A number of restaurants and shops in the Tysons area are offering specials this weekend leading up to Valentine’s Day on Sunday.

From sweet treats to savory meals, here are some options for celebrating the holiday:

• Andy’s Pizza in Tysons Galleria has a Valentine’s Day Love Package from Friday through Sunday. The package includes a choice of any signature pizzas that are also offered by the slice, a bottle of wine and a tiramisu for dessert. The wine options are a sparkling brut, merlot or sauvignon blanc. The package is $38. Andy’s Pizza is also offering an anti-Valentine’s Day package for $38 that includes a choice of any signature pizza, an order of Old Bay fries, and a four-pack of Radeberger tall boy pilsners.
• Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar at Tysons Corner is offering a variety of specials to mark the holiday. From Friday through Monday, a Valentine’s Day three-course prime surf and turf menu is available for $225. Starting at $60 per guest, a three-course family menu is also available for curbside pickup or delivery and will feature individual entrees paired with family-style salad, sides, and desserts.
• Wildfire McLean in Tysons Galleria will offer its dinner menu all day for dine-in, carryout, and delivery. A Valentine’s menu for two will be available for dine-in and carryout from Friday through Sunday. With a price tag of $120, plus tax, per couple, the Valentine’s menu will include shrimp cocktail, Wildfire chopped salad, and a selection of main courses, sides, and desserts.
• Founding Farmers in Tysons and Reston is offering a Valentine’s Day and Weekend at Home package, along with a variety of Valentine’s Day specials that can be picked up Saturday or Sunday. Valentine’s Day orders must be placed by 11 a.m. Friday (Feb. 12). Options include a heat-and-eat dinner for two, Valentine’s bottled cocktails, heat-and-eat breakfast, chocolate-dipped strawberries, and more.
• Urban Plates at Tysons Galleria is offering a Valentine’s Day at-home, three-course dinner for two for $49. The dinner includes a choice of two starters, two entrées with grilled artisan bread, and two desserts. The holiday menu is available for takeout only from Friday through Sunday but must be preordered by Thursday (Feb. 11).
• In addition to its regular menu, Vienna’s Blend 111 will have a special “Día de San Valentín” menu for indoor and outdoor dining on Friday and Saturday. Sunday dining will be limited to the special menu, with a limited number of reservations available. A special carryout menu for Sunday can be preordered until 5 p.m. on Thursday or the restaurant sells out. Pick-up for carryout dinners will be from 5-8 p.m. on Sunday.
• If you’re looking to satisfy your sweet tooth, Lolli & Pops in the Tysons Corner Center is offering a variety of Valentine’s Day gift boxes featuring various candies and chocolate confections.
• Cocoa Vienna has a variety of Valentine’s Day gift boxes, chocolate confections and personalized gift baskets available.

Additional ideas for chocolate fans can be found through Visit Fairfax’s “Chocolate Safari” campaign, which lets restaurants from around the county advertise their chocolate-based menu items.

“All of our communities are made better by the hard work and passion that drives local small businesses,” Visit Fairfax President and CEO Barry Biggar said. “The people behind these businesses…continually work to bring joy and happiness to our lives day after day, even through a worldwide pandemic. If there’s ever a time to share the love back with them, Valentine’s Day is an exceptional reason to start!”

Photo courtesy Andy’s Pizza

The ShipGarten, a long-anticipated food and drink experience in shipping containers from the team behind Tysons Biergarten, is slated to open in “early spring.”

“As many can tell, the tent’s been put up, the shipping containers are being built as we speak, and everything is pretty much moving forward rapidly,” former Tysons Biergarten CEO and managing partner Matt Rofougaran said.

ShipGarten plans to be a pop-up for three years at the Scotts Run development in Tysons. It will be six times larger than Tysons Biergarten space, which closed in November 2019.

The pop-up will feature four specially-designed shipping containers where food and drinks will be prepared, along with three year-round tents where guests will sit at tables.

Originally, the new bar was slated to open in the spring of 2020, but it was pushed to the third quarter of 2020 due to the pandemic. Rofougaran also attributed the delays to the long processes involved in trying to do something this new.

“Our contractor has never cut up shipping containers before and converted them into bars,” Rofougaran said. “Fairfax County has never seen anything like this.”

Finding the right tent took a while too, and ultimately, they had to be ordered from Germany.

“Overall, everything about it is different than your normal restaurant-bar,” Rofougaran said.

