How Amazon’s arrival is reshaping Arlington’s higher-ed landscape
ARLINGTON FALLS CHURCH MCLEAN
EDUCATION
50 College Town
Amazon’s arrival is transforming Arlington’s higher education landscape, with universities stepping up to feed the tech talent pipeline. Here’s what’s coming.
60
Even in progressive Arlington, white students have advantages that many students of color don’t have. How do we change that?
70 Lessons Learned
Somehow these educators continued to challenge, engage and inspire our children, even when classrooms were closed.
78 College Bound
Where members of Arlington’s Class of 2021 applied to college and where they were accepted.
HOME
The owners of this Cherrydale home love animals, vivid colors and bold prints. The interior design answers that call.
ON THE COVER: Illustration by James Heimer
Put
and
Drive-through drama, futuristic retail design, a backup singer’s TV debut and lock-saving caps for cancer patients.
Football is for girls, and the Virginia Hurricanes are the team to beat. 22
Her son plays Arlington Little League. Her uncle played baseball in a Japanese internment camp.
A jewel-toned home office with side-byside work spaces for mom and kids.
The area’s most expensive home sales. Plus, real-estate trends by ZIP code.
122 Restaurant Review
After a long hiatus, our dining critic is back at it, and he’s starting with the most important meal of the day: Irish breakfast.
126 Home Plate
French desserts by a former White House chef, an exquisite rendition of salmon tikka and a fresh place to do lunch.
129 Places to
Bite-size write-ups on more than 250 restaurants and bars near you.
Plan
Remembering 9/11 at the
CAROLINE, OUR OLDEST CHILD , is leaving for college in a few days. I understand this is a routine rite of passage, but when your first kid leaves the nest, it’s a big deal. As we help her pack, I’ve been reflecting on the process, the attributes she wanted in a school and how she arrived at her decision.
My wife is from Chicago and I’m from Philly, which must have influenced Caroline’s decision to focus on northern and midwestern universities (we drew the line at Colorado). She decided early on that she didn’t want to attend a Virginia school—sorry, Mom and Dad—or anyplace in the South. Her checklist ultimately included the following: a big state school that everyone’s heard of; with all the stuff (sports, activities, Greek life, etc.); in a cool, progressive town; with an attractive campus that’s integrated into the town; preferably on or close to a body of water; and with a strong environmental science program (Yay! Academics made the list!).
While doing her research, Caroline stumbled across a chart on Barstool Sports that she found persuasive. The y-axis ranked academics and the x-axis rated the social scene. Way out on the far-right side of the chart were two schools that led in both categories: Tulane University and the University of Wisconsin. Since the South and private schools were off her list, you guessed it: Caroline is headed to Madison. It’s a great school, and we’re proud of her. Go, Badgers!
Although our daughter is a strong student and involved in many activities, she also had a lot of help along the way. We provided her with a test-prep tutor, an essay coach and a college counselor. These resources made her a stronger candidate, helped her think through her options, and charted out the process and important deadlines.
Unfortunately, many students don’t have the same advantages or level of support as Caroline. One of our
feature stories, “Closing the Gap,” by Adrienne WichardEdds, explores the opportunity gap between white students and students of color here in Arlington. Sadly, disadvantages exist. They are alive and well, and a lot of work still needs to be done.
Caroline and her closest friends will be scattered across the country this fall, attending schools in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Memphis, Austin, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara. However, right here in Arlington, we’re experiencing a dramatic transformation in higher education, specifically at the graduate level and largely fueled by the arrival of Amazon’s HQ2 and the technology ecosystem emerging around it. Our cover story, “College Town,” by Tamara Lytle, examines the investments and innovative changes underway at Marymount University, George Mason’s Institute for Digital InnovAtion (IDIA), Virginia Tech’s soon-to-be-built Innovation Campus and others. It’s an exciting time to be in Arlington.
I would be remiss if I didn’t point you to the “College Bound” chart on page 78, which shows where the Class of 2021 applied to college and where they were accepted. We’re thrilled to add Arlington Tech and the Career Center to this year’s data.
I hope you find our September/October issue informative and enjoyable. Thank you for reading it and supporting the magazine. As always, we would love to hear from you. I can be reached at greg.hamilton@ arlingtonmagazine.com. Story ideas and letters to the editor should be directed to jenny.sullivan@arlington magazine.com. Hope you had a terrific summer.
Greg Hamilton Publisher
Comprehensive expertise and unwavering commitment to your goals. When the path ahead is uncertain, you need both. at’s why at Evermay, our advisors are dual-focused: on the investment world and on your world.
LIVES IN: Arlington’s Bluemont neighborhood
ALMA MATERS: N.C. State (English) and Boston University (creative writing)
IN THIS ISSUE: Penned our story about the Virginia Hurricanes, a dominant national force in girls’ flag football
SPORTS NOTES: “I like watching college basketball, especially the N.C. State Wolfpack, and hope to be playing pickleball by the time this runs.”
RECENTLY LEARNED: “There are more than 40,000 types of rice.”
WANTS TO LEARN: “How to play guitar; more about the connection between religion and political history; and how to use Excel. Also, the right way to use a semicolon.”
FAVORITE HANGOUTS: “The rose garden at Bon Air Park, bike trails all over Arlington and my own backyard”
CURRENTLY WORKING ON: “An easy reader [for all ages] and a new middlegrade novel. They’re very different from one another but they’re both, ultimately, about friendship. Also working on rejoining society after 18-plus months.”
ONLINE: madelynrosenberg.com and @madrosenberg on Twitter
CORRECTIONS:
LIVES IN: Philadelphia’s Mount Airy neighborhood
ALMA MATER: The University of the Arts (illustration)
IN THIS ISSUE: Illustrated our cover story about how Amazon’s arrival is reshaping Arlington’s higher education landscape
DRAWING A LINE: “Art was the through line to my youthful obsessions with comics, skateboarding and punk rock music.”
ARTISTIC INFLUENCES: “Ben Shahn, Mozelle Thompson, Corita Kent, Harry Chester, Japanese sci-fi shows, jazz record covers by David Stone Martin and Jim Flora, UPA animation, ’60s Penguin crime paperbacks…I could keep going.”
WANTS TO LEARN: “How to run without ruining my knees”
CONTINUING EDUCATION: “I’m an adjunct professor at Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. I teach Illustration I and Illustration Portfolio.”
CURRENTLY WORKING ON: “Figuring out how to be a single dad, getting better at cooking, and a long-running personal project—making fake newspaper ads for classic sci-fi and horror movies.”
ONLINE: jamesheimer.com and @jheimerillustration on Instagram
Our July/August story about Project Knitwell (p. 18) incorrectly stated that founder Carol Caparosa’s daughter had childhood cancer. She was hospitalized for treatments for congenital heart defects.
Anesthesiologist David Lee, one of the specialists in our 2021 Top Doctors list (p. 32) is with Dominion Anesthesiology.
PUBLISHER & CO-FOUNDER
Greg Hamilton
CO-FOUNDER
Steve Hull
EDITOR
Jenny Sullivan
ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER
Susan Hull
ART DIRECTOR
Laura Goode
PRODUCTION MANAGER
Danny Ryan
DESIGNER
Olivia Sadka
WEB PRODUCER
Erin Roby
DINING CRITIC
David Hagedorn
COPY EDITOR
Sandy Fleishman
WRITERS
Sydney Johnson, Christine Koubek, Lisa Lednicer, Tamara Lytle, Kim O’Connell, Rina Rapuano, Madelyn Rosenberg, Jennifer Shapira, Eliza Tebo Berkon, Nikki Toyama-Szeto, Adrienne Wichard-Edds
PHOTOGRAPHERS & ILLUSTRATORS
Leland Atkinson, Stephanie Bragg, Skip Brown, Betty Clicker, Heather Fuentes, Stacy Zarin Goldberg, Tim Hawk, Heidi’s Bridge, James Heimer, Tony J. Lewis, Deb Lindsey, Rey Lopez, Mariah Lower, Matt Mendelsohn, Trae Patton, Hillary Schwab, Jonathan Timmes, Michael Ventura, Stephanie Williams, Mykl Wu
ADVERTISING ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES
Traci Ball, Kristin Murphy
FINANCE & CIRCULATION COORDINATOR
Julie Rosenbaum
AD PRODUCTION COORDINATOR
Meghan K. Murphy
MARKETING ASSOCIATE
Leigh McDonald
CUSTOMER SERVICE MANAGER
Onecia Ribeiro
Arlington Magazine is published six times a year by Greenbrier Media LLC © 2021
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Some big names are coming to the Little City, including The BB King Blues Band Experience (featuring Michael Lee of The Voice), New Orleans brass band Bonerama, The Legendary Wailers featuring Julian “Junior” Marvin, Richmond’s Twin Brothers Band and D.C.’s own Vintage #18, not to mention kidfavorite and Best of Arlington winner Rocknoceros. Tunes aside, the daylong festival also promises a food village, children’s activities, local artist booths and a chill zone for relaxation with yoga, hammocks, massage and more. $30-$45. Cherry Hill Park, 223 Little Falls St., Falls Church, tinnerhill.org
FRIDAYS THROUGH OCT. 29, 5-8 P.M.
Crystal City Water Park
This outdoor concert series brings free performances by local bands and musicians, but preregistration is required to reserve a spot. Featured artists include Practically Einstein (Sept. 3), Veronneau (Sept. 10), Lush (Sept. 24), Moosejaw Bluegrass (Oct. 1) and Sol Roots (Oct. 20), among others. See website for the full lineup and registration details. 1601 Crystal Drive, Arlington, nationallanding.org/ do/fridays-at-the-fountain
SEPT. 8, 7:30 P.M.
Blue Oyster Cult
The Birchmere
Need more cowbell? The rock band known for hits such as “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” and “Burnin’ for You” takes the stage in what promises to be a surefire nostalgia trip. $65. 3701 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria, birchmere.com
SEPT. 18
Gateway Park
The musical lineup is still in the works, but if you love jazz, mark your calendar for the return of this popular outdoor event featuring food, drink and a full day of live riffs. 1300 Lee Highway, Arlington, rosslynva.org
SEPT. 24, 9 P.M.
The State Theatre
M.J.’s legacy is complicated, but few would deny his musical genius. Brush up on your Thriller dance moves and head to the State Theatre for this homage to the King of Pop.
The tribute band has been performing hits such as “Rock With You” and “P.Y.T.” since 2004. $20. 220 N. Washington St., Falls Church, thestatetheatre.com
THROUGH SEPT. 16
Detroit ’67
Signature Theatre
As the title suggests, this play (winner of the Edward M. Kennedy Prize for Drama) by Dominique Morisseau gives viewers a glimpse into what life was like in the Detroit of the late 1960s, when both Motown music and racial tensions were peaking. It’s now streaming on the Marquee TV app. $35. sigtheatre.org
SEPT. 10-11, 7:30 P.M.
Shhhhhakespeare Revue
Synetic Theater
Known for its creative interpretations
of the bard’s classics, from Hamlet to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Synetic is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a free revue of favorite moments from its acclaimed Wordless Shakespeare Series. Watch a cast of six actors take on 34 roles from 10 plays in just 60 minutes. Lubber Run Amphitheater, 200 N. Columbus St., Arlington, synetictheater.org
OCT. 7-31
Our Say Creative Cauldron
This play by Emily Mann portrays the reallife centenarian Delaney sisters as they welcome you into their home. Spanning 100 years of American history, their recollections and anecdotes impart snapshots from their rich family story and careers as pioneering African American professionals. See website for showtimes and ticket prices. 410 S. Maple Ave., Falls Church, creativecauldron.org
OCT. 11-31
The Madness of Poe
Synetic Theater
Ready to be spooked? Synetic weaves a
trilogy of Edgar Allan Poe tales into one heart-pounding thriller in a performance that reimagines the theater’s 2007 hit adaptation of The Fall of the House of Usher, plus two more gothic tales from the macabre writer’s vault of horror. See website for showtimes and ticket prices. 1800 S. Bell St., Arlington, synetictheater.org
SEPT. 28, 7-8 P.M.
Arlington Public Library
The co-authors, a Muslim woman and a Jewish man, have spent decades doing interfaith work and nurturing cooperation among communities. Their book, We Refuse to Be Enemies: How Muslims and Jews Can Make Peace, One Friendship at a Time, is the centerpiece of this free virtual
SEPT. 25-26, 11 A.M.-5 P.M.
Curious to know how that soulful painting, sculpture or lithograph came to be? Meet the artists, learn about their creative processes and see where the magic happens when nearly 50 local artists open up their studios to the public during this weekend-long open house. This year’s event includes a lottery (drawing on Sept. 18) with a chance to win an original piece of art. The self-guided tour of artist spaces throughout Arlington County is free. Lottery tickets are $200. Multiple locations, arlingtonartstudiotour.org
Zoom discussion. arlingtonva.libcal.com/ event/7876327
OCT. 28, 7-8 P.M.
Cathy Park Hong:
Arlington Public Library
A daughter of Korean immigrants, poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong grew up steeped in shame, suspicion and melancholy. She would later determine that these “minor feelings” occur when American optimism contradicts your own reality— when you believe the lies you’re told about your own racial identity. This online book club discussion will be facilitated by the
Arlington Public Library group Beyond the Hashtag: Unlearning Racism, One Book at a Time. arlingtonva.libcal.com/ event/7981244
SEPT. 14-OCT. 31
Arlington Art Truck
Here’s your chance to recapture the wonder of childhood with a magnifying glass. Artist Tommy Bobo will be making the rounds, showing participants how
to create light compositions on the ground, walls and other objects using magnifying glasses, shaped mirrors and colored lenses to refract sunbeams. This free, interactive art truck activation is a partnership with AIRE, the Arlington Initiative to Rethink Energy. See website for dates, times and locations. arts. arlingtonva.us/arlington-art-truck/
SEPT. 11, NOON-4 P.M.
45th Annual Falls Church Festival
Cherry Hill Park
The annual Taste of Falls Church eating extravaganza returns, along with kids’ rides and activities, live music and a beer garden. 223 Little Falls St., Falls Church, fallschurchva.gov/638/Falls-Church-Festival
SEPT. 13, 9 A.M.
Army Navy Country Club
Welcome an injured service member to your foursome in this annual golf outing and fundraiser benefiting the Yellow Ribbon Fund, which provides practical support (including rental cars, hotel stays and more) to active-duty and veteran service members receiving medical treatment at Walter Reed and Fort Belvoir. $1,250 per single player or $5,000 per foursome. 1700 Army Navy Drive, Arlington, yellowribbonfund.org
SEPT. 18, 4-10:30 P.M. 34th
Thomas Jefferson Community Center
This celebration of Argentinian culture promises live music (from tango to Argentine pop rock), dance, traditional asado, artisan gifts, exhibitors and more. Performances begin at 6 p.m. and food trucks will be on site. $20 online or $30 at the door on event day. 125 S. Old Glebe Road, Arlington, festival-argentino. constantcontactsites.com/
OCT. 2, NOON-4 P.M.
Arlington Arts Center
Shop giftable goods by local makers
at this one-day event featuring vendors such as All That Yazz soaps, Privé Roses, B.Birdwatcher gems and many more. 3550 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, instagram.com/ madeinarlington
OCT. 10, 11 A.M.-4 P.M.
McLean Pet Fest 2021
McLean Central Park
The annual celebration of furry friends returns with funny pet tricks, treats, animal accessories galore and exhibitors ranging from local veterinarians and groomers to dog walkers. Organized by the McLean Community Center. 1468 Dolley Madison Blvd., McLean, mcleancenter.org
OCT. 10
The Pentagon
The 10-miler through Arlington and D.C. is on, with both an in-person race that starts and ends at the Pentagon, and a virtual option with a 15-day window. Founded in 1985, this annual event is now the second largest of its kind
nationwide. Proceeds benefit U.S. Army family and morale welfare and recreation programs. See website for details. armytenmiler.com
OCT. 14, 5:30-8 P.M.
Penrose Square
The Columbia Pike corridor is home to residents representing more than 150 nationalities. Join the Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization, founded in 1986, in this anniversary celebration of the Pike’s rich history and multicultural fabric. 2501 Ninth Road S., Arlington, columbia-pike.org
OCT. 17, 1-5 P.M.
Multiple Falls Church locations
Take a self-guided tour of eight local homes and gardens in the Little City. Proceeds from the seventh biennial tour
will benefit the Falls Church Education Foundation and Falls Church City Public Schools. Purchase tickets online ($30) at fcedf.org through Oct. 15, or in person at Botanologica, 817 W. Broad St., Falls Church ($35), on Oct. 16 and 17. fcedf.org
OCT. 29-31
It’s a Halloween run this year! Participants have the option of running the 46th annual marathon, 10K or 50K (or, for the trifecta, all three) live on Sunday, Oct. 31. Alternately, runners who prefer the virtual route can complete and log their races on their own between Oct. 1 and Nov. 11. marinemarathon.com
Got a calendar event we should know about? Submit it to editorial@arlingtonmagazine.com
In 2016, Liz Lord’s life was turned upside down. Married with two young kids, she had recently left a job as an attorney, earned her real estate license and switched careers. That’s when she got the breast cancer diagnosis.
After undergoing a bilateral mastectomy, Lord needed chemotherapy. She remembered her son’s teacher had also undergone chemo and managed to keep her hair, thanks to “cold capping”—a promising procedure in which patients wear caps filled with freezing cold gel or liquid before, during and after infusions to prevent hair loss. The caps need to be frozen in dry ice and changed every 2030 minutes. Some cancer centers have scalpcooling machines to help with the rotation.
Amid the pandemic, many theater companies resorted to virtual shows or shut down completely. Enter, stage left, Xander Tilock. During quarantine, the Justice High School student (now a rising senior) decided to write a fulllength play, A Winter
Knowing that her job required a lot of face time with clients, and not wanting to have to explain, repeatedly, that she had cancer, Lord decided to give cold caps a try. She acquired four rented gel caps, an electric blanket (to keep warm during treatments) and 40 pounds of dry ice, and used the caps during her treatments at The George Washington University Hospital.
Thanks to this technology, Lord kept most of her hair—but cold caps aren’t cheap. They can cost $250$500 per infusion and are not covered by insurance. So in 2018, she launched the nonprofit Cold Capital Fund, which is run by a board of cancer survivors and provides financial assistance to patients who want to keep their hair with cold caps, but
Star, in which “winterland” creatures searching for a missing star discover that its magic has been within them all along. Tilock pitched his script to Encore Stage & Studio, an Arlington nonprofit that typically produces eight fully staged shows a year with actors and crew members who are under 18. No stranger to the stage, Tilock has been in 19 Encore productions since 2014. A Winter Star was his second directorial debut.
After receiving a green light from Encore, he launched a crowdfunding site to cover the play’s production costs and raise money for the kids’ theater, whose programs were languishing during Covid’s unwelcome intermission. Social distancing necessitated a different approach, so Tilock staged his production drivethrough style in December. Patrons arrived by car at Temple Rodef Shalom in Falls Church and donated any amount they were able to give, then drove from scene to scene, with actors performing in the open air.
otherwise would not be able to afford the technology. To date, the nonprofit has provided $50,000 in assistance for about 70 chemotherapy patients in the D.C. area. “[Helping] is so gratifying,” says Lord, who lives in Donaldson Run. “Just when I think ‘I don’t know if I can keep doing this,’ we’ll approve a patient, and they will write me the most heartfelt and impactful, often hardtoread emails...and it’s worthwhile.” coldcapitalfund.org
Billed as a seasonal holiday show, A Winter Star pulled in more than $12,000. Tilock, 17, says only a small fraction of the funds was needed to cover costume and set costs. The rest went to Encore’s Theatre for All! Fund, which supports the nonprofit’s ongoing mission to offer classes, camps and performance opportunities to all kids, regardless of their economic means.
Riding the wave of that success, Tilock penned another play, Voyager’s Compass, which opened in drivethrough form in May at WashingtonLiberty High School, with encore performances in July at the Cathedral of St. Thomas More and Lubber Run Amphitheater. It drew more than 530 theatergoers.
“[Encore is] a true ensemble; it feels like a family,” says the teen, who lives in Lake Barcroft and completed an intensive playwriting workshop with Northwestern University this summer. “I feel like I have really grown as a person and leader there. It’s my favorite place to be.” encorestageva.org
Tran Truong is a talent to be reckoned with in the design world. For the second consecutive year, the 26-year-old Marymount University student (now alumna) in May took top honors in a national competition hosted by the visual merchandising company WindowsWear. This year’s challenge: Design a store concept for the 40th anniversary of fashion label Michael Kors with an eye toward sustainability and social change.
Truong’s innovative concept for Kors included sustainable materials such as recycled wood flooring, perforated mesh partitions to reduce energy use, and a digital mirror paired with an app that would allow customers to swap outfits virtually without having to physically change clothes. “I wanted to make users rethink the way they shop,” says the Woodbridge resident. “It’s not solely about the product quality— hence, it’s now an experience.”
