A new cafe could be coming to a former drive-thru United Bank at 7787 Leesburg Pike.

Applicant Mohamed Rafaei is seeking a permit from the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, Sept. 15, to convert the first floor of the building (built in 1980) into a restaurant.

“The proposed sit-down restaurant will replace the first-floor financial institution,” a report on the project noted. “The proposed hours of operation for the restaurant are 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 a.m., 7 days a week. Approximately 4 employees and a maximum of 72 patrons are proposed.”

The application noted that the second floor of the building is currently an office, which would continue to be in use after the restaurant change. Given that the site is zoned for office buildings and hotels, a special exception is required for a restaurant use, but a staff report said the restaurant could support the surrounding offices and is “in harmony” with the Comprehensive Plan.

There was once a local Tysons establishment called Mint at 8346 Leesburg Pike, next to the former Tysons Biergarten, but it’s unclear if the two are related.

Photo via Google Maps

Vienna, Dunn Loring Metro Stations Reopen After Labor Day –“The DC Metrorail system’s Vienna and Dunn Loring stations reopened Tuesday following a summer platform rehabilitation project.” [Patch]

Vienna Plan to Limit Council Meetings Has Some Exceptions Attached — “In practice, exceptions built into the new rules leave open the possibility that some meetings still will last late into the night.” [INSIDE NoVA]

Fairfax County Fire and Rescue To Host Virtual Open House — “Activities And Events For Fire Prevention Week.” [Twitter]

(Updated 9/9) 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!

Tuesday (Sept. 8)

• 2020 Tuesday Night 5k –6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Caboose Tavern (520 NE Mill Street)– Runners and walkers can take part in this multi-part series held on the W&OD Trai. Registration is $10 and people should arrive 45 minutes early for registration, the page said.

Wednesday (Sept. 9)

• Kanopy Film Discussion Group –8 to 9 p.m. online– The Mary Riley Styles Public Library is hosting a discussion on Frontline: Left Behind America. People can email Pete Sullivan ([email protected]) for a Zoom invitation or more info. The film is a documentary from PBS that explores the struggles of the post-economic recession in Dayton, Ohio, the page said.

Thursday (Sept. 10)

• Pets for Vets –4 to 8 p.m. at Settle Down Brewing (2822 Fallfax Drive)– This event invites people to take place in a fundraiser for Pets for Vets, which provides service animals that used to be shelter animals to military veterans. People can enjoy drink specials and free bingo, the Facebook event page said. 
• The Boro Farmers Market –3 to 7 p.m. at the Boro Tysons(8301 Greensboro Drive)– This local market will feature fruits and vegetables, grass-fed meats and pastured eggs and baked goods, the event page said.

Sunday (Sept. 13)

• Adoption Event –12 to 3 p.m. at Chico’s Natural Pet Market (6349 A Columbia Pike)– Anyone looking for their next furry friend can check out this dog adoption event. This event will allow attendees to meet pups up for adoption and learn about foster opportunities, the event listing said.
• Intro to Traditional Climbing –9 a.m. until 4 p.m. at Seneca Rocks Mountain Guides East (9200 Old Dominion Drive)– For $125 people can try out this all-day experience which will teach them safe practices for outdoor climbing. Top rope climbing and belay experience is required, the page said. 
• Music In the Gardens –3 to 4 p.m. at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens (9750 Meadowlark Gardens Ct)– This series will feature live music from the Virginia Chamber Orchestra. Guests are welcome to bring a blanket or fold-up chairs to sit on. The concert is free with admission to the gardens.

Photo via Meadowlark Botanical Gardens/Facebook

Falls Church-based Rare Bird Coffee Roasters is expanding, despite its temporary closure.

The cafe is set to take over the next-door location that sits on the corner of North Maple Ave and West Broad Street, according to the Falls Church City Council.

It is unclear when the construction will be complete.

When asked about the updates, “We are making an official announcement soon,” a spokesperson said, adding that more details will be released soon.

Rare Bird Coffee Roasters decided to temporarily close its doors around March because of the COVID-19 pandemic but still offers free local shipping on various products, the website said.

Photo via Rare Bird Coffee/Facebook

After several weeks in the mid 200 range, COVID-19 figures for Fairfax County swelled to over 400 new cases per week in mid-August.

