The Town of Vienna’s summer concert series will still happen — just not at the Town Green.
Audiences for “Summer on the Green” will instead watch the concerts via Facebook Live or at local businesses at 6:30 p.m. on Fridays.
The town announced on its website that the changes are due to safety concerns with COVID-19.
People will be able to make song requests and play trivia and virtual bingo to win prizes, according to the town. “If you miss the live shows, you can watch later on Facebook or on Youtube,” the website says.
Here’s the line-up:
- July 10: The Sarah Bennett Swanner Band
- July 17: Richard Walton Group
- July 24: Karl Stoll and the Danger Zone
- July 31: TBA
- Aug. 7: Big Bad JuJu
- Aug. 14: The Hot Lanes Trio with Bobby Jasinski
The town and the Rotary Club of Vienna, along with other sponsors, host the series of free performances.
The Vienna Business Association is encouraging businesses to sign up to stream the concerts.
Photo via Town of Vienna/Facebook
AU Prof Wins Republican Primary — “American University professor Daniel Gade won Virginia’s Republican Senate primary and will challenge Sen. Mark Warner (D) in November.” [The Hill]
Local Lauded for Social Media Efforts — “The Vienna Business Association on June 22 awarded its first annual Corporate Social Responsibility Award to Vienna resident Lydia Russo… Founder of the Vienna VA Foodies Facebook group, Russo has raised money and social awareness and encouraged community action for food-insecure families, front-line workers, first-responders and Vienna restaurants.” [Inside NoVa]
Back to School Support — “Northern Virginia parents are generally comfortable with their students returning to school classrooms this fall, assuming precautions are taken to control the spread of COVID-19, according to a survey conducted on InsideNoVa.com.” [Inside NoVa]
FCPS Options for Fall — “Fairfax County Public Schools will offer students two plans for the upcoming school year: 100 percent online learning or part-time classroom instruction.” [Inside NoVa]
Hotels Housing Homeless — “At least six hotels are on board to shelter vulnerable persons around Fairfax County. According to the latest Fairfax County Health and Human Services update, 241 hotel rooms were occupied with 255 guests as of June 16. So far, 456 rooms in six hotels have been secured for the program.” [Patch]
After temporarily closing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a Pizza Hut location in Vienna has shuttered permanently.
The location previously at 541 Maple Ave W. said on its Facebook page that it is “permanently closed,” but there was no post explaining why. Additionally, the location’s page was removed from the list on the eatery’s corporate website.
Just last year, the chain closed more than 500 locations nationally, according to USA Today.
People hungry for pizza in the area can check out a variety of other pizza parlors near Maple Ave, such as Lombardi’s and Church Street Pizzeria (115 Church Street) and the newly opened PizzaRoni (235 Maple Ave E.)
Photo via Pizza Hut/Facebook
The Town of Vienna can soon expect a new smoothie and juice bar along Maple Avenue.
Viva Sol Juice Company is planning to open this July, according to a Facebook post yesterday. Tysons Reporter spotted permits for the business earlier this year.
Viva Sol Juice Company is set to come to 124 Maple Ave W. in the Vienna Shopping Center.
The business’ Facebook page describes it as “Vienna’s original superfood cafe” and claims that the location will offer 100% cold-pressed juice, bowls, smoothies, doughnuts, an espresso bar and brunch.
The Facebook page says that Viva Sol Juice Company is focused on plant-based, gluten-free food and drinks.
Image via Viva Sol Juice Company/Facebook
New Principal — “Hoang Nguyen, who has served as assistant principal of Kilmer Center since 2016, has been named the new principal of Kilmer Center, effective July 1. Nguyen began his career in FCPS as a special education teacher at Armstrong Elementary before moving to Marshall Road Elementary to serve as a crisis resource teacher where he remained for seven years.” [Fairfax County Public Schools]
Ramp Changes — “Starting around June 24, drivers on southbound Nutley Street in the Vienna area will use a new ramp and traffic signal to reach eastbound Interstate 66, Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) officials said.” [Inside NoVa]
Restaurants Team Up in Falls Church — “Open Kitchen D.C.’s gathering at Yayla Bistro back in March was just supposed to bring attention to another discrete treat buried within the region’s immigrant-owned restaurant scene, but it became one last gasp of normal life before the coronavirus pandemic hollowed out dining rooms across the nation.” [Falls Church News-Press]
Unemployment Problems — “Virginia has frozen unemployment benefits for more than 12,000 people who refused to return to work amid the ongoing public health crisis, the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) announced Friday.” [DCist]
Dozens of locals created a petition to reexamine the use of Vienna’s budget to construct a new police station.
The petition, which has since gained over 1,000 signatures, calls for the Town of Vienna to halt the building construction until the Town Council arranges a “formal commission and engages in meaningful dialogue with the community to discuss the best way forward with regard to public safety.”
Twenty-three alumni of James Madison High School started the petition.
“Within the first 24 hours of publishing the petition, we’ve received hundreds of signatures,” Casey Grage, one of the petition’s creators, said. “It turns out we were correct in our assumption that there is a better way to spend Vienna money.”
The police station project includes plans to create a community gathering space. It would be located at 215 Center S. Street and cost roughly $14 million.
Grage first decided to get involved with the project after she said she felt that the project wasn’t properly publicized.
The petition outlines concerns that the police station plans lack enough community input and proposes how town officials should move forward with engaging residents.
