Inova Will Require COVID-19 Vaccinations for Workers — “Inova Health System is requiring all employees to receive a Covid-19 vaccine, making the Falls Church-based nonprofit the latest in the region to employ such a mandate. Inova, which counts 18,000 employees across the organization, notified staff last week of the requirement, which goes into effect Sept. 1.” [Washington Business Journal]
McLean Swimmer Qualifies for Summer Olympics in Tokyo — “After coming up short at the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials in 2012 and 2016, McLean native Andrew Seliskar has made the Olympic Team. The 24-year-old placed fourth in the 200-meter freestyle at Trials, earning a spot on the 4×200 meter freestyle relay team.” [WJLA-ABC7 News]
New Tysons Child Care Center Now Enrolling — After breaking ground on its new early childhood education center on Jones Branch Drive in March, Celebree School has opened enrollment for kids from infants through pre-kindergarten. The private school is also currently looking to hire teachers in preparation for its anticipated opening later this summer. [Celebree School]
Wolf Trap Announces More Summer Shows — “On Tuesday, Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts announced the following new concerts: The Avett Brothers, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue with Michael Franti & Spearhead, A Tribute to Marvin Gaye featuring Raheem DeVaughn and Friends, and ABBA the Concert. The shows are part of the Filene Center’s 5oth anniversary season.” [Patch]
(Updated at 6 p.m.) After a 20-year hiatus, The Italian Oven has returned to Old Dominion Drive in McLean.
The Italian restaurant officially opened on Monday (June 21) at 6852 Old Dominion Drive, moving back into a spot it had first occupied in 1985.
The Esposito family has been serving authentic Italian cuisine in Northern Virginia for over 40 years. Although the restaurant has operated under multiple names, the main attraction has been their wood-burning oven shipped from Italy, which reaches 800 degrees and cooks pizzas in about two and a half minutes.
Salvatore “Sal” Esposito, the former owner of the original Italian Oven, was a “pioneer of installing wood-burning ovens in Arlington, Fairfax, McLean, and Georgetown,” according to his son, Robert, who will own and manage the eatery’s latest incarnation.
A native of Naples, Italy, Sal Esposito was trained in the hospitality industry in Germany and England before coming to America.
His uncle, Franco, was a chef trained in Long Island, New York, and the first member of the Esposito family to open a restaurant in the U.S., starting with a small hole-in-the-wall in Arlington. They had lines out the door after the first few months of business.
Health complications led Sal to retire early in 2000, leaving the restaurant in the hands of five managers. Eventually, Moe Jebali became the sole owner and renamed the restaurant Pulcinella.
Now, Pulcinella is moving to a new location, and Robert Esposito has decided to buy his father’s old restaurant and refurbish it to reopen The Italian Oven.
A graduate of Langley High School, Robert is also deaf and has strong ties to the deaf community in McLean, according to his father. He is committed to making The Italian Oven a welcoming environment for members of the deaf community.
There are still remnants of the old Italian Oven. A mural depicting a scene from Italy is still intact in the lower dining room, and the original wood-burning oven is still cooking as well. Certain pictures and menu items remain the same too, all waiting for guests to come back and enjoy.
“The people of McLean have been coming through the door saying, ‘Welcome back. We love you and welcome back,'” Sal said.
Questions and concerns about the restaurant can be directed to 703-570-4975.
Daniel Bechara knows better than most that sometimes to save a look, you need to make some cuts. It’s why Bechara decided to pull his hair salon, Salon Daniel, out of McLean after 30 years to move to a more visible location in Merrifield (2750 Gallows Rd.).
Bechara says the new location brings the salon into a more publicly accessible place than their previous locale.
“It feels great,” Bechara said. “It’s a new generation, a younger generation, and it’s a better location. I was [in McLean] for exactly thirty years, but it was hidden up on the second level and it was hard to see. I was only getting new clients because of our reputation, but not from somebody walking by and seeing us. It was time to move.”
