Real Estate Taxes Due Today — Fairfax County property owners must pay the second installment of their real estate taxes by the end of today (Monday). Taxes can be paid through the Department of Tax Administration’s online portal. [Fairfax County Government/Twitter]
Vienna Man Arrested in Fatal Hit and Run — Carlos Alexander Torres Jr., 24, of Vienna was arrested in Montgomery County on Friday (Dec. 3) after police detectives determined that he was allegedly the driver in a Sept. 1 hit-and-run crash in Reston that killed the other driver. Police believe alcohol may have been a factor in the crash. [FCPD]
Asian Restaurant in Vienna Closes — Red Galanga at 144 Church Street NW closed its doors for the last time on Dec. 1, citing challenges with filling positions during the pandemic. Sister restaurant Sweet Ginger (120 Branch Road SE) will honor outstanding gift certificates from Red Galanga, which says an Italian restaurant will take its place on Church Street. [Patch]
Former WFT Quarterback Sells McLean House — “Alex Smith, quarterback for the Washington Football Team until earlier this year, has sold his 6,300-square-foot mansion in McLean for $5,800,000. He first listed the property for $6,750,000 in June, a few months after he was released from the team.” [Washingtonian]
Leaf Vacuum Careens into Vienna Garage — “Town of Vienna employees were working in the 400 block of Center Street, N., on Nov. 30 at 2:59 p.m. and had parked a leaf-vacuum trailer on the roadway with a wheel stop in place to secure it. Due to the steep incline, the trailer went over the wheel stop, proceeded down a hill and struck the garage of a residence, Vienna police said.” [Sun Gazette]
Starbucks will not reopen at the Capital One headquarters in Tysons.
The coffee shop at 1610 Capital One Drive North has been closed for much of the past year during the COVID-19 pandemic, but the exact timing of the decision to keep it closed isn’t entirely clear.
After the location reopened in the second half of 2020, an anonymous tipster alerted Tysons Reporter on June 20 that it had closed again.
“Due to limited office occupancy during the COVID pandemic, Starbucks has temporarily closed this location but plans to re-open this location in the near future,” a spokesperson for Capital One Center, the surrounding mixed-use development, told Tysons Reporter at that time.
However, in an emailed statement, the Starbucks media relations team now tells Tysons Reporter that the company’s last day at Capital One was back on March 23:
As part of Starbucks standard course of business, we continually evaluate our business to ensure a healthy store portfolio. After careful consideration, we determined it was best to close the store at 1610 Capital One Drive North in McLean, VA. Our last day at this location was March 23, 2021.
As difficult as this was, we must make the right business decisions for the sake of Starbucks long-term growth. All Starbucks partners (employees) working at that store had the opportunity to transfer to one of our nearby locations.
We look forward to continuing to serve the McLean community and encourage our customers to visit us at our other stores in the area.
Starbucks opened at the Capital One building in March 2019, quickly becoming a regular haunt for the financial corporation’s employees.
The location is still listed as open on Yelp, where reviewers compliment the staff for their friendliness and level of service.
The Starbucks store locator includes a shop at 1680 Capital One Drive that also appears on Google Maps, but the listed phone number has been disconnected.
Tysons East still has a Starbucks in the Safeway on Colshire Drive, and there are seven other locations in Tysons overall, though one of the two shops in Tysons Corner Center remains temporarily closed.
Curiosity Doughnuts has closed its store located inside Whole Foods Market at The Boro.
The location closed last week due to “unforeseen circumstances” after operating there for years, serving ingredient-conscientious goods with colorful toppings and unique names.
“It’s been a great couple of years at this location and we appreciate all of our staff and customers immensely,” the owners said in a post on Facebook, noting that its locations in Pennsylvania and New Jersey are still in operation.
The store’s last day was Wednesday (Nov. 24), the day before Thanksgiving.
The company didn’t immediately respond to a message seeking to clarify what happened.
Curiosity Doughnuts also said it would close corresponding popups for its Tysons location but didn’t provide further details. It operated popups in a Whole Foods Market in Alexandria on the weekends.
