Facebook sometimes fails. Twitter can be tedious.

For those who want to get their local news without the noise, Tysons Reporter has just the thing for you: our free email newsletter.

We’ll deliver local news headlines to your inbox on most weekdays and some weekends, without of the clutter. And we’ll never share your email address with a third party.

Use the form to join nearly 3,000 of your neighbors and coworkers who are already getting the top newsletter you need to keep up on what’s happening locally.

Sign up here or via the form below.

Dr. Arnold Willis, a urologist in Maryland, is bringing Hello Kitty wine to Merrifield with his Napoleonic Cavalry-themed distribution service, thanks in part to Chicago gangster Al Capone.

It’s a lot to unpack. The ABC permit is still pending, but Chasseur Wine LLC is planning on opening a wholesale distribution facility at 2995 Gallows Road, as a staging ground for moving into Northern Virginia.

The brand is already active in Maryland and D.C., and Willis said Merrifield was right at the epicenter of the planned distribution network.

So where does the beloved Sanrio feline fit into all of this? Buckle in, it’s sort of a long story.

A few years ago, to celebrate their 40th anniversary, Willis said Sanrio was looking for a wine to put their label onto — the logic being that girls who had grown up with Hello Kitty were now likely of drinking age. In a tour of European vineyards in 2016, they settled on Torti Winery in Italy.

When they were looking to distribute that wine in the United States, they turned to a restauranteur in California who was an old family friend. Willis was friends with the restauranteur and was asked if he wanted to be involved in the distribution.

Willis said he had no experience of first-hand knowledge of Hello Kitty before that moment, but said it sounded like a fun thing to try out.

“We got unbelievable PR and in August,” said Willis. “I was completely caught off guard. It started as a fun thing with friends, but it’s completely exploded.”

Willis said after the initial explosion of interest, they began to take the wine distribution more seriously. Branding as Kitty Wines International, the group started moving into nation-wide distribution. The brand is currently available in 27 states.

“It surprises people as a legit wine,” Willis said. What has happened — it’s something very kitschy, it catches you off guard. Everybody buys one bottle to say ‘look what I got’ but the irony of this is: it’s quite good wine.”

But there was a catch.

“Ever since the Al Capone days, the federal government has cut it up so you can’t have wholesale distributorship to more than 15 states,” Willis said.

So the distributorship needed to be split up. Willis lived in the D.C. area, so he worked with his son on setting up their own distribution service in the area. Thus, Chasseur Wine — named for the son’s interest in the French cavalry unit from the Napoleonic War — was born. There are other wines involved, but Willis said the main feature is still the Hello Kitty wine, which typically sells in the $17 to $30 range.

Chasseur Wine currently distributes in Maryland and D.C., but is still waiting on a license in Virginia to start selling.

“This is the most fun I’ve ever had,” Willis said. “Chasseur Wines is my baby.”

Photo via Facebook

Reston Hospital Center (RHC) has a new plan to built a freestanding emergency room on Leesburg Pike in Tysons.

RHC plans would put the emergency room inside a renovated three-story building at 8240 Leesburg Pike, next to the ramp to Chain Bridge Road, as first reported by the Washington Business Journal.

The new building would be emergency facility only — no medical offices or other hospital-related spaces.

“The provision of necessary emergency health facilities and services to meet the increased numbers of employees, residents and visitors is an essential component of a vibrant Tysons,” RHC stated in its application.

While the building would require a special exception from Fairfax County, it would not require the rezoning that the RHC building proposed at 2000 Old Gallows Road in Tysons would have.

“As Tysons continues to develop with additional office buildings and homes, it is essential that convenient and accessible health care services are available to meet the increasing need,” the hospital wrote in the 2000 Old Gallows Road application.

The Tysons Partnership is seeking students or recent graduates for an internship focused on urban development and communications engagement.

Eligible applicants must be rising college seniors, recent graduates or graduate students with a knowledge of fields related to urban studies and communications.

