The wait is over for Mediterranean restaurant Zenola. The restaurant announced on Friday (Sept. 6) that it opened in Vienna.
Zenola had previously pushed its expected opening from the winter to this summer.
“We’ve spent the last year renovating [our] space and creating a warm and inviting dining experience for our guests,” the restaurant said in an email.
Located in the former Maplewood Grill space (132 Branch Road SE) near the Fresh Market, the restaurant serves up Mediterranean cuisine. Diners can find pan-roasted quail, stuffed grape leaves and crab lasagna on the menu.
Founder and Executive Chef Samer Zeitoun was inspired by one small fruit: olives.
“Food is our passion and the olive is our inspiration,” Zenola says on its website, adding:
Olives are a foundational ingredient in each of the five great cuisines of the Mediterranean. Italian, Greek, Lebanese, Moroccan and Spanish cuisines each uniquely pay homage to the olive in their savory offerings. Which is best? We couldn’t decide so we give you the opportunity to determine for yourself by offering exquisite dishes from each…
From childhood, olives and olive oil have been staples of [Zeitoun’s] diet – his “comfort food.” He has spent a culinary career spanning more than 25 years in the pursuit and perfection of Mediterranean cuisine.
Interestingly, his last name literally translated means olive.
The restaurant is open for dinner every day starting at 5 p.m.
Photos via Zenola/Facebook
With summer nearing an end and days getting shorter, a new art exhibit in Vienna is focusing on shadows.
Titled “Shadows,” the exhibit opened earlier this week at the Vienna Arts Center (243 Church Street NW, Suite 100 LL).
Lu Cousins, the director of the Vienna Arts Society, told Tysons Reporter that the exhibit will run through October.
Artist Bob Magneson is set to come to a meeting next Thursday (Sept. 12) to demonstrate his application techniques for Impressionistic and post-Impressionistic paintings.
Events at the center are free and open to the public.
The art center is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday.
Image courtesy Vienna Arts Society
Some attendees at a meeting about a multi-year road project that recently kicked off in the Vienna area said they are worried about traffic impacts.
The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is currently working on its Transform 66 project, which includes construction near the Vienna/Fairfax-GMU Metro station.
Rich Clifton, the project’s design engineer from FAM Consulting LLC, provided attendees with a construction update at a meeting yesterday (Sept. 4) at the Providence Community Center. Every seat was filled for the presentation at 7 p.m., with dozens of people standing in the back.
Starting today (Sept. 5), the ramp from Saintsbury Drive to eastbound I-66 will be permanently closed.
The ramp will temporarily reopen for buses during the weekday from October 2019 to September 2020 while another road construction project is underway. Clifton strongly urged non-bus drivers to stay off of the ramp.
“The ramp can’t handle the volume of traffic if it was open to the general public,” Clifton. “There are 19 bus routes that go over Vaden.”
Along I-66, the barrier between the collector-distributor (CD) road and eastbound I-66 will be removed and access to I-66 from the CD road and Nutley Street will shift east of Vaden Drive.
On westbound I-66, the lanes will shift, along with the CD road. Clifton said that the exit ramp to Country Creek Drive will remain open.
Starting in October, the bridge at Vaden Drive will close for demolition and construction of a new bridge — a process that will take about a year, Clifton said.
“We’ll try to stay out of Nutley while we work on Vaden bridge,” Clifton said.
While the bridge is closed, drivers will have 2-mile-long detours to follow. A modification of traffic flow at the Nutley Street intersection and Saintsbury Drive will accommodate the detour, Clifton said.
Some attendees at the meeting said that they expect drivers to head west instead of following the detour, possibly clogging up local roads. Clifton said that posted signs about the detours are meant to encourage drivers to take detour routes, but that there is no guarantee that drivers won’t come up with their own directions.
For pedestrians, a shorter detour will allow them to use the bridge at the Vienna/Fairfax-GMU Metro station, which will stay open all day and night. Clifton said that the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) will be able to close off the station, while keeping the gates open for the bridge.
In about six months, work will start on Chain Bridge Road (Route 123) to relocate utilities and to construct bridges, ramps and new box culverts for a future path.
A temporary traffic pattern change will allow for the construction of new ramps:
- westbound I-66 and northbound Route 123
- westbound I-66 and southbound Route 123
- eastbound I-66 and northbound Route 123
- southbound Route 123 and eastbound I-66
There will also be four new traffic signals in that area.
Once all of that work is finished, construction will start on the Nutley Street and I-66 interchange.
While a diverging diamond design was proposed a few years ago, Clifton said that the interchange will instead have a double roundabout.
That work is slated to finish up in the early part of 2022.