The experience completely diverged from the process for Hops N Shine in Alexandria, which took six months from getting permits to opening, he said.

At ShipGarten, customers can choose from four mini-restaurants that will each operate in a shipping container: Salamati (which Rofougaran describes as “Persian-style Chipotle”), Tysons Biergarten (German fare like the old establishment served), Rollbär (Asian fusion) and Chalkboard (barbecue).

Customers will order from kiosks outside the containers and pick up their food from one of a half-dozen windows that are being cut into the containers. They will be able to sit at tables, spaced 10 feet apart, under the tent or in the field.

During non-COVID-19 times, Roufgaran says customers would be able to sit at the bar section of the shipping container.

“This will be the safest place for you to do social distancing because of how much land we have,” Rofougaran said. “We’re providing very good social distancing.”

For now, people can try offerings from Salamati and Rollbär at Hops N Shine. Kitchen staff will be preparing the Persian food for a pop-up on Feb. 10 from 6 to 9 p.m., and Asian fusion food will be served from noon to 4 p.m. on Feb. 13.

“The pop-ups are the best,” Rofougaran said. “We get people from Tysons showing up to these all the time.”

Images via ShipGarten/Instagram

The food service industry is in survival mode this winter, as COVID-19 cases remain high in Fairfax County and around the U.S.

Increased flexibility for outdoor dining operations, along with a greater emphasis on takeout and delivery services, helped sustain many restaurants during the summer and fall, but the chillier weather has made convincing people to eat or drink outside a trickier proposition.

The National Restaurant Association reported in December that sales had dropped by $2.2 billion — or 4% — in November from the previous month and were expected to decline further over the winter. Overall, the food service industry has seen a nearly 20% drop in sales compared to business pre-pandemic.

To rally public support, local restaurants, breweries, and cafes have turned to a range of promotions, from restaurant weeks to a #BundleUp campaign led by Caboose Brewing Company, which runs Caboose Tavern in Vienna and Caboose Commons in Merrifield, and the the Lake Anne Brew House in Reston.

Have you been patronizing restaurants and other food and beverage establishments this winter? Are you sticking with delivery and takeout orders, or are you willing to try dining outside — or even indoors?

Photo via Spencer Davis on Unsplash

Eating outdoors may not sound especially appealing when temperatures are hovering in the 30 to 40-degree range, but that is exactly what some local restaurants are urging patrons to do so they have a chance of outlasting a grueling winter.

With COVID-19 still limiting people’s ability and willingness to dine inside, Caboose Brewing Company, which runs Caboose Tavern in Vienna and Caboose Commons in Merrifield, joined forces with Reston’s Lake Anne Brew House in December to launch the #BundleUp campaign.

The grassroots initiative encourages customers to don blankets and winter clothing so they can eat and drink outside. It is open to all restaurants, breweries, coffee shops, and other food establishments, though the organizers are not keeping a tally of everyone who’s participating.

“A lot of people feel safer when they’re outside with people, so I think it’s catching on,” Caboose Events and Marketing Manager Courtney Beazell said. “It’s getting the response that we wanted. We’re hoping that more people will continue to promote it and continue to use it.”

Over the campaign’s two months of existence, it has evolved to include a “collaboration brew” that Caboose is offering to other restaurants and bars, along with a Bundle Up bike ride.

According to Beazell, Lake Anne Brew House owner Melissa Romano proposed developing a brew to spread the word about the Bundle Up campaign. Caboose was already planning to sell a “Wee Heavy” scotch ale for the winter before realizing that the new brew would be a perfect fit for the campaign.

The brewery started canning the ale on Jan. 5, producing 36 cases to sell to restaurants, breweries, and bottle shops. Wee Heavy is also available to customers on tap at Caboose Tavern.

Caboose sold out its supply, with buyers coming from across Northern Virginia and even as far away as Richmond, but the recipe is available on the company’s website for any breweries still interested in participating.

Caboose Brewing Company owner Jennifer McLaughlin says the collaboration brew has helped create a sense of community within Fairfax County’s craft beer industry.

“We’re all in this together, and everybody’s suffering right now,” McLaughlin said. “Just knowing that there are other restaurants and breweries out there that are going through the same thing and that you’ve got friends out there going through the same thing, that helps.” Read More

Wednesday was a busy day for presidents past and present, but in between witnessing Joe Biden’s inauguration and paying their respects at Arlington National Cemetery, ex-Commanders in Chief Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama grabbed a bite to eat — courtesy of Urban Plates.