For the 2020 WindowsWear competition, Truong designed a futuristic holiday retail store, window display, pop-up and event for Coach, all hypothetically set in the year 2030. Centering on a “crystal” theme, her design concept included a massive snow globe with the season’s handbag collection inside.
After studying architectural design in Vietnam, where she was born and raised, Truong transferred to Northern Virginia Community College in 2014 and discovered a passion for interior design. She decided to pursue her bachelor’s degree at Marymount in Arlington and graduated this spring. Next up: two internships in New York City, with Coach and Michael Kors. She hopes to one day work for the Smithsonian in D.C.
“As an Asian American immigrant, I hope to encourage anyone who has started a new life in a foreign country, just like I did, to have more confidence about who they truly are,” she says, “and what they can do.” marymount.edu
Rachel Camp has lived in Arlington’s Courthouse neighborhood since 2019, but she previously spent nearly a decade singing onstage in and around Philadelphia. That’s how she came to know Johnny Showcase, who, with his band, The Mystic Ticket, combines rock, jazz, funk, sequins and spandex in a comedic performance style she describes as “Philly stank.”
Little did Camp know that that connection would lead to her 2021 national television debut. In April, Showcase invited her to join his act in an audition for NBC’s America’s Got Talent (AGT), serving as one of two backup singers (along with her friend Tabitha Allen) in a duo billed as “The Truth.” As they belted out tunes with expressions of deadpan nonchalance, their role was not just to provide backup vocals, but also to challenge conventional beauty standards.
The audition, which aired in June, generated audience laughs and a standing ovation from the panel, including body-positive comments from judge Heidi Klum about The Truth’s armpit hair (a point of pride for Camp), and finally, a unanimous vote that sent the group to compete in the next round. They didn’t win big, but Camp still sees the experience as a win.
“The way that Johnny Showcase shows up onstage and shows up in body and shows up in vibe is exactly how I want to show up in my own life,” says the singer, who holds a degree in theater from Montclair State University in New Jersey and spent the summer rehearsing for a theater project with Team Sunshine Performance Corporation in Philly. She also teaches virtual voice lessons and does simulation exercises with Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where she helps doctors practice how to communicate with parents of pediatric patients by playing the role of a parent receiving stressful or bad news.
Camp also works at Good Sweat Cycle Studio in Arlington’s Colonial Village shopping center. @johnnyshowcase on Twitter
Madelyn Rosenberg | photo by Skip Brown
In the world of flag football, the Virginia Hurricanes are known as the team to beat.
THE CICADAS ARE belting out their final chorus on a hot day in June as the Virginia Hurricanes take the field for flag football practice at Dorothy Hamm Middle School. It’s 5 o’clock on a Monday, the practice time that worked best
for this group of 12-year-old girls, all of whom play other sports but still want to play “flag.” Coach Mike Rivera built a spreadsheet to figure out when all could meet and still attend their various other practices.
“Again,” Rivera calls. The players line up along what would be the 50-yard line, if the practice field were marked. The center snaps the ball and the girls move in formation. Hand off. Reset. Pass. Reset.
Rivera started coaching basketball and flag football 15 years ago when his oldest daughter played both sports. When his son and youngest daughter became interested, he coached them, too. Now, his oldest daughter is a chemical engineer. His son is about to start a career in federal law enforcement, and his youngest daughter is a starting point guard for the women’s basketball team at Columbia University.
Rivera remains here in Arlington, coaching other people’s daughters yearround in both flag and girls’ basketball
under the banner of the Hurricanes organization, which he founded.
With Russ Burd (Rivera coached his son years ago, then recruited Burd to join him as a flag defensive coach), Rivera has taken Virginia Hurricanes select flag teams to the NFL nationals— the championships for the official NFL flag football league—seven times.
They’ve won the national championship three times—twice for the 14-andunder (14U) age group, and once for the 12U age group. The 10U and 12U teams qualified for the upcoming nationals in Nevada in January 2022, and the 14U team will compete to qualify in November. It’s an empire of sorts.
“Five more plays,” Rivera calls, as practice draws near an end. “Two more,” he calls, seven plays later.
“Don’t let her get behind you,” stresses Burd, who prefers to stay behind the scenes. “Turn!”
Burd and Rivera work with girls between the ages of 8 and 15—some 80 of them spread across the Hurricanes Select flag program that includes 10U, 12U, 14U and, more recently, 9U teams.
Last spring, they put together a developmental flag football program for the first time, with 30 third- and fourth-graders. “They’re the future,” Rivera says. (The Hurricanes organization also fields 15 girls’ basketball teams per year, spanning grades 3-12.)
Flag football got its start in Arlington more than 15 years ago under the husband-and-wife team of Bart and Barbie Gray. When the Grays moved to Farmville, Virginia, at the end of the 2017 season, Arlington County Parks and Recreation took over management of the local league. Rivera and Burd coach teams in the Arlington league, but also run a travel program with select teams of girls who travel to compete in tournaments.
In Arlington, as in other strongholds across the country, flag continues to gain in popularity. In 2020, the National Association of Intercollegiate
Athletics (NAIA) recognized women’s flag football as a sanctioned sport. Fifteen colleges now offer flag programs and scholarships.
“It’s really grown here,” says Rivera, a law partner specializing in SEC defense work at Bass, Berry & Sims. He and Burd, a telecommunications consultant, are a key reason for that. They coach teams four nights a week and, of course, on weekends.
Wherever they go, across the country, “people know the Virginia Hurricanes,” Burd says.
Both coaches are quick to credit the players for that reputation. “What these kids have done here? They’ve done a tremendous job,” Rivera says. “I don’t think a lot of people understand what an accomplishment it is. The Hurricanes flag program is a national powerhouse. The players compete at the highest level of flag and win consistently. The game has exploded, and there are many more girls’ teams now across the country. The Hurricanes are still at the top. We have been blessed with players who are good athletes and dedicated themselves to becoming great flag football players.”
But of course, coaching is a big part of the equation. Because the tournament games are short (two 12-minute halves), the coaches have to quickly analyze the other team and figure out how best to counter. Burd adjusts the defense while Rivera figures out how to score on offense. The team has dozens of plays; Rivera suspects their playbook is larger than any other team in the country.
And then, there’s practice. “When I call the play, players know what to do because of their detailed preparation,” he says. Repetition through practice is critical. It’s resulted in the Hurricanes qualifying for the national championship every year since 2014.
Sienna Merrill, a rising freshman at Washington-Liberty High School, has been playing for Coach Mike and
Coach Russ since she was in fourth grade. A linebacker and running back in flag, Merrill also plays soccer (her main sport) and basketball. “I grew up watching lots of football, but I only saw boys playing on the screen,” she says. “When Coach Mike told me he was building a girls’ football team, I realized I had an opportunity that I never thought I’d have.”
She recruited a number of friends to join her on the team. Now, at national tournaments, they meet NFL players and cheerleaders and play on turf fields with TV cameras filming.
Team parents are supportive of the coaches and say they appreciate the high expectations. Rivera and Burd coach both of Sara Kelly’s daughters in flag, and one daughter has played on Rivera’s AAU basketball team. “He pushes them and gives them confidence to reach their potential,” Kelly says.
“He holds them accountable, which is why they’ve been so successful.”
Rivera and Burd correct mistakes when they see them—an incorrect passing pattern, a missed defensive assignment. They note when players react too passively or don’t run hard. “That’s the only way to get better,” Rivera says. “We run a tight ship and they know it.”
A sports fan (he loves the New York Yankees and the Pittsburgh Steelers), Rivera watches professional sports on TV. But for excitement—outside of his own daughter’s basketball games—it’s flag football that has his heart. “I take the wins and losses much harder than they do,” he says.
The wins keep coming, even when they lose. In Orlando in January 2020, the 14U team was seeded last after pool play—a rarity for the Hurricanes, who lost each round-robin game by a single point or in overtime. A low seed meant
they had to take on the top seed first: the Texas Fury. “That was all we heard about, Texas Fury,” Rivera says. “But the girls got together and said, ‘We can do this.’ ”
They beat the Fury, then the Tucson Turf, and finally Staten Island to claim the championship. The season ended in triumph and screams. “We went from as low as you can go to as high as you can go in a day,” Rivera says.
This year, the high continued when the 12U Virginia Hurricanes team went undefeated in the tournament and won the national championship in Tampa. What does Rivera like best about coaching? “I like watching them get better,” he says. “I just love the game.” ■
Madelyn Rosenberg is the author of One Small Hop (Scholastic) and other books for children. She lives with her family in Arlington.
Baseball at the Manzanar
Center in California, an
I had family members on both sides of World War II. They all loved baseball.
BASEBALL, FOR OUR FAMILY, starts each spring with Arlington Little League’s opening day. The youngest kids race full speed onto the field, followed by progressively older players, each group a little bigger and a bit more in control of their limbs.
The littles always pause in awe of the high school players who are waiting on the field to greet them. Silent, in their clean whites and greys, these man-boys loom like gods over the 7-, 8- and 9-year-
olds. I love it because I know most of the older kids started their baseball careers as littles, too. The extraordinary connection that unifies them all is their love of the game.
For me, baseball is also the string, the connector to my family’s story. Watching my 10-year-old play, I sometimes catch a glimpse of my grandfather, my ji-chan, who traveled as a teen from a small village in Wakayama-ken, Japan, to the big city of Osaka, in search of work. He was so lonely that he would climb the tallest mountain in Osaka, face in the direction of home and cry.
After landing a factory job, my ji-chan joined his company baseball team and became very good. He could throw a ball so straight and fast. I imagine he was a pitcher, although that was one of those questions I forgot to ask before he passed away a couple years ago. His baseball story was always a story of what if? He almost went pro, but then the war broke out and he left to fight for his country.
Today, watching my son on the field, it’s not just my son I see. It’s also the dust being kicked up on a parched baseball diamond in Jerome, Arkansas, home of the internment camp that incarcerated my family during World War II—a place my other grandfather knew well.
Forced from their home in Los Angeles, my other grandpa and his family traveled 1,800 miles to live behind barbed wire and armed guards in a place that was never designed for children, much less longterm habitation. He left to become a U.S. Army sergeant, but would return to the camp on leave.
Searching for ways to pass the time, the kids in Jerome did what bored kids do everywhere—they played sandlot baseball. Their experience is chronicled in the book Baseball Saved Us, by Ken Mochizuki.
My great-uncle Saburo, aka “Zip,” was the inspiration behind the main character in an award-winning 2003
short film, Day of Independence, about one of the baseball leagues in the camp. The story follows a fictional family (based loosely on ours) as they deal with wartime separation and illness. For Zip and his peers, baseball offers an anchor of normalcy in a world that is abnormal. It breaks the monotony of camp life and affirms the humanity of people forced to live in subhuman conditions.
Fast-forward to 2021. As we search for parking in a tree-lined neighborhood near one of Arlington’s hidden ball fields, these are the people who are in the car with me. Whenever my son steals a base or goes for home, my family is always in my thoughts.
Baseball connects me to the stories of my parents and their parents. And now, baseball connects me to my kids. This is our fourth year as an Arlington Little League family. Summer is a
three-ring circus of tournaments, laundry and a seemingly endless stream of MLB games to watch. We finally ventured out to Nationals Park this year (post-vaccinations), and the “Welcome Home” banners made me stop and catch my breath.
Now we’re heading toward fall and the postseason—a time when old rivalries resurface, impossible stories of destiny come true, hearts are broken and the elusive dream of a championship, for most, stays just beyond reach.
Once every hundred years, a miracle happens, a curse is broken, and grown men and women weep. That is October baseball.
I’ve been thinking about what I want my son and daughter to understand about their Japanese American background. There are the traditions, the customs and the foods I want to pass down, sure, but I’ve also come to
n Multidisciplinary team approach
realize how much baseball is a part of the legacy.
Through “America’s favorite pastime,” they are learning the values I equate with their heritage: prioritizing what’s best for the community over personal gain; the joy of celebrating others’ successes; a commitment to working hard and mastering the small things. (“Baseball is a game of inches,” Coach Ritchie often reminds the kids.)
Perhaps the biggest takeaway is recognizing that you’re just one team, in a long line of teams, sharing in a story that is both unique and ordinary.
Play ball. ■
Nikki Toyama-Szeto is the executive director of Christians for Social Action. She can often be found driving around Arlington with a trunk full of sports equipment, canopies and extra drinks.
n Highly specialized medical oncology, hematology, radiation therapy, orthopedic oncology/surgery, breast surgery, thoracic surgery, genetic counseling, palliative medicine and research
n Highly-rated physicians and surgeons in our community
n State-of-the-art technology, labs, and on-site pharmacy
n Access to Clinical Trials, including Phase I
“Our motto, “Mouth, Mind and Body,” promotes integrative dental health so that dental solutions are created based upon life’s challenges, genetic risk factors and science.”
Clarendon Dental Arts
2700 Clarendon Blvd., Suite R480 Arlington, VA 22201 703-525-5901 www.clarendondentalarts.com
Q: What are your top priorities for women patients?
A: Helping women live healthier lives! Women tend to be gatekeepers to their families’ health, and their own well-being often takes a back seat. Our motto, “Mouth, Mind and Body,” promotes integrative dental health so that dental solutions are created based upon life’s challenges, genetic risk factors and science. We are committed to empowering our patients with the knowledge to include dentistry in their overall health plan.
Q: Your practice is women-owned with an all-female staff. Why is that important to you?
A: Women-owned businesses reflect the women of our community and offer the gentle touch and female perspectives that benefit the world around us. Surrounding yourself with like-minded women who can create mentorship
opportunities for others beginning their careers is a critical step in creating strong, confident female leaders. We encourage our team’s personal and professional development, so they are not only better providers of dental care, but better individuals. Our values encourage self-worth through education, relationshipbuilding, individualized patient care and community outreach.
Q: What’s changed for women in dentistry over your career?
A: Our ever-evolving field has seen a huge growth in female entrepreneurship. At Clarendon Dental Arts, we’re proud to inspire and highlight women in dentistry, while continuing to offer the highest level of dental care to the Arlington community that we’ve provided for the last 30 years. We look forward to doubling our efforts and building upon the many lasting relationships we’ve developed and continue to develop every day.
Renowned for their land use, zoning and commercial real estate law practices around the region, Walsh, Colucci, Lubeley & Walsh has represented landowners and developers, excelling in civil litigation and real estate transactions. Shareholder and land use practice leader Lynne Strobel shares her insights on being a successful woman in the commercial real estate and legal industry.
2200 Clarendon Blvd., Suite 1300 Arlington, VA 22201
703-528-4700 www.thelandlawyers.com
From Top Left:
Land Use & Zoning
ElizabEth bakEr, land UsE PlannEr
kathryn r. taylor, associatE attornEy kElly a PosUsnEy, land UsE PlannEr
kristEn WalEntisch, land UsE PlannEr
laUrEn G. rilEy, associatE attornEy lynnE J. strobEl, sharEholdEr M. catharinE PUskar, sharEholdEr nan E. Walsh, of coUnsEl
ReaL estate tRansactions
alysia M. yi, associatE attornEy antonia E. MillEr, sharEholdEr kathlEEn harnEy sMith, sharEholdEr sUsan l trUskEy, associatE attornEy
otheR PRactice aReas
WEndy a alExandEr, sharEholdEr, litiGation and bUsinEss transactions
Q: What will be the biggest challenge for the generation of women behind you?
A: I believe the biggest challenge will continue to be balancing a career and family. It became evident during the pandemic that women continue to be the primary caregiver in families and that includes caring for children and parents. Striving to find the right balance between caring for family and succeeding in a career will continue to be difficult.
Q: What's changed for women in business?
A: Women are now more generally accepted in leadership roles in a variety of careers. I see more women in businesses that have been male dominated, such as real estate development. Women work in development roles and consulting roles, such as civil engineers and traffic consultants. I see women supporting other women in these various roles, including the legal profession, and men accepting women.
Q: What changes or innovations are on the horizon in your industry? How are you preparing for them?
A: Prior to the pandemic, all negotiations and meetings were held in person. In-person meetings changed almost overnight to virtual meetings through various platforms. I believe the virtual trend is here to stay given the efficiency of participating from your desk. It is nice, however, to have an option to meet in person as some discussions are just better face to face. The firm has invested in additional technology and licenses to ensure that all firm members are prepared to continue with the virtual trend.
REALTOR®, BUCK & ASSOCIATES
Certified Residential Specialist (CRS); Certified International Property Specialist (CIPS); Accredited Buyer’s Representative (ABR); Certified Real Estate Negotiator (CREN); NVAR Lifetime Top Producer, Diamond Club; certified digital marketing expert (e-PRO®)
2519 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA 22201
703-582-7779
donna@BuckRealtors.com www.DonnaHamaker.com
Q: What advice would you offer to women just starting out?
A: Surround yourself with people who continually strive for excellence, both personally and professionally. Learn from and emulate women you admire in your field. Reach out to another woman with more experience in your profession and ask if she’ll be your mentor. This is a powerful way to connect. Networking is also hugely important. By becoming an active member of your local Chamber of Commerce and other organizations, you’ll build relationships and gain exposure within your field and beyond.
Q: How do you measure business success?
A: Goal setting is crucial when measuring success. I strive to help as many families and individuals as possible with their dreams of home ownership. I have the business sense and life experience to guide my clients through the entire
real estate process – from buying their first home to upsizing, investing and downsizing. The truest vote of confidence, trust and success is when previous clients ask me to help a friend or colleague.
Q: What do you look forward to when you go to work every day?
A: Spending time with my clients! Of course, it’s different today as we continue to navigate COVID-19. I’m still taking advantage of Zoom and FaceTime to meet with clients. And I continue to follow CDC guidelines when showing property and at settlements. Our ways of doing business have changed, but I’m grateful that I’m still able to meet and help so many interesting people.
BARB MACKIN, SVP, CRE RELATIONSHIP MGR.
KATHY HARBOLD, SVP, CRE RELATIONSHIP MGR.
TERI THOMPSON, SVP, CRE RELATIONSHIP MGR.
In March 2021, EagleBank ranked eighth in the Washington Business Journal’s Corporate Diversity Index for midsize companies as a result of its strong policy on diversity, equity and inclusion, as well as the Bank’s outstanding employee culture.
4420 N. Fairfax Drive
Arlington, VA 22203
571-319-4800
ContactMe@EagleBankCorp.com www.EagleBankCorp.com
Q: What changes or innovations are on the horizon in your industry? How are you preparing for them?
A: Kathy Harbold: Banking is becoming less of a bricks-and-mortar business and more virtual. Our bank has invested in technology to keep pace with changing demands. Still, we remain committed to being “front and center” and present in our customer relationships. Picking up the phone is easy, but taking the time to meet with and talk to customers is more important. You can achieve a greater appreciation for and understanding of clients and their companies through social interactions.
Q: What professional advice would you give your younger self?
A: Barb Mackin: Don’t expect your career or personal life to be linear, and don’t be so afraid to make mistakes. There are lots of twists and turns along the way, and that’s how you learn.
Teri Thompson: Stay open-minded and don’t be afraid to try new things. Know your plan, but don’t be afraid to pivot. And network authentically. Relationships are important, and the quality of those relationships depends on what you put into them.
Q: What do you look forward to most when you go to work every day?
A: Barb Mackin: I look forward to working with my clients and colleagues and the problem-solving aspect of commercial real estate. Every transaction presents a new challenge.
Teri Thompson: Each day is a new opportunity to learn, grow and challenge myself, all of which make me a better person and a better banker.
Wendy Weinberger is president and co-founder of Illuminos, an academic, executive function coaching program that’s laser-focused on individual student needs. Her company's sophisticated curriculum, whole-child approach, caring coaches and in-home customized sessions have resulted in Illuminos being hailed as one of the premier academic coaching companies in our region.
571-313-5163 | HeyWendy@illuminos.co | www.illuminos.co
Q: What guiding principle helps lead your company’s success?
A: I’ve always believed that a business is only as good as its people. I take great care to inspire and encourage each member of our accomplished team to voice their opinions, recommendations and constructive suggestions. Our team is heard and empowered to improve our business.
Q: What do you look forward to every day?
A: I relish speaking with our client families about how we can help their child become independent and more successful in school and life. Many parents begin our consultation calls desperate to find help for their child. Some are struggling with motivation, others with organization and time management, others are frustrated with less-thanstellar grades despite their perceived best effort. Many lack self-confidence or suffer from low selfesteem. Others are simply overwhelmed.
It is imperative that each family and student understands that we work diligently to support their child’s needs by providing them with our best and most compatible coaches, curriculum and resources.
Q: What qualities do you think a successful executive function, academic coaching professional should possess?
A: Empathy, compassion and the ability to listen to families in need. Matching students and families with the coach that best suits their child is a key ingredient to our success.
We want students to feel encouraged, empowered and motivated to learn executive function skills and strategies, then use those tools to become independent learners who earn better grades and well-deserved accolades. This is the constructive, supportive cycle that we promote while concurrently enhancing their academic success and social-emotional well-being.