After several questions about traffic for each portion of the project, Clifton told attendees to check out the traffic impacts online.
Maps via VDOT
A husband and wife team have opened a business franchise that cleans and does maintenance on homes in the Tysons area.
Carmen Hendricks and Chad Akers, who both have backgrounds in real estate, decided to join the TruBlue Total House Care franchise after looking for affordable home care in the area, according to a press release.
“There was definitely a need for a holistic, reasonably-priced approach to exterior and interior home maintenance in this area that could help seniors stay in their homes longer and be great for busy professionals, like ourselves, who want to spend less time working on their own homes and more time with family and friends,” Hendricks said.
TruBlue Total House Care of Vienna provides handyman, maid, lawn and seasonal services in Vienna, Oakton, Tysons, McLean, Great Falls, Falls Church and Dunn Loring.
The business offers a monthly maintenance program, along with services to homeowners, realtors and rental property owners who need help with moving maintenance and commercial services for business clients.
“We both love this area, but have never felt like we’ve gotten to know the community or the people who live here, other than those we have met through work,” she said. “We want to be the neighbor you can trust with all of your house care needs.”
Photo courtesy TruBlue Total House Care of Vienna
A meeting tonight (Wednesday) will provide an update on the upcoming work near the Vienna/Fairfax-GMU Metro station.
The Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) is currently working on its Transform 66 project.
The meeting will provide a construction update on:
- the planned closure of Vaden Drive Bridge over I-66 from fall to summer 2020
- rebuilding the Route 123 interchange
- the design for the Nutley Street interchange
The meeting will take place 6:30-8:30 p.m. at the Providence Community Center (3001 Vaden Drive) with presentations at 7 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Image via Google Maps
Tysons Reporter is back with its new monthly crime map showing where the incidents occurred in Fairfax County Police Department’s McLean District Station.
We went ahead and pulled together all of the incidents noted for the McLean District Station in FCPD crime recaps from Aug. 1-31, weeded out the ones that are not in the Tysons Reporter coverage area and plotted them in the interactive map above.
The McLean District Station covers crime in Merrifield, Dunn Loring, Falls Church, McLean, Tysons and Great Falls.
The map only includes information from FCPD and does not include reports to the police departments in the Town of Vienna or the City of Falls Church.
Use the icon in the top left corner of the map to toggle between the various types of crimes displayed.
Fairfax County’s weekday police recaps are not comprehensive lists of every incident and the addresses are approximate. FCPD also notes that information in the recaps “is generally based on initial reports made to the police department.”
Anyone with information about any of these crimes should call 703-691-2131 or 1-866-411-TIPS(8477).
Dominion Energy Backs Electric School Bus Push — “Dominion Energy announced an initiative to bring electric school buses en masse to school districts around Virginia. The effort comes amid a Fairfax County group’s call for its school district to transition to all electric buses.” [Patch]
McLean Program Encouraging Green Thumbs — “The McLean Trees Foundation’s Neighborhood Tree Program returns for its sixth year… For $50, the foundation will help McLean homeowners select a tree and then deliver it, help to plant it and offer instructions on caring for it.” [Inside NoVa]
Transforming Tysons Into a Walkable City — “According to its comprehensive plan, Tysons is aiming to become ‘a true urban downtown for Fairfax County’ by 2050. But the question on a lot of people’s minds is how they will get there, and how they will get around within the four-square-mile area.” [Greater Greater Washington]
New Track at McLean School — “Fairfax County officials, school staff and students on Aug. 22 dedicated a new track on the grounds of Franklin Sherman Elementary School in McLean… The soft-surface track is 1,550 feet long, or just more than one-quarter mile, and will be used by Franklin Sherman Elementary students and community members.” [Inside NoVa]
Foust Shares His Favorite Local Spots — Dranesville District Supervisor John Foust shared some of his top picks of things to do and places to go around McLean in a guest article. [Connection Newspapers]
Therapy Dog Comes to Vienna School — “The student services department at Thoreau Middle welcomes therapy dog Jackson Granados as part of their clinical team. Jackson will be at Thoreau part-time with school social worker Joy Granados visiting select classrooms and students and traveling the hallways at arrival and dismissal times.” [Fairfax County Public Schools]
New HQ in Tysons Building — “Strategic consulting firm Dean & Company has signed a 36,205-square-foot lease at 1600 Tysons Boulevard, with plans to move its corporate headquarters [there]… The company currently operates out of 8065 Leesburg Pike in Vienna.” [Commercial Observer]
Silver Line Work Affecting Tysons — “Beginning later this month, pedestrians and drivers will encounter daily lane and partial sidewalk closures along eastbound and westbound Route 7 (Leesburg Pike) and northbound and southbound Route 123 (Dolley Madison/Chain Bridge Road), along the Silver Line Phase 1 alignment in the Tysons area.” [Inside NoVa]
Laura Schwartz is a licensed Realtor in VA, D.C. and MD with McEnearney Associates in McLean. Reach the office at 703-790-9090.
