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CON TENTS
■ FEATURES
EDUCATION
42
Behind the Ivy Tower
Perfect grades, killer test scores and copious extracurriculars don’t guarantee admissions to the nation’s most prestigious colleges. So what does?
48
Lessons Learned
Seasoned educators share heartwarming stories and takeaways from their years on the job.
56 College Bound
Which colleges and universities were most popular among Arlington’s Class of 2025? Here’s where recent grads say they applied and were accepted.
PARENTING
74 Like a Rock
Every generation strives for a newer and better approach to raising kids. What is “sturdy parenting” and how does it improve upon the way we were brought up?
Illustration by Jess Lemon
When you put everything into caring for your family and want someone who dedicates the same level of care to your health.
Charlotte S. Benjamin Center for Women’s Health
CON TENTS
118 Shop Local
Fall temps bring farm weekends, street festivals, Halloween fun and a countywide art studio tour.
20 Photo Gallery
Scenes from this year’s Best of Arlington bash at Mercedes-Benz of Arlington.
22 Big Picture
A legendary marathon celebrates a major milestone.
24 Familiar Faces
A local teen’s inspiring story of adoption, unimaginable loss and resilience.
94 Great Spaces
This bright kitchen will leave you green with envy.
96 Prime Numbers
The area’s most expensive home sales, plus real-estate trends by ZIP code.
100 Restaurant Review
Bar Chinois brings French-inspired cocktails, Chinese small plates and a boisterous vibe to National Landing.
104 Home Plate
Save your appetite for Nepalese cuisine, proper prime rib and a fine dining destination that’s worthy of a road trip.
106 Places to Eat
Hungry? See our bite-size guide to more than 250 area restaurants and bars.
These pretty stationery products will make you fall in love with paper all over again.
120 Driving Range
In Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the history lessons extend well beyond the Civil War.
126 Get Away
Plan a weekend of leaf-peeping in West Virginia, bikes and beers on the Delaware shore, or a taste of the good life in rural New Jersey.
128 Back Story
Who knew this firefighting mascot’s origin story began in Arlington? SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTIONS 28 Women in Business
letter from the publisher
Ivy League or Bust?
WE’VE ALL HEARD STORIES of overachieving teens who’ve set their sights (and hopes and dreams) on the nation’s most prestigious colleges and universities. They have perfect grades, excellent test scores and impressive extracurriculars. They seem tailor-made for these kinds of schools. So, they apply—and what happens? They are often deferred, waitlisted and rejected. We’re left wondering, “Who actually gets into these schools and what could these kids have done differently?”
At Arlington Magazine, we decided to look into it. “Behind the Ivy Tower,” by Tamara Lytle, examines what elite colleges and universities are looking for, according to a variety of experts, including former admissions directors and college counselors. Lytle also interviews several accomplished young adults who provide much-needed perspective on the college admissions process and, most importantly, the outcome—finding the school that’s right for you. (Hint: it’s probably not called Harvard, Princeton, Stanford or Duke.) For me, it was the University of Richmond. Go Spiders.
Shifting topics, parenting styles have certainly evolved over time. I’m a Gen Xer, so I hail from the latchkey generation. Our parents’ method of child-rearing has been described as benign neglect. We were often left alone to solve our own problems. In response to that aloof style, the pendulum swung toward more hands-on parenting approaches—like so-called “helicopter” and “snowplow” parents who micromanage their kids
and remove obstacles from their path. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the pendulum is swinging again.
One of the newer parenting styles that is getting a lot of attention is called “sturdy parenting.”
“Like a Rock,” by Susan Anspach, looks at what this approach entails, how it is different from its predecessors and why it’s so popular with Millennials. We all want happy, well-adjusted, resilient children. Perhaps this is the child-rearing model we’ve been waiting for.
Our annual Best of Arlington Readers Survey is live at arlingtonmagazine.com/best-of-arlingtonsurvey/. Support your favorite people, places and businesses in the community by voting. The survey includes more than 60 categories, from Best New Restaurant to Best Veterinarian, and it closes Friday, September 5, 2025. Also, we publish new stories daily on ArlingtonMagazine.com, so please visit the site and sign up for our newsletter.
I hope you find our September/October Education issue to be interesting, informative and enjoyable. As always, please email me anytime with questions, feedback or story ideas. Letters to the editor should be sent to jenny.sullivan@ arlingtonmagazine. Thanks so much for reading Arlington Magazine!
Greg Hamilton Publisher & Owner
Tamara Lytle
LIVES IN: Vienna
IN THIS ISSUE: Investigates what’s driving admissions decisions inside the nation’s elite colleges and universities
EDUCATION: Holds a bachelor’s degree (Spanish and journalism, with a minor in political science) from Indiana University and a master’s degree in public policy from Trinity College. “I thought I wanted to go to Stanford and didn’t get in. Indiana turned out to be a much better fit. Great journalism school.”
PARENTING TIP: “If you have a senior applying to college, set up a weekly debrief and then drop the subject in between so they are not barraged every time they walk into the kitchen. Also, focus less on the name brand of the school and more on what’s a good fit for your kid.”
FAVORITE TEACHER: “My high school journalism teacher, John Reque, had high standards but managed to spark a lifelong love of journalism.”
CURRENTLY WORKING ON: “A story on the Virginia governor’s race and another on fast flux hacker attacks. I learn something with every story.”
FUN FACTS: “I love to entertain and own an industrial strength chocolate fountain. I’m also a travel addict. One recent trip included a South African safari and a beach in Zanzibar.”
Jess Lemon
LIVES IN: Frederick, Maryland
IN THIS ISSUE: Illustrated our cover story on the admissions process inside the Ivy League and other highly selective universities
FAVORITE TEACHER: “My high school art teacher, Ms. H. She was very supportive and pushed the boundaries of my creativity.”
FOR VISUAL INSPIRATION: “I look to history, period pieces and documentaries. I’m drawn to elements with lots of texture and color.”
ADMIRATION CLUB: “I love the work of Adam Simpson, Eyvind Earle, Jeremy Miranda, Pat Perry, Júlia Sardà Portabella, Keith Negley, Mason London, Miroslav Šašek, Tara Anand, Tatsuro Kiuchi and Victoria Semykina.”
PROPS: Lemon’s illustration for “The Deadliest Dose,” our Jan/Feb 2024 feature about teen opioid use, won a 2024 Award of Excellence for Editorial Illustration from Communication Arts and was included in the Communication Arts Illustration Annual #65.
CURRENTLY WORKING ON: “Challenging myself to take risks with gouache and colored pencils in my personal work.”
FUN FACT: “I love a good game of cribbage!”
ONLINE: heyjesslemon.com
PUBLISHER & OWNER
Greg Hamilton
EDITOR
Jenny Sullivan
ART DIRECTOR
Laura Goode
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Danny Ryan
DIGITAL EDITORS
Stephanie Kanowitz, Helen Partridge
WEB PRODUCER
Erin Roby
DINING CRITIC
David Hagedorn
COPY EDITOR
Barbara Ruben
CO-FOUNDER
Steve Hull
WRITERS
Tamar Abrams, Susan Anspach, Christine Koubek Flynn, Wendy Kantor, Tamara Lytle, Nigel F. Maynard, Jamie McCrary, Kim O’Connell, Renee Sklarew, Eliza Tebo
PHOTOGRAPHERS & ILLUSTRATORS
Anna and Mateo, Ian Boden, Stephanie Bragg, Skip Brown, Anne Colliard, Reema Desai, Lisa Helfert, Noel Kline, Jess Lemon, Tony J. Lewis, Fredde Lieberman, Deb Lindsey, Donna Owens, Nina Palazzolo, Armando Rafael, Alex Sakes, Hilary Schwab, Joseph D. Tran, Michael Ventura, Stephanie Whitehill, Stephanie Williams, Written in Light Photography
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Phone: 703-534-0519
Francesca Keith is your local next door
For Francesca Keith, delivering best-in-class service begins with deep community roots. A proud Arlingtonian for over 25 years, she knows where to find the best peach pie, the tucked-away hiking trails, and even the local pickleball courts. It’s these everyday details that make Arlington special—and why she’s passionate about helping clients buy and sell homes here. At Corcoran McEnearney, our associates are more than agents; they’re trusted advisors, neighborhood experts, and the locals next door.
AROUND TOWN
by Jamie McCrary
PERFORMING ARTS
SEPT. 5, 8 P.M.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 in Concert
Wolf Trap
Harry’s final battle against He-Who-MustNot-Be-Named unfolds as the National Symphony Orchestra performs Alexandre Desplat’s iconic score while the film plays on large screens throughout Wolf Trap’s Filene Center. Tickets begin at $49.50. 1551 Trap Road, Vienna, wolftrap.org
SEPT. 17, 8:30 P.M.
Hamlet
Wolf Trap
Presented by Toronto-based Côté Danse and Ex Machina, this gripping adaptation
of Shakespeare’s tragedy fuses movement and drama. Tickets begin at $61. Filene Center, 1551 Trap Road, Vienna, wolftrap.org
SEPT. 23, 7:30 P.M.
MasterChef All-Stars Live!
Capital One Hall
Witness head-to-head culinary battles and jaw-dropping creations from your favorite star chefs in this night of food, fun and fierce competition. Tickets begin at $49.65. 7750 Capital One Tower Road, Tysons, capitalonehall.com
SEPT. 23-NOV. 9
Strategic Love Play
Signature Theatre
This razor-sharp, not-quite-romantic comedy follows an online-matched first date, exploring themes of love, loneliness and modern dating in the age of swiping. See website for show times. Tickets
MAGICAL MEXICO
SEPT. 6-OCT. 19
LUZIA
Cirque du Soleil
Step into a fantastical world of stunning visuals and acrobatic performances. Set in a makebelieve realm, this dreamlike production will guide you through the places, people and sounds of classical and contemporary Mexico. See website for show times. Tickets begin at $60. Under the Big Top at Tysons II, 8025 Galleria Drive, Tysons, cirquedusoleil.com/luzia
begin at $40. 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington, sigtheatre.org
SEPT. 26-OCT. 5
The Best Haunted House Ever!
Encore Stage & Studio Chaos ensues when a group of high schoolers sneak into a haunted house to prank their classmates—and are instead met by two unexpected visitors. See website for show times. $13-$16. Thomas
■ around town
Jefferson Community Theatre, 125 S. Old Glebe Road, Arlington, encorestage.org
OCT. 2-26
The Turn of the Screw: A Musical
Creative Cauldron
This chilling musical adaptation of Henry James’ classic ghost story follows a governess’ eerie experiences on a remote country estate—and the slow unraveling of her sanity. Performances are 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. Tickets begin at $40; $25 for students. 127 E. Broad St., Falls Church, creativecauldron.org
OCT. 4-19
10th Annual Scripts in Play
Staged Reading Festival
Avant Bard
The annual festival invites audiences into the play development process with staged readings of new works by local, regional and national playwrights. See website for performance times and hosting venues. Free. avantbard.org
OCT. 16-NOV. 2
Fair Play
1st Stage Theatre
This gripping new work follows two promising young athletes whose lives are pulled into public scrutiny. Performances are 7:30 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. $55; $15 for students, educators and military service members. 1524 Spring Hill Road, Tysons, 1ststage.org
OCT. 24, 7 P.M.
Dino-Light
The Alden
Join the award-winning Lightwire Theatre for an electroluminescent puppetry and dance performance about a friendly dinosaur’s journey through a world of glow-in-the-dark creatures. $25; $20 for students and seniors; $15 for McLean Community Center district residents. 1234 Ingleside Ave., McLean, mcleancenter.org
OCT. 24, 7 P.M.
Desi Banks: The Elevation Tour
Capital One Hall
The actor, comedian and podcaster has been praised as the “next great talent” by comedic star Kevin Hart. Tickets begin at $41.40. 7750 Capital One Tower Road, Tysons, capitalonehall.com
GO NOW
THROUGH SEPT. 7
Portals
Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington
Otherworldly works by Aiza Ahmed, Aryana Minai and Shyama Golden explore the threshold between the earthly and the divine, the conscious and the unconscious, the material and the dream state, with themes of diaspora and exile as a backdrop. Free. 3550 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, mocaarlington.org
ART
THROUGH SEPT. 28
Reclining Liberty
Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington
Set on the museum’s front lawn, Zaq Landsberg’s horizontal Statue of Liberty invites visitors to reflect on the current status of American ideals. Grab a selfie with this temporary installation before it leaves town. Free. 3550 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, mocaarlington.org
SEPT. 4-OCT. 12
Maximalism: A Regional Juried Show
Arlington Artists Alliance
Art works celebrating excess, abundance, bold visual expression, indulgence and sensory overload present a stark
contrast to minimalism’s quiet restraint. Free. Alliance Gallery at The Crossing at Clarendon, 2700 Clarendon Blvd., Suite R330, Arlington, arlingtonartistsalliance.org
SEPT. 11-NOV. 1
Women Artists of the DMV McLean Project for the
Arts
Curated by Cuban-born artist Lenny Campello and led by the American University Museum, this exhibition features works by women artists from across the DMV. Opening reception 7-9 p.m. September 11. Free. 1234 Ingleside Ave., McLean, mpaart.org
SEPT. 27-28, 11 A.M.-5 P.M.
Arlington Visual Art Studio Tour
This annual, countywide open house invites art patrons to step inside more
Shyama Golden, “The Double” (oil on linen), from Portals, a curated MoCA exhibition
than 50 artists’ workspaces, purchase their work and connect with the creators in person. Printed tour maps with studio locations are available at public library branches and Arlington community centers. Free. arlingtonartstudiotour.org
OCT. 5, 10 A.M.-4 P.M.
18th Annual MPAartfest
McLean Project for the Arts
This vibrant fine arts and crafts show features 40+ juried artists, live music and hands-on kids’ activities—plus colorful yarn bombing installations throughout McLean Central Park. Free. 1468 Dolley Madison Blvd., McLean, mpaart.org/mpaartfest2025
MUSIC
SEPT. 6, 1-7 P.M.
Rosslyn Jazz Fest
Gateway Park
The 33rd annual music festival brings a dynamic lineup of jazz, soul and funk,
headlined by Grammy-nominated blues band Southern Avenue. Free. Gateway Park, 1300 Langston Blvd., Rosslyn, rosslynva.org
SEPT. 11, 8 P.M.
Clem Snide
Jammin’ Java
Alt-country songwriter Eef Barzel (aka Clem Snide) released his newest album, Old Smokey in May. $20. 227 E. Maple Ave., Vienna, unionstagepresents.com
SEPT. 20, 8:30 P.M.
Pink Floyd
Experience
The State Theatre
New York-based quartet The Machine performs tracks from the legendary British rock band’s 16-album catalog, from popular hits to obscure gems. $3035. 220 N. Washington St., Falls Church, thestatetheatre.com
SEPT. 21, 2 P.M.
Ravel at 150
The Alden
Internationally acclaimed pianist Ching-Yi Lin
celebrates Maurice Ravel’s 150th birthday by performing a selection of the composer’s most cherished works, along with pieces by Bach and Schumann. $15; $10 for students and seniors; $7 for McLean Community Center district residents. 1234 Ingleside Ave., McLean, mcleancenter.org
SEPT. 24, 7:30 P.M.
Robert Cray
Band
The Birchmere
The Grammy-winning blues group brings the energy and the “Shama Lama Ding Dong” with a setlist of soul, R&B, gospel and rock hits. $59.50. 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria, birchmere.com
OCT. 12, 3 P.M.
Symphonic Spooks
McLean Symphony Orchestra
Don your creepiest costume for a familyfriendly Halloween concert featuring chilling works by John Williams, Danny Elfman and Edvard Grieg. $42.50. Capital One Hall, 7750 Capital One Tower Road, Tysons, capitalonehall.com
■ around town
OCT. 25, 5-8 P.M.
Festival of Frights and Trunk or Treat
Old Firehouse Center
Calling all ghouls and goblins! Head to McLean’s Old Firehouse in costume for a spine-tingling evening of live music, Halloween games, candy and contests. Free. 1440 Chain Bridge Road, McLean, mcleancenter.org
OCT. 22, 7:30 P.M.
Noah Reid
The Birchmere
Known for playing Patrick in the Emmy award-winning series Schitt’s Creek, the Canadian singer-songwriter brings his folk and alt-rock vocals to a special one-night performance. $45. 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria, birchmere.com
OCT. 23, 7:30 P.M.
The War and Treaty
The Barns at Wolf Trap
The two-time Americana Music Awardwinning duo will belt out country-soul anthems from their newest album, Plus One. They’re joined by soulful singersongwriter Thunderstorm Artis. Tickets begin at $51.50. 1635 Trap Road, Vienna, wolftrap.org
OCT. 26, 7 P.M.
Here Come the Mummies
The State Theatre
This eight-piece funk-rock band of 5,000-year-old Egyptian mummies performs terrifying hits from beyond the grave. $37-$42. 220 N. Washington St., Falls Church, thestatetheatre.com
SEASONAL
SEPT. 5-OCT. 24
Cinema on the Plaza
George Mason University
Grab those lawn chairs for outdoor screenings of The Big Scoot (Sept. 5), Jurassic Park (Sept. 20) and Addams Family Values (Oct. 24). See website for
movie times. Free. 3383 Fairfax Drive, Arlington, ularlington.gmu.edu/plaza
SEPT. 13, 10 A.M.-4 P.M. Falls Church Festival and Taste of Falls Church
City Hall and Community Center
This annual festival features a beer garden, live music, craft booths and bites from local eateries. Admission is free. Tickets required for food and beverages. 300 Park Ave., Falls Church, fallschurchva. gov/638/Falls-Church-Festival
SEPT. 23-OCT. 28, 3-7 P.M. Mason Square Markets
George Mason University
Swing by GMU’s Arlington campus on the last Tuesday of each month for handcrafted gifts, sweet treats and art, plus live music from 4-5:30 p.m. Free. 3351 Fairfax Drive, Arlington, ularlington. gmu.edu/plaza
SEPT. 27, 11 A.M.-6 P.M.
Clarendon Day
Around the Clarendon Metro
The beloved street festival returns with live music and a kids’ fun zone, plus food and drinks galore. Free. 3100 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, clarendon.org
SEPT. 27-28, 11 A.M.-6 P.M.
Mosaic Fall Festival
Mosaic District
The strollable street fair returns with nearly 150 vendors selling artisan and vintage goods, fresh produce and tasty snacks, plus live performances and pumpkin painting. Free. Mosaic District, Fairfax, mosaicdistrict.com
OCT. 4, 8 A.M.
McLean 5K
McLean Community Center
Run for a cause with this annual 5K benefiting the McLean Community Foundation. Bring a canned food donation to support Share of McLean, an all-volunteer organization providing food and clothing to neighbors in need. $45-$50. 6631 Old Dominion Drive, McLean, mclean5k.com
OCT. 11, 10 A.M.-3 P.M.
Falls Church Farm Day
Cherry Hill Farmhouse and Park
Bring the kiddos for a petting farm, pony rides, pumpkin and birdhouse decorating, blacksmith demos and tours of the historic Cherry Hill Farmhouse and barn. Entry is free, but some activities require purchased
BOO YAH!
tickets. 312 Park Ave., Falls Church, fallschurchva.gov/640/Farm-Day
OCT. 12, 6 A.M.-1 P.M.
Army Ten-Miler
Now in its 41st year, the famed race kicks off at the Pentagon, welcoming more than 35,000 runners and wheelchair athletes from across the globe. For details and to register, visit armytenmiler.com
OCT 12., 11 A.M.-4 P.M.
McLean Pet Fest
McLean Community Center
Bring your furry friends for a costumed pet parade, bone bar, photo booth and tricks demos. You can meet expert trainers, sitters, groomers and adoption associates, too. Free. 1234 Ingleside Ave., McLean, mcleancenter.org
OCT. 25, 1 P.M.-5:30 P.M.
Halloween Carnival
Cherry Hill Park
Head out for a costume contest, carnival games, inflatables, fall treats and other fun. Visiting hours are 1-3 p.m.
or 3:30-5:30 p.m. Free. 312 Park Ave., Falls Church, fallschurchva.gov/642/ Halloween-Carnival
OCT. 26, 7:55 A.M.-4 P.M. Marine Corps Marathon
The iconic 26.2-miler through Arlington and Washington, D.C. is celebrating its 50th anniversary. See website for details. Runner registration is $240; $176 for active military members. marinemarathon. com/event/marine-corps-marathon
AUTHORS & BOOKS
SEPT. 17, 6:30-7:45 P.M.
Author Talk: Emma Violand-Sanchez
Arlington Central Library
The former Arlington School Board member will discuss her new memoir, Dreams and Shadows: An Immigrant’s Journey, recounting her storied career in education,
politics and activism. Free. 1015 N. Quincy St., Arlington, library.arlingtonva.us
OCT. 23-26
Fall Book Sale
Arlington Central Library
Peruse thousands of bargain books, games and puzzles at this literary bazaar organized by Friends of the Arlington Public Library. All sales support library programs and collections. See website for event times. Free. 1015 N. Quincy St., Arlington, arlingtonlibraryfriends.org
OCT. 25, 7:30-9:30 P.M.
Halloween Literary Evening
Cherry Hill Farmhouse
Enjoy a chilling evening of Victorian ghost stories, presented by the Victorian Society of Falls Church. Reservations required. $5. 312 Park Ave., Falls Church, cherryhillfallschurch.org
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Highlights from our ninth-annual bash at Mercedes Benz of Arlington
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PHOTOS BY ALEX SAKES AND JENNY SULLIVAN
Runner Jason Wahr pushes his marathon partner, Chandler “Bean” Doebler, along the MCM’s Blue Mile in 2024.
A Major Milestone
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Marine Corps Marathon.
UNFOLDING AT THE 12-MILE MARK of the Marine Corps Marathon (MCM), the Blue Mile at Hains Point is an emotional stretch. Gold Star families and posters of fallen service members line this D.C. segment of the race, paying tribute to those who have given their lives in defense of our nation and the Constitution. For many runners, the passage is a time of reflection, remembrance and catharsis.
Each year’s roughly 30,000 race participants also wend their way through 10 miles of Arlington County, starting with the first 4.4 miles of the course. That setting is similarly symbolic, according to MCM Director Alexander Hetherington. “Arlington was selected due to the deep reverence all Marines hold for the Marine Corps War Memorial [aka the Iwo Jima Memorial in Arlington Ridge Park]… which is dedicated to all Marines who have given their lives in service since 1775.”
This year’s race on October 26 is a milestone in and of itself. Now celebrating its 50th year, the 2025 marathon will be held 15 days before its namesake branch of the military marks its 250th birthday.
Arlington’s longstanding MCM connection was honored in 2015 when the section of Wilson Boulevard between North Lynn and North Moore Streets in Rosslyn was officially renamed Marine Corps Marathon Drive. It is here that friends and families gather to celebrate with runners who’ve crossed the finish line.
In what has become an annual tradition, thousands of locals and their pets stand along the race route that passes through Rosslyn, Lyon Village and Colonial Village, offering cheers of encouragement to bibbed athletes. “It’s a uniquely motivating and memorable part of the race experience,” Hetherington says, “showcasing the warmth and hospitality of Arlington’s residents.”
Past recipients of that hospitality have included runners such as Oprah Winfrey, NBC4 meteorologist Chuck Bell, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and former first lady Jill Biden. In 1996, the starting line hosted the marathon’s first wedding ceremony. In 2019, the finish line saw two marriage proposals, as well as a reunion for a pair of siblings who were adopted by different families and had never met.
Over time, the 26.2-mile event has become much more than a test of physical and mental endurance. Says Hetherington: “Military families and veterans often experience the race as an act of hope, triumph, fellowship, remembrance, healing and resilience.” ■
Moving Forward
Amid unthinkable loss, an Arlington teen found true grit.
CHRISTINE AND TAL COTTEY
were thrilled the day their son, Peyton, was born in July of 2007. Eager to meet him and fulfill their dream of becoming parents, they hopped on the next flight to Canton, Ohio, to finalize the adoption papers and bring him home to Arlington.
Their three-bedroom house in Alcova Heights, complete with two rambunctious dogs, Rocky and Remy, became Peyton’s happy place. It’s where he learned to walk, run, throw a ball and be a good neighbor. He’s never met his birth mother and doesn’t know his biological father’s name.
Chris, a veterinarian and vet surgeon, was the nurturing type—the only mother he knew. “She gave me my passion for animals,” says Peyton, now 18, a lanky 6-foot-3 with cropped blond hair. “I think it’s because I was always around them when I was with my mom. They can’t really judge you.”
Tal was an avid athlete, sports fan and outdoorsman who found solace in the mountains and worked as a personal trainer. He was disciplined and fun.
Peyton was a toddler when Chris was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer in 2009 and began what would become an 8-year battle with the disease. In 2011, she took a job with the Animal Welfare League of
Arlington (AWLA), becoming the nonprofit’s first veterinary director and onsite animal surgeon. The shelter was close to home, allowing her to be present for her young son as she continued treatment.
“We baked a lot,” Peyton remembers. “Chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin cookies, and apple pie. She was always there for me. She was really smart. Whenever I had questions or troubles, she always had good advice.”
Like her husband, Chris modeled fitness, competing in triathlons, hiking Colorado’s Pike’s Peak and running two marathons. But eventually the cancer spread to her lungs and then her brain. Peyton remembers waking up at 4 a.m. one night and seeing his mom vomiting blood.
He was 10 years old and a fifth
grader at Barcroft Elementary School when Chris died in December of 2017 at the age of 47.
Losing her brought Peyton closer to his father. “I got to have a really good connection with my dad,” he says. Sometimes they drove to Lexington, Virginia, to fish for small-mouth bass and trout. Tal taught him how to hunt pheasants and quail. Physical activity and quiet landscapes became the shared language of their grief.
By the fall of 2022, Peyton was a sophomore with an active social life at Wakefield High School. He and his dad had found a rhythm at home and he was becoming more independent. On Halloween night, he returned from a party at a friend’s house and had a short conversation with Tal before going to bed. “I fell
and hit my head,” he remembers his dad saying.
“The next morning, I was getting ready to go to school. My dad was usually up before me. He had his appointments starting at 6 in the morning and he ended at 3 p.m. I thought he would be gone and off to work,” he says.
But Tal’s car was still in the driveway.
“I went to go check on him to see if his head was OK,” Peyton says. “I found him lying on the bed.” He called 9-1-1, but his father was already dead, of an apparent heart condition, at 58.
The weeks that followed were a blur. Peyton began living with the legal guardian (name withheld, per his wishes) whom his parents had appointed when Chris first got sick. It was a precaution they’d never imagined would come to fruition.
■ familiar faces
At his father’s funeral at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Arlington, he was approached by his neighbor, Sherean Miller. “I’m a mom. I know how to do mom things,” she told him. A managing partner with the Shirlington consulting firm FMP, Miller had taught Zumba classes at the gym where Tal worked. Peyton remembered her. He took her phone number.
He texted her a few days later and asked for a ride home from school.
Soon he was helping with little things around her house. “He’s kind and warmhearted and friendly,” Miller says. “When he sees a need, he jumps in and does it. If I’m trying to get something in my car, he’s right there lending a hand. He’s sweet and generous with his time.”
Some days, instead of going home after school, he would get off the bus and walk to Miller’s place to hang out with her kids and their Chesapeake Bay
“I was doing bad in school, and my grades were going down. I was in a bad place. I knew I needed more structure.”
retriever, Bear. The dog reminded him of Remy, the beloved pup he’d had to rehome after his dad’s death.
In late 2024, Peyton joined Miller’s family on a Christmas trip to Miami. She says her kids think of him as their adopted big brother.
“I get choked up saying this, but I feel it’s been such an honor to be a part of his life,” Miller says. “He’s opened his heart to me and has shared a lot and really has become part of our family.”
Other neighbors stepped in, too, forming an informal support system. But halfway through high school, Peyton decided to enroll in a military academy he and his dad had been looking at before Tal died. “I was doing bad in school, and my grades were going down,” he says. “I was in a bad place. I knew I needed more structure.”
Fork Union Military Academy, a boarding school in central Virginia, became his new home in the fall of 2023. It wasn’t an easy transition. Students at the school have limited computer time and no access to social media. Cell phones are prohibited. His connection to the outside world was a landline he shared with the other students in his barracks.
Unlike most of his classmates, the choice to be there was his. “Not a lot of kids want to sign up for this,” says Kelly Barnette, Fork Union’s director of communications. “It’s a very struc-
tured environment. The typical highschooler doesn’t [leave] their phone for less than five minutes, let alone five weeks at a time.”
Channeling the athleticism he’d learned from both parents, Peyton threw himself into sports. He played varsity soccer and joined the swim team, qualifying mid-season to participate in the state championships in the 50-meter freestyle.
“Entering the competition seeded 26th, he delivered a stunning performance, dropping over a second from his personal best and finishing 8th overall,” Barnette says. “With that, he became Fork Union’s first Top 8 swimmer at States since 2018.”
After graduating from Fork Union this spring, Peyton returned to Arlington with plans to swim at Dowden Terrace in Bailey’s Crossroads. “I’m going to the gym more and trying to tone my body,” he says, “doing some of the stuff my dad taught me.”
He spent the summer detailing cars with friends from elementary school and preparing for a fresh start at Shenandoah University, where he plans to study business and—in a nod to Tal—exercise science.
He wrote his college essay about losing both parents, and what came after. “I talked about everything I had to go through, the adversity, how I had to overcome my feelings,” he says. “I don’t really talk about it that much with my friends. They know what happened. I just had to keep going.”
Meanwhile, the village that helped raise him is still standing by. “The circumstances he was dealt could have really hardened many people in his situation,” Miller says. “He’s responded with grace and strength and resilience and an open heart. He’s trying to make the most of it.” ■
Wendy Kantor is a freelance writer who lives in Northern Virginia with her husband, two kids and her beloved dog, Rocky.