The attorneys at Bean, Kinney & Korman (BKK) specialize in business transactions, bankruptcy/creditors rights, employment, real estate, family law and estate planning. Our attorneys understand the importance of putting clients first and adapting to challenges inside and outside of the workplace. Kathleen Kelley shares her thoughts on being a successful lawyer and woman in business.
2311 Wilson Blvd., Suite 500 Arlington, VA 22201
703-525-4000 beankinney.com
Q: What advice would you offer for women just starting out?
A: Have a good moral compass and asses any situation against that compass. Figure out for yourself what is right and what is wrong. It’s immeasurably helpful when you need to tell your client not to do something or give clients advice they don’t want to hear.
Q: What do you look forward to when you go to work every day?
A: It depends on the day, but I look forward to work that involves transitions. Sometimes my work moves a business to new owners, sometimes I draft a more effective contract and sometimes I revise organizational documents to fold in new business partners. In each case, the goal is for the company to flourish because of the changes.
Q: What was a major turning point in your life and/or career?
A: The biggest change in my career came recently. I worked in Delaware for
the first 10 years after law school. Then my husband got a job in Virginia, and we needed to move. Needing to rebuild my client base really made me a better lawyer. I moved around a little, learning a lot from each opportunity, and then landed at BKK, which is a great fit for me because I can provide the best service to my clients.
Q: What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned during your career?
A: Not to be afraid of saying “I don’t know.” I can’t know everything! How would you ever trust someone that would bluff through an answer?
Standing (left to right): Juanita ferguSon, taylor Klauza, emily nerino, Jill Seiferth, andrea daviSon, maureen Carr, KandiS KouSteniS, miChelle BieBer, Jennifer mCCammon
Seated (left to right): Jennifer SChiffer, Jennifer BruSt, lynn hawKinS, Kathleen Kelley
STEPHANIE YOUNG '00
WHITTNEY PRESTON COURTNEY ULMER
Girls explore their unique voices and discover the skills, confidence and courage to share them with the world at Foxcroft, an all-girls boarding and day school that prepares young women in grades 9-12 for success in college and life. Outstanding academics include Advanced Placement courses and an innovative STEM program. The equestrian program is nationally recognized.
Foxcroft School
22407 Foxhound Lane
Middleburg, VA 20117
540-687-5555 www.foxcroft.org
Q: How has your experience as an alumna influenced your work with students?
A: Stephanie Young ‘00, Dean of Students: Being an alumna gives me insights into what's important to the girls at this stage of their lives. It’s not just about remembering what it was like to be their age. I can join them in looking toward the future, while knowing which traditions and events will shape their Foxcroft experience.
Q: What are you most looking forward to in your new role at Foxcroft?
A: Whittney Preston, Dean of Inclusive Excellence: I’m looking forward to getting to know all members of the faculty and staff, amplifying their voices, and highlighting the amazing things I know they’re doing. Aligning the curriculum and viewing it through the lens of diversity, equity and inclusion is my mission. I’m elated to have the opportunity to
continue to make this a place where all students can not only explore their unique voices, but see and hear those voices represented.
Q: Why do you do what you do?
A: Courtney Ulmer, Assistant Head of School: In the ninth grade, I had an amazing history teacher who made me grow as a learner, thinker and writer. She made me see my potential, and that’s what I want to give to my students. As an administrator, I still connect with students daily. At the heart of these interactions is giving students the tools to discover their potential and be their own advocate. I want them to learn how to have a difficult conversation, how to take on a more challenging class, how to weigh priorities.
Dr. Carla M. Shuman, a licensed clinical psychologist, is the owner and director of Mindful Solutions, LLC. The practice treats children, adolescents and adults. Specialty areas include treating anxiety, OCD, trauma, ADHD, depression and adjustment to chronic medical illness. Neuropsychological evaluations are conducted to diagnose ADHD, learning disabilities, and other cognitive and emotional challenges.
2000 14th St. N., Suite 780 Arlington, VA 22201
703-527-1200 www.drcarlamessenger.com
Q: How do you measure success?
A: The most rewarding aspect of my work is when I know I’ve established trust and connection with a client, and they begin to transform. As they recognize their resilience, change and growth result. Often, for the first time in a long time, they enjoy the freedom to find meaning, purpose and joy.
Q: Why do you do what you do? What motivates and inspires you?
A: My mission is to support people as they work to improve their lives, even rebuild their lives after trauma. Everyone has challenges; I’ve faced my own. In part, that helps me do what I do. I’m a big proponent of individuals’ ability to fight, bounce back and be resilient. Leaning into struggles and finding healthy ways to deal with them allows people to have a good life with healthy relationships.
I strongly believe in applying evidencebased mental health practices, but since even the best practices don’t fit everyone, we use a variety of tools and strategies. In brief phone consultations, I match clients with therapists for the best connections. Each of us has a slightly different training background.
Q: Why did you decide to open your own practice?
A: My hospital experience includes a postdoctoral fellowship at Children’s National Medical Center. There are wonderful days in the hospital setting, but natural limitations with a laser-sharp goal of diagnosis and treatment of specific symptoms. I prefer to treat the whole person and that takes time. With my own practice, I always take that time.
, ,
OMEGA WEALTH MANAGEMENT, LLC
Washingtonian, Top Wealth Advisor 2019, 2021
Northern Virginia Magazine, Top Financial Professional 2018-2021
Arlington Magazine Winner, Best Financial Planner, 2019, 2021
Investment News, Women to Watch 2019
200 N. Glebe Road, Suite 730
Arlington, VA 22203
703-387-0919
lisa@omegawealthmanagement.com www.omegawealthmanagement.com
Q: What changes or innovations are on the horizon in your industry? How are you preparing for them?
A: Unfortunately, our industry has not been known for being very diverse. Men advisors still outnumber women 3 to 1, even after the 22 years I’ve been in business. In addition, people of color are even more under-represented. At Omega, we have taken this challenge seriously and have built a diverse team that is ready to serve a more diverse clientele and their needs.
We have also seen that clients no longer want to just talk about the numbers. They want to be seen as a person first, their money second. Our innovative, holistic approach and specialized training helps us meaningfully integrate our clients’ values, vision and wealth into a coordinated, inspiring financial life plan. Understanding how our clients are built, knowing their
communication preferences, and helping them dovetail their deepest life dreams with their financial strategy makes our work much more meaningful and impactful.
Increasingly our clients are looking to align their values with their money through Environmental, Social Responsibility and Corporate Governance (ESG) criteria. They want to feel like their money is “doing well, while doing good.”
I sit on the national board of the Financial Planning Association and also serve on their Diversity and Inclusion Committee to try to positively impact those efforts within the financial planning profession. We welcome the opportunity to work with successful women executives and business owners as well as people of color who have been historically underserved.
JENNIFER MULLETT, LAURA DOVE AND JENNIFER BRADLEY
Best Lawyers™; Washingtonian Top Lawyers; Super Lawyers™; Martindale-Hubbell 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.mdmblaw.com
Q: What changes or innovations are on the horizon in your industry? How are you preparing for them?
A: The COVID-19 pandemic has created especially challenging circumstances for the courts, which get a high volume of people through their doors every day. The circuit courts have slowly begun allowing the return of inperson hearings and trials, but virtual appearances have been so efficient, everyone is wondering whether they’ll continue. Our firm has made it a priority to learn the new procedures being used by the courts, and we’ve updated our conference rooms to safely accommodate remote hearings, mediations and trials.
Q: What qualities do you think a successful family lawyer should have?
A: Every family law attorney must have knowledge in a wide variety of areas – from real estate and tax law, to trusts and estates – and be skilled in settlement negotiations, dispute resolution and trial strategy. Client communication is a priority. Lawyers must clearly explain options, along with the costs and benefits of each approach – and communicate everything with empathy. Being respectful of the opposing counsel is also critical.
Q: How do you measure success?
A: Our goal is to help each client resolve disputes in a way that leaves them as whole as possible and able to 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 inform clients about every step of the process, explore realistic solutions and pursue the best approach to meet their goals.
Michelle Scott, Owner/Director
TUTORING CLUB OF MCLEAN
Tutoring Club of McLean provides individualized academic assistance to students of all ages and abilities. From early learning to college preparation, they are a dedicated partner for every step of the journey and a trusted member of the communities they serve. Their awardwinning services help students become confident and self-motivated learners.
6228 Old Dominion Drive McLean, VA 22101
703-237-TUTOR (8886) McLeanVA@TutoringClub.com www.TutoringClub.com/McLeanVA
Q: What women inspire you and why?
A: I am inspired every day by the women I work with at Tutoring Club of McLean. Not only are they passionate and enthusiastic educators, but each of them brings something so unique to the table. I count myself lucky to work with a group of women who care just as much about the success of each student that passes through our halls as I do.
Q: How do you measure success?
A: For us, it’s all about the students. And success means something different for every student. We count it as a win when we see a student ace their first math test, raise their SAT score from a 1230 to a 1460, or when we hear from a parent that they are no longer getting into arguments over homework. In all of these scenarios, we see a newfound confidence blossom in our students and that lets us know that what we do is truly changing lives. It’s a priceless feeling!
Q: What are your top priorities?
A: Right now, our top priority is helping our students catch up, re-engage in their academics and prepare for the school year ahead. Many parents don’t realize that kiddos can lose up to 25% of the progress they made during the past school year over the course of a summer free of learning. We try to mitigate that loss by having the right programs, people and infrastructure in place to ensure our students continue learning and growing.
left to right:
Marilyn Z, lead instructor
Michelle scott, owner/director
Jessyca w, lead instructor / education coordinator
Katherine c, assistant enrollMent director (seated)
RAC Financial is a family owned business dedicated to providing superior financial products and services, while keeping our clients’ costs as low as possible. We understand the subtleties and complexities of the credit card processing industry, which means we have the knowledge and expertise to help your business succeed.
Arlington, VA 22207
202-438-7366 www.racfinancial.com
Q: How do you measure success?
A: We define success as having happy, satisfied customers who continue to refer business to us. Success is creating long-lasting relationships and continuing to learn, improve and grow as a company. When we decided to work together, our common goals were to love what we do and help our clients save money. We also believe in being honest, trustworthy and hard-working. We measure success by the success of our customers. We set goals that meet or beat their expectations. We understand that courteous, professional service is the foundation for sustained long-term growth, and we are passionate about our work.
Q: Why do you do what you do? What motivates and inspires you?
A: We joined RAC Financial because we are excited about helping companies save money. Now more than ever, businesses need to look at every possible area where they can lower costs. We deliver to our customers the absolute best credit-card processing rates and service in the industry.
Another motivator is our children. Between us we have five daughters and feel that it is important to be strong role models for them. We demonstrate that women can be leaders, balancing work and family. We teach our girls to be self-sufficient and ambitious, so that they don’t have to rely on anyone but themselves.
BARB HINK
MALLORY HINK
EMILY HINK
HB Services can meet any home improvement need, from window and siding replacement to kitchen, bathroom and basement remodeling. Experts in their field, honors include being voted Washingtonian Magazine’s Top Remodeler, Talk of the Town’s Excellence in Customer Satisfaction award, an Extreme Makeover Home Edition remodeler and the Angie’s List Super Service Award.
2987 Prosperity Ave. Fairfax, VA 22031
703-764-0498 www.hbservices.biz
Q: How do you measure success?
A: Any business’ success can be measured by the quality of its craft, especially in the construction industry. We can stand toe-to-toe with any competitor when it comes to successful projects on the books, but as a female-owned and family-run business, we look to our customers’ satisfaction and the positive impact of our work as a measure of our company’s success.
All women have been told at one point or another to take the emotion out of business, but our intuition is exactly what sets us apart and it has proven to be the reason for our success in this industry. We listen to our customers, we deliver on the quality of our craft and we’ve got our customers’ backs through it all. And most importantly, we have fun!
At HB Services and our newly launched real estate division, Hink Property Group, our customers not only become part of the HB family, but they also become our friends through the process. It is truly by that standard that we measure our success.
It has been exhilarating to see how far we have come over the years in breaking the mold, not just when it comes to being women in business but as a company overall. We are continuously working to be the best we can be for our employees, for our customers and ultimately for our community as a whole where our roots run deep.
MEDICAL DIRECTOR
BREAST IMAGING
FAIRFAX RADIOLOGY CENTERS, LLC
Fairfax Radiology Centers (FRC) is the largest radiology practice in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. With over 90 radiologists, FRC provides leadingedge medical imaging at more than 20 conveniently located outpatient centers. FRC strives to deliver an excellent patient experience using dedicated subspecialty radiologists to enhance the health of our community.
2722 Merrilee Drive, Suite 230 Fairfax, VA 22031
703-698-4488 www.fairfaxradiology.com
Q: What inspires you to do what you do?
A: Finding breast cancer as early as possible! The earlier cancer is found, the less extensive the surgery, the more effective the treatment and the better the survival.
I am fortunate to practice in one of the largest groups of subspecialty-trained breast radiologists in the country. My team and I are committed to excellence. In fact, FRC’s rate of early detection of breast cancer exceeds national benchmarks.
Q: What do women need to know about mammograms?
A: Remember, mammograms save lives. If you are anxious during your visit, let us know. If you have a question, ask. Don’t be alarmed—sometimes extra images or an ultrasound are needed to get a more detailed look.
Q: What changes or innovations do you see in breast imaging?
A: The introduction of tomosynthesis, also called 3-D mammography, has improved radiologists’ cancer detection abilities. Compared to a regular (2-D) mammogram, tomosynthesis (3-D) is like seeing a snowflake more clearly in the middle of a snowstorm. In addition, artificial intelligence tools now being introduced will further enhance our ability to detect breast cancer.
Q: What advice would you offer for women just starting out?
A: I started off my career in a different direction, not thinking I would be a breast radiologist. But now, I couldn’t imagine a more fulfilling profession or a better place to practice. I have learned that one’s career may not be a direct path, so embrace the twists and turns life presents.
ANN SUMMERSON, FINANCIAL ADVISOR, CFP®
SAMANTA RODRIGUEZ TRACONIS, MARKETING ASSISTANT
HEATHER PHELPS, CLIENT ASSISTANT
ANGIE MILLER, CLIENT ASSISTANT
JENNIFER COLLINS, BRANCH ADMINISTRATIVE SUPERVISOR
TAMARA BURKHALTER, BRANCH OPERATIONS ASSISTANT
The Wise Investor Group aims to bring clarity to each client’s financial life. We depend on the planning process to drive our portfolio recommendations because we believe your investments should fit you, not the other way around. Following a disciplined, research-based approach, we build diversified, high quality portfolios.
11951 Freedom Drive, Suite 1000
Reston, VA 20190
571-203-1600 www.thewiseinvestorgroup.com
Q: What do the other women in your firm say they appreciate about their work?
A: Samanta Rodriguez Traconis: I am constantly looking forward to seeing what I’ll learn next.
Heather Phelps: Working hard and maintaining good relationships with my coworkers always pays off.
Angie Miller: Don’t focus on difficulties. It wouldn’t be a challenge if it wasn’t hard to overcome. You follow clients through their ups and downs; you are like the family in the background that is always there to help. Jennifer Collins: The culture we have acts as a catalyst to innovate, try new things, not to be afraid of failures. I’m challenged and encouraged to find creative ways to solve problems.
Tamara Burkhalter: Don’t ever stop learning and growing as a person. We all need people skills, the attitude and ability to handle difficult situations, and problemsolving strategies.
Q: What was a major turning point in your life or career?
A: Ann Summerson: I got into the financial services industry as a career change in my late 30’s. It was a great move. My focus is financial planning and it’s been so rewarding over the years to see plans come to fruition, to watch goals be met and exceeded.
Q: What changes or innovations are on the horizon in your industry?
A: Ann Summerson: Technology is transforming the industry, and some say that computers can do everything that human financial advisors can. While there are new web-based financial planning and investment tools, nothing can replace having a live person advise you and keep you on track, especially once you start to accumulate wealth.
Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated does not provide tax or legal advice. All investments carry a level of risk, including loss of principal.
The Russian School of Mathematics, an award-winning K-12 after-school math program, has empowered students to achieve excellence for over twenty years. The rigorous, engaging study of mathematics is used as a tool to develop the mind by promoting abstract thinking and mental flexibility in addition to math fluency.
13007 Worldgate Drive Herndon, VA 20170 571-306-2355 www.RussianSchool.com
Q: What woman inspires you and why?
A: Two gifted and passionate women inspire me greatly, and these are the founders of the Russian School of Mathematics (RSM), Inessa Rifkin and Irina Khavinson. Their mission was to build a systematic math education based on the traditions of the former Soviet Union and Europe and adapt it to the needs of American students. What started with just a few students at Ms. Rifkin’s kitchen table now serves over 50,000 students across North America.
Q: How do you measure success?
A: At RSM, we believe great results should be measurable. In addition to the standardized tests, we prepare our students to participate in various national and international math competitions on which they continuously earn high scores. Our alumni go on to attend top universities around the country. The Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth named RSM one of the top 10 schools in the world.
Q: What are your top priorities?
A: Our top priority is developing the mind of each student to the highest potential. Mathematics is crucial to building a child’s growth mindset, and the correct method of teaching math provides not only needed knowledge but develops critical and logical thinking skills.
Q: What do you look forward to when you go to work every day?
A: After fifteen months of online classes, I am looking forward to being in school in person every day. I am eager to see students’ smiles in the classrooms and hear our teachers' animated exchange of ideas.
GRENADIER, DUFFETT, LEVI, WINKLER & RUBIN, P.C.
Carole Rubin has earned the highest rating (AV-Preeminent) from Martindale Hubbell, was named Super Lawyers’ Rising Star in 2013 for Virginia and in 2014 for the Washington, D.C. area, and is an experienced appellate attorney as well as accomplished practitioner in the Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Courts and Circuit Courts throughout Northern Virginia.
12359 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 230 Reston, VA 20191
703-683-9000
www.vafamilylaw.com
Q: What makes you look forward to coming to work every day?
A: Our firm uses a team approach, and it is a pleasure strategizing with my law partners about the best possible outcome for each client and how to get there. We each bring unique insight from our past cases and experiences, and we have tremendous respect for each other.
Q: What significant life experience helps you connect with many of your clients?
A: I stayed home raising my children for a decade before I went to law school. That experience of starting again enables me to advise clients on how to refocus their lives at the time of divorce and perhaps go in a new direction that may have been previously considered but had been shelved. Divorce can be an opportunity to start afresh.
Q: What’s the best advice you’ve received and how has it helped you?
A: The best advice I received is to remember that we can best help our family law clients when we are able to analyze the big picture and not get lost in the emotional tumult that our clients are experiencing when they first come to our office. It’s a balancing act because we need to project understanding for our client and at the same time be able to see the potential strengths and weaknesses of the case and address them. To do that, you need to have some emotional distance. This is something that you learn and become adept at with experience.
NOUNOU NANNY
Nounou Nanny is a nanny placement service committed to finding the perfect childcare fit for every client family. Their in-depth, step-by-step process is led by experienced consultants who assist with the important task of hiring a childcare provider. Whether seasonal or full- or part-time, clients receive quality care from experienced professional sitters and nannies.
571-237-1912 tiffany@nounou-nanny.com www.nounou-nanny.com
Q: What qualities do you think a successful nanny should have?
A: Childcare goes so far beyond “watching” children, and Nounou nannies go above and beyond their title of nanny. When vetting and interviewing nannies, I encourage them to discuss their personal interests and talents, and how they can apply them to enriching their employer families.
A professional nanny should regularly explore effective and interesting ways for children to grow and develop. He or she should be up to date on emerging and trial proven childcare methodologies and ideologies. I conduct quarterly informational sessions with all placed nannies and babysitters to make sure they are engaged and keeping current.
Q: What do you look forward to when you go to work every day?
A: I facilitate the vital communication that’s key in this intimate relationship called nanny matchmaking. Placing the right nanny with a family is a calling. It’s my passion. I successfully provide all kinds of placements: permanent, temporary, summertime, even nanny shares.
I enjoy supporting the nannies and, in addition to being their advocate, I’m a trusted advisor to the parents. I facilitate the vital communication that’s key in this very important and intimate relationship.
Q: How do you measure success?
A: Each individual has a story, a life and a gift to give. My gift is to match talented individuals with families that need and will value them. Every time I connect a family with a dynamic childcare provider who helps make the household complete, I feel a sense of accomplishment and pride.
SILVERADO ALEXANDRIA MEMORY CARE
2807 King St. Alexandria, VA 22302 703-215-9110 silverado.com
Q: What woman inspires you and why?
A: My mom instilled in me that I had special gifts to offer. She also impfed upon me the importance of hard work and selflessness. I grew up watching her demonstrate that value. In everything I do, I hope to make her proud.
Q: Why do you do what you do? How do you measure success?
A: I chose to work with individuals living with cognitive impairment because I wanted to bring joy to their days. Close to my grandparents, I’m honoring them by serving seniors who are often forgotten. Success is improved lives, smiling residents who say they love their home and family members who tell me they finally have peace because their loved one is in our care.
NATIONAL CAPITAL TREATMENT AND RECOVERY (FORMERLY PHOENIX HOUSE MID-ATLANTIC)
200 N. Glebe Road, Suite 104 Arlington, VA 22203 | 703-841-0703, ext. 3000 dtaylor@natcaptreatment.org | www.natcaptreatment.org
Q: What inspires you?
