After Bey Lounge got in trouble over the Town of Vienna’s noise ordinance, the location’s owners decided to pivot and convert the space into a grocery store.

The new supermarket (303 NE Mill Street) opened around a month ago, according to a store clerk. It offers customers a variety of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean fare, including dates, sesame paste and dried garbanzo beans.

The owners are trying to replace the current “Bey Lounge” sign with one that says “LB Food Market,” according to town documents.

Customers can enter through Wooden Bakery next door and are free to stop for a snack while they shop since both establishments are owned by the same people.

The bakery and store are both open 9 a.m-midnight Sunday-Thursday and from 9 a.m. until 2 a.m. Friday-Saturday.

Though open for operation, the store is not yet fully stocked yet and staff said it will be at least three weeks before they are ready for a grand opening.

Tysons Reporter checked out the location and saw that though most of the dry goods seem to be stocked, the freezers and refrigerators in the back are still empty.

The Weekly Planner is a roundup of interesting events coming up over the next week in the Tysons area.

We’ve scoured the web for events of note in Tysons, Vienna, Merrifield, McLean and Falls Church. Know of any we’ve missed? Tell us!

Wednesday (Nov. 20)

• Holiday Extravaganza — 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at Sheraton Tysons Hotel (8661 Leesburg Pike) — This event combines networking with shopping and holiday spirit. The event will feature food, drinks, keynote talks and booths with shopping opportunities. Tickets start at $75.

Thursday (Nov. 21)

• Canning at Caboose Commons — 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Caboose Commons (2918 Eskridge Road) — People can learn about canning Caboose’s Fog and Citra Session IPAs.

Saturday (Nov. 23)

• Christmas Market — 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Andrew Chapel United Methodist Church (1301 Trap Road) — At this market, people will be selling various items including baked goods, candles, wreaths and various gifts. Gift wrapping is available on-site and Santa will make an appearance for photos as well.
• 50s’ Sock Hop — 7 to 9 p.m. at Vienna Community Center, Auxiliary Gym (120 SE Cherry Street) — This event invites community members to come together for a friendly evening of dancing. Admission is $5 at the door and free for kids under 5.
• Apple Brandy Bottling Party — 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Falls Church Distillers (442 S. Washington Street) — This party celebrates the release of the distillery’s new batch of Apple Brandy. This event is free but organizers ask that attendees RSVP through email.
• Winter Walk of Lights — 5 to 10 p.m. at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens (9750 Meadowlark Gardens Court) — This event allows community members to enjoy holiday lights at the gardens. Hot drinks and smores are available for purchase on-site. Tickets are $14 and $8 for kids.

Sunday (Nov. 24)

• Sensory-Friendly Santa — 8:30 to 10:30 a.m. at Tysons Galleria (2001 International Drive) — Autism Speaks partnered with Tysons Galleria to invite children of all abilities to enjoy the Christmas festivities. The event page said that this will provide a calm environment for kids to meet Santa.
• Sutton Foster at Wolf Trap — 6:30 p.m. at Wolf Trap (1635 Trap Road) — Tony Award-winning singer Sutton Foster will take the stage as one of Wolf Trap’s last performances for November. Tickets to her performance start at $67.
• Hope Family Fun Festival — 2 to 5 p.m. at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School (601 S. Oak Street) — This festival allows community members and families to come together for an afternoon of face painting, moon bounces, yoga lessons, games and prizes for kids.

Photo via Falls Church Distillers LLC/Facebook

Tysons may not have the liveliest nightlife at the moment, but that could soon change as more late-night restaurants and places to hang out open. “Tysons After Dark” will highlight a different spot every week.

The new Whole Foods in The Boro has caught the attention of people looking for happy hour deals after work with its brand new bar High Point.

Located on the top floor inside Whole Foods, the bar offers guests 16 regional beers and ciders along with a variety of cocktails and wine. People can enjoy their drinks at the bar, anywhere throughout the store while they shop or while they play shuffleboard and various arcade games like pinball.

High Point also offers happy hour deals Monday through Thursday, including $1 off ceratin pours. For those who don’t want to commit to a full drink, the bar also offers sample size tasters for $3 — all day, every day.

Last Friday night, Tysons Reporter decided to enjoy a 16-ounce pumpkin favored Wild Hare Hard Cider from Leesburg, which cost $7, while people-watching.

By 5 p.m. the bar was getting busy and seats were scarce. Young professionals in their mid-20s’ to early-40s’ enjoyed the hangout spot.

Tysons residents Tim McCall and Miguel Barrios told Tysons Reporter that the new Whole Foods is two blocks from their apartment, so they decided to try it out as a pregame spot before they went for a night out in D.C.

“This is going to make us sound old, but it seems like a quiet place for a drink,” McCall said.

