Good news for county coffers — some restaurant owners have been repaying their long-overdue tax debts.
A new list of meals tax delinquencies from the Arlington County Treasurer’s Office shows that certain restaurants have reduced or even eliminated their debts. Here are the highlights from the list, as of May 31.
Bayou Bakery in Courthouse (1515 N. Courthouse Road) will be holding a crawfish boil this weekend to help celebrate Memorial Day Louisiana-style.
The Clarendon restaurant got off to a rocky start, but thanks to a new chef, outdoor seating and some positive buzz, General Manager Dennis Holland says they’re “starting to get off the ground.”
Over the weekend, the Arlington County Board approved the restaurant’s request for sidewalk seating along Washington and Clarendon Boulevards. The new seats — about 60 of them in total — should arrive either tonight or tomorrow, Holland said. The seating will supplement Mad Rose’s existing outdoor lounge which, according to Holland, seats about 80 patrons.
The three items are all part of the board’s site plan amendment agenda.
County staff is recommending the board approve Samuel Beckett’s request for live entertainment from 8:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, and 8:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and federal holidays. The Shirlington pub, at 2800 S. Randolph Street, has said that it wants to host traditional Irish music.
CERT Graduates Number 500 — The Arlington Community Emergency Response Team program graduated its 500th resident on Saturday. CERT says this weekend’s graduating class of citizen emergency responders was their largest one yet.
More on Mala Tang — Rebecca Cooper, formerly of TBD.com, takes a look at Mala Tang, the new Chinese “hot pot” restaurant near Clarendon. Unanswered question: are there enough potential customers who are willing to sit down and learn the hot pot process — and who don’t mind their meal getting “a little messy?” [Washingtonian]
A man held up the Quiznos in the National Science Foundation building (4201 Wilson Blvd) around 5:45 p.m., according to police and passersby. Police say the man entered the store, displayed a handgun and demanded money. He then locked the employees in the back of the store, took their cell phones and fled.
No injuries were reported.
It’s hard to say whether it was a normal lunchtime crowd or if people were feeling a bit more festive today for Cinco de Mayo, but the Chipotle in Rosslyn was packed to the gills today. A line snaked around three walls of the restaurant as office workers and residents waited patiently for their burrito fix.
Elsewhere along the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor, a healthy crowd sat outside Mexicali Blues in Clarendon, sipping Coronas in the cool sunshine. Santa Fe in Rosslyn, meanwhile, was still doing steady business at 1:15 p.m.
Manhattan Bagel (4201 Wilson Blvd) remains closed as it undergoes renovations and a management change.
Ballston bagel lovers are being forced to cross Wilson Blvd to get their bagel fix at Panera Bread in Ballston Common Mall while the store remains closed.
Harry’s Tap Room at Pentagon City Mall (1100 S. Hayes Street) is being transformed into “Harry’s Smokehouse-Burgers & BBQ.” The newly-branded restaurant will get a menu makeover that will include in-house hickory-smoked spare ribs, pork butt, pork sausage, whole chickens, salmon and beef brisket, as well as “the area’s very best buttermilk fried chicken.”
Diners will get to choose from six different types of meat for their burger: Whitewood Farm corn fed beef, Grayson Farms grass fed beef, Whitewood Farms beef short rib burger, all natural bison burger, all natural turkey burger, and a vegetarian buckwheat chipotle burger.
This month alone, the restaurant chain has held ‘open house’ hiring events in Ballston, Rosslyn, Falls Church, Seven Corners, Reston, Sterling, Herndon and Ashburn.
Why the sudden hiring push?
The pub served its last customers this weekend, an employee said today. The D.C. location at 1823 L Street NW will remain open.
Mackey’s catered largely to the Crystal City lunch and after-work crowds. It had sidewalk seating that was popular on warm weather days. No word yet on why the pub closed, although a recent health department inspection of the restaurant turned up more than a dozen violations, including the presence of cockroaches and fruit flies.
The pub will be using its downstairs kitchen to offer a limited menu while the upstairs kitchen is repaired. The damaged kitchen is expected to remain closed for “at least a month.” During that time, the pub will open on weekdays from 2:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. and on weekends from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m.
“We are extremely thankful and grateful for the quick response of Arlington fire department,” Four Courts said in a statement. “A investigation is continuing into the fire.”