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Meet Rob, your neighbor and lifelong resident of Northern Virginia. With an impressive 30 years of dedicated expertise in Arlington real estate, he not only understands the neighborhoods but also has a keen insight into the local market trends.
Choose Rob Ferguson for a real estate experience that goes beyond buying or selling – it's about building lasting relationships in the place we all call home.
Women in Business Profiles
Samantha Siranli, DMD, PhD
SIRANLI DENTAL
Diplomate, American Board of Prosthodontics
Fellow, American College of Prosthodontists
Diplomate, American Board of Oral Implantology
Siranli Dental has convenient locations in Arlington (Advance Dental Care Center), McLean, Dupont Circle and Foggy Bottom
202-466-4530 www.siranlidental.com
Q: What motivates and inspires you?
A: Helping people regain their confidence. For veneers and dental implant cases, we need to observe the patient’s authentic smile. They start with a learned smile, so we must coax it out. But when the patient sees the results, they can instantly reflect their joy with a genuine, radiant smile. Watching this transformation is extremely gratifying and life-changing for the patient.
Q: What makes your approach to smile makeovers unique?
A: We believe that smile design starts with the face. Our unique approach begins by studying the patient’s distinct facial structures, including cheekbones, lip support, smile line and teeth display. We consider resting and full smiles and carefully listen to the patient to understand their goals. Only then can we deliver the stunning yet natural-looking smiles that built Siranli Dental’s reputation.
Our in-house, state-of-the-art lab is also unique. Technicians craft veneers and crowns onsite, collaborating directly with our doctors and patients to ensure the best aesthetic and functional results. Seeing a patient’s transformation firsthand adds an extra level of passion and dedication.
Q: What advice would you offer to women just starting out?
A: As women, we have the incredible ability to multitask and excel in various roles. We can be successful doctors, leaders, business owners, wives and mothers. It’s all about embracing our strengths and pursuing our goals with passion and determination.
Evermay Wealth Management
JONI R. ALT, CFP®, EA
CAMILLE J. SVITEK, CFA, CFP®
CARRIE H. MALATESTA
Evermay’s diverse and experienced team combines financial expertise with personalized attention to deliver thoughtful, comprehensive wealth management. Each client’s plan is carefully crafted to reflect their individual goals and family dynamics. Through a collaborative, face-to-face approach, Evermay helps clients live richer lives— finding the right balance between preparing for tomorrow and making the most of today.
3901 Fairfax Drive, Suite 400, Arlington, VA 22203 703-822-5696 | www.evermaywealth.com
Disclaimer: Investment
Q: What do you look forward to when you go to work every day?
A: It’s deeply rewarding to build longterm relationships and help people gain clarity and confidence around their finances. Supporting women through major life transitions—such as divorce or the loss of a loved one— and helping them take control of their financial future is especially meaningful. Money is deeply personal, and it is an honor that clients trust Evermay Wealth Management not just with their investments, but with open and honest conversations about what matters most to them. Helping people turn thoughtful plans into real-life progress is what makes this work so fulfilling.
Q: What do you love most about doing business in this area?
A: The diversity and energy of the Washington D.C. area make it a truly unique place to work. With such a wide range of backgrounds—government employees, federal retirees, entrepreneurs and nonprofit leaders—every client brings a different perspective and set of needs to the table. The region’s constant evolution means there’s always a new challenge or question to explore—or a new area of financial expertise to develop—which keeps the work engaging and rewarding. Arlington’s thriving community and ongoing growth reflect its vibrant spirit, making it an exciting place to help people build their financial futures.
From left: Carrie H. Malatesta; Joni R. Alt, CFP, EA; Camille J. Svitek, CFA, CFP
Bridget A. Alzheimer, Esq.
ARLINGTON LAW GROUP
Arlington Law Group serves clients across Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C., specializing in estate planning, probate and trust administration, guardianship and conservatorship, business law and real estate transactions. Their attorneys offer personalized, solutions-driven guidance, prioritizing clarity and peace of mind. Visit their website or contact the firm to schedule an initial consultation.
1739 Clarendon Blvd. Arlington, VA 22209 703-842-3025 clients@arlingtonlawgroup.com www.arlingtonlawgroup.com
Q: Why do you do what you do? What motivates and inspires you?
A: From the start of my career, I’ve been drawn to helping clients solve problems and plan with confidence for the future. In my estate and trust administration practice, I have the privilege of supporting people through some of life’s most difficult moments—the incapacity or loss of a loved one. At Arlington Law Group, our team brings extensive knowledge of fiduciary law, tax matters and court procedures to every case. It’s incredibly rewarding to guide clients through the legal process and help bring stability and reassurance when everything feels overwhelming.
Q: What’s the best advice you’ve ever received, and how has it helped you?
A: One of the most valuable reminders I’ve received—both from my partner, Ryan Brown, and many other seasoned attorneys—is that we’re not just lawyers; we’re counselors at law. Our work goes far beyond legal expertise to include compassionate guidance, empathy and perspective when our clients need it most. When a loved one passes or becomes incapacitated, the legal complexities can be all-consuming, especially when family dynamics are strained. Our role is to bring calm to the chaos, offering both a steady presence and a sympathetic ear, as well as the objectivity needed to help clients move forward with strength and peace of mind.
TONY J. LEWIS
Spotlight: National Landing Changemakers
National Landing is one of the D.C. region’s most exciting transformation stories. These women leaders are shaping National Landing into a model for urban development and a thriving business ecosystem of inspiring entrepreneurs, innovative companies, and mission-driven organizations.
As the Head of the National Landing BID, Tracy Sayegh Gabriel works to promote and activate Arlington’s fastest-growing urban area.
National Landing Business Improvement District 1550 Crystal Drive, Suite 420, Arlington, VA 22202 @nationallanding | www.nationallanding.org
Q: What makes National Landing a hub for women in business?
A: Gabriel: National Landing is an ecosystem where innovation meets community. It’s home to global powerhouses like Amazon and mission-driven leaders and entrepreneurs like the women featured here. Cutting-edge technology, world-class talent and institutions, unparalleled access, and a rich diversity of people make National Landing fertile ground for women to lead and thrive. Working here means being surrounded by inspiring people who are building something bigger than themselves. The women featured in this spotlight represent that spirit, and I’m proud to be part of a movement that’s redefining what business leadership looks like in our region.
Q: What has been the key to National Landing’s growth and evolution?
A: Gabriel: Our neighborhood’s transfor-
mation is the result of decades of strategic urban planning. Recent investment is being guided by leaders who understand that great places aren’t just built, they’re cultivated through collaboration and creativity. The women featured play a vital role in our ecosystem, building a community united by infrastructure, innovation and shared values. That energy motivates me every day.
Q: What do you love most about doing business in this area?
A: Gabriel: What I love most about working here is the extraordinary convergence of talent, vision and possibility. National Landing is a place where bold ideas take root. From tech and hospitality to arts, health and real estate, the women featured are driving change across every sector and helping shape a truly dynamic future for Arlington.
Standing (from left): Stacey Brayboy, SVP Public Policy/ Government Affairs, March of Dimes; Catherine Anchin, Executive Director, Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington; Ashleigh de la Torre, Vice President, Public Policy, Amazon; Donna Márquez, General Manager, Hyatt Regency Crystal City
Best Lawyers™; Washingtonian Top Lawyers; Super Lawyers™; MartindaleHubbell Client Champion; U.S. New and World Report Best Law Firms; Northern Virginia Top Lawyers; Arlington Magazine Top Attorneys; Virginia Business Legal Elite
Three Ballston Plaza
100 N. Glebe Road, Suite 1100 Arlington, VA 22201
703-522-8100 www.mdbfamilylaw.com
Q: How do you measure success?
A: Our goal is to help our clients resolve their disputes in a way that leaves them as whole as possible and in a position to successfully move on to the next chapter in their lives. We take an individualized approach to every case, and we measure our success by client satisfaction. We ensure clients are fully informed throughout the process, explain all of their options, explore realistic solutions and pursue the best approach to meet their goals.
Q: What’s changed for women in business during your career?
A: In our experience, clients are increasingly seeking women attorneys for various reasons. Men frequently find that having a female attorney handle their divorce provides them with better
insight into their spouse’s position in negotiations. Women often find that we’re more sensitive to their needs and better able to relate to their interests when going through the divorce process.
Q: What was a major turning point in your career?
A: Before founding our firm in 2012, the lawyers of MDB worked for one of the best family law attorneys in the country – Betty A. Thompson. She was the first female president of multiple local, state and national legal organizations. She helped write Virginia’s existing divorce laws and built a reputation as the “queen” of divorce. When she passed away, we felt compelled to continue her legacy by adhering to the highest ethical standards, maintaining the most advanced knowledge of the law, and serving our clients and community to the best of our ability.
Irma Becerra PRESIDENT MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY
Marymount University is a nationally ranked, Catholic, doctoral-granting, Carnegie-designated Research University and Hispanic-Serving Institution in Arlington, VA. Founded in 1950, Marymount has spent 75 years cultivating a spirit of curiosity and service while fostering intellect, compassion and global citizenship. Marymount is consistently recognized as one of the nation’s most ethnically and internationally diverse campuses.
2807 North Glebe Road Arlington, VA 22207
703-522-5600 www.marymount.edu
Q: Why do you do what you do? What motivates and inspires you?
A: As an immigrant whose family left Cuba, my journey has been shaped by resilience and opportunity. My grandmother always said, “No one can ever take away your education.” That belief propelled me forward. I’m incredibly grateful to have gone from being an immigrant to a university president within my lifetime—something only possible in a country where education opens doors. It changed my life, and that’s why I’m so passionate about expanding access for others. I firmly believe in the power of higher education to meet students where they are and help them reach their full potential. Supporting that mission isn’t just my work—it’s my calling.
Q: What advice would you offer for women just starting out?
A: Choose a path that genuinely makes
you happy—there’s no “right” way to build a career. Follow what aligns with your personal goals and values, and don’t feel guilty for structuring your life in a way that works best for you. Most importantly, advocate for yourself. Know your worth, communicate your needs and be confident in your ambitions.
Q: What changes or innovations are on the horizon in your industry?
A: Artificial intelligence is transforming education, from how we teach to how students learn. We are committed to upholding academic integrity while preparing graduates to use AI responsibly and effectively in the workplace. At Marymount, we’re exploring AI-driven tools, including chatbots, tutoring support and faculty resources that will enhance— not replace—the human expertise that defines higher education.
Diane Lewis
REALTOR, THE LEWIS TEAM WASHINGTON FINE PROPERTIES
1364 Beverly Road, Suite 100, McLean, VA 22101 703-973-7001 | www.lewisteam.com
Q: What should buyers and sellers know about navigating this market?
A: In Arlington’s ever-changing and competitive real estate market, working with a local expert is essential. Many coveted homes sell off-market through agent networks before ever hitting the MLS. Buyers need an experienced agent who understands local trends and hidden opportunities. Sellers benefit from guidance on pricing, presentation, marketing and targeted outreach—even before listing publicly. Inventory has improved, with active listings in Northern Virginia up about 60% year-over-year, yet supply remains low compared to pre-pandemic levels. This shift offers more options for buyers but still favors sellers overall. Success in this market depends on working with someone who has strong industry connections and local knowledge. The right agent helps clients make smart decisions, move confidently and get the best results in this fast-moving market.
Ivy Horan
FOUNDER, PRESIDENT & OWNER
MGI CORPORATE GIFTS LLC
MGI (Make Great Impressions) specializes in meaningful, personalized gifts and awards. Proudly SWaM certified and a finalist for the 2025 Arlington Chamber of Commerce Best Small Business Award.
A: “Join the Arlington Chamber of Commerce and get involved.” As a proud member for five years, I’ve actively participated in committees, events and LeadShare. The relationships I’ve built have brought invaluable referrals, mentorship and friendships that have supported both my business and personal growth. It’s also incredibly rewarding to work in such a vibrant and supportive community—and to champion the work of local businesses that I truly believe in within my own network.
HILARY
MICHAEL VENTURA
The Wise Investor Group of Raymond James
The Wise Investor Group of Raymond James delivers holistic financial planning that goes beyond wealth management— offering clients expert guidance on every decision involving a dollar sign. Each client is supported by a dedicated team that builds personalized financial roadmaps and collaborates with CPAs, estate attorneys and other professionals to help achieve their financial future.
1950 Opportunity Way, Suite 950, Reston, VA 20190 571-430-7200
www.raymondjames.com/thewiseinvestorgroup
Raymond James & Associates, Inc., member New York Stock Exchange/SIPC
Q: What do you love most about doing business in this area?
A: Ann Summerson: The diversity. I work with clients from all over the country and the world. That cultural richness brings fresh perspectives every day. It’s broadened my worldview and made me a more insightful, well-rounded financial advisor. Building lasting relationships and helping people feel confident about their future is incredibly fulfilling.
Q: What’s the best advice you’ve received, and how has it helped you?
A: Kristen Kingston: That strength and empathy aren’t mutually exclusive. Leading with conviction while genuinely understanding others is one of the most valuable skills in any industry. It’s not about choosing between being respected and being relatable—you can (and should) be both. And never underestimate the little
things. Small tasks can make a big impact.
Angie Miller: Focus on what you can control. Instead of fixating on external circumstances or others’ actions, I’ve learned to channel my energy into my own responses, choices and attitude. It’s helped me stay grounded, resilient and less overwhelmed—both at work and in life.
Q: Looking back, what career advice would you give yourself at the start of your career?
A: Heather Phelps: Stay adaptable and open to change. Embrace every opportunity to learn something new—even when it feels challenging. That’s often when the most growth happens.
Tamara Burkhalter: Prioritize continuous learning, invest in meaningful relationships and don’t wait for permission to take charge of your career.
From left: Ann Summerson, CFP®, Director; Angie Miller, Senior Registered Sales Associate; Heather Phelps, Client Service Associate; Kristen Kingston, Client Service Associate; Tamara Burkhalter, Client Service Associate
Tutoring Club of McLean
MICHELLE SCOTT OWNER AND DIRECTOR
Consistently voted best in its category by Arlington Magazine, Northern Virginia and Washington Family Magazine readers, Tutoring Club of McLean provides individualized academic assistance to students of all ages and abilities. “From early learning to college preparation, we are a dedicated and trusted partner for every step of the journey,” says Club Owner Michelle Scott.
A: Right now, it’s helping students catch up or get ahead, stay engaged and feel confident heading into the school year. Many parents don’t realize that students can lose up to 25 percent of their academic progress over the summer, so we’re dedicated to mitigating that with the right programs, people and structure in place. More broadly, I’m committed to upholding our core values, supporting our incredible staff and ensuring that our students meet—and exceed—their goals. Seeing a student master a subject they once struggled with or achieve a significantly higher SAT score after working with us is incredibly rewarding. And it’s the clearest sign we’re doing something right.
Q: How do you measure success?
A: Success looks different for every student—whether it’s a raised ACT or
SOL score, an A in math after struggling, getting into the college of their dreams or fewer homework battles at home. We see it in growing confidence, renewed motivation and doors opening for new opportunities. And each win, big or small, signals real progress. We’re proud that so many families refer others to us. It’s the highest compliment. But truly, we’re in this for the kids, and there’s no better feeling than watching them thrive.
Q: What do you love most about doing business in this area?
A: The diversity. Working with students of all levels and from all backgrounds has sharpened my ability to meet unique needs and foster individualized growth. Being part of a close-knit, trusted community means we’re not just teaching—we’re empowering lives and building success stories together.
MICHAEL VENTURA
From left: Ryland P., Instructor; Rachana J., Education & Center Manager; Elle LB., Instructor; Michelle Scott, Owner/Director; Feli C., Instructor; Marilyn Z. Lead Instructor & Test Prep Advisor; Laura B., Lead Instructor & Enrollment Coordinator
Gabrielle A. Best Husband
FOUNDING ATTORNEY
G. BEST HUSBAND LAW, PLLC
Recognized as a 2025 “Virginia Rising Star” by Super Lawyers, Gabrielle A. Best Husband is a respected family law attorney known for strategic, discreet representation in complex divorce and custody matters. Raised in Trinidad and Tobago, she brings global perspective, cultural fluency and compassionate counsel to families across Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C.
1750 Tysons Blvd., Suite 1500, McLean, VA 22102
300 New Jersey Ave. NW, Suite 300, Washington, D.C. 20001 844-640-6100 | www.gbesthusbandlaw.com
Q: What do you look forward to when you go to work every day?
A: Offering clarity in someone’s most chaotic season. People deserve advocacy that honors both the law and their humanity. Family law is as emotionally complex as it is strategic, and I did not expect to be part of so many healing journeys. It is a privilege to help people make informed decisions when the stakes are deeply personal. As clients increasingly seek a more human-centered legal process, I have also begun integrating emotional support into my practice by partnering with professionals who can provide care beyond the courtroom.
Q: If you could go back in time and give advice to yourself as a young professional, what would you say?
A: Stay the course. Your integrity may cost you short-term opportunities, but it will pay dividends in the long run, both in terms of reputation and peace of mind. Treat preparation as a form of respect. The right clients will find you because of your values, not despite them. Every detail matters. Your diligence is how you serve, whether someone is watching or not.
Q: How have you mentored or inspired others who are following in your footsteps?
A: By being transparent. I share the financial, emotional, and spiritual realities of what it takes to build a principled legal practice. I give others permission to be exceptional without needing to be perfect. That is mentorship to me. The way I lawyer with honesty is the same way I lead: through openness, even about my missteps and failures.
Megan Francis, NP
NM Aesthetics offers personalized, high-level care in a fun, welcoming environment. With a team of board-certified and master-level providers, NMA prioritizes strong patient relationships and custom treatment plans tailored to each patient’s goals and budget. Their signature approach? Subtle, natural results. ”You come to us because you don’t want anyone to know you come to us.™”
4201 Wilson Blvd., Suite 250
Arlington, VA 22203
571-310-3223
megan@nmaesthetics.com www.nmaesthetics.com
Q: What advice would you offer for women just starting out?
A: Trust your instincts. Don’t wait until you feel completely ready to take the next step—clarity often comes through action.
Opening my practice was a major turning point in my career. I used to run the business out of my car and dining room— we still affectionately call them our House Patients. Taking that leap of faith allowed me to build something truly aligned with my values and vision for care: integrative wellness that goes beyond surface-level beauty. Today, as we stay at the forefront of an ever-evolving industry, we’re expanding our services and space, and training our team to deliver premium, whole-person care.
Q: What do you most look forward to at work each day?
A: The relationships—hands down. I love
catching up with my patients, hearing about their lives, families and milestones. Our practice in Arlington is incredibly vibrant—we work with people of all ages, backgrounds and skin tones. That pushes us to stay educated, inclusive and deeply intentional in our care. We’re committed to providing safe, effective treatments for every skin type, and our offerings evolve as our clients’ needs do. Watching someone’s confidence grow—whether in my chair or online—is the ultimate dopamine rush. It’s why I do what I do.
Q: How do you measure success?
A: By impact—when our care supports someone through a major life transition or helps them feel more confident in their skin, that’s success. Growth and revenue matter, but it’s the emotional, human moments that stay with me.
LISA
Catherine Reese, Esq.
ATTORNEY, REESE LAW, PC
Awards/Affiliations:
Fellow, American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers
Masters in Counseling
Rated AV Preeminent® “The Highest Possible Rating in Both Legal Ability & Ethical Standards,” Martindale Hubbell
The Best Lawyers in America®
D.C. and VA Super Lawyers
Best Law Firms®
International Academy of Collaborative Professionals and Collaborative Professionals of Northern Virginia Member
12150 Monument Drive, Suite 225, Fairfax, VA 22033
703-279-5140 | www.reese.law
Q: What advice would you offer for women just starting out?
A: Supporting others while pursuing your own goals is one of the most fulfilling ways to build a career. I’ve always been inspired by people with a deep passion for their work, a strong work ethic and the resilience to grow through challenges. Those who are goal-oriented, innovative problem solvers and committed to lifelong learning—and to improving the lives of others—set an example worth following. Strive to be that kind of person. Be a resource, and seek out tools and connections that allow people to lift each other up. And don’t limit yourself. Embrace growth wherever it leads. Earning my Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling in 2018, along with training in family and collaborative law, becoming a
Virginia Supreme Court-certified mediator and being a mentor for up-and-coming mediators has broadened my perspective and strengthened my practice. Every step forward has added value to both my work and the people I serve.
Q: How do you measure success?
A: I measure success through growth, learning and the willingness to try a new approach when the first one doesn’t work. It’s not just about outcomes—it’s about progress, compassion and staying open to possibility. Success isn’t a straight path; it’s shaped by hard work, persistence, creativity and a sense of appreciation. Supporting others and finding gratitude in everyday moments are priorities that keep me grounded and motivated. For me, true success comes from making a positive impact—and growing through the process.
A: My mother and grandmother inspire me with their faith, wisdom and kindness—they taught me to treat others well and help those in need. They valued education and encouraged my world travels, where I gained a deep appreciation for diverse cultures.
Q: What advice would you offer women just starting out?
A: Write a clear plan by visualizing your business fully formed, then work backward to map the steps. Seek out a mentor or coach—outside insight is invaluable during the building phase. Join industry groups to stay connected and informed. Begin identifying future board members and executivelevel allies who share your vision and can offer meaningful support. Surround yourself with people who challenge, guide and encourage you—because success is rarely built alone.
Q: What qualities do you think a successful real estate agent should possess?
A: A standout agent blends tenacity, empathy and adaptability. You have to genuinely care—buying or selling a home is often a client’s largest financial investment and an incredibly emotional decision. What sets great agents apart is their ability to connect authentically, build trust, stay agile in a fast-moving market, and provide honest, informed guidance. Success also means staying ahead of the curve. I’m committed to lifelong learning and aligning with a brokerage that offers top-tier technology and support to elevate the client experience.
Q: What advice would you offer women just starting out?
A: Embrace your unique strengths, seek out mentors who inspire you and surround yourself with people who lift you up. Learn from those you admire—and don’t waste energy on negativity.
LISA
Susan with her Spring Valley client’s dog Bronco
Jennifer McCammon
SHAREHOLDER
BEAN, KINNEY & KORMAN
Jennifer McCammon, shareholder at Bean, Kinney & Korman, specializes in family law, with expertise in complex asset division and business valuation.
Recognized by Arlington Magazine, Best Lawyers and Super Lawyers, she combines courtroom strength with compassionate advocacy. She also serves on the firm’s management committee and leads in community legal service.
2311 Wilson Blvd., Suite 500
Arlington, VA 22201
703-525-4000
info@beankinney.com www.beankinney.com
Q: What advice would you offer for women just starting out?
A: Find a great mentor—or two. They don’t have to be women, but they should understand your unique challenges and support your goals. Success looks different for everyone. For me, success is measured by happiness—by achieving my goals in a way that feels authentic and fulfilling. A good mentor will help you define success for yourself and stay true to your own path. And don’t take yourself too seriously. Some of the most valuable lessons come from missteps. Sharing those experiences helps us grow and learn from each other.
A: What do you love most about doing business in this area?
A: Arlington is a true community. Across sectors like healthcare, real estate, retail and government, there’s a shared
commitment to making Arlington even better. I see that spirit firsthand through community foundations and attending philanthropic events, where familiar faces show up time and again. I love living and working in the same community—and seeing the positive impact of our work in action all around me.
A: What qualities do you think a successful attorney should have?
A: You must be detail-oriented, organized, responsive and diligent. At Bean, Kinney & Korman, we prioritize our clients’ needs and focus on making the legal process as clear and manageable as possible, no matter the practice area. Most people come to us during unfamiliar, often stressful times. Our job is to solve problems, offer guidance and deliver thoughtful, innovative solutions that make their lives a little easier.
Behind Ivy Tower the
Stellar students applying to the nation’s elite colleges are being rejected in droves. Who’s getting in?
BY TAMARA LYTLE | ILLUSTRATION BY JESS LEMON
From the time she began receiving letter grades in elementary school to her graduation from Washington-Liberty High School last spring, Emma (not her real name) earned nothing but straight A’s.
As a college applicant, she looked dominating on paper, with an ACT test score of 35—just one point shy of a perfect 36—and a 4.6 grade point average, including advanced placement classes and a full load of international baccalaureate courses. She served in
student government, played three sports (one as team captain), mentored her peers and volunteered her time tutoring elementary school students. She fired off 13 carefully crafted college applications and waited.
Then the rejection letters started rolling in: Duke, Vanderbilt, Princeton, Notre Dame, the University of Michigan. “You [start to] think that every college is going to reject you,” says Emma, 18. Her mom was just as bewildered: “What more could she have done?”
■ behind the ivy tower
EMMA’S EXPERIENCE IS not so unusual. Northern Virginia is chock full of high-achieving parents whose high-achieving kids have set their sights on the uppermost echelons of higher education. They’ve taken the toughest classes, turbo-loaded their extracurriculars and sacrificed sleep to position themselves for success.
And yet legions of outstanding students who have seemingly “done everything right” are sifting through in-boxes filled with rejections. “They’ve cured cancer, they’ve climbed Mount Kilimanjaro… and they’re not getting in,” says Diana Blitz, an independent educational consultant and college coach with the D.C. firm The College Lady. If those candidates aren’t receiving offers of admission, who is?
One tectonic shift inside the nation’s top colleges and universities is a preference for so-called “pointy” kids, says Kevin Carey, vice president of education and work at the nonpartisan D.C. think tank New America. After decades of courting well-rounded applicants, elite schools now want students who are the top of their game in just one or two areas. And we aren’t talking citywide chess champion or district all-star pitcher. They’re angling for students who have garnered state and national honors in that one thing—be it poetry, pole vaulting or extemporaneous speech.
“Colleges like students who have specialized and committed to something. They don’t want just a laundry list of 15 different things that somebody did a little bit,” Carey says.
Grace Lee, managing director of the virtual college counseling firm Command Education, notes that America has 26,000 high schools and therefore 26,000 or more valedictorians. Schools like Harvard, Yale and Princeton “could fill their classes 10 times over with people with perfect test scores, perfect GPAs, good activities and leadership skills,” she says. Elite colleges want “depth over breadth.”
They also have highly idiosyncratic slots they are seeking to fill, which tend to vary from one year to the next. A uni-
Tough
Competition
Arlington is known for its great public schools, but few APS graduates gain admission to America’s top colleges. Below are the 15 highest-ranked universities, according to U.S. News & World Report. The APS application and acceptance data were self-reported by Arlington students during the 2024-45 school year. See our College Bound chart on page 56 for further insights into where Arlington’s Class of 2025 applied to college.
versity with two senior cellists in its orchestra is going to be in the market for applicants with a bow. A dominant Division I soccer school whose attacking center midfielder is about to graduate will be recruiting to replace that position on the roster.
“The priorities of institutions change almost every year,” says Angel Pérez, CEO of the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC), a 28,000-member trade association based in Arlington. “It’s not as easy as saying, this GPA, plus this test score, plus this extracurricular activity equals ‘I’m in.’ It’s much more nuanced. That is why the process feels so opaque and frustrating to young people.”
Record numbers of applications— driven, in part, by test-optional policies and the advent of digital application portals like the Common App—also have left admissions offices flooded. In January, the widely used Common App reported a 7% increase in total college applications over the year prior. The
nation’ No. 1 ranked university, Princeton, whose current acceptance rate is around 4%, received 32,836 applications in 2024, up from 26,247 a decade earlier, according to the website TopTierAdmissions.com.
That surge in volume has made coveted universities seem even more exclusive, Carey observes. A school whose acceptance rate dropped from 30% to 10% isn’t necessarily three times harder to get into for qualified students; it may simply be receiving a higher number of applications, while its student population stays the same. What’s changed is the ratio.
“It’s not actually harder to get into college,” he says. “It just sort of seems that way.”
TODAY’S COLLEGE APPLICANTS
have plenty of schools to consider. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the U.S. is home to nearly 4,000 degree-granting postsecondary institutions. Of those, fewer
than 35 have acceptance rates of 10% or less, says Perez, a former head of admissions at Trinity College in Connecticut. The average acceptance rate nationwide is about 73%.
That hasn’t stopped competitive students from viewing this tiny subset of academia—Ivy League institutions such as Harvard and Yale, and other elite universities such as Stanford, Duke and MIT—as the Holy Grail. And yet the rationales behind admissions decisions at those schools remain somewhat of a mystery.
An acronym often tossed around by insiders is ALD—Athletes, Legacy applicants and “Dean’s Interest List.” That last item is shorthand for the rich and famous—the kind of wealth that might fund, say, a new sports stadium or research facility. A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that 43% of white students admitted to Harvard in 2019 were athletes, legacy candidates, dean’s list darlings and, to a lesser degree, children of faculty members.
But the ALD formula seems to be shifting. Legacy applicants (children or grandchildren of alumni) don’t enjoy the same advantages they might have 20 years ago, says Blitz, whose company works with more than 150 families per year, including students from top-ranked high schools in the DMV. She says some universities have dropped legacy criteria entirely since those policies tend to favor upper middle-class white students.
And while it once was commonplace for university fundraising offices to flag the wealthiest student applicants in the pipeline, Pérez says schools have largely quit that practice, too.
However, recruited athletes continue to enjoy preferential treatment. They are “largely chaperoned through the admissions process by athletics staff,” Rick Eckstein, a professor of sociology at Villanova, wrote in a 2022 article for the nonprofit news site The Conversation. Those who apply early decision are “almost guaranteed acceptance and roster placement.”
Deep Breath
73% students who apply to a fouryear school get accepted, according to the National Association for College Admission Counseling.
For applicants who find standardized testing challenging, there are 2,100 bachelor’s degree-granting schools that are test optional or test free, according to FairTest.
Of the thousands of colleges and universities nationwide, fewer than 35 schools have acceptance rates of 10% or less.