A: I have served patients struggling with addiction for over 40 years. When I see their eyes light up, I see hope and I am inspired. Our programs provide safe environments to create change. Knowing I played some part in the treatment of the tens of thousands of patients we’ve served over 58 years in Arlington and seeing them reclaim their lives through recovery is beyond rewarding. Mentoring our incredible staff, the next generation of potential “stars” who will help future patients, is incredibly inspiring!
Q: What is a top priority?
A: The success of our patients and ensuring that we can continue to assist people who do not have financial resources through our Patient Assistance and Young Adult Treatment Funds, which are supported completely by donations.
“We’ve built an extraordinary team of providers, with 150 years of combined experience. Our well-trained office staff is often complimented on their excellent customer service. We all work collaboratively to make sure our patients have the best experience and share it with those they care about.” -- Dr. Aryian Cooke
WWC Gynecology & Aesthetics
1005 N. Glebe Road, Suite 470
Arlington, VA 22201
240-252-2140
www.waldorfwomenscare.com
Q: Why do you do what you do? What motivates and inspires you?
A: Aryian L. Cooke, MD:
I’m passionate about equity in women’s care and dedicated to providing up-todate, evidence-based care to women of all economic and ethnic backgrounds. Everyone deserves quality medical care. My practice provides a space for women to focus on their wellness. We let them know it’s okay to prioritize self-care and ask questions about the very personal changes happening as we age. I tell patients that you’re not alone if you’re feeling fatigued, having anxiety or problems sleeping, gaining unexplained weight, experiencing a decreased sex drive, or suffering from hot flashes and a poor memory. Most importantly, I reassure them it’s not in their head and we have solutions to help. It’s so gratifying to know that my patients walk out the office feeling validated and hopeful.
Q: What do you look forward to when you go to work every day?
A: Janis Green, MD:
I enjoy teaching. It is essential to teach my patients about their condition, and I also mentor my support staff. Our nurses and medical assistants are influencers in their communities. The more they know about preventative care and women’s health, the more our communities are educated.
Q: What changes or innovations are on the horizon in your industry?
A: Janis Green, MD:
Advancements in robotic surgery and the use of artificial intelligence are significant innovations for us. I envision using radiologic imaging to generate artificial intelligence-based mapping of a patient to pre-plan the steps of a surgery and significantly decrease complications.
407 North Washington St. Falls Church, VA 22046
703-343-1064
office@citydermnova.com www.citydermnova.com
Q: What do you look forward to when you go to work every day?
A: I recently opened my own dermatology practice after many years working as an employed physician. It’s very freeing to be in charge of my own workspace. I’m able to make adjustments as needed to keep our office a welcoming environment for my patients.
Q: What advice would you offer for women just starting out?
A: Find a mentor. When I first started, I had so much to learn about running a medical practice. However, other small business owners were incredibly generous with their time and advice, while counseling through the Small Business Association helped me set up a realistic timeline and detailed plan to get my practice off the ground.
MARGA PIROZZOLI, ASSOCIATE BROKER, VA & DC JUSTINE POPE, REALTOR®, VA
3001 Washington Blvd., Suite 400 Arlington, VA 22201 | 703-266-7277 www.compass.com/agents/marga-pirozzoli | 703-585-4844 www.compass.com/agents/justine-pope | 571-388-7359
Q: What do you find most challenging in your work?
A: Real estate is like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Sometimes finding the perfect home for a buyer – or the perfect buyer for a home – is a seamless process. Other times, the missing piece is more elusive. Each of our clients presents an individual puzzle. We enjoy figuring out the parameters and finding the proper fit. And we love the rewards of working toward the finished product.
With my 30 years in real estate and previous work as an attorney, and Justine’s 22 years at Fannie Mae, we have the experience to help our clients piece this complicated real estate market all together. And we love to celebrate with them once the puzzle has been completed.
LITIGATION TEAM
SUSAN RICHARDS SALEN, SHAREHOLDER
MARIAM W. TADROS, SHAREHOLDER
GINA L. SCHAECHER, COUNSEL
LOUISE T. GITCHEVA, COUNSEL
For 47 years, our clients have trusted our ability to lead with knowledge, wisdom and confidence. And we continue to strive every day to provide each client the best possible representation and service experience.
Tysons Corner
1900 Gallows Road, Suite 700 Vienna, VA 22182
703-790-1911
Bethesda
7101 Wisconsin Ave., Suite 1201
Bethesda, MD 20814
301-222-0152
Leesburg
1602 Village Market Blvd. SE, Suite 270 Leesburg, VA 20175
703-790-1911
www.reesbroome.com
Q: What will be the biggest challenge for the generation of women behind you?
A: Susan Salen:
Maintaining work/life boundaries. Mobile technology and telework makes us more available to our clients, and as a result we can be less available for families and personal time.
Q: What advice would you offer for women just starting out?
A: Mariam Tadros:
I would encourage women to advocate for themselves, whether it’s to get the type of work that they want or for their own career advancement. Women should not fear being labeled as aggressive. Men constantly advocate for themselves and are simply considered assertive.
Q: What changes or innovations are on the horizon in your industry? How are you preparing for them?
A: Gina Schaecher:
Attorneys will have to be far more willing to embrace technology and use it to remain competitive and effective. The pandemic forced this issue, but technology and its efficient use will continue to have a significant impact, particularly for litigators.
Q: If you could go back in time and give advice to yourself as a young professional, what would you say?
A: Louise Gitcheva:
I would advise myself to set healthy boundaries. It is important to work hard but it is equally as important to make sure that you have a meaningful life outside of work and that you are not burning yourself out trying to prove yourself.
3100 S. Manchester St., Suite T-4 Falls Church, VA 22044
703-671-2222
www.karenharrimandds.com
Q: Why do you do what you do? What motivates and inspires you?
A: From a very young age, I noticed that many people hid their smiles. I knew my calling, like my family of physicians and teachers, was to create beautiful and healthy smiles, educate about oral health, and diagnose and treat diseases. Every day I go to work inspired to fulfill that calling and give back to my patients and community.
Q: What changes or innovations are on the horizon in your industry? How are you preparing for them?
A: At Karen Harriman, DDS, we are committed to offering the latest dental technology, such as the iTero 5D digital scanner, AI dental monitoring for all our Invisalign patients and soon we will offer laser dentistry.
2920 Columbia Pike Arlington, VA 22204
703-553-7770
Sarah@ldullc.com www.LostDogCafe.com
Q: What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned during your career?
A: Have faith in yourself, fight for yourself and take chances. When I heard about a restaurant job that – on paper – I wasn’t qualified for, I asked for five minutes of their time. Within that five minutes, I convinced the owners that I could handle the responsibility. Two years later, I’m managing four restaurants and developing a restaurant consulting business. You have to be your biggest advocate.
Q: What was a major turning point in your life or career?
A: I decided to run for office, to the Virginia House of Delegates. Too many people argue and not enough reach across the aisle to get things done for small businesses, the backbone of our communities. It’s time to change that.
DOMINION JEWELERS
917 West Broad St. Falls Church, VA 22046
703-237-3737 www.DominionJewelers.com
Q: What’s the most important lesson you’ve learned during your career?
A: I value a simple, straightforward lesson. Continuously focus on doing good work and improving on that work, and the rest will take care of itself. If you provide good service with good value, clients will find you and appreciate your work. Doing good work is the cause. Having many clients is the effect.
Q: What’s the best advice you’ve received and how has it helped you?
A: My dad, Mohamad Barimany, verbalizes this advice rarely but practices it continually, which maximizes the impact. He says to always be true to yourself and your values. Don’t focus on what everyone else is doing. Focus on what you are doing. His advice and example help me focus my attention and stay on target.
NATASHA BEAUVAIS, MD
CECILY HAVERT, MD
1703 N. Beauregard St., Suite 401 Alexandria, VA 22311
703-379-8879 www.nvafamilypractice.com
Q: What do you look forward to when you go to work every day?
A: As family physicians, we both care deeply about the practice of good medicine. Providing exceptional patient care in an affirming environment is a must. Continuing to maintain a healthy work environment for our staff is just as important. We entered the medical field to help others, though what keeps us engaged evolves with time.
Q: What has been an unexpected surprise in your work?
A: We decided to do a podcast! Reaching out beyond the exam room doors and finding a bigger community can help us all feel connected. This is what inspired our new podcast, Living Breathing Medicine, where we explore medicine through the storytelling of other doctors who, like us, love what they do.
Demand for tech talent is fueling a boom in Arlington’s highereducation landscape. Here’s what’s coming.
Demand for tech talent is fueling a boom in Arlington’s highereducation landscape. Here’s what’s coming.
By Tamara Lytle By Tamara Lytle
rowing up in Loudoun County, Shreya Bhatia was sure she wanted to be a cardiologist like the doctors who fixed the hole in her heart after she was born. But her thinking shifted during a follow-up ultrasound appointment while she was in high school. She noticed the machine used lots of calculus—a subject she loved—and plunged into computer science instead.
As a college student at George Mason University in Fairfax, Bhatia mentored a team of high school girls who went on to win a national tech competition with an application that assists kids with speech problems. She also built
a registry that connects adoptees with their birth parents. She realized how computer science could be applied in a zillion different ways to help people.
Now 23, she’s still a Mason student—about halfway through her master’s degree in computer science, with a concentration in machine learning— but she’s also gainfully employed. Amazon snapped her up after she finished her bachelor’s degree and completed an internship with Amazon Web Services (AWS) in Herndon in the summer of 2019. As a software development engineer, she writes code and works on improving cloud services for everything from streaming services and dating apps to vaccine trials.
“My job is interesting and super impactful,” says the Ashburn resident, one of the first 1,600 employees hired at Amazon’s HQ2 in Arlington. “To see these customers who every day rely on us…I have a job that really does make a difference in people’s lives.”
WITH THE ARRIVAL OF Amazon and a proliferation of other tech companies in fields ranging from big data to cybersecurity, candidates like Bhatia are in high demand. The problem is, there aren’t enough to go around.
Universities are trying to change that, and in the process, sparking an academic explosion in and around Arlington. Some of the changes in the
higher-ed landscape are physical. Virginia Tech, Mason and the University of Maryland are preparing to open gleaming new facilities here to take advantage of the cash, cachet and connections Amazon has brought to the area.
Other shifts in the college ecosystem are more philosophical, as incumbent institutions like Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA) rethink the anatomy of their degree programs to meet the growing demand for qualified tech workers.
Marymount University was ahead of the game in 2017 when it replaced its aging “Blue Goose” building in Ballston (so named for its blue metal windows) with a LEED Gold-certified tower that today houses its business school and the graduate programs of its School of Technology and Innovation, including a state-of-the-art cybersecurity lab. (A sister tower, The Rixey, contains student and faculty housing and retail.) Now the university is kicking off a virtual undergraduate program in data science, Java engineering and UX/UI (user experience and user interface design) in partnership with Netflix and the ed-tech company 2U.
Though Arlington’s evolution from “government town” to technology nexus has been underway for some time, Amazon’s influence is profound. In courting the tech giant to come east, the state of Virginia promised to double its output of B.S. and M.S. graduates in computer science, churning out an additional 25,000 over the next 20 years. That target has since risen to 32,000.
a catalyst in Northern Virginia’s college boom, but the equation goes both ways. Higher education was the secret weapon officials used to lure Amazon and its $2.5 billion campus to the area as 238 communities nationwide vied for the honor of hosting the tech superpower’s HQ2.
Stephen Moret was about a year into his job as president and CEO of the
Richmond-based Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) when the Amazon deal opened for bids in 2018. Intent on bringing more technology companies to the Commonwealth, he realized he could attract and grow more of them by solving the industry’s biggest headache—finding qualified workers.
Sizing up the competition for HQ2, Moret knew Virginia would never win a bidding war against jurisdictions that were prepared to offer $5 billion or more in cash incentives. Virginia, with its history of fiscal conservatism, “was
not a state that provided large incentive packages to companies,” he says. State officials also worried about alienating other businesses that had already relocated to the Commonwealth without receiving loads of cash.
But what Virginia could offer was talent. Moret scoured the LinkedIn profiles of Amazon employees at its Seattle headquarters to analyze the company’s hiring patterns. He could see that HQ2, wherever it landed, would need computer science graduates—thousands of them.
Fortunately, he had already started
Location: North Potomac Yard in Alexandria, just south of National Landing
Price tag: $1 billion
Snapshot: The first of three planned buildings on a campus spanning 1 million square feet will open in 2024, at which point the program (based in Falls Church since 2020, with 75 students) will relocate to Potomac Yard. Once completed, this graduate school campus will host 750 master’s degree students and 200 doctoral students annually, with research concentrations in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, quantum information science, next-generation wireless and other areas. Students from feeder schools like James Madison University and Christopher Newport University (as well as Virginia Tech) will be able to apply early and start earning graduate credits while finishing their undergrad degrees. Defense giant Boeing kicked in $50 million to fund diversity priorities on campus. Virginia Tech also maintains a 144,000-squarefoot research center in Ballston.
Location: Virginia Square
Price tag: $250 million
Snapshot: Housed in a new building (set to replace an older one) on Mason’s Arlington campus, IDIA will open in 2025 with more than 360,000 square feet of space, serving more than 300 Mason graduate school students, faculty and
staff, along with several tech businesses. As part of the Amazon deal, Mason is expanding its computer science programs to produce an additional 8,000 bachelor’s and master’s degree graduates over the next 20 years. IDIA will push technological advancements in education, finance, health, transportation, national security, social justice and other areas. A built-in incubator space will focus on growing start-up ventures, especially in the Rosslyn-Ballston corridor.
Location: Ballston
Price tag: $75 million
Snapshot: Opened in 2017, this campus extension of Arlington’s oldest university houses the business school, select graduate programs, student residences and a cybersecurity lab serving 150 doctoral candidates, among others. Marymount’s main campus, located 2 miles up the road, spans 21 acres with an undergraduate population of about 2,200 students. The university offers degrees in cybersecurity, cloud computing, data science and other IT fields, plus a number of specialized certificate programs. A doctoral program in business intelligence launches this fall.
Location: Crystal City
Price tag: Not available
Snapshot: Opening in the fall of 2021,
this satellite center will occupy 8,000 square feet on one floor of an Amazon building, providing space for faculty and some students studying computer science, engineering, information studies and business, as well as space for symposia, collaborative projects with industry, career development and alumni functions. The University of Maryland has roughly 3,600 undergraduate and graduate students majoring in computer science. Its main campus in College Park is 11 miles away and connected to the Amazon campus by Metro.
Location: Rosslyn
Price tag: Not available
Snapshot: Opened in phases starting in 2017, the 40,000-square-foot satellite campus houses about 300 students working toward an executive MBA, master of science in business analytics or other executive education degrees. The executive MBA program has a lab in which students hooked up to biometric monitors are put in simulated highstress situations to learn how they react under pressure. “Moments like these call for fresh thinking and approaches,” says Greg Fairchild, associate dean for Washington, D.C., area initiatives and academic director of public policy and entrepreneurship. “We have a responsibility to help [students] utilize [IT] skills to create a better society.”
Location: Rosslyn
Price tag: Not available
Snapshot: Opened in 2021 on one floor of the Arlington Tower, this 17,000-square-foot outpost of the Boston-based university devotes half of its space to graduate-level classes; the other half will house defense-based programs and research. Ramping up over five years, the Arlington location will eventually support roughly 100 students, faculty and staff. Some 88% of Northeastern University’s $180 million in R&D grants and contracts in 2020 came from the federal government, according to the Washington Business Journal. The university maintains a larger Innovation Campus in Burlington, Massachusetts, fueling Boston’s tech corridor.
Though you won’t see major changes on the outside, NOVA is adapting to the region’s technology industry growth and luring adult learners back into the classroom with flexible programs that mesh with work and family responsibilities. NOVA offers a number of certificate programs and is partnering with Mason to offer complementary degrees.
laying the groundwork in 2017 to meet that need. He envisioned a concept similar to Cornell Tech, a satellite campus of the Ivy League university in New York City that feeds into the city’s recruitment pipeline with graduate programs in engineering and technology.
Floating an idea to build a similar tech campus in Northern Virginia, Moret discovered that Virginia Tech was not only enthusiastic, but already dreaming of beefing up its presence just outside of D.C.
That presence is now unfolding in Alexandria, where Virginia Tech is building its $1 billion Innovation Campus (see sidebar) at Potomac Yard, just down the street from HQ2. Slated to open its first building in 2024, the campus will eventually host nearly 1,000 master’s and doctoral students earning advanced degrees in disciplines ranging from artificial intelligence to next-generation wireless.
Some of the funding for the new campus comes by way of the Commonwealth’s Tech Talent Investment Program—a $2 billion talent pipeline involving multiple public universities and fueled by state and corporate investments that became the centerpiece of Northern Virginia’s Amazon bid. Moret says it’s the largest such investment in history, anywhere. “And now we had a way to benefit not just Amazon,” he says, “but every tech company in Virginia.”
Brian Stout, a member of Amazon’s public policy team, says the state’s twin commitments to tech education and workplace diversity were alluring not
only to Amazon, “but also broadly benefit all industries through the region.” (Joining that effort, Amazon is now offering curriculum assistance to local schools and a summer program at HQ2 to train computer science teachers.)
“We came to Virginia because of the talent,” says Ardine Williams, who leads workforce development for HQ2. “We haven’t been disappointed.”
“I’ve never slept better after signing a big deal,” Moret says. “I believe we will look back at this, 15 years from now, and say this was an inflection point in Northern Virginia history when it became known as a tech hub. The biggest impact will not actually be HQ2 itself, but all of the investments in tech education.”
THERE WAS A TIME, not long ago, when Arlington’s economic outlook seemed bleak in the wake of government spending cuts and military base closings that left the county scrambling to fill millions of square feet of empty office space. Now the tech sector is sparking a renaissance. Buildings are filling back up, and new ones are under construction.
“As we come out of the pandemic, [investments in technology and education] become a factor in Arlington’s recovery and for the overall economic wellbeing and sustainability of our region,” says Kate Bates, president and CEO of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce.
Economic development officials say tech is the right match for an area blessed with a highly educated work-
force, where the cost of living is too high to support a manufacturing center. It doesn’t hurt that D.C.’s political power center is right next door.
Northern Virginia’s Amazon bid also included funding for transportation projects like new Metro entrances, Route 1 improvements and a pedestrian bridge to Reagan National Airport. Part of the sell, says Telly Tucker, director of Arlington Economic Development, was convincing the tech giant that its employees would want to live here. “It was strategic for Virginia to invest in assets that benefited not only Amazon but the entire region,” he adds. “Everyone will benefit from that rising tide.”
But creating a talent pool for industries that, by nature, evolve at warp speed is necessitating some changes to academic norms. The ivory tower has never been famous for its adaptability. Universities are realizing they need to be nimble if they hope to remain relevant.
What does that look like? The new collegiate model finds computer science professors working with companies to push their research out into the real world; tech students earning credit and hands-on experience through internships; and businesses directly involved in curriculum development to ensure that future graduates have the skills they need, says Liza Wilson Durant, associate provost, strategic initiatives at Mason, whose office worked closely with AWS to design the nation’s first degree in cloud computing. Announced in 2019, that program allows students to start with an associate degree from NOVA and then earn a bachelor’s degree from Mason.
Mason also worked with aerospace and defense giant Northrop Grumman, headquartered in Falls Church, to create a groundbreaking cybersecurity engineering program that focuses on infrastructure like power grids and tele-
communications. It became part of the university’s course offerings in 2015.
“What you’re seeing in the highereducation landscape is these companies are much more deeply engaged in the day-to-day work of the university,” says Durant, who is also a professor and associate dean of Mason’s College of Engineering and Computing. “They want to participate in the curriculum development to ensure they are able to find the talent they need.”
That doesn’t mean faculty are being cut out of their traditional roles, but companies are being invited in to shape electives in emerging fields. “Technology is changing so quickly,” Durant says. “We can’t have a program that doesn’t change.”
WITH THE JOBS LANDSCAPE undergoing the most seismic shift since the Industrial Revolution and the supply of post-high-school students projected
to flatten out in the next decade, colleges and universities also have a role to play in retraining or “upskilling” workers whose jobs have disappeared.
In July, Amazon announced plans to hire more than 100,000 U.S. veterans and military spouses nationwide by 2024 across multiple businesses, including Alexa and AWS.
Hesham El-Rewini, provost and senior VP of academic affairs at Marymount, says his institution is rethinking its degree programs to meet the moment. “Even before the pandemic, it became clear with advances in technology, and the proliferation of artificial intelligence and automation, that some occupations will grow, others will decline and others we cannot envision will be created,” he says. “People should be upskilling to prepare themselves for jobs of the future.”
To this end, Marymount, NOVA and other schools have begun empha-
sizing certificate programs that give quick bona fides in a particular IT field (such as data science, digital health or cybersecurity) that in the long-term can be combined with other certificates toward a degree. It’s a more flexible, a la carte way of building a résumé.
