Updated 3/13/2020 — Adds Great Wall Supermarket and H Mart in Merrifield.

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.

For people who want to grab food late at night, several grocery stores are open late in the Tysons area.

Both the Whole Foods stores in Tysons (1635 Boro Place) and the Falls Church area (7511 Leesburg Pike) are open until 10 p.m. daily. The Trader Joe’s at Tysons Station (7514 Leesburg Turnpike) is also open until 10 p.m. daily.

The Giant stores in Vienna (359 Maple Avenue E.) and Falls Church (1230 W. Broad Street) are open until midnight Monday-Saturday and until 11 p.m. on Sundays.

Meanwhile, the Harris Teeter stores in Tysons (8200 Crestwood Heights Drive), Merrifield (2675 Avenir Place) and Falls Church (301 West Broad Street) are open until midnight.

The local Safeway stores in downtown McLean (1330 Chain Bridge Road), McLean by Kirby Road (6244 Old Dominion Drive) and the Falls Church area (7397 Lee Hwy) are open until midnight, according to their websites.

In Merrifield, the Great Wall Supermarket (2982 Gallows Road) and H Mart (8103 Lee Hwy) are open until 11 p.m. daily.

Hungry after midnight?

Two grocery stores are open 24 hours in the Tysons area, according to their websites: the Giant in McLean (1454 Chain Bridge Road) and the Safeway in Tysons (1688 Anderson Road).

While it sells more than just groceries, Walmart in Tysons (1500 B Cornerside Blvd) is open 24 hours as well.

Three months into her job as Vienna’s new economic development manager, Natalie Monkou has an abundance of ideas for how to boost business in the town.

Monkou, an Annadale resident, previously worked in Arlington County as a liaison between the county and three business improvement districts (BIDs): Rosslyn, Ballston and Crystal City. Before that, she worked as the special assistant to Prince George’s County’s deputy chief of economic development.

Currently, Monkou has been on a “listening tour” around the town and holding public forums to receive input.

So far, the tour has been “really good,” Monkou told Tysons Reporter at Caffe Amouri earlier this week. “I’m trying to meet everybody.”

“Everybody” includes local businesses, commercial real estate brokers, local organizations that work with businesses and the Vienna Business Association.

While Monkou said she hasn’t heard anything surprising yet — mostly issues about high rents, property owners, vacancies and traffic — she said the people she has met with have different opinions on what economic development is and how it should work.

In an hour-long conversation with Tysons Reporter, Monkou shared a variety of ideas she’d like to look into for boosting Vienna businesses, like offering a walking tour with the mayor, improving the website for tourists and looking into how to turn the industrial area — what she calls a “sleeper hit” — into more of a destination.

But she said her main goal for this year is to get more data before she starts to make big changes. “I’ve heard lots of stories,” she said. Now she wants the data.

Currently, she said she’s working on a proposal for a market study that will look into Vienna’s competitiveness in the D.C. market, along with collecting demographic information and a SWOT analysis.

Using the study’s data, she wants to create an economic development strategy. Both the study and strategy could take anywhere from six months to a year, she said.

Her other top priorities for this year include a focus on the town’s budget and also figuring out how to market local businesses better outside of the town.

“I think there are opportunities to do more marketing and promotion of business here,” she said, adding that Vienna already supports local businesses well. “Why would I come here? Why would I shop here when I don’t live here?”

How to make Vienna a destination for nonresidents is on Monkou’s mind, as are controversial topics like the moratorium on new development guidelines for Maple Avenue — known as the “MAC” — and Tysons’ potential impact on Vienna.

“I want to be a part of MAC convos,” she said, adding that businesses have brought it up in discussions with her.

Monkou is clear that whatever happens with the MAC, which has been put on hold until June so the town can redo its guidelines, won’t slow her down and that there are plenty of areas around Vienna — like near Caboose Tavern — that she can focus on.

