Around Town

An iconic Irish pub in Courthouse has been crowned champion in a nationwide competition to name the nation’s best soccer bar.

Ireland’s Four Courts (2051 Wilson Blvd) beat out competition from around the country in an online voting contest organized by the soccer media company Men in Blazers. The selection process for America’s Best Soccer Bar included thousands of votes and hundreds of nominees from all 50 states.


News

Arlington has maintained its No. 4 spot in a ranking of the United States’ best “cities” to live.

It’s the third year in a row that Arlington has placed fourth in the annual Niche ranking of the nation’s localities. As in 2025 and 2024, several of the county’s neighborhoods also earned high honors.


Around Town

Falls Church is top dog in Virginia when it comes to devotion to adopting canines and showering them with purchases, according to one metric.

The Little City was crowned the No. 1 most “dog-loving” city in the commonwealth and No. 5 in the nation in a new ranking from PetSmart.


News

Arlington has claimed the crown in a new ranking of the most educated “cities” in the United States.

A new report from Northern Kentucky University found that 41.8% of Arlington residents over age 25 have a graduate degree — the highest number in the nation, above 38.3% of D.C. residents and 32% of residents in the Bay Area city of Fremont.


Around Town

Two restaurants in Arlington and three in Falls Church made the grade in Washingtonian’s new “100 Very Best Restaurants” list.

Regulars in the local dining scene will be familiar with most of these spots, all of which were also highlighted last year. They range from a Vietnamese restaurant in Falls Church’s Eden Center to a popular French-inspired establishment on Langston Blvd.


Sports

A 12-3 overall record against difficult competition has led to a national ranking for the Bishop O’Connell Knights boys basketball team.

The private-school team was ranked 15th in the most recent national poll by MaxPreps, and second in Virginia. Some of O’Connell’s opponents are or have been ranked nationally, as well.


News

Arlington and Falls Church have both ranked as some of the most livable localities in the nation for the second year in the row.

Arlington was at the top of the charts for “large communities” and Falls Church was No. 2 among “small communities,” according to a new ranking of U.S. localities from the American Association of Retired People (AARP).


News

The Pentagon’s Metro station was the most popular in Arlington this year, followed closely by the one in Pentagon City, according to a new analysis.

The stop at the Pentagon received about 10,300 daily riders, while Pentagon City saw around 9,000 riders per day, according to a Washington Business Journal ranking of weekday ridership numbers in May 2025.


News

Arlington has once again ranked as one of the most generous localities in the nation, by one measure.

The county clocked in at No. 1 in Charity Navigator’s latest ranking of the most charitable “cities” with a population between 200,001 and 500,000 people.


Around Town

The Little City has big flavors, and so does Arlington, according to one recent list of Northern Virginia’s best restaurants.

Twelve restaurants in Falls Church and Arlington made Northern Virginia Magazine’s list of The 50 Best Restaurants in Northern Virginia for 2025 — including three establishments in the top 10.


News

Arlington has ranked as the fittest “city” in the country for the eighth year straight, edging out D.C. at No. 2.

According to the new 2025 Fitness Index, Arlington has the highest percentage of residents “in excellent or very good health” (67.2%), the highest percentage sleeping 7+ hours per day (76.4%) and the lowest percentage of smokers (3.3%).


News

Arlington’s parks are still among the best in the country — but they don’t rank quite as high as they used to.

For the first time since 2017, Arlington County’s parks failed to rank among the top five in the nationwide “ParkScore” rankings. They fell from No. 5 last year to No. 7, in between San Francisco and Seattle.


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