Many of the universities in this story are affiliated with Capital CoLAB (Collaborative of Leaders in Academia and Business), a partnership of businesses and academic institutions forging new pathways to tech employment. “Students can earn digital badges that show competencies of interest to regional employers like Amazon, Capitol One, JP Morgan Chase and others,” says Jonathan Aberman, dean of Marymount’s School of Business & Technology.
Andrew Flagel, president and CEO of the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area, notes that this shift toward modular, “stackable” academic models allows students
to piece together degrees by stacking certificates, life experience, military service and other modes of learning. Instead of marching through a set list of required courses for a degree, students can amass certificates and courses based on the skills they need for job readiness.
“We want to think about not just what the workforce needs for the tech industry right now, but what they are going to need 10 years out,” Flagel says. “How do you prepare for jobs where you don’t know what they are going to be? We want to produce graduates [who are] adaptable and ready to evolve.”
SCHOOL ACADEMIC models are being phased out, at least in the world of ed tech. Mason’s tentatively named Institute for Digital InnovAtion (IDIA) in Virginia Square, which replaces a university building that was already slated for expansion pre-Amazon, will facil-
itate a different approach by design. Blueprinted with hands-on learning and business networking in mind, the 360,500-square-foot building will devote a third of its space to industry partners—companies that will conduct research on site, recruit grad students to intern as software engineers, and receive incubator-style perks. Mason offers a free law clinic and other support services for start-up companies.
“The building will be designed to facilitate collisions,” associate provost Durant says of its planned open spaces and collaboration areas. “This space will enable people to have much more engagement and to hear about something someone else is working on.”
Since 2010, enrollment in Mason’s College of Engineering and Computing has doubled to 8,900 students. “It’s a function of the digital transformation of the economy,” Durant says.
Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus at Potomac Yard promises a similar hybrid environment. Companies will have a different relationship with the school than the traditional stop-by-tointerview-graduates approach, says vice president and executive director Lance Collins, formerly the dean of Cornell University’s College of Engineering and a key member of the team that launched Cornell Tech in New York City. (Virginia Tech hired him away a year ago to shepherd the build-out of its Northern Virginia campus.) Under the new model, the introductions will come earlier, with future employers issuing challenges for students to hash out in group projects.
Academia teaches skills like coding, but the approaches are often too tidy, Collins says, compared with the complex scenarios that arise in the real world. Take the question of whether (and how) drones might be used for airport safety inspections. Computer science and robotics are central to the solution, but so are skills like listening to divergent viewpoints, managing conflict and untangling thorny ethical questions.
Collins says higher education has recognized a responsibility to teach those so-called “soft skills” (a term he
considers a misnomer, as they are not easy to master) before students head out into their professional careers.
Steve Cooper, co-founder and CEO of Arlington-based NextUp Solutions, which provides training and outsourced software engineering services, is doing just that through technology apprenticeships. He brings in students from Virginia Tech and Radford University to work as junior software developers on projects for private sector, nonprofit and government clients. Students gain relevant experience while helping clients whose IT projects are running behind schedule, in part because there’s a labor shortage.
It’s a win-win, Cooper says. The software gets built. Companies and students have the opportunity to size each other up for potential employment down the road. And for students, that foot in the door can make a big difference in a market where every employer wants candidates with at least one year of professional experience. Businesses want to know, “What have you done?” Cooper says. Gaining applicable experience during college is “making them 20 times more employable.”
There’s another benefit, too. Handson learning increases diversity in the field, Cooper says, because hiring decisions become more about skills and experience—and less about connections and who professors recommend. “If you hire someone based on ‘I’ve built this technology in Python,’ employers don’t care what fraternity you were in.”
As Virginia Tech’s new campus comes out of the ground, Collins notes that building a program from scratch means there are no existing faculty to inherit—the university can hire new staff with diversity and inclusivity as founding principles.
“I hope all these new [university] facilities are going to bring us a new way to educate and prepare ourselves and not just more of the same,” Cooper says. “You’ve got to retool instead of simply stealing talent from one highrise in Clarendon to another.”
may be alive and well in sports, but in the tech space they are becoming quaint. Instead, universities are joining forces to produce qualified graduates through partnerships. “There are economies of scale for all of us to work together,” says Mason’s Durant.
In 2018, Virginia Tech created the blueprint for the Commonwealth Cyber Initiative, a state-funded network that now includes 40 higher-learning institutions and some 320 researchers dedicated to engaging students in experiential learning projects in cybersecurity. The current fiscal year’s $17.5 million funding allocation is supporting student internships in fields such as smart infrastructure and autonomous systems.
Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus will offer fast-track graduate-degree programs to computer science students from feeder schools such as Radford, Christopher Newport University and
James Madison University, as well as Tech’s own Blacksburg campus.
“This region can’t thrive as a tech hub unless we have the talent,” says Ken Ulman, the chief strategist behind the University of Maryland’s plans to open a Discovery Center in Crystal City (see sidebar on page 54). “The number of jobs being created demands that all of us in the region work together and make sure we are collectively provid ing the workforce of the future.”
Will the all-hands push lead to an oversupply in the job market? Vir ginia Tech’s Collins isn’t even remotely concerned. Behemoths like Ama zon aren’t the only employers clam oring for tech talent, he says. The need extends across a vast swath of industries, including intelligence, construction, transportation, defense and health care. And the number of specialties under the tech umbrella continues to expand—cloud computing, cryptocurrency, biodefense, artificial intelligence and data analytics, just to name a few.
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“As people use data in more and more robust ways, it’s really limitless,” Collins says. The real competition isn’t with other universities—it’s with other countries that want to knock the U.S. off its tech pedestal.
For more than 70 years, Marymount University’s main campus has occupied the same stretch of rolling green hills just off of North Glebe Road. Once it was the only college in town. Now there are many other players in Arlington’s higher-ed landscape.
Provost El-Rewini equates those new arrivals with progress. Students are gaining access to more internships. Companies are cultivating the talent they need to grow. Professors are finding support channels for their research. The local economy is buoyant.
“This is how we advance,” ElRewini says. “At the end of the day, this is what we hope to do: Improve quality of life for people.” ■
Tamara Lytle is a freelance writer in Northern Virginia.
Even in progressive Arlington, white students have opportunities that many students of color don’t have.
How do we change that?BY ADRIENNE WICHARD-EDDS | PHOTOS BY MICHAEL VENTURA
SYMONE WALKER CAN’T HELP WONDERING how her son’s academic experience might have been different had his dyslexia been caught sooner. As a 7-year-old in the Montessori program at Drew Model School (now Drew Elementary), his reading struggles were mistaken for ADHD.
“Arlington Public Schools [APS] offered reading recovery, which doesn’t help a dyslexic kid, and offered him special ed services that allowed him to get by,” says Walker, a lawyer and mom of two. But by middle school her son’s problems were snowballing. Unable to focus, he was getting called out by his teachers for being distracted in class.
A school recommendation to discontinue her son’s special education services is what finally prompted Walker to seek a private diagnosis before he started eighth grade. “His test results showed he was dealing with an orthographic deficiency, making it hard for him to draw conclusions from [word] patterns and make connections. It also impacted his ability to perform written expression and math solutions,” she says. “The tests revealed that he was three to five years—years!—behind grade level. Yet he was bringing home A’s and B’s and honor roll certificates. I thought, How is this happening?”
Fewer than half of Black students in Arlington Public Schools graduate with an advanced diploma, whereas four out of five white students do.
The answer, she believes, involved a combination of grade inflation and lowered expectations. “Because he was in special education, his teachers expected less from him. They just pushed him up and out. Had I not gotten so deeply involved and sent him for independent testing, I wouldn’t have known how far behind he was.”
Speaking candidly, Walker also wonders if implicit bias (unconscious attitudes, in this case on the part of teachers and administrators) was a factor—if certain assumptions about why her Black son was falling behind may have further derailed his progress.
“I think undiagnosed reading issues are frequently at the root of opportunity gap problems,” says Walker, who co-chairs the Arlington NAACP education committee and ran for the Arlington school board in 2020. “I think Black students are under-identified for learning disabilities.
“The schools are quick to identify behavioral issues,” she says, “but less perceptive when it comes to picking up [processing disorders like dyslexia]. They make assumptions. If you’re a Black kid who struggles to read, the first thing is to place blame on the parent—you don’t read to your kid at home; they watch too much TV. That if you’re Black, you’re automatically poor and you don’t care about education.”
CAN BE difficult to prove on a case-by-case basis, but it’s hard to ignore the bigger picture. APS data show clear academic discrepancies between white students and Black and Latino students.
An analysis of Virginia Department of Education and APS dashboard data by the advocacy group Black Parents of Arlington (BPA) found Black APS students consistently lagging behind white students in Standards of Learning (SOL) pass rates over a period of three years, often by around 20 percentage points. For Arlington kids enrolled in advanced placement and international baccalaureate classes during the 2017-18 school year, the AP/IB pass rate among white students was 79%, compared with 31% for Black students.
Nearly a quarter of white APS elementary school students were identified as eligible for gifted instruction that school year, compared with only 12% of Black students.
But Black students, who represented only 11% of the APS high school population in 2017-18, accounted for 35% of out-of-school suspensions. Two years later, that trend remained. Black students made up 12% of Arlington highschoolers during the 2019-20 academic year, but received 31% of suspensions.
“When Black children misbehave,
they are singled out for much lesser transgressions and the reaction tends to be much more punitive,” BPA founding member Sherrice Kerns said in a 2020 interview with Arlington Magazine . “There’s a presumption of guilt and criminality of minorities, which undergirds our school system. There’s a fundamental presumption of innocence for white kids that isn’t afforded to Black and Latino children.”
Racial justice advocates once referred to discrepancies like this as evidence of an “achievement gap,” but
the terminology has changed. “When we used the term ‘achievement gap,’ it put the onus and the burden on the kids, like it was the students’ fault they weren’t performing well,” explains Arron Gregory, who joined APS as chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer in January 2020. “The term ‘opportunity gap’ puts the onus back on the system, which operates under the shadow of systemic racism and leads to different opportunities for different student groups. Opportunity gaps are created by systems; they lead to academic gaps
that predict outcomes by race, gender, disability, class, socioeconomics.”
Opportunity gaps also tend to compound over time. BPA’s analysis revealed that fewer than half of Black APS students graduate with an advanced diploma, whereas more than four out of five white students do. It’s not because white kids are smarter or more driven, says Kerns, who co-chairs NAACP Arlington’s Education Committee with Walker. Sometimes a student’s decision about whether to pursue more rigorous courses stems from support
If we say that parents of color don’t care about education as much as white parents, we create a story that makes the data make sense—instead of understanding what’s happening in the system that’s creating the data.
and encouragement from teachers and school counselors. Or if the student has learning differences that are detected and addressed early.
“Implicit biases can prompt teachers and administrators to look for giftedness among children with specific behavior markers,” Kerns says. “For example, well-behaved students may tend to be selected for identification and related review, while children without that particular marker could be excluded from further consideration.”
Students who are recognized as gifted receive differentiated instruction after review of a portfolio demonstrating their potential for above-gradelevel performance. (Walker’s daughter is one such student; she was identified for gifted services in both reading/ language arts and math.) However, if a child is not identified, parents can request consideration and, if needed, pay for outside evaluations to bolster their case.
Gregory points out that implicit biases can also feed instances of grade inflation. “Bias can mean that we decrease the standards we have for some students because we think they’re not capable of the work,” he explains. “It can lead us to feel sorry for [them]. We don’t increase the rigor or hold them to higher expectations because we don’t want to give them more than what we think they can handle. We have to
be careful not to shift our expectations too far down; we have to hold everyone to a high standard of academic rigor.”
IN A COUNTY WHERE the average median income for white households is more than double that of Black households ($134,723 versus $58,878, according to Census data), white parents are a force.
Perhaps without even realizing it, “nice white parents” (to quote the well-known podcast by New York Times reporter Chana Joffe-Walt) have cleaved an ever-widening opportunity gap for families that can’t afford outside tutors, don’t feel comfortable being the squeaky wheel, are less adept at navigating the system due to language barriers, or can’t meet with teachers during school hours because of work or transportation obstacles. These disadvantages often fall on families of color, and on schools with larger minority populations.
It’s an imbalance the new APS administration has been fighting to change. “We’re working to shed the reputation that APS is a ‘system of schools’ rather than a ‘school system,’ ” Superintendent Francisco Durán acknowledges. “We don’t have division-wide expectations or school resource divisions that address these issues systemwide. We need to have deeper discussions about…closing the opportunity
gap, about what resources we’re putting in place across every school. No matter which school you go to, you should have the same experience, expectation and opportunity.”
Durán is especially intent on developing a consistent framework for foundational literacy—so that by fourth grade, when kids stop learning to read and start reading to learn, everyone is on a level playing field. “We know that our schools serve different populations that may come from different deficits in different areas of literacy,” he says. “So depending on which school you go to, you may have a different experience, and that in and of itself may create an opportunity gap.”
Brian Stockton, Durán’s chief of staff, has spent the past year listening to stories from a broad spectrum of APS families, including Walker’s. (Walker is now a member of the Superintendent’s Advisory Committee for Equity and Excellence.) “Dr. Durán’s mission is to know every child by need and by name. He has instilled this philosophy in all of us,” says Stockton, who was appointed to the role in June 2020.
The listening has provided helpful and sometimes significant insights. For example, when Walker and her NAACP colleagues introduced Stockton to Dyslexic Edge Academy, a program offering free dyslexia identification and intervention services to families that can’t afford expensive third-party clinical evaluations, Stockton advocated to bring it to Arlington schools. Developed in partnership with Virginia Tech’s Thinkabit Lab and based in Falls Church, the academy has joined APS in a two-year pilot program that (as of press time) was expected to start in August. “Our job is to listen to the community,” Stockton says, “and find more resources for what our families need.”
Or, in some cases, defend those needs. Daryl Johnson, director of strategic outreach at APS, had to do just that in 2019 when a cost-cutting proposal
threatened to eliminate equity and excellence coordinators from the APS budget. “These coordinators support our students of color—they talk to them about their postgraduation options, encourage them to apply to college,” Johnson says. “If you’re not a student or family of color, you don’t appreciate the work that they do or how important they are to the success of our students.”
Milenka Coronel, who graduated from Lake Braddock Secondary School in Fairfax in 2005, can attest to this. “Most [school] counselors don’t have the time to get to know you, and they end up making assumptions that because you’re Black or brown, you don’t have high aspirations,” she says.
“In my junior year, my college counselor took one look at me and said, ‘You’re going to NOVA,’ just like all the other students who looked like me,” says Coronel, who is Hispanic. “I had a good GPA and I was well-rounded. I’d wanted to go to a four-year college, but I didn’t even apply because of what my counselor said.”
Coronel started out at NOVA, then transferred to the University of Maryland, earning a degree in sociology with a focus on teen programming. She did it all in three years. Looking back at her high school experience, she says, “I wish I had believed in myself more.”
Today, as assistant director of resident services at AHC, a nonprofit provider of affordable housing based in Arlington, she works with many Black and Latino students from low-income families. She strives to instill in others the confidence she once lacked. “Someone is always going to discourage these kids, either directly or indirectly,” she says. “I tell them, ‘Don’t let anyone bring you down. Learn how to be proactive. Ask teachers for help. Seek out advanced classes.’ ”
Of the dozens of students she counsels every year, she says the ones who thrive are often those who connect with the equity and excellence coordinators in their high schools. “The assigned guidance counselors tend to have such a heavy caseload that they don’t really
have time to get to know the students,” Coronel says. “The equity and excellence coordinators dig deeper, take the time to help them make the right decisions.”
Tim Cotman is one of those equity coordinators. He still remembers the African American literature class he took in college and the Black professor who taught it.
“All of a sudden, I could see myself in the curriculum and picture my family having those conversations,” Cotman says. “It gave me confidence and a sense of belonging. My role as equity and excellence coordinator is to help students feel the same way.”
He does this, in part, through Cohort, a Wakefield program for male students of color that has a sister program, United Minority Girls, or UMG. “In Cohort, boys meet weekly for lunch and talk about classes and summer opportunities,” Cotman says. “They do overnight college tours in the fall and spring, and graduate with an advanced
diploma. It feels like a brotherhood— upperclassmen share advice with younger students and alumni come back and speak to current students.”
Ideally, he says, programs like this would be available to kids in all schools and at all academic levels. “The successes of Cohort and UMG are great, but what else can we do so we don’t need mitigative work? What are all the things we need to think about to engage with all stakeholders?”
Cotman also co-chairs Wakefield’s Equity Team, part of a systemwide initiative APS launched in the fall of 2020 that brings students, staff and families together at each school to talk about the impact of race on their lives, both in and outside of school.
“Looking at disparities by race, if we say that parents of color don’t care about education as much as white parents, we create a story that makes the data make sense—instead of understanding what’s happening in the system that’s creating the data,” he says. “APS has a good reputation, so when something goes wrong with students we tend to think it’s the families, not the system.”
The reality, Cotman says, is more complex. “The individuals within the system are the system. It’s not separate from us. Our level of awareness, our skills, our biases tie into the system. It’s important to reflect on our biases
and experiences, on all the things that impact the decisions we make and actions we take. If you’re absorbing messages from society that tell you that men of color are dangerous or unruly, then you may not even be aware of how it impacts the way you respond to boys of color acting a certain way.”
Racial justice was top of mind for Gabby Allen when APS formalized its Equity Teams network last fall. “The events of summer 2020 left me feeling helpless and overwhelmed,” says the special education teacher at Campbell Elementary, referencing the nationwide protests that erupted after George Floyd’s murder. “So I got a group of teachers together to talk about current events and be a support system for each other.”
When the 2020-21 school year began, Allen’s informal group became Campbell’s Equity Team. They invited kids, parents and teachers from each grade level to join. Not only does the group now offer a safe space for conversations about race, but also Allen says it’s helped further the school’s expeditionary learning goals. The Equity Team has helped Campbell classroom teachers create age-appropriate lesson plans that prompt kids of all races and ethnicities to explore their identities, and even analyze data through an equity lens.
“It’s been great to see kids engaging in conversations about identity
The American Dream is the myth we all internalize. The belief that everyone starts from the same place and has the same chance to succeed—it’s just not true.
and diversity, discussing what to say when someone doesn’t agree with you, talking about the difference between fact and opinion,” says Allen, who is Black. “At a time when I felt very out of control, it helped me feel like I had a purpose.”
Veteran teacher Deitra Pulliam and math interventionist Katherine Garcia-Larner had a similar groundwork in place when they established the Equity Team at Hoffman-Boston Elementary. As a precursor, the duo organized a workshop for the entire school community, from students and families to custodians and administrators.
“We asked people, What is a stereotype, and where do they come from? We worked to build trust in our community and underscored the importance of staying open-minded,” says GarciaLarner, who is Latina. “Then we started asking ourselves questions like, Who is benefiting from this lesson? Who is being marginalized? We looked at our school’s data to help us identify what we need, but also to be accountable to ourselves. There’s no finger-pointing or blame— only moving forward to support our students and families.”
Now they’re on a mission to amplify every voice. “Hoffman-Boston is a school of great diversity, but we also want to become a school where people can have conversations about what makes us unique, different, special,” says Pulliam, who is Black. “We had to learn how to listen to our students, to let them tell their stories. We haven’t always had that in our county. We need to look within our own communities and our own buildings. We are starting to unpack the conversations and questions that the families in our communities are having.”
SCHOOLS CAN’T CLOSE the opportunity gap on their own. They need buy-in from families, including the white parents who exert considerable influence on school policy and spending priorities.
“The American Dream is the myth we all internalize,” says Emily Vincent, founder of the discussion group Facing Race in Arlington, which has more than 700 Facebook followers.
“The belief that everyone starts from the same place and has the same chance to succeed—it’s just not true,” says Vincent, a mom of three whose children attended Randolph Elementary before their family’s move to Colorado this summer. “There are disparities in how easy it is for different groups of people to attain what they set out to attain. That’s the opportunity gap. Those disparities are caused by things that are out of people’s control—it has nothing to do with how hard they work or their characteristics. It has to do with the structures they work within and the people who perpetuate the norm.”
Vincent founded Facing Race in Arlington in 2017 after noticing that her Black friends’ experiences with the school system were often different from her own white family’s experiences. “It’s so much harder for people with privilege to see and understand the barriers that people without privilege face. The system is created in such a way that it’s easy not to see privilege or realize how unfair it is.”
She cites white parents’ “scarcity mentality” as an example. “If you think of [resources] as being finite, then your tendency is to grab as much as you can for yourself or your children,” Vincent says. “When we have such a narrow definition of success—like there are only 10 seats at [a competitive university] and our kid has to get one—it’s sometimes painful for us to let go of that idea, because it feels like a sacrifice.”