As for Tysons, Monkou said business owners can look to the growing community for potential customers.

A part of that involves making it easier for people to get to Vienna, which will require a look at traffic congestion and parking problems, she said. (For cycling enthusiasts, Monkou said she’s aware of how “special” the W&OD Trail is to the town and she said she wants to promote it more.)

As she dives more into these areas, Monkou expects lots of conversations with several town departments, like parks and recreation staff, as she works to merge traditional economic development with a “BID-like overlay” that includes online ads and events.

At the end of the day, Monkou said it’s all about “unique ways to promote the town’s assets.”

Vienna police said a kid is now without his bicycle after it was swiped.

A kid reported that someone stole the bicycle he locked in a pallet in the parking lot outside CrossFit (434 Mill Street NE), police said.

The incident happened between 4-5 p.m. on Tuesday (Feb. 11).

If anyone is missing a key, a woman turned in a key she found in the parking lot in the 100 block of Maple Avenue on Tuesday.

Photo via Facebook

Happy Friday! Here are the latest stories about the Tysons area that the Tysons Reporter team has been reading:

Falls Church Home Prices Spike — “The city of Falls Church zoomed past the District of Columbia to be the local jurisdiction where home-buyers spent more, per square foot, than anywhere else in January… The median per-square-foot cost of $453 for Falls Church property for the month was up 13 percent from a year before.” [Inside NoVa]

Furry Convention Leaving Tysons — The Mid-Atlantic region convention called “Fur the More” is moving from Tysons to Crystal City this year. [ARLnow]

Falls Church Theater Nabs Nominations — “Falls Church’s rapidly-emerging regional theater powerhouse, the Creative Cauldron, scored an astonishing nine Helen Hayes Award nominations for the past season.” [Falls Church News-Press]

McLean Board Seeking Candidates — “Local residents who are looking for ways to make a difference in the community should consider running for a seat on the McLean Community Center’s (MCC) 2020-2021 Governing Board.” [Falls Church News-Press]

I-66 Corridor commuters, in response to commuters request to get a slug pickup station at the Pentagon, Congressman @GerryConnolly @EleanorNorton @DonBeyerVA and @JenniferWexton send a request to the Pentagon #vatraffic pic.twitter.com/MeOOVVJnY8

— Sluglines (@sluglines) February 12, 2020

Sneak Peek: Later today, look for an article on Vienna’s new economic development manager and her plans for how to spark business in the town. Next week, look for a profile of Fava Pot in Falls Church.

Weekend Send Off: Let Tysons Reporter know what your plans are for the long weekend.

The Hunter Mill District Supervisor is planning on coming to the Town of Vienna in a few weeks to hear from local residents.

Walter Alcorn announced on Twitter that he will hold a town hall on Wednesday, Feb. 26. The event is set to take place from 7-9 p.m. at lecture hall 25000 at James Madison High School (2500 James Madison Drive).

People interested in attending can RSVP to [email protected].

Alcorn hosted his first town hall since joining the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in Reston earlier this month.

When Wawa comes to the Town of Vienna later this year, people might be able to get wine and beer.

A pending license indicates that the convenience store company is seeking “wine and beer off premises” for its upcoming location at 465 W. Maple Avenue.

The 6,200-square-foot convenience store plans to be open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and will be the first location to feature a partnership with Tesla — meaning people will be able to use eight charging stations for electric cars. The store is hoping to open this spring along Maple Avenue.

While the Vienna location is boasting a lot of “firsts” for Wawa, the beer sales are nothing new. According to news reports, Wawa jumped into the beer sales market several years ago.

Photo via David Levy and Associates 

Movies are weeks away from coming to the big screen at The Boro development in Tysons.

Caroline Flax, an associate at The Meridian Group, said via a spokesperson that ShowPlace Icon is planning to open in March at 1667 Silver Hill Drive.