The new location is two blocks south of the Dunn Loring-Merrifield Metro station, almost halfway between the station and the Mosaic District. Bechara says the new location also benefits from being on the ground floor of a residential building.
“We’re right next to the Metro and in the Avalon Community,” Bechara said. “We’re in a retail and residential area with 830 residents right above us, and we haven’t even tapped into that yet because we want to make sure we have the capacity.”
The new salon location has been open for around three weeks. Bechara says all of his old team and many familiar clients have carried over into the new location. After years of stagnation in the other location, Bechara said he’s had over 25 new walk-in clients since opening.
“It’s new business every day,” said Bechara.
After 40 years working in hair salons, Bechara says the change in venue also gave him the opportunity to try something new with his salon.
“The other one was 30 years old. It was a different design,” Bechara said. “This one is more of a Miami-style salon. It’s a different vibe, a different look, more open concept with a bar. People can hang out at the bar and have a drink.”
Bechara says the new salon has the same price range as the McLean location, which varies by haircut type and by stylist. One new addition, however, is complimentary valet parking.
“It’s like pulling into the Ritz Carlton,” Bechara joked.
One of the things Bechara says he’ll miss from the McLean location is the camaraderie with other salons in the area, many of them owned by stylists who got their start with him. Bechara says he felt like a “godfather” to many of the nearby salons.
As the Merrifield neighborhood grows, Bechara said he looks forward — over time — to seeing a new community of hair salons take off in the area.
McLean Downtown Plan Public Hearing Today — The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing at 4:30 p.m. today (Tuesday) on the McLean Community Business Center plan, which unanimously passed the planning commission earlier this month. The plan aims to revitalize McLean’s downtown area but has faced objections over parking, building heights, and the potential impact on local schools. [Fairfax County Government]
Capital One Center Starbucks Closed — The Starbucks at Capital One Center (1610 Capital One Drive North) is temporarily closed “due to limited office occupancy during the COVID pandemic,” a spokesperson for the development confirmed to Tysons Reporter, adding that the coffee shop is expected to reopen “in the near future.” [Capital One Center]
Madeira School Expansion Approved — “Fairfax County supervisors on June 8 voted 10-0 to grant a special exception allowing Madeira School to add a new science building, more faculty housing and improved equestrian facilities on its McLean campus…Under the newly approved plan, Madeira will have 518,255 square feet of gross floor area, with up to 45 residential units and up to 12 accessory-dwelling units.” [Sun Gazette]
McLean HS Turf Field Replacement Starts Today — “Starting tomorrow (June 22nd), the turf field and track at our stadium will be closed until early August. This shut down is due to our turf field being replaced. We apologize for inconvenience.” [McLean High School]
Wolf Trap to Salute Front-Line Workers — “Wolf Trap is officially back open for in-person shows after a year of pandemic closures. So what better way to celebrate than a series of ‘Thank You Community Concerts,’ saluting frontline workers, education workers and health care workers?” [WTOP]
Updated at 2:40 p.m. — The electronic device discovered outside of CIA’s Langley headquarters, leading to a two-hour closure of Route 123, turned out to be innocuous, a CIA spokesperson says.
“The investigation identified the small electronic device by our front gate to be a remote for a dog training collar with no security implications,” CIA spokesperson Nicole de Haay told Tysons Reporter in a statement. “Our front gate is all clear, and the matter is resolved.”
Updated at 1:30 p.m. — Route 123 has reopened in front of the CIA in McLean, the Fairfax County Police Department says.
The road was closed for roughly two hours while the intelligence agency investigated “a small electronic device” found outside its headquarters with support from local police.
“In coordination with our law enforcement partners, we’re investigating a small electronic device found outside the secure perimeter of CIA Headquarters near our front gate,” CIA spokesperson Nicole de Haay said in a statement. “Consistent with our standard protocols, we’re taking the appropriate security precautions, which include closing the front gate to CIA Headquarters.”