90% of U.S. colleges and universities admitted at least half the applicants for the fall of 2021, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Though Ivy League universities famously do not offer sports scholarships, a 2023 editorial in the Harvard Crimson noted that recruited athletes had an 86% chance of admission to Harvard, whereas the university’s general acceptance rate that year was around 3.4%.
Lee, of Command Education, estimates that roughly a third of the D.C.area students admitted to the nation’s most selective colleges and universities today are recruited athletes.
How much does racial diversity come into play? Not much—at least not by the time admissions officers are reviewing individual student applications. A 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision barred colleges from applying race-conscious criteria to offers of enrollment.
While admissions officers don’t know the race of the applicants they are reviewing, Pérez says efforts to cultivate diversity are happening farther upstream. Many colleges launch targeted recruiting efforts in racially and economically diverse areas to attract a wider range of candidates.
“The only thing you can control right now is the students that get into your applicant pool,” he says. “The more
diverse your pool is, the more diverse your admit pool will be.”
The fact that wealthy families can afford private schools (or live in neighborhoods feeding top-ranked public schools) and pay for test prep courses, private tutors and essay coaches is not lost on universities. Pérez says admissions officers are often assigned to specific geographic areas so that they are evaluating applicants with similar resources from the same high schools.
Contrary to popular belief, colleges don’t have quotas for Northern Virginia, says Nancy Benton, owner of the Arlington-based consultancy Admissions Edge College Counselling. But they do strive for broad geographic representation in their incoming classes.
Arlington, being one of the most educated counties in the nation, has outstanding schools, families that value education and a surplus of impressive applicants. The same is true of Falls Church and McLean.
“It makes it particularly competitive to be applying to [certain] colleges from this area,” Benton says. “You just have more students that you’re competing against.”
AS A MEMBER OF W-L’S Class of 2018, Avery Erskine applied to eight colleges. She was rejected by six, including Duke and Northwestern—despite having earned straight A’s throughout high school while juggling a packed schedule of extracurricular activities. At first she blamed herself, wondering if heaping even more on her plate might have improved her chances.
Now 24 and an aspiring screenwriter in Santa Monica, California, she has two degrees from UVA (a bachelor’s and a master’s in English) and some newfound perspective. Her advice to others: Focus less on the name brand of the school and more on the fit.
“You’re not signing anything in stone when you are 18,” she says. “It will work out the way it should—not because of some great fate, but because you still are in charge of your life.” College is a beginning, she says, not an end.
■ behind the ivy tower
Benton, whose company has advised some 250 college applicants over the last decade, agrees. “It’s not like the goal is to get into the college with the lowest acceptance rate,” she says. “The goal is to get into the college where the student will thrive.”
The fact is, most seniors applying to elite universities have strong grades and exceptionally high test scores, says Eleanor Monte Jones, owner of Rigby, a college consulting firm based in Annandale.
“So that’s a baseline. That’s not a distinguisher.” She reiterates that colleges are looking for students who have pursued their interests in depth. For instance, a creative writing applicant who has taken every English class and submitted to literary journals, or a future nurse who has worked in a hospital.
Rather than applying to a laundry list of institutions with prestigious names, Jones advises students to target fewer schools, focusing on those that align
most closely with their academic interests, values and lifestyle preferences. Like most college counselors, she advocates identifying a combination of “target, reach and safety” schools to ensure that they have choices.
In retrospect, “I don’t think any school with an acceptance rate below 30% can be called a target,” Emma says, given the number of applicants with similar bona fides applying to those same schools. “You can’t predict outcomes like that.”
Students aiming for the Ivies and other top-ranked universities—including specialized programs such as Juilliard or the U.S. Naval Academy— should also give serious consideration to just what it takes to get there, Jones says. The calculus isn’t unlike star athletes with dreams of sports scholarships, Olympic glory or a spot on the pro circuit. There are sacrifices.
“It requires a family and the child to
make a decision as early as possible to position themselves for the most selective universities,” says Jones, who spent decades working in college admissions, most recently at Georgetown. “I’m talking probably seventh or eighth grade. That requires planning, that requires interest and it also requires aptitude.”
Students interested in STEM subjects, for example, need to start accelerated math classes well before high school.
Lee’s company, Command Education, claims a 94% success rate in getting students into at least one of their top three choices. The kids she’s coached have put in the work, with achievements ranging from large-scale fundraisers to published research. One student designed an AI-driven technology platform to study music’s cognitive effects. Another 3D-printed prosthetics, which she then donated to families in South Asia. She turned down an invitation to the White House so she could attend prom.
October is National Depression and Mental Health Screening Month
Lee declined to share the cost of her services, noting that fees vary depending on the length of time spent with each student. But a five-day college bootcamp her company offered this summer in Arlington went for $10,000 per registrant. Blitz charges a flat fee of $8,800 per student, whether they need her services for one year or longer.
ALEXANDRA “ALLIE” VASQUEZ
had her heart set on Brown University until the rejection letter arrived with a thud in 2020. She remembers it being the first time in her life she fell short of achieving something she’d set her mind to.
With the Ivy League school off the table, Vasquez weighed the acceptance letters she’d received and headed for the West Coast. Now 23, she’s finishing up a five-year architecture program at the University of Southern California (which, it should be noted, had a com-
petitive 16.5% acceptance rate the year she applied). Her high school GPA, which once seemed so important, is hazy, but she thinks it was a weighted 4.3.
In retrospect, Vasquez believes she landed where she was supposed to be. USC gave her space to explore different interests, and the vibe turned out to be a better match than Brown would have been. Arlington’s competitive pressure makes it far too easy for students to get caught up in the worship of certain schools, she says, and too easy for a rejection to feel like the end of the road instead of the speedbump it truly is.
“Everybody freaks out. I have friends who were incredibly good students who thought their lives were over, that they were never going to get in anywhere, not just into college, but in life,” Vasquez says. “It’ll pass. You will get an admission letter for somewhere, and it will feel like the sun has come out.”
Carey, who directs the education
policy program at New America (he’s also author of the book The End of College: Creating the Future of Learning and the University of Everywhere), shares a similar perspective. “No one’s future depends on getting into their dream school as an undergraduate,” he says. “There are lots and lots of roads to opportunity. Have some sense of proportion of what the stakes are.”
For Emma, the sun eventually did come out. She heads to UVA this fall, where she plans to study computer science. The disappointment of those rejection letters has faded.
Her advice for others navigating the maelstrom of college applications: “You’ll end up where you should be. If you don’t, you can transfer. Be easy on yourself. It’s a hard process.” ■
Business and education writer Tamara Lytle is an empty nester with twins in college. She lives in Vienna.
LESSONS LEARNED
Seasoned educators share their favorite stories and insights from years on the job.
INTERVIEWS BY STEPHANIE KANOWITZ AND ELIZA TEBO
AMANDA MOREY
SECOND GRADE TEACHER
Mt. Daniel Elementary School
Years teaching: 15
Morey has spent her entire public education career at Falls Church City Public Schools. She was nominated for the Falls Church Education Foundation’s Teacher of the Year award in 2020, 2023 and 2025.
I’m from a family of teachers. I got a master’s in education from the College of Saint Rose, but I didn’t become a teacher right away. I thought I was going to go into politics, so I worked at a law firm and then a trade association, but I wasn’t satisfied being in an office.
Second grade is a sweet spot. Students love school and they’re eager to learn.
They’re more independent and receptive to humor. I see a lot of growth in their reading, writing and math. It’s when that transition happens from learning to read to reading to learn. It’s rewarding to witness all their academic and personal growth.
I strive to be the teacher I would want my own kids to have. One of the most important things is to build trust and a relationship with your students. It takes time to learn about them, their family, their culture, their favorites or dislikes. I have morning meetings every day when students can share. I believe each child has unique experiences and strengths. It’s my responsibility to create a community that’s welcoming and inclusive and where everyone has a space to learn and feel valued.
You’ve got to be humble and OK making mistakes. One time, an abnormally
large fly was buzzing around the classroom and distracting all the kids. I knew that to get them back on track, I’d have to get rid of it. The class wanted me to save it. I tried to capture it with a cup and ended up falling flat on my face. It was such a moment, but I did end up catching and releasing it.
I want families to know where their kids are socially and academically, and how they can connect at home. Some parents can’t go to PTA meetings or chaperone a field trip, and that’s OK. Communicating about what’s going on at school is important. When a student knows their teacher and their families are on the same page, it makes it a better classroom environment. Some families send me holiday cards. One mom with a high schooler and a high school grad still sends me a basket for Teacher Appreciation Week. It’s amazing. —Stephanie Kanowitz
GERRI MASKELONY
MATH, STATISTICS AND MUSIC APPRECIATION
Arlington Tech
Years teaching: 10
With master’s degrees in applied statistics and music, Maskelony teaches college-level statistics, quantitative analysis and music appreciation courses. In January, she was one of only 330 teachers nationwide to receive the Presidential Award for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching. She also received a Fulbright Teacher Exchange award to conduct research in Singapore during the spring 2025 semester.
I’m a career-switcher. I previously worked as a statistician in operations research. When my youngest child started kindergarten, I wanted to get on the school schedule, so I took a job as a testing coordinator. I really enjoyed the community of the school setting, so I got certified. At first I was teaching English learners. Then I taught guitar. I started teaching math classes on the side, and things blossomed from there.
I love teaching because, unlike with other jobs, you can reinvent yourself
every year. You create your own ecosystem within a set of parameters. We’re in a project-based setting, so I can guide students through independent research that allows them to demonstrate mastery of the academic concepts outside of a didactic model. It stokes their enthusiasm and their excitement for the topic when they have that agency.
Students have a lot of youthful enthusiasm about wanting to change the world, and I love that about them. But I also know that if you don’t have the data, math, communication and analytical skills to back it up, you’re not nearly as effective as you could be. My vision is to pair their enthusiasm for life with an understanding of how to read other people’s data and how to find and generate their own data and analysis. Then they’ll be really powerful.
Last year, the State Educational Technology Directors Association invited four of my students to present on a panel. It was the most professional panel I’ve seen at any conference. They were asking APS not to restrict them from using education technology and describing how they get around Lightspeed Systems, which APS uses to manage edtech use on school-issued devices. Guess who was attending the conference? Lightspeed. “Mr. Lightspeed” came up and offered them paid internships.
My music appreciation class is a great conceptual break for students. They’re looking at the building blocks of music, how sound is organized, the basic mechanics of different instruments and music history. One of the projects they do is called “The Power of Music in Film.” We download silent films from the Library of Congress, and they score them. They have to have transitions and sound events and two different moods, such as ominous and scary or beautiful and upbeat. They learn how powerful music is in creating that emotional environment for us when we’re watching a film or just living life.
—Stephanie Kanowitz
MICHAEL VENTURA
JOHN RE
LIBRARY MEDIA SPECIALIST
Discovery Elementary School
Years teaching: 28
A resident of Douglas Park, Re spent a decade teaching fourth through sixth grades before combining his passions into a new role as librarian. He was named Discovery’s Teacher of the Year for 2024-25 and plans to retire after the 2025-26 school year.
As a classroom teacher, I did a lot with language arts, reading and writing, so becoming a librarian seemed like a natural fit. Being a classroom teacher first was a huge benefit. You understand where the other teachers are coming from and what support they need.
As a librarian, I want to cultivate a spark—an interest in something new. I often start my class with a short video about an artist or something cool in nature to inspire students to explore a section of the library they maybe haven’t been to. I do lunchtime book
clubs, picking books that are going to expose them to a different culture or situation. With sports, you need crosstraining. You need to run or swim to help with your soccer. It’s the same thing with books.
When a parent says, “My kid’s not reading,” I say, “Maybe they haven’t found the right book. Let me have a one-onone with them.” I’ll give them three books and say, “If those three books don’t work for you, that’s all right. Come back and we’ll try three more.” Maybe they need a little handholding. Maybe you have to read the first two chapters together to ignite that spark and they get passionate. When you see kids light up and you know they’ve found the right book, that builds their reading confidence. It’s those moments when they come back excited about something they’ve discovered.
We live in interesting times. Technology is exciting, but as with everything,
you need a little curation. We’ve piloted a couple of AI projects. In one, we used MagicSchool AI, an education-centric platform, to create a chatbot that answered fifth graders’ questions about the Renaissance. I think AI is also going to help teachers with prepping. For instance, I asked ChatGPT to give me some prompts for a reflective activity in which I ask fifth graders what advice they would give to students in younger grades. It was nice to have suggestions I could tweak and finesse. It’s that whole curation and guidance, which is what libraries have always done.
I try to make this a low-stress library. When students come in, we have a mindful breath moment to get them connected and centered. I let them pick their own seats. I give them the power to take ownership for their learning and their behavior.
My mantra is: Be brave, be curious and be kind. —Stephanie Kanowitz
■ lessons learned
TAVIS LAWS
DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS
The Madeira School
Years Teaching: 15
A former professional athlete (he played arena football for the Reading Express), Laws has spent nearly two decades as an athletic administrator, including seven years at Congressional School in Falls Church. In addition to his work at Madeira, he runs the Laws Elite Basketball Academy.
No day is the same. As an athletic administrator, you can be in the weeds helping run a practice or a conditioning session, or you can be at the 30,000foot level, where you’re strategically thinking about next steps.
What motivates me? The kids. Knowing they’re gonna show up, regardless of what you have going on in your world. They’re going to be bright-eyed, with so much energy. They look to you to be that
space where they can just release everything, whether it’s a conversation or just letting go of academic pressure and the conflicts of the day. They’re looking to you as their leader to make it a successful, happy, enjoyable experience.
I love what I do. This is what I was put on earth to do: to really embrace and encourage athletes and coaches to do their personal best each and every day.
I view athletics as a classroom—it just looks different. We don’t have desks, pencils or pens, but there are definitely lifelong lessons you can learn from athletics that you cannot learn in any other aspect of the educational process.
The secret sauce is don’t ever degrade. Don’t ever raise your tone. Talk to them if they make a mistake: “I don’t care that you made a mistake. Get back out there.” It’s how you respond. That is
the best way to truly get people to trust you, including athletes and coaches.
Everyone needs to feel great about themselves, but be held accountable at the same time. I think I’ve done well maintaining that equal balance of pushpull—knowing when to push an athlete or coach, knowing when to pull back, knowing when they’re at a low moment, what they need at that time, because it is an art. Being an educator is an art.
Just because someone fails doesn’t mean they are a failure. It means they’re growing. That’s what education is about. It’s about failing at something, recalculating, recalibrating and then finding a new way, or re-strategizing and moving forward. This notion has been lost a little bit—the fact that people don’t want their child to be in any discomfort. In most cases, failure is a positive thing. As long as there’s no harm done, failure is growth. —Eliza Tebo
LINA TENJO TIPTON
ENGLISH LEARNER TEACHER
Gunston Middle School
Years Teaching: 11
When I was little, my three sisters and I played like my sisters were the teachers and the rest of us were the students. We set up a little school in our house, where we invited neighbors. I think that sparked a lot of curiosity in my life about service and how you can help other people.
My “why” are my students. We sometimes spend more time together than they spend with their parents. I know
they are in a vulnerable situation because they do need to learn the English language. They need that safe space to learn in the classroom. Most of the time, I think I learn more from my students than they probably learn from me.
Ours is a multicultural classroom. I’ll teach one topic—for example, energy or electricity—and we talk about that from all perspectives, from different countries. How do you use energy in your house? We come up with real experiences in the classroom. I don’t mind bringing things from home. I have a kitchen in the school—a little oven, a blender. You cannot learn the vocabulary unless you have the hands-on experience to make the connections. I’m here to guide, to facilitate the learning.
My advice to future educators? Be
present. If the kids are participating in a show, make the time to go to that show. If they tell me, “Miss Lina, I’m going to play a soccer game,” try to make the time or ask them, “Hey, how was your soccer game?” Don’t forget about the simple things that are important to the kids.
I’m an English language learner myself, and I struggle. It’s hard to be in a society where you can be judged because of your accent, or because people don’t understand you, or because you don’t fit—because of so many things. I’m trying to be the best version of myself and give my students hope that, yes, you’re going to be okay. I tell them: I still make mistakes. We’re human, and if we make a mistake, tomorrow we will just figure it out and do it better. —Eliza Tebo
A native of Colombia, Tenjo Tipton was named Teacher of the Year at both Escuela Key Elementary in 2018 and Gunston Middle School this past academic year.
BILL PODOLSKI
CHORAL DIRECTOR
H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program
Years Teaching: 20
A quarterfinalist for the 2026 Grammy Music Educator Award, Podolski has served as choral director at H-B Woodlawn for 17 years, where he leads multiple choirs, teaches general music and co-directs musicals.
When I was in elementary school, a music teacher sought me out. I was this lonely kid on the playground, and that teacher invited me to join the band. That started my time in school music groups. I found my way into chorus. Throughout middle and high school that became my place of belonging, where I felt like I was talented and capable.
I knew from a very young age I wanted to be a teacher. I wanted to pay forward
the gift of what a music ensemble can be. I went to George Mason University to get my music education degree, and the rest is history.
I have a phrase that I use all the time in my class: “Excellence is a habit that is practiced.” Every day we’re trying to instill performance practices so that when the nerves take over, students can still shine, they can still thrive.
Students who have not been successful in other classes often find their way to my classroom. I think they sense that I believe in them. They may, in turn, have great success in a way they’re not enjoying in other places.
I’m all about community building. In order for us to sing together, we need
to trust and have some sense of community. I also know that to discover our voice and do something that is so vulnerable (so many Americans feel like they can’t sing) we need to discover our ability. Often that’s through play. We have a parachute, balls, bean bags. We play first and then discover our voice through that.
What would I tell a prospective teacher? Teaching is a noble career. We need teachers. And I would say it’s hard. It’s not society’s chosen career; we see that in the pay scales. But there is so much glory in other ways—students you’ve influenced and families who appreciate that you’ve made an impact on their kid. So, I would be a big encourager. Come join the fold. ■ —Eliza Tebo
MICHAEL VENTURA
Where Arlington’s Class of 2025 applied to college and where they were accepted
The following is a list of the colleges and universities where Arlington Public Schools (APS) high school graduates (Class of 2025) applied and where they were accepted. The acceptance data is “self-reported” by students and school officials are unable to verify its accuracy. Data are provided for H-B Woodlawn Secondary Program, Wakefield High School, Washington-Liberty High School
and Yorktown High School, as well as the Arlington Career Center (ACC), whose full-time programs include Arlington Tech, the Academic Academy, the Program for Employment Preparedness and the English Language Institute. The data reflect completed applications only. For brevity’s sake, we limited the list to colleges and universities with at least five applicants from the combined high schools.
■ college bound
ACC/ARLINGTON
■ college bound
ACC/ARLINGTON
CELEBRATING 75 YEARS OF PURPOSE
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Visit marymount.edu/75 to learn more and join the celebration!
■ college bound
Research is HOPE
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LIKE A ROCK ROCK ROCK ROCK
Life lessons that build resilience can be hard for parents to watch. Elizabeth McKenzie had one of those moments last spring when her then-9-year-old daughter tried out for a competitive soccer team and didn’t make the cut. To make matters worse, her daughter’s three best friends all made the roster.
McKenzie remembers her daughter crestfallen and “spiraling,” with fast and furious predictions that her friends would attend practices together and get ice cream afterward and have sleepovers on game days—and that she would be left out. “In my head, I’m like, that’s all true,” says the Arlington mom of two. Rather than attempting to distract her child from pain (or worse, petitioning the coach to reconsider), she listened. “I left a lot of space for her to share her thoughts with me,” says McKenzie, a parenting coach with Skill
Is ‘sturdy parenting’ the child-rearing model we’ve all been waiting for? Its proponents are holding strong.
BY SUSAN ANSPACH
Builders, a speech-language and occupational therapy practice with offices in McLean, Alexandria and Annandale. “I said things like, ‘I can see why you’d be worried about that,’ or ‘That makes sense. I would be sad about that, too.’
“I also emphasized that feelings often shrink over time,” she says. “That even though she might still be disappointed a week from now, it won’t feel
as sad as it does right this minute.”
In the days that followed, McKenzie and her husband, Evan, drew a clear line between empathy and coddling. Yes, their daughter was understandably sad and deserved to be comforted, but that didn’t give her a pass to behave badly. “She’s so upset because of this devastating thing,” McKenzie says, “so then she has kind of crappy behavior, right? She’s being really rude to her brother, and she’s demanding extra TV time and ice cream and just being kind of bratty.”
Those expressions of entitlement didn’t fly. “ ‘I’m still going to react the same way when you’re mean to your brother that I would on any other day,’ ” she told her daughter. “That’s what makes you a sturdy parent. Because you’re consistent. She needed me to be nice and sturdy so that she could spiral and then come back to center.”
IN THE WORLD OF parenting philosophies “sturdy parenting” occupies a middle ground between old-school authoritarianism and the overprotective, overly permissive parenting styles that arose in response to it. A sturdy parent, McKenzie explains, is still an authority figure—not a friend—but a benevolent and approachable one who sets clear boundaries while validating a child’s feelings and striving to maintain a sense of connectedness.
The “sturdy” terminology was made popular by clinical psychologist and New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Kennedy, aka “Dr. Becky,” whose podcast, Good Inside with Dr. Becky, was named one of Apple Podcast’s Top Shows of 2021.
Every generation of new parents seeks to improve upon the perceived mistakes of their forebears. The strict “Father Knows Best” style of the mid20th century gave way to the backseat approach of the ’70s and ’80s when latchkey kids were left to fend for themselves. Then “helicopter parents” touched down, intent on rectifying that neglect by overstimulating their children with emotional codependency, packed schedules and every kind of enrichment imaginable.
Another 21st century term, “snowplow parenting,” describes those inclined to clear every obstacle and potential pitfall from their child’s path to protect them from failure. The unintended consequence is that children deprived of the opportunity to manage certain tasks and social situations on their own may not develop healthy coping mechanisms and resilience.
Sturdy parenting empowers kids to make their own choices while setting clear and consistent guidelines about what parents will do in certain scenarios. This often eliminates the need for threats or punishment. For example, a parent might say, “I will not allow you to hit your sister, and if you do, you will be removed from the activity.” The
S S S S
turdy parenting occupies a middle ground between old-school authoritarianism and the overprotective parenting styles that arose in response to it.
focus is on the parent’s action (removing the child) rather than punishing the child for hitting.
Kennedy contends that kids don’t learn the right lessons from punishment. Take the example of the child whose iPad is taken away in response to an outof-control moment. “Do you really think your 9-year-old is sitting there wondering [how they could have handled the situation better]?” she posed in a 2022 podcast episode. “No. They’re stewing in thoughts of revenge and in feeling misunderstood. None of that is effective.”
But consistency does require discipline on the parents’ part. Falls Church mom Marsea Nelson says she chooses her words carefully and is mindful of follow-through. “Before I say, ‘No, you can’t do that,’ I pause and think, Do I really mean that? Because if she pushes back and I say, ‘Oh, OK, I guess you can get back in the pool for five minutes’ then it’s giving a mixed message.”
Parenthood is a role Nelson takes very seriously: “My husband and I put a tremendous amount of intention into our parenting, in what we say, in what we do, in what she eats.”
Nelson read Kennedy’s first book, Good Inside, before her daughter was born and adopted the model as an alternative to the authoritarian home in which she was raised. “I grew up with a lot of shame, and that shame still is something I deal with at age 43,” she says. “I knew there was no room in my [own] family for shame.”
NELSON LIKES TO JOKE that she “learned to parent via Instagram,” but it’s not entirely untrue. She counts among Kennedy’s 3.2 million Instagram followers and has visited the pop psychologist’s Good Inside website, which bills itself as a “24/7 parenting coach” for those with children 18 and under. She occasionally prints out select bits of wisdom and sticks them to her fridge.
Say your child is talking back because he doesn’t want to go to bed, Kennedy posits in one hypothetical scenario. It’s natural to want to snap back, “Don’t talk to me that way!” or “No iPad for a week!” And yet, these reactions only escalate the situation and leave a child even more dysregulated.
Rather than resorting to punishment, she instructs, say something like, “I know you are a good kid and I know you can say that again in a kinder way.” Rethinking consequences allows you to stay connected to your child and focus on why the behavior is occurring in the first place.
Kennedy’s advice is big on visualization. Imagine a garden full of benches, she tells her listeners, each representing a different feeling. Parents can perch on the less comfortable benches alongside their kids when they’re having those feelings. It’s a “sturdy” way of validating the emotion and helping the child learn to sit with it a while—in contrast to immediately trying to yank them onto the happy bench or otherwise invalidating the negative feeling.
Arlington psychologist Christina Tripodi Mitchell gives Kennedy a lot of credit for bringing what she calls “helpful, evidence-based strategies” into the public view. “There is a very solid backing to what it is that she’s purporting,” Mitchell says, noting a distinction between authoritarian and authoritative. The latter “really is just a clinical way of saying: Understand the whole child, and treat and respond to the whole child.”
Authoritative isn’t a bad word, she clarifies. In fact, a 2020 study of parenting styles across 10 countries, published in Children and Youth Services Review, found higher levels of life satisfaction in children raised by authoritative parents. The authoritative model is also associated with fewer depressive symptoms during adolescence, according to a 2010 study published in The Journal of Genetic Psychology . Kids who know the rules and are given the agency to make their own decisions within those guardrails develop confidence and are less likely to feel helpless.
Jessica Salen, a developmental psychologist with Temple Rodef Shalom’s Early Childhood Center in Falls Church, says the basic principles of sturdy parenting aren’t new. She recalls being in graduate school in the 1980s and studying the same fundamental concepts. What is new is the repackaging of
those concepts for how parents digest information in the digital age. “It can be hard to keep up with all the novel terms,” Salen says. “Many child-development experts are coining their own terminology for approaches that are very similar.”
Salen sees a lot of commonalities between “gentle” and “sturdy” parenting styles, both of which are rooted in the authoritative approach. (British childcare author Sarah Ockwell-Smith, who wrote The Gentle Parenting Book in 2021, has also said publicly that gentle parenting and authoritative parenting are essentially the same thing—but that social media has run wild with her terminology.)
McKenzie draws more of a distinction. Both approaches advocate empathy, respect and positive reinforcement, she says, but what’s missing from gentle parenting are boundaries and con-
sequences for certain behaviors. She recalls parents who’ve read OckwellSmith’s book telling her they felt like failures because they had blown up at their kids and then felt bad about it.
With the advent of gentle parenting, “there was this big emphasis on validating our kids’ feelings all the time,” she says, which made parents feel like they had to bury their own feelings. “If you are a human with any kind of emotional response, you can’t do it. Gentle parenting is nice in a vacuum, but it’s not realistic.”
That’s where boundaries and structure come in. “Kids thrive when expectations are consistent and predictable,” she says. “So really, the happy medium is this sturdy parenting. You don’t need your parent to be your best friend. You need a lot of warmth and validation, of course, but also you need to know what your parents expect from you.”
Elizabeth McKenzie with her children
STURDY PARENTING DOESN’T just focus on negative behaviors. Fern Andraos, a speech-language pathologist serving families in the D.C. area, says she especially appreciates the philosophy’s emphasis on having fun with your kids and connecting with them on a goofy level. It sounds simple but often gets lost in the day-to-day of scheduling and trying to do things the “right” way.
“Nobody needs a perfect parent. That’s not helpful,” says the Arlington mom of three and co-founder of Learning Through Love, a private pediatric speech-language therapy and parent coaching practice. “If you allow yourself to be present and join them in their joy and their fun and in their craziness, your nervous system is going to feel so much more grounded, and your kid is going to feel so connected with you.”
McKenzie similarly works to help moms and dads enjoy the experience of parenting as a way of sparking genuine connections with their children. She’s the co-founder of Backpocket, a series of card kits offering conversation starters and activities parents can do with their kids using little to no stuff. The card prompts are designed to take the mental load off adults who, for instance, may have just gotten home from work and want a quick and easy idea for connecting with their kids in the 30 minutes before dinner.
Nelson, the Falls Church mom, says her 3-year-old loves a game they call “Vomit Monster” using a long scarf they pretend is barf. Sometimes she asks to ride on her mom’s back like a horse.
Marian Hwang, a therapist based in Vienna, considers herself a highly intentional, sturdy parent. She made it a conscious choice after growing up in a strict household where emotions were not often expressed.
“It didn’t hit the mark in terms of what kind of parent I wanted to be,” she says of her upbringing. Hwang sometimes gives her therapy clients homework assignments that include listening to Kennedy’s podcast episodes.
The impulse for parents to label their style of child-rearing is relatively new.
“
T T T
his is all coming from a place of [parents] wanting to be better educated, better informed, and ultimately break some [negative] cycles.”
Child psychologist Mitchell believes it’s emblematic of modern-day overwhelm, which brings with it a desire to latch onto accessible guidance. Community support has not kept up as women have joined the workforce and American families have moved away from a multigenerational style of living.
In Western societies, she observes, the focus tends to be more on the baby shower and preparing for the baby’s arrival, whereas other cultures place more emphasis on helping parents with infants and young children. She says those mothers traditionally have better mental health outcomes.
“There is a sense of parents feeling like they are drowning,” Mitchell says. “We are in a society that doesn’t provide a lot of support for that, whether it be financial assistance for daycare or pre-K education or postpartum support.”
Salen says many of today’s parents strike her as anxious about their children. At school pick-up time, she overhears them using what she suspects are canned parenting scripts, “when really their child just wants to come and give them a big hug.”
“Sometimes I hear parents saying, ‘You’re having a big feeling,’ or labeling things. It literally sounds like it came out of AI or from a book,” she says. “The truth is, when a child is really upset, you just want to be there for them. It’s not the moment to bring in your script. I think it’s a little gimmicky.”
She says parents are so worried about raising their kids correctly that they think they need to follow an
expert. “I know it’s because they want to get it right. So you feel for them.”
Mitchell cautions moms and dads against subscribing too rigidly to any one theory. Meeting a child’s needs is always more important than whatever is trending on social media. But she also sees parents whose basic intentions are good, and driven by love.