Alternately referred to as “resource hoarding,” this phenomenon is evident in actions large and small, sociologists John B. Diamond (University of Wisconsin) and Amanda E. Lewis (University of Illinois at Chicago) surmised in a recent academic paper on the subject—from parents lobbying to get their
Arlington PTAs spend about $2 million annually, but more than 75% of that spending is concentrated in schools north of Route 50, in the county’s whiter and more affluent neighborhoods.
children into gifted programs to fighting school boundary changes that would send their kids to schools they consider inferior. The private “learning pods” that many families formed during the pandemic, paying tutors to keep their kids on track with distance learning, are another example. All are scenarios in which white parents who simply “want the best for their kids” come into play.
Shifting that mindset to one that is more intentional and inclusive, Vincent says, is one way to help level the playing field: “Parents know when something is wrong, but they may not know how to fix it. Advocating for more than just your own child—for the benefit of every child—is a step toward closing the opportunity gap.”
Take, for example, the matter of PTA funding, which schools rely on to bankroll needs both in and out of the classroom. According to the Arlington County Council of PTAs (CCPTA), parent-teacher associations countywide spend about $2 million annually, but more than 75% of that spending is concentrated in schools north of Route 50, in Arlington’s whiter and more affluent neighborhoods.
To share the wealth (literally), the CCPTA has established a communal grant fund where PTAs can pool a portion of their money. Arlington schools with fewer resources can then apply for grants to fund programs they might not be able to cover on their own, like grade-wide field trips. The fund is slowly gaining traction, although it has yet to enjoy the same level of support as individual school PTAs.
WHEN MERRIT GILLARD moved with her family from Washington, D.C., to Arlington in 2018, she and her husband did what so many parents do. Researching the county’s bountiful public school options, they liked the idea of a Spanish-language immersion experience and entered their rising kindergartner in the lottery for Claremont Immersion, one of Arlington’s designated “choice” schools. To their delight, their daughter got in.
Then the pandemic hit in the middle of first grade and schools switched to distance learning. The realization that they weren’t going to be able to support Spanish-language instruction in their monolingual home prompted some broader soul-searching. “I thought to myself, Why are we making the choice to send her to this immersion school outside of our neighborhood?” Gillard says. “Are we doing this because it’s the best place for our child, or because we feel like jockeying to get your kid into the right school is what a ‘good parent’ does?”
They decided to opt out of Claremont and send their daughter to her neighborhood school, Drew Elementary, instead.
Claremont isn’t among Arlington’s top-ranked elementary schools, and neither is Drew (Niche.com ranks Clare mont 16th and Drew 18th out of 24 schools), but Gillard says her family has learned not to put too much stock in third-party rankings that hinge on metrics like standardized test scores. A few years ago, they entered the D.C. preschool lottery in hopes of enrolling their older daugh -
ter in one of the city’s more prestigious preschools, only to have her end up at a school that was not highly regarded—at least not on paper.
“The test scores were very low, and at the time it was 75% Black students and 15% white students,” says Gillard, whose daughter was part of that 15% minority. “She ended up having a fantastic experience. She made great friends, had great teachers and found a very supportive community. That experience really shifted my thinking about
The truth is that I want to live in a multiracial society. I don’t think that’s possible without raising my kids in multiracial schools and in a community where everyone is given equal value.
for my kids,” she says. “Do I want them to be in this white, affluent bubble? Do I want to commodify diversity—to send them to a school that has just enough of the different [racial and ethnic] groups to be acceptable? Or do I want to step back from the assumptions white parents make when judging what’s a good school or a bad school?
“The truth is that I want to live in a multiracial society,” she says. “I don’t think that’s possible without raising my kids in multiracial schools and in a community where everyone is given equal value.” ■
what makes for a good school.”
Despite that positive experience in D.C., Gillard admits to succumbing to the scarcity mentality upon arrival in Arlington. “I still felt like I needed to enter this lottery—like I needed to secure every opportunity for my daughter,” she says. “Everyone wants the best for their child—to be safe, happy and successful. To learn and thrive.
“But as a parent, part of my job is also to look critically at my relationship to schools and ask what I really want
Adrienne Wichard-Edds is a white mom of two white boys who have attended four different public schools in Arlington. She is co-founder of The Essay Coaches (theessaycoaches.com), which she and her business partner, Ami Foster, established to offer college guidance and essay coaching to as many high school students as possible, regardless of income level. She is also a volunteer mentor in AHC’s College and Career Readiness program.
Renee Randolph
CULINARY ARTS INSTRUCTOR
ARLINGTON CAREER CENTER YEARS TEACHING: 16
FUN FACTS: Randolph is an American Culinary Federation certified chef (she also has an MBA) and was named APS 2020 Teacher of the Year. Her students operate a full-service pop-up restaurant called Off the Pike, and a food truck, Off the Pike Mobile, both of which are open to the public during the school year. The truck will resume operations in September and the restaurant reopens in October.
¶ Our curriculum starts with basic safety and sanitation. Then we get into knife skills and understanding equipment in a food establishment. Then we focus on different cooking techniques—braising and sauteing. Once they have those foundational skills, then they get into menu creation, serving customers.
¶ We also spend a lot of time on culinary and business math—setting
menu prices, determining what they need to sell to turn a profit. You can be the best cook in the world, but if you don’t know the management side of it, you’re going to sell out every day and not understand why you’re going out of business.
¶ One of the most challenging skills culinary students learn is fabrication. They’ve got to learn how to break down a chicken, using their chef’s knives to break it into eight pieces. It was the hardest thing to teach online [during Covid], because you’ve got to feel the joints. In normal times when my students are in front of me, I can put their knife in the exact place where they need to make the cut. At home, I was on the computer saying, “Move it a half an inch to the right. Pick it up and bend it.”
¶ For a lot of students, the Food Network and other cooking shows have sparked an interest in the culinary industry. They all want to be the next “Top Chef” or the next great baker.
What’s nice is that they see that on TV and then come into our class and they can watch those shows again with a technical eye. They catch the safety and sanitary mistakes.
¶ I have three kinds of students. I have some who think, “I’m going to get to eat good food,” which they do. I have the kids who are hands-on learners and they want a class where they learn by doing. And then I have the kids who are able to very clearly express, “This is what I want to do as a career. How can you help me get into culinary school? How can you help me get a job in the industry or get my food handler’s license?” The goal is to take all three of those motivations and get them to the same place by the end of the year.
¶ It is so gratifying to see kids excited about what their future could be. That there was a recipe they figured out because of the support you gave them. I love working with kids because their energy is so endless. – Lisa Lednicer
AP AND IB COMPUTER SCIENCE TEACHER
MERIDIAN HIGH SCHOOL (formerly George Mason High School)
YEARS TEACHING: 22
FUN FACTS: Named 2021 Teacher of the Year by the Falls Church Education Foundation, Snyder loves pure proofs of math.
¶ The current computer science class is a mix of art and the old shop classes we used to take when we were kids, in that they are building something. Whether it’s a silly little program that adds two numbers or a video game, the students feel ownership over creating something. They get to put their style into it. Whether the style is the logic of their coding or how it looks onscreen, the kids get really excited to have that.
¶ There’s this big fear and intimidation around computer science—the idea that you have to be a genius, or the kid who’s been doing math since they were
18 months old. I try to break that down. I try to put the student first before the computer science. Then the computer science comes naturally.
¶ A handful of my former students work at Google and Apple now. A lot of them have gone up to MIT to get into more of the robotic or hardware side of programming.
¶ Seeing students who struggle—the ones for whom math and computer science isn’t naturally easy—and seeing them have a good time in my class and learn things and then graduate is possibly the best part of this job.
¶ I had a student two years ago who loved baseball. We start off the year making some of those early video games like Pong, Space Invaders—and he’s like, “Can we make a baseball game?” Then he asked, “Can we do some data analysis of baseball?” We started doing data analysis. Then we contacted some stats companies that do baseball analysis, and he
got an internship. Now he’s off at Syracuse University and he’s got an internship with an analytics company in Seattle for the Seattle Mariners.
¶ When I first started teaching coding, I didn’t have a video camera or a projector; I was writing code by hand on the board. The kids were writing it down and then walking to PCs in the back of the classroom that barely worked. I wasn’t allowed to give homework because we couldn’t assume every kid had a computer at home. Now all the students [are given] their own Mac Airs.
¶ The biggest challenge—and it will be for a while—is to get more underrepresented groups inside my classroom. Computer science has this image that it’s a boy’s subject, and it’s all video games, and it’s hard. I’ve gone through a bunch of training at UVA on how to get more diverse students in my classroom. The field is predominantly white male. – Lisa Lednicer
LOWER SCHOOL LIBRARIAN (grades K-3)
THE POTOMAC SCHOOL
YEARS TEACHING: 23
FUN FACTS: After living in New York City and Texas, O’Hara now works at the private school she attended growing up. She starts every library visit with breathing and mindfulness exercises.
¶ I was a Potomac lifer; that’s what we call people who go kindergarten through 12th grade. The hardest part of coming to teach here was probably learning to call some of my former teachers by their first names.
¶ After being a classroom teacher, I’ve been a librarian for five years now. To have my entire job focused on kids’ joy of reading is incredible. I joke that I’m no longer responsible for whether or not kids can read; only whether or not they want to read.
¶ We let students choose any book they want. That does mean that a kindergartner is sometimes picking up a giant, 200-page text. Parents will say, “You’re sending them home with books they can’t read!” And I say, “Yes, and did you see the spark and the joy in their eyes about that book? That’s exactly what we want.” Sometimes we adults need to really bite our tongues about what kids are choosing.
¶ I want little kids to have time with text. It teaches them the anatomy of a book—the spine, the cover, the back. It also helps them figure out that text goes left to right; how we turn pages in a book. All of these are important prereading skills.
¶ We have amazing books that talk to kids about the civil rights movement, the Children’s March, about including people and excluding people and being an upstander and being a bystander. Those are things we once thought were too heady for children. I don’t think we believe that about children anymore.
¶ The common myth is that kids aren’t into books and just want to play video games. Little kids love seeing themselves in stories, exploring the world and digging deep on topics through stories. Kids will get curious about something, and they’ll want to take out every wolf rescue book you’ve ever had. They want to go deep on World War II.
¶ One of my favorite units is a Mistakes Unit that I do with first and second grade. We read tons of books where characters make mistakes and we talk about bouncing back. Recognizing that
all success in life comes from a whole slew of failures is important.
¶ You see lots of different kinds of reward systems around reading. I think the real challenge is not minutes per day, or pages per day, but finding that book that ignites a kid’s love of learning. For parents, the challenge is knowing that it might be far outside what you think they should be reading. If what your kid loves to read is a Disney princess book that you hate, you should still let them read that book, and let them read it 50 times in a row. – Lisa Lednicer
Kathleen Otal
SCHOOL
COUNSELORMCLEAN HIGH SCHOOL
YEARS TEACHING: 25
FUN FACTS: Otal began her career as a first-grade teacher in Texas. Named 2020 Secondary Counselor of the Year by the Virginia School Counselor Association, she co-founded a Parent University to help parents support their teens in the college admissions process. Last year she was also co-leader of McLean High School’s equity team.
¶ The pandemic brought a lot of equity issues to the forefront. Students with fewer resources didn’t have as much support at home. They struggled with technology. Some didn’t have space to do work. It was harder for them to keep up academically.
¶ We cut out a lot of the assignments. We tried to lower the stress by not having the full curriculum. This fall we’ll have the full curriculum again and that’s going to be a hard transition. I really hope parents and students and teachers will give everyone grace.
¶ Kids don’t just play anymore. They’re either in front of a screen, or they’re going from activity to activity to activity. They don’t have a chance to be bored. When you’re bored, that’s when you learn self-regulation skills. If you’re upset, angry, sad—you learn how to regulate and come to terms with it.
¶ Today’s parents may be a little more stressed about their children getting into the right college. But more parents are opening up their minds to the idea that there are a lot of good schools out there, which is really great.
¶ I think parents are having a hard time figuring out how to deal with social media and kids being on their phones 24/7. For kids, socializing now is not as much face to face. A lot of it is done on that device. As long as they are happy with their social life, we need to try to understand it.
¶ The long-range goal is for your child to be happy, healthy, well-adjusted. Have a job where they’re self-sufficient and functioning in society. Able to maintain a relationship and have friends. Your goal is really to have them become a healthy adult.
¶ If you want your child to be successful, give them jobs around the house and make them responsible for that. Give them free time to discover what they like to do. Because if you’re just putting your child in all these different activities, you’re deciding what’s right for them and they don’t have a chance to think about what makes them happy.
¶ There’s a misconception that every student is really smart and taking tons of AP classes. That’s actually not true. Most students are taking one AP class. They always feel like they need to do
more. They compare themselves to others a little too much.
¶ Nothing is more important than your relationship with your child. If they get bad grades for a few years, don’t ruin your relationship by trying to force them to get good grades. Just have them get bad grades and keep your relationship intact.
¶ Getting into an Ivy League school means sacrificing a lot of your high school experience. You’re only studying and doing high-level activities. That has to come from the child. Those kids who go to Ivy League schools—it’s because they wanted it and their parents didn’t force them into it. You’re going to be successful with your child if you accept them for who they are and allow them to be that person. – Lisa Lednicer
SCIENCE TEACHER
CLAREMONT IMMERSION SCHOOL
YEARS TEACHING: 17
FUN FACTS: Padilla Meléndez grew up in Puerto Rico and initially planned to be a veterinarian. Now a teacher in a bilingual school, he was named Canvas Educator of the Year (Elementary) in 2019.
¶ I love science and math. In high school [in Puerto Rico], my teachers in those subjects inspired me to continue. I was so proud of myself, being successful. I wanted to be like them.
¶ I always like to be challenged. Algebra involves figuring out how or why. The same with science. You want to know why. How are you going to get the answer?
¶ I’ve been in a bilingual setting for my whole career. I want to show my kids, my Latino population, that I know how they feel because English is my second language.
¶ I want my students to feel like real scientists—to understand how what they learn in the classroom is something they can use in the real world. For instance, we did a unit where we were talking about plants. Two weeks after we finished the experiment, I received this email from the parent like, “Oh my God, thank you for the lesson. Because you did that experiment with the beans in school, now she wants to grow more.” I felt so happy because the student applied what she learned in her household.
¶ Getting resources in Spanish—that’s a real challenge for bilingual education.
Sometimes we need to create them ourselves because the available resources do not fit. Things get lost in translation. It’s not easy to create my own lessons. I need to do my research, to do what’s appropriate for my kids. Some of the Spanish textbooks we have are too high-level [for elementary-age kids]. So I need to accommodate my lessons into the Spanish that they can understand.
¶ I’m kind of sweet with the kids; however, I’m strict. I respect them, I love working with them, they respect me.
¶ Even on a sad day, you go to school and they make you smile.
¶ I’m doing a little bit, one step, to get them closer to their success. I want to do my part as their teacher. I can see the progress. We can work as a team, the parents and the school, to make this world better. – Eliza Tebo Berkon
Karyn Ewart
FOUNDER AND HEAD OF SCHOOL
THE SYCAMORE SCHOOL
YEARS IN EDUCATION: 20+
FUN FACTS: A lifelong Arlingtonian and licensed clinical psychologist, Ewart founded The Sycamore School in 2015. Centering on a competency-based learning philosophy with individualized instruction, the independent secondary school emphasizes social-emotional growth and civic engagement alongside academics.
I call the NoVA area the Bermuda Triangle of stress because you have high-achieving parents, high-achieving schools, high-achieving kids. We’ve set these expectations that you can make straight A’s, and be captain of your soccer team, and do all these extracurriculars, and do this community service—
and that it’s all doable and expected. So you see all these kids trying to do it. And then you see the eating disorders; you see the anxiety, the drug use, selfmedication. We’ve got this going on, but we’re not talking about it.
¶ I wanted to create a school where: A) learning can be challenging without being stressful; and B) we’re calling out the elephant in the room. We’re normalizing that all kiddos need help with socio-emotional learning just like with academic learning. And we’re gonna give them the support they need, not when they’re in crisis but before.
¶ I found myself bored in the setting that I was in, and several different people were saying, “Well, why don’t you open your own school?” At first I was like, “You’re crazy. That’s a lot of work.” Then I started thinking about it, and I thought, Once in your life, you have to just take that deep dive and try something a little risky and crazy and see what happens. It’s probably one of the defining moments of my life.
¶ Our school has a mastery-based learning philosophy. It’s the idea that learning can be self-paced. We as humans don’t all learn things at the same rate. There are some things we learn and we get really quickly, and there are other things that we need to spend more time with. Each person is different.
¶ We work a lot on empathy and perspective-taking and considering different points of view. One of the things I often say is, “We need to make room for other voices.”
¶ I want students to be strong selfadvocates. I want them to think for themselves.
¶ I’m hoping they’re kind, they’re engaged in their community, they’re doing something they love and that they’re able to be independent, productive adults. – Eliza Tebo Berkon ■
Where Arlington high school graduates 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 2021) applied and where they were accepted. 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 (PEP) and the English Language Institute. Given that the acceptance information was “self-reported” by the graduates, school officials stress that they cannot verify its accuracy. 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.
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THE HOME OFFICE next to the foyer was one of the first things you saw upon entering Lara Covington’s McLean house in Chesterbrook Woods. It wasn’t pretty.
“There were some old desks that looked terrible and boxes on the floor. It had basically become a shipping and receiving room for packages,” says
Covington, a lawyer and mom of two, about the awkward, L-shaped space, with its mismatched furniture and mostly bare walls.
Wanting a more pleasing work spot she could share with her kids—now 13 and 11—Covington started following interior designer Erika Bonnell on Instagram and finally reached out in 2018.
“Our mission was to create a wellfunctioning space with a printer, shredder and three computers,” says Bonnell, whose studio is based in Sterling. “At the same time, she wanted a space with lifestyle qualities that didn’t just feel like you were in an office building.”
Out went the stodgy desks and bankers boxes. In their place, Bonnell introduced floor-to-ceiling built-ins with individual work areas, storage cabinets and open display shelves, plus acrylic chairs (which are easily wiped clean when subjected to sticky fingers) and a rustic round table that the kids could use for drawing and puzzles. The sapphire-blue Schumacher wallpaper behind the shelves features an abstract design by Martyn Lawrence Bullard and references the blue tones found in adjoining rooms.
A fluffy ottoman on casters (which the kids now use all over the house) tucks under a console table when not in use. To bring in more natural light, Bonnell traded the office’s solid-wood doors for glass-paned French doors, and replaced the heavy plantation shutters on the front windows with printed drapes featuring a bold design by Richmond artist Lindsay Cowles. Brass accents and a fun light fixture from West Elm complete the look.
“Working with Erika was a joy,” Covington says. “She’s funny and creative, kept on schedule, and she does a big reveal at the end. She makes you leave for a few hours while they install most of the furnishings and finishes. There’s a big ‘wow’ factor when you come back and see the whole design vision come together all at once.”
The owners of this Cherrydale home love vivid colors, prints and animals. The design delivers.
BY JENNIFER SHAPIRA
When the millennial couple, both tech company employees in their early-30s, purchased this Craftsmaninspired home in Cherrydale in January 2020, it was 60 percent built. It was also the first home they’d ever bought.
Two months later, they packed up their two cats (they’ve since acquired a dog, too) and their ubiquitous youngadult Ikea furniture and moved from their less-than-1,000-square-foot D.C. apartment into 5,000 square feet that still smelled like fresh paint. As they
padded around the mostly empty interiors, teleworking during the pandemic in their respective spaces (spare bedroom for him, kitchen island for her), they were ready to tailor their new digs to match their tastes.
Pretty much from the get-go, the couple (who prefer not to be named, so we’ll just call them “Hannah” and “Ben”) enlisted Janelle Blakely Photopoulos, owner of Blakely Interior Design in Rhode Island, where Hannah grew up. As luck would have it, Hannah had a connection to the
designer; her mom worked in the firm’s business office.
The home’s primary living spaces were their first design priority. They shared with Photopoulos their color preferences, fondness for animals (wild and tame), and requirement to stay on budget.
Having grown up in New England, Hannah was tired of Colonials and had more recently taken a liking to Craftsman-style architecture. Ben’s taste runs more contemporary, so the aesthetic of their house, built by Arlington-based Enhanced Homes, is a middle ground.
Top left: The living room features a coffered ceiling, rope-detailed chairs from Brownstone Furniture and geometric Flock drapes by Kravet. The kitchen’s honeycomb marble backsplash from Floor & Decor offers a stylish take on subway tile.
Top right: In the foyer, a vintage Turkish runner by Kilim complements twin cobalt lamps from Port 68 atop a burled wood console table from Worlds Away. A gallery wall of animal images livens the stair landing.
Lower right: Chinoiserie print wallpaper by Thibaut makes a statement in the main floor powder room.
“We were looking at the new-build market in Arlington and this house is really unique. The lot is over 10,000 square feet,” Hannah says, noting that they love the big yard and appreciated coming into the process midconstruction. “It was nice that the house wasn’t fully done so we could still choose countertops and that sort of thing, but it wasn’t so daunting to start all the way from an empty lot and try to design the entire house.”
