(Updated at 4:15 p.m.) Rango’s Fine Tex-Mex, a restaurant coming to Tysons (1934 Old Gallows Road), is the fulfillment of a family dream.
The restaurant will be moving into the space formerly occupied by Paladar Kitchen & Rum Bar. Robert Rosa, one of two owners of the new 200-seat restaurant, says the aim is to open in early November.
The restaurant will focus on quality and generous portions, according to Rosa, with the average meal priced around $25 and the restaurant’s 27-ounce margaritas half off for happy hour.
Tex-Mex food is a family business for the Rosa family, which owns the regional Guapo’s chain. Robert has 15 years of experience working in the food industry while his father and co-owner Ismael Rosa has been working in Tex-Mex food for 30 years.
Though the older Rosa has experience running a restaurant, having opened six Guapo’s Restaurant locations, the younger Rosa said this is his first time opening a restaurant from scratch.
“I’m 27 and I noticed that there wasn’t a lot of Tex-Mex options in the Tysons [area],” said Robert. “So it’s an adventure to try this out for myself.”
Rango’s will inhabit a 6,000 square foot space that seats about 250 people, including patio areas, the Washington Business Journal reports.
Three Chambers of Commerce representing minority-owned businesses in Fairfax met in Tysons yesterday (Wednesday) to sign an agreement of closer collaboration.
The Asian American Chamber of Commerce, Northern Virginia Black Chamber of Commerce, and Virginia Hispanic Chamber comprise a partnership called the Multicultural Chambers Alliance (MCCA). The organization has been in existence for five years, but yesterday signed an memorandum of understanding with a recommitment to the organization with more extensive collaboration details.
The MCCA agreed that each of the chambers will collaborate with the others on organizing, presenting and hosting joint events. The three groups will also work closer to exchange information on economic, legislative and political matters.
The event was hosted by the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority (FCEDA) at its Tysons headquarters (8300 Boone Blvd).
“The coming together of the three chambers involved represents all that America and this community stand for,” said Gerald L. Gordon, president and CEO of the FCEDA, in a press release. “The collaboration and collegiality of these three cultural and racial business groups represents enormous opportunity for its members and for the business community at large as they further bring their component companies into the economic mainstream.”
Photos courtesy FCEDA
Despite some rain scheduled for this afternoon (Thursday), it’s full steam ahead for the outdoor Tysons Tailgate party.
The 2018 Tysons Tailgate runs from 5-8 p.m in Valo Park (7950 Jones Branch Drive).
The party includes live music from local band Chuggalug, beer and wine tents, snacks, lawn games, and raffle prizes. According to the event page, there will also be an arcade game tent for attendees to show off their Pac-Man or Space Invaders skills.
The Tysons Partnership said on Twitter that the event will be held under a large outdoor tent.
Tickets are $30 if purchased online in advance, or $35 at the door. The proceeds of the event go to benefit Second Story, the only youth emergency shelter in Northern Virginia.
We're not going to let a little rain dampen our #TysonsTailgate! We have added a big, beautiful outdoor party tent! Attendees will enjoy the same setup with beer and wine tents, games, live music, raffle prizes, and more — while keeping dry! https://t.co/WklHTR0MRs #TysonsCares pic.twitter.com/sKmnt1pUE6
— Tysons Partnership (@tysonspartners) September 26, 2018
Photo via Tysons Partnership
Today, information technology departments are largely reactive — called to fix problems after they happen. But the Tysons startup TaskFit.io has developed artificial intelligence tech that, if it catches on, could supplement if not replace the help desk entirely.
TaskFit.io is an IT automation software platform that can be installed onto a laptop, server, or edge device (like routers) to gather metrics on that device and help fix it when an issue occurs.
TaskFit.io’s AI programs are constantly collecting data as the system is running and adapting to meet problems that come up. Problems can be identified and remedied before the user even recognizes that one exists.
“When you have an issue with your laptop, you call support,” said Tim Marcinowski, co-founder of TaskFit.io. “Your internet goes down and you’re on the phone. We’re the first line of defense for support for organizations through our agents, which are AI that can learn based on data we collect and take action before the user has to report it to support.”
