The Persian New Year is just around the corner on Thursday (March 21), which means that many Iranian-Americans will also soon celebrate the coming of spring.
For many locals who rely on Middle Eastern markets — specifically Persian markets — to supply them with groceries, baked goods and other assorted supplies, Vienna has several places to buy all of the necessities for parties and family gatherings around the Persian New Year.
These small bodega-like markets are important to the Persian community as they act like microcosms of classical Middle Eastern bazaars. Many of the customers that go to the stores are able to speak in Persian, Arabic and Turkish with one another and get ingredients not common in most grocery stores.
Here are three favorites among Iranian-Americans in the area:
Assal Market (112 Glyndon Street NE)
The first shop on the list is Assal Market. Assal Market is one of the oldest middle eastern grocery stores in the area, having first opened up in 1986. Customers can shop for various meats, nuts, fruits and other grocery essentials for festive dinners and other occasions. Most specifically, Assal offers a wide range of halal meats for kabobs, beef stews, and all sorts of Persian classical dishes.
Yas Bakery (137 Church Street NW)
Located in the heart of Vienna, Yas Bakery is owned by Maryam Tabrizi and has been around since 2003. Yas, which means “Jasmine” in Farsi, offers an impressive amount of many sweets, all of which are made fresh in house daily. Zoolbia bamieh — fried honey pastries — are a stable and customer favorite among the sweets offered.
Shiraz Market (8486 Tyco Road G)
Shiraz Market, owned by Mahnaz Hooshmand and located in the Tysons area, is the largest of the three markets and offers fresh produce, baked goods and a small in-house café with homestyle Persian food. Customers often come in to shop for their groceries and also get a lunch of koobideh kabob with saffron rice. The market also sells a variety of glassware, including Persian teacups, hookahs and other china for decorating and serving dishes.
These stores are not exclusive to Persians or other Middle Eastern shoppers, and many of the people that go to these stores come from all sorts of backgrounds. All the shop keepers emphasized just how glad they are that their stores not only provide essentials to Middle Eastern homes, but also introduce the entire community to their food and culture.
Whether or not you celebrate or know someone who is celebrating the Persian New Year, these stores all offer something new and exciting to all local residents.
Vienna’s version of “American Idol” plans to return for its eighth annual music competition.
Vienna Idol showcases local talent, while also raising money for the Khristin Kyllo Memorial Fund, which honors the memory of a local Vienna resident who died suddenly due to a sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP).
The contest has raised more than $80,000 for the fund, which sends several young people to college, purchases epilepsy seizure bracelets and monitors for people who can’t afford them and donates funds for SUDEP research, according to the competition’s website.
The semi-weekly auditions start the first week of April and will take place at either Caffe Amouri Coffee Roaster (107 Church St NE) or Whole Foods (143 Maple Ave E.) throughout the month.
The winner gets chosen by attendees, who vote for their favorite “Idol” during a concert on the Vienna Town Green (144 Maple Ave E.) on Friday, June 7.
The first place winner will receive $700 and eight hours of professional recording studio time. The contestant in second place will walk away with $500, while the contestant in third place will get $250.
Image via Facebook
A new development plan could bring new housing, hotel rooms, office space and retail to the area around the Spring Hill Metro station in Tysons.
The plan, which calls for between 775 and 1,225 residential units, some 700,000 square feet of office space, and perhaps a 350-room hotel, would be located down the street from the proposed View at Tysons project, the Washington Business Journal reports.
More from WBJ:
There’s a new proposal for a 5.24-acre site just down the street, at the corner of Leesburg Pike and Spring Hill Road, that would bring an additional 2 million square feet to the Spring Hill Metro area. And this one features a 2-acre piazza.
“The Piazza at Tysons is more than just another high-quality redevelopment in Tysons, with a mix of uses that will permit people to live, work and play in Tysons,” per the application, submitted to Fairfax County by Michelle Rosati, a partner in Holland & Knight LLP’s Tysons’ office. “It is a vision for an inclusive, welcoming and aesthetically exquisite neighborhood where people will interact and thrive — where the pedestrian realm is at the center of the concept, both literally and philosophically.” [ …]
The Piazza at Tysons would replace Schmitz Exxon and a neighboring retail development currently home to a Starbucks, Tile Shop and Ethan Allen furniture store.
April performances at The Barns at Wolf Trap feature a mix of music, from folk to acapella to instrumental.
Omara Portuondo, an 88-year-old Cuban singer and dancer who has been compared to Billie Holiday and Edith Piaf, will bring her signature flair from April 23-24. Tickets start at $50.
The Secret Sisters (real-life sisters Laura and Lydia Rogers) are set to bring their haunting folk songs to the stage on April 19. Their 2017 album “You Don’t Own Me Anymore” earned them a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album. The stop at Wolf Trap is a part of the duo’s current tour. Tickets cost $25.
Singer-songwriter Storm Large will also take to the stage to perform a range of songs, from Cole Porter to Pat Benatar.
You might have seen her as a contestant on the CBS reality television show “Rock Star: Supernova.” Large has an eclectic background. She started as a rock artist before transitioning into the theater and cabaret world. Tickets are $55.
