Grove, a poke and salad bowl restaurant in Merrifield, may be expanding its health-oriented menu to include wine and beer.
Grove opened this summer at 2673 Avenir Place, in a shopping center just south of the Dunn Loring-Merrifield Metro station.
The menu lists options ranging from Hawaiian-inspired poke bowls to Korean bibimbap. Options are also available for customers to build their own salad, soba noodle or pasta bowls.
At the end of October, Grove filed an application with the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority (ABC) to sell wine and beer on the premises. The status of that application is currently pending.
Currently the only beverages on the menu are a variety of teas and juices.
Photos via Facebook
Blend 111, a cafe and wine bar, will planning to open in Vienna this coming spring if it can get local government approval.
The restaurant is planned to go into 111 Church St NW, and according to a Facebook post the construction plans have been finalized and sent to Town of Vienna and Fairfax County for review.
The location is near the heart of Vienna, just one block away from the Town Green.
According to the restaurant website, Blend 111 will offer a collection of food and wines from Spain, France and Venezuela. The restaurant styles itself as a cafe by day, with juices and locally roasted coffee, and a wine bar by night.
The full food menus for the restaurant are still forthcoming, but in addition to the usual animal-based cafe options Blend 111 will offer vegetarian and vegan options.
Blend 111 is currently looking for an assistant general manager with a marketing focus. The position would involve helping to support operations in the restaurant as well as running social media.
Photo via Facebook
Cava, a Bethesda-based Mediterranean restaurant chain, has just opened in Tysons at 8350 Leesburg Pike.
The restaurant officially opened today (Monday) near the Greensboro Metro. The Cava is located right next door to Honeygrow, a stir-fry restaurant that opened last month.
The Cava on Leesburg Pike will be open daily from 10:45 a.m.-10 p.m. Be warned though, despite the large lot in Pike 7 Plaza, parking tends to fill up quickly around lunch.
This isn’t the first Cava in the area, with locations in Vienna, McLean and another inside Tysons Corner Center. The chain has been expanding rapidly over the last year, including a deal in August that led to the company acquiring Texas-based Mediterranean chain Zoës Kitchen.
The following article excerpt is from our content sharing partner, FairfaxNews.com.
Vernon Davis of the Washington Redskins and Mohamed Sanu of the Atlanta Falcons are best known for catching passes and outrunning defenders. But the NFL standouts also have a keen interest in business development, and recently announced a joint partnership to open six Jamba Juice stores in Northern Virginia.
While no locations have been formally announced, Davis and Sanu are specifically eyeing areas in Fairfax County (Reston, Chantilly, McLean) and Loudoun County (Ashburn, Leesburg, Sterling) for their stores.
“Jamba Juice is an iconic brand that, like me, cares about helping others live a healthier, higher quality life,” says Davis, who already owns five successful Jamba Juice locations in Northern California. “I honestly couldn’t be more excited about partnering with Mohamed, expanding my relationship with Jamba Juice and, of course, bringing more of the fresh fruit and vegetable goodness of Jamba to the region.”
Read more at FairfaxNews.com
Republik Coffee Bar was founded out of frustration.
Elan Irving, the company’s director of operations, said when the founders of the coffee bar were looking for premium coffee options in the area, they were underwhelmed. Recently, the coffee shop that started one year ago in Arlington has branched out into Tysons.
The Republik Coffee Bar in Tysons is located on the ground floor of the mixed-use Highgate (7915 Jones Branch Drive) just east of Tysons Galleria. It opened in June.
“We were looking for a place to enjoy premium coffee served in an inviting environment staffed by friendly baristas with a pleasant ambiance,” said Irving. “Surprisingly, there are very few places that embody all of these qualities, so we decided to provide such space for like minded coffee lovers.”
Irving said the largest issue that faced the burgeoning company initially was finding a price balance.
“One of the challenges is to keep prices low without sacrificing on the quality of the product as well as keeping a staff of highly qualified baristas,” said Irving. “We were always in pursuit of better coffee, better brewing methods, and very competitive prices. We don’t believe in charging $5 for a six-ounce cappuccino.”
Republik Coffee Bar is in the midst of an aggressive expansion campaign. In six months, Republik plans to open two more locations inside D.C. and eventually another in Fairfax County.
“If you are afraid of taking calculated risks, you shouldn’t be in business of investing in new businesses,” said Irving. “This is also true in our business. We are very confident in our concept and very happy to see the response we received in Ballston. This has encouraged us to expand into other locations.”
For now, Republik Coffee Bar is local, but the company has much larger ambitions if the continued regional launches go well.
“Our short term goals are establish our brand into a very respectable local brand in the D.C. metro area,” Irving said. “If we are successful in achieving this, we will continue to expand regionally and then one day, nationally.”
A new Thai restaurant recently opened in McLean.
Chiang Mai Thai Cookhouse is located at 6813 Elm Street, in the former Italian Deli space. It appears to have opened in August.