The Boro — the mixed-use development emerging near the Greensboro Metro station — recently added coffee shop Bluestone Lane as its newest tenant. The restaurants Circa Bistro, El Bebe, and Caliburger are expected to open next year.
Meanwhile, an expansion that will extend The Boro to the north side of Westpark Drive is slated to add hundreds of residential units, a senior living facility, public parks, and more.
Urban Plates at Tysons Galleria is no more.
An anonymous tipster alerted Tysons Reporter to the healthy-eating restaurant’s closure yesterday (Tuesday), and a company spokesperson confirmed in an emailed statement that it is indeed permanent:
Urban Plates has made the very difficult decision to close our Tyson’s Galleria location so we may focus energy on growing and supporting our West Coast restaurants. We know this is sad news…for us, for our locals who dined with us, and of course our team members. We trust that our fans understand we would only choose to close a location if it was the right decision for the greater Urban Plates family long term. Decisions like these allow us to continue to make the quality, craveable, affordable food our guests count on us to deliver.
When asked by Tysons Reporter, the spokesperson added that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was a factor in Urban Plates’ decision to focus on its West Coast restaurants.
Primarily based in California, Urban Plates opened next to Saks Fifth Avenue at Tysons Galleria on July 16, 2018, making that its first East Coast franchise. Since then, the company added restaurants in Columbia and Bethesda, Maryland, both of which have now also been shuttered.
With a menu of sandwiches, soups, salads, and meat-based dishes, the restaurant emphasizes its use of healthy, sustainable ingredients, a reputation that made it the lunch of choice for three former presidents on Inauguration Day earlier this year.
Bigger changes are in store for Tysons Galleria, as work continues on a redevelopment of the mall’s former Macy’s space, which is being subdivided to accommodate a movie theater, a bowling alley, and other new retailers.
The Mosaic District will soon be a little emptier, with the impending closure of Wee Chic (2905 District Avenue, Suite 120) coming on the heels of the recent departure of Purée Artisan Juice Bar (Suite 140).
A chalkboard sign outside Wee Chic last Thursday (Sept. 16) indicated that the kids’ clothing boutique is currently having a “location closing” sale. Owner Bridget Quinn Strickline confirmed that Sunday (Sept. 26) will likely be the store’s last day.
Wee Chic launched its original store in Lutherville, Maryland, north of Baltimore in 2009 and expanded to Merrifield with its second location in the spring of 2019, just a month before its 10-year anniversary.
Stickline says she loved having the Mosaic store, which saw “very strong” business from young families with infants and toddlers, but it ultimately didn’t attract the balanced customer base needed to justify renewing the lease for the 1,800 square feet of space.
“We met wonderful customers that were terrific, and we had so much fun getting to know them and watching their little kids grow up over the few years we were there,” she said. “But we just didn’t develop those next two categories, which is the kid and the tween, and that’s essential to making our formula successful.”
While the COVID-19 pandemic “certainly wasn’t helpful,” it wasn’t a huge factor in the decision to leave the Mosaic District, Stickline says, expressing appreciation for the support that property owner Edens offered Wee Chic and other merchants over the past year of shutdowns and public health restrictions.
Mosaic customers can still order from Wee Chic by phone and online, two options added while the physical stores were closed in the spring of 2020. Stickline previously resisted the allure of e-commerce, preferring in-person interactions, but she says the online store “was a lifesaver” during the pandemic.
In addition, the 3,000 square-foot Lutherville location is not only still open, but remains so successful that Wee Chic recently launched a new, teen-focused brand called Girlhero in the same shopping center.
Stickline hasn’t ruled out a return to Northern Virginia for Wee Chic or Girlhero, which she says is “off to a great start.”
“We love the Northern Virginia market,” Stickline said. “I think it’s a matter of kind of figuring out where the right mix of clients are for us, where we get kind of all of the age groups represented really well and we can be a part of that community.”
Just down the street from Wee Chic, Purée Juice Bar has been shuttered. Signs posted to its windows encourage patrons to visit its other locations at The Boro and in D.C. and Bethesda, Maryland.
