Next Saturday will be the last chance to drink beer at Tysons Biergarten by the Greensboro Metro station.

“Our landlord… recently informed us they would need our land for redevelopment,” according to a letter from Matt Rofougaran, the CEO and managing partner of Tysons Biergarten.

The owners behind the beer garden are planning to open a new concept called The Shipgarten at Scotts Run, which is set to open in spring 2020, the letter said.

The Shipgarten plans to have four themed shipping containers:

• “The Biergarten” with German and Belgium beers and German food
• Roll Bär offering Asian fusion cuisine and Japanese whiskey
• Chalkboard BBQ serving a rotating menu of barbecue and international craft beer
• Tysons EuroBar — a Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant

A “Grand Closing Festival” on Saturday (Nov. 30) will celebrate Tysons Biergarten’s last days at 8346 Leesburg Pike.

Here’s the full letter:

Friends, Family, Patrons, and Supporters,

My name is Matt Rofougaran and I am writing this message on behalf of Paymon and Abe Hadjiesmailoo, Ryan O’Connor, and Nick Rodriguez, the proud owners of Tysons Biergarten. This is one of the hardest letters I have ever written, as it is with great sadness and a heavy heart I inform you we will be closing our doors on Saturday, November 30, 2019.

Tysons Biergarten began as nothing more than a dream shared by 5 guys. Our team successfully transformed a rustic, aging warehouse into a successful restaurant by hand through hard work and determination. We signed our lease with the understanding we would be a pop-up bar, and that one day we would need to shut down. Our landlord (one of the greatest and nicest landlords a small business could ever have) recently informed us they would need our land for redevelopment, which is not much of a surprise as Tysons is well underway becoming America’s next great city!

That being said, our team is not finished here in Tysons! Our next concept will be something this area has never seen before; The Shipgarten! The Shipgarten will be very unique, as it will feature four shipping containers (each with its own concept) along with four large tents for seating and games. The first container will be “The Biergarten”, which will have 20+ German/Belgium beers on draft, German sausages, schnitzels and more! The second shipping container will be Roll Bär our Asian Fusion concept featuring poke bowls, custom made egg rolls, sushi burritos, infused liquor bubble teas, Japanese whiskey, and more! The third container will be Chalkboard BBQ which will feature a rotating menu of barbecue and craft beer from around world along with a wide array of sauces, rubs, and seasonings which will change on a regular basis! Our final container will be called Tysons EuroBar, Tysons’ latest Mediterranean fast-casual restaurant. The menu’s main focus is custom meals. Pitas and bowls with grains are dressed up with meats including beef, lamb, chicken, doner kebab, and falafel, with a variety of toppings from feta cheese to harissa. Mediterranean cocktails, beer, and of course WINE from all over the Mediterranean will be available to compliment your meal.

We also have another restaurant in Del Ray, Alexandria, on the corner of Glebe Road and Mount Vernon Ave called Hops N Shine. Hops N Shine is much smaller than Tysons Biergarten, however, it features 52 beers on draft, custom made grilled cheese sandwiches, and moonshine!

The hardest part about all this is having to part ways with our incredible staff. While we are able to bring a few people over to our sister location in Alexandria, we do not have room for everyone and have contacted numerous bars and restaurants in the area that have all expressed interest in hiring. If you are are aware of anyone looking to hire in the Northern Virginia area, please email [email protected].

Words cannot express how proud we are of the Tysons Biergarten legacy and our opportunity to become a member of such a wonderful community. We have hosted hundreds of events from fundraisers, yappy hours, comedy shows, concerts, corporate happy hours, birthdays, weddings, retirements, holiday gatherings, and much more. You, our guests, along with our spectacular Tysons Biergarten team, have enabled us to build tremendous notoriety these past few years, and I can not thank you enough for allowing Tysons Biergarten to be a part of your lives. Thank you for your years of support and we ask everyone to come in now and use up those tokens before our doors close at the end of the month!

Sincerely,

Matt Rofougaran
CEO and Managing Partner, Tysons Biergarten

In an effort to make the arts more accessible to young audiences, Tysons’ 1st Stage Theatre is rolling out a free subscription for local high school students.