Marcinowski said that for many companies, IT is outsourced. This can work for a smaller company just getting started, but Macinowski said problem comes when the companies start to expand and starts to outgrow their IT service.
“There’s a number you can point to [in each business], where if they bring on X amount of customers, they need X amount of people supporting those activities,” said Marcinowski.
TaskFit.io is currently a small company, based in the Tysons WeWork coworking space. Marcinowski and co-founder Peter Fraedrich run the technical side of the company, along with two advisors and three or four contractors.
“We haven’t taken any investments and have been gaining revenue since month one,” said Marcinowski. “We started on our own with our own money and have been doing okay for right now. Eventually we will raise early stage capital within the year.”
Two started in April with $90,000 of the two founders’ own money. The company has $40,000 in recurring annual revenue, according to Marcinowski, who hopes to push that to $100,000 by the end of the year.
Currently, TaskFit.io has three paying customers and four pilot projects. The pilot projects are unpaid but allow the company to gain insights into the program working in action and allow them to continue developing abilities.
“These companies that are early adopters got free software,” said Marcinowski, “but we’re going to bug you and ask you a lot of questions. Things may break, but we’ll work to get them fixed.”
Like many startups, TaskFit.io has pivoted its focus over time. Early on, Marcinowski says they were originally interested in competing with Google and Amazon to create the first real-time machine learning platform. That evolved into the company’s current platform, but even then product development has been an iterative process of shifting priorities and tough decisions.
According to Marcinowski, what managers said they really wanted was a tech tool to help them figure out what their employees were doing. While this could have been a profitable avenue, it didn’t fit with the founders’ vision for the company.
“We really didn’t want to be the watchdog of employees,” said Marcinowski. “We didn’t want to be that at all, and we didn’t care how much money we made. We aren’t used car salesmen, we wanted to build software that solves problems.”
Photo via TaskFit.io
The 8600 block of Westwood Center Drive is typically a quiet grouping of offices with some ground floor retail, but late Sunday (Sept. 23) evening it was the scene of a burglary.
Police would not say which store of business was hit, but did report that around 10:19 p.m. a man broke into one of the businesses by prying open the door. Most of the retail on the south side of the block consists of small restaurants, like Subway and Paisano’s, while Walmart sits to the north of the block.
According to the police report, several small safes were broken into and the cabinets were rifled through. The exact amount of cash stolen was undisclosed.
Photo via Google Maps
Charlie Puth, the hit singer known for his debut single “See You Again,” will be headlining a party at Tysons Corner Center to announce the lineup for this year’s HOT 99.5 Jingle Ball.
Starting at 3 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 9, The Kane Show and the HOT 99.5 crew will broadcast live from the mall. Puth is scheduled to give a special performance from The Plaza at Tysons Corner Center during the broadcast.
This event is open to the public with no ticket required.
At 5 p.m., the lineup of the Jingle Ball concert will be announced, followed by a chance to win tickets to the show, according to the radio station’s website.
For nearly as long as there’s been a Tysons, there’s been a Fire and Rescue Station 29 watching over it.
On Sunday (Sept. 23) past and present members of the Station 29 crew met to share stories and celebrate the station’s 40th anniversary.
Newly-appointed fire chief John Butler also attended to greet members of the fire and rescue crew.
Those that work at Fire Station 29 say the station is unique in the types of challenges it faces. Other stations cover more rural parts of Fairfax County. The Reston and Bailey’s Crossroads both have to contend with high rises. But according to Captain Michael Whetsell, Commander of Fire Station 29, only the Tysons station has to contend with every type of emergency on the books.
“Tysons is a unique location,” said Whetsell. “You have a mixture of all kinds here. We have high rises and residential. You can go left and we have non-hydrant areas. We have the Metro coming through. Every operations manual operates out of Station 29.”
Despite the dramatic increase in density and population in Tysons, Fire Station 29 has not grown except for a county-wide increase from three to four personnel per fire engine or ladder truck. Whetsell says there are ten personnel total on call at the station at any given time.
