A sign is up, but little else is clear about Gem Tea, a new restaurant coming to 155 Maple Ave W.
Renovations are underway at the space between Marjan and the Vienna Carwash. The location was previously home to Swan Cleaners. The building is remaining intact, with interior work turning the space into a restaurant.
An employee at Marjan, a Persian carry out and catering restaurant next door, said Gem Tea will be offering bubble tea and is likely to be opening sometime in April.
No website is available for the restaurant, and a similarly named Gem Tea in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, confirmed they are not opening a new location in Vienna.
Shinsekai Ramen, a new ramen eatery under construction at 234 Maple Avenue E., is just two weeks away from a planned opening.
Kevin Choe, regional operations manager for the Shinsekai, said the restaurant is scheduled to open on Monday, Feb. 11, though if there are delays he said the restaurant could open around mid-February.
Most ramens at the restaurant cost around $12 for lunch or $13 at dinner, with smaller dishes like steam buns and onigiri for $4.
The restaurant also has a variety of vegan options, including a veggie miso ramen and tempura bowl.
Also on the menu are a wide array of Japanese beers and sake.
The type of ramen at Shinsekai is a traditional type of ramen made from chicken bone broth. According to Choe:
“Ramen has many styles and with today’s pop culture it has become even more broad. Our style dates back in the old traditions where our chef owners Jin and Hideyoshi Matsu hometown of ashahikawa region only cooked chicken Bone broth ramen, which eventually made its way to the popular ramen city of Kumamoto, however today’s most popular style of ramen broth is made with pork bones (tonkutsu broth). We are using a very a underrated and yet a traditional style of chicken bone broth of ramen of Kumamoto. This style of ramen is highly underrated in the [United States].”
Choe said the type of broth used in the restaurant is a fusion of the popular “white broth” and the more traditional “clear broth.”
“Our core focus is to introduce to U.S palate to a beloved recipe… without the fancy price tag,” said Choe. “What better place to start their legacy in the diverse food community of Vienna.”
Don Pollo, a Peruvian chicken chain with several locations in Maryland, just opened its first restaurant in Virginia at in the Vienna Shopping Center (146 Maple Ave).
The restaurant features Peruvian cuisine, like fried rice with shrimp or the eponymous chicken. Sides include South American staples like yuca.
Meals range from $8 to a whole chicken and two sides for $20.
According to Milton Escobar, manager of the Vienna location, the store opened on Jan. 19 and has seen steady growth as word of mouth spreads.
“Every day, we’ve been having about 15-20 percent more people,” said Escobar. “We had 50 customers on Saturday, then 75 on Sunday. So it’s a little more every day.”
Escobar said he’s hoping things really kick off with the restaurant’s Super Bowl special. Don Pollo will be running a special deal where any purchase of a “fiesta-sized” family platter will come with a whole chicken for free. The deal is available on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
According to Escobar, the restaurant fills a niche for diverse food on Maple Street at an affordable price. Many of the patrons at the restaurant around noon yesterday were dressed in construction gear and came from nearby projects.
“This town doesn’t really have anything for Spanish cuisine,” said Escobar. “People have been saying that it’s about time for real Peruvian cuisine in Vienna… Our journey is just about to get started.”
The fences are up and construction is underway on the site of the former Chili’s in Tysons as Fairfax-based Great American Restaurants prepares for the opening of its latest restaurant later this year.
The new restaurant will occupy a large new building which looks like a cross between a church and a warehouse. It was built on what was once a Chili’s and an On the Border Mexican Grill & Cantina, before both closed and were torn down.
The manager at another Great American Restaurants location said the new eatery will serve American cuisine. A name hasn’t been selected yet, but the manager said the food would be somewhere between the cuisine of Mike’s American in Springfield and Jackson’s in Reston, two of the company’s other locations.
Great American Restaurants currently operates 10 locations across Fairfax, including Coastal Flats in the Tysons Corner Center mall. Its headquarters are also located in Fairfax, near Merrifield.
On Reddit, several users said the new Tysons restaurant would have a sports bar component. The manager said the location would also contain a bakery, similar to the Best Buns Bread Company in Arlington, and is planning to open in June or July.
Pokéworks, a Hawaiian-inspired poke bowl and burrito eatery, is hosting its grand opening in the Tysons Corner Center mall today.
Today from 10 a.m.-9:30 p.m., visitors who purchase one poke meal can get a second one free.
Pokéworks is a nationwide chain founded in 2015. The Tysons location is run by local entrepreneurs Mark and Annie Chi and David and Viengkeo Tzong. According to a press release:
After noticing the rise of Poke restaurants and the need for more diverse food options in the area, the Chis and Tzongs found the fresh, light and flavorful ingredients at Pokéworks to be unmatched by any other poke restaurant. Eager to expand their business in the Northern Virginia area, these entrepreneurs have recently signed a second Pokéworks location in Chantilly and expect to open summer of 2019.
The restaurant held a soft opening Nov. 12 in the mall’s first-floor food court.
Photo courtesy of Pokéworks
There’s no shortage of food options in Tysons Corner Center mall, but if you’re looking for some stir-fry, the new Go-Stir Fry Express offers a variety of Japanese dishes.
The restaurant is located in the third-floor food court next to the AMC Theater. The restaurant offers chicken, rice and beef stir-fry bowls with either rice or noodles for around $8. Side dishes include spring rolls and fried dumplings.
Go-Stir Express also has a wide assortment of teas, from classic milk teas to bubble tea with fruit.
EJ Hong, manager of the Tysons location, said the stir fry location opened less than a month ago and is the third location for the New Jersey-based Go-Stir Fry.