“This is all coming from a place of wanting to be better educated, better informed, and ultimately break some [negative] cycles,” she says. “That is remarkable. I don’t think we credit ourselves with that enough.”
LAST YEAR, McKenzie lost her father, Charlie Clark, a local historian, author and journalist, with whom she was very close. He was always a big music lover, she says, and wanted to share that love with his children.
One year, for her fifth-grade birthday party, he made a mixtape of songs featuring every party guest’s name. (He even checked the box for a friend named Taryn with NSYNC’s “Tearin’ Up My Heart.”)
“I remember feeling slightly nervous that my friends would think it was lame,” McKenzie says, “but instead, it was a smash hit. People talked about it for years to come.”
Though her dad’s death devastated her, it also prompted her to consider what had made their relationship so strong, and how she could foster the same kinds of bonds with her own kids.
“I’m always thinking, how is this driving my long-term, lifelong connection with my children versus short-term problemsolving in the moment?” she says.
Yes, her daughter may roll her eyes when her mom holds her to certain expectations. And no, she may not like that the answer is “no” for ice cream at 9:30 p.m., even after a rough day. But she won’t feel lost at sea.
“In our long-term relationship, she knows what to expect from me,” says McKenzie. “And that she can count on me.” ■
Susan Anspach is a mom of three and a preschool educator living in Vienna.
Home Experts Profiles
TriVistaUSA Design + Build
Q: What sets TriVistaUSA’s design team apart?
A: Our mission is to help people be happier in their homes by listening to them, observing their lifestyle and challenges, and leveraging innovative design techniques to generate beautiful and inspiring solutions. The clients that love us best are those that don’t really know exactly how to solve their home’s shortcomings and benefit from a true partner that collaborates on a unique custom solution.
Whether we’re redoing a bathroom or renovating an entire home, we’re able to generate ideas that you might never have considered. We possess the practical knowledge to bring your project to life, on time and on budget, with exceptional quality.
Q: What is unique about your process?
A: We take pride in a process fueled by
collaboration. Every TriVistaUSA team member takes part in outside-of-thebox thinking to craft innovative design concepts. This approach results in multiple high-design solutions, all of which respect the budget, each with a unique artistic bent. From the very first presentation, we encourage client collaboration and iterative feedback. Plus, we engage our in-house build team from the very start, to ensure all our beautiful designs can be executed without sacrificing quality.
A recent client said it best: “What sets TriVistaUSA apart is the continuous synergy and collaboration throughout the entire design and build process. They combined our vision with the creativity and expertise of their team to create a design perfectly tailored to our family. They gave us the custom home of our dreams and we couldn’t be happier with the results.”
TriVistaUSA Design Team (from left): Maedeh Ziaei Moayyed, John Wyman, Marni Thompson, Alex Kober, Michael Sauri, Carlos Nyce, Hassan Darab, Miles Baker, Mahsa Karkhaneh, Carlos Mejia and Bethany Lewis (Photo location courtesy of Ferguson Home)
DeFalco Home Design
TRIPP DEFALCO, AIA
Bachelor of Architecture, Syracuse University
Licensed Architect, VA & NC
NCARB Certified to practice nationally
25 years practicing as an Architect
10 years managing a Design/Build firm
Arlington Magazine Winner, Best Architect, 2022 & 2024
Q: How do you help your clients during construction?
A: I want my clients’ designs to be executed as we envisioned, so I am in close contact with the builder throughout the process. I review the builder’s shop drawings and material submittals, and I attend periodic site meetings with my clients. Without the presence of an architect to help both client and builder make decisions and solve inevitable issues, the process can be stressful and the end product disappointing.
Q: What brings you the most satisfaction in your work?
A: Making a genuine difference in people’s lives. It sounds corny, but it is true. I started my career designing institutional and commercial projects, where a “job well done” meant the design firm avoided a lawsuit. In my residential practice, doing a good job for a client creates real happiness for them.
Q: What makes you different than other architects/builders?
A: In between the two architecture firms I founded, I spent more than ten years working as a design-builder. I held a Class A general contractor’s license, building what I designed. I learned the pressures that builders face and the obstacles they have to overcome. It’s not as easy as it looks! For my architecture clients, this translates into me having some “inside baseball” knowledge in working with their builder. I find it’s easier to avoid an adversarial relationship between client and builder when I’m able to offer an explanation for what may otherwise look strange to someone outside the profession.
Bowers Design Build
With 35 years of award-winning renovations and custom homes, Bowers Design Build offers a turn-key process backed by in-house architects, designers and construction pros. Clients enjoy a fixed-budget approach, thoughtful design and lasting craftsmanship. Nearly one-third of projects are from repeat clients—a testament to trust and satisfaction.
Q: What makes you different than other home professionals?
A: We’re a truly integrated design-build firm with on-staff architects, interior designers and construction professionals who collaborate from day one. That means our clients experience a seamless process— from concept through completion—with a fixed “no surprises” budget and a level of coordination that’s rare in this industry. We offer exceptionally high-quality renovations and new home construction with peace of mind built in.
Q: What brings you the most satisfaction in your work?
A: Helping people live better in the homes they love—whether that’s reimagining a dated layout, building a custom home or solving everyday functional frustrations. The greatest reward is when clients tell us we’ve made their lives easier, more
beautiful and more enjoyable.
Q: What’s an example of something in your professional life that you’re particularly proud of?
A: We’re honored to consistently receive industry recognition, but we’re most proud of our client loyalty. According to GuildQuality, 100% of our surveyed clients say they would recommend us to a friend— and nearly a third of our projects come from repeat clients. That tells us we’re doing something right, project after project.
Q: How would your clients describe you?
A: Creative, responsive, honest and committed. They recognize that we have an exceptional team of professionals who care deeply about their experience. Many say they wouldn’t change a thing about working with us—and we work hard to make sure that’s always true.
From left: Katie Peters, Senior Vice President of Design, John Coburn, Jr. President; Bob Braddock, Vice President of Design; and Ron Hannan, Projects Manager
MC3 Design
JOHN MCKENNA, AIA, NCARB MAYA CHEHAB
Best Architects in McLean, BuildZoom Best of Houzz 2025, for Service
1308 Vincent Place McLean, VA 22101
202-599-7779
info@mc3group.com www.mc3group.com
Q: Tell us a bit about the MC3 Design team.
A: We don’t just build houses, we craft homes. As a family-owned firm, we prioritize personal connections and truly understanding each client’s vision. Our leadership combines architectural expertise with engineering acumen, ensuring both beautiful design and sound construction.
Q: What would you consider to be your specialty?
A: Translating vision into reality. The MC3 team begins by listening intently to your ideas, needs and lifestyle. We then leverage our extensive experience and design expertise to develop a plan that captures the essence of your vision while adhering to budget and feasibility. We’ll guide you through every detail from initial concept to the final finishing touches, ensuring the end product reflects your unique style and
exceeds your expectations.
Q: How do you support your clients?
A: We understand that building or renovating a home can be daunting. That’s why we prioritize clear communication, transparency and meticulous project management. We handle every detail, keeping our clients informed and involved every step of the way. Our goal is to allow clients to focus on the excitement of seeing their dream home come to life.
A: What else would you like prospective clients to know?
A: While beautiful design is essential, a truly successful home must also be functional and sustainable. MC3 considers factors like energy efficiency, material durability and long-term value in every decision we make. Our architectural and engineering backgrounds ensure your home is not only beautiful, but also built to last.
CR Custom Homes
Quality and Craftsmanship, Delivered.
2430 S. Kenmore St. Arlington, VA 22206
703-525-5255
office@builtbyCR.com www.builtbyCR.com
Q: What should prospective clients know about you?
A: Since 1971, we have proudly served Arlington and the greater Northern Virginia area as an innovative leader in the construction and remodeling industry. With our breadth of experience, we clearly understand the unique needs of Arlingtonians and the nuances of the local market. We are dedicated to better serving those looking to build a new home, sell their lot or buy new. We collaborate with clients throughout the course of the project to ensure that we meet—and exceed—their expectations. We pride ourselves on paying attention to the details from the beginning of a project and using the highest quality products as a starting point. Our goal is to deliver a superior
customer experience for our clients with open communication, transparent budgeting, staffing and on-site organization.
Q: What brings you the most satisfaction in your work?
A: CR Custom Homes is not the type of shop that offers limited options, saying take it or leave it. Rather, we encourage our clients to make custom choices that will work best for them within their budget and style. There is nothing our team loves more than handing over a project to a customer after all of the hard work is completed and seeing the look of happiness on their face. We look forward to having more satisfied customers by delivering new high-quality homes to the greater Arlington and McLean communities.
Q: Your brand centers on “hygge.” Why does that idea resonate so deeply with you—and your work?
A: Growing up in Soviet Lithuania, the idea of “home” wasn’t about selfexpression or beauty—it was about meeting basic needs. When I came to the U.S., I realized how powerful it is to create a space that feels warm, safe and deeply personal. Hygge isn’t just about candles or cozy throws, it’s about presence, connection and how a space makes you feel. That’s what buyers respond to and it’s what I want to create in every listing.
Q: What does transformation mean to you in the real estate world?
A: It’s not just cosmetic. I walk into a space and see what could be—and then
I bring that vision to life with strategic updates and expert positioning. It’s part intuition, part experience and part logistics. I believe homes hold emotional energy. When we align that energy with the market, beautiful things happen: faster sales, stronger offers and clients who feel truly supported during a major life transition.
Q: What do you hope people feel after working with you?
A: Clarity. Relief. And maybe even a little awe at what their home became. My job is to make the complex feel simple and to make sure every detail is handled with care. In the end, I want clients to feel that they weren’t just helped, but truly seen.
Alair Arlington
HBAV Remodeler of the Year, 2025
NARI Regional Remodeler of the Year, 2025
NVBIA Great American Living Award Winner, 2024
NVBIA Custom Builder of the Year, 2022, 2023
NARI Regional Contractor of the Year, 2019, 2020, 2024
NARI National Contractor of the Year, 2021 Arlington Green Home Choice Platinum Award, 2020
Q: What’s an example of something in your professional life that you’re particularly proud of?
A: I’m especially proud of the recognition we have earned, not only through industry awards such as being named the Home Builders Association of Virginia’s 2025 Remodeler of the Year but also through the appreciation we receive from clients. Referrals, five-star Google and Houzz reviews and video testimonials all speak to the lasting impact of our work and the relationships we’ve built over time.
Q: What brings you the most satisfaction in your work?
A: The greatest satisfaction comes from seeing others succeed, whether it’s the joy our clients experience upon
project completion or the pride our project managers feel in delivering exceptional results. That shared sense of accomplishment is reflected in the longterm relationships we have with most of our clients and in the many stories I hear of our team consistently going above and beyond expectations.
Q: What is the biggest challenge in your job?
A: The biggest challenge in our job also gives us the most enjoyment—working in the ever-changing field of building and remodeling while serving as trusted advisors to clients who are often making the most significant investment they will ever make—a home they will live in for years to come. (No pressure, though....)
From left: Maseeh Exeer, Project Manager; Andrew Hall, Project Manager; Chad Hackmann, Regional Partner; Elizabeth Mitchel, Business Development; Jonathan Olarte, Project Manager; Jason Chaney, General Manager
Arlington Designer Homes
ANDREW MOORE
Andrew Moore is president of Arlington Designer Homes. An Arlington native, he has served as a translator at the Arlington Free Clinic, on Arlington Public School planning commissions and as president of the Custom Builders Council. ADHC has been presented with multiple “Best Green Building” Gala awards by the Northern Virginia Building Industry Association (NVBIA).
4719 N. 24th Road
Arlington, VA 22207
703-243-1752
arlingtondesignerhomes@gmail.com
www.ArlingtonDesignerHomes.com
Q: What makes Arlington Designer Homes Construction stand apart?
A: Arlington Designer Homes Construction is a Design/Build firm specializing in green, high efficiency custom remodeling and new home construction. We have certified more houses than any other company under the Arlington County Green Home Choice Program.
As true custom builders, we have developed systems that address the challenges and opportunities that come with custom building in Arlington. Building is a process. We break this process down into smaller pieces that makes it more manageable and more understandable.
Q: What options do you offer your clients?
A: We do both large-scale remodeling and new home construction. This allows us
to look holistically at the project and help determine what the best way forward for our clients will be. It can be challenging to decide if remodeling or building new is the right move. We have the experience and expertise to talk about both and help you pick the option that works best for you.
Q: How would you sum up your business philosophy?
A: Arlington Designer Homes has been doing custom new homes and remodeling for over four decades. Whereas all projects are different, the processes through which we approach them are the same. It all starts with our clients. We listen to our clients’ needs and see if we are a good fit for their expectations. In turn, we see if they are a good fit for our systems and processes.
We build for the way you live!
Michelle Sagatov and Kelly Palmer
GOLD GROUP WASHINGTON FINE PROPERTIES
Michelle Sagatov: Arlington Magazine Top Producer 2019-2025 Best of Arlington Winner, Best Real Estate Agent 2024 Real Trends, America’s Best, 2019-2025 Washingtonian Top Agent, 2018-2025
Northern Virginia Magazine Best Real Estate Agent 2019-2025
Kelly Palmer: Washington Top Agent 2025
4100 Fairfax Drive, Suite 250, Arlington, VA 22203 703-402-9361 | michelle.sagatov@wfp.com goldgroupdmv.com
Q: What sets the Gold Group apart from the competition?
A: We have a signature approach to real estate where we curate individual client experiences whether you are a seller or a buyer. When you list with the Gold Group, a unique, individualized and thoughtful plan is put together for each property based on our knowledge of sales and what buyers expect in your price range. We go the extra mile for our clients and their properties creating a successful plan that garners low days on market while maximizing their sales price. For buyers we tap into our three avenues of locating properties that are on and off the market. We work closely with the lender and inspectors to put together a slam-dunk winning offer.
Q: Tell us about a recent success story that highlights your approach.
A: We recently were hired to market and sell a property that had already been listed by another Realtor for 45 days with zero offers. After conducting some research, we found that this property had been listed a total of three other times in the last four years and in all cases, it had not sold. We put together our signature curated listing approach for that specific property and garnered three offers the first weekend! The property sold 18 days later.
Our process works and the results speak for themselves. The Gold Group knows how to get the best results for their clients.
Denny + Gardner
REMODELING/BUILDING/DESIGN
571-220-1628
www.DennyandGardner.com
Q: What should clients know about Denny and Gardner?
A: Jason Denny and Norm Gardner founded the company in 2002, and we are proud of the collaborative team we have built, including in-house designers, dedicated project managers and skilled carpenters. Denny + Gardner focuses on residential remodeling, and our projects span all styles from traditional to contemporary and beyond to meet the needs and visions of our clients.
As owner-operators, Norm meets with clients first to work through design, architectural and engineering considerations while Jason is more heavily involved in the actual construction side of the business.
Q: What brings you the most satisfaction in your work?
A: Establishing happy clients and experiencing the “before and after” alongside them is why we continue to enjoy our jobs every day!
Lilian Jorgenson
LONG AND FOSTER REAL ESTATE / FORBES GLOBAL PROPERTIES
Lilian has sold more than 2,450 homes totaling $1.85 billion over the course of her 40-year career. “If it is to be, it is up to me!”
1355 Beverly Road, Suite 109 McLean, VA 22101 703-790-1990 lilian@lnf.com www.Lilian.com
Q: What’s your secret for success?
A: Realizing that buying or selling a home is one of the most difficult and emotional experiences most people have to face, I use all of my acquired skills and tools to make the process as quick, efficient and pleasant as it can be. Knowing the market, understanding my clients, having the sales skills, and applying them with charm and joy is a formula that has worked well for my clients and me.
VSG Homes
VERONICA SEVA-GONZALEZ
Veronica is a veteran Realtor® with almost 21 years of experience. Born and raised in Barcelona, Spain, she grew up surrounded by her parents’ real estate and construction business. A one-time professional swimmer on the Spanish National team, Veronica also worked as a labor law consultant for Deloitte.
3001 Washington Blvd., Suite 400 Arlington, VA 22201 202-361-6098 (m) | 703-266-7277 (o)
veronica@compass.com
VSGHomes.com
CompassConnected.com
Q: How do your clients describe you?
A: “Veronica is top notch—you will not find another Realtor like her in this area. I have worked with her for over 15 years and she has helped me purchase and sell two homes. She is compassionate and a great listener, which sets her apart from most other Realtors. She wants to make sure that you are getting the home that you want instead of trying to sell you the most expensive place. Her knowledge and expertise in the field is outstanding. My latest sale was the smoothest process ever and, thanks to her and her incredible team, I had multiple offers above asking and closed in less than a month. Veronica stands out from other Realtors in that she truly cares about her clients, not about how much money she will make in the end. For her, it is all about helping people find their perfect home, and also get the best benefit when they decide to sell.” —Cyndi L.
“I do not have enough words to describe just how wonderful Veronica, along with her team of professionals, were handling the sale of my home. From beginning to end, from listing, repairs and staging, to marketing, sale and closing, their attentiveness and attention to every detail made all the difference. My home got five offers and sold well above the sale price. This all made possible my own move and new chapter in life. I recommend Veronica and her team MOST highly!!” —Joan M.
Heartland Design & Remodeling
CHRIS CASTELLANOS
“For a stress-free remodeling project delivered on time and within budget, an experienced project manager is the most powerful tool you can have.”
6712 Old McLean Village Road
McLean, VA 22101
703-369-3000
info@heartlanddesign.com www.heartlanddesign.com
Q: Why is the role of a project manager vital in remodeling?
A: Let’s face it—remodeling your home can be overwhelming. Between planning, budgeting, design decisions and keeping track of what’s happening on-site, it’s a lot for anyone to manage. That’s where a project manager comes in to save the day. Think of us as the captain of the ship, steering your home remodel smoothly from start to finish.
Q: What is a challenge for homeowners who don’t hire a turn-key remodeling company with project managers?
A: One of the biggest challenges of any remodel project is juggling all the moving pieces. There are contractors, designers, suppliers and inspectors involved, each
with their own timeline and priorities. Without a project manager, keeping everyone aligned can feel impossible. Our project managers handle all of that for our clients—communicating with the entire team so you don’t have to worry about who’s doing what or when.
Q: How does a project manager help with surprises during construction?
A: Renovations are notorious for surprises, like hidden structural issues or material delays. While no one can prevent every issue, a good project manager can help minimize their impact. At Heartland Design & Remodeling, we take a proactive approach, planning ahead for potential challenges and finding creative solutions to keep your project on track.
Tech Painting Company, Inc.
A trusted leader in residential painting for nearly 40 years, Tech Painting has set the standard in quality and professionalism. With a fully employed crew and no reliance on subcontractors, every project is completed with consistency, accountability and craftsmanship that reflects decades of experience in the communities we serve.
5150 Eisenhower Ave.
Alexandria, VA 22304
703-684-7702
office@techpainting.com www.techpainting.com
Q: What sets Tech Painting Company apart from the field?
A: Since 1987, Tech Painting Company has built a reputation for high quality work, clear communication and exceptional service. What truly sets the company apart is the team behind the results. Unlike many contractors, we employ our crews directly. That includes skilled painters, master carpenters and wallcovering specialists, all trained to meet the company’s standards. Every project is led by an on-site supervisor, and clients receive daily photo updates to stay informed from start to finish. That consistency allows us to deliver the quality, professionalism and reliability our customers deserve.
Q: Why is your relationship with the community so important?
A: More than 90 percent of Tech
Painting’s business comes from repeat clients and referrals. That loyalty is earned through consistent results and a strong local presence. We live where we work. We are invested in these communities, support local organizations and take pride in being part of the neighborhoods we serve.
Q: What advice would you offer those planning a project on a budget?
A: All homeowners are on a budget. The key is starting with a clear number and working with your contractor to break the job into efficient phases. For example, if you need special equipment to reach upper trim, take care of everything at that level while it is set up. A good contractor will help you plan wisely.
From interior painting to fine carpentry and wallcoverings, Tech Painting delivers lasting results with care and craftsmanship.
One of many crews for the NOVA area (from left): Armando Herbas, Operations Manager; Kenia Caceres, Crew Member; Jim Nicolson, VP Residential Division; Edvin Chinchilla, Operations Manager; Daniel Franco, Crew Member; Honore Olson, Sales and Estimating Specialist; Ulises Reyes, Crew Supervisor and Ricardo Salas, Crew Member
Ballard + Mensua Architecture
SETH M. BALLARD, AIA, NCARB
Arlington Magazine Winner, Best Architect 2016, 2020
Arlington Magazine Top Vote Getter, Best Architect 2018, 2022
Northern Virginia magazine “Best of Northern Virginia” 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
A: As a full-service architecture firm specializing in unique and custom homes and renovations, we offer far more than the typical architecture firm. We will manage the entire project, from interior design, architecture, landscaping and hardscaping to finding and managing the contractor and subs from concept through completion. Many architects just issue a permit set and do the outside architecture and get out of the project. We believe it is important to have an architect as the point person for the project and have everything go through us.
Q: How do you work with clients throughout the course of a project?
A: Ballard + Mensua’s process is designed to help our clients make every decision on a costinformed and design-option-informed basis. Our goal is to manage dreams within the reality of budget. Many builders (and even some architects) limit owner choice and information. We keep our clients very informed. We are happy to make all of the decisions or to provide detailed information for clients that want to be more involved in design.
Q: What makes it all worthwhile for you and your team?
A: There’s nothing better than seeing clients’ happiness and pride when showing off our work. We provide homes that function and flow better, with organized spaces for all of the living and working and playing that families do in their homes. We work to make dreams come true and love to see the good effects of properly designed homes with good chi.
TONY J. LEWIS
Natalie U. Roy
BICYCLING REALTY GROUP, KW METRO CENTER ARLINGTON
Licensed in VA, MD and D.C.
Awards/Honors:
Arlington Magazine “Top Producer” 2025
Washingtonian “The Face of Real Estate” 2025
Washingtonian “Top Agent” 2025
Northern Virginia Magazine “Best and Top Producing Real Estate Agent Winner”2025
Virginia Living “Top Realtor” 2025
2111 Wilson Blvd., Suite 1050, Arlington, VA 22201
A: After years of running non-profit organizations, I found real estate to be a natural fit, since it is fundamentally a service industry. I learned that I love the challenge of helping people deal with the biggest financial decisions most will ever make. I brought my environmental ethic and energy into the business and, voila, Bicycling Realty Group was born.
Q: What makes you stand out in this crowded marketplace?
A: My team of highly motivated professionals offers clients a unique service: house hunting via bicycle. There is no better way to get to know a community than to bike or walk through it. But don’t worry — if you’d prefer to go by car or Metro, that works too! Most importantly, our energetic team is committed to getting every client to the finish line with a smile on their face.
Q: What is the key to being a good Realtor?
A: Real estate is personal. It is all about relationships, meaning it is critical to find the right fit, whether it is house hunting and finding that perfect neighborhood or choosing a real estate agent to sell your home. I take that to heart in my business. I walk clients through what can seem a daunting process, answering questions such as: Are we in a housing bubble? Will prices keep increasing? Am I better off waiting to sell? While these are all great questions, and we answer them as best we can, no one has a crystal ball.
great spaces ■
by Nigel F. Maynard
|
photo by Reema Desai
Going Green
They loved the paint color at a local restaurant, so they copied it.
KATHLEEN HOLEMANS and Peter Reynolds liked the green millwork at Ruthie’s All-Day so much that they stole the idea for their Arlington Forest kitchen. The space had been renovated in 2010 as part of a larger whole-house project, but by 2022 they were bored with it.
“I wanted to bring more color into the room,” Holemans says. “The previous colors were earthy browns and grays—very soothing but not so exciting after a long period of time.”
The couple called on Kate Hougen, founder of Mira Jean Designs, to revamp their kitchen without chang-
ing its footprint. Hougen kept the existing appliances and perimeter cabinets, refinished the oak floors and introduced a new ceramic tile backsplash from Sonoma Tilemakers, along with new light fixtures and a walnut island with a quartz countertop.
Choosing a new hue for the old bamboo cabinets was the biggest decision. “[The clients] had seen Dakota Johnson’s kitchen in Architectural Digest and its beautiful green cabinets,” says the Arlington designer. We Googled it and found the actual paint color and brought samples back to the home.”
But it was the wrong green—too dark and not as bright as it looked in the magazine—so the hunt continued. “We pulled a handful of paint samples and looked at them in the space, but we weren’t loving the colors,” Hougen says. “Then one day I walked into Ruthie’s and I thought, ‘This is it.’ The hostess was gracious enough to look up the color. Halfway through dinner she brought me a Post-it note with the name on it.”
Sherwin-Williams’ Reseda Green was the winner. A fresh paint job made the cabinets look like new, and reeded glass doors on two of the upper panels lend textural interest. “I love this green because it’s fresh and vibrant without being jarring,” Holemans says. “I wanted a clean, crisp look that would contrast with the white tiles and countertops.” ■
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June’s Most Expensive Home Sales
22201 (Arlington)
3173 20th St. N.
List Price: $4.3 million
Sale Price: $4.25 million
Days on Market: 191
Listing Office: RE/MAX Distinctive Real Estate
Neighborhood: Lyon Village
Year Built: 2025
Bedrooms: 7
Full/Half Baths: 7/1
22202 (Arlington)
1790 S. Lynn St.
List Price: $1.4 million
Sale Price: $1.42 million
Days on Market: 26
Listing Office: Corcoran McEnearney
Neighborhood: Aurora Hills
Year Built: 1999
Bedrooms: 3
Full/Half Baths: 3/1
22203 (Arlington)
828 N. Wakefield St.
List Price: $1.67 million
Sale Price: $1.7 million
Days on Market: 3
Listing Office: RLAH @properties
Neighborhood: Ballston
Year Built: 2004
Bedrooms: 5
Full/Half Baths: 3/1
22204 (Arlington)
3703 7th St. S.
List Price: $1.75 million
Sale Price: $1.74 million
Days on Market: 49
Listing Office: Keller Williams Capital Prop.
Neighborhood: Alcova Heights
Year Built: 2007
Bedrooms: 5
Full/Half Baths: 4/0
This information, courtesy of Bright MLS as of July 15, 2025, includes homes sold in June 2025, excluding sales in which sellers have withheld permission to advertise or promote. Information should be independently verified. The Bright MLS real estate service area spans 40,000 square miles throughout the mid-Atlantic region, including Delaware, Maryland, Washington, D.C., and parts of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. As a leading Multiple Listing Service (MLS), Bright serves approximately 100,000 real estate professionals who in turn serve over 20 million consumers. For more information, visit brightmls.com.
■ prime numbers
22205 (Arlington)
856 N. Harrison St.
List Price: $2.5 million
Sale Price: $2.43 million
Days on Market: 7
Listing Office: TTR Sotheby’s Int. Realty
Neighborhood: Summit Veitch
Year Built: 2017
Bedrooms: 6
Full/Half Baths: 5/1
22206 (Arlington)
2256 S. Glebe Road
List Price: $1.1 million
Sale Price: $1.1 million
Days on Market: 55
Listing Office: William G. Buck & Assoc.
Neighborhood: Townes at South Glebe
Year Built: 2022
Bedrooms: 4
Full/Half Baths: 4/1
22207 (Arlington)
4502 32nd Road N.
List Price: $3.95 million
Sale Price: $3.89 million Days on Market: 11
Listing Office: Compass
Neighborhood: Country Club Hills
Year Built: 2006
Bedrooms: 5
Full/Half Baths: 5/2
22209 (Arlington)
1881 N. Nash St., #TS 09
List Price: $3.4 million
Sale Price: $3.18 million
Days on Market: 19
Listing Office: TTR Sotheby’s Int. Realty
Neighborhood: Rosslyn
Year Built: 2009
Bedrooms: 3
Full/Half Baths: 3/0
22213 (Arlington)
7101 27th Road N.
List Price: $1.88 million
Sale Price: $1.89 million
Days on Market: 8
Listing Office: Keller Williams Realty
Neighborhood: Berkshire Oakwood
Year Built: 2020
Bedrooms: 5
Full/Half Baths: 3/1
22101 (McLean)
1404 Kurtz Road
List Price: $4.5 million
Sale Price: $4.2 million
Days on Market: 52
Listing Office: Washington Fine Properties
Neighborhood: Salona Village
Year Built: 2022
Bedrooms: 6
Full/Half Baths: 6/2
22102 (McLean)
1029 Founders Ridge Lane
List Price: $3.67 million
Sale Price: $3.6 million
Days on Market: 9
Listing Office: Compass
Neighborhood: The Reserve
Year Built: 2004
Bedrooms: 5
Full/Half Baths: 5/2
22041 (Falls Church)
3416 Mansfield Road
List Price: $2.7 million
Sale Price: $2.55 million
Days on Market: 70
Listing Office: Golston Real Estate
Neighborhood: Lake Barcroft
Year Built: 1963
Bedrooms: 5
Full/Half Baths: 3/1
22042 (Falls Church)
3325 Brandy Court
List Price: $2.59 million
Sale Price: $2.54 million
Days on Market: 11
Listing Office: TTR Sotheby’s Int. Realty
Neighborhood: Raymondale
Year Built: 2017
Bedrooms: 6
Full/Half Baths: 5/1
22043 (Falls Church)
2040 Freedom Lane
List Price: $2.58 million
Sale Price: $2.59 million
Days on Market: 13
Listing Office: Focal Point Real Estate
Neighborhood: Nantucket
Year Built: 2025
Bedrooms: 7
Full/Half Baths: 6/0
22044 (Falls Church)
6368 Waterway Drive
List Price: $990,000
Sale Price: $960,300
Days on Market: 25
Listing Office: EXP Realty
Neighborhood: Lake Barcroft
Year Built: 1960
Bedrooms: 4
Full/Half Baths: 3/0
22046 (Falls Church)
1204 Seaton Lane
List Price: $2.6 million
Sale Price: $2.53 million
Days on Market: 35
Listing Office: KW Metro Center
Neighborhood: Virginia Forest
Year Built: 2021
Bedrooms: 7
Full/Half Baths: 6/1
1881 N. Nash St., Arlington SALE PRICE: $3.18 MILLION
Real Estate Sales Trends
22201
22206
22202
22207
22203
22209
22204
22213
22205
22102
22041
22042
22043
22044
22101
22046
Crispy shrimp bao at Bar Chinois
Small Plates Big Flavors
Bar Chinois makes noise in National Landing with great food and a boisterous vibe.