The list of Wolf Trap events in April:
- April 4: Tom Paxton & The DonJuans
- April 5: The Swingles
- April 6: A BandHouse Gigs Tribute to XTC
- April 7: Calidore String Quartet and Juho Pohjonen
- April 11: Robyn Hitchcock
- April 12: Storm Large
- April 18: Stephen Kellogg
- April 19: The Secret Sisters
- April 23-24: Omara Portuondo
- April 25: John McCutcheon
- April 26: Wu Han, Gloria Chien and Gilles Vonsattel
The full Wolf Trap schedule is available online.
Photo via Wolf Trap
Several newcomers are heading to the Mosaic District.
Two restaurants are set to open this fall, according to EDENS, a retail real estate owner and developer.
French bistro Parc de Ville will fill the former spot of Mike Isabella’s Requin (8296 Glass Alley, Suite 110), Washingtonian reported.
This is will be the first Northern Virginia location for D.C. restauranteurs Ian and Eric Hilton, who are known for their concepts Chez Billy Sud, Players Club and The Brixton, according to EDENS.
RyuKai, a Japanese BBQ and soba noodle restaurant, will include a demo kitchen where Shuichi Kotani will teach soba noodle making, EDENS said in a press release. The restaurant is set to occupy a 5,820-square-foot-space at 2980 District Ave, the Commercial Observer reported.
Kumon, an afterschool math and reading program, will join RyuKai at 2980 District Ave. Building permits indicate that Kumon will take up a 1,377-square-foot space in suite 150.
Up the street, Wee Chic, a Maryland-based kids’ clothing boutique, will take the former spot of Dawn Price Baby (2905 District Ave suite 120).
First and last images via Google Maps
Davita Dialysis is bringing a new kidney care facility near the Dulles Toll Road in Vienna.
Davita offers home calls, health centers around the U.S. and conducts clinical research to improve kidney care.
Davita signed a lease back in December for a 4,008-square-foot space at 8605 Westwood Center Drive, according to Renaud Consulting, a commercial real estate company.
The spot is near the intersection of Leesburg Pike and the Dulles Toll Road.
An opening date for the Vienna facility has not been announced yet.
Image via Google Maps
FCPS Isolation Practices Questioned — “For years, Fairfax County Public Schools reported to the federal government that not a single student was physically restrained or trapped in an isolating space. But documents obtained by WAMU reveal hundreds of cases where children, some as young as 6 years old, were restrained or put in seclusion multiple times. In some cases, a single child was confined to a room almost 100 times in a school year.” [WAMU]
Falls Church Budget Proposal — “Falls Church City Manager Wyatt Shields proposed a Fiscal Year 2020 (FY2020) budget of $99.3 million, which provides for a 2.4 percent ($958,408) increase in general government operating expenditures and a 2.5 percent ($1,044,231) increase in local funding for public schools, as requested by the School Board.” [City of Falls Church]
Local Students Emerge As State Chess Champs — “Students from four Fairfax County public schools won team championships in all four K-12 divisions at the Virginia Scholastic Chess Championships held recently in Charlottesville… The K-3 team from Spring Hill Elementary School won the team title in its age group.” [Fairfax County Public Schools]
McLean Teacher’s Wedding Gets NYT Write-up — Sara Rhodin, a history teacher at the private, all-girls Madeira School in McLean, had her recent nuptials to former Obama speechwriter Tyler Lechtenberg written up in the New York Times’ wedding section. [New York Times]
Tysons Reporter Event Calendar — Tysons Reporter has launched its Tysons, McLean, Vienna and Falls Church event calendar. The calendar has been pre-populated with events from around the region to start, but expect to see more local events being added every week. You can submit events to the calendar here.
A new Fairfax Connector bus line is scheduled to start later this month, adding another set of connections from Tysons to Vienna and Dunn Loring.
The new bus line bridges the north-south gap between the Tysons Corner Metro station on the Silver Line and the Dunn Loring Metro station on the Orange Line.
Route 467 starts and ends in the same spots as Route 462, but takes a more circuitous route through Vienna, turning at the corner, running from Dunn Loring to the corner of Center Street and Maple Avenue before turning to travel along the western side of Maple Avenue up to Tysons.
Route 467 is scheduled to be active midday and evenings on weekdays and Saturday, starting Saturday, March 30.
A supermarket in Vienna has been the victim of a theft of shrimp twice in as many weeks.
Both thefts happened between 10-11 a.m. on a weekday and involved a man walking off with pilfered shrimp from the Giant store at 359 Maple Avenue E., according to the latest Vienna Police Department crime report.
The first theft happened on Monday, Feb. 25, when “a man left the store without paying for several platters of shrimp.” The second theft happened on Friday, March 8 when “a man left the store without paying for several bags of shrimp.”
A description of the suspect or suspects was not provided in the crime report.
Photo via Facebook
Local nonprofit Washington Regional Alcohol Program (WRAP) and ridesharing app Lyft have teamed up again to offer free rides to keep intoxicated drivers off of the road on St. Patrick’s Day.
As part of an effort to combat drunk driving, WRAP will be sponsoring free Lyft rides on Sunday night and early Monday morning.
From 4 p.m. on Sunday (March 17) until 4 a.m. on Monday (March 18), rides up to $15 are free with the use of a promo code — one ride per person.
Since the St. Patrick’s Day SoberRide program aims to keep prevent alcohol-related crashes, Lyft riders must be at least 21 years old to claim the offer. The code, which works for any rides inside the D.C. coverage area, is valid for the first 1,500 Lyft passengers who enter the code.
WRAP and Lyft previously partnered to combat drunk driving during the holiday season.
Image via Fairfax County Fire and Rescue