Around five different bartenders assisted customers throughout the evening, each staying busy and serving customers in rapid succession. For those who don’t want to wait for a drink at the bar, the self-serve wine and beer stations were a popular option, even though they had a narrower selection.

ESPN was playing on the flat-screen TVs scattered throughout the area for all of the sports fans.

By 5:30 p.m. there was only standing-room at the bar, and different groups were sharing nearby tables. Things began to get rowdy as people raised their voices to compete with the conversations going on around them. Laughter echoed around the room and people seemed eager to kick off their weekend. 

A bartender told Tysons Reporter that business has been extremely steady all week and the spot is pretty popular, especially around lunchtime. 

The energy in the room stayed pretty consistent until 8 p.m. Then things began to slow down, and people went about their evening.

High Point is open seven days a week from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m.

Meetings to decide the fate of the Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Center kicked off last night in Falls Church.

About two dozen people gathered last night at the Falls Church City Hall (300 Park Avenue) for the first of three regional meetings to get input on what should happen to the facility.

The center currently serves Falls Church, Arlington and Alexandria as a detention facility for kids deemed a flight risk while awaiting trial or a danger to themselves or others. But since juvenile incarceration rates have fallen more than 72%  since 2006, according to a spokesperson for the Moss Group, the center no longer fills its 70-bed capacity. 

Community leaders commissioned a study by the Moss Group to evaluate the efficiency of the center and options for its future.

Currently, there are 27 kids held in the facility, Johnitha McNair, the executive director of the center, said. Options include closing the center, remodeling it or simply cutting down on staff and bed size.

Attendees included curious community members from Arlington, Alexandria and Falls Church, board members who run the center, representatives from the NAACP, members of the Falls Church City Council, an American University student and professional child advocates.

A spokesman from the NAACP said he is concerned about what will happen if the center is closed, noting that the numbers may rise and fall throughout the years, potentially leaving the three cities in a conundrum if incarceration rates rise again.

Several attendees brought up issues not with the capacity issues of the facility, but rather with how the facility is run and how the physical design might impact the kids being held within.

Attorney Juliet Hiznay, who has been practicing law in the realm of education law and has experience helping children with special needs, said she toured the facility in 2018 and was disheartened by what she saw. She said she doesn’t think that the detention center can be repurposed without extreme structural changes.

“My concern is not about the goodwill of the people running the facility, but the physical limitations of the facility itself,” she said, adding that the cell-block structure of the center is poorly designed for kids. “I find it hard to believe it could be repurposed for any type of therapeutic intervention.”

Hiznay said there were few windows in the facility that allowed for suitable sunlight, limited mobility within in the center, very few opportunities for kids to get exercise and fresh air and that the kids she interacted with seemed desperate for attention.

McNair, the center’s director, countered a few of Hiznay’s statements through, saying that kids in the detention center have “ample” time to play outside and interact with one another. NcNair also said that there are at least two 12″ by 48″ windows in each cell room and that kids are kept busy throughout the day with activities such as group therapy, social rehabilitation programs and reentry initiatives.

There was discussion throughout the evening about redesigning the center to include a more open “dorm-style” floor plan that are seen in other detention facilities, which would stop queuing when kids try to enter new rooms, but experts at the meeting expressed potential security concerns around this idea.

Moss Group representatives at the meeting said they work with an architect who can advise city officials on their options to remodel the center.

“We work very hard to recognize that our clients are children,” McNair said at last night’s meeting, adding that she hopes to keep the center in operation and is open to structural changes that would allow the center to rethink its approach by making programs more focused on mental health and constructive development.

Mental health and the ability to better assist kids that walk through the center’s doors came up several times throughout the meeting.

McNair said that the staff noticed that a lot of the young women were acting up around 8 p.m. when they were supposed to go to bed. After some thinking, they realized that this was because bedtime was when a lot of the girls in the center experienced abuse at home and were possibly experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety.

“We already know the percent of kids going into these facilities with trauma and mental health issues are very high,” Hiznay told Tysons Reporter in an interview after the public hearing.

Now, two more similar public hearings will be held in Alexandria (Lee Center Exhibit Hall, 1108 Jefferson Street) next Wednesday (Nov. 20) from 7 to 8:30 p.m. and in Arlington (Central Library Auditorium, 1015 N. Quincy Street) next Thursday (Nov. 21) from 7 to 8:30 p.m.

People who cannot attend the meeting can fill out an online survey.

The final report from the Moss Group is set to come out in January. The Alexandria, Falls Church and Alexandria governments will review it in February and March. It is unclear when a final plan for the center will be announced.

Just in time for the holidays, North Italia is expected to open in the next few weeks — with other restaurants and businesses in The Boro.

