Emily’s Kitchen, a regional restaurant chain, has plans to open a new spot in Pimmit Hills.

The fast-casual restaurant is coming to 7600B Leesburg Pike, Suite 130, according to a building permit.

Founded in 2000, Emily’s Kitchen serves up sandwiches, deli meats, egg dishes, salads and soups.

Currently, the chain has two spots in Rockville, Md. and one in Herndon, Va.

Photo via Instagram 

Popeyes is opening a new location in a strip mall up the road from the Mosaic District.

The fried chicken chain will occupy the former spot of Metro PCS (2835 Gallows Road) in the Merrifield Plaza Shopping Center.

A building permit indicates that work has started for the Popeyes, which a leasing brochure for the shopping center says is “coming soon.”

Currently, Popeyes has nearby locations in Fairfax (9661 Fairfax Blvd) and Vienna (325 Maple Avenue E.).

Image via Google Maps

City Works Eatery and Pour House set an opening date that is right around the corner for its upcoming Tysons location at the Capital One Headquarters.

The restaurant announced today (April 24) that it plans to open at 1640 Capital One Drive North on Tuesday, May 28.

Focused on classic American cuisine, the menu will have gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan options, along with more than 90 draft beers and eight wines, according to the press release.

Here’s a sampling of items on the menu:

• Kung Pao cauliflower
• smoked chicken wings
• duck nachos
• an assortment of tacos
• filet mignon sliders with caramelized onion and horseradish cream on a pretzel roll
• fried chicken sandwich with spicy bread, butter pickles and Carolina mustard barbecue sauce
• “City Works Burger” made with a short rib and brisket blend, topped with aged white cheddar, shredded iceberg lettuce, tomato, red onion and a dill pickle on a toasted brioche bun

Roughly 30 percent of the draft selection is sourced from breweries around the Virginia area, including Parkway Brewing Co., Devil’s Backbone Brewing Co., Midnight Brewery and Union Craft Brewing, the press release says.

The restaurant will seat up to about 175 people on the first floor, which will have 12 high-definition televisions. The patio will have about 50 seats and feature an outdoor container bar, three televisions and a canopy, the press release says. Additionally, the restaurants will have two private event dining rooms — also with televisions.

The Tysons location will be the first one for City Works in Virginia.

The restaurant is currently hiring servers, bartenders, hosts, line cooks, prep cooks, brushers, runners and dishwashers.

Photo via Facebook

MOD Pizza — a pizza restaurant chain — is coming to the Pike 7 Plaza shopping center in Tysons.

The new restaurant is under construction at 8405 Leesburg Pike, between the Cava and the Honeygrow that both opened last fall.

The new MOD Pizza location isn’t the first in the area — there’s another at 168 Maple Avenue W. in Vienna that opened in 2016 — but the chain has been undergoing a widespread growth in the D.C. region.

It is unknown when the location plans to open, but the company is currently looking for a general manager for the Tysons location with a base salary of $68,100.

Construction is also ongoing at an enclosed JP Morgan Chase kiosk between MOD Pizza and Honeygrow.

Diners will have to wait a bit longer for Mediterranean restaurant Zenola to open in Vienna.

Zenola pushed its expected opening from the winter to this summer. The restaurant is currently hiring and posted jobs last week for wait staff, bushboys, bartenders, managers and kitchen staff.

Located in the former Maplewood Grill space (132 Branch Road SE) near the Fresh Market, the restaurant plans to serve Mediterranean cuisine along with beer, wine and cocktails, according to a liquor license application.

While the menu hasn’t been posted online yet, diners can expect this small fruit: olives. “Food is our passion and the olive is our inspiration,” Zenola says on its website, adding:

Olives are a foundational ingredient in each of the five great cuisines of the Mediterranean. Italian, Greek, Lebanese, Moroccan and Spanish cuisines each uniquely pay homage to the olive in their savory offerings. Which is best? We couldn’t decide so we give you the opportunity to determine for yourself by offering exquisite dishes from each.

Anyone in Tysons missing the old O’Malley’s Pub at the DoubleTree Hilton in Tysons might be pleased to go back and find a new bar in its place.

The new “Tysons Social Tavern” at 1960 Chain Bridge Road opened last Friday (April 5). So far, manager Joanna White said the business has mostly been driven by hotel guests, but as the bar and restaurant gets its footing it will start reaching out to the community at large.

White said that while O’Malley’s Pub was popular, when the rest of the DoubleTree was renovated to become a more full-service hotel they were left with a pub that still very much had a late-20th-century vibe.

“We wanted to keep the tavern feel but update it,” White said.

The restaurant offers a range of bar staples, from sandwiches like Reubens and Philly cheesesteaks to meals-to-share, like wings or pizzas. So far, White said the local favorite has been the tavern’s rockfish.

The bar also offers an array of local craft beers, like several selections from Alexandria’s Port City Brewery.

While local nightlife and bar options can still be scarce, Tysons Social Tavern is part of a growing trend of more locally-oriented watering holes to cater to the residential and working communities around Tysons, as opposed to chain restaurants mostly serving mall-goers.

On May 1, White said Tysons Social Tavern is planning to start its Grubhub service to deliver food around the region, which she said will hopefully help boost its profile in the local community.

(Updated April 12) It’s been a year of expansions for City Works Eatery and Pour House — from Boston to Disney World — with a new Tysons location at the Capital One Headquarters right in the middle.

The City Works is planned to open at 1640 Capital One Drive North sometime next month, next to the recently opened Starbucks and the recently canceled Taco Bamba.

The restaurant’s menu is focused on classic American food and drinks, with 90 draft beers and eight wines planned for the bar.

According to the Tysons location’s website, the new restaurant will be over 12,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor dining spaces.

“We enjoy sharing our love of sports and music, and plan to show an array of events on our 24 flatscreen HDTVs with state-of-the-art audio,” City Works said on their website.

Photo via Facebook

(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.

South American chicken chain Pollos Keiko has opened its first American location — “Keiko Charcoal Chicken” — this week at 235 Maple Ave E. in Vienna.

The restaurant offers a variety of chicken options, from quarter-portions for $5.49 to whole chickens and three sides for $24.99, as well as salads, sandwiches, and sides like rice and plantains.

Nelson Barrios, one of the partners opening the restaurant, repeated the old real estate axiom for opening in Vienna: “location, location, location.” Barrios said he didn’t see anything quite like Keiko available in Vienna. (Don Pollo, a Peruvian chicken chain that opened a few blocks south in January, said the same thing).

Barrios said, for the most part, it was easy to get started in Vienna, though some of the administrative issues along the way were stressful.

“But once that’s done, you get to the fun part,” Barrios said. “It’s the reason someone wants to open a restaurant in the first place.”

Barrios encouraged Vienna residents to come in and try the chicken. Among the sides, Barrios said one of the more unique was “Tallarin Saltado” — a Peruvian stir fry noodle dish with green peppers and onions.

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