Offering Northern Thai cuisine and a frequently-changing menu, the restaurant is somewhat unique in its approach to dining in.
“We are open for lunch and dinner seven days a week,” Chiang Mai’s website says. “We accept walk-ins only; no reservations. We have a tiny dining room and can only seat groups of 4 or fewer.”
“Our dishes are served as family-style and will be sent to your table once they are made, in no particular order,” the website adds.
The listed business hours are 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-9:30 p.m. on weekdays, and noon-9:30 p.m. on weekends.
So far reviews have been good, with 4.5 stars on Yelp.
“This was some mighty fine tasting Thai food, I actually love that the [desire] of the Chiang Mai Thai Cookhouse is to avoid fusion or American Thai food… and stick to the authentic favors as close as possible,” said one review. “I ordered the Kaosoi, northern Thai sausage, papaya salad and Nam prik oong. Every dish is well prepared, well cooked and well served.”
Photos via Chiang Mai Thai Cookhouse
Fast-growing restaurant chain Pokeworks is now hiring for its new location in Tysons Corner Center.
The build-your-own poke bowl eatery will be located on the lower level food court of the mall. Pokeworks touts its “healthy, customizable Hawaiian poke bowls, burritos, and salads” which feature a choice of marinated raw fish or cooked proteins.
Pokeworks is planning a job fair next week in an attempt to staff up for its forthcoming opening, according to one of the co-franchisees.
“We will be conducting a hiring open house at our restaurant on Monday, Oct. 8 from 11 a.m.-3 p.m.,” Viengkeo Tzong told Tysons Reporter. “We are actively looking to hire crew members and anticipate a grand opening towards the end of the month.”
“We are very excited to be a part of the Tysons community,” Tzong added.
A new ramen restaurant is coming to Maple Avenue in Vienna.
Signs are up for Shin Se Kai Ramen at 234 Maple Avenue E. in the former Pro Feed Pet Nutrition Center space. In addition to presumably serving ramen noodle soup, the restaurant has applied for a permit to serve wine and beer on premises.
Neither a website nor social media accounts for the restaurant could not be located. A man who answered a phone number associated with restaurant said he was busy and referred Tysons Reporter to the phone number of a manager, who did not answer the phone.
Shinsekai is a neighborhood of Osaka, Japan noted for its low-cost restaurants. The name translates to “New World” in English.
Agora, a Mediterranean restaurant in D.C., won’t be opening its new Tysons location until December or possibly January.
The restaurant, which specializes in cuisine from Turkey, Lebanon and Greece, will be moving into the ground floor of Nouvelle, a 26-story apartment complex at 7911 Westpark Dr. near Tysons II.
“Finding space for Agora that supports and drives their business strategy was most important during the site selection process,” said Oyku Hanna, vice president of brokerage agency Veritage Commercial, which represented Agora, in a press release. “Nouvelle in Tysons is a great fit for Agora and I look forward to seeing their continued success at this location.”
According to a restaurant employee, the new location will most likely be opening at some point this winter. The employee said the restaurant owners were hoping to open it sooner but are still in the process of licensing and permitting.
When the permits are approved, the 3,500 square-foot restaurant will bring to Tysons largely the same Mediterranean small plates and cocktails from its trendy Dupont Circle location.
MoMo House, a restaurant serving Nepali cuisine, is coming to Maple Avenue in Vienna.
The new restaurant is located in the former Sweet City Desserts space at 131-A Maple Avenue W. Construction is currently wrapping up and the restaurant is hiring staff, according to signs posted in the papered-over doors and windows.
Reached via phone, MoMo House’s Roju Basnet said it will be a “full-fledged, family-run restaurant,” with a full-time staff that will include her dad, mom and two brothers. Basnet said her dad recently moved to Northern Virginia from Massachusetts and has spent more than 20 years in the restaurant industry, while the rest of the family — including her and her husband, who will be working at the restaurant part-time — have service industry backgrounds.
The family, Basnet said, is originally from Nepal and is fulfilling a longtime dream of opening their own Nepalese restaurant.
MoMo House will feature a variety of Nepali dishes including various types of momos (dumplings), thali (platters) and sekuwa (kebabs), along with street food items like noodle and potato dishes.
Basnet said the Vienna storefront is “a perfect spot for us.”
“We’ve been looking for a perfect space for almost two years now, this has been a long-term plan,” she told Tysons Reporter. “We’ve looked at a ton of space and when we came across this space in Vienna, it was just ideal. It’s right on Maple Avenue, there’s a lot of potential to serve different communities.”
She said the restaurant will serve a “big Nepali community” that lives in the area, but it also expects to serve locals of all stripes.
“Vienna is a beautiful town,” said Basnet. “It’s so open to different ethnic groups and different communities.”
The restaurant is hoping to hold its grand opening on Tuesday, Oct. 16, though it is still working on its final permits and, as with all restaurant openings, the date is subject to change.