BY DAVID HAGEDORN | PHOTOS BY DEB LINDSEY
THREE WORDS MANY folks long to hear are “I love you.” I get a similar serotonin boost from “They’ve got dumplings!” So my excitement was palpable when D.C.’s celebrated Bar Chinois opened a second location in National Landing in June. Let’s just say its combo of French-inspired cocktails and Chinese small plates makes my heart sing.
Settling in with some pals on a Friday evening, I get right down to business with an order of juicy pork and shrimp wontons floating in a sesame-soy vinaigrette spiked with chili oil. The next dish to arrive is chicken and shrimp shumai, rendered crunchy with water chestnuts, carrots and a topping of fried garlic. They go down easy, paired with a martini made with
olive brine and Shaoxing wine. I can also vouch for the tasty, tequila-based Coco Marseille flavored with basil, Suze French bitters, lime juice and coconut. Ordering with abandon, we move on to the kitchen's standout chive dumplings, which have a soft texture reminiscent of turnip cakes. Packed with chopped garlic chives, the herbaceous dough is steamed and then deep-fried, and tastes like a spring garden. The dish is complemented by a sambal-laced soy and black vinegar dipping sauce.
I’m a longtime fan of the two chefs who created and oversee the menus at both Bar Chinois locations. Prapavadee “Lekki” Limvatana grew up in
Bartender Matthew Hurst
BAR CHINOIS
244 19th Court S. #105, Arlington 703-416-6769
barchinoisnl.com
HOURS
Monday through Saturday: 4 to 11 p.m.
Sunday: 4 to 10 p.m.
PARKING
Street parking is limited. If you can’t find a spot, try the parking garage on 18th Street between Bell Street and Crystal Drive.
PRICES
Dumplings: $10 to $12
Small plates: $11 to $16
Entrees: $14 to $23
Desserts: $7 to $9
Thailand’s north-central Uttaradit province, where her Hainanese-Thai family operated a shophouse specializing in local fare such as fried mudfish and stingrays. Satang Ruangsangwatana is a self-taught cook, born and raised in Bangkok. The two met in 2011 while working at D.C. Noodles (now closed) and have collaborated on various projects through the years, including a food truck called Fat Nomads that turned into a supper club and online pop-up. At the time of this writing, they were preparing to open a brick-and-mortar restaurant in Bethesda called Six Ways to Sunday.
Bar Chinois’ expansion into Arlington came about when developer JBG
Smith was looking for a local, go-to restaurant that would attract a nighttime crowd to the ground floor of the Grace and Reva apartments in National Landing. “We got excited because it reminded us of when we first moved into Mount Vernon Square [in D.C.],” says Dean Mosones, who co-owns both restaurants with Mark Minicucci and Margaux Donati. “[It’s] a newer neighborhood with a confluence of business and residential, with people who live and work there.”
If my Friday night experience is any indication, that coveted nighttime crowd got the memo. All 80 seats inside, including 15 at the bustling bar, and the 40 patio seats outside are full. The vibe is moody, broody and young, with red pendant lights, cane-backed bistro chairs, exposed ductwork and a tealand-black accent wall as set dressing. A cacophony of chattering voices and blaring music bounces off the concrete ceiling, walls and floors, the house shaking from the boom-boom of the bass.
The Coco Marseille cocktail with a plate of steamed chicken dumplings
Garlic noodles
Crab Rangoon
A red neon sign in Mandarin above the bar translates to “Welcome, friends.” But be warned: At 84 decibels (think motorcycle or food blender), hearing what those friends have to say may be off the table.
The place is fun enough, though I fully cop to being a fuddy duddy and not a member of Bar Chinois’ target demographic. It’s no accident my next visit is on a Sunday afternoon at 4:30 when the noise level is a more tolerable 72 decibels, allowing for normal conversation.
Limvatana’s and Ruangsangwatana’s food merits fanfare. Crab Rangoon has enjoyed a hip revival of late, and their version is everything you’d want it to be—crispy, cream cheese-y and rife with surimi and real crab meat, plus scallions and lemon zest for extra oomph. The Hoisin pork ribs are falloff-the-bone tender, gooey and worthy of a finger-licking.
Shrimp bao, its crustaceans perfectly fried with a delicate, tempura-like coating, get a kick of heat from sriracha aioli and chili oil. The spring rolls filled with pulled duck confit are far superior to the dreary egg rolls served at so many Chinese restaurants.
Less successful are the unremarkable ha gow (steamed shrimp dumplings). The filling for the empanada-like “gyoza de boeuf,” a blend of ground beef, caramelized onion and Gruyere, is meant to mimic French onion soup, but this good idea on paper comes off more La Choy than Oh, boy!
My favorite entree is the simplest. The 1970s garlic noodles, a tangle of ramen noodles, shiitake mushrooms and spinach, are bathed in garlic butter and lush with umami, courtesy of a house blend of soy, oyster and fish sauces, plus sesame oil. A garnish of shredded Parmesan takes this dish to perfection.
The menu also includes rice bowls with toppers such as char siu chicken or five-spice pork belly. I’m partial to the version featuring crispy-skinned salmon, which is bathed in sake and grilled with a honey miso glaze. The fish is prepared nicely medium and custardy in the center, showing off the kitchen’s prowess.
There are three desserts. I’m weary of matcha creme brulee (must we matcha-fy everything?) but give a thumbs up to the chocolate cheesecake and the profiteroles filled with ice cream.
WHAT TO DRINK
Of the 10 craft cocktails ($14 to $21), seven are fruit forward. Try the Lucky Snake (grapefruit gin, Jamaican rum, dragon fruit, ginger, passionfruit, lemon and clarified milk) and Mousse a la Peche (Cognac, peach, lime, orgeat and thyme foam). The booze forward options include a rum-based espresso martini flavored with coconut and pandan.
Fourteen wines are available by the glass ($14 to $19) and bottle ($52 to $115), among them two sparklers, two rosés, five whites and five reds.
There are also five bottled beers ($5 to $10).
All in all, I like the place. A neon sign in French on one of its walls says, Quelle belle surprise de vous voir ici, which means, “What a surprise to see you here.” That would indeed be true if I were to return on an ear-splitting Friday night. But be sure to say hello when I’m chowing down on dumplings on a peaceful and conversationally conducive Sunday afternoon. ■
A salmon rice bowl with mixed greens and wasabi-seaweed rice seasoning
David Hagedorn
Worth the Trip
After an easy 2½-hour jaunt down I-66 and I-81, a fellow foodie friend and I recently found ourselves in Staunton, where we checked into Maude and the Bear, a charming two-suite inn (plus a separate 750-square-foot cottage) and fine-dining restaurant that chef Ian Boden and his wife, Leslie, opened in April 2024. Maude is the middle name of the couple’s daughter, Lila, and “The Bear” is a nickname for their son, Lucian.
Open for dinner Thursday through Saturday, plus Sunday brunch, the inn is tucked inside a 1920s house, originally built from a Montgomery Ward home kit, that Leslie lovingly
restored. Welcome treats in our suite included a bottle of Virginia’s ThibautJanisson sparkling wine, rosemary shortbread and cheese straws.
The 24-seat restaurant, adorned with local artwork, serves seasonal tasting menus at two seatings, with the option of enjoying four or seven courses ($90-$140). We upped the ante and went for the Kitchen Table seating ($300), which allowed us to watch Boden work his magic. Twice nominated for a James Beard Foundation award in the “Best Chef MidAtlantic” category, he is known for dishes rooted in Appalachian bounty and his own Russian and Hungarian Jewish roots. Some 80% of the offerings emanate from a wood-fired oven, and the menu changes daily.
In our case, the highlights included white asparagus with Osetra caviar;
dry-aged hiramasa (yellowtail) with pickled nectarines and toasted black walnuts; lamb tartare with Meyer lemon and charred leek vinaigrette; pastrami beef heart with cured foie gras and sour cherries; Rush Creek Reserve cheese with roasted blueberries; and bergamot posset (a custardlike dessert) with satsuma oranges.
Breakfast the next day was just as elegant, with a feast of bananas and sour cream; yellowtail gravlax over roasted sweet potatoes; and matzo brei with smoked whitefish roe.
To cap off a perfect Staunton weekend, go for dinner at the Bodens’ sister restaurant, The Shack, where chef Mike Skipper’s casual menu features terrific house-made pastas.
Rooms at the inn start at $500 per night and include breakfast.
maudeandthebear.com
Ian and Leslie Boden (left), proprietors of Maude and the Bear in Staunton
Wild salmon with onion tarte tatin and pickled plums
Dry-aged rockfish with peaches and cucumber
A Knack for Yak
Ballston newcomer Himalayan Wild Yak, which opened in March, is known for its eponymous protein, the long-haired bovine indigenous to Tibet, Mongolia and Nepal. Count me a fan. Cubes of the ultralean-yet-tender meat take center stage in a luscious korma thickened with ground cashews and yogurt ($23). Yak is also one of the filling choices for momos ($14), steamed dumplings laced with coriander, cumin, garam masala and chilies, served with a fiery tomato-ginger sauce. Roasted yak ($30) and crispy yak chili ($19) round out the meaty repertoire in this kitchen hailing from the land of Mount Everest.
Brothers Keshar Jarga Magar and Dip Jarga Magar (both chefs) and their friend Tuk Prasad Gurung own the 3,000-square-foot restaurant, which seats 70 inside and 40 outside. The Nepalese natives opened their flagship location in Ashburn in 2022. Chinese and Indian influences figure heavily on Wild Yak’s menu— not surprising considering the owners’ landlocked homeland is tucked between those geographical behe-
moths. Try appetizers such as potato wedges tossed with Sichuan peppercorns and chilies; crispy, orangeglazed pork belly; and a mouth-tingling Nepali street chaat made with puffed rice, potatoes and chickpeas.
In addition to the yak korma, other standout entrees include the butter chicken and bone-in goat curry. Order
spice-laden stewed lentils and flaky garlic naan for the table and finish your meal with kurauni, a puddinglike dessert. Also, take a moment to admire the gorgeous napkins made from traditional Nepalese ceremonial fabrics. They were crafted by Keshar’s and Dip’s father, who is a tailor. himalayanwildyak.com
THIS now
Primal Instinct
Sometimes I get an uncontrollable craving for a hefty slab of prime rib au jus served with horseradish cream. There's just one problem: This old-school favorite can be hard to find these days, especially one that is prepared properly. 801 Chophouse in Tysons satisfies the urge in two big ways, offering a 16-ounce single cut ($66) or a 24-ounce bone-in cut ($78). I paired the latter with a side of pan-roasted mushrooms with Boursin and Parmesan cheeses ($18). The service at 801 is top-notch, starting with a dramatic tableside presentation of the various cuts of USDA Prime meat available. Ask for a tour of the dry-aging refrigerators in the kitchen. 801chophouse.com
Nepalese momo at Himalayan Wild Yak
places to EAT
ARLINGTON
1983 Chinese Cuisine
1101 S. Joyce St., 703-512-3089, 1983chinese cuisine.com. A destination for dim sum and other traditional Cantonese dishes. R L D G V $$
A Modo Mio Pizzeria
5555 Langston Blvd., 703-532-0990, amodomio pizza.com. Dig into authentic Neapolitan pies, house-made gnocchi, lasagna, spaghetti del mare and cannoli. o L D V $$
Aladdin Sweets & Tandoor
5169 Langston Blvd., 703-533-0077, aladdin arlington.com. Chef Shiuli Rashid and her husband, Harun, prepare family recipes from their native Bangladesh. L D $$
Al-Shami Restaurant
5216 Wilson Blvd., 703-373-0291, alshamiva. com. Dig into falafel, shawarma and other Syrian delights courtesy of Basima Chouban, who previously operated Layalina in the same space for 27 years. Closed Mondays. L D G V $$
Ambar Clarendon
2901 Wilson Blvd., 703-875-9663, ambarrestau rant.com. Feast on Balkan specialties such as stuffed cabbage, mushroom pilav and rotisserie meats. O R L D G V $$
Andy’s Pizza
901 N. Pollard St. (entrance on Fairfax Drive), 703552-4037, eatandyspizza.com. Andy Brown’s thincrust pies fall somewhere between Neapolitan and New York-style. Try the pepperoni special with burrata, basil and Mike’s hot honey. L D V $
Angolino Pizza
3125 Wilson Blvd., 703-760-3210, pizzaforpizza lovers.com. When it’s late and you need a slice, this Clarendon eatery hits the spot. L D V A $
Anita’s New Mexico Style Bar & Grill
3444 Fairfax Drive, 571-290-0659, anitascorp. com. Find burritos, enchiladas, fajitas and other Tex-Mex standards. O C B R L D G V $
Arlington Kabob
5046 Langston Blvd., 703-531-1498, arlingtonka bobva.com. Authentic Afghan fare includes kebabs, shawarma and lamb shank with rice. L D $$
Astro Beer Hall
4001 Campbell Ave., 703-664-0744, astrobeer hall.com. Jet to this space-themed brewpub for fried chicken, burgers, doughnuts and a retro basement billiards hall called 1969. o B R L D A $$
Bakeshop
1025 N. Fillmore St., 571-970-6460, bakeshop va.com. A tiny storefront serving coffee, cupcakes, cookies, icebox pies and vegan treats. B V $
Ballston Local s
900 N. Glebe Road, 703-852-1260, ballstonlocal. com. Pair your local brew with a plate of poutine or a New York-style pizza. L D V $$
Banditos Tacos & Tequila
1301 S. Joyce St., 571-257-7622, banditostnt.com. Mexican street food, tequila, mezcal and sugar-skull décor keep the party going. o L D G V $$
Bangkok 54
2919 Columbia Pike, 703-521-4070, bangkok54res taurant.com. A favorite for Thai curries, grilled meats, stir-fry, noodles and soups. L D V $$
Bar Bao
3100 Clarendon Blvd., 703-600-0500, barbao-va. com. Find trendy dishes reminiscent of Chinese and Taiwanese street food, plus sake, soju and Asian fusion cocktails. L D V $$
Bar Chinois
244 19th Court S., 703-416-6769, barchinoisnl. com. The award-winning concept blends Chinese small plates with French-inspired cocktails and wine. O D G V $$$
Bar Colline
269 19th Court S., 703-567-4792, barcolline. com. French bistro fare, wine happy hours and Parisian-style sidewalk seating await at the latest concept from hospitality veterans Ian and Eric Hilton. O L D G V $$$
Barley Mac
1600 Wilson Blvd., 703-372-9486, barleymacva. com. Upscale tavern fare, plus more than 100 kinds of whiskey and bourbon. R L D A G V $$
Basic Burger
1101 S. Joyce St., 703-248-9333, basicburger.
com. The homegrown eatery cooks with locally sourced, certified Angus beef and cage-free, antibiotic-free chicken. L D $$
Bayou Bakery, Coffee Bar & Eatery 1515 N. Courthouse Road, 703-243-2410, bayou bakeryva.com. Chef David Guas’ New Orleans-inspired menu includes beignets and gumbo. Breakfast all day on weekends. O C B R L D G V $
Beauty Champagne & Sugar Boutique 576 23rd St. S., 571-257-5873, beautycham pagneandsugar.com. Find cocktail fixings, sweets, small plates, wine and bubbly at this woman-owned bistro and market. Closed Mondays. L D $$ Bethesda Bagels 1851 N. Moore St., 703-312-1133, bethesdabagels. com. The popular DMV chain has an outpost in Rosslyn. Eat a sandwich! O L V $
BGR the Burger Joint 3129 Langston Blvd., 703-812-4705, bgrtheburger joint.com. Top your dry-aged beef, veggie or turkey burger with add-ons like grilled jalapeño, pineapple or fried egg. C L D V $
Big Buns Damn Good Burger Co. s 4401 Wilson Blvd., 703-276-3032; 4251 Camp-
KEY: Price designations are based on the approximate cost per person for a meal with one drink, tax and tip.
$ under $20
$$ $21-$35
$$$ $36-$70
$$$$ $71 or more
o Outdoor Dining
c Children’s Menu
B Breakfast
R Brunch
L Lunch
D Dinner
A After Hours/Late Night
G Gluten-Free
V Vegetarian
s Best of Arlington 2024 or 2025 Winner
Arlington Kabob
■ places to eat
bell Ave., 703-933-2867, eatbigbuns.com. Satisfy all your cravings with creative burgers, shakes, beer and booze. B L D $$
Bird’s Eye Thai
1651 Crystal Drive, birdseyethai.com. Order up a round of tiki drinks, crispy spring rolls and khao soi noodles from this outdoor kiosk in National Landing’s Water Park. O L D $$
Bluefish Bistro Sushi & Kitchen
950 S. George Mason Drive, 703-270-0102, blue fishbistro.com. Try specialty rolls with names like Green Dragon and King Kong. Closed Tuesdays. L D G V $$
Bob & Edith’s Diner
2310 Columbia Pike, 703-920-6103; 539 23rd St. S., 703-920-2700; 5050 Langston Blvd., 703-5940280; bobandedithsdiner.com. Founded in 1969, the 24-hour eatery whips up pancakes, eggs, meatloaf, and pie à la mode. C B L D A V $
Bollywood Bistro Express
4238 Wilson Blvd. (Ballston Quarter), 571-3121071, bollywoodbistroexpress.com. Build your own bowl with fillers such as chicken tikka, paneer, chana masala and pickled onions. L D V $$
Bonsai Sushi at Crystal City
553 23rd St. S., 703-553-7723, crystalbonsai sushirestaurant.com. A go-to for sushi, sashimi, yakisoba, tempura, teriyaki. Closed Mondays. L D $$
Bostan Uyghur Cuisine
3911 Langston Blvd., 703-522-3010, bostanuyghur. com. The Uyghur Chinese dishes include kebabs, lagmen (hand-pulled noodles), manta (dumplings) and honey cake. L D $$
Brass Rabbit Public House
1210 N. Garfield St., 703-746-9977, brassrabbit pub.com. Pair lettuce wraps and crab BLTs with craft cocktails like the El Conejo, featuring tequila, carrot juice, ginger, lime and cilantro.
O R L D V A $$
Bronson Bierhall
4100 Fairfax Drive, 703-528-1110, bronsonbier hall.com. Find communal tables, German and regional beers, sausages, schnitzel and cornhole in this 6,000-square-foot ode to Munich.
O L D A $$
Bubbie’s Plant Burgers
1721 Crystal Drive, bubbiesburgers.com. Grab a plant-based or kosher burger, a fried green tomato sandwich or a plate of avocado fries at this outdoor kiosk in National Landing’s Water Park. O L D V $ Buena Vida s 2900 Wilson Blvd., 703-888-1528, buenavida gastrolounge.com. Savor the flavors of Mexico, from tacos to churros, and head to the top floor for one of the best rooftop bars in town. O R L D $$
Burger Billy’s Joint
3800 Langston Blvd., 703-512-0102, burgerbillys joint.com. Order smashburgers made from locally sourced Angus beef (or plant-based), as well as hot dogs, wings and fries, using a food locker pickup system. L D V $
Busboys and Poets
4251 S. Campbell Ave., 703-379-9757, busboys andpoets.com. Known for its poetry slams, onsite bookstore and social justice programming, the café offers an eclectic menu with plenty of options for vegetarians. O C B R L D G V $$
Café Colline
4536 Langston Blvd., 703-567-6615, cafecolline va.com. The cozy French bistro in the Lee Heights Shops satisfies with paté maison, duck confit and chocolate pots de creme. O R L D $$
Café Sazón
4704 Columbia Pike, 703-566-1686, cafesazon. com. A homey Bolivian café specializing in dishes such as silpancho and empanadas. B L D V $$
Call Your Mother Deli
1671 Crystal Drive, 571-867-9983, callyourmother deli.com. The self-described “Jew-ish” deli serves its signature bagels, schmears and latkes from a kiosk in National Landing’s Water Park. B R L $
Capital Doner
1731 Wilson Blvd., capitaldoner.com. Stop in for Turkish doner kebab, halal meats, house-made sauces and locally sourced vegetables in wraps, platters and rice bowls. B L D A $
Carbonara s
3865 Wilson Blvd., 703-721-3905, carbonarava. com. Enjoy house-made pastas, eggplant parm, chicken cacciatore and the spirit of Sinatra at this old-world-meets-modern Italian trattoria.
L D V $$$
Caribbean Grill
5183 Langston Blvd., 703-241-8947. Cuban preparations such as jerk-style pork, fried plantains and black bean soup are mainstays. C L D G V $
Carlyle
4000 Campbell Ave., 703-931-0777, greatameri canrestaurants.com/carlyle. The original anchor of Shirlington Village is a reliable pick for fusion fare, happy hour and Sunday brunch.
O C R L D G V $$$
CarPool Beer and Billiards
900 N. Glebe Road, 703-516-7665, gocarpool.com. Head out for pool, pub grub and an extensive beer list, including “house” suds brewed at sister bar the Board Room. D A $
The Celtic House Irish Pub & Restaurant 2500 Columbia Pike, 703-746-9644, celtichouseva.com. The pub on the Pike serves up pints alongside favorites like corned beef and traditional Irish breakfast. C R L D A $$
Charga Grill
5151 Langston Blvd., 703-988-6063; 3203 Columbia Pike, 703-574-5050; chargagrill.com. How do you like your chicken? Choose Peruvian, jerk, Tandoori or Pakistani charga or sajii. L D $$
Chiko s
4040 Campbell Ave., 571-312-0774, mychiko. com. Fan favorites at this Chinese-Korean joint include cumin lamb stir-fry and double-fried chicken wings. C L D G V $$
Circa at Clarendon s
3010 Clarendon Blvd., 703-522-3010, circabis tros.com. Bistro fare ranges from salads and small plates to steak frites and wild mushroom pizza. Sit outside if you can. O R L D A G V $$$
Colada Shop
2811 Clarendon Blvd., 571-771-8400; 244 19th Court S., 703-631-5320; coladashop.com. Hit this colorful Caribbean coffee cafe and bar for beachy vibes, tropical drinks and Cuban-inspired eats.
C B R L D V $$
Colony Grill
2800 Clarendon Blvd., 703-682-8300, colonygrill. com. The Stamford, Connecticut-based pizza chain specializes in ultra-thin-crust “bar pies” with a spicy, pepper-infused hot oil topping. L D G V $$
Copperwood Tavern
4021 Campbell Ave., 703-522-8010, copperwood tavern.com. This rustic saloon serves up steaks and chops, draft beers and 30 small-batch whiskeys. O R L D $$$
Cornerstone
2900 Columbia Pike, 703-512-2056, pikecorner stone.com. The menu is heavy on apps and shareables such as wings, nachos and mini skewers, but you’ll also find salads, burgers and rib-sticking entrees. C O R D A $
Corso Italian
4024 Campbell Ave., 703-933-8787, corsoitalian. com. Find fresh pastas, porchetta and veal chop Milanese at this Italian trattoria by Cheesetique “cheese lady” Jill Erber. O r L D V $$$
Cowboy Café
4792 Langston Blvd., 703-243-8010, thecowboy cafe.com. Cool your heels and fill up on sandwiches, burgers, brisket and chili mac. An outdoor beer garden features a mural by Arlington artist MasPaz. Live music on weekends. O C R L D V $$
New York-style pizza, wines by the glass and patio crushers at this al fresco dining spot in National Landing’s Water Park. O L D V $$
Crystal City Sports Pub
529 23rd St. S., 703-521-8215, ccsportspub.com. Open 365 days a year, it’s a sure bet for big-screen TVs, pool tables, trivia and poker nights, beers and bar snacks. C B R L D A G V $$
Crystal Thai
4819 First St. N., 703-522-1311, crystalthai.com. A neighborhood go-to for traditional Thai curries, grilled meats and house specialties like roast duck. L D V $$
Dama Restaurant & Cafe
1503 Columbia Pike, 703-920-3559, damapas try.com. The Ethiopian family-owned business includes a breakfast café, market and dining room. B L D V $$
Darna
946 N. Jackson St., 703-988-2373, darnava.com. Snack on mezze and flatbreads at this cocktail and hookah bar. D A V $$
Delhi Dhaba Indian Restaurant
2424 Wilson Blvd., 703-524-0008, delhidhaba.com. The best bargain is the “mix and match” platter, which includes tandoori, seafood, a curry dish and a choice of rice or naan. O L D G V $$
Detour Coffee
946 N. Jackson St., 703-988-2378, detourcoffee co.com. This comfy cafe has a college vibe and serves up locally roasted coffee, light bites and weekend brunch. O B R L V $
District Dumplings
923 S. Glebe Road, 571-518-9764, districtdumplings.com. When you’re hungry for Asian-style dumplings, sandwiches and wraps. L D $$
District Taco
5723 Langston Blvd., 703-237-1204; 1500 Wilson Blvd., 571-290-6854; districttaco.com. A local favorite for tacos and gargantuan burritos. C B L D G V $ Don Tito
3165 Wilson Blvd., 703-566-3113, dontitova.com. The sports bar specializes in tacos, tequila and beer, with a rooftop bar. O R L D $$
Dudley’s Sport and Ale
2766 S. Arlington Mill Drive, 571-312-2304, dudleyssportandale.com. A spacious sports bar with wall-to-wall TVs, a roof deck, a ballpark-inspired beer list and weekend brunch. O C R L D A $$
Earl’s Sandwiches
2605 Wilson Blvd., 703-647-9191, earlsinarling ton.com. Made-to-order sandwiches use prime ingredients, like fresh roasted turkey. O B L D G V $
East West Cafe
3101 Wilson Blvd., 571-800-9954, ewcafe.com. The Clarendon cafe serves espresso drinks, brunch (try the massive Turkish breakfast spread), sandwiches, tapas, beer and wine. B L D $ El Paso Café
4235 N. Pershing Drive, 703-243-9811, elpaso cafeva.com. Big portions, big margaritas and bighearted service make this Tex-Mex cantina a local favorite. C L D G V $$
El Pike Restobar
4111 Columbia Pike, 703-521-3010, elpikeresto bar.com. Bolivian dishes satisfy at this no-frills institution. Try the salteñas stuffed with chicken or with beef, olives and hard-boiled egg. L D $ El Pollo Rico
932 N. Kenmore St., 703-522-3220, elpollorico. com. A local institution, this rotisserie chicken mecca gained even more street cred after a visit from the late Anthony Bourdain. L D V $ El Rey
4201 Wilson Blvd., 571-312-5530, elreyva.com. Down tacos, margs and draft brews in a colorful interior featuring street-art murals by Mike Pacheco. Visit The Filling Station next door for live music. L D A $$
Elevation Burger
2447 N. Harrison St., 703-300-9467, elevation
burger.com. Organic, grass-fed beef is ground on the premises, fries are cooked in olive oil and the shakes are made with fresh-scooped ice cream.
O L D V $
Eli’s Taqueria
3207 Columbia Pike, 703-663-4777. Dig into beef birria tortas, shrimp tacos and pupusas at this homey spot (a spin-off of the Taqueria La Ceibita food truck) run by Nevi Paredes and his daughter, Yorktown alum Elizabeth Marquez. L D $ Falafel Inc.
1631 Crystal Drive, falafelinc.org. Fill a pita or bowl with falafel, pickled veggies and your choice of sauces. The eatery donates a portion of its sales to feed refugees. O L D V $
Fat Fish
1641 Crystal Drive, fatfishrolls.com. Grab poke bowls, sushi and bento boxes from this budgetfriendly kiosk in National Landing’s Water Park. O L D G $
Federico Ristorante Italiano
519 23rd St., 703-486-0519, federicoristorante italiano.com. Go for pasta and chianti at this trattoria co-owned by Freddie’s Beach Bar proprietor Freddie Lutz. L D V $$
Fettoosh
5100 Wilson Blvd., 703-527-7710, fettoosh restaurant.com. Pita sandwiches and kebabs keep the kitchen fired up at this bargain-priced Lebanese and Moroccan restaurant. C R L D G V $ Fire Works
2350 Clarendon Blvd., 703-527-8700, fireworks pizza.com. Enjoy wood-fired pizzas and more than 30 craft beers on tap. You can also build your own pasta dish. O C L D A G V $$
First Down Sports Bar & Grill s 4213 Fairfax Drive, 703-465-8888, firstdownsports
bar.com. Three cheers for draft beers and snacks ranging from sliders to queso dip. L D A V $$
For Five Coffee Roasters
1735 N. Lynn St.; 2311 Wilson Blvd., 571-2577219, forfivecoffee.com. Pop in for coffee drinks, espresso martinis, acai bowls, avo toast and “stuffed” cookies. B R L G V $
Four Sisters Grill
3035 Clarendon Blvd., 703-243-9020, foursisters grill.com. A go-to for banh mi sandwiches, papaya salad, spring rolls and noodle dishes. O L D $$
Freddie’s Beach Bar
555 23rd St. S., Arlington, 703-685-0555, fred diesbeachbar.com. Freddie Lutz’s longstanding “gay, straight-friendly” hangout is always a party, with pink and purple Barbiecore décor, flashy drinks, drag bingo and weekend brunch. O R D A V $$
Galaxy Hut
2711 Wilson Blvd., 703-525-8646, galaxyhut.com. Pair craft beers with vegan bar foods like “fricken” sandwiches and smothered tots. L D A G V $$
Gharer Khabar
5157 Langston Blvd., 703-973-2432, gharerkhabar va.com. Translated as “home’s food,” this art-filled, 14-seat café serves Bangladeshi fare cooked by chef Nasima Shreen. L D $$
Good Company Doughnuts & Café
672 N. Glebe Road, 703-243-3000; 1350 S. Eads St., 703-894-1002; gocodough.com. The family- and veteran-owned eatery serves house-made doughnuts, Intelligentsia coffee and savory cafe fare. B L V $$
post offers gourmet burgers (beef, turkey or mushroom), shakes, fries and salads. L D G V $
Grand Cru Wine Bar and Bistro
4301 Wilson Blvd., 703-243-7900, grandcrubistro. com. This intimate European-style café includes a wine shop next door. O R L D G $$$
Grazie Grazie
4121 Wilson Blvd., 571-216-2999, graziegrazie.com. Give thanks for Italian subs like the 8+1 (Genoa salami, hot capicola, prosciutto and sharp provolone), plus pizzas, salads and cannoli. L D $
Green Pig Bistro
2900 Wilson Blvd., 703-888-1920, greenpigbistro. com. An Arlington fave for Southern-influenced food, craft cocktails, happy hour and brunch. R L D G V $$$
Guajillo
1727 Wilson Blvd., 703-807-0840, guajillo mexican.com. Authentic Mexican dishes such as carne asada, mole poblano and churros are favorites. O C L D G V $$
Guapo’s Restaurant 4028 Campbell Ave., 703-671-1701, guaposres taurant.com. Expect hearty portions of all the TexMex standbys—quesadillas, enchiladas, fajitas, tacos and burritos. O C R L D G V $$
Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ 1119 N. Hudson St., 571-527-0445, gyu-kaku.com. Marinated meats, veggies and seafood are cooked on tabletop grills. L D $$
Gyu San 4300 Wilson Blvd., 571-312-7373, gyusan.com. Go for Japanese barbecue, sushi, soba noodles and saki. L D G $$$
Hal & Al’s BBQ 4238 Wilson Blvd., 703-400-8884, halandals bbq.com. There’s no pork on the menu at this
About Us
Enjoy a sophisticated experience in our restaurant and bar where every taste is a masterpiece composed by culinary chef Kamilia Jackson and tea sommelier Dacey Goodwin.