While the data at the time showed cases continuing to trend downward, the window of COVID-19 diagnoses meant that the figures for the mid-August timeframe increased substantially in the following weeks. The week of Aug. 16 there were 434 new cases — the highest number of new cases per week since May.

While higher than the average, the number of new cases was still higher than the peak of 1,400 new cases the week of April 26. The weeks after August showed a substantial decline as well, to just 99 cases for the week of Aug. 30, the change to earlier weeks showed those figures could increase with time.

One of the highest densities of cases was the 22027 area code, which includes Dunn Loring and parts of Idlywood, but the zip code is small enough with a population of only 2,362 that a count of 71 confirmed cases was disproportionately high.

The other areas nearby had roughly 200 confirmed confirmed cases each except 22043, which includes Merrifield and parts of Tysons, which had 353 cases.

Photo by CDC on Unsplash, image via Fairfax County

A new $112 million bond referendum on the ballot this November could help finance a series of improvements to parks and recreational facilities around Tysons and McLean.

Several recreation centers around the County are slated for improvements and renovations as part of the bond, including extensive renovations at the Providence RECenter.

A report on RECenters from 2018 found that the Providence one, which was built in 1982, is not equipped to handle the growing need nearby. The facility is only 48,655 square feet, one of the smallest in the system despite having the second largest number of nearby residents served by the facility. The report recommended that Providence and three other RECenters be expanded to suit the climbing need.

The report notes that the Providence RECenter’s market is predominately older adults with a modest household income.

The bond could also finance upgrades to Ruckstuhl Park in Idylwood and McLean Central Park in McLean. The bond could also help advance design work at the long-awaited recreational additions to Salona Park in McLean.

Photo via Fairfax County

Falls Church and Fairfax County officials are revisiting efforts to rename schools with names linked to the Confederacy as communities across the U.S. tackle a racial reckoning.

The resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in the wake of police killing George Floyd in Minneapolis has reignited discussions of how buildings, monuments and places with Confederate ties perpetuate racial oppression.

The push to remove names and images linked to the Confederacy at local schools isn’t new.

Fairfax County officials renamed JEB Stuart High School to Justice High School in 2017, with students changing the mascot in 2018. Fairfax High School’s principal changed the mascot this year. A few weeks ago, the Fairfax County School Board voted to rename Robert E. Lee High School to honor late U.S. Congressman John Lewis.

Tysons Reporter looked into how the two public school systems have tackled the renaming issue this summer and what’s coming up for schools in the Tysons area.

Falls Church Moving Forward With Renamings

After several meetings and hundreds of public comments, the Falls Church City School Board made the decision to move forward with renaming George Mason High School and Thomas Jefferson Elementary School in late June. Both Founding Fathers were slaveholders.

A few months ago, a petition with more than 250 signatures and growing public pressure prompted the school board to start considering the name changes in the second week of June.

“We’re at a point where it’s time to really begin the conversation,” Greg Anderson, the school board’s chair, said at a school board meeting this summer.

One of the biggest renaming questions the school board tackled is whether or not to hire a consultant to aid in the process, with some members saying it was a good idea in order to maintain neutrality and to gather more information about Mason and Jefferson and others pointing out the costs.

“Lots of folks don’t really know the history of who he is,” School Board member Lawrence Webb said about Mason.

The school board resolved that dilemma this week by voting to hire Herndon-based K-12 Insight to conduct the surveys, the Falls Church News-Press reported.

Now that the school board has approved moving forward with the renaming process, they will need to decide what the new names will be.

The school board wants to make sure the renaming process isn’t rushed, agreeing that it’s important to get many perspectives on this issue.

“I think we need to take our time so we know what the community has to say,” said Susan Dimock. Read More

Clinics and medical facilities are beginning to offer yearly vaccines as flu season approaches.

People who received their annual flu shot in a 2018 study were 82% less likely to be admitted to the ICU for potentially life-threatening symptoms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website.

Most people six months and older can receive a dose of the flu shot, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said, adding that people can either choose the shot or the nasal spray.

The CDC suggests that those eligible should receive their yearly flu vaccine before the end of October.

Tysons Reporter previously did a round-up of clinics and medical facilities locally offering the vaccine on a walk-up basis.

 Photo via Hyttalo Souza on Unsplash

This afternoon, the Vienna Town Council unanimously approved the use of outdoor gathering space for churches, schools and other non-commercial entities during the ongoing pandemic.