Purée Director of Marketing and E-commerce Jordan von Lange says the company closed its Mosaic District store on Aug. 31, citing a decline in foot traffic and the widespread hiring challenges that have stymied the country’s retail and service industries.
“Our lease was ending in October and we decided not to extend the lease due to a decrease in foot traffic in the Mosaic area and close up early because the staffing shortage,” van Lange said. “We also just opened up a new location close by inside the Whole Foods in The Boro at Tysons so wanted to pursue that opportunity instead.”
The women’s fashion store Francesca’s (Suite C10) also appears to be closed, as Yelp users have reported, but a customer service representative told Tysons Reporter by phone that the company has shut down several of its stores recently for remodeling.
An email to Francesca’s corporate office asking whether the Mosaic District closure is permanent did not get a response by press time. The clothing retailer’s Tysons Corner Center location remains open.
(Updated at 8 p.m. on 9/15/2021) Mickey Mouse is packing up his bags and will soon say farewell to Tysons Corner Center.
The Disney store will close its doors by Sept. 22 after more than three decades at the mall, joining dozens of other brick-and-mortar locations across the country that the company is shuttering to focus more on online retail.
(Correction: This article originally said the Disney store opened at Tysons Corner Center in April 2012. That was the opening of the current remodeled store. The original, larger store had been around since the late 1980s.)
As recently as the end of August, the Tysons Corner store looked like it might be spared, but Disney’s shop locator was updated within the past week to indicate that the location will indeed close on or before Sept. 22, news further confirmed by signs set up at the store entrance.
The store saw a steady stream of customers coming and going early yesterday afternoon (Tuesday). Banners advertised a 40% discount on all products, though an employee informed visitors that all sales are final, meaning there can be no refunds or returns.
Disney announced on March 23 that it will close at least 60 stores in North America this year, citing a pandemic-driven need to focus on ecommerce through its Shop Disney platform.
“While consumer behavior has shifted toward online shopping, the global pandemic has changed what consumers expect from a retailer,” Stephanie Young, Disney’s president of consumer products, games, and publishing said in the press release. “…We now plan to create a more flexible, interconnected ecommerce experience that gives consumers easy access to unique, high-quality products across all our franchises.”
The media conglomerate said it will continue to maintain physical stores in its theme parks and inside other retailers, such Target, which plans to add more than 100 new Disney shops within its big-box stores by the end of the year.
The McDonald’s at the Pan Am Shopping Center just outside of Vienna has closed.
Located at 3091 Nutley Street, the fast-food chain shared a standalone building in the shopping center with what used to be a Capital One Bank, though that space at 3095 Nutley has been vacated as well.
Neither McDonald’s nor Federal Realty, which owns the Pan Am Shopping Center, returned a request for comment on exactly when the location shuttered and what led to the closure.
Both 3091 and 3095 Nutley Street are now listed as available for leasing on Federal Realty’s webpage for the shopping center.
McDonald’s announced in July 2020 that it was permanently closing 200 stores, most of them in Walmarts. The move focused on “low-volume restaurants” and was accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
LoKL Gourmet has been permanently closed for less than a month, but a new restaurant promising a similar Whole Foods-style market with a local focus is already preparing to fill the void that the McLean shop left behind.
Roots Provisions & Grocery will take over Suite E at 8100 Old Dominion Drive, according to the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority’s database. With an effective date of March 10, the restaurant’s application for a liquor license is currently pending.
Anne Alfano, the chef and business manager for Roots, says it will be an “elevated” fast-casual restaurant with an emphasis on healthy ingredients. Like Lokl Gourmet, its menu will consist of sandwiches, soups, salad and vegan bowls, and assorted breakfast options.
The venue will also contain a bar that serves beer, wine, and cocktails as well as a grocery section with everything from freshly farmed milk and eggs to pasta, charcuterie, and baked goods, such as cake pops and croissants.
“My goal is to take the former concept of Lokl Gourmet, but make it cleaner, make it healthier, and a little bit more pleasing to the eye,” Alfano told Tysons Reporter.