“This community engagement process, beginning with community conversations and producing a formal report, is the best way to involve all Vienna residents in building a more just model for public safety,” the petition says.
Megha Karthikeyan, another person behind the petition, said that though the money from the budget must be dedicated toward town infrastructure growth, there is room for interpretation in this purpose.
“We think there are a lot of creative ways to use that money,” she said, adding other choices include a sexual assault resource center and a more welcoming community center design without a shooting range design.
“Making such a significant budgeting decision regarding community safety mandates the input of all constituents, especially that of Brown and Black people, whose insights and lived experiences must be heard by Town leadership,” the petition says.
While the organizers say the petition is a good start, both Grage and Karthikeyan said that it’s going to take other types of effort to attract the attention of the Town Council — including showing up to the virtual town hall meetings, asking difficult questions and directly expressing concern.
“The town has told us they are going to reply to our petition on July 6,” Grage said. Until then, they are going to keep finding ways to get more attention to their cause.
Image courtesy Kelly Jiang
Juneteenth Rally in Vienna — “A rally will take place outside the First Baptist Church of Vienna Friday evening on Juneteenth, a day that commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S.” [Tysons Reporter]
ICYMI — Government offices in Fairfax County and the City of Falls Church are closed today due to Juneteenth. [Tysons Reporter]
List of LGBTQ+ Books — Fairfax County’s public libraries have a variety of LGBTQ+ books for tweens available in the digital collection. [Fairfax County]
Library Parking Plans Move Forward — “Vienna Town Council members on June 15 approved an agreement with the Fairfax County government for the design and construction of a parking structure at the soon-to-be-renovated Patrick Henry Library.” [Inside NoVa]
A rally will take place outside the First Baptist Church of Vienna Friday evening on Juneteenth, a day that commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S.
“Many of us have been inundated by the news. We’ve watched the reports. We are in mourning,” Vernon Walton, the senior pastor at the church, said in a video. “We are upset as we’ve watched the death of George Floyd, as we watched the family of Breonna Taylor mourn, as we’ve watched the family of Ahmaud Arbery mourn. We mourn with them.”
Participants are asked to social distance, wear masks and bring signs. The “Juneteenth Rally of Remembrance” will offer time for prayer and protest to celebrate Black lives, according to the event description.
“Come expecting to be empowered by the fellowship by the brothers and sisters of our community,” Walton said in the video. “You don’t want to miss this experience.”
The rally is set to take place in the parking lot at 450 Orchard Street NW from 6-8 p.m.
Chi Mc is now serving up Korean fried chicken from its new location in the Town of Vienna.
About one year after permits first surfaced for the eatery, Chi Mc is now cooking up food in its new location in Danor Plaza (126 Branch Road SE).
The eatery was tentatively expected to open in the winter following delays with the permitting process, but then the COVID-19 pandemic hit Northern Virginia in March.
Currently, Chi Mc is offering pick-up and delivery. Its online menu features a variety of chicken combos, starters like fries and onion rings, kimchi, pickled radish, pork belly buns and several Korean dish entrees, including japchae and pa jun.
Recently, Chi Mc has posted on Facebook about free samples at the Vienna location.
Chi Mc, which means “chicken and beer” in Korean, also has locations in Chantilly and Alexandria listed on its website, which notes that the Annandale spot is no longer a part of Chi Mc.
According to the Vienna location’s Facebook page, Chi Mc is open from 11:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m.
Photo via Chi Mc Vienna/Facebook
As Northern Virginia continues to ease COVID-19 restrictions, Tysons-area restauranteurs are not only unveiling new eateries but also re-envisioning dining experiences.
Restaurant owners shared with Tysons Reporter their varying reopening plans.
Solace Brewing Company, a collaboration of D.C. restauranteurs Eric and Ian Hilton and BlackFinn Ameripub co-founder Steve Ryan, was originally poised to open a new location in Falls Church by May 1.
But the opening got delayed due to the pandemic, Jon Humerick, Solace’s co-founder and director of operations, said.
“When everything started, we obviously had to put everything on hold,” said Humerick.
The brewery, boasting several unique offerings of in-house IPAs, now plans to open within the next two weeks, operating under Phase 2 guidelines requiring seating at half-capacity for indoor and outdoor dining.
Taqueria Loca, a Mexican restaurant run by the Great American Restaurants group (GAR), debuted a “ghost kitchen” in Vienna in addition to their Sterling location before Northern Virginia began its transition into Phase 2.
This meant that they were available online and cooking in the kitchens for curbside pickup and delivery — however, they were not serving customers in-person, according to Jon Norton, the CEO of GAR.
“We are also creating a ‘patio and beer garden’ in the valet area of Coastal Flats [Tysons Corner] so that guests may begin to enjoy the Taqueria Loca experience in a physical space as well,” according to Norton.
As of June 12, all GAR restaurants officially reopened at half-capacity.
Shipgarten, a new food and dining concept from the owners of the now-closed Tysons Biergarten, was originally planning to open in June. However, they are now pushing their opening until the end of Phase 3.
“We are going to use paper products and more disposable items like disposable menus,” Managing Partner Matt Rofougaran said in describing the safety measures they will be taking.
In addition, there will be plexiglass sneezeguards to separate the bartenders from the customers, and the tables in the 30,000-square-foot facility will be separated by 10 feet rather than the 6-foot guideline to ensure extra distance.
“We’re going to have plenty of room for social distancing,” Rofougaran said.
Photo via Solace Brewing/Facebook