Indulge in our all day Al La Carte menu, plant based options, and modern desserts. Savor afternoon and high tea towers, refined by chef’s sustainable nutrition studies at Harvard and tea sommelier’s unique aroma specialist degree.
ArTeA Signatures are gracefully paired with organic loose-leaf teas, tea-based wines, mocktails, and tea flights–creating elegance in every sip and bite.
Serving all day A La Carte Brunch, Afternoon Tea and High Tea.
■ places to eat
halal ’cue joint. Go for beef brisket, turkey sausage or beef “Dino” ribs rubbed with Old Bay and other spices. L D $$
Hanabi Ramen
3024 Wilson Blvd., 703-351-1275, hanabiramen usa.com. Slurp multiple variations of the namesake noodle soup, plus rice bowls and dumplings. L D $$
Haute Dogs
2910 N. Sycamore St., 703-548-3891, hautedogs andfries.com. Cookout fare goes gourmet with hot dog toppings ranging from banh mi with sriracha mayo to a buffalo dog with blue cheese. L D $
Hawkers Asian Street Food
4201 Wilson Blvd., 703-828-8287, eathawkers. com. Dig into hot chicken, pork belly bao and other Asian street foods, plus sake, whiskey and zeroproof quaffs. G V L D $$
Heidelberg Pastry Shoppe s
2150 N. Culpeper St., 703-527-8394, heidelberg bakery.com. A local favorite for baked goods and Old Country specialties such as bratwurst and German potato salad. Closed Mondays. B L $
Highline RxR
2010-A Crystal Drive, 703-413-2337, highlinerxr. com. A Crystal City bar offering draft beers, draft wines, a whiskey menu and a retractable wall that opens up in nice weather. O L D A $$
Hot Lola’s
4238 Wilson Blvd. (Ballston Quarter), 1501 Wilson Blvd. (Rosslyn), hotlolas.com. It’s all about Kevin Tien’s Nashville-meets-Sichuan hot chicken sandwiches. L D $
Hyde Social
3100 Clarendon Blvd., 703-647-9342, hyde-social. com. Meet up for poke towers, fancy pub fare and quenchers like the Ube Spice (mezcal, tequila, agave, lime, ube, gochujang flakes, lava salt).
R L D A G V $$
Idido’s Coffee & Social House
1107 S. Walter Reed Drive, 703-253-1576, ididos socialhouse.com. Devotees go for the pastries, sandwiches and Ethiopian coffee. B L V $
Immigrant Food
4245 N. Fairfax Drive, 703-203-0337, immigrant food.com. Global dishes from this “gastroadvocacy” kitchen range from Salvadoran pupusas to Filipino fried chicken. O R L D G V $$
Inca Social
1776 Wilson Blvd., 703-488-7640, incasocial.com. Empanadas, saltados, ceviche, sushi and pisco sours round out the menu at this Peruvian cousin to the original in Dunn Loring. R L D G V $$ Ireland’s Four Courts
2051 Wilson Blvd., 703-525-3600, irelandsfour courts.com. Stop in for a pint and an EPL game over an order of fish and chips. C R L D A $$ Istanbul Grill
4617 Wilson Blvd., 571-970-5828, istanbulgrill virginia.com. Feast on Turkish meze and kebabs at this homey spot in Bluemont. L D V $$
The Italian Store s 3123 Langston Blvd., 703-528-6266; 5837 Washington Blvd., 571-341-1080; italianstore.com. A favorite for pizzas, sandwiches, prepared entrées, espresso and gelato. O L D G V $
Jon’s Joint
250 N. Glebe Road, 202-384-4954. Order halal smashburgers topped with cheese, grilled onions and pickled jalapeños. L D $
Kabob Palace
2315 S. Eads St., 703-486-3535, kabobpalaceusa. com. Open 24 hours, this Crystal City storefront serves grilled halal meats, pillowy naan and savory sides. L D A G V $$
Kaldi’s Social House
3100 10th St. N.; 3639 S. Glebe Road; 571-2131502, kaldissocialhouse.net. The National Landing location serves a full dinner menu in addition to espresso drinks and brunch. Try a burger with red onion jam, Gruyere and rosemary aioli, or a matcha beet salad with pecans. B R L D G V $$
Kanji Izakaya
4301 Fairfax Drive, 703-512-0017, kanjiarlington. com. Dive into teriyaki, ramen, yakitori, hibachi dishes and sushi. L D G $$
Khun Yai Thai
2509 N. Harrison St., 703-536-1643, khunyaithai va.com. The family-owned restaurant serves “homestyle Thai” cuisine. L D G V $$ King of Koshary
5515 Wilson Blvd., 571-317-7925, kingofkoshary. com. Washington Post critic Tim Carman dubbed its menu “Egyptian food fit for royalty.” Order the hearty namesake dish, grilled branzino, beef kofta, roasted chicken or any of the tagines (stews). L D G $$ Kusshi
1201 S. Joyce St., 571-777-1998, kusshisushi. com. Feast your way through shishito peppers, sushi, oysters and mochi. O L D G V $$$
L.A. Bar & Grill
2530 Columbia Pike, 703-685-1560, labargrill.com. Regulars flock to this dive bar on the Pike (L.A. stands for Lower Arlington) for cold brews and pub fare. D A $$
La Coop Coffee
4807 First St. N., 571-257-7972, lacoopcoffee. com. Stop in for single-origin Guatemalan coffee, house-made horchata, breakfast sammies, empanadas and ice cream. B L $
La Côte D’Or Café
6876 Langston Blvd., 703-538-3033, lcd6876.com. This little French bistro serves standards like crepes and steak frites. O R L D G V $$$
Lantern Restaurant and Bar
320 23rd St., S., 571-800-6137, lanternrestaurant andbar.com. Order crispy fish with sweet and sour sauce, orange chicken or beef with broccoli. Consider reserving a private karaoke room. L D G V $$
La Posada
320 23rd St., S., 703-412-9211, @laposada.crystal city. Say “olé” to flautas, poblano beef ribs, shrimp saltado, agua fresca and horchata. C L D V $$
Láylí
3033 Wilson Blvd., 703-512-3094, layligarden.com. Taste the flavors of Lebanon, Turkey and Greece in dishes such as beef tenderloin shawarma and hummus with duck confit. O R L D $$$
Lebanese Taverna
5900 Washington Blvd., 703-241-8681; 1101 S. Joyce St., Pentagon Row, 703-415-8681; lebanese taverna.com. A hometown favorite for shawarma, kebabs, flatbreads and more. O C L D G V $$
The Liberty Tavern
3195 Wilson Blvd., 703-465-9360, thelibertytavern. com. This Clarendon anchor offers a spirited bar and creative cuisine fueled by two wood-burning ovens. O C R L D A G V $$$
Livin’ the Pie Life
2166 N. Glebe Road, 571-431-7727, livinthepielife. com. The wildly popular pie shop and bakery started as an Arlington farmers market stand. B L V $$
Lost Dog Café
5876 Washington Blvd., 703-237-1552; 2920 Columbia Pike, 703-553-7770; lostdogcafe.com.
Known for its pizzas, subs and beer selection, this deli/café supports pet adoption through the Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation. L D G V $$
Lucky Danger
1101 S. Joyce St., Unit B27, luckydanger.co. Chefs Tim Ma and Andrew Chiou put a fresh spin on Chinese American takeout with dishes such as duck fried rice and lo mein. L D V $$
Lyon Hall s
3100 N. Washington Blvd., 703-741-7636, lyonhall arlington.com. The European-style brasserie turns out French, German and Alsatian-inspired plates, from charcuterie and sausages to moules frites.
O C R L D A V $$$
Mae’s Market and Café
1450 S. Eads St., maesmarketandcafe.com. Scratch-made baked goods, salads, gourmet sandwiches, espresso drinks, cheese and wine round out the offerings o B R L D V $$
Maison Cheryl
2900 Wilson Blvd., 703-664-0509, maisoncheryl. com. Seared duck breast, steak frites and madeleines are among the offerings at this French American bistro. R L D V $$$
Maizal Latin Street Food
4238 Wilson Blvd. (Ballston Quarter), 571-3966500, maizalgrill.com. South American street food—arepas, empanadas, churros. L D V $
Makers Union
1450 S. Eads St., 703-419-3504, makersunionpub. com. Pop in for comfort food (mac ’n’ cheese, Nashville hot chicken, steak frites), creative cocktails and live music several nights a week. R L D G V $$
Mala Tang
3434 Washington Blvd., 703-243-2381, mala-tang. com. A fragrant eatery specializing in Sichuan hot pot, dry pot and Chinese street foods.
O L D G V $$
Neutral Ground
Mario’s Pizza House
3322 Wilson Blvd., 703-525-0222, mariospizza housemenu.com. Open into the wee hours, it’s been cooking up subs, wings and pizza since 1957. O C B L D A $
Mason’s Famous Lobster Rolls
4017 Campbell Ave., 571-431-6530, masons lobster.com. Order lobster rolls your way (butter or mayo) at this Shirlington outpost of the Annapolisbased seafood chainlet. L D $$
Maya Bistro
5649 Langston Blvd., 703-533-7800, bistromaya. com. The family-owned restaurant serves Turkish and Mediterranean comfort food. L D V $$
McNamara’s Pub & Restaurant
567 23rd St. S., 703-302-3760, mcnamaraspub. com. Order a Guinness and some corned beef or fish and chips at this friendly watering hole on Crystal City’s restaurant row. O R L D A $$
Meda Coffee & Kitchen
5037 Columbia Pike, 571-312-0599, medacoffee kitchen.com. A casual café serving coffee, baked goods and traditional Ethiopian dishes like kitfo and tibs. C B L D G V $$
Me Jana
2300 Wilson Blvd., 703-465-4440, mejanarestau rant.com. Named for an old Lebanese folk ballad, this Middle Eastern eatery offers prime peoplewatching in Clarendon. O C L D G V $$
Mele Bistro
1723 Wilson Blvd., 703-522-0284, melebistro.com. This farm-to-table Mediterranean restaurant cooks with fresh, organic, free-range, regionally sourced, non-GMO ingredients. O R L D G V $$
Metro 29 Diner
4711 Langston Blvd., 703-528-2464, metro29. com. Classic diner fare includes triple-decker sand-
wiches, mile-high desserts, burgers, roasted chicken and breakfast. C B R L D V $
Mexicali Blues
2933 Wilson Blvd., 703-812-9352, mexicali-blues. com. This colorful landmark dishes out Salvadoran and Mexican chow. O C R L D G V $$
Mister Days Sports Rock Café
1101 N. Highland St., 703-986-3335, misterdays usa.com. The beloved Clarendon sports bar has been resurrected with plenty of happy hour deals and bar munchies for game-watching. R D A $
Moby Dick House of Kabob 3000 Washington Blvd., 703-465-1600; 4037 Campbell Ave., 571-257-8214; mobyskabob.com. Satisfy that hankering for Persian skewers and flavorful sides. L D $$
Mpanadas
2602 Columbia Pike, 571-312-0182, mpanadas usa.com. Try barbecue pork and cheeseburger empanadas, birthday cake paletas and java chip macaroons. B L D $
Mussel Bar & Grille
800 N. Glebe Road, 703-841-2337, musselbar. com. Chef Robert Wiedmaier’s menu centers on mussels, frites, wood-fired pizza and more than 100 Belgian and craft beers. O L D $$
Nam-Viet
1127 N. Hudson St., 703-522-7110, namvietva.com. The venerable restaurant in what was once Arlington’s “Little Saigon” neighborhood specializes in flavors of Vietnam’s Can Tho region. O L D V $$
Nighthawk Pizza
1201 S. Joyce St., nighthawkpizza.com. Visit this Westpost brewpub and sports bar for personal pizzas (both thick and thin crust), beer and smashburgers. L D V $$
NiHao 1550 Crystal Drive, 703-512-4109, nihaoarlington. com. Sichuan small plates by chef Peter Chang include walnut shrimp, spicy dry-fried eggplant, and pork ribs with fries. Enjoy cocktails made with baijiu, a Chinese liquor, or tea-infused whiskey. O L D G V $$
Noonchi
1201 S. Joyce St., 571-451-7030, @noonchipocha. Visit Scott Chung’s Korean street food and soju bar for bulgogi, kimchi fried rice and kimbap. L D G $
Northside Social Coffee & Wine s 3211 Wilson Blvd., 703-465-0145, northsidesocial va.com. Tucked inside a red house on the edge of Clarendon, the two-story coffee and wine bar with a big patio is always busy...which tells you something. O B L D V $$
Oasis: The Listening Bar
2940 Clarendon Blvd., 703-512-3068, oasisthe listeningbar.com. From the owners of Sisters Thai, a sushi, cocktail and vinyl record bar with a surfer vibe. L D $$
Ocean Shack
2163 N. Glebe Road, 703-488-7161, oceanshack arlington.com. Dig into a seafood boil, a fried oyster basket or an order of fish tacos and pretend you’re at the beach. R L D A $$
Oh K-Dog
4238 Wilson Blvd. (Ballston Quarter), 703-5673376, ohkdog.com. Try a fried Korean rice dog with add-ins like sweet potato, cheddar or squid ink. L D $
Old Dominion Pizza Co.
4514 Langston Blvd., 703-718-6372, olddominion pizza.com. Order thin crust or “grandma style” pies named after local high school mascots. L D G $
■ places to eat
Open Road
1201 Wilson Blvd., 703-248-0760, openroadgrill. com. A solid pick for burgers and beers or a proper entrée and a craft cocktail. O L D $$
Origin Coffee Lab & Kitchen
1101 S. Joyce St., 703-567-7295, origincoffeeco. com. The industrial-chic coffee shop roasts its own beans and serves all-day breakfast, bar munchies and dinner plates. O B R L D V $$ O’Sullivan’s Irish Pub
3207 Washington Blvd., 703-812-0939, osullivans irishpub.com. You’ll find owner and County Kerry native Karen O’Sullivan behind the bar, pouring pints and cracking jokes. L D A $$ Our Mom Eugenia
4044 Campbell Ave., 571-970-0468, ourmom eugenia.com. This family-owned spot is beloved for its real-deal Greek fare, from saganaki to souvlaki. O L D $$
Padaek
2931 S. Glebe Road, 703-888-2890, padaekdc. com. Chef Seng Luangrath’s kitchen in Arlington Ridge turns out Lao, Thai and Burmese fare—satay, curries and noodle dishes. O L D G V $$ Palette 22
4053 Campbell Ave., 703-746-9007, palette22.com. The Shirlington gallery-café specializes in international small plates and is a hoppin’ brunch spot. O R L D V $$
Peking Pavilion
2912 N. Sycamore St., 703-237-6868, peking pavilionva.com. This family-owned restaurant serves standbys such as moo shu pork and beef with broccoli. L D $$
Peruvian Brothers
1450 S. Eads St., 703-625-6473, peruvianbroth ers.com. Dig into chicharron sandwiches, saltados, empanadas, rotisserie chicken and power bowls. L D V $
Peter Chang Arlington
2503-E N. Harrison St., 703-538-6688, peterchang arlington.com. The former Chinese Embassy chef brings his fiery and flavorful Sichuan cooking to the Lee Harrison Shopping Center. C L D $$ Pho 75 s
1721 Wilson Blvd., 703-525-7355, pho75.res taurantwebexpert.com. The piping-hot Vietnamese soup at this local institution is all about fresh ingredients. O L D V $
Pho & Banh Mi Eatery Café 3000 Washington Blvd., 703-489-8212, eatery cafeva.com. Fill up on banh mi (with tofu, grilled chicken or pork), steaming bowls of pho and poke bowls. L D G V $ PhoWheels
1731 Crystal Drive, phowheelsdc.com. The popular food truck serving Vietnamese pho and banh mi now has a kiosk at Water Park. O L D G $ Pie-tanza
2503-B N. Harrison St., 703-237-0200, pie-tanza. com. Enjoy pizza (including gluten-free options), calzones, lasagna, subs and salads. C L D G V $$ Pines of Florence
2109 N. Pollard St., 703-566-0456, pinesofflor encearlingtonva.com. The classics include linguine with pesto, veal parm and chicken cacciatore, plus housemade pizza and subs. L D V $$
Pirouette Café & Wine Shop s 4000 Fairfax Drive, pirouette.cafe. Pair your favorite vino with cheese, whole roasted fish, a pork cutlet and other enticing plates at this cafe and wine shop. L D G V $$
Poppyseed Rye
818 N. Quincy St., poppyseedrye.com. Pick up sandwiches, biscuits, salads, flower bouquets and gift items (beer and wine, too). O r L D G V $
Pupatella s 5104 Wilson Blvd.; 1621 S. Walter Reed Drive, 571-312-7230, pupatella.com. Enzo and Anastasiya Algarme’s authentic Neapolitan pies are considered among D.C.’s best. O L D V $$
Quarterdeck
1200 Fort Myer Drive, 703-528-2722, quarterdeck arlington.com. This beloved shack has served up steamed crabs for 40 years. O C L D V $$
Queen Mother’s Kitchen 1601 Crystal Drive, 703-997-8474, queenmother cooks.com. Grab a fried chicken sandwich and a side of duck fat fries. O L D $
Quincy Hall
4001 Fairfax Drive, 703-567-4098, quincyhallbar. com. Go for pints, meatballs and New York-style pizza at this spacious beer hall in Ballston. L D $ Quinn’s on the Corner
1776 Wilson Blvd., 703-640-3566, quinnsonthe corner.com. Irish and Belgian favorites such as mussels, steak frites, and bangers and mash, plus draft beers and a big whiskey selection. B R L D A $$
Ragtime
1345 N. Courthouse Road, 703-243-4003, ragtime restaurant.com. Savor a taste of the Big Easy in offerings such as jambalaya, catfish, spiced shrimp and oysters. There’s a waffle and omelet bar every Sunday. O R L D A V $$
Rasa
2200 Crystal Drive, 703-888-0925, rasagrill.com. Build a bowl with options like basmati rice, chicken tikka, lamb, pickled vegetables, lentils, chutneys and yogurt sauces. O L D G V $
Ravenna Pizza
1500 Wilson Blvd., 571-520-2086, ravennapizza. com. Pop in for Roman-style pizzas, focaccia sandwiches and gelato. L D V $
Ravi Kabob House
350 N. Glebe Road, 703-522-6666; 250 N. Glebe Road, 703-816-0222. Curries, kebabs and delectably spiced veggies keep this strip-mall café plenty busy. C L D V $$
The Renegade 3100 Clarendon Blvd., 703-468-4652, renegadeva. com. Is it a coffee shop, restaurant, bar or live music venue? All of the above—with snacks ranging from lambchop lollipops to lo mein. B L D A $$ Rhodeside Grill
1836 Wilson Blvd., 703-243-0145, rhodeside grill.com. Find chops, meatloaf, burgers and po’boys accompanied by every kind of hot sauce imaginable. O C R L D A V $$
Rien Tong Asian Bistro
3131 Wilson Blvd., 703-243-8388, rientong.com. The large menu includes Thai and Chinese standards, plus sushi. L D V $$
Rocklands Barbeque and Grilling Co. 3471 Washington Blvd., 703-528-9663, rocklands. com. Owner John Snedden has been slow-cooking
barbecue at this Arlington favorite since 1990. O C L D G V $
Roggenart Bakery, Bistro & Café
4401 Wilson Blvd., 703-721-3182, roggenart.com. Stop in for breakfast, coffee, pastries and sandwiches on house-baked bread. B R L D V $$
Rooftop Recess
2424 Wilson Blvd., 757-807-2233, rooftoprecess. com. Grab a seat on the roof deck to enjoy seasonal fare and refreshing cocktails O C R L D V $$
Ruffino’s Spaghetti House
4763 Langston Blvd., 703-528-2242, ruffino spaghetti.com. Fill up on classics such as veal Parmigiana and chicken piccata. C L D V $$ RusUz
1000 N. Randolph St., 571-312-4086, rusuz.com. The family-run bistro serves hearty Russian and Uzbek dishes such as borscht, beef stroganoff and plov—a rice pilaf with lamb. L D $$
Ruthie’s All-Day s
3411 Fifth St. S., 703-888-2841, ruthiesallday. com. Chef Matt Hill’s acclaimed “meat and three” serves up wood-smoked proteins with creative sides. Breakfast (with house-made biscuits) offered daily. O B R L D G V $$
Ryu Izakaya
3030 Columbia Pike, 703-399-9052. A spot on the Pike for sushi, sake and yakitori. L D G $$ Sabores Tapas Bar
2401 Columbia Pike, 571-970-1253, saboresva. com. Dine on ceviche, lomo saltado and classic gambas al ajillo at this tapas bar on the Pike. R L D G V $$
Saigon Noodles & Grill
1800 Wilson Blvd., 703-566-5940, saigonnoodles grill.com. Traditional Vietnamese pho, banh mi and noodle dishes round out the offerings at this restaurant and takeout. L D $$
Sakaki Izakaya
3227 Washington Blvd., 703-718-4931, sakakiizakaya.com. Try mini “sushi burgers,” Wagyu fried rice and the dazzling Egg on Egg dish (king salmon, quail egg, ikura and wasabi soy in a smoking bowl). Closed Tuesdays. L D A G $$
Salt s
1201 Wilson Blvd., 703-875-0491, saltrosslyn.com. The speakeasy-style cocktail bar serves cheese plates and carpaccio alongside sazeracs, old-fashioneds and nouveau craft cocktails. D $$
The Salt Line
4040 Wilson Blvd., 703-566-2075, thesaltline. com. Hit this seafood-centric oyster bar for clam chowder, lobster rolls, stuffies, smashburgers and fun cocktails. c O R D $$$
Westville
Samuel Beckett’s Irish Gastro Pub
2800 S. Randolph St., 703-379-0122, samuel becketts.com. A modern Irish pub serving Emerald Isle recipes. O C R L D A G V $$
Santé
1250 S. Hayes St. (inside the Ritz-Carlton), 703412-2762, meetatsante.com. Mediterranean fare includes shrimp saganaki, whole roasted branzino and lamb “osso bucco.” B R L D G V $$$
Sawatdee Thai Restaurant
2250 Clarendon Blvd., 703-243-8181, sawatdeeva. com. The friendly eatery (its name means “hello”) is frequented by folks craving pad thai or pad prik king. L D V $$
Screwtop Wine Bar and Cheese Shop
1025 N. Fillmore St., 703-888-0845, screwtop winebar.com. The congenial wine bar and bottle shop offers tastings, wine classes, and small plates for sharing and pairing. O C R L D G V $$
Seamore’s
2815 Clarendon Blvd., 703-721-3384, seamores. com. Dine on sustainably sourced seafood, from clams and mussels to arctic char and yellowfin tuna. Brunch on weekends. O R L D G V $$$
Seoulspice
1735 N. Lynn St., 703-419-5868, seoulspice.com. Korean fast-casual comfort food, anyone? L D G V $
SER
1110 N. Glebe Road, 703-746-9822, serrestau rant.com. Traditional Spanish and Basque dishes in a colorful, friendly space with outstanding service. O R L D V $$$
Sfoglina Pasta House
1100 Wilson Blvd., sfoglinapasta.com/rosslyn. Fabio Trabocchi’s urbane trattoria serves housemade pasta (you can watch it being made), a “mozzarella bar” and Italian cocktails. Closed Sundays. O L D V $$$
Silver Diner
4400 Wilson Blvd., 703-812-8600, silverdiner. com. The kitchen cooks with organic ingredients, many of which are sourced from local suppliers. Low-calorie and gluten-free menu choices are available. O C B R L D A G V $$
The Simple Greek
1731 Wilson Blvd., 703-875-1800, thesimplegreek. com. Find gyros, spanakopita, dolmades and other Greek favorites at this café and catering operation in Colonial Village. O C B L D V $
Simply Banh Mi
801 N. Quincy St., simplybahnmi.com. In addition to its namesake sandwich, the cult-status takeout that originated in Georgetown serves pho and build-yourown rice and vermicelli noodle bowls. L D $
Skydome
300 Army Navy Drive, 703-416-3862. Savor craft cocktails, Mediterranean dishes and views of the D.C. skyline in this revolving hotel restaurant. Closed Sunday and Monday. D G V $$$
Sloppy Mama’s Barbeque
5731 Langston Blvd., 703-269-2718, sloppyma mas.com. Joe and Mandy Neuman’s barbecue joint offers wood-smoked meats galore, plus pimento cheese, hearty sides and banana pudding for dessert. O B R L D V $$
Smokecraft Modern Barbecue
1051 N. Highland St., 571-312-8791, smokecraft bbq.com. Every menu item here is kissed by smoke, from ribs, crabcakes and spaghetti squash to the chocolate cherry bread pudding on the dessert list. O L D G V $$
Snouts & Stouts
2709 S. Oakland St., 571-317-2239, snouts nstouts.com. Grab a beer and some pulled-pork pretzel bites with beer cheese while your pup runs around this indoor dog park and bar. L D $
Soul Thai Kitchen & Bar
6035 Wilson Blvd., 703-300-9655, soulthaikitchen andbar.com. Find curries, noodle dishes and other Thai classics. L D G V $
Spice Kraft Indian Bistro
1135 N. Highland St., 703-527-5666, spicekraft
va.com. This contemporary concept by restaurateurs Anthony Sankar and Premnath Durairaj gives Indian classics a modern spin. O L D $$
Spider Kelly’s
3181 Wilson Blvd., 703-312-8888, spiderkellys.com. The “come as you are” bar offers a sizable beer list, creative cocktails, salads, burgers, snacks and breakfast at all hours. C D A G V $$
Stellina Pizzeria
2800 S. Randolph St., 703-962-7884, stellina pizzeria.com. Pay a visit for Neapolitan pies, fried artichokes and a deli counter with house-made pastas, sauces and dolci to take home. O R L D $$
Supreme Hot Pot
2301 Columbia Pike, 571-666-1801, supremehot potva.com. This Pike eatery specializes in Szechuan hot pot, skewered meats and a few Cajun seafood dishes. D G $$
Surreal
2117 Crystal Drive, surrealpark.com. Find playful dishes like a foot-long Boomdog, “swirl” pancakes and old-fashioneds made with cornflake-infused whiskey at chef Enrique Limardo’s all-day diner in National Landing. O B L D $$
SushiJip
3000 Washington Blvd., 703-243-7799, sushijip. com. Occupying the former Endo Sushi space, it’s still a neighborhood spot for sushi, plus poke bowls, hibachi and ramen. Closed Mondays. L D G V $$
Sushi Rock
1900 Clarendon Blvd., 571-312-8027, sushirockva. com. Play a little air guitar while sampling sushi rolls and beverages named after your favorite bands, from Zeppelin to Ozzy to Oasis. D A G V $$
Sushi-Zen Japanese Restaurant s
2457 N. Harrison St., 703-534-6000, sushizen. com. An amicable, light-filled neighborhood stop for sushi, donburi, tempura and udon. C L D V $$
Sweetgreen
4075 Wilson Blvd., 703-522-2016; 3100 Clarendon Blvd., 571-290-3956; 575 12th Road S., 703-8881025; 2200 Crystal Drive, 703-685-9089; sweet green.com. Locally grown ingredients and compostable cutlery make this salad and yogurt chain a hub for the green-minded. O C L D G V $
Sweet Leaf
2200 Wilson Blvd., 703-525-5100; 800 N. Glebe Road, 703-522-5000; 650 N. Quincy St., 703527-0807; sweetleafcafe.com. Build your own sandwiches and salads. O C B L D $$
Taco Bamba s
4000 Wilson Blvd., 571-777-1477; 4041 Campbell Ave., 571-257-3030; tacobamba.com. Taco options range from classic carnitas to cheffy creations like the El Rico Pollo, stuffed with chicken, green chili, aji Amarillo aioli and crispy potato. B L D V $
Taco Rock
1501 Wilson Blvd., 571-775-1800, thetacorock. com. This rock-themed watering hole keeps the Micheladas flowing alongside tacos on housemade blue-corn tortillas. B L D V $$
Taqueria el Poblano
2503-A N. Harrison St., 703-237-8250, taqueria poblano.com. Fresh guacamole, fish tacos, margaritas and mole verde transport patrons to the Yucatan. C L D G V $$
Taqueria Xochi
1450 S. Eads St., 571-444-6722, taqueriaxochi. com. Beef birria tacos, crispy stuff mulitas and other Mexican street foods. D A V $$
Tatte Bakery and Café
2805 Clarendon Blvd., 571-312-8691; 269 19th Court S., 571-357-1470; tattebakery.com. Breakfast sandwiches, tartines, panini, grain bowls, coffee and pastries. O B R L D G V $
Ted’s Bulletin & Sidekick Bakery
4238 Wilson Blvd. #1130 (Ballston Quarter), 703848-7580, tedsbulletin.com. Retro comfort food and all-day breakfast with a tantalizing bakery next door. C B R L D G V $$
Tastings
Wine Club Wine Pickup Parties Weekend Brunch
Full Menu for Sharing & Pairing
Dog Friendly Patio and
■ places to eat
Texas Jack’s Barbecue
2761 Washington Blvd., 703-875-0477, txjacks.com. Brisket, ribs and pulled pork, plus sides like raw carrot salad and smashed cucumbers. O L D A $$
T.H.A.I. in Shirlington
4209 Campbell Ave., 703-931-3203, thaiinshirling ton.com. Pretty dishes include lemongrass salmon with black sticky rice. O L D G V $$$
Thai Noy
5880 Washington Blvd., 703-534-7474, thainoy.com. Shimmering tapestries and golden Buddhas are the backdrop in this destination for Thai noodles, curries and rice dishes. L D $$
Thai Square
3217 Columbia Pike, 703-685-7040, thaisquarerestaurant.com. Enjoy options ranging from crispy squid with basil and roasted duck curry to pig knuckle stew. O L D G V $$
Tiger Dumplings
3225 Washington Blvd., 571-970-4512, tiger dumplings.com. There are dumplings, of course, plus five-spice beef, roast duck and vegan options like tofu skin with peanuts. L D G V $$
Timber Pizza
4238 Wilson Blvd. (Ballston Quarter), 703-5676463, timberpizza.com. Popular pies include the Green Monster (pesto, feta, zucchini, kale) and the Worthy (chicken, barbecue sauce, red onions, apples and cilantro). L D V $$
TNR Cafe
2049 Wilson Blvd., 571-217-0766, tnrcafe.com. When you have a hankering for Peking duck, moo shu chicken, Szechuan beef or bubble tea. L D G V $$
Toby’s Homemade Ice Cream
5849-A Washington Blvd., 703-536-7000; 510 14th St. S.; tobysicecream.com. Stop in for cups, cones, floats and sundaes. Coffee, pastries and bagels available in the morning. B L D V $
Tortas Y Tacos La Chiquita
2911 Columbia Pike, 571-970-2824; 3811 Fairfax Drive, 703-512-4137; tortasytacoslachiquital.com. The beloved eatery that started as a food truck does tacos, alambres, huarache platters, flautas and more. B L D A $
Trade Roots
5852 Washington Blvd., 571-335-4274, fairtrade roots.com. The Westover gift shop and cafe serves fair-trade coffee, tea, pastries, salads, organic wine and snackable small plates. O B L $
Troy’s Italian Kitchen
2710 Washington Blvd., 703-528-2828, troysitalian kitchen.com. Palak and Neel Vaidya’s mom-andpop serves pizza, pasta and calzones, including a lengthy vegan menu with options like “chicken” tikka masala pizza. L D G V $
True Food Kitchen s 4238 Wilson Blvd. (Ballston Quarter), 703-5270930, truefoodkitchen.com. Emphasizing “anti-inflammatory” fare, the menu will convince you that healthy tastes good. O L D G V $$ Tupelo Honey Café 1616 N. Troy St., 703-253-8140, tupelohoneycafe. com. The Southern fusion menu includes dishes like roasted snapper with sweet potato and farro. C R L D $$
Upside on Moore
1700 N. Moore St., upsideonmoore.com. This food hall above the Rosslyn metro includes DMV concepts Ghostburger, Stellina Pizzeria, Lucky Danger, Little Tiger Dumplings and a rotating roster of pop-ups. L D G V $$
Urban Tandoor
801 N. Quincy St., 703-567-1432, utandoorva.com. Sate your appetite with Indian and Nepalese fare, from tandoori lamb to Himalayan momos (dumplings). Lunch buffet daily. L D V $$ Variedades Catrachas Restaurant 3709 Columbia Pike, 703-888-0906, variedades catrachas.com. This homey Honduran eatery is open almost round the clock. B L D A G V $ Wagamama
2950 Clarendon Blvd., 571-901-9242, waga
mama.us. Feast on ramen, teppanyaki, rice bowls, bao buns, boba tea and sake cocktails.