The theater announced on Tuesday (Nov. 19) its new Youth Engagement Subscription (YES) Pass for high school students in Fairfax County. The YES Pass gives students one ticket per show for a year — a free subscription for all mainstage shows.

“Our YES Pass ensures that no student is denied access to live theater due to economic barriers and guarantees that all young people will have an opportunity to be part of the discussion and the artistic life of Fairfax County,” according to a press release from 1st Stage.

The free subscriptions are being sponsored by the Ruth and Hal Launders Foundation.

Students interested in the YES Pass can contact Deidra Starnes at [email protected] or apply online.

Shoppers at The Boro in Tysons can now browse furniture and home goods in the new Ethan Allen store.

An employee said the store opened earlier this week. The store is the latest of several store and restaurant openings at the mixed-use development by the Greensboro Metro station.

The furniture chain relocated from a Route 7 location to a 11,500-square-foot spot at the corner of Boro Place and Westpark Drive. The store is right across the street from the newly opened Whole Foods.

Located at 1622 Boro Place, the store is open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday and noon-5 p.m. on Sunday — or after 6 p.m. by appointment only.

Updated 11/21/19 — Corrects location’s hours.

Virginia Tire and Auto recently rolled into Tysons with a brand new location.

The auto repair shop is now open at 2055 Chain Bridge Road, the former Merchant’s Tire and Auto Centers, a spokesperson for the company said. The 11-bay facility will be open from 7 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday.

“It is especially meaningful to now have two Virginia Tire and Auto locations in our hometown,” Mike Holmes, the co-CEO of Virginia Tire and Auto with his wife, said in a press release. “Given that we live in Vienna, we’ve had a front-row view of the rapid transformation of Tysons.”

Earlier this year, Virginia Tire and Auto opened a location in Vienna at 141 Maple Avenue.

To celebrate the opening, the auto repair shop is offering an oil change special at the Tysons spot through Dec. 31.

When the big top returns to Tysons next summer, people can expect a circus show about a power struggle.

Cirque du Soleil plans to bring “Alegría” to Tysons from July 28 to Aug. 30, according to a press release.

Attendees can expect gymnasts flying from one high bar to the next, a fire knife dancer, somersaults on trampolines and other acrobatics.

Here’s Cirque du Soleil’s description of the show:

Alegría (“joy” in Spanish) takes audiences at the heart of a once glorious kingdom now in decay led by the king’s fool and a dusty aristocracy. Carried by an intangible wind of change, an emerging movement from the streets strives to shake this established order, instilling hope and renewal to bring light and harmony to their world. With its joyful spirit, Alegría is a vital, energizing force driven by a thirst for a brighter tomorrow.

The show started in 1994. “To mark the show’s 25th anniversary, Cirque du Soleil is now revisiting its iconic ‘Alegría’ through today’s lens — including refreshed costumes and set design, a renewed acrobatic vocabulary, and modernized musical arrangements — to touch new generations of spectators,” the press release said.

Tickets are on sale now, and people can receive 40% off certain tickets Nov. 19-Dec. 2.

(Updated 11/21/19) A recruiting company in Tysons wants to hire hundreds of employees in Tysons — making them the largest job creator in recent months in Fairfax County.

In the third quarter of 2019, the Fairfax County Economic Development Authority announced that 14 companies are adding 456 jobs to the county — including 358 positons in Tysons.

Randstad North America, Inc., an IT recruiting and staffing firm whose parent company is based in the Netherlands, announced they will add 300 information technology jobs in fiscal year 2020.

INADEV, another information technology company, is the runner up for job creation in Tysons for the third quarter by bringing 25 jobs to the area.