A notice on the LoKL Gourmet website indicates that the eatery struggled financially throughout 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic but managed to persevere until the end of February, thanks to support from its landlord, vendors, and community.
“Our team of food enthusiasts hope to have an opportunity to serve you in the future,” the message to patrons says. “But for now, our restaurant and bar are now closed and we will not be reopening at this location for the foreseeable future.”
The LoKL Gourmet team encourages customers to continue supporting local businesses and locally-sourced foods and products, which were at the heart of the gourmet market’s appeal since it opened in 2015.
In addition to offering a similar menu, Roots will retain some of Lokl Gourmet’s employees and its goal of fostering a neighborhood-friendly environment. The new restaurant’s name reflects the owners’ close ties to McLean, according to Alfano.
“It’s owned by people who live in McLean…who grew up in McLean and live in McLean,” she said. “They’re trying to keep it in the neighborhood, trying to keep the neighborhood vibrant, trying to contribute and give back.”
While the permitting process makes it hard to pin down an exact date, the Roots team hopes to open in April, when the weather will be warmer and COVID-19 vaccinations are expected to accelerate both locally and nationally.
Alfano says they will comply with all health protocols, including mask requirements, and there will be robust curbside pick-up and delivery options, along with an outdoor patio with limited seating.
“We’re in the midst of a major vaccination campaign, and people are eager to go out into the warm weather,” Alfano said. “…I think it’s a great time to open a restaurant right now.”
Image via Google Maps
The Safeway grocery store on Chain Bridge Road in McLean will soon be no more.
Tysons Reporter received several tips from readers about the impending closure after “going out of business” signs advertising sales popped up last week at the Safeway located at 1330 Chain Bridge Road.
A Safeway spokeswoman confirmed that the store is expected to close on April 30.
This is the only store that Safeway is closing in its mid-Atlantic division, which includes Virginia, D.C., Maryland, and Delaware, says Safeway Mid-Atlantic spokesperson Beth Goldberg.
“Closing a store is always a tough decision, but we sometimes have to make those decisions so we can invest appropriately in other areas of our business,” she said. “Like all retailers, we are constantly evaluating our store portfolio and look at every angle of the business. This includes our real estate.”
The parent company, Albertsons, will still have 111 Safeway stores in the D.C. area after this one closes, she said.
“We have no immediate plans to close any other locations,” she said.
A Lidl will be taking its place.
DMV-area retail-only real estate brokerage firm H&R Retail, which owns the Safeway property on Chain Bridge Road, now lists the German supermarket chain as a tenant. The chain, which is expanding its footprint in Northern Virginia, is known for its low prices.
Lidl spokesperson Chandler Ebeier confirmed to Tysons Reporter that the grocery retailer “will be opening a store in this location in the future, but it is too early to offer specifics at this time.”
“We look forward to serving the community in the future,” he said.
Valentine’s Day will be the final day of business for The Greek Taverna (6828 Old Dominion Dr.) after almost 28 years in McLean.
The impending closure was first reported yesterday by McLean Patch.
Co-owner Christos Karamanos told Tysons Reporter that a variety of factors led him and his wife Popi to decide to close the restaurant that they started in 1994.
Christos says business slowed down significantly after the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March, with public health concerns discouraging many people from going out.
Closure became inevitable when attempts to negotiate terms for rent forgiveness with their landlord reached an impasse, but the couple is also reaching an age where they felt ready to move on after running the restaurant for 27 years.
“Greece is beautiful and that’s where I want to go spend a lot of time,” Karamanos said.
Still, leaving behind the McLean community when The Greek Taverna closes its doors for the last time on Sunday will not be easy.
The Greek Taverna offers a menu of shish-kabobs, pastitsio, and other cuisine from the Karamanos couple’s native Greece. They came to the U.S. in the 1970s, and this was their second restaurant in Northern Virginia, according to Patch.
“Our customers and friends, we’re going to miss them terribly,” Karamanos said. “I wish that things were different. We met a lot of good customers here and a lot of good friends too.”
Photo via Google Maps
