Car Keys Stolen from Hotel Room — “8125 Gatehouse Road (Residence Inn), 01/22/2019, 10:36 a.m. A guest left their room unlocked and someone entered the room and took keys to a car belonging to the guest. When the guest went to look for their car, they noticed it was missing. The car is a black 2014 Honda Accord.” [FCPD]
Va. Minimum Wage Bill Defeated — “A local legislator’s efforts to give Virginia’s 133 cities and counties the power to set their own minimum wage has gone down, probably predictably, to defeat in Richmond.” [InsideNova]
Hedgehogs Now Legal in Fairfax County — “Despite strong opposition to hedgehogs as suitable pets, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved adding them to the list of commonly accepted pets, along with chinchillas and hermit crabs.” [Reston Now]
New Local Bank Launching in Tysons — “VisionBank aims to be Greater Washington’s next community bank — and it’s gathered a group of longtime bankers with plans to launch in Tysons later this year.” [Washington Business Journal]
After two months of a “soft-opening,” Club Pilates in Tysons is finally ready for its grand opening this weekend.
The new workout studio is in the Adaire apartment building at 1521 Boyd Pointe Way, near the Spring Hill Metro station.
On Saturday (Jan. 19) and Sunday (Jan. 20), attendees will get to try out a complimentary 30-minute Pilates class. Booking for the free class is available online.
Pilates is a type of full-body workout aimed at building balance, strength, mobility and flexibility. The workout utilizes specialized equipment, like springboards, that often aren’t available at Pilates classes offered at other gyms. Club Pilates in Tysons offers four ranges of classes aimed at various levels of experience with a variety of membership packages, ranging from one workout per week to an unlimited annual membership.
In addition to the free classes, the new Tysons location will also have raffles and item giveaways with various vendors. All merchandise in the store will be discounted 20 percent all week.
Parking at the location is free in the Adaire building garage.
Photos via Facebook
Information on where and when is scarce, but Deka Lash, a cosmetic boutique focusing on eyelash extensions, is planning on coming to the Mosaic District sometime this spring.
Meghann Klein, a communications contact for EDENS, Inc, which manages the Mosaic District, said the new “lash bar” will be a boutique beauty experience expected to open later this year. A representative from Deka Lash said other information about the spot, including where in the Mosaic District it would be located, is not yet available.
Deka Lash is a small chain that launched in Pittsburgh in 2011. Options range from “classic lashes” to more dramatic “true volume” sets.
Full eyelash appointments take an average of two hours, or one hour and 15 minutes for a re-lash appointment.
Photo via Facebook
A new skincare company is scheduled to open its first Virginia location in Tysons Corner Center mall next month.
Aesop, an Australia-based company, will be moving into the second floor of the mall, between jewelry vendor Swarovski and work accessory store Levenger.
The exact opening date is still to be determined. Greg Mitola, a spokesperson representing Aesop, said the store is planning to launch in early January.
The store offers a variety of cosmetic products, from a $10 hand wash to a $295 skincare kit made from parsley seed.
The author of the press release, credited as Cynthia Leung from Native Agents, wrote a lengthy explanation of how the store’s design is an homage to Virginia’s mountains:
Writing on the Appalachian cultural expression and antimodernist movement of the 1920s and ’30s, the scholar, abolitionist and former Berea College president William Goodell Frost famously referred to mountain people as ‘our contemporary ancestors’. The mountains themselves are, of course, the true ancestors, predating Frost’s writing–and indeed, all human presence–by millions of years. Such was the heat and pressure generated by successive eruptions and sedimentation that the area’s Precambrian crystalline granite contains no trace of fossilized early life-forms.
It was this geological history that informed the design of Aesop’s inaugural signature store in Virginia, situated within the Tysons Corner retail complex. Created by the company’s in-house Design Department, the space assumes a unitary material palette of granite, lent nuance by different finishes: vertical surfaces with rough-textured flamed granite, and horizontal surfaces, including the flooring, ceiling, sales counter, demonstration sink and domed basins, with smoother honed granite. The stone’s unpolished minerality is punctuated only by the matte powder-coated gray metal of the product shelving.
The influence of Virginia’s landscape is also expressed through the space’s monolithic forms. Large granite elements that form the store’s façade effect both a sense of intrigue for passers-by, with glimpses of the demonstration sink and product display, and an impression of seclusion for customers upon entry. Muted lighting complements the interior’s mineral tones to evince a soothing, understated interior.
Clients can explore and select from a complete range of skin, hair and body care products, distinguished by botanical and laboratory-generated ingredients of the highest quality. The store’s trained consultants are able to offer advice about products best suited to individual needs.
Photo courtesy Aesop
In addition to the two new Tysons Galleria stores previously announced, Johnny Was and BoConcept are scheduled to come to the upscale mall next year.
Johnny Was is a store with clothing and accessories from the eponymous designer. The store’s website describes the style as “bohemian inspired.” An employee in the Tysons Galleria management office said the Johnny Was is scheduled to open in June 2019.
BoConcept is a Danish furniture chain. The store specializes in customized home decor pieces, including home visits and 3D renderings. The employee in the management office said BoConcept would likely open sometime in winter 2019, though the exact month is currently unknown.