According to the job listing:

You must be a self-starter who will look for opportunities to help us develop, package and promote the Tysons narrative to a regional and national audience. Depending on your particular skills, background and interests, projects may include research and creation of an ‘information toolkit’ containing data that conveys the breadth and scope of Tysons development; creating content that tells the story of Tysons’s past, present and future; and development of eye-catching graphics/designs to populate our website, social media and other communications channels. Strong writing skills are required — you must submit writing samples and/or links to sites where your work has been published.

The internship offers a stipend to pay for living expenses and transportation in the D.C. area, with the amount based on the level of education and experience. Work hours and start/stop dates are negotiable.

The Tysons Partnership is the local association that engages with local government, landowners, employers and other stakeholders to pursue the objectives of the comprehensive plan for Tysons.

Photo via Facebook

The Weekly Planner is a roundup of the most 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!

Monday (April 1)

• Providence District Supervisor Election Forum — 7:30-9:15 p.m. at Luther Jackson Middle School (3020 Gallows Road) — The Democratic candidates running for the nomination in the Providence District Supervisor election are scheduled to meet tonight for a debate. The event will be held in the auditorium and is open to the public.

Thursday (April 4)

• Bubbles Salons Grand Opening Blowout Party — 6-9 p.m. at Tysons Corner Center (8043 Tysons Corner Center) — Food, drinks, and giveaways are planned for a “blowout party” at the new Bubbles Salon, a hair stylist specializing in coloring and shaping.
• Maple Avenue Corridor Multimodal Study — 7 p.m. at the Vienna Town Hall (127 Center Street) — The Town of Vienna is hosting the first of three community meetings to discuss a multimodal transportation and land use study, giving the public an opportunity to ask questions about the study and provide feedback.

Friday (April 5)

• Board of Supervisors Breakfast — 7:30 a.m. at Fairview Park Marriott (3111 Fairview Park Dr) — Leadership Fairfax is presenting a breakfast with Fairfax County and regional leaders for a discussion with the Board of Supervisors regarding the state of the County. Tickets are $50 for class members, $75 for Leadership Fairfax members, and $100 for the general public.

Saturday (April 6)

• Annual Easter Egg Hunt and Petting Zoo — 10 a.m.-12 p.m. at Andrew Chapel United Methodist Church (1301 Trap Road) — The Andrew Chapel United Methodist Church is hosting a free Easter Egg hunt for children. Kids can bring their own basket or one will be provided. In addition to the egg hunt, a petting zoo will include rabbits, ducks, chickens, guinea pigs and a pig.
• Art Blooms in Mosaic — 10 a.m.-6 p.m. at the Mosaic District (2910 District Ave) — The Mosaic District is hosting a cherry blossom-themed event in partnership with the National Cherry Blossom Festival this Saturday and Sunday. Activities include a painting class focused on creating a cherry blossom vase and artwork from Torpedo Factory artists.

Sunday (April 7)

• National Arab American Women’s Association Dinner — 5 p.m. at Sheraton Tysons (8661 Leesburg Pike) — The NAAWA will host a dinner featuring Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib as the keynote speaker. Front row tickets are sold out, but general seating tickets and meals are still available at $75.

Image via Facebook

Tysons’s 1st Stage Theatre is remembering the 20th anniversary of the 1999 Columbine High School shooting with performances of the “docudrama” play Columbinus.

The play weaves together factual testimonies from survivors and community members with fictional representations of students impacted by the shooting.

The play was written by Stephen Karam and PJ Paparelli and first premiered in Silver Spring, Maryland in 2005. The 1st Stage production is directed by Alex Levy, artistic director at 1st Stage, and Juan Francisco Villa.

The plan opened March 28 and is scheduled to run until April 20.

Tickets for the show are $39 for general audiences, $36 for seniors, or $15 for students or military.

The 1st Stage Theatre also offers post-show programs for many of its productions.

• Saturday, April 6 — a discussion with the cast of the show.
• Saturday, April 13 — Dr. Ebony White, assistant clinical professor of behavioral health counseling at Drexler University, is scheduled to discuss the behavioral health and trauma issues related to the play.