Here is the alphabetical list of the rest of the companies bringing jobs into Fairfax County:

• American Office (Chantilly): 10 jobs
• BITS (Herndon): 10 jobs
• Blue Ridge Networks, (Chantilly): 2 jobs
• Bode Cellmark Forensics, Inc. (Lorton): 16
• Chenega MIOS (Chantilly): 16 jobs
• CT Solutions, Inc. (Tysons): 3 jobs
• Global Guardia (Tysons): 15 jobs
• Korea Innovation Center Washington (Korea) (Tysons): 4 jobs
• Learning Tree International, Inc. (Herndon): 25 jobs
• Mathtech, Inc. (Merrifield): 6 jobs
• Signet EV (Korea) (Vienna): 5 jobs
• Sysnet Technologies, Inc. (Fairfax): 10 jobs

Companies in the Tysons area also topped the list for the most added jobs when FCEDA worked with 35 businesses in the second quarter.

A cycling studio plans to come to Tysons Galleria.

CycleBar is “coming soon” to the mall, according to the mall directory. Currently, CycleBar has nearby locations in Falls Church and Arlington.

The mall has also welcomed two newcomers.

A new pop-up store from Canada Goose is now open in the mall on the second level by Saks Fifth Avenue. On the first level near Sweetgreen, See’s Candies is selling candy.

Photo via CycleBar/Facebook

Updated at 4 p.m. — Metropolitan Hospitality Group announced that the restaurants are expected to open in “late 2020/early 2021” at 8301 Greensboro Drive.

Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams and an eatery serving up Mexican cuisine are some of the newcomers announced for The Boro in Tysons.

The newcomers will join a long list of stores and restaurants that have already opened or were previously announced for new mixed-use development by the Greensboro Metro station.

Today (Tuesday), the Meridian Group — the developers behind The Boro — formally announced:

• Open Road, an American bistro from Metropolitan Hospitality Group
• El Bebe, a Mexican restaurant also from Metropolitan Hospitality Group
• Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, an ice cream shop
• The Shade Store

The list also included eateries and stores that Tysons Reporter has previously reported were coming to The Boro, including CaliBurger, Paper Source, F45 Training and a City National Bank branch.

“These additions will be a perfect complement to the diverse mix of uses within The Boro District and will help create the type of livable, urban environment we envisioned from the start,” Tom Boylan, the senior vice president of the Meridian Group, said in a press release.

Additionally, Meridian Group said that the 14-screen ShowPlace ICON theater at The Boro “is slated to open in the first quarter of 2020.”

Drivers should plan to avoid Scotts Crossing Road in Tysons this week due to a series of closures at night.

The Virginia Department of Transportation announced that the road will be closed between Jones Branch Drive and the I-495 Express Lanes starting tonight (Nov. 18) until Friday, Nov. 22, from 9:30 p.m. to 4 a.m. the following day.

The closures are related to paving as part of the Jones Branch Connector project, according to VDOT. Several detours will be in place for drivers.

The Jones Branch Connector project expects to have two lanes in each direction open by the end of the year and final completion in early 2020, according to VDOT.

Map via VDOT

Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors wants to team up with the developers behind a Tysons East development on a stream restoration project in Scotts Run.

The partnership between the county and Cityline Partner would let the developer fund part of the project, satisfying its proffered conditions for its Scotts Run project, which would bring a hotel, apartments, office buildings and retail space right next to the McLean Metro station.

When the county approved Cityline’s rezoning application in 2013, the developer agreed to design and construct a stream restoration project in the Scotts Run Stream Valley Park, which is owned by the Fairfax County Park Authority, according to county documents.

More from county documents on the proposed agreement:

As part of the Stormwater Capital Improvement Program, the county has finalized designs and is ready to construct a stream restoration project in a section of the Scotts Run that is contiguous with the Cityline Plan (County Project). The county and Cityline want to implement the Cityline Plan and the County Project concurrently…

Under the proposed agreement, the County will solicit bids for the construction of the combined Cityline Plan and the County Project, and, based on the bid, Cityline will choose whether to fund its proportional share of construction costs or construct the Cityline Plan independent of the County Project.

The county says that combining the stream restoration projects will help the work will get done faster and lower construction costs.

“Additionally, stormwater improvement and stream restoration projects for Tysons are included in the adopted Scotts Run Watershed Management Plan and are part of the Fiscal Year 2020 Capital Improvement Program,” the county documents added.

The board is set to vote on the proposed project agreement tomorrow (Tuesday).