Arlington Cinema and Drafthouse, where Fejeran is general manager.
“We really just want a homey place,” he said. “It’s a place where people coming into town can just kick back, relax.”
Fejeran and co-owners Cindy Kaylor, Mike O’Hara and Kathryn McAbee are in the process of refurbishing the location, which Rebellion on the Pike occupied from April 2019 until last month. They are aiming for a soft opening on Wednesday, April 10.
Fejeran said he hopes the establishment will complement other local businesses, with audience members going there after shows — and maybe even grabbing drinks with stand-up comics after their Drafthouse performances.
“It’s right across the street — just easy back and forth,” he said.
Tentative hours are Monday through Thursday from 4-10 p.m., Friday from 2 p.m.-1:30 a.m., Saturday from 11 a.m.-1:30 a.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m.-10 p.m.
Rebellion on the Pike, which blamed its closure on economic circumstances, stepped into the shoes of another shuttered watering hole at the same location, BrickHaus.
BrickHaus was only open for about a year, in a building that has been there for much longer. Some say 2900 Columbia Pike is the oldest building on the Pike, dating back to 1902.
A new Mediterranean restaurant with live entertainment and an expansive patio is on track to replace the former Bar Ivy in Clarendon.
Láylí is slated to open at 3033 Wilson Blvd within the next few months, offering an “immersive mezze and cocktail garden experience,” applicant Walid Zeytoun told ARLnow.
“Our menu will showcase modern Lebanese cuisine as its foundation while weaving in traditional Greek and Turkish flavors,” Zeytoun said. “Featuring a wide selection of meats and seafood alongside signature vegan and vegetarian options, we aim to offer delights for every palate.”
The restaurant plans to keep Bar Ivy’s eye-catching layout, including the outdoor café and kiosk, according to a statement of justification filed last week.
“Layli seeks identical use permits for the exact same use,” the statement says. “The layout and configuration of the space is remaining exactly the same.”
The restaurant is also seeking to offer indoor live entertainment seven days a week, from 11 a.m.-12 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 11 a.m.-1:30 a.m. Friday and Saturday. Its interior would seat up to 71 guests, while the patio could accommodate up to 125.
Láylí’s beverages will “complement the cuisine,” Zeytoun said, with cocktails and mocktails “celebrating the region’s signature ingredients.”
The restaurant applied for a liquor license earlier this month.
“As we prepare to welcome you this coming Spring, we’re excited to bring a fresh and captivating dining experience to Clarendon,” he said. “Join us for a truly unforgettable experience at Láylí.”
A full statement from Zeytoun is below.
Inspired by the rich history and spiritual beauty of the Middle East, we proudly present the concept for Láylí – an immersive mezze and cocktail garden experience that seamlessly blends inviting dining and patio spaces.
Our menu will showcase modern Lebanese cuisine as its foundation while weaving in traditional Greek and Turkish flavors. Featuring a wide selection of meats and seafood alongside signature vegan and vegetarian options, we aim to offer delights for every palate.
Our beverage selection will complement the cuisine by celebrating the region’s signature ingredients in cocktails ranging from spirit-forward to zero-proof.
As we prepare to welcome you this coming Spring, we’re excited to bring a fresh and captivating dining experience to Clarendon. Join us for a truly unforgettable experience at Láylí.
Zeytoun was also involved in the revamp of Clarendon’s Wilson Hardware in 2022. He noted that the new restaurant is not associated with Wilson Hardware, which is located one block away.
Bar Ivy quietly closed in late 2023 after opening in the summer of 2022. Numerous chairs and tables still occupy its patio and much of the interior decor appears to still be in place.
The “West Coast-inspired” restaurant was one of several notable closures in Clarendon over the past year. Established destinations such as Pamplona, Cava Mezze and The Pinemoor also departed, while the new Chicken + Whiskey listed itself as “temporarily closed” in January following lackluster sales.
Other forthcoming arrivals in the neighborhood, meanwhile, could include a resurrected Mister Days.
Brown paper still shields the windows of the new Wagamama in Clarendon, but construction appeared to be winding down when ARLnow peeked inside through eyeball-sized holes in the window coverings this week.
Nearly two years have passed since the British chain, known for its Japanese cuisine, announced its plans to open at 2950 Clarendon Blvd, formerly home to Oz, a restaurant owned by “Real Housewives of Potomac” stars Ashley and Michael Darby. A trade publication reported a tentative opening date of summer 2023 last year, which ultimately did not come to fruition.
The building’s exterior has not changed much, but the patio and much of the inside looks complete, with some furniture already in place.
While an exact opening date is still up in the air, a Wagamama spokesperson told ARLnow that the company hopes to set a date in the next few weeks.
Wagamama’s menu includes dishes such as ramen and donburi — a bowl of steamed rice topped with stir-fried protein and mixed vegetables — and extends to other pan-Asian offerings such as curry.
The restaurant chain has more than 200 locations across 27 countries. The Arlington location is set to become Wagamama’s eighth in the U.S.
Pizza Roma in Ballston has closed, making way for a new fast-casual Italian eatery called Scolapasta.