Preparing lunch for three former presidents and first ladies was a joint effort by all three Urban Plates restaurants in the D.C. area, including the staff at the Tysons Galleria venue, according to Urban Plates spokesperson Hannah Jacobs.

“Urban Plates is honored to have been chosen to serve,” Urban Plates said in a press release. “We believe that delicious, affordable food made with quality ingredients is something that everyone should have access to — and that’s something we can all agree on.”

Food served to the former White House occupants included a chicken cobb salad and sustainable grilled salmon. Urban Plates says the dishes were “hits” but declined to elaborate on who ordered what “out of respect for their privacy.”

To commemorate the occasion, the restaurant will donate 129 meals to frontline healthcare workers: 42 meals on behalf of Clinton, 43 for Bush, and 44 for Obama.

The donations are being made through Urban Plates’ Nourishing Heroes program, which allows customers to sponsor a meal for healthcare, police, fire, and military service workers by donating $12 when purchasing food. The restaurant matches every donated meal up to 1,000 meals per week.

“Our mission is to make craveable, wholesome, and clean food accessible to all,” Urban Plates co-founder and CEO Saad Nadhir said. “We are proud to have delivered on that promise to three former presidents, first ladies, their supporting staff, and a group of Arlington Cemetery groundskeepers and workers on Inauguration Day.”

Photo courtesy Urban Plates

A longtime Falls Church City resident who was a familiar presence in the local culinary scene joined the hundreds of COVID-19 victims in the Fairfax County area earlier this week.

The family-owned restaurant Thompson Italian announced on Tuesday (Jan. 19) that its “beloved team member,” Jose Rogelio Martinez Alvarenca, died on Sunday (Jan. 17) after “an extensive battle” with COVID-19.

“He was a true fixture in the Falls Church community,” Thompson Italian said. “He worked in neighborhood restaurants for decades, and seemed to know everyone who walked in our door. He had a ready smile, lots of swagger, and unparalleled enthusiasm.”

Martinez had not been working at Thompson Italian since the restaurant temporarily closed in March due to the pandemic, but the management team says it had “looked forward to welcoming him back in the spring.”

“Nights were better for everyone when Jose was working, and he will be sorely missed by our staff and our guests,” the team said.

Survived by his wife, Ana, and five children – Jessica, Joseph, Gary, Jose “Junior,” and Kiara — Martinez came to the U.S. from El Salvador in 1979 and had lived in the City of Falls Church for the past 30 years.

Prior to joining Thompson Italian, which opened in Falls Church in 2019, Martinez worked at Ireland’s Four Provinces for nine years.

He contracted COVID-19 in November and was hospitalized until his death on Jan. 17, according to his children.

His family started a fundraiser on GoFundMe to assist with costs for medical care and memorial and funeral services, which will be held on Monday (Jan. 25). The fundraiser has more than doubled its goal of $15,000, with 416 donors contributing more than $36,000 as of 8:30 a.m.

Jessica and Joseph Martinez describe their father as someone who was passionate about working with people in his community and enjoyed working in the food industry as a way to connect with neighbors.

“He was very well-known in the community and we are so grateful for the outpouring of love and support by neighbors, friends and family,” they told Tysons Reporter. “We created the GoFundMe fundraiser as so many people that knew Jose reached out and wanted to help.”

They added that the goal of the fundraiser is “to ease the burden for funeral and memorial costs to keep his memory alive and bury him with dignity, so he can be at peace.”

As of Jan. 21, 758 people in the Fairfax Health District have died from COVID-19, including six people in the City of Falls Church.

(Updated on 1/22/2021) Several restaurants in the Tysons area will take part in Metropolitan Washington Winter Restaurant Week starting next Monday (Jan. 25).

For two weeks through Feb. 7, restaurants around the D.C. region will offer prix fixe meals for two or four people. Takeout and delivery options are available, with some venues offering only “to go” meals.

Lunch and brunch meals for one cost $22. There are two dinner menus: one for $35 (or $60 for two people and $120 for four), and one for $55 ($100 for two, $200 for four).

Organized by Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington, the annual restaurant week was originally scheduled to launch this week but got delayed by one week “in consideration of the fluid nature of activities and regulatory measures” affecting the area, according to RAMW website.