De Haay said the CIA will update its statement as more details about the situation become known.
Earlier: Route 123 is currently closed to traffic around the CIA headquarters in McLean.
The Fairfax County Police Department said just after 11:20 a.m. that Dolley Madison Boulevard has been shut down between Georgetown Pike and Savile Lane “for law enforcement activity in the area.”
A traffic alert from Fairfax County says drivers should “expect delays for an undetermined amount of time.”
Just last month, Route 123 was closed in the CIA headquarters area in response to a security incident where an individual reportedly attempted to drive through the gates and was stopped by armed guards.
That incident concluded when an FBI agent who responded to the scene shot the man, who later died from his injuries and has never been publicly identified.
The CIA directed follow-up inquiries about the incident to the FBI, which said it was conducting an internal review of the incident in accordance with its policies for shootings involving agents.
The FBI told Tysons Reporter on May 20 that it had no further information or comment beyond its public statement, reprinted below, announcing the individual’s death.
The subject involved in the shooting incident outside CIA Headquarters at approximately 6 p.m. on Monday, May 3, 2021, died from his injuries after being transported to the hospital. The FBI reviews every shooting incident involving an FBI special agent. The review will carefully examine the circumstances of the shooting and collect all relevant evidence from the scene. As the review remains ongoing, we cannot provide any additional details at this time.
TRAFFIC ALERT: Route 123 in McLean is closed between Georgetown Pike and Savile Lane for law enforcement activity in the area. Please use an alternate route. #FCPD pic.twitter.com/gs3T8UkV3Y
— Fairfax County Police (@FairfaxCountyPD) June 18, 2021
Westbound I-66 to Close Overnight Starting Tomorrow — “Work at the Interstate 66 and Capital Beltway interchange will require a full I-66 closure in the westbound direction over several upcoming days. The Virginia Department of Transportation said westbound I-66 will be closed at I-495 nightly from Tuesday, June 15 to Saturday, June 19. Closure hours are 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. nightly and until 6 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.” [Patch]
Vienna Reaffirms Commitment to Library Parking Project — “Vienna officials still can back out of an agreement with Fairfax County to build a new Patrick Henry Library with a parking structure, but now the town financially has something to lose. Vienna Town Council members on June 7 reconfirmed the town’s participation in the agreement and agreed to support the project’s design phase.” [Sun Gazette]
Falls Church Chamber of Commerce Supports Amendment — “The board of directors of the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce formally signed off on a letter to the Fairfax County Planning Commission in advance of its meeting next Tuesday. The letter, sent over the signature of Falls Church Executive Director Sally Cole, expressed the Chamber’s strong support for an amendment to the Fairfax County Comprehensive Plan to permit mixed use development at WMATA’s West Falls Church Metro station site.” [Falls Church News-Press]
McLean Home of Retired Football Quarterback for Sale — “In April, the veteran quarterback Alex Smith announced his retirement from the NFL. Now Smith is leaving the Washington, DC, metro behind. He’s listed his gorgeous mansion in McLean, VA, for $6.7 million.” [Sun Sentinel]
The Fairfax County Planning Commission gave the green light yesterday (Wednesday) to a once-more revised version of a plan to revitalize downtown McLean.
“This amended plan is an important and hopefully major change for the future revitalization of the aging and somewhat dated downtown McLean business and shopping area,” Dranesville District Commissioner John Ulfelder said.
Their unanimous vote came after commissioners made some last-minute changes to the plan in response to nearly two dozen people who aired their criticisms, both general and targeted, during a public hearing last month.
The changes incorporate some of that feedback, specifically on parking and building heights. One change responds to commissioners, who had some concerns regarding a mechanism to review the plan’s progress in 10 years or when 1,660 residential units have been built — whichever comes first.
Commissioners struck a section recommending changes to parking as well as a proposal to close the intersection of Center Street and Old Dominion Drive, which will remain open until a rezoning application is filed and reviewed.