ARLnow received a tip last week that the longstanding pizzeria at 4219 N. Fairfax Drive — in operation for at least 15 years — had shut its doors, with “Coming Soon” signs for Scolapasta now gracing the windows. This week, the sign for “Pizza Roma” was also gone.
The closure comes after the pizza place abruptly ended its lunch service in 2019 amid rumors circulating of its closure.
The new tenant, Scolapasta, will not offer pizza but instead sell a variety of freshly made pasta types, sauces and toppings, restaurant owner Burak Temel told ARLnow. Patrons will be able to create their dishes on the spot, an approach Temel describes as “the Chipotle of Italian food.”
Temel, a long-time Arlington resident and owner of Urban Boxing Arlington and a construction company, said his business partner came up with the idea after visiting Italy and seeing how popular Italian street food was there among tourists.
“It’s kind of a no brainer, when you think about it,” he said. “Pasta is healthy. It’s budget friendly, and it could be a great late night food alternative to pizza for example, or some of the other local places in D.C., like Surfside.”
Scolapasta is aiming for a June 1 grand opening, according to Temel. Additionally, he noted that plans are in the works for a second location at the Tysons Galleria mall.
“I think it’s going to be very popular, especially with the locals,” he said.
After a nearly five-month wait, Maryland-based Roggenart Bistro & Café is set to open in Ballston later this month.
Located inside the former Republik Coffee Bar at 4401 Wilson Blvd, the European-inspired coffee shop and bakery chain is planning to hold a soft opening at the end of February, aiming for a grand opening by mid-March.
“Grand openings are always dangerous,” Roggenart owner and Serbian-born businessman Nemanja Popov told ARLnow. “We’re still a small company and we are probably going to do a grand opening, maybe two or three weeks after our soft opening.”
Once open, this will be the fifth Roggenart in the D.C. area and first outside of Maryland. The coffee shop opened its first location in 2017.
In addition to coffee, the café offers a variety of European-style pastries, including croissants, danishes and tarts, along with a selection of scratch-made sandwiches and soups.
“We have things like ham and cheese croissant, pepperoni mozzarella croissant, mushroom medley rolls… various assortments of quiches… cupcakes, cookies, regular muffins, so the entire bake portfolio,” Popov said, adding he recently added a few vegan options.
After undergoing some light renovations, the shop’s interior will also sport a different look than before, Popov says.
“We think we made it more beautiful and cozy,” he said.
Upon opening, Popov noted there will be special offerings for customers, though he is still deciding what those will be.
“It’s going to be very exciting, and we hope that we are going to have a lot of European baking connoisseurs,” he said.
Roggenart joins a growing list of coffee options in the Ballston area, including Korean coffee purveyor Gute Leute, the outdoor stand Ballstonian, and Slipstream, near the intersection of Wilson Blvd and Glebe Road, as well as Compass Coffee and national chain locations.
Italian restaurant Carbonara is nearing an opening in Virginia Square.
Interior work on the new eatery at 3865 Wilson Blvd could be seen in progress over the past few weeks, with tiling and some decor already installed.
Originally hoping for a mid-2023 opening, Carbonara is “nearing the finishing line and should open within the next couple of months,” a spokesperson told ARLnow in late January. Social media accounts for the restaurant tout a “February 2024” opening.
With the tagline “Old School Italian & Wine Bar,” Carbonara will offer classic Italian dishes and a “carefully curated” wine list. It’s being opened by a notable figure in the local restaurant scene: Chef Mike Cordero.
Cordero also owns and operates Bronson Bier Hall, Barley Mac, Big Tony’s Pizza, Don Tito, and Taco Rock in Arlington, as well as other Northern Virginia establishments like Don Taco in Alexandria.
Update on 3/18/24: The restaurant opened today — Monday, March 18. More, below, from a press release.
Lee’s Sandwiches, which bills itself as the “World’s Largest Bánh Mì Chain,” has temporarily closed its doors in Ballston but may reopen under new ownership.
The Ballston location at 801 N. Quincy Street appears to have been closed for at least a month and is listed as “temporarily closed” on Google Maps and on a sign posted inside the door.
It first opened on N. Quincy Street in August 2020, replacing a Subway which closed in 2019.
The Ballston spot was the second East Coast location for Lee’s Sandwiches — a California-based franchise — following the first such location opening in 2016 at 3037 Annandale Road in Falls Church.
Tamy Nguyen Duong, who owns the Falls Church franchise location, says she recently purchased the Lee’s Sandwiches store in Ballston. She told ARLnow that the Ballston shop will reopen soon, though she could not give an exact date.
Her nephew will run the shop and is still deciding whether to operate it under the “Lee’s Sandwiches” franchise, she said. Either way, 801 N. Quincy Street will eventually resume selling sandwiches and coffee, according to Nguyen Duong.
The chain has a variety of sandwich options but specializes in bánh mì, a popular Vietnamese sandwich with savory ingredients in a short, toasted baguette. Lee’s is also noted for its Vietnamese iced coffee.
The facade of the new 36-story Hilton in Rosslyn is nearing completion but it could be nearly two years before the hotel welcomes its first guests.