A construction contractor working on-site told Tysons Reporter that the new North Italia (1651 Boro Place) will open in early December along with Fish Taco, according to a sign.

Last Friday (Nov. 9), crews were working to instill appliances and finishing touches around the restaurant. The contractor said they will have an official opening date soon when they begin to hire servers and staff.

CaliBurger 2.0 (8301 Greensboro Drive) will also be moving into The Boro, taking over a spot that was designed for Taylor Gourmet, according to Eater, which added that the burger joint will use robot labor to flip burgers using a robotic arm and introduce a new line of vegan options by Beyond Meat.

It is unclear when the location will open, but it is expected to stay open late in order to accommodate crowds from the nearby movie theatre.

For “National Bundt Day” and its 22nd anniversary, Nothing Bundt Cakes is giving away sweet treats at locations across the country — including its Vienna location.

From 11:15 a.m. until 12:15 p.m. on Friday (Nov. 15), Nothing Bundt Cakes’ Vienna spot (129 W. Maple Avenue) will give away one free “Confetti Bundtlet” per customer. The first 22 people in line will also receive free “bundtlets” for a year, according to a press release.

The deal includes a punch card for one “bundtlet” per month for 12 months, and the deal is limited to one card per household.

People are encouraged to show up early, since the company warns the cakes are only available “while supplies last.”

“For our loyal and passionate Bundt fans across the nation, Nothing Bundt Cakes wants to throw the biggest Bundt Cake party yet!” Co-founder and Chairman Dena Tripp said. “We hope that anyone who loves cake will join us at our Bundt Bash.”

There are more than 300 Nothing Bundt Cake locations throughout the U.S., according to the company’s website. People with a sweet tooth can find 10 flavors of cake to choose from at the locations.

Photo via Nothing Bundt Cakes/Facebook

The Falls Church City Council clashed over whether or not to allow motorized scooters on city sidewalks.

Councilmembers voted unanimously on Tuesday (Nov. 12) to continue working on the plan that would allow motorized scooter companies to take a test drive in Falls Church. But the vote was split 4-3 when it came to banning people from using such mobility devices on sidewalks, with the exception of Routes 29 and 7.

The safety of scooter riders and pedestrians was the top concern for city councilmembers as they discussed the implications of banning scooter riders on sidewalks.

Councilmember Phil Duncan, who voted in favor of banning scooters from sidewalks, said that cars should be mindful of scooters on the road and that riders should use bike lanes whenever possible.

Duncan noted a finding from the staff report, which claimed that scooter riders ranked sidewalks as their least favorite place to ride.

The city council decided to allow exceptions on Routes 29 and 7 based on safety findings from a staff report.

Councilmembers Letty Hardi, Ross Litkenhous and Marybeth Connelly voted against the ordinance to ban scooters on sidewalks.

“Preventing people from riding where they feel safe would just make this mode of transportation a non-starter. It would make this pilot pointless,” Hardi said.

Councilmember Connelly echoed Hardi’s concerns, but pushed for a compromise.

“We are assuming we are protecting the walkers on the sidewalks by saying ‘no scooters,’ but not protecting the scooter riders, who are also our neighbors, by saying they must ride always in the street,” she said.

Instead, she suggested adding another ordinance into the plan that would require scooter riders to give pedestrians the right of way on sidewalks. The city attorney present at the meeting noted that this was a viable idea but would require further discussion.

The city attorney suggested staff could work on a more efficient plan that would take her concerns into consideration.

“We have to have some assumption that the people in Falls Church who are using the scooters are not idiots,” Connelly said. “We have to rely on the judgment of the people using the scooters.”

The Falls Church City Council will review a second reading of the ordinance at their upcoming meeting on Dec. 9.

As of today (Thursday), Tysons West has a new fast food option by the Spring Hill Metro station.

B. GOOD (1495 Cornerside Blvd, Suite 118) opened its doors this morning at 10:30 a.m. and now offers customers a variety of smoothies, burgers, bowls, sandwiches, salads, sides and “Flexitarian” options, for those who are vegan or environmentally conscious. To celebrate, the location is hosting a ribbon-cutting ceremony today followed by giveaways, samples and live music by a local acoustic guitar player.

Tysons Reporter attended a sneak-peak preview of the new location yesterday along with people who volunteered to test out the food.

“It gives us an opportunity to work out the kinks and is a training opportunity,” Lizzy Jenkins, a company spokesperson.

Around 11 a.m. yesterday, people started to trickle through the doors — some were curious about the new restaurant while others wanted to inquire about job opportunities. Many of the customers so far were families or young professionals from out of town, Jenkins said.

The eatery is decorated in a comfortable yet clean style with wooden tabletops, lantern-like hanging lights and Virginia-themed art scattered throughout the restaurant.