Enhanced Homes owner Ryan Fubini, whose company builds six to eight homes a year (many of them, like this one, as speculative properties with a certain buyer profile in mind), says this
Left: Accents in the dining room include monkey art prints, a cheetah figurine and rattan chairs with woven black leather seats and backs.
Right: Designed for entertaining, the butler’s pantry is equipped with two wine refrigerators, black quartz countertops and Zimba wallpaper by Schumacher.
was one of his favorites. “It’s fun to get creative,” he says. “Knowing the price point we were seeking [meant we could] spend money on the bells and whistles.”
Artisanal touches in the six-bedroom home include striking black window frames, double-stacked kitchen cabinets, a butler’s pantry for entertaining and oak hardwood floors.
Fubini went all out on marble in the master bath, but says he’s also had “a lot of success not going crazy expensive with tile, and just finding unique designs and patterns.”
Case in point: The black diamond tile that Fubini chose for the powder room floor, which caught Photopoulos’
eye and became a springboard. Knowing her clients liked yellow, she decided to complement the tile floor with an active chinoiserie wallpaper by Thibaut. They loved it. “Sometimes when you’re designing for clients, you want to push them a little past their comfort zone,” she says, “to really get great design.”
The couple saved some green by using the same black quartz countertops in both the powder room and butler’s pantry. “That was a fun, little space,” Photopoulos says of the pantry, which also features dramatic wallpaper. Playing along with Fubini’s blackand-white scheme, she chose a bold, graphic pattern by Schumacher.
In the adjoining dining room, an off-black grass cloth wall covering by Thibaut adds texture and contrast to crisp white wainscoting. Contemporary Gabby chairs in woven black leather surround a large oval table under a sculptural chandelier. When Photopoulos spotted Schumacher’s Leaping Leopards print in yellow, she and her team knew they’d found the perfect fabric for that room’s commanding window treatments.
“You might notice that our whole house is subtly safari-themed,” Hannah says. “We both really love animals.”
Realizing that her clients were not at all averse to mixing textures and patterns, Photopoulos pushed the aesthetic. In the master bedroom, a green grass cloth wall adds interest behind a pin-striped king bed and an animal-print daybed bookended by emerald pillows. A whimsical art print reminiscent of the elephant god Ganesh (the Hindu god of new beginnings) reflects Ben’s Indian heritage. Matching chaises by CR Laine pro -
vide soft landings for sinking into with good books.
The guest bedroom’s gray walls and custom-painted powder-blue night tables set a slightly more serene tone, though a playful leopard-print headboard, upholstered in CR Laine fabric, keeps with the animal theme.
Anchoring the living room is a cozy sectional sofa dotted with throw pillows in pops of navy and grass green. Photopoulos added a set of chairs with cool roping detail and a trek-inspired leatherstrap bench from Brownstone Furniture. The windows are outfitted with natural fiber Roman shades and Kravet drapes in a pattern called Flock.
Though they still have empty rooms to fill, the owners say they are thrilled with the first round of design. Once they’re ready to grow their family and furnish additional bedrooms, there’s no question they’ll call Photopoulos for the finishing touches.
But for now, after months of social distancing with no visitors, their home’s big reveal is happily on replay: “When
we have people over, everyone’s like ‘Oh my gosh! You did so much right away,’ ” Hannah says. “So when you walk in the house, it feels like the house is done.”
Having dutifully stayed on budget, Photopoulos and her team even managed to give their clients a little housewarming surprise with some leftover funds: They personalized a gallery wall on the stairwell landing (see page 97) with prints and silhouettes of animals both exotic and domestic, from cheetahs and giraffes to house cats.
“I feel like they really captured [our] whimsy,” Hannah says. “We wanted to be sophisticated, but also have a little bit of fun and playfulness.” ■
Jennifer Shapira is a home and design writer based in McLean. PROJECT CREDITS Enhanced Homes
Blakely Interior Design
1600 N. Edgewood St.
List Price: $2.7 million
Sale Price: $2.65 million
Days on Market: 33
Listing Office: KW Metro Center
Neighborhood: Lyon Village
Year Built: 2016
Bedrooms: 6
Full/Half Baths: 5/1
1776 S. Kent St.
List Price: $2.12 million
Sale Price: $2.12 million
Days on Market: 1
Listing Office: Compass
Neighborhood: Addison Heights
Year Built: 2021
Bedrooms: 8
Full/Half Baths: 6/2
5508 N. Carlin Springs Road
List Price: $1.35 million
Sale Price: $1.33 million
Days on Market: 47
Listing Office: Fairfax Realty Select
Neighborhood: Arlington Forest
Year Built: 1954
Bedrooms: 5
Full/Half Baths: 5/1
1725 S. Oakland St.
List Price: $1.06 million
Sale Price: $1.17 million
Days on Market: 6
Listing Office: Compass
Neighborhood: Douglas Park
Year Built: 1944
Bedrooms: 5
Full/Half Baths: 4/1
This information, courtesy of Bright MLS as of July 16, 2021, includes homes sold in June 2021, 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 95,000 real estate professionals who in turn serve over 20 million consumers. For more information, visit brightmls.com.
6320 Washington Blvd.
List Price: $1.9 million
Sale Price: $1.9 million
Days on Market: 21
Listing Office: KW Metro Center
Neighborhood: Highland Park
Year Built: 2004
Bedrooms: 6
Full/Half Baths: 4/1
2401 S. Culpeper St.
List Price: $939,000
Sale Price: $950,000
Days on Market: 40
Listing Office: Samson Properties
Neighborhood: Claremont
Year Built: 1948
Bedrooms: 4
Full/Half Baths: 3/1
4503 32nd Road N.
List Price: $3.5 million
Sale Price: $3 million
Days on Market: 123
Listing Office: Capitol Real Estate
Neighborhood: Country Club Hills
Year Built: 2018
Bedrooms: 6
Full/Half Baths: 6/2
1713 22nd Court N.
List Price: $1.5 million
Sale Price: $1.5 million
Days on Market: 3
Listing Office: Washington Fine Properties
Neighborhood: Palisades Park
Year Built: 1996
Bedrooms: 3
Full/Half Baths: 2/2
2827 N. Underwood St.
List Price: $1.8 million
Sale Price: $1.8 million
Days on Market: 8
Listing Office: McEnearney Assoc.
Neighborhood: Berkshire Oakwood
Year Built: 2011
Bedrooms: 5
Full/Half Baths: 4/1
825 Clinton Place
List Price: $5.8 million
Sale Price: $5.4 million
Days on Market: 32
Listing Office: Washington Fine Properties
Neighborhood: Langley Forest
Year Built: 2005
Bedrooms: 5
Full/Half Baths: 6/1
8100 Spring Hill Farm Drive
List Price: $3.75 million
Sale Price: $4.15 million
Days on Market: 3
Listing Office: Long & Foster Real Estate
Neighborhood: Spring Hill Farm
Year Built: 2011
Bedrooms: 5
Full/Half Baths: 5/3
22041
3611 Bent Branch Court
List Price: $1.12 million
Sale Price: $1.3 million
Days on Market: 2
Listing Office: KW Metro Center
Neighborhood: Barcroft Woods
Year Built: 1961
Bedrooms: 4
Full/Half Baths: 2/1
2905 Random Road
List Price: $1.4 million
Sale Price: $1.4 million
Days on Market: 43
Listing Office: Long & Foster Real Estate
Neighborhood: Charles W. Lee Sr. Estates
Year Built: 2020
Bedrooms: 5
Full/Half Baths: 4/1
7703 Fisher Drive
List Price: $1.7 million
Sale Price: $1.7 million
Days on Market: 10
Listing Office: Libra Realty
Neighborhood: Pimmit Hills
Year Built: 2021
Bedrooms: 6
Full/Half Baths: 6/1
3321 Stoneybrae Drive
List Price: $874,900
Sale Price: $925,000
Days on Market: 6
Listing Office: RE/MAX West End
Neighborhood: Lake Barcroft
Year Built: 1955
Bedrooms: 5
Full/Half Baths: 3/0
409 W. Rosemary Lane
List Price: $1.68 million
Sale Price: $1.77 million
Days on Market: 6
Listing Office: Washington Fine Properties
Neighborhood: Poplar Drive/Seaton Lane
Year Built: 2019
Bedrooms: 5
Full/Half Baths: 4/1
22206
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22207
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22205
22101
22042
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22044
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KIERAN FANNAN, PROJECT ARCHITECT
PAM HARPER, INTERIOR DESIGNER
MICHAEL SAURI, CO-OWNER
BETHANY LEWIS, DESIGN COORDINATOR
Awards/Honors:
Arlington Magazine Winner, Best Builder/ Remodeler 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015
NARI Contractor of the Year (COTY) 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018
Arlington Chamber of Commerce Service
Small Business Award 2020
Fred Case Remodeling Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2018
Best of Houzz in Service 2021
925 N. Garfield St., Suite 106 Arlington, VA 22201
703-243-3171 | info@trivistausa.com www.trivistausa.com
Q: How important is design in your work?
A: We have a superhero design team! Their mission is to combine the client’s vision and budget into creative design solutions that remodel their existing home into an amazing, beautiful and more functional space. After a recent design presentation, a client e-mailed, “words cannot express my appreciation – I was ecstatic over the floor plan and elevations, as the charm of the home has been enhanced dramatically… again, thank you, thank you, thank you for doing such a fabulous job on the design.”
Design ultimately impacts every aspect of our clients’ lives: the flow through their remodeled home, the amount of sunshine and light available for them to enjoy, their privacy, the connectedness of family they feel, and the beauty they enjoy when they sip a cup of tea. Although we see every project as an artistic opportunity, we believe form follows function. The design
should relate to our clients’ needs, and we love delighting them with custom-crafted solutions that fit their vision.
Q: How do you achieve a connection between design and build?
A: Our entire company is involved in a collaborative process known as a design charrette, where we bring together all aspects of the project. We also engage the build team as we develop designs by calling on the expertise of every team member to bring different perspectives to the design solutions we provide our clients. Clients are presented with an exciting variety of options, all of which solve their home challenges, within budget, allowing them to see multiple options and collaborate with us on their own solutions from the very first design presentation.
Classic Cottages is a Northern Virginiabased custom home builder that builds primarily in Arlington County and provides turnkey solutions for families looking to build a new home. Whether families are looking to build a beautiful model home or a custom home from scratch, Classic Cottages can handle everything from concept to completion through its skilled in-house acquisitions, sales, architecture, design and construction departments.
433 E. Monroe Ave. Alexandria, VA 22301
703-844-9936
www.ccottages.com
Q: What is one trait that helps Classic Cottages stand out from its competitors?
A: One trait that separates Classic Cottages from other custom home builders in Arlington is that we have our own inhouse design department. Rather than outsourcing designers for every project, Kim Musser, vice president of design, and Kara Hannibal, project designer, are woven into the very fabric of the Classic Cottages family.
This purposeful integration helps to not only streamline the building process but allows for better communication and cohesion between all new construction disciplines. Our design department selects all design products and finishes, collaborates with preferred vendors for ordering specifications, manages all cabinetry in-house, creates 3D visuals for client presentations, and works one-on-one with clients throughout the entire build process. At the end of the design process, all of the elements come together beautifully, creating a one-of-a-kind
masterpiece that someone else will call home
Q: Does your design department offer additional design services?
A: Not only do we choose the permanent design elements of the home, but we also offer an add-on contract where we help clients choose which furnishings complement their home. After all, the design goal is help turn a new house into a home. What goes into your home is just as important as the home itself. No designer knows your home better than the one who designed the entire home in the first place!
Buying from local vendors that offer high-quality, artisanal furnishings is an integral part of our furnishings program. One local shop we like to frequent with clients is J & J Oriental Rugs, located on King Street in Old Town, Alexandria (pictured above).
ARLINGTON’S HOMETOWN HOME LOAN TEAM – AND YOUR VA LOAN EXPERTS!
Specialties:
VA Loans, Construction Loans, First-Time Homebuyers, Conventional Loans, Renovation Loans, USDA Rural Development Loans, Reverse Mortgages, Mortgage Down Payment Assistance, Mortgage Refinancing
4075 Wilson Blvd., Suite 823 703-650-7431 | info@monumenthomeloans.com www.monumenthomeloans.com nmlsconsumeraccess.org
{Photo caption: From Top Left: Colin Myers, Loan Officer, NMLS #1473250; Kelley Cannon, Loan Officer Assistant, NMLS #2095194: Anshal Rode, Loan Officer, NMLS #816658; Ru Toyama, Loan Officer NMLS #1528382; Scott Gordon, Processing Manager, NMLS #483765; Joe Prentice, Sales Manager NMLS #1610163; Robert Martinson, Branch Manager NMLS #470762.} A division of Mann Mortgage LLC NMLS#2550 Equal Housing Lender
Q: Why choose Monument Home Loans instead of a bank?
A: Home mortgages are what we do— and all we do. Instead of juggling auto loans, ATMs and asset management, we focus solely on ensuring that every client has a smooth and predictable financing experience. As a company, we are committed to hometown values, solid partnerships, streamlined processes and cutting-edge technologies. We are experienced in working with clients from a wide range of backgrounds— first-time buyers, experienced buyers, refinancing, jumbo loans, self-employed, credit-challenged—and can easily find the right options for any situation for our customers. Regardless of your circumstances, every member of our team shares a common objective—to close your loan on time, as expected, and as efficiently as possible.
Q: What sets Monument Home Loans apart?
A: Our service. While our interest rates are quite competitive, our customer service is what sets us apart. From your first phone call until your final signature, our loan officers and processing team are fully accessible whenever needed, day or night, weekday or weekend. We also understand that mortgages should not be one-size-fits-all. That’s why we offer one of the widest arrays of mortgage products in the DMV, and we work closely with clients to identify the program that best meets their needs and goals. As a result, we enable people from all walks of life to experience a smooth, predictable process that results in the best mortgage for their circumstances—and to have an experienced loan officer with them every step of the way.
THE ARLINGTON EXPERT
KW METRO CENTER
Awards/Honors:
Arlington Magazine Top Vote Getter, Best Real Estate Agent 2020
Arlington Magazine Top Producer 2021
Best of Washingtonian 2015-2021
Best of Northern Virginia Magazine 20162021
5 start ratings on Google, Zillow and Yelp
2111 Wilson Blvd., Suite 1050 Arlington, VA 22201
703-217-2077
renata@thearlingtonexpert.com www.thearlingtonexpert.com
Q: What makes you different from other real estate agents?
A: The "before and after" transformations of my clients’ homes, which allows them to get the highest possible price. There are many examples and success stories on my website that you can check out. Too many sellers leave money on the table because their homes are not presented well. Many buyers can’t see past odd colors, clutter or lack of furniture. With a few simple steps, I help my clients make their homes look amazing and sell for top dollar.
Q: What brings you the most satisfaction in your work?
A: I love being helpful and, as a Realtor, I get to be helpful in a million different ways every single day. I also love being able to set my own standards for the service I provide. You will see me running around with my bucket, tools and cleaning supplies before I list a home, because I
want to make sure all the details are taken care of. I always say the “first impression is the only impression” – my job is to make sure it’s a great one.
Q: What are your interests outside of work?
A: I’m a mom of two wonderful kids and we love experiencing adventures together. We go on hikes, camping, biking, exploring new places. I became my son’s Cub Scout den leader during the pandemic – what an amazing platform for teaching the kids life lessons and being part of a community. When I’m not spending time with my children, you will find me reading, spending time with friends, drinking wine, trying new restaurants, journaling or riding my Peloton!
I am particularly proud to be trusted by my friends and acquaintances with the important task of building their custom home. Working with someone that I have known since childhood inspires me to make sure everything is perfect—and that resonates in the homes that we build for speculative purposes, as well.
P.O. Box 7638 Arlington, VA 22207
703-244-2802
info@whitestonecustomhomes.com www.whitestonecustomhomes.com
Q: How do your clients benefit from your vast experience in the industry?
A: You could say that for me, building homes in Arlington is a family tradition. My grandfather founded Broyhill Homes and built many homes here in the 1940s, ‘50s and ‘60s. I take great pride in carrying on the family tradition and continuing to make this community a beautiful place to live.
As a true custom builder, Whitestone Custom Homes offers the details, such as entertaining-friendly great rooms, outdoor living spaces and a wide range of architectural styles that make a home your own. We understand everyone has a personal vision and our job is to turn that image into a reality. By seamlessly integrating the design and construction phases of their projects, our team of architects, designers, project managers, suppliers and selections coordinators smoothly guides clients through the process of creating the home of their dreams.
Q: Why should a prospective client choose to work with Whitestone?
A: Our business is built upon four cornerstones: integrity, quality, service and value. When you work with us, you’re not buying a product, but a premium service.
A common misconception is that every custom homebuilder is the same—we strive to prove otherwise.
A vital part of what sets Whitestone apart from the competition is our unwavering commitment to excellence. We hold the quality of our workmanship to the highest standards. By employing only highly qualified personnel who are committed to upholding this high level of excellence, we strive to give the best possible service before, during and after the construction process.
For 31 years, Bowers Design Build has created an extraordinary homeowner experience. On-staff architects and interior designers create maximum functionality and beautiful finishes. On-staff construction experts execute the building process with quality mindedness and honed project management skills. The entire team is focused on delivering a great experience for their clients.
6715 Whittier Ave., Suite 200
McLean, VA 22101
703-506-0845
wbowers@bowersdesignbuild.com
www.bowersdesignbuild.com
Q: What is Bowers Design Build’s underlying business philosophy?
A: When Bruce Bowers started Bowers Design Build 31 years ago, his goal was to create an extraordinary design and construction experience for the homeowner. Coupling his relentless drive to do things “the right way” (learned at an early age from his builder father and grandfather) with his education at the University of Maryland’s School of Architecture, he developed a customercentric approach to customized designs and a precise construction process incorporating project management expertise.
Bruce Bowers’ passion for excellence has attracted a team of people who share this mantra.
Q: How do you put that philosophy into practice?
A: Inspired by the company’s long-standing reputation for extreme customer care, the Bowers Design Build team of onstaff architects, interior designers and
construction professionals go above and beyond daily to ensure overall client satisfaction. Proof that their hard work is paying off: Recent results from GuildQuality.com show that 100% of their clients surveyed would recommend us to a friend. While winning industry awards for exceptional design and construction are wonderful, the true measure of the Bowers’ team’s success is happy clients.
Q: How would your clients describe you?
A: Satisfied clients describe the Bowers Design Build team as creative, detail oriented, dedicated, honest, fair and great project managers. They recognize that our employees are talented people with a focus on customer care. In fact, many of our customers have said they wouldn’t change a thing about their experience with Bowers Design Build. That is high praise—especially in the discerning northern Virginia market, where competition is plentiful.
NATALIE VAUGHAN & JASON WALDER
Arlington Magazine Top Producers 2019, 2020, 2021
Washingtonian Magazine Top Agents 2018, 2019, 2020
Wall Street Journal Real Trends America's Best Agents 2021
3001 Washington Blvd., Suite 400 Arlington, VA 22201
Natalie cell: 571-232-2934
Jason cell: 703-307-9763
hiveresidential@compass.com www.HiveResidentialDMV.com
Q: How did the pandemic change what you do?
A: This past year and a half was full of challenges we could never have anticipated. While much of the world was slowing to a standstill, the real estate industry switched into hyperdrive. Lower inventory, historic competition, and a full set of new rules and regulations for standard daily business practices became our new normal. Implementing our proven strategies for both listing and buying homes for our clients helped us continue to succeed in a market that seemed to have a new set of rules daily. Additionally, we would like to thank all of the frontline workers – their selfless service to our community is helping us all get through these unprecedented times.
Q: What brings you the most satisfaction in your work?
A: We thrive on the challenges of our daily work, offering innovative and out-of-the box solutions to make our clients’ real estate dreams come true. Purchasing and/or selling a home is usually the largest personal transaction an individual encounters in their lifetime. While it can be filled with competition, stress and anxiety, it doesn’t need to be that way. We manage the overwhelming nature of the process by listening to our clients’ needs, staying ahead of trends, understanding market dynamics and leveraging our networks. There is no better feeling than accepting a client’s heartfelt thanks after a successful transaction. Every day is different, every sale is different and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
ROBERT BRADDOCK
Specialty:
We specialize in harmonious and complementary work that blends seamlessly and proportionally with your existing home.
1612 N. Fillmore St. Arlington, VA 22201
703-346-9818
rbraddock@redhousearch.com www.redhousearch.com
Q: From an architect’s perspective, what unique challenges does the Arlington market present?
A: A large part of the existing housing stock in Arlington was built in the 1930s, 40s and 50s. These homes served their purpose with dignity, and vast numbers of people raised families in them. But, as products of their time, they were usually modest, with small, separated rooms. They were only nominally insulated, heated with a furnace and did not have air-conditioning. Storage was at a minimum. Basements were not considered habitable – most were not dry. Many Arlington homes were built on small lots, for working-class families. Expansion normally meant enclosing an existing porch.
On the plus side, they were often built with 8- or 12-inch-thick solid masonry walls. And the wood framing that was used came from old-growth forests and
was much stronger than the same size lumber used today. Small and sturdy –that’s the starting point.