O L D G V $$
Water Bar
1601 Crystal Drive, nlwaterbar.com. The succinct menu at this sleek oyster and cocktail bar overlooking National Landing’s Water Park includes salads, sandwiches and sharable seafood dishes.
O L D G V $$
Weenie Beenie
2680 Shirlington Road, 703-671-6661, weenie beenie.net. The hot dog stand founded in 1954 is still serving half smokes, bologna-and-egg sandwiches and pancakes. B L D $
Westover Market & Beer Garden
5863 N. Washington Blvd., 703-536-5040, westo vermarketbeergarden.com. It’s a hive for burgers, draft microbrews and live music. O C L D A $$
Westover Taco
5849 Washington Blvd., 703-297-3030, westover taco.com. Tacos, guac, margs and beer keep things casual at this neighborhood hangout. L D V A $
Westville
2800 Clarendon Blvd., 703-646-7226, westvillenyc. com. The veg-forward concept out of New York City emphasizes locally sourced ingredients and buildyour-own dishes, plus cocktails. O B L D G V $$
Whino
4238 Wilson Blvd., 571-290-3958, whinova.com. Part restaurant/bar and part art gallery, this vibey spot features cocktails, shareable plates, brunch, and “low brow” art exhibits. R L D A $$
William Jeffrey’s Tavern
2301 Columbia Pike, 703-746-6333, william jeffreystavern.com. The pub on the Pike features Prohibition-era wall murals and mixes a mean martini. O C R L D A G V $$
Wilson Hardware
2915 Wilson Blvd., 703-527-4200, wilson hardwareva.com. Hit the pretty patio or roof deck for boozy slushies and small plates.
O R L D A G V $$$
Wiseguy Pizza
1735 N. Lynn St., 703-358-8880; 710 12th St. S., 703-334-9885, wiseguypizza.com. Grab Sicilian and New York-style pies ranging from classic pepperoni to Korean chicken with cabbage. L D G V $ Wonder
1771 N. Pierce St.,wonder.com. Rosslyn’s newest food hall brings fast-casual menus by star chefs ranging from Bobby Flay to Marcus Samuelsson. L D G V $$
Yayla Bistro
2201 N. Westmoreland St., 703-533-5600, yayla bistro.com. A cozy little spot for Turkish small plates, flatbreads and seafood. Pita wraps available for lunch only. O C L D $$
Yume Sushi
2121 N. Westmoreland St., 703-269-5064, yume sushiva.com. East Falls Church has a destination for sushi, omakase and a sake bar with craft cocktails. L D V G $$$
Yunnan by Potomac
721 15th St., S., 571-699-3935, yunnanby potomac.com. Try mixian rice noodles in chicken bone broth, xiaochi (small plates) and multiple kinds of bao buns. O R L D $$
Yu Noodles
1515 Wilson Blvd., 703-718-4928, yunoodles arlington.com. Noodles, dumplings, rice dishes and dim sum round out the offerings at this Rosslyn takeout. L D $
FALLS CHURCH
2941 Restaurant
2941 Fairview Park Drive, 703-270-1500, 2941. com. French chef Bertrand Chemel’s sanctuary-like spot offers beautifully composed seasonal dishes and expert wine pairings. C L D V $$$$
Al Jazeera
3813-D S. George Mason Drive, 703-379-2733. The top seller at this Yemeni cafe is oven-roasted lamb with yellow rice. L D $$
Alta Strada
2911 District Ave. (Mosaic District), 703-2800000, altastrada.com. Chef Michael Schlow’s menu includes house-made pastas, pizza and modern Italian small plates. R L D $$$
Anthony’s Restaurant
3000 Annandale Road, 703-532-0100, anthonys restaurantva.com. The family-owned diner serves standbys like spaghetti, pizza, gyros and subs, plus breakfast on weekends. R L D V $$
B Side
8298 Glass Alley (Mosaic District), 703-676-3550, bsidecuts.com. Nathan Anda’s charcuterie, smashburgers and beef-fat fries steal the show at this cozy bar. L D $$
Badd Pizza
346 W. Broad St., 703-237-2233, baddpizza.com. Order a Buffalo-style “cup-and-char” pepperoni pie and a “baddbeer” IPA, locally brewed by Lost Rhino Brewing Co. L D $$
Bakeshop
100 E. Fairfax St., 703-533-0002, bakeshopva.com. See Arlington listing. B V $
Balqees Restaurant
5820 Seminary Road, 703-379-0188, balqeesres taurant.com. Lebanese and Yemeni specialties include lamb in saffron rice, saltah (a vegetarian stew) and saffron cake with crème anglaise. O L D V $$
Bamian
5634 Leesburg Pike, 703-820-7880, bamianres taurant.com. Try Afghan standards like palau (seasoned lamb with saffron rice) and aushak (scallion dumpling topped with yogurt, meat sauce and mint). C L D V $$
Bartaco
2920 District Ave. (Mosaic District), 571-549-8226, bartaco.com. A lively spot for tacos (13 kinds) and tequila. Feels like vacation. L D V A $$
Caboose Commons
2918 Eskridge Road (Mosaic District), 703-6638833, caboosebrewing.com. The microbrewery has a hopping patio, house brews and creative eats, from fried pickles to plant-based buddha bowls. O L D V A $$
Café Kindred
450 N. Washington St., 571-327-2215, cafe kindred.com. Pop in for a yogurt parfait, avocado toast, grilled eggplant sandwich, or an espresso fizz. B R L V $$
Cafe Zevian
700 W. Broad St.,703-712-7012, cafezevian.com. Savor Turkish, Greek and Lebanese influences in hot and cold mezze, grilled seafood, veal and lamb doner kebab and baklava. O B R L D G V $$
Casa Mariachi
133 E. Annandale Road, casamariachirestaurante. com. All the Tex-Mex favorites—tacos, burritos, fajitas, saltado, guac and margs. B L D $$
Celebrity Delly s
7263-A Arlington Blvd., 703-573-9002, celebrity deliva.com. Matzo-ball soup, massive corned beef sandwiches and tuna melts satisfy at this New York-style deli founded in 1975. Brunch served all day Saturday and Sunday. C B L D G V $
Chasin’ Tails
944 W. Broad St., 571-777-9596, chasintailsss. com. The Viet-Cajun menu includes crawfish boils, char-broiled kimchi oysters and scallop crudo with citrus vinaigrette. L D $$
Chay Restaurant
6531 Columbia Pike, 571-378-1771, chayrestau rant.com. A destination for vegetarian hot pot, spring rolls, noodles and other plant-based Vietnamese specialties. L D G V $
Clare & Don’s Beach Shack
130 N. Washington St., 703-532-9283, clareand dons.com. Go coastal with fish tacos, margs and live outdoor music. O C L D A G V $$
Colada Shop
2920 District Ave., 703-962-3002, coladashop. com. See Arlington listing. O B R L D V $$
District Dumplings
2985 District Ave. (Mosaic District), 703-884-7080, districtdumplings.com. See Arlington listing. L D $$
District Taco 5275-C Leesburg Pike, 571-699-0660, district taco.com. See Arlington listing. C B L D G V $
Dogwood Tavern
132 W. Broad St., 703-237-8333, dogwoodtav ern.com. The menu has something for everyone, from jambalaya and burgers to coconut-curry salmon. O C R L D A V $$ Dolan Uyghur
400 S. Maple Ave., 833-693-6526, dolanuyghur. com. Order noodles, kebabs and Uyghur and Dolan specialties such as steamed dumplings stuffed with pumpkin and peppers. O B R L D G V $$ Dominion Wine & Beer
107 Rowell Court, 703-533-3030, dominionwine andbeer.com. Pairings come easy when a café shares its space with a wine and beer shop. Order up a plate of sliders, a cheese board or some Dragon shrimp to snack on while you imbibe. O R L D V $$
Duangrat’s
5878 Leesburg Pike, 703-820-5775, duangrats. com. Servers in traditional silk dresses glide through the dining room bearing fragrant curries and grilled meats at this revered destination for Thai cuisine. O R L D V $$
El Tio Tex-Mex Grill
7630 Lee Highway, 703-204-0233, eltiogrill.com. A family-friendly spot for fajitas, enchiladas, lomo saltado, combo plates and margaritas. O L D $$
Elephant Jumps Thai Restaurant
8110-A Arlington Blvd., 703-942-6600, elephant jumps.com. Creative and comforting Thai food in an intimate strip-mall storefront. L D G V $$
Elevation Burger
442 S. Washington St., 703-237-4343, elevation burger.com. See Arlington listing. O L D V $
Ellie Bird s
125 Founders Ave., 703-454-8894, elliebirdva. com. Discover the wonders of chef Yuan Tang’s seasonal, globally-inspired cooking at this awardwinning Little City gem. c o R D G V $$$
The Falls Restaurant & Bar
370 W. Broad St., 703-237-8227, thefallsva.com. Dig into crabcakes, brisket and fish stew, or build your own “blue plate” of creatively delicious sides. O R L D G V $$$
Fava Pot
7393 Lee Highway, 703-204-0609, favapot.com. The Egyptian eats include stewed fava beans with yogurt and lamb shanks with okra. And oh the bread! B L D G V $$
First Watch
5880 Leesburg Pike, 571-977-1096, firstwatch. com. A breakfast and lunch destination for eggs Benedict, lemon-ricotta pancakes, power bowls and avocado toast. O C B R L V $$
Flame Japanese Hibachi
6379 Seven Corners Center, 571-480-5161, flamejapanesehibachi.com. Get fired up for grilled beef, chicken, salmon and tofu, plus sushi, bubble tea and cheesecake smoothies. L D $$
Godfrey’s Bakery & Café
421 W. Broad St., 571-378-1144, godfreysbakery cafe.com. Pop in for pastries, grazing boards, Roman-style pizza and coffee drinks. B R L D V $$
Haandi Indian Cuisine
1222 W. Broad St., 703-533-3501, haandi.com. The perfumed kebabs, curries and biryani incorporate northern and southern Indian flavors. L D V G $$
Harvey’s
513 W. Broad St., 540-268-6100, harveysva.com.
Chef Thomas Harvey’s casual café does roasted chicken, cheesesteaks, banana splits and other comfort fare with flair. O C B R L D V $$
Hi/Fi Tex-Mex BBQ
8298 Glass Alley, 703-676-3550, hifitexmexbbq. com. Smoked meats, tacos, wings and tequila drinks shine at this spin-off of the original in Del Ray. R D $$
Hong Kong Palace
6387 Seven Corners Center, 703-532-0940, hong kongpalacedelivery.com. This kitchen caters to both ex-pat and American tastes with an enormous menu of options. C L D $$
Hong Kong Pearl Seafood Restaurant 6286 Arlington Blvd., 703-237-1388. Two words: dim sum. L D A V $$
Honoo Ramen Bar
165 W. Falls Station Blvd., 571-866-6540, honoo ramenbar.com. Ramen, skewers, sushi and small plates round out the menu. O L D G $$
Huong Viet
6785 Wilson Blvd., 703-538-7110. Spring rolls, roasted quail and shaky beef are faves at this cash-only Eden Center eatery. C L D G V $$
Ireland’s Four Provinces
105 W. Broad St., 703-534-8999, 4psva.com. The family-friendly tavern in the heart of Falls Church City serves pub food and Irish specialties, and hosts occasional Irish music sessions.
O C B R L D $$
Jinya Ramen Bar
2911 District Ave. (Mosaic District), 571-3272256, jinyaramenbar.com. Embellish your tonkotsu or umami-miso broth with more than a dozen toppings and add-ins. O L D A g V $$
JV’s Restaurant
6666 Arlington Blvd., 703-241-9504, jvsrestaurant. com. A dive bar (the best kind) known for its live music, cold beer and home-cooked meatloaf, lasagna and chili. L D A V $$
Kirby Club
2911 District Ave., 571-430-3650, kirbyclub.com. From the owners of D.C.’s Mayd¯an, a kebab concept (with a great bar) that allows diners to mixand-match proteins, dips and sauces. R D V $$
Koi Koi Sushi & Roll
450 W. Broad St., 703-237-0101, koikoisushi. com. The sushi is fresh and the vibe is fun. Teriyaki, tempura and bento boxes round out the menu. O L D $$
Lantern House Viet Bistro
1067 West Broad St., 703-268-2878, lantern houseva.com. Head out for pho, noodles and banh mi at this family-owned Vietnamese eatery. L D G V $$
Lazy Mike’s Delicatessen
7049 Leesburg Pike, 703-532-5299, lazymikes deli.com. A Falls Church institution churning out homemade ice cream, packed deli sandwiches and breakfast faves. O C B R L D G V $ La Tingeria
626 S. Washington St., 571-316-6715. A popular food truck in Arlington since 2012, David Peña’s concept also has a brick-and-mortar location in Falls Church. The queso birria tacos are a must. Open Wednesday-Sunday. L D $
Little Falls Cafe
106 Little Falls St., @littlefallscafe. From the founders of Pupatella pizzeria, a charming creperie serving both sweet and savory renditions of the beloved French pancakes. O B R L V $$
Little Saigon Restaurant
6218-B Wilson Blvd., 703-536-2633, littlesaigon restaurant.us. Authentic Vietnamese in comfortable setting with captivating retro photo collages on the walls. O L D $$
Loving Hut
2842 Rogers Drive, 703-942-5622; lovinghut fallschurch.com. The Vietnamese-inspired vegan eatery offers dishes like rice vermicelli with barbecued soy protein and clay pot rice with vegan “ham.” L D G V $$
MacMillan Whisky Room
2920 District Ave. (Mosaic District), 240-9943905, themacmillan.com. Contemplate more than
■ places to eat
200 kinds of spirits lining the bar and a menu of U.K. and American pub standards. O R L D $$
Mark’s Duck House
6184-A Arlington Blvd., 703-532-2125. Though named for its specialty—Peking duck—it also offers plenty of other tantalizing options, such as short ribs, roasted pork and dim sum.
R L D A V $$
Meaza Restaurant
5700 Columbia Pike, 703-820-2870, meazares taurant.com. Well-seasoned legumes and marinated beef served with spongy injera bread are signatures in this vivid Ethiopian banquet hall. O C L D G V $$
Met Khao
6395 Seven Corners Center, 703-533-9480, padaekdc.com. Chef Seng Luangrath has transformed the former Padaek space into a fast-casual eatery serving Thai and Laotian fare. L D G V $
Miu Kee
6653 Arlington Blvd., 703-237-8884. Open late, this strip-mall hideaway offers Cantonese, Sichuan and Hunan dishes. L D A $$
Moby Dick House of Kabob
444 W. Broad St., 703-992-7500, mobyskabob.com. See Arlington listing. L D $$
Mom & Pop
2909 District Ave. (Mosaic District), 703-9920050, dolcezzagelato.com. The little glass cafe serves light fare, snacks, gelato, coffee, beer and wine. O B R L D A $$
MQR Cafe
6343 Columbia Pike, 571-378-1012, mqrcafe. com. Find cardamom lattes, kunafa French toast, harissa burgers and chicken shawarma sandwiches at this halal café and coffee shop.
B R L D G V $
Nhu Lan Sandwich
6763 Wilson Blvd., 703-532-9009, nhulancafe. com. This tiny Vietnamese deli at Eden Center is a favorite for banh mi sandwiches. L D V $
Northside Social Falls Church s 205 Park Ave., 703-992-8650, northsidesocial va.com. Come by in the morning for breakfast and a latte. Return in the evening for wine and a plate of charcuterie, or a full dinner. O B L D V $$
Nue
944 W. Broad St., 571-777-9599, nuevietnamese. com. The Viet-modern menu (think coconut-curry risotto, crispy whole fish and dazzling cocktails) has a stunning space to match. R L D G v $$$ Open Road
8100 Lee Highway, 571-395-4400, openroadmerri field.com. See Arlington listing. O C R L D $$ The Original Pancake House 7395-M Lee Highway, 703-698-6292, ophrestau rants.com. Answer those breakfast cravings with pancakes, crepes, waffles, French toast and more. C B R G V $
Our Mom Eugenia
2985 District Ave. (Mosaic District), 434-3394019, ourmomeugenia.com. See Arlington listing. O L D $$
Panjshir Restaurant
114 E. Fairfax St., 703-536-4566, panjshirrestau rant.com. Carnivores go for the kebabs, but the vegetarian chalows elevate pumpkin, eggplant and spinach to new levels. O L D V $$
Peking Gourmet Inn
6029 Leesburg Pike, 703-671-8088, pekinggour met.com. It’s all about the crispy Peking duck at this famed institution, a destination for presidents, ambassadors and celebrities for more than three decades. C L D G V $$
Pho 88
232 W. Broad St., 703-533-8233, pho88va.com. Vietnamese pho is the main attraction, but the menu also includes other noodle and rice dishes. Closed Tuesdays. L D $$
Pho Ga Vang
6767 Wilson Blvd., 571-375-8281, phogavang. com. Find more than 12 kinds of pho, plus other
Vietnamese homestyle dishes at this Eden Center café. L D G $$
Plaka Grill
1216 W. Broad St., 703-639-0161, plakagrill.com. Pop in for super satisfying Greek eats—dolmas, souvlaki, moussaka, spanakopita and roasted chicken. C L D V $$ Pop-Up District
6763 Wilson Blvd., pop-updistrict.com. Hit this Asian food hall inside the Eden Center for Thai street food, Korean bulgogi bowls, Hong Kong egg tarts, matcha drinks and late-night cocktails. L D G V A $
Preservation Biscuit
102 E. Fairfax St., 571-378-1757, preservation biscuit.com. Order the signature carb with housemade jams, or as a sandwich with fillers ranging from fried chicken to guac and egg. O C B L V $
Pupuseria La Familiar
308 S. Washington St., 703-995-2528, pupuseria lafamiliar.com. Salvadoran pupusas, fried yucca, chicharron, carne asada and horchata. L D $$ Puzukan Tan
8114 Arlington Blvd., 571-395-4727, puzukantan. com. From brothers Sam and Kibum Kim comes this Korean barbecue destination featuring dryaged meats, banchan and ramen. O L D $$$
Raaga Restaurant
5872 Leesburg Pike, 703-998-7000, raagarestau rant.com. Go out for chicken tikka, lamb rogan josh, toothsome samosas and cardamom-infused desserts. O L D G V $$
Rare Bird Coffee Roasters
230 W. Broad St., 571-314-1711, rarebirdcoffee. com. This charming Little City café roasts its own beans and makes an artful latte. The cafe space features rotating exhibits by local artists. L D $ Rasa
2905 District Ave. (Mosaic District), 571-3780670, rasa.co. See Arlington listing. L D G V $ Rice Paper/Taste of Vietnam
6775 Wilson Blvd., 703-538-3888, ricepapertasteofvietnam.com. Settle into one of the mod booths in this Eden Center mainstay for a combo platter of pork, seafood and ground beef with ricepaper wraps and fresh herbs. L D G V $$
Roll Play
944 W. Broad St., 571-777-9983, rollplaygrill. com. Grab Viet street foods such as banh mi, pho and build-your-own rice paper rolls from this fastcasual sibling of Nue and Chasin’ Tails.
L D G V $$
Semicolon Cafe
103 Founders Ave., 703-995-0970, semicoloncafe. com. Treat yourself to an egg or bulgogi sandwich on brioche and Korean shaved ice in flavors such as matcha with cheesecake or black sesame. B L $
Seoul Prime Korean Steakhouse
106 Founders Ave., 703-563-1168, seoulprime. com. The temptations here include galbi-jjim risotto with braised short ribs, Korean wheat noodles, soju cocktails and prime cuts of beef cooked on a tabletop grill. R D $$$
SeoulSpice
156 W. Falls Station Blvd., seoulspice.com. See Arlington listing. L D G V $
Settle Down Easy Brewing
2822 Fallfax Drive, 703-573-2011, settledowneasy brewing.com. Pair a pint from the rotating beer list with tacos from neighboring El Tio Tex-Mex Grill. Live music, trivia contests and open mic nights are also part of the fun. Closed Mondays. O L D $
Sfizi Café
800 W. Broad St., 703-533-1191, sfizi.com. A family-owned trattoria, deli and wine shop serving classic Italian fare—pasta, pizza, parm. L D $$
Side Chick
125 Founders Ave., Falls Church, sidechickva.com. Ellie Bird chef Yuan Tang has a side hustle specializing in fried chicken and creative sides for carryout. D $$
Silver Diner
8150 Porter Road, 703-204-0812, silverdiner.com. See Arlington listing. C B R L D A G V $$
Sisters Thai
2985 District Ave. (Mosaic District), 703-280-0429, sistersthai.com. The menu is traditionally Thai, but the vibe feels like you’re dining in your cool friend’s eclectic living room. L D G V $$
Solace Outpost s
444 W. Broad St., 571-378-1469, solaceoutpost. com. This Little City microbrewery serves housebrewed suds, plus fried chicken, five kinds of fries and wood-fired pizza. D A V $$
Spacebar
709 W. Broad St., 703-992-0777, spcbr.com. This diminutive and funky bar, a sister to Galaxy Hut in Arlington, offers 24 craft beers on tap and 18 variations on the grilled cheese sandwich. D A V $$
Sweetgreen
2905 District Ave. (Mosaic District), 703-9927892, sweetgreen.com. See Arlington listing. O C L D G V $
Sweetwater Tavern
3066 Gatehouse Plaza, 703-645-8100, great americanrestaurants.com. A modern alehouse serving seafood, chicken, ribs, microbrews and growlers to go. C L D G $$$
Taco Bamba s
2190 Pimmit Drive, 703-639-0505, tacobamba. com. Tacos range from traditional carne asada to the vegan “Iron Mike,” stuffed with cauliflower, salsa ma and mole verde. B L D $
Taco Rock
1116 W. Broad St., 703-760-3141, thetacorock. com. See Arlington listing. o B L D V $$
Taco Zocalo
6343 Columbia Pike, 571-376-3859, zocalotaco. com. Chow down on tacos, chimichangas, quesadillas and burrito bowls. O L D $
Takumi Sushi
310-B S. Washington St., 703-241-1128, takumi va.com. The sushi and sashimi in this snug little izakaya go beyond basic. Think tuna nigiri with Italian black truffle, or salmon with mango purée. Closed Sundays and Mondays. L D V $$
Ted’s Bulletin
2911 District Ave. (Mosaic District), 571-830-6680, tedsbulletinmerrifield.com. See Arlington listing. C B R L D $$
Thompson Italian
124 N. Washington St., 703-269-0893, thompson italian.com. Gabe and Katherine Thompson’s celebrated kitchen turns out house-made pastas, inspiring small plates and some of the best desserts around. O C D $$$
Trio Grill
8100 Lee Highway, 703-992-9200, triomerrifield. com. Treat yourself to steaks, seafood, raw bar, craft cocktails and live piano music in this handsome hideaway in Merrifield. O D $$$
True Food Kitchen s
2910 District Ave. (Mosaic District), 571-3261616, truefoodkitchen.com. See Arlington listing. O C R L D $$$
MCLEAN
Agora Tysons 7911 Westpark Drive, 703-663-8737, agoratysons. com. The Dupont Circle mezze restaurant brings its Turkish, Greek and Lebanese small plates to a second outpost in Tysons. It’s a hoppin’ spot for bottomless brunch. R L D G V $$$
Amoo’s Restaurant
6271 Old Dominion Drive, 703-448-8500, amoos restaurant.com. The flavorful kebabs and stews are crowd pleasers at this hospitable Persian establishment. O C L D G V $$
Andy’s Pizza
2001 International Drive, 3rd floor food court, Ty-
sons, 703-775-2212, eatandyspizza.com. See Arlington listing. L D V $
Aracosia s
1381 Beverly Road, 703-269-3820, aracosia mclean.com. Fall in love with Afghan specialties such as braised lamb shank and roasted eggplant with saffron rice. O L D V $$
ArTeA
6635 Old Dominion Drive, 703-469-9898, artea mclean.com. Stop in for bubble tea, artisanal openface sandwiches, pretty desserts or a “high tea dinner” with cocktails. Closed Mondays. R L D $$
Badd Pizza
6263 Old Dominion Drive, 703-356-2233, badd pizza.com. See Falls Church listing. L D $$ Big Buns Damn Good Burger Co. s 1340 Chain Bridge Road, 571-456-1640, eatbig buns.com. See Arlington listing. L D $$
Café Tatti French Bistro
6627 Old Dominion Drive, 703-790-5164, cafe tatti.com. Open since 1981, this romantic little bistro whips up classic French and continental fare. Closed Sundays. L D G V $$$
Call Your Mother Lil’ Deli 6216 Old Dominion Drive, 571-395-9097, callyour motherdeli.com. See Arlington listing. o b R L V $
Capri Ristorante Italiano
6825-K Redmond Drive, 703-288-4601, capri mcleanva.com. Known for tried-and-true dishes like spaghetti carbonara and veal Marsala. O C L D G V $$$
Circa
1675 Silver Hill Drive, 571-419-6272, circabistros. com. See Arlington listing. O L D V $$$
Eddie V’s Prime Seafood
7900 Tysons One Place, 703-442-4523, eddiev. com. Total steakhouse vibe, except with an emphasis on seafood (and steaks, too). L D G $$$$
Él Bebe
8354 Broad St., 571-378-0171, el-bebe.com. Spice things up with tamales, tacos, street corn, mole and tequila-based cocktails. C O L D V $$
El Tio Tex-Mex Grill
1433 Center St., 703-790-1910, eltiogrill.com. See Falls Church listing. L D $$
Esaan Tumbar
1307 Old Chain Bridge Road, 703-288-3901, esaanmclean.com. This tiny, trendy haunt specializes in northern Thai dishes—papaya salad, larb, nam tok. A good bet for those who like heat. L D $$ Fahrenheit Asian 1313 Dolley Madison Blvd., 703-646-8968, fahren heitasian.com. A destination for Sichuan noodles, dumplings, mapo tofu and cocktails such as an Asian pear mojito. Closed Sundays. L D V $$ Founding Farmers
1800 Tysons Blvd., wearefoundingfarmers.com. The spacious farm-to-table restaurant features Virginia-sourced dishes and drinks, plus grab-and-go breakfast items. B R L D $$$ Han Palace
7900 Westpark Drive, 571-378-0162, hanpalace dimsum.com. Pay a visit to this all-day dim-sum emporium for made-to-order buns, dumplings, crepes, roast duck and noodles. L D $$
J. Gilbert’s
6930 Old Dominion Drive, 703-893-1034, jgil berts.com. Everything you’d expect in a steakhouse and lots of it—prime cuts of beef, lobster, wedge salad, steak-cut fries and cheesecake. C R L D G V $$$
Joon/MayBar
8045 Leesburg Pike, 571-378-1390, eatjoon.com. Savor refined Persian dishes such as lamb-pistachio meatballs with pomegranate glaze and duck with sour-cherry rice. Hit the casual bar area for more affordably priced small plates, sandwiches and clever cocktails. O L D G V $$$$
Kazan Restaurant
6813 Redmond Drive, 703-734-1960, kazanrestau rant.com. A McLean fixture since 1980, it’s a go-to for kebabs, baklava and Turkish coffee. L D V $$
The Kitchen Collective 8045 Leesburg Pike, Suite L160, 571-378-0209, tkcfoodhall.com. The takeout-only “virtual food hall” has pizza, kebabs, acai bowls, cookies and much more, amassing multiple food concepts under one umbrella. C L D G V $$
Kura Sushi
8461 Leesburg Pike, 571-544-7122, kurasushi. com. Choose maki and nigiri from a revolving conveyor belt at this Tysons sushi bar, where drinks are served by a robot. L D G V $$
Lebanese Taverna
1840 International Drive, 703-847-5244, lebanesetaverna.com. See Arlington listing. O C L D G V $$
Lost Dog Café
1690-A Anderson Road, 703-356-5678, lostdog cafe.com. See Arlington listing. L D $$
Maman Joon
1408 Chain Bridge Road, 571-342-4838, maman joonkitchen.com. Find dolmeh, falafel, lamb shank and kebabs (plus a built-in Z Burger with shakes in 75 flavors) at this Persian eatery. L D V $$
Masala Indian Cuisine
1394 Chain Bridge Road,703-462-9699, masa lava.com. A specialty here are “momos,” Nepalese dumplings with meat or vegetable fillings. The menu also includes tandoori biryani and Indian curries. L D V $$
McLean Family Restaurant
1321 Chain Bridge Road, 703-356-9883, themcleanfamilyrestaurant.com. Pancakes, gyros and big plates of lasagna hit the spot. Breakfast is served until 3 p.m. daily. C B L D V $$
Miyagi Restaurant
6719 Curran St., 703-893-0116. The diminutive sushi bar gets high marks for its friendly service and fresh maki and nigiri. L D $$
Moby Dick House of Kabob
6854 Old Dominion Drive, 703-448-8448; 1500 Cornerside Blvd., 703-734-7000; mobyskabob.com. See Arlington listing. L D $$
Modan
1788 Chain Bridge Road, 703-743-6600, modan restaurant.com. Special occasion? Splurge on a 15-course omakase experience, Wagyu beef or caviar service at this Japanese izakaya helmed by executive chef Micheole “Chico” Dator, formerly of Nobu DC. D G $$$$
Mylo’s Grill
6238 Old Dominion Drive, 703-533-5880, mylos grill.com. Enjoy spanakopita, souvlaki and American classics like burgers and cheesesteaks. Friday is prime-rib night. O R L D $$
Neutral Ground Bar + Kitchen 6641 Old Dominion Drive, 703-992-9095, neutral groundbarandkitchen.com. Chef David Guas is serving up whole branzino, fried quail, bone-in pork chops and “social hour” specials in a beautiful new space. Weekend brunch brings a roving cocktail cart. O r D G V $$$
Ometeo
1640 Capital One Drive N., 703-748-7170, ometeo texmex.com. An upscale “texmexeria” with Mexican renditions of duck, venison, beef and a wide variety of sea creatures, from the owners of The Salt Line.