When it came time to sample the fare offered by B.GOOD, Jenkins ordered her favorite dishes which included the “Sweet Heat Flex Burger,” the “Spicy Avacado Lime Bowl” and “Chicken Avacado Sandwich,” which was accompanied by sweet potato fries and pink lemonade.

The “Sweet Heat Flex Burger” is a vegan burger made from beets and pineapple, topped with heaping caramelized onions, spicy slaw and beet hummus. The burgers on B.GOOD’s menu rage in price from $7.50 to $9.50.

The “Spicy Avacado and Lime Bowl” consists of kale and quinoa base and is topped with sauteed veggies, tomato, cilantro, black bean and corn salsa, accompanied by a side of chipotle vinaigrette. The bowl is one of the most popular items on the menu, Jenkins said. Prices for bowls range from $10 to $11.50.

The “Chicken Avacado Sandwich” is a simple dish that is exactly what it appears to be — chicken breast with slices of avocado, lettuce and tomato. Sandwiches start at $7.

Smoothie prices range from $6.50 to $7, while salads run from $9 to $10.

When it came to menu design, B.GOOD made a distinctive choice not to follow suit with vegan options like the Impossible Burger. Instead, the company created other vegan-friendly sandwich options, which they call “Flexitarian.”

“We are from the land, not the lab,” Jenkins said, who added that they recognize people decide to be vegan for a variety of reasons. Some of their Flexitarian burgers are vegan, while others contain eco-friendly meat options, like turkey.

The location will be open from 10:30 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 10:30 a.m.-8 p.m. on Sundays. The eatery is running a promotion where guests can enjoy a variety of sides for $2 from 2-5 p.m. until the end of the year.

The company also designed a rewards app that allows regulars to rack up points for free drinks and food. For every $1 someone spends, they will receive one point. At 50 points, people will earn a soft drink, at 75 points a smoothie or breakfast item and at 100 points, they will receive a free entre.

After much anticipation from the Merrifield community, the new Popeyes is finally serving up the infamous chicken sandwiches alongside other menu items.

The location (2835 Gallows Road) opened last week. Nader Saleh, the location’s owner, said that business is booming and has been steady so far.

As of 12:05 p.m. today (Wednesday), the lunch rush line wrapped around the restaurant. Saleh stood behind the counter, yelling out names for pickup and assisting his staff to keep up with the rush.

The employees seemed to struggle to keep up with the orders, not to mention other duties like answering the phones.

Omar Nedjar, a Popeyes regular who said he eats there about two times per week, said he gets annoyed by the crowds that come with the infamous chicken sandwich.

“I’m not here for the sandwich. I’m here for the drumsticks,” he told Tysons Reporter.

The location is open until 11 p.m. every day.

A Tysons tech company wants to boost fundraising, sales and marketing efficiency for both non-profits and businesses by using artificial intelligence.

BoodleAI (1751 Pinnacle Drive), which eventually branched out to also create guidonAI, began as a small startup roughly three years ago and managed to expand its client base to include around 30 non-profit groups and businesses once product development was complete.

BoodleAI works with non-profits to expand their donor bases, while guidonAI exclusively works with businesses to boost marketing strategies and sales, France Hoang, the chief strategy officer and co-founder, told Tysons Reporter.

Both companies offer predictive analytics to help organizations by taking the clients’ pre-existing data and cross-referencing it with more than 500 other data points on each person, using only names and email. All of the data sets are then analyzed by AI to come up with a predictive model that will be tested for power and reliability, according to the company’s website.

Hoang began the company because he felt that non-profits are an “underserved market.”

“I know the pain non-profits go through trying to raise funds for their mission,” Hoang said.

The company names were inspired by Hoang’s time at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where he graduated before serving time as Special Forces in Afghanistan, moved onto law school at Georgetown University and eventually become an entrepreneur.

Everything had its place at the academy, he said, adding that all of the cadets were expected to keep things extremely organized.

“The one exception to that is that you are allowed one exception of cookies, candy and things sent to you by your friends and family back home,” he said, adding that things come in a box and the contents are referred to as “boodle.”

GuidonAI was inspired by the flag that represents a unit. “If you want to know where to go, you look towards the guideon,” Hoang said.

The company offers decreased pricing options for non-profits but the cost will ultimately depend on variables including the size of the organization, the amount of help they need and the size of the problem, Hoang said.

“We would like to be the prime, dominant builder of people-focused, predictive applications,” Hoang said after being asked where he wants to see the company in five years.

Unlike competitors, boodleAI focuses on the fit of a person’s needs rather than on their online behavior, Hoang said, adding that their algorithms can pick out the target market four out of five times.

Hoang said that he loves connecting the world with issues they care about through outreach and the company’s work with non-profits.

“I’m passionate about solving problems in new ways. It’s in my blood.”

Photo via BoodleAI