Around Town

A new bakery from the team behind Rare Bird Coffee Roasters is on the rise in Westover.

Bryan Becker, who co-founded Rare Bird in Falls Church with his wife, Lara Benenji, in 2017, has been working on a new concept at 5870 Washington Blvd since last summer.


News

A ZIP code on the western end of Arlington has one of the highest concentrations of wealth in the entire D.C. area, by one metric.

The 22205 ZIP code, home to neighborhoods including Westover Village, Tara-Leeway Heights, Madison Manor and Dominion Hills, was named the wealthiest in Arlington in a new ranking by the Washington Business Journal.


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A new transit program serving parts of Arlington with limited bus access has largely been connecting riders to Ballston and East Falls Church, data shows.

Arlington’s “microtransit” pilot initiative has provided about 1,500 on-demand rides since it launched in April, Katie O’Brien, spokesperson for Arlington’s Department of Environmental Services, told ARLnow. About 50% of these were near the Metro stations in either Ballston (27%) or East Falls Church (23%).


Around Town

Hot days — but not too hot, ideally — mean steady business at Arlington’s ice cream parlors.

Store owners and employees told ARLnow that an unusually hot summer has been driving healthy revenue, although some days this year, intense heat has caused slower traffic even at ice cream shops. In a business built on frosty treats, Mimi’s Handmade Ice Cream owner Rollin Amore has summertime almost down to a science.


News

The recent closure of Ayers Variety & Hardware was a stark reminder that nothing is forever, even businesses that have built generational relationships with customers.

The shuttering of the store that served Westover for nearly 80 years is also an indication of how challenging current times are for many of Arlington’s other small businesses, community leaders say.


Around Town

Ayers Variety & Hardware officially closed its doors yesterday (Sunday), but not before customers gave a fond sendoff to the 78-year-old Westover hardware store.

The store was busy with shoppers yesterday morning, making final purchases at the business that has stood in The Westover Shopping Center since 1948. Two posters with notes and signatures from customers were still hanging in the windows this morning.


Around Town

The owners of a beloved Westover hardware store are reflecting on a 78-year legacy of community investment and support as they prepare to close their doors.

Over the decades, Ayers Variety and Hardware — established in 1948 — built a reputation around friendly, knowledgeable staff who embraced the “small town feel” of the surrounding neighborhood. Spending time to help customers solve household problems and track down hard-to-find items, employees connected with generations of shoppers who knew the retailer as a local fixture.


News

Ayers Variety and Hardware, the Westover shop generations of Arlingtonians have relied on for the one screw, seed packet or odd gadget they couldn’t find anywhere else, is closing.

The family that has owned the store at 5853 Washington Blvd since 1977 announced the closing in social media posts earlier this afternoon (Sunday). Its lease ends July 31 and the doors will close for the last time “in a few weeks,” owners Kristy Peterkin and her brother, Keith, wrote.


Around Town

Westover Taco cut the ribbon on Northern Virginia’s first women’s sports bar last night (Thursday) with a little help from some of the region’s athletes.

Members of the professional women’s tackle football team D.C. Divas and nonprofit tackle football team DMV Queens showed up alongside professional ultimate frisbee players from DC Shadow Ultimate to help celebrate the grand opening of the bar with founder Sarah White.


News

Arlington’s new “microtransit” pilot program is launching next week, providing on-demand rides in portions of the county with limited transit options.

The program launches next Monday, April 13. It will be available in two service zones: one in Westover Village and the other in a large swath of northwestern Arlington, including all or some of the neighborhoods of Rock Spring, Yorktown, East Falls Church, Williamsburg, Leeway Overlee, Hall’s Hill and Old Dominion.


Around Town

Women’s sports fans could soon have a bar of their own in Arlington.

Sarah White, a longtime local restaurateur and partner at Westover Taco, is in the process of buying out of the taqueria at 5849 Washington Blvd. After that?


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