The ordinance will allow groups to socially distance and meet under safer conditions by avoiding indoor spaces with less air circulation.

A town attorney said that the council made the ordinance as broad as they could, as to make it inclusive for groups that need it.

“The good news is that if we left anything out in a rush, the good news is that it will come back before you,” the attorney said to the council, noting that they will have to vote to readopt it in 60 days.

Mayor Linda Colbert said at the meeting that she was greeted this morning before the vote by students from Green Hedges at her weekly “meet the mayor” event. The kids and their headmaster all encouraged the council to vote yes on the proposition.

The council also received emails and correspondence from church groups in the area, pushing for the changes, according to the town clerk.

“If you can get the kids out of the classroom and out into the open air, I think is safer in general,” councilmember Nisha Patel previously said.

The change comes after the council approved to extend the use of outdoor space for commercial businesses yesterday.

Easter is usually the busiest time of year for the Polish Market in Vienna, but this year, the family-owned grocery store couldn’t invite customers inside and instead offered curbside pick-up due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Oskar Skrzeszewski, who helps his parents run the business, told Tysons Reporter that they had to “do a 360” with operations when the pandemic hit.

“We were one of the first stores to implement safety glass in the beginning of the pandemic,” Skrzeszewski said. “We soon realized this wasn’t enough and we had to close the store completely to foot traffic. We operated on a curbside pick basis only, which was extremely difficult since we’ve never done anything like that before.”

Located at 431 Maple Ave W., the market has served Polish customers and people of Polish heritage for six years, selling pierogis, kielbasa, cabbage rolls, packzi, beer, New York cheesecakes and more, Skrzeszewski said.

The last few months have taken a toll on the business by completely changing its operations and taking a financial hit.

“Our revenues are about 30% down and we have fewer customers coming into the store,” Skrzeszewski said.

At the start of the pandemic in Northern Virginia, Skrzeszewski said that they had trouble finding personal protective equipment and cleaning supplies, but eventually were able to order gallons of hand sanitizer from a company. Masks were also hard to come by, but customers who worked in the medical field were able to help.

Currently, customers can only access about half of the store and safety glass is everywhere inside. The limited capacity has led to a dramatic decrease in the shelf space.

“We have to pick and choose the items we order a lot more carefully now,” Skrzeszewski said.

Despite the inconvenience, the Skrzeszewski said shoppers seem to be taking the public health measures well: “Our customers have been tremendously supportive and we’re very grateful for that.”

Over the last few months, Skrzeszewski said he’s seen consumer demand change a little as more shoppers stock up on kielbasa, beer and mustard for barbecues and camping.

Elsewhere in Vienna, a new small grocery store is also working to overcome the challenges posed by the pandemic.

Owner Rami El-Hasrouni told Tysons Reporter he was glad he converted Bey Lounge into the LB Food Market (303 NE Mill Street) in late 2019 after the lounge got in trouble multiple times over the Town of Vienna’s noise ordinance.

The market sells Middle Eastern and Mediterranean food and is right next door to Wooden Bakery. Both stores are operated by D.C.-based Woodfire Brands.

After deciding to end the lifespan of Bey Lounge, he decided to expand the small market that was in the bakery into its own concept

While he’s glad that he doesn’t have to worry about how the former restaurant and club would have stayed open during the pandemic, he said the grocery store transition has been tough.

El-Hasrouni said he was already in the process of rebuilding his customer base for the small supermarket — “Everybody is used to this location as a restaurant with nightlife, not a grocery location” — before the pandemic hit.

Night club aside, the location doesn’t help either.

“We are in a hidden location,” he said. “Nobody expects a grocery store to be in the warehouse district. That’s the toughest part for us. If we’re on the main street, people walking by them might see us.”

For the grocery shoppers the store has attracted so far, El-Hasrouni said that the fresh pita bread is the big draw. Shoppers can also find Mediterranean specialty items, like Lebanese olive oil, spinach cheese pies and homemade hummus, along with standard groceries: milk, eggs, vegetables.

Even though LB Market is essentially an expanded version of the grocery section in Wood Bakery, El-Hasrouni is hopeful that the name “is something new” that will also catch people’s attention.

As the pandemic continues, El-Hasrouni said he’s working to get online ordering available on the website, along with mailing people coupons and flyers to help spread the word.

Photos (1-2) via Polish Market/Facebook, photo (3) via LB Food Market/Facebook