Hong said the Tysons location is off to a good start and suggests first-time visitors try out the chicken stir fry.
Go-Stir Express isn’t the only new location in the third-floor food court. On the opposite side on the floor, the recently opened Dabke offers Lebanese cuisine like falafel wraps and chicken shawarma at around $9.
Staff at Dabke said the restaurant opened less than two months ago.
Inca Latin Kitchen, a new South American restaurant at 2670 in Merrifield, is hosting a series of pre-opening events this weekend and next week before its grand opening on Feb. 1.
Today (Friday) and tomorrow, the restaurant will host its final Machu Pisco tasting. No reservations are required and the event is free to attend. Parking is also free after 6 p.m. in the nearby Metro station lot.
“We will be featuring our Machu Pisco collaboration beer that can only be drank at Inca or Crooked Run Brewing,” the restaurant said in a Facebook post. “You will also be able to enjoy our Pisco Sours as well as some of our classic Latin American cocktails like a Chilcano and our tasty sample menu for you to taste many of our menu items like Lomo Saltado, Inca Balls, Ceviche and so much more!”
The restaurant will have a soft opening Wednesday (Jan. 9) from 4-9 p.m.
Inca Latin Kitchen is also currently open to applications for positions from bartenders to managers.
Photo via Facebook
Blend 111 is shaping up to be a little different than many restaurants in Vienna.
It isn’t the latest branch of some regional or national chain. Instead, Blend 111 is a food and wine bar for Vienna by local Vienna residents.
Signs are up on the front of the restaurant under construction at 111 Church St., but there’s still a lot of work still to do inside before it’s ready for its first customers. Michael Biddick, principal owner and CEO of Blend 111, says construction will start the first week of January and is scheduled to take 8-12 weeks with an opening in mid-spring 2019.
But when it does open, Biddick says the restaurant will be a blend of the taste and regional dishes of the four different Vienna families coming together to support the project.
“We wanted to bring something you normally find around D.C. or Logan Circle, an upscale restaurant experience that’s accessible for the community,” said Biddick. “We wanted a special place to go on a night out.”
Biddick said the idea for the restaurant came as he was commiserating with neighbors that they all loved going into the city, but with kids and jobs with long hours it was difficult to make the hour drive and get a babysitter.
“A lot of people around here just go somewhere else, like a chain or somewhere in town, but they make do with convenience,” said Biddick. “We wanted to give people a great restaurant to go to for wine and a special night right here in Vienna.”
Around April, Biddick said he sold the last of the tech startups he’d been working on and had extra time on his hands. Wine and food was a hobby for Biddick and he began to take a serious interest in turning that into a local business.
“I started on my own, but as we shared that with neighbors they got really interested and wanted to come in on the project,” said Biddick. “So now there are four families in Vienna investing… They’re mainly neighbors, just people on the street who want to be involved.”
The restaurant will offer a blend of cuisines from Venezuela, France and Spain, three culinary cultures Biddick says were important to the families involved.
“We took those three regions and tried to create some menu concepts off the things we saw when we were traveling,” said Biddick. “Like we really loved this menu dish from Spain, so we made a note to bring that back with us.”
While there are options for meat eaters like grilled quail or duck, Biddick, a vegetarian, said he was also mindful to offer equal portions of vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free options in the menu.
The restaurant’s origins come from a community need, and Biddick says he aims for that community focus to continue after the restaurant opens. The types of food served and hours the restaurant runs are all planned to be flexible based on what the community responds to.
“The localness of Vienna, and the lack of a lot of the larger restaurant chain environments directly in downtown Vienna, makes it unique,” said Biddick. “I think this is showing that you can do something unique and super high quality that isn’t part of some big chain. That’s something that’s important for us to prove.”
Photos via Twitter
Agora Restaurant Update — Mediterranean restaurant Agora is “putting the finishing touches on a second location that will land in Tysons Corner near Founding Farmers in February (7911 Westpark Drive).” [Eater]
Hallucinating Man Causes Early Morning Scene — Residents near the Fairlee neighborhood “called for help when they saw a man yelling outside of their building. Officers arrived and discovered the man was hallucinating after taking drugs. The man continued to yell and refused to follow the officers’ instructions. The man then tried to run away but was caught, arrested, and taken to a local hospital as a precaution.” [FCPD]
Vienna Getting New A/V Gear — “Vienna Town Council members on Dec. 10 approved a $164,187 contract with Human Circuit to provide upgraded audio-visual capabilities for the town government’s cable channel. Four years have elapsed since the town did a major upgrade of its audio-visual equipment, said Information Technology Director Tony Mull.” [InsideNova]
If the new ice cream parlor wasn’t enough dessert to satisfy your sweet tooth in the recently opened Taste of Urbanspace, boutique cakemaker Lady M opened in Tysons Galleria last Thursday.
Lady M’s Urbanspace location is a pop-up that is scheduled to last until February 2019.
During December, the boutique’s website says the shop will offer a selection of classic and seasonal cakes:
Get ready for Mille Crêpes in Signature, Green Tea, Coconut, and Marron. With winter weather in mind, we’re also bringing Chocolate Arc-en-Ciel, Gateau Fromage, Mont Blanc (thoughtfully sized for one), and the beautiful and boozy Black Forest.
Lady M will be open from 11 a.m.-9 p.m. from Monday-Saturday, then 11 a.m.-7 p.m. on Sunday.
Six or nine-inch cakes are available from $55-95, with slices of cake available from $8.50-9.50.
Photo via Facebook