The main engine receives between 10-15 calls per day, and Whetsell said the medic unit receives about the same. The fire truck responds to roughly ten calls each day.
Whetsell said most of the calls that come in are medical emergencies, accidents or fire alarms. The crew of Station 29 is also regularly called out to Route 7, the Beltway, and the Dulles Toll Road to deal with car accidents.
It’s a difficult job, and Whetsell said the continued development is only making it harder.
“It’s a very busy station,” said Whetsell. “Every day it gets harder and harder due to traffic increases. There’s increased people coming in to work and live, and now the new construction is commercial and residential high rises.”
Whetsell said high rises can be a particularly challenging call for a fire department. With the rapid pace of construction, the department has had to make an increasing amount of high angle rescues.
Earlier this month, Fire Station 29 made a vertical rescue using a construction crane to lower a victim from the sixth floor of a construction site.
There is some relief in sight for Fire Station 29. Fairfax County Fire and Rescue is planning on constructing a new station, Tysons East Fire and Rescue Station 44, on Old Meadow Lane. The station will have 23 personnel with additional staffing planned as part of a five-year safety plan.
Delivery of the station is scheduled for Dec. 31, 2020, but as of the fiscal year 2019 Fairfax County government’s Capital Improvement Plan funding for the project is still to be determined.
Whetsell said the new fire station would cover calls in the eastern section of Tysons, also covering Route 123 and the Beltway.
But for all of the challenges, Whetsell says Fire Station 29 is home for him. He has worked at the station for nine years total. Whetsell started as a rookie at the station, then came back as a truck lieutenant, and finally came back as a captain.
While the usual job of the fire crew is responding to emergencies, Whetsell said he also loves getting a chance to meet with members of the public at events.
“We like getting out to the public,” said Whetsell. “So if anyone has an event to invite us to, get in touch and we’d love to show the fire trucks. We do a lot of birthdays. Just seeing the smiles of kids when we show up… the smiles are priceless.”
Improvements to bicycle routes near the Vienna Metro station may have to wait.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors deferred a vote on an agreement to move forward on the Vienna Metro Bike Connection Improvement Project. The agreement with VDOT was brought forward as an action item at the Sept. 25 Board of Supervisors meeting but was deferred without explanation.
The project aims to enhance bike access to the Vienna Metro station and Metro West Town Center, as well as other roads and bridges in the surrounding area. The project includes bike wayfinding signage and shared lane markings.
The improvements follow a 2016 study of bicycle accessibility to the Vienna Metro station.
The project was first endorsed by the Board of Supervisors on Oct. 24, 2017, as part of a transportation alternatives package. If approved by the board, it will be funded with $800,000 in grants from VDOT, with a local match requirement of $200,000. The funds were identified in the County budget but requires Board of Supervisors approval.
A motorcyclist allegedly led police on a high speed, late night pursuit that ended in a crash near Falls Church.
According to Fairfax County Police, at 12:39 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 21, a police officer observed 24-year old Ryan Bras speeding west on Arlington Blvd. The officer activated his emergency equipment to stop Bras, but Bras accelerated, police say.
Shortly thereafter, Bras lost control of the motorcycle and the bike tipped onto its side.
Bras was uninjured and was taken to the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center. He was charged with reckless driving and speed to elude.
Image (top) via Google Maps. Photo (right) via Fairfax County Police Department
The Women in Technology organization is hosting its fall job fair tomorrow (Wednesday) in Tysons.
Both men and women are encouraged to attend and meet recruiters. The event is free but online registration is required and will allow exhibitors to view the applicant’s resume. Exhibitor registration for the event has been closed, but potential exhibitors are encouraged to check later for the spring job fair.
Exhibitors at the job fair range from large corporations like Sony and Amazon to organizations like the International Atomic Energy Agency. A full list of exhibitors can be viewed here.
The event runs from 4-7 p.m. at Valo Park — the former Gannett headquarters at 7950 Jones Branch Drive.