Meanwhile, the project’s residential counterpart, Rosslyn Towers, is close to being done, with new tenants expected to move in within a few months, the developer tells ARLnow.
“We are excited to open Rosslyn Towers at The Key this spring,” said Greg Raines, a spokesperson for Dittmar Company, the developer of The Key.
While there is no firm data yet, Raines said the plan is to start leasing the 500+ apartments in the Rosslyn Towers building, at 1900 N. Fort Myer Drive, by April 1.
Dittmar’s goal for the 331-room hotel is to hold a grand opening sometime in the last three months of 2025, says Raines.
“We are excited to deliver both properties as we believe both are best in class and are exciting additions to Rosslyn, Arlington, and the surrounding [D.C.] area,” he said.
In September 2019, the Arlington County Board approved plans redevelop the 18-story, 50-year-old Rosslyn Holiday Inn with a residential tower of up to 25 stories and a hotel with up to 38 stories, with 37,000-foot conference center and 14,000 square feet of retail. The former hotel came down in a well-documented controlled implosion.
In 2021, the Arlington County Board approved a site plan amendment to adjust the hotel’s square footage to accommodate more parking and conference space, and increase the number of residential units from 523 to 536.
Dittmar said it would provide a cash contribution of $215,000 to the Affordable Housing Investment Fund to offset the requested additional density, per a 2021 county report.
One year later, Hilton announced it had signed an agreement to run the high-rise hotel.
While the residential tower looks finished, construction crews were still putting final touches on the exterior of the hotel when ARLnow visited the site yesterday (Tuesday). Last month, the company submitted applications for elevator and fire inspection permits, according to county records.
Dittmar also plans to share details regarding a new “destination restaurant” below the residential tower in the coming weeks, says Raines.
A bar and restaurant with French bistro inspiration and an “eclectic ambiance” is set to join several new businesses in Crystal City next year.
Bar Colline, created by D.C. brothers and hospitality entrepreneurs Eric and Ian Hilton, will join six street-level offerings at two new apartment buildings at 1900 Crystal Drive, announced developer JBG Smith in a press release.
The new restaurant is anticipated to open in early 2025 and will be an interpretation of French bistro Café Colline, which the brothers opened in the Lee Heights Shops along Langston Blvd in June 2020.
The Hilton brothers, operating as H2 Collective, have received national attention for their burgeoning D.C. restaurant empire, including Cafe Colline, Chez Billy Sud in Georgetown, Brighton at the Wharf and El Rey taqueria in Ballston and on U Street NW in D.C.
They are also behind Players Club, Parc de Ville in the Mosaic District, Solace Outpost in Falls Church and delivery-only burger purveyor Gee Burger.
The newest venture will boast a bar and private dining room with an “eclectic ambiance,” a press release from JBG Smith said. Bar Colline’s menu will feature shareable plates, wine and inventive cocktails.
The venue will join multiple businesses coming to the new apartment buildings, dubbed The Grace and Reva. They are Chinese-French fusion restaurant Bar Chinois, Cuban café and bar Colada Shop, national blowout and hair styling brand Drybar, a nail salon called nailsaloon, and popular chains Tatte Bakery & Cafe and New York-based Van Leeuwen Ice Cream.
JBG Smith is also behind an explosion of food options in Crystal City after opening a 1.6-acre dining destination in the Crystal City Water Park last October in an effort to “[cultivate] engaging places that create lively communities and exciting experiences,” JBG Smith Senior Vice President of Retail Leasing Amy Rice said in the release.
“We’re thrilled to welcome H2 Collective’s newest concept, Bar Colline, to the neighborhood and expect it to offer customers a unique and compelling reason to return again and again,” Rice said.
(Updated at 10:10 a.m.) Arlington is set to see a number of new restaurants on the scene this year.
We’re tracking at least 19 eateries hoping to open in 2024, from burger joints to Chinese restaurants, and even some by acclaimed local chefs.
Which are you, personally, most looking forward to? For the purposes of this poll, we’ll exclude nationwide chains and one spot mostly serving desserts — Van Leeuwen in Crystal City.
When we asked this same question last year, the top vote-getter was Sabores, which was recently named a Top 100 U.S. restaurant by Yelp (more on that in an article later t0day).
Links to more info, below, on each of the new-for-2024 restaurants.
- Carbonara (Ballston)
- Thakali Bhatti (Ballston)
- Immigrant Food (Ballston)
- Roggenart Bistro & Cafe (Ballston)
- Zazzy (Clarendon)
- Kirby Club (Clarendon)
- Mister Days (Clarendon)
- Burger Billy’s Joint (Cherrydale)
- Yunnan by Potomac (Pentagon City)
- 2910 Kitchen & Bar (Columbia Pike)
- For Five Coffee (Rosslyn)
- NiHao (Crystal City)
- Lantern Restaurant and Bar (Crystal City)
- Tatte Bakery and Cafe (Crystal City)
- Bar Chinois (Crystal City)
- Colada Shop (Crystal City)
- Bar Colline (Crystal City)
- Columbia Pike Deli (Columbia Pike)
- Andy’s Pizza (Virginia Square)