Pumpkin Spice is back, so that officially makes it fall, right? I know, I rolled my eyes too.
Despite the pumpkin spice craze, September does mean the beginning of my favorite time of year — Fall Festivals Around Northern Virginia. Whether you’re a family with children or a group of friends going out for some fun, you’ll find a little bit of everything.
Here’s a list of some favorites during the month of September. More to follow in October!
Cox Farms — Centreville, VA
September 14-15, September 21-November 5
Live music, cow milking, farm chores, hayride, tunnels, slides, swings, corn maze, goats, cider, donuts and their market! This is my favorite event all year and I actually hold my client appreciation event here in the fall. You really can’t beat a day in cooler weather walking around their farm!
Great County Farms — Bluemont, VA
September 30-October 31
Fall Pumpkin Harvest Festival featuring pick your own pumpkins (also apples), wagon rides, pig races, Dino shows, Marshmallow roasting, cider pressing, live music, 5-acre play area, donuts and their market. Adult pro tip: Bluemont Vineyard and Dirt Farm Brewing are across the street and the views can NOT be beat.
Falls Church Festival — Falls Church, VA
September 14
Held rain or shine from 10-4 p.m., this is also the “Taste of Falls Church” with a beer garden, live entertainment, pony rides, child amusements, local crafters and sales.
Merrifield Fall Festival — Fairfax, VA
September 28
Held from 11 a.m.-6 p.m., the event combines a farmers market, beer garden, live music, kids activities and more at Mosaic. This event also includes an appearance by the Vienna Singing Princesses!
Vienna Cops and Kids Fun Run — Vienna, VA
September 22
A kids fun run with the local town police. The event runs from 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and includes many fun things after the race. Usually a police helicopter will land on the field next to Vienna Elementary, there’s a dunk-a-cop dunk tank, face painting, bounce house, music, obstacle course, food, police motorcycles and car tours.
Vienna police are looking for the suspect who brandished a knife at customers inside the Panera Bread along Maple Avenue.
The incident occurred shortly before 9 p.m. last Friday (Aug. 23) at 136 W. Maple Avenue.
“A subject walked into the store and brandished a knife at customers inside the store,” police said. “The subject then left the store on foot prior to police arrival.”
A Panera Bread employee called the police, according to the report.
In a separate incident, police are investigating an attempted fraud involving the Giant at 359 E. Maple Avenue yesterday (Thursday).
Shortly before midnight, “a person called into Giant and impersonated a security officer for the supermarket chain in an attempt to scam one of their store employees out of a large amount of money,” police said.
“The employee realized it was a scam and hung up the phone before completing the unusual request,” police said.
Photo via Facebook
New proposals to address transportation issues in the Town of Vienna will be unveiled and up for community discussion at a meeting next week.
The town commissioned the Maple Avenue Corridor Multimodal Transportation & Land Use Study to look at transportation needs and impacts from development. Kimley-Horn, a consulting firm that focuses on transportation, planning and engineering, started the study in the spring.
The study area spanned Maple Avenue from James Madison Drive to Follin Lane and also along Church Street from Lawyers Road to East Street, as well as Courthouse Road and Locust Street.
The $80,000 study was funded through capital improvement bond funds, according to a press release.
The study was broken into three phases:
- looking at the strengths and weaknesses of the current transportation conditions
- estimating the impact of future development
- brainstorming and evaluating possible strategies
Project Manager David Samba said in a press release that Maple Avenue’s dual functionality as a local street and a regional road in one of the challenges noted in the study.
“When you look at Maple Avenue, the first thing people tell you is that there’s too much traffic,” Samba said. “So some of our recommendations are geared toward finding ways to alleviate traffic congestion and bottlenecks.”
Kimley-Horn will present recommendations from the study at a meeting next Wednesday (Sept. 4).
“Transportation recommendations could include changes to vehicular access, geometric and operational modifications to specific intersections or locations, transit service improvements, enhancements to bicycle and pedestrian networks, and transportation demand management policies and strategies,” according to the Town of Vienna.
Ultimately, the town is looking to implement near- and mid-term solutions for transportation woes — like safety and accessibility — along the corridor.
“The firm received more than 150 responses to a community survey and obtained feedback and insights at two previously held community meetings,” according to the press release.
The community meeting will take place at 7 p.m. at the Town Hall Council Chambers (127 S. Center Street).