“This location, the seventh in the U.S. under the Showplace Icon brand for Kerasotes ShowPlace Theatres, spans 72,000 square feet, with 1,795 seats spread across 14 theaters, plus a restaurant and a bar and lounge,” the Washington Business Journal reported.

The opening of the 70,000-square-foot store, Mid-Atlantic flagship Whole Foods store in the fall marked when the development started to come alive with places for people to eat and shop.

So far this year, several eateries have opened — North Italia, Fish Taco and Paris Baguette — along with Tysons Nail Lounge.

International ramen restaurant Hokkaido Ramen Santouka (1636 Boro Place) also plans to open this March.

Flax said that people can also expect these stores and eateries later this year:

• Tasty Kabob in the “spring”
• Paper Source in the “spring”
• Caliburger in the “summer”

According to The Boro’s social media accounts, other summer newcomers will include El Bebe Tacos & Tequila, Open Road Grill and The Shade Store.

Photo via The Boro/Facebook

Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors plans to soon laud the James Madison High School’s marching ensemble for its achievements last year.

In a joint board matter, Supervisors Walter Alcorn and Dalia Palchik, who represent the Hunter Mill and Providence districts, want to recognize the school’s marching ensemble several for “an outstanding season and historic championship.”

Called the “Pride of Vienna,” the marching ensemble won the Virginia Marching Band Cooperative State Championship in the fall for the second year in a row.

The group also won the Bands of America Regional Competition last fall.

“This victory was [the] first time a Virginia band has won a Bands of America Mid-Atlantic Regional Competition in nearly 40 years,” according to the board matter.

The group competed on the national level, ultimately becoming semi-finalists.

The Board of Supervisors voted yesterday (Tuesday) to invite the marching ensemble and the Town of Vienna to an upcoming board meeting to receive congratulations.

“I look forward to having ‘Pride of Vienna’ come here,” Palchik said.

Photo via Marsha Komandt/Facebook

(Updated 2/13/2020) A bill that would let the Town of Vienna have unique tree canopy requirements has passed the Virginia House of Delegates.

Del. Mark Keam’s (D-35th) bill would let the town require developers to plant bigger trees so that they grow faster.

Keam told Tysons Reporter that he’s been trying to get different versions of this bill passed for about four years ever since town officials considered tree conservation on their legislative agenda a few years ago.

“I’ve had some luck in moving the needle,” Keam said about his latest attempt.

Keam said the bill was originally going to be in a larger package of tree-related bills in the House of Delegates. “Mine escaped,” he said.

While Keam said that he’s heard about the backlash Wawa received from some residents for chopping down trees it wasn’t supposed to in the town, he said that the Wawa incident did not influence the bill.

Still, Keam said he’s “not surprised” about the backlash and that he hears complaints “all the time” about developments’ impact on trees.

Keam said that the bill would put bigger trees in the ground so that the tree canopy requirements are met sooner. The bill is meant to improve the aesthetics and stormwater management in the town, he said.

“We are very proud of our trees,” Keam said, mentioning Vienna’s history as a “Tree City USA.”

The Virginia House passed the bill with bipartisan support yesterday (Tuesday, Feb. 11). Three Republican legislators voted “nay,” while 95 legislators voted in support.

Keam said that he believes the bill’s opponents thought it gave a local government too much power over developers and could have a negative economic impact on home builders.

“I am concerned that the requirement may have a negative impact on efforts to provide affordable housing,” Del. Mark Cole (R-88th) told Tysons Reporter for why he voted against the bill.

Since the bill affects a specific locality, it will need two-thirds approval to pass in the Senate. A Senate version of the bill from State Sen. J. Chapman Petersen (D-34th) was most recently in the Committee on Local Government.

Tysons Reporter reached out to Petersen’s office to find out when the bill might head to the Senate floor for a vote and will provide an update when more information is available.

“I’m hoping it survives,” Keam said about the bill’s prospects in the Senate.