They also clarified a section on building heights surrounding Franklin Sherman Elementary School and McLean Baptist Church such that the buildings abutting them cannot be more than 40 feet tall.
Finally, they recommend only triggering the review once 1,660 residential units have been developed, rather than after 10 years, which Ulfelder described as “an arbitrary time limit.” The revised McLean Community Business Center plan goes into greater detail about what the review could look like and the opportunities for community input ahead of any decision about adding more residences.
Will it be enough to attract developers?
“The proof of the pudding is in the eating,” Ulfelder said.
The commission unanimously supported a follow-on motion directing the county to run a pilot project aimed at making McLean more pedestrian and bicycle-friendly with streets designed to slow down traffic.
“The pilot could include techniques like narrower vehicle lanes, the addition of on-street parking, time-of-day parking, and interim changes to road configurations,” Ulfelder said.
He suggested that the pilot’s scope encompass the area along Old Dominion Drive from Beverley Road to Corner Lane and along Chain Bridge Road from Old Chain Bridge Road to the Tennyson Drive and Ingleside intersections.
His recommendations include some ideas that were struck from the CBC plan’s parking management section.
Ultimately, Ulfelder said the current comprehensive plan has “proved to be too inflexible and unwieldy for landowners and potential developers,” while the proposed plan takes a “new approach that supports change and development while maintaining aspects of the CBC that the residents of McLean love and value.”
He thanked county staff for their work on weekends and after business hours to talk with residents, attend meetings, and continuously revise the plan.
“I think people don’t understand the commitment and sacrifice staff makes on these efforts,” he said.
True to her past as a former presidential staffer and Pentagon assistant, Sondra Seba Hemenway stayed up until 3 a.m. tweaking a TV script for a Fairfax County leader the night before a filming for Women’s History Month.
Hemenway was helping out as part of the Fairfax County Commission for Women, which acts as an advocacy unit, even as she missed some meetings due to cancer treatments after melanoma developed in her eye. All the while, though, her cancer was worsening.
Hemenway died Saturday (June 5) at her home in McLean, according to her obituary. She was 67.
“She fought for her life the way she fights for women and girls in marginalized communities,” said Lisa Sales, chair of the county women’s commission, who recalled Hemenway staying up late to help her with the Channel 16 TV program.
Hemenway had served at one point as vice chair of the commission with Sales, but when that title was removed, she still maintained her key involvement.
Her attention to detail and research resonated with Sales, who recalls regularly receiving a supportive hug or hand on the shoulder from Hemenway.
A sunny, sparkling woman from Hot Springs, Arkansas, who spoke with a Southern drawl, Hemenway served the White House Office for Women’s Initiatives & Outreach, Department of Defense, and White House Office of Presidential Personnel in the Clinton-Gore administration.
“She was a real connector,” said Audrey Sheppard, who worked in the Department of Defense’s Office of the Secretary, noting that Hemenway’s mother and former President Bill Clinton’s mother were best friends in Arkansas. “What would pop into her brain — ‘Oh, you have a problem? Here’s a person who can help solve that problem or here’s a person who would want to know about this issue or challenge.'”
Sheppard remembers first meeting Hemenway, who had been selected to be her special assistant in the early ’90s under Secretary of Defense Les Aspin.
“She appeared one day in the Pentagon. I had never heard of her, I had never met her, and she just radiated her Southern charm and had this — an enormous can-do way about her,” Sheppard said, describing her as charmingly persistent. “And she made things happen.”
When Aspin resigned and several people found their jobs in jeopardy, Hemenway threw her support behind her former supervisor to help Sheppard get a position tied to the White House. In following years, she would repeatedly introduce Sheppard to people as her old boss — even when Sheppard sought to change that.
“She was just very generous, and that was part of her generosity,” Sheppard said. “She wasn’t transactional…It just came very much from her heart.”