Photo courtesy Teresa Castracane/1st Stage Theatre

The McLean Citizens Association (MCA) is mulling a call for more local police funding in the face of rapid development in Tysons.

MCA is set to discuss the funding resolution at the group’s Board of Directors meeting this Wednesday (April 3). The proposal calls for increased funding to Fairfax County Police Department’s McLean District starting with the next county budget.

The station’s McLean name can be a bit misleading — the McLean Police District covers not just McLean, but Tysons, Merrifield, and the Wolf Trap area near Vienna.

In the Fairfax County proposed budget’s five-year staffing plan, police staffing in Tysons is scheduled to gradually increase in the urban areas, but the implementation of this staffing increase is set to be deferred from the upcoming Fiscal Year 2020 budget.

The MCA resolution argues that the county needs to act more quickly:

County Police Department assesses that the McLean Station needed 6 more officers by 2019, 29 more officers by 2024 and a total of 65 additional officers by 2029 just to keep pace with the growth… given that it takes nine months for new officers to complete training, it is critical that the County take steps in the very near future to make a ‘down payment’ on implementation of the McLean Station staffing plan.

The resolution urges the Board of Supervisors to begin implementing the McLean Station staffing plan, including reassigning some newly-trained recruits to the McLean District’s “Tysons Urban Team,” starting later this year.

(Updated 10:50 a.m.) The Starbucks in the Capital One building (1600 Capital One Drive) is now officially open.

According to an employee at the Starbucks, the location has been open for a little less than a month.

The news will likely come as little surprise to employees at Capital One, who seem to be frequenting the establishment so much that many of the baristas are on a first name basis with the customers.

For those who don’t work at Capital One, that there’s another Starbucks open in the area may come as a bit of a surprise — there was no fanfare around the opening and the storefront is hard to see from the McLean Metro station, given the construction of the forthcoming Wegmans building.

There are now ten Starbucks in the Tysons area, including two in Tysons Corner Center mall. The Capital One Starbucks is the second in Tysons East; the other is inside the Safeway at 7401 Colshire Drive.

The City Works Eatery and Pour House along Capital One Drive next to the Starbucks are still currently under construction.

HQ2 Worries for Fairfax Companies — “Amazon.com Inc.’s move to open a second headquarters in Arlington may prove to be a mixed-bag for Fairfax County. While many HQ2 employees are expected to live in the county, there’s a real chance that Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) will take tech talent from companies based in Fairfax.” [Washington Business Journal]

Does Tysons Need New North-South Transit? — “The Silver Line is good for east-west, but Tysons needs something north-south too. [Twitter]

Silver Line Station Progress — “Work crews in yellow vests and hard hats continue to dot the stations, track, pavilions, pedestrian bridges and tracks along the Phase 2 alignment, but over the next few months, more and more of those workers will be heading to interior work stations to run utility lines, install equipment and test all of the facilities.” [VivaTysons]

Apartment Fire in Falls Church — A fire broke out in the kitchen of an apartment at 450 N. Washington Street in Falls Church on Friday afternoon. [Twitter]

Falls Church PD Seek Info in Dog Bite Case — “City of Falls Church Police and Animal Control are looking for a dog that bit a man on the leg on Wednesday, March 27, around 2:15 p.m. near the Cherry Hill Park tennis courts.” [City of Falls Church]

After testing the waters with a few drink options late last month, the Tysons Galleria location (2001 International Drive) for southern cuisine eatery Stomping Ground is moving forward tonight with an evening food and drink menu.

According to owner Nicole Jones, the new menu and cocktail list will be available in the restaurant every day starting at 3 p.m.

The new snacks are an eclectic assortment of southern dishes, from the rather conventional deviled eggs at $8 to Chicken Liver Mousse at $12. The restaurant’s signature fried chicken buckets — which serves two — are also available for $35.

Cocktails are $12 and cover an array of southern porch and parlor classics, like cucumber tonics (gin, cucumber juice, elderflower, lemon) and rainy ladies (pussers rum, lairds, vermouth, cinnamon, walnut).

Like the newly opened bar at Andy’s Pizza next to Stomping Ground, the menu will include a selection of beers and wines.