The following local restaurants will take part in the promotional week:

Tysons

• Randy’s Prime Seafood and Steaks: lunch and $55 dinner menu (no takeout)
• Founding Farmers: lunch, $35 dinner menu, cocktail and wine pairings (takeout, delivery, and outdoor dining available)
• Chima Steakhouse: $35 and $55 dinner menus (no takeout, delivery, or outdoor dining)
• Fogo de Chao: two dinners for $60 (takeout and delivery only)
• Wildfire Tysons Galleria: lunch, $35 and $55 dinner menus, cocktail and wine pairings (takeout and delivery only)
• Eddie V’s Prime Seafood: $35 dinner menu only (takeout and delivery only)
• American Prime: lunch and $55 dinner menus, cocktail and wine pairings (takeout and outdoor dining available)
• Agora Tysons: $35 and $55 dinner menus, cocktail and wine pairings (indoor and outdoor dining, takeout, and delivery available)

Vienna

• Maple Ave. Restaurant: $35 dinner menu only (takeout only)
• Caboose Brewing Company: lunch and $35 dinner menu, cocktail and wine pairings (outdoor dining, takeout, and delivery available)
• Blend 111: brunch, lunch, $35 dinner menu, cocktail and wine pairings (takeout and outdoor dining available)

McLean

• The Capital Grille: lunch and $55 dinner menu (takeout and delivery available for Restaurant Week to-go dinner orders)
• J. Gilbert’s: lunch, $35 and $55 dinner menus, cocktail and wine pairings (takeout and delivery available)

Falls Church

• 2941 Restaurant: $55 dinner menu, cocktail and wine pairings (dine-in, takeout, and delivery available)
• Trio Grill: $55 dinner menu only (outdoor dining, takeout, and delivery available)

Mosaic District

• Alta Strada: brunch, lunch, $35 dinner menu, cocktail and wine pairings (outdoor dining, takeout, and delivery available)
• Matchbox Pizza: $55 dinner menu, cocktail and wine pairings (takeout only)

Tysons area restaurants could get another boost this spring, when the Tysons Regional Chamber of Commerce is planning to host a second Tysons Restaurant Week after the inaugural one proved to be a success in October.

Correction: This article has been updated to note that 2941 Restaurant and Agora are offering their Restaurant Week menus for dine-in customers as well, not just for takeout and delivery as previously stated.

Fatimah Waseem contributed to this report.

Staff photo by Ashley Hopko

Choolaah has left the Mosaic District in Merrifield.

The fast-casual Indian restaurant shut its doors on Mar. 19 for what was expected to be a temporary hiatus in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the chain announced in a Facebook post on Jan. 5 that the closure is now permanent “despite our efforts to find a viable pathway for reopening.”

“This has been a challenging time for our friends, families, community and country,” Choolaah said. “That being said, we are heartened by the amazing support and kindness shown throughout this difficult period. We thank you for the warmth, joy and delight you have brought us over the years and hope to be back in the future.”

The announcement drew an outpouring of emotions from commenters, with multiple people calling the restaurant their favorite place in the Mosaic District.

Wholesome International, the company that owns Choolaah, and EDENS, the Mosaic District property owner, did not return requests for further comment from Tysons Reporter by publication time.

However, a Mosaic District employee told Tysons Reporter that the closure possibly stemmed from the owners being unable to afford rent payments for the space.

Choolaah opened its first and only Fairfax County location at the Mosaic District in December 2016. The chain started in 2015 in Cleveland, Ohio, and now has five venues.

Choolaah has a location in Sterling that remains open. That restaurant also closed last spring due to the pandemic, but it reopened for delivery, takeout, and curbside pickup service in July. The company says on Facebook it is looking at “new opportunities in the area.”

The Mosaic District has lost several tenants in the past year. Other departures include the restaurants Brine, Cheesetique, and BGR Burger Grilled Right, the furniture retailer Great Gatherings, the chocolate shop Artisan Confections, and the jewelry store Alex and Ani.

Photo via Google Maps

The Town of Vienna is about to lose an icon.

Amphora Restaurant will permanently close its doors on Jan. 12 after occupying 377 Maple Ave. for 44 years. Word of the impending closure started circulating on social media yesterday.

“It’s impossible to put into words what this place has meant to so many,” Amphora’s owners said in their announcement on Facebook. “With all of the support you’ve shown us over the years, we are beyond humbled to have contributed to our local restaurant and neighborhood community.”