During Hemenway’s illness, Sales would send flowers, likening her to a sister and mother that she never had. But in the same fashion as her mentor, Sales went above and beyond, tracking down a flower shop in Alexandria that would deliver flowers to McLean. She usually ordered them in the colors of the suffrage movement: purple, white, and gold.
“She’s so special, I wanted something special for her anytime I ordered something for her,” Sales told Tysons Reporter, at times crying while recalling the memory of her friend.
After the TV show, Hemenway had a 4-foot-tall gift of flowers sent to Sales’s home.
She’s survived by her husband, father, brother Brian Seba of Las Vegas, and other family members.
Hemenway was also a board member of the Fairfax County Convention & Visitors Corporation and the Sewell-Belmont House and Museum — a women’s history landmark now known as the Belmont-Paul Women’s Equality National Monument — on Capitol Hill.
When there were needs, she responded not just with ideas, but with research, networking, fundraising, and more.
“She was always the first to write a check,” Sales said.
When Hemenway met Kari Galloway, the executive director of the Alexandria-based Friends of Guest House, which helps women get back into society after jail, Hemenway continued to keep in touch, sending her articles even if it just meant contacting with her a few times a year, Galloway said.
“She was always interested in how to support people,” Galloway said. “It’s nice to know someone was always thinking about you.”
Photo courtesy Lisa Sales
One of the longest-running stories on Tysons Reporter has been plans to overhaul McLean’s downtown. The aim is to make it more vibrant and active, but critics of the plan say it still misses the mark on parking and stormwater management.
The McLean Community Business Center plan divides the 230 acres of central McLean into a few zones with greater residential density opportunities than currently exist — the idea being to incentivize more development in exchange for those developments including more public open space and community amenities.
The expanded density will allow for up to 3,850 residential units in McLean, more than triple the 1,280 units currently built in that area.
Robert Jackson, president of the McLean Citizens Association, said that in spite of some changes, the MCA still opposes the draft plan, due to a lack of specificity around water management requirements and changes that will shift the emphasis to underground parking garages, rather than surface parking.
“Some changes made, and we are pleased with some of them, but [those] two major issues remain unaddressed satisfactorily,” he said at a public hearing held by the Fairfax County Planning Commission on May 26.
Other concerns that emerged during last week’s public hearing included calls for more assurance that the new development won’t add to McLean’s flooding issues.
“The focus needs to address flooding and streambed erosion concerns,” local citizen Barbara Ryan said, “particularly as we are seeing downstream erosion in Pimmit Run.”
After the public hearing, the planning commission deferred its decision on whether to recommend approval of the proposed comprehensive plan amendment to June 9. The plan will then go before the Board of Supervisors on June 22.
Image via Fairfax County
(Updated at 9:10 a.m. on 6/3/2021) After 20 years at 6852 Old Dominion Drive, the Italian restaurant Pulcinella is relocating to Chain Bridge Road.
Early last week, the Gariani family behind the McLean eatery posted a message on the home page of Pulcinella’s website:
We are excited to announce that we will be relocating Pulcinella to 1310 Chain Bridge Rd, McLean, with an expected opening in July. However, we will be closing our current location on May 31st. Pulcinella is honored to have served you all for over 30 years now, and we plan on continuing the tradition. We hope to see you all very soon. Check back in with us in July to see when the exact opening date will be.
While the existing restaurant has now closed, Pulcinella will take over a space previously occupied by Chain Bridge Cleaners, as first reported by Washington Business Journal Managing Editor Michael Neibauer via Twitter.
A permit issued by Fairfax County on May 14 indicates that the venue is being remodeled as Pulcinella moves in, including the demolition of existing interior walls, doors, and ceiling tiles.
As stated above, the grand opening date at the new location is not set. The restaurant plans to announce when in July on their website. Pulcinella was unable to be reached for comment.
Correction: Per a tip to Tysons Reporter, Pulcinella has been in business for over 30 years, but it was located at 6852 Old Dominion Drive for 20 years, with a lease from 2000 to 2020. Photo via Google Maps