O L D G $$$
Pasa-Thai Restaurant
1315 Old Chain Bridge Road, 703-442-0090, pasa thaimclean.com. Tuck into a classic Bangkok curry, or a chef’s special such as spicy fried rockfish with chili-basil-garlic sauce. O L D $$
Patsy’s American 8051 Leesburg Pike (Tysons), 703-552-5100, pat sysamerican.com. The menu features greatesthits from other Great American Restaurants. O C R L D A G V $$
Peter Chang McLean
6715 Lowell Ave., 571-405-6686, peterchang mclean.com. See Arlington listing. L D G V $$
Pikoteo
6811 Elm St., 703-891-0123, pikoteo-usa.com. Es-
cape to warmer climes with ceviche, arepas, mofongo and fruity drinks at this Caribbean-infused cafe.
O R L D $$
Pulcinella Italian Kitchen 1310 Chain Bridge Road, 703-893-7777, pulcinellarestaurant.com. A stop for classic spaghetti and meatballs, linguine and clams and wood-fired pizza since 1985. L D $$
Randy’s Prime Seafood & Steaks 8051 Leesburg Pike (Tysons), 703-552-5110, randysprime.com. Treat yourself to prime cuts, duck-fat fries, seafood towers and massive slabs of chocolate cake. L D G $$$$
Rocco’s Italian 1357 Chain Bridge Road, 703-821-3736, roccos italian.com. The Juliano family makes everything in-house from family recipes, including minestrone, pizza, calzones, subs, pasta and cannoli.
O C L D G $$
Roots Kitchen & Bar 8100 Old Dominion Drive, 703-712-7850, roots kitchenandbar.com. Find sandwiches, smoothies, salads, espresso drinks, pie, cocktails and graband-go snacks and pantry staples. B L G V $
Silver Diner 8101 Fletcher St., 703-821-5666, silverdiner.com. See Arlington listing. C B R L D A G V $$
Simply Fresh 6811 Elm St., 703-821-1869, simplyfreshva. com. A local favorite for pulled pork, chicken and brisket, Greek diner fare, family-style takeout meals and breakfast. O C B L D G V $
Sisters Thai 7735 Capital One Tower Road, sistersthai.com. See Falls Church listing. L D G V $$
Sorn Thai Restaurant & Bar
6224 Old Dominion Drive, 703-564-0630, sorn thaiva.com. Taste the rainbow in dishes such as pineapple fried rice, Khao Soi noodles and grilled lobster with curry sauce. O R L D G V $$
Starr Hill Biergarten
1805 Capital One Drive, starrhill.com. Anchoring The Perch, an 11-story-high sky park, this indoor-outdoor beer garden offers more than 20 brews on tap and bar snacks. O C L D V $
Stellina Pizzeria
1610 Capital One Drive, stellinapizzeria.com. See Arlington listing. R d V $$
Sushi Umi
7599 Colshire Drive, 571-378-0903, sushiumiva. com. In addition to sushi, contemplate menu items such as whole broiled unagi with a house omelet, Wagyu beef served over fried rice, and colorful chirashi bowls. Closed Sundays. L D $$
Tachibana
6715 Lowell Ave., 703-847-1771, tachibana.us. Stellar sushi, teriyaki and tempura notwithstanding, the chef’s specials here include options such as miso-marinated black cod and scallop donburi with salmon roe. C L D $$
Timber Pizza
8100 Old Dominion Drive, 703-564-0023, timber pizza.com. See Arlington listing. L D V $$
Umai Ramen and Donburi
1500 Cornerside Blvd., 703-546-2465, umai tysonsva.com. Blending Japanese and Thai flavors, the kitchen serves 10 types of ramen and six versions of curry rice, plus Asian-inspired cocktails and a dozen kinds of sake. L D G V $$
The Union
1379 Beverly Road, 703-356-0129, theunionbar andgrill.com. The eclectic menu from Giridhar Sastry, former executive chef of the Mayflower Hotel in D.C., features bites ranging from sliders, lamb chops or Pibil chicken to a beet carpaccio salad. o C L D $$
Wren
1825 Capitol One Drive S., thewatermarkhotel. com. Helmed by chef Yo Matsuzaki, this sleek restaurants is known for creative Japanese American fare, stupendous cocktails and sweeping skyline views. O D G V $$$
Stock Up
Beautify your day-to-day with artisan paper goods and home fragrances.
Personal Touch
Dreaming of a wedding invitation as unique as your big day? Express your singular style with bespoke stationery from the Dandelion Patch in McLean. You provide the Pinterest board, color swatches or venue photos, and “I’ll guide you through a step-by-step process to create a truly one-of-a-kind design,” says owner and graphic designer Jill Eitelberg. Suites ($12-$50) start at 25 pieces and typically include invitations, envelopes and RSVP cards, with the option to incorporate hand-drawn calligraphy and original watercolor illustrations (pet portraits are a particular favorite). And yes, she offers personalized greeting cards and event invitations, too. thedandelionpatch.com
Lasting Impressions
Theresa Esterlund’s letterpress wall art is meant to cultivate connections. “I want to help people slow down and relate more deeply with themselves, the present moment and each other,” says the former manager of gallery interpretation for the Smithsonian’s Freer and Sackler galleries. Now the owner of Open to Being studio turns out limited-edition prints ($25-$75) on inkwashed paper, recycled maps and vintage book pages, as well as tactile greeting cards, handbound notebooks and upcycled bookmarks. She also hosts classes and workshops at her Arlington studio. opentobeing.com
Little Victories
Arlington illustrator Virginia Strobach’s bilingual greeting cards and prints ($5-$30) find delight in the little things. “I believe nothing is too small to celebrate—especially the moments that make life feel big,” says the owner of Amiga Hormiga Studio, which means “ant friend” in Spanish. “I like to create work that cheers people on.” Her made-to-order cards center on food, friendship and community, featuring positive affirmations (“Your best is good enough”) as well as bright patterns and feel-good messages for birthdays and holidays. amigahormiga.com
Olfactory Therapy
Minimalists will find plenty to love about the hand-poured soy wax candles ($32-$34) from Wick & Paper . Graphic designer Do Young Ahn’s hand-sketched labels are nearly as pretty as scents ranging from fresh coffee or lavendersage to Appalachian Mountains, a bright blend of lemon peel and cypress. “I like to simplify complex concepts into clean and simple designs that celebrate everyday life,” she says. Her online shop also sells colorful enamel pins and D.C. cherry blossom totes. wickandpaper.com
driving range ■ by
Renee Sklarew
Journey to the Past
Civil War history isn’t the only reason to visit Gettysburg.
MY FOOTSTEPS CRUNCH on a gravel road cutting through a blanket of grass, and in the distance, hay stalks flutter beneath the contours of South Mountain. It’s a crisp morning in December 2024, and I’m visiting the Eisenhower National Historic Site in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the home of Dwight D. and Mamie Eisenhower from 1954 until 1969.
The Eisenhower home is surrounded by pastures framed with white picket fences. Standing in the doorway is National Park Ranger Dan Vermilya, who welcomes me into a wallpapered entryway featuring the seal of every American state. I scan the elegant living room, admiring a velvet pouf, a prettyin-pink painting of Mamie Eisenhower, and a marble fireplace that was re-
moved from the White House in 1873 by President Ulysses S. Grant. The Eisenhowers’ White House staff found the hearth and gifted it to the couple for their 38th wedding anniversary in 1954. Between my love of U.S. history and appreciation for preserving landmarks, I feel tears prickling my eyes.
I’ve liked Ike ever since I studied World War II in college. As supreme
The annual WWII weekend in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
commander of the Allied forces, he steered the United States to victory against the Nazi regime. He commanded the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Vermilya says, because he wanted to make sure there wasn’t a third world war in his lifetime.
A Republican, Eisenhower served two presidential terms, signing legislation establishing NASA and the Interstate Highway System. He intervened in Cold War crises and signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1957. He pushed for and passed the Admittance Act granting Alaska and Hawaii statehood in the Union.
While Eisenhower recovered from a heart attack in 1955, the Gettysburg farm served as the unofficial White House, hosting world leaders such as Prime Minister Nehru of India and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev.
Despite his remarkable life, America’s 34th president remained a humble guy from Abilene, Kansas. He cherished Adams County, Pennsylvania’s rural landscape and retired to the farm full time after his presidency. “One of the reasons they bought this property in 1950 was that they had lived in Gettysburg in 1918 when Eisenhower commanded Camp Colt,” Vermilya shares.
The house still contains the family’s belongings, artifacts and mementos, including a lacquer coffee table given to Eisenhower by the first lady of Korea on the first anniversary of the Korean War armistice. “That agreement was one of his proudest achievements,” Vermilya says.
The Eisenhowers lived at the farm until their deaths—Ike’s in 1969 and Mamie’s in 1979—treasuring the sounds of lowing cattle, the laughter of their grandkids and the rhythms of small-town life. They gave the farmstead to the National Park Service.
MOST TOURISTS
making the trip to this Pennsylvania town come to learn about the Civil War at Gettysburg National Military Park. The Eisenhower site remains a somewhat hidden gem, except during three days in Septem-
ber when more than 7,000 people converge here for the annual World War II Weekend.
This year marks the 80th anniversary of the Allied victory (the Axis powers surrendered in 1945). The Eisenhower site will be converted into a living history camp with World War II veterans riding in camouflage tanks and reenactors in field jackets. “We have American, British, Canadian and Polish living his-
Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower on their Gettysburg farm in 1956
WWII exhibits on the Eisenhower farm
Period decor and family photos at the Eisenhower historic site
n driving range
tory exhibits,” Vermilya says. “But the focus is on what World War II meant for the Eisenhower family and how the U.S. worked with its allies.”
The free World War II Weekend will be held at the Eisenhower National Historic Site from Sept.19-21. Vermilya recommends visiting on Sunday, which is usually the least crowded day. Check nps.gov/eise/world-war-ii-weekend for a schedule of events.
“We try to keep the tone commemorative because it’s the second world war, a cataclysmic and tragic event,” he says. “Sixteen million Americans served in uniform, and millions more on the home front. It touched everyone. We want to give people a chance to connect with those stories.”
I LOVE EXPLORING small towns, and Gettysburg holds a special place in my heart. I come year after year because it’s only about 85 miles from the D.C. area, and there are always new places to discover. Beyond that, I’m touched by the friendliness of the people who enjoy chatting about their hometown.
The centrally located Hotel Gettysburg on Lincoln Square is an ideal home base within walking distance of restaurants, shops and the wonderful Majestic Theater. Constructed in 1925, the hotel retains its landmark style but with modern decor after a major renovation in 2024.
From my hotel window, I watch tourists pose beside “Return Visit,” a life-size statue of Abraham Lincoln greeting a contemporary gentleman by sculptor J. Seward Johnson. Lincoln waves his top hat in the direction of the David Wills House, where he slept and finalized his famous Gettysburg Address. I myself have taken many selfies there. It’s one of the most iconic spots in a town full of momentous markers.
In the evening, I join friends at the Dobbin House Tavern, where a roving troubadour serenades our candlelit table. A waitress in Colonial attire loads the table with steaks and crabcakes,
while general manager Rick Beamer tells us about the Rev. Alexander Dobbin, who built the property in 1776.
Beamer says Dobbin had 19 children between two wives. “For a man of the time, he was quite wealthy. Most Colonial homes were one or two rooms, but the Dobbins had four bedrooms upstairs and four rooms downstairs.” His son Matthew added rooms over the kitchen for a station on the Underground Railroad. After dinner, I climb the stairs to see the hiding places.
In Gettysburg, I feel a deep connection to the past. That feeling is especially keen inside the Shriver House Museum, where a reenactor in a hoop skirt ushers our group from room to room, describing the harrowing experiences endured by the Shriver family during the Civil War. After the family escaped, rebel soldiers took over the property. “Confederate sharpshooters knocked holes in the attic wall, and two soldiers died there,” says Abbie Hoffman, the museum’s director.
Another immersive experience awaits at Gettysburg Beyond the Battle Museum, operated by the Adams County Historical Society. Exhibits here depict life in the region from pre-Colonial times to Eisenhower’s era. The “Caught
Dining at Dobbin House Tavern
“Return Visit,” a sculptural homage to our 16th president, is a popular spot for selfies.
“Caught in the Crossfire,” an immersive experience at Gettysburg Beyond the Battle Museum
n driving range
in the Crossfire Experience” is a lifesize Civil War-era cabin where gunshots and screams fill the air. Soon, I’m shaking as much as the room.
Returning to the town square, The Upper Crust pulls me back to reality with a fun combination of Skee-Ball, billiards, barbecue and wood-fired pizzas. Next, I knock off some stylish gifts from my holiday list at Lark, A Modern Marketplace. The building’s lower level is home to Waldo’s & Co., a bookstore, coffee bar and art co-op where customers type away on their laptops.
The Adams County Pour Tour is a downloadable map of the area’s breweries, hard cider makers, wineries and distilleries. Many are spread around the countryside but some are downtown, including the Adams County Winery’s tasting room, where I sample the wine sorbet. Dinner is at Union Hotel’s Sign of the Buck, a culinary gem with a sophisticated vibe.
At this point I’m tired, but it’s the holidays and I’m not going to miss seeing A Christmas Carol at the Majestic Theater. This peppy and professional production is even more fun knowing the performers are local.
ON DAY THREE , I refuel at The Ragged Edge Coffee House before visiting the World War II American Experience, a museum that opened in 2022 featuring Jeeps, armored vehicles and a replica of a 1941 living room with furniture from Sears. Collectors Frank and Loni Buck wanted to share their treasures, so they built a museum and education center on their farm near town. My favorite artifact is the American Red Cross Clubmobile, a snack truck that boosted the morale of soldiers. “We even have Hershey’s bars in the exact specs of those distributed overseas,” Loni Buck says.
There are many more places I want to see, but I’ll be back for World War II Weekend in September. I think Ike and Mamie would appreciate that visitors from around the world come to Gettysburg to enjoy all their town has to offer.
If You Go
Where to Eat, Drink & Stay
Transforming an 1896 high school into the Federal Pointe Inn (federalpointeinn. com) was no easy task, but owner and antiques collector Pete Monahan executed his audacious vision by furnishing the hotel himself. “I go to auctions, and when I find a bed that I love, I’ll put it in a room,” he says. Monahan kept remnants of the school, such as chalkboards and wall hooks, and he displays photos of students in the cozy Pointe Pub, which features his mom’s pickle dip recipe.
Hotel Gettysburg (gettysburghotel.com) puts visitors in the heart of the action. This grande dame has welcomed guests since the turn of the 19th century, including U.S. presidents and
international heads of state. Some rooms have fireplaces and sitting areas. Considered to be one of the most haunted hotels in America, it’s a place where people have reported hearing the sounds of dying soldiers within its walls. The hotel restaurant, One Lincoln, is a local hot spot.
Go early for a table at 101 (101gettysburgsquare.square.site), a BYOB bistro serving pastas, pizzas, sandwiches and desserts made with scratch ingredients sourced in Pennsylvania.
Chef Josh Fidler’s Sign of the Buck (signofthebuck.com) has elevated Gettysburg’s culinary scene. Open for brunch, lunch and dinner, the farm-totable restaurant housed in the historic Union Hotel (unionhotelgettysburg.com) is known for its homemade breadboards, tuna crudo and venison chops.
It’s hard to resist the sea salt chocolate chip cookies at Sweeter Than SAP (sweeterthansap.com), a bakery near Lincoln Square that opened in 2023.
Shopping downtown
Apple picking in Adams County
Sign of the Buck
You’ll find those same cookies filled with your choice of ice cream flavors at Mr. G’s Ice Cream (mrgsicecream.com).
Fourscore Beer Co. (fourscorebeer.com) serves soft pretzels and chorizo tacos that pair perfectly with the brewery’s fruity sours and West Coast IPAs.
Where to Shop
Make time to examine the fashionable jewelry, clothing and gifts for pets, kids and everyone else at Lark, A Modern Marketplace (larkgifts.com).
The stark paintings of Abraham Lincoln at Wendy Allen’s Lincoln Into Art gallery (lincolnintoart.com) capture the many dimensions of our courageous 16th president, known for his signature top hat.
Peruse the shelves at Gallery 30 (gallery30.com) for American-made crafts reflecting every season and taste,
Gettysburg, PA
including the “Jumpies,” a toy inspired by stories, both fairy tale and true.
Where to Play
History aside, agritourism is also a draw in Adams County, famous for its prolific orchards. The circa-1914 Round Barn & Farm Market (roundbarn.farm), one of the nation’s few surviving round barns, is stocked with seasonal fruit, especially apples and peaches, along with baked goods and honey.
Take a wagon ride through the fields at Hollabaugh Bros. Farm & Fruit Market (hollabaughbros.com), then pick your own fruit or buy locally sourced produce and other goods at the year-round market.
Check the lineup at Gettysburg College’s Majestic Theater (gettysburgmajestic.org) to see classic films, renowned performers and Broadway-style shows. ■
Bethesda-based travel writer Renee Sklarew is passionate about exploring the mid-Atlantic region and finding enticing stories to share.
Hotel Gettysburg
Round Barn & Farm Market
The rolling hills outside Gettysburg
Christine Koubek
Savor Exquisite Taste
Set along the Delaware River, New Jersey’s storied Stockton Inn (circa 1710) has welcomed many illustrious guests over the years, from F. Scott Fitzgerald to Jackie Kennedy Onassis. Margaret Mitchell was rumored to have penned parts of Gone with the Wind here.
Following a meticulous restoration in late 2024, the boutique property reopened with nine guest rooms and suites appointed in warm earth tones with marble bathrooms and hardwood floors. Each includes a Nespresso machine, plush Matouk linens and robes, Bluetooth speaker and high-end Dyson hair dryer. Three of the rooms have a decadent oversized soaking tub. The 813-square-foot, ADA-accessible
Carriage Two Suite offers a private patio with a bocce court and fire pit.
The inn’s culinary program and two restaurants are led by Executive Chef Bob Truitt, a James Beard Award semifinalist. At Finch, house-made pastas (try the celery root ravioli) take center stage. The Sorrento lemon risotto is another guest favorite.
The Dog & Deer Tavern, where a gorgeous Jamie Wyeth original painting of a dog presides over the bar, is a choice spot to indulge in raw bar selections and dishes ranging
from sourdough focaccia to burrata salad. Head bartender Brian Miller’s clever cocktails include a riff on an old-fashioned made with banana liqueur and maple, and the tikiinspired Cobra’s Fang (Hamilton 151 proof Demerara rum, lime, orange, passion fruit, cinnamon syrup, falernum, absinthe and bitters). Sip your beverage of choice in the cozy tavern, or out on the heated terrace with its cascading waterfall.
For an artful outing, check out the galleries and boutiques in nearby Lambertville, New Jersey, and New Hope, Pennsylvania, and the Bucks County Playhouse in the latter. Rates begin at $500 and include complimentary coffee, tea and tasty snacks. Stockton Inn, 1 S. Main St., Stockton, New Jersey, 609-460-4209, stocktoninn.com
Stockton Inn’s Dog & Deer Tavern
A luxe soaking tub
Find Your Natural High
Experience autumn’s splendor at Cacapon Resort State Park Lodge in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. The lodge reopened in May 2021, after a major renovation increased its number of guest rooms from 42 to 120. The refresh also includes the new Prospects Restaurant, a lovely outdoor terrace and fireplace, indoor swimming pool and Healing Waters Spa.
Grab a cup of your favorite morning beverage in the lobby and settle into a porch rocker overlooking the wooded hillside to plan the day. The resort features a Robert Trent Jones 18-hole golf course, driving range, fishing pier, clay shooting range, tennis and basketball courts, horseback riding and a nature center. Hikers can explore a variety of well-marked trails with or without a naturalist offering insights into the local ecosystem, history and wildlife.
Or see the sites by bike. Thanks to a $3.5 million federal Economic Development Administration grant, Cacapon Resort is adding 35 professionally designed mountain biking trails to the park’s existing trail system, roughly half of which are now open (full project completion expected in 2026).
Tired legs? Take a seven-mile drive to the overlook and enjoy panoramic views of fall foliage from the highest peak in the Eastern Panhandle.
Indoor enticements include the full-service spa, fitness center and plenty of places to lounge, among them a library stocked with books and board games. Guest rooms are divided between the North Lodge (new and roomier with a king bed or double queens) and South Lodge (one queen bed). Suites and ADA accessible rooms are available, too. All have a mini-fridge, singleserve coffee maker and mountain or golf course views. Rates begin at $135. Cacapon Resort State Park Lodge, 818 Cacapon Lodge Drive, Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, 304-258-1022, wvstateparks.com/places-to-stay/lodges/ cacapon-resort-state-park-lodge
Beer This Way
Dogfish Inn, a canal-front, beerthemed hotel in historic Lewes, Delaware, celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2024 with a redesign. Owned and operated by Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, the inn’s new coastal-cottage lobby includes cozy seating areas, an onsite library curated by San Francisco’s City Lights Booksellers & Publishers, and an espresso bar serving coffee drinks brewed with beans from Delaware’s Gaia Coffee Co.
Each of the 16 renovated guest rooms offers a king or double queens, plus quirky perks like shower beer holders and beer-infused soap. Additional creature comforts include a mini-fridge, microwave, Malin + Goetz bath products, down comforters and upgraded linens. The two-bedroom “Cottage Sweet” has a queen in each bedroom, single bathroom, living room and kitchenette. Dogs are allowed in select rooms.
The property’s handy “gear shed” offers a slew of equipment to use during your stay, from binoculars and hammocks to cornhole boards, plus a fleet of custom beach cruisers and e-bikes (see website for bike rental fees).
Off property, enjoy a beach day without the summer crowds, peruse area farmers markets or take a bike ride through lovely Cape Henlopen State Park. Then venture out to one of Dogfish Head’s two Rehoboth Beach restaurants—Brewings & Eats brewpub or the seafood-centric Chesapeake & Maine.
Dogfish Head’s main brewery in Milton, a 20-25 minute drive from the inn, is worth a pilgrimage for the annual Dogfish Dash road race on Sept. 28, and the free, family- and dog-friendly Punkin Ale Fest on Oct. 11. Give their new Grateful Dead Juicy Pale Ale a try. Room rates begin at $219. 105 Savannah Road, Lewes, Delaware, 302-644-8292, dogfish.com/inn
Horseback riding at Cacapon Resort State Park
Bikes for rent at Delaware’s Dogfish Inn
Kim O’Connell
photo by Elizabeth Wendelin
Bear Necessities
An Arlington artist created the icon at the center of the longest-running PSA campaign in U.S. history.
IN 1944, the U.S. Forest Service debuted a wildfire prevention campaign featuring a soon-to-be-familiar character named Smokey Bear. Staff artist Albert Staehle’s original version of Smokey was a realistic-looking bear with paws and sharp claws, albeit dressed in a ranger hat and blue jeans. Early campaign ads included a slogan: “Smokey Says—Care Will Prevent 9 out of 10 Forest Fires.”
By the late 1940s, however, it was clear that Smokey needed a makeover to appeal more to children, along with a pithier catchphrase. That task fell to another Forest Service artist, Rudolph “Rudy” Wendelin, who created the Smokey Bear image we know today.
A resident of Arlington’s Bluemont neighborhood, Wendelin humanized Smokey’s features, added his name to his ranger hat and belt buckle, and
traded the bear’s paws for fur-covered hands so he could grip his trademark shovel and point to say, “Only YOU Can Prevent Forest Fires.”
Throughout his 40-year Forest Service career, Wendelin created many different Smokey Bear images for various media, helping the mascot become a household name. In 1952, crooner Eddy Arnold even recorded a tune called “Smokey the Bear” that adults of a certain age can probably sing from memory. One series of Wendelin’s paintings shows the ursine celebrity leaning back in his chair, feet on his desk, reading through stacks of fan mail.
In 2017, an Ad Council survey found that 8 out of 10 Americans recognized the famous bear, whose image has been officially licensed to dozens of organizations and merchandisers. Imitators have emerged, too. The “Resist Bear” of the Alt National Park Service protest movement looks remarkably similar to you-know-who.
One of the artist’s three adult children, David Wendelin, says that if his father were alive today he’d likely approve. “Smokey Bear defined [my father’s] character,” he says. “He was very socially active and concerned [about] what was going on in the world up until he died.”
Local politics included. One Wendelin cartoon from 1973, published in The Northern Virginia Sun, protested the creation of I-66. The image depicted rolled-up blueprints crushing houses in the shadow of a giant gas pump.
Wendelin continued to offer cartoons and commentary to organizations like the Arlington Historical Society until his death in 2000.
“My dad was part of the golden age of advertising,” says David’s sister Elizabeth Wendelin. “Dad gave Smokey the hands to point and more facial expressions. To me, Dad gave Smokey his soul.” ■
Illustrator Rudy Wendelin at home in his Bluemont greenhouse in 1982