Co-owner Maria Bilidas attributes the decision to close to the challenges of operating a restaurant under the limitations imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Amphora Group will instead consolidate its operations and staff at the newer Amphora Diner Deluxe that it runs in Herndon, where it also has a bakery and catering business.

“We have our bakery up in Herndon. Our corporate offices are in Herndon,” Bilidas said. “Given the current situation and the fact that we don’t see things changing in 2021 any time soon, we felt it was the prudent business decision to consolidate all our operations at this point to our restaurant up in Herndon.”

Founded in 1977 by the Cholakis and Bilidas families, Amphora offers an eclectic, comfort food-oriented menu with more than 350 items, ranging from burgers and grilled cheese to Greek, Italian, and Mexican cuisine. The Vienna restaurant is also complemented by a bakery with cakes, pies, and other desserts.

With its 24/7 operating hours, including all-day breakfast, and congenial atmosphere, the seemingly permanent Maple Avenue fixture built up a reliable local customer base, becoming a go-to venue for families, couples on date nights, and students looking to hang out late into the night.

“We love Vienna,” Bilidas said. “We all grew up in Vienna, we went to high school in Vienna, we have a very strong symbolic relationship with the Town of Vienna.”

Bilidas says the owners all labored “for days and days” over whether to close Amphora Restaurant, but when they got an offer from someone looking to purchase the property, they determined that shutting down would be the best decision for the business and their employees.

Many of the workers at Amphora’s Vienna restaurant will move to the Herndon location, and the owners are encouraging patrons to visit the diner, which has essentially the same menu.

“It’s been a long run, and we’ve made so many connections and so many friends,” Bilidas said. “Some people have moved out to our other location out west as people have moved, and they’re now regulars at our restaurant up in Herndon…We really hope [our customers] come and visit us there.”

Photo via Google Maps

About four months after opening its doors at The Boro in Tysons, Hokkaido Ramen Santouka has found its soup legs.

At first, the ramen shop focused exclusively on its signature noodle soups, but the menu has since expanded with appetizers, desserts, and seasonal items that are available for a limited time.

“We want to make sure that what we do offer was at the highest quality that we could possibly do,” Junchiro Kawakami, the general manager of Santouka Tysons, said. “Now that it’s been a couple months, all of our staff have gotten used to the menu items and the general operation of the restaurant. We felt comfortable expanding our menu.”

Originally started in Hokkaido, Japan, in 1983, Santouka chose The Boro as its first Virginia location because they saw “huge potential” in all the development happening in the Tysons area, Kawakami says.

Plans for the new restaurant got underway in 2019 with the goal of opening this past March.

Then, the COVID-19 pandemic hit Fairfax County, and the opening was delayed due to concerns from the construction company about the safety of its crews, according to Kawakami.

The pause gave Kawakami and Food’s Style USA, which operates the Tysons location, time to adapt to the unique constraints imposed by the pandemic.

In addition to obtaining sneezeguards and dividers for each table, as well as protective equipment and cleaning supplies for employees, Santouka Tysons pivoted from a mostly dine-in operation to one that could accommodate more carryout and delivery orders.

That required finding takeout containers that can hold soup and noodles separately and replacing a key ingredient.

“We normally use lard for one of our ingredients, but unfortunately, we weren’t able to use that for carryout,” Kawakami explained. “As you might be able to guess, once it gets colder, it starts to look very unappetizing, so we had to change that ingredient to an oil base.”

While opening in the middle of a pandemic has been a challenge, Kawakami says the restaurant has been “going strong,” thanks to the support of its new customers and its suppliers’ flexibility with the changing construction schedule and operations.

In the hopes of carrying that success over into the new year, Santouka Tysons has added some new menu items over the past month, including tsukemen – where the noodles are dipped instead of kept in soup – and a riff on dora-yaki – a pancake filled with red bean paste – that involves bacon bits and maple syrup.

Kawakami says the family-sized, delivery-only appetizer dishes that Santouka has been offering during the holiday season have proven popular.

He has also gotten adept at using social media, particularly Facebook and Instagram, to stay engaged with customers and share promotions, such as a Japanese snack giveaway that will take place on Jan. 1.

“Our aim is to bring to… the DMV area authentic Japanese ramen,” Kawakami said. “That hasn’t changed, but how we do that, we had to think about it and change that up.”