Lik Fine Art, a gallery featuring landscape photography by Peter Lik, is still scheduled to open later this month. But the management office employee said Lafayette 148 New York, the high-end clothing store, will likely be pushed back to an opening in early January.
After an “unexpected delay,” the Virginia Tire and Auto state at 141 Maple Ave in Vienna is scheduled to open early next year.
The Virginia Tire and Auto was originally scheduled to open in October, but a delay pushed the grand opening back. An employee at Virginia Tire and Auto confirmed that the new opening was scheduled for early January but could not comment on what had caused the delay.
The dealership has been expanding recently, with two new locations opening in Richmond and Herndon. The new locations will bring the total number of dealership locations to 16.
The location had previously operated for 30 years as Merchant’s Tire & Auto Center, but had been renovated with new equipment like new in-ground lifts. The Vienna Virginia Tire and Auto will have nine bays available for mechanical work.
The new Virginia Tire and Auto is near the center of Maple Avenue, located between the newly opened Nothing Bundt Cakes and Maple Ave Restaurant, recently featured as one of Northern Virginia’s Top 50 restaurants.
Nothing Bundt Cakes, a franchise specializing in the eponymous circular bundt cakes, is now open in downtown Vienna at 129 Maple Avenue W.
Marge Kelly, one of the co-owners of the store along with her husband, sister, and sister’s husband, said the shop officially opened last week and was immediately inundated with holiday orders.
“It’s been great,” said Kelly. “We were really busy right before Thanksgiving, but it’s been more manageable over the last few days.”
In addition to ten cake flavors and forty unique designs, Nothing Bundt Cakes also offers various cake-themed gifts and decor.
Kelly said the store was originally planning on having a grand opening celebration sometime in the next month but decided to push the grand opening celebration back to January.
Nothing Bundt Cakes is one of several new venues filling vacant storefronts along Maple Avenue this fall.
Interior photos via Facebook
Barnes & Noble is expected to move into the Mosaic District, but a novel approach may have the store scaled down to a novella.
According to the Washington Business Journal, the Mosaic District’s Barnes & Noble will only be 8,630 square feet in size; substantially smaller than the typical store.
The smaller stores are part of a turnaround initiative for the company, which faces declining sales. Many of the new locations will be roughly half the size of most Barnes & Noble stores.
The scaled-down Mosaic District Barnes & Noble is scheduled to open at 2921 District Avenue, adjacent to the West Elm furniture and home accessories store, in June 2019.
The Barnes & Noble is part of a slate of new stores in the Mosaic District, including the recently opened Sundance and Erin Condren.
Photo via Google Maps
Erin Condren, a stationary and supplies store, had a soft-launch yesterday (Wednesday) for the company’s new Mosaic District location.
The store at 2905 District Ave is the first East Coast location for the chain, which started in 2004 in as a note card business. Since then, the company has expanded to organizers and notebooks and opened brick-and-mortar locations, including a flagship store in Austin, Texas.
“It was great,” said Kelsey Anderson, the manager of the Mosaic District store. “It’s been fun, people have been walking by wondering when it was going to open.”
Anderson said the customers were a mix of those who were fans of the brand and those who were passing by and stopped in to check it out.
The official grand opening of the store won’t be until February when Condren herself — the company’s founder and namesake — will be out to celebrate the store’s opening. Anderson said it was decided to hold the grand opening after the holidays.
The store is currently looking for a part-time sales associate.
🥁Drumroll please…🥁 The #ECMosaicDistric Retail Store is officially OPEN! Come visit our stunning retail space in Fairfax, Virginia for a dose of color, inspiration & of course, ORGANIZATION! Fact: there's no happier place to do your holiday shopping. https://t.co/BDKOrPqWjH pic.twitter.com/3OyOfDCBoR
— Erin Condren Design (@ErinCondren) November 15, 2018
Local residents looking to catch a bus to New York City no longer have to take the trip to Union Station or Chinatown.
OurBus, a bus service founded in 2016 offering intercity and commuter routes, will run a new route from Tysons to New York City starting this Sunday (Nov. 18).
“We saw a terrific opportunity to provide local Tyson’s residents a more efficient, less stressful travel option to NYC,” said Axel Hellman, co-founder of OurBus, in a press release. “Rather than traveling to a city center such as Arlington or D.C., and paying for parking, our customers can board our buses close to their home and work.”
Tickets for the maiden voyage from Tysons to New York are $25. The bus picks up on Dolley Madison Boulevard in front of the McLean Metro Station at 1 p.m. and will drop off at Park Avenue S. between 26th and 27th Streets in New York at 5:40 p.m.
Hellman said the bus tickets are more affordable than flying or other forms of travel, which is true, although it’s worth noting that tickets from Washington, D.C. earlier that morning are notably cheaper with a 7 a.m. trip for $15 and an 8:30 a.m. trip for $10.
The company also offers full refunds if the booking is canceled up to 25 hours prior to departure time and can exchange tickets for different departure times within 24 hours.
Photo via Facebook