Q: What services do you offer your clients?
A: As a residential architect, I am most often called upon to expand and remodel homes for growing families and also address the existing shortcomings. Today, we can open up large spaces with engineered lumber spans. We can bring in light with insulating windows and doors. We can combine robust insulation, draftstoppage and new HVAC technology to heat, cool and maintain comfort, while minimizing energy expenditures. And we can build with materials that have been reclaimed, recycled or diverted from the waste stream. This allows us to create beautiful and comfortable spaces that match the owner’s lifestyle and needs.
CHAD HACKMANN
Awards/Honors:
National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI) Contractor of the Year
2-time Regional Winner, 2020
NARI Contractor of the Year National Winner, 2021
NARI Community Service Award
Arlington County Green Home Choice Award Platinum Level
1100 N. Glebe Road, Suite 1010 Arlington, VA 22201
703-791-1317
chad.hackmann@alairhomes.com www.alairhomes.com/arlington/
Q: How would your clients describe you?
A: I have gotten lots of very flattering testimonials over the years. My favorites are those that are reflective of what I strive to be – like the client who nicknamed me "Mr. Calm." Building and remodeling can be an emotional roller-coaster. Our team works hard to avoid drama in the project as we help our clients safely navigate the process.
Q: How do you employ new technology to help your clients?
A: Alair embraces technology in its simplest form to help clients throughout the building and remodeling process. It can be cumbersome for both the builder and client to navigate a software package that tries to be one-size-fits-all. Alair's custom software is designed so that customers can seamlessly track every hour, every dollar and every selection related to their individual project.
Q: What is the most significant change in architecture/building during your career?
A: Every year in architecture and building there is something new, and something old that becomes new again. Every client gets their information from slightly different places, and we help them separate what they have heard from what is realistic. This can be fun stuff – like discussing the merits of wood countertops – or technical – like explaining why you don’t need an extra vapor barrier on inside walls in this climate. It can even be procedural – like showing clients how to navigate Maywood’s historic approval process. In the end, the customer needs a trusted advisor that can honestly and transparently walk them through their options. That is what Alair does best.
JAMES F. ANDERSON, ESQ.
RYAN A. BROWN, ESQ.
BRIDGET A. ALZHEIMER, ESQ.
Awards/Honors:
Ryan A. Brown, Esq.: Super Lawyers® Rising Stars, Estate Planning & Probate, 2016 – 2020 Arlington Magazine Top Attorney, Business/ Corporate, Nonprofit, Tax, Trusts & Estates, 2019; Northern Virginia Magazine Top Lawyer, Financial Law, 2019; Leadership Center for Excellence, “40 Under 40” Recipient, 2018
James F. Anderson, Esq.: Arlington Magazine Top Lawyer Trusts & Estates, 2019
1739 Clarendon Blvd. Arlington, VA 22209
703-842-3025
clients@arlingtonlawgroup.com www.arlingtonlawgroup.com
Q: What kinds of real estate transactions does your firm handle?
A: We work with developers, other real estate professionals and investors to limit liability through the creation of LLCs to own their rental properties. We also negotiate real estate contracts, construction contracts, construction loans and commercial loans for homeowners and developers who are looking to build or renovate residential or commercial real estate. Additionally, we work with developers and investors to create partnerships and raise capital through private offerings.
Q: How does Estate Planning help protect my real estate?
A: The homes our clients own in the D.C. area are often one of their largest assets. As we work with clients to prepare their estate plans, we discuss creditor protection options, tax planning and how to best manage real estate if the
client becomes incapacitated or wishes to transfer it on death. Each client is different, and we offer several fixed-price planning options. We then prepare powers of attorney, wills, trusts and deeds to best accomplish each client’s goals.
Planning ahead with a trust or a revocable transfer-on-death deed can save significant time and expense for beneficiaries of real estate. Titling property between spouses correctly can protect against creditors. Clients who have a portfolio of investment properties may want to gift real estate to their descendants to reduce taxes. We can handle these intra-family transfers, including providing gift and estate tax planning, to ensure efficient wealth transfer through the family.
All of our estate planning work starts with a free initial consultation, so we encourage clients to come and speak with us about their options.
MICHELLE SAGATOV
THE MICHELLE SAGATOV GROUP
REALTOR® WITH WASHINGTON FINE PROPERTIES (AFFILIATE OF SAGATOV DESIGN+BUILD)
YURI SAGATOV OWNER/DESIGNER
Awards/Honors:
Arlington Magazine Top Producer 2019, 2020, 2021; Top Vote Getter, Best Real Estate Agent 2020
Arlington Magazine Top Vote Getter, Builder/Remodeler 2018, 2020, 2021
Real Trends, America’s Best 2018, 2019, 2020
Washingtonian Top Agent 2017-2020
Northern Virginia Magazine Best Real Estate Agent 2018-2020
4100 Fairfax Drive, Suite 250 Arlington, VA 22203
703-402-9361
Instagram: @michellesagatovrealtygroup www.michellesagatov.com
134 W. Jefferson St. Falls Church, VA 22046 703-534-2500
Instagram: @Sagatov_Design www.sagatovhomes.com
Q: What makes you different?
A: The Michelle Sagatov Realty Group and Sagatov Design+Build offer a service that is hard to find anywhere else: We couple real estate services and design and construction. Our umbrella of services includes lot acquisition, real estate analysis on future builds/ renovations, lot research, custom design, plans, permits, construction and interior design. We once heard a client say, “All we had to do was bring our toothbrush and clothes…they did the rest.” We have been working together for 20 years and we love what we do. Our businesses complement each other and ultimately our clients benefit from each other’s craft.
“Fully custom” is a phrase often used to describe a Sagatov Design+Build home. Standing outside of any home that my husband Yuri Sagatov has designed and built, no one can guess what the floor plan is until they go inside. It is what makes each house so incredibly special and unique.
Q: I see you live and work in Arlington. How does that feel?
A: We have a very unique knowledge of Arlington: Yuri has lived here since 1999 (he previously grew up and lived in Fairfax), while Michelle moved to Arlington in 2001 and served with the Arlington County Police Department for five years. We have lived in 11 Arlington neighborhoods. That, coupled with the knowledge we have gained flipping houses, serves as a great platform for helping our clients in selling, buying, deciding to stay and renovate or move, or find a lot and go through the design-build process. Our past 20+ years make us the experts we are today.
BICYCLING REALTY GROUP (BRG) WITH KW METRO CENTER
Awards/Honors:
Arlington Magazine Top Producer 2021
Washingtonian “The Face of Arlington Real Estate,” 2021
Washingtonian Top Producer
Arlington Sun Gazette Best Real Estate Agent, 2021
NOVA Magazine Top & Best Real Estate Agent, 2021
Arlies Winner (ArlNow) Best Real Estate Agent for First-time Buyers, Favorite Ballston-Rosslyn Corridor Real Estate Agent, 2021
2111 Wilson Blvd., Suite 1050
Arlington, VA 22201
C: 703-819-4915
O: 703-224-6000
homes@bicyclingrealty.com
www.bicyclingrealty.com
Q: How did the pandemic change what you do?
A: While I wish I had a crystal ball, the resilience and adaptability that got us through the tumultuous year of 2020 will undoubtedly serve us all well through the remainder of 2021 and beyond. As in so many areas of our lives, there is a new normal in real estate. In addition to major technology innovations, last year brought new safety protocols, which will be here until vaccinations are completed. Masks, sanitizer, social distancing, zoom meetings and al fresco settlements are here for a while more. Most experts also anticipate low inventory and historically low interest rates to continue. This competitive seller’s market requires being prepared, knowing the market and moving fast.
Q: What aspects of the business have not changed?
A: Relationships and service. BRG and I are committed to getting every client to the finish line with a smile on their face. Technology cannot replace relationships. Exceptional service + safety guidelines + technology = 2021 Real Estate success. It is also essential that the buying and selling experience be as much fun as possible. Ask us about our community house hunting bike tours and unique open houses. We have used ice cream and pie socials, a classic car show, an electric bike demonstration, jazz quartet, donut truck and a bag piper to bring more attention to our clients’ beautiful homes. Fun sells because it promotes a positive outlook; that is the key to the best real estate transactions.
MAC Design + Build is an award winning, full-service design/build firm specializing in residential remodeling and custom homebuilding for homeowners throughout Northern Virginia. Our remodeling specialties include design and build-out for renovations, additions, kitchens, bathrooms, and custom homes.
44927 George Washington Blvd., Suite 155 Ashburn, VA 20147
703-852-8825 info@buildwithmac.com www.buildwithmac.com
Q: What sets you apart from other architects/builders?
A: We have one team under one roof –from our on-staff architects and interior designers to our experienced carpenters and framers – everyone is on the same team: your team. We are all here to exceed your expectations.
We approach our business from a client relationship point of view, not as a transactional contractor. We consider it a privilege to work in each client’s home. Our vision and strategy for MAC is built around one word and that’s QUALITY. Bringing life to our customers’ dreams always starts and ends with QUALITY.
The MAC team has more than 40 years of experience, we have won numerous awards, and we are very proud of that. However, we are most proud of the terrific reviews we get from our clients and the recommendations we receive to their family and friends. There is no better compliment than when a new client calls us and says
their neighbor recommended us because they love their build-out.
Q: How would your Clients describe you?
A: The whole MAC team is detail-oriented and very passionate about creative designs and steadfast Quality. This translates into consistency and great customer experiences.
One satisfied client put it best: “The MAC Design + Build team was awesome! We remodeled our kitchen and three bathrooms. From the initial design to the end of construction, everyone we worked with was professional and provided great customer service. We love our new kitchen and bathrooms! Thank you, MAC Design + Build!”
You can rest assured that MAC Design and Build loves designing creative solutions and making construction dreams and visions become reality, with a customercentric approach built around QUALITY.
SETH M. BALLARD, AIA, NCARB
Awards/Honors:
Arlington Magazine Winner, Best Architect 2016, 2020/2021
Arlington Magazine Top Vote Getter, Best Architect 2018
Northern Virginia magazine “Best of Northern Virginia” 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 Best of Houzz 2018, 2020, 2021
Build magazine “Best Residential Architect” 2019, 2020, 2021
5185 MacArthur Blvd. N.W., Suite 370 Washington, D.C. 20016
202-810-6555
seth@ballardmensua.com www.ballardmensua.com
Q: What sets Ballard + Mensua apart from the competition?
A: As a full-service architecture firm specializing in unique and custom homes and renovations, Ballard + Mensua Architecture offers far more than the standard architecture firm. Our refined process is actually what our clients appreciate as much as our design talent. Our process is designed to allow our clients to make all decisions on a cost-informed and design-option-informed basis.
Q: What services do you offer your clients?
A: Ballard + Mensua not only offers architectural services, but all aspects of design in a single firm, from interior design and decorating to landscape design, and more. With a broad network of the top builders and vendors that work under our guidance, we offer full-service project management from
concept to completion. As a result, we can provide all the positives of design/ build, while maintaining the competitive bidding and checks and balances of a traditional client/architect/builder relationship. Further, we specialize in highly detailed drawings that are partly enabled by our in-depth understanding of construction. I only hire architects that have broad construction experience working in the field.
Q: What should prospective customers know about you?
A: As an Arlington native who attended McKinley, Swanson and Yorktown, I understand the local market and how it has changed over the years. Ballard + Mensua is proud to have won Best Architect in the Best of Arlington readers survey and we are counting on your votes again this year.
In 2002, hometown entrepreneurs Reed Libby and Ryan Muniz applied their love of landscaping and customer service to start Affordable Lawn Sprinklers and Lighting. Nineteen years and 8,000 customers later, Affordable Lawn Sprinklers and Lighting is the top-rated irrigation, artificial turf and lighting provider in the Washington, D.C. region.
133 Patrick St., SE Vienna, VA 22180
703-289-1155
reed@affordablelawnsprinklers.com www.affordablesprinklers.com
Q: What has been the biggest change in irrigation and turf demands during your career?
A: Climate change! We live in a new climate today. Temperatures are extreme. Global warming means more moisture in the air and longer droughts combined with higher evaporation rates. We have become water management experts. We manage 5,000 sprinkler systems. This allows us to see everything. We no longer just add water, we manage the property through both drainage solutions and synthetic turf. 2021 has been a banner year for synthetic turf. People are tired of looking at muddy backyards.
Q: How do you employ new technology to help your clients?
A: As a company, we are always looking to improve. With lighting, clients want more control of their lighting and the ability to change colors and dim. In sprinklers, customers want to access their controller
through their phones. Our system now leverages weather algorithms to adjust the yard's watering schedule. In our water management division, customers are loving synthetic turf!
Q: What makes you different from other landscape-solution companies?
A: Our "secret sauce" is simple. We repeat the basics, and we do them well. We return calls. We show up as scheduled. We hyper-communicate.
Q: What's an example of something in your professional life of which you're proud?
A: Our employee satisfaction and longevity make us proud. Affordable's tech team includes 1st-generation immigrants who have made long-term careers with us. We offer a 401K and health insurance. Our team is loyal and passionately invested in our customer service out in the field.
Within our first year of being open to the public, our re-envisioned space has been named a "Five-Star Showroom" by Lutron and "Best Lighting Store" in the Best of Washington DC 2021 awards by Modern Luxury DC magazine. The showroom also won two national awards at the 2021 Lightovation Dallas International Lighting Show. We take this as confirmation that we truly achieved the "best in class" criteria put forth by our CEO.
5053 Lee Highway
Arlington, VA 22207
703-536-4400
showroom@dominionlighting.com
www.dominionlighting.com
Q: What is the biggest challenge in your job?
A: It's overcoming some of the typical misconceptions regarding lighting: that good lighting is expensive, that it's fine if it's an afterthought and that it's only about appearance. What people don't realize is that the success of any design hinges on how it's lit – our ability to see is based entirely on light. And even more than that, it has been proven that light directly influences our emotions and health, so if there's one space to get it right, it's at home.
Q: What makes you different than your competitors?
A: Unlike run-of-the-mill lighting stores or big-box retailers, we're not focused on selling things. We're interested in selling an experience, on demonstrating our expertise and creating a partnership with our clientele to guide them through what can be a very confusing process. I like to
call us "lighting Sherpas” – we're those trusted guides that lead the way through a daunting, yet very important endeavor.
Q: How do you employ new technology to help your clients?
A: We are using technology in new ways. We use Photoshop to help our clients visualize different decorative fixtures in their existing space, which creates far more confidence in the decision-making process. We're also using QR codes on all of our fixture tags in the showrooms to allow total transparency and easy access to details about each model. Our clients are able to see specifics about sizing, finishes, options and, most importantly, proof that our showroom pricing is better than anything they can find on the web.
CRS COMPASS
3001 Washington Blvd., Suite 400 Arlington, VA 22201
o: 703-266-7277
c: 703-200-3631
coral@sellwithcoral.com www.sellwithcoral.com
Q: What do your clients say about you?
A: I’ll let one of my latest client reviews answer that: “I would recommend Coral without question to anyone looking to buy, sell or both. She understands the market, provides good counsel, communicates well and offers creative solutions to any issues that may arise. Her guidance during our purchase and sale were instrumental in getting what we wanted in both transactions.”
Q: What advice would you offer someone just starting out in your profession?
A: Remember first and foremost, this is a relationship business. You can use all the tech tools in the world, but if you don’t develop strong, trusting relationships, you won’t succeed. The personal touch – the relationships and friendships agents make with clients, lenders, agents, title companies and contractors – is where the real magic happens and what makes some agents soar, while others might struggle.
WILL KNICELY
KIMBERLEIGH BOSWELL
1374 Chain Bridge Road McLean, VA 22101
703-356-8477 ext #3
wknicely@mycolorwheel.com kboswell@mycolorwheel.com www.colorwheel.net
Q: What is one thing that prospective clients should know about you?
A: We are interior designers specializing in window treatments and all aspects of interior design. Some interior designers are intimidated by the details required to produce beautiful and functional treatments and design. We design for our clients’ lifestyles and needs, and we do not limit our design to one select style.
Q: How would your clients describe you?
A: They would say that we are honest and open minded. We listen to our clients’ needs and select the best products to ensure a successful outcome for their projects. Our satisfied clients give us referrals and repeat business. In fact, many of our clients become life-long customers as a result of the bond we’ve formed working together.
WASHINGTON FINE PROPERTIES
Awards/Honors:
Arlington Magazine Top Producer 2021
Consistently recognized as Washingtonian Top Real Estate Agent
America’s Best Real Estate Professionals, Real Trends, 2021 Northern Virginia's Best Real Estate Agents, 2021
1364 Beverly Road, Suite 100 McLean, VA 22101
703-973-7001
diane@lewisteam.com www.lewisteam.com
Q: How would your clients describe you?
A: Our clients say it best….
“If you want market expertise, responsiveness and results, go with The Lewis Team!”
“Diane is honest and direct, professional and knowledgeable, and fun to work with, too!"
"She is a joy to work with—she’s friendly, deeply knowledgeable of the area, always available to bounce ideas off of, and genuinely interested in finding the best property for her clients at the right price point.”
Q: What is the biggest challenge in your job right now?
A: Working with buyers. We are in the most competitive market I have ever experienced. Most homes are receiving multiple offers and escalating significantly over the list price, so we have had to figure out ways to “win” the houses
and still protect our clients. We have developed a team of inspectors, lenders, title attorneys and contractors who work with our clients on short notice to help them make good decisions quickly, which is what you have to do in this market.
Q: What are your interests outside of work?
A: I love to travel, play tennis and golf. Before selling real estate, I worked for the U.S. Professional Tennis Registry in Hilton Head, SC, where I specialized in sports marketing and membership services. I’m now on the Board of Directors at the Washington Tennis & Education Foundation, which allows me to give back to community while doing something I love.
I WOULD GLADLY ADHERE to the maxim that breakfast is the most important meal of the day if the meal in question were the Irish breakfast at Mattie & Eddie’s, the Arlington bar and restaurant chef Cathal Armstrong opened in March. That offering—available all day, no less—includes two eggs any style, baked beans, sautéed tomatoes (or roasted mushrooms when tomatoes aren’t in season), pan-fried potatoes, house-baked brown bread and a panoply of pork products, including black pudding, white pudding, bangers and Irish bacon. It’s a visual and gusta-
Mattie
chef Cathal Armstrong pays homage to his Dubliner grandparents.
tory feast that covers all the real estate on an earthenware platter large enough to hold a roast turkey.
Armstrong, 52, also co-owns Kaliwa at The Wharf in Washington, D.C., and Hummingbird in Old Town Alexandria. The latter neighborhood is where he garnered a reputation for superlative Irish fare at two previous spots: Restaurant Eve (2004-2018), where he applied high-style French technique to humble Irish dishes; and Eamonn’s, a Dublin Chipper (2006-2019), a fast-casual fishand-chips joint.
An eight-time James Beard Foundation nominee for Best Chef MidAtlantic, Armstrong also wrote the book (well, a book) on Irish cooking. His memoir/cookbook, My Irish Table: Recipes from the Homeland and Restaurant Eve (Ten Speed Press, 2014), from which many of Mattie & Eddie’s dishes are derived, is on full display at the new pub. (Full disclosure: I co-authored said book with him.)
But that’s not why he opened the place. In truth, launching another restaurant was the last thing on the chef’s
mind during the pandemic. He, like so many others, was just trying to keep his existing businesses afloat when the Irish bar Siné closed its doors in Westpost (the area formerly known as Pentagon Row), and the property’s landlord, Federal Realty, sought him out. They struck a two-year deal. “We signed on Feb. 22 [2021] and opened on March 24, so we did an eight-month project in five weeks,” Armstrong says. “They gave me a good deal, rent-wise, but that was as far as they were willing to go.”
That means don’t expect much in terms of new décor when you visit Mattie & Eddie’s. The vast, 6,600-squarefoot space still has a preponderance of dark wood paneling, private booths with worn-velvet banquettes, a large bar with several TVs, and plenty of bric-a-brac throughout its many rooms, which collectively seat 200. (Two patios accommodate 100 more outside.)
Armstrong did trade the former occupant’s hockey paraphernalia for rugby gear and invested in a thorough cleaning from top to bottom, bringing in a Guinness expert to dismantle the draft
1301 South Joyce St., Arlington 571-312-2665
mattieandeddies.com
HOURS
11:30 a.m. to midnight, 7 days a week PARKING
Plenty of metered parking at Westpost (formerly Pentagon Row)
PRICES
Appetizers: $5 to $14
Entrées: $16 to $30
Desserts: $9 to $14
When in Ireland (or at least an Irish bar), go for an Irish draught ($8), such as Guinness stout, Kilkenny Irish cream ale, Harp lager, Smithwick’s red ale or Magners Irish cider. Also good is the selection of mixed pints (think Guinness and Harp, Harp and Magners or Guinness and DC Brau).
Cocktails ($12 to $15) with Irish profiles offer a change of pace. Try a Black Nail (Jameson Black Barrel, Irish Mist, honey, orange peel) or Irish Gold (Tullamore D.E.W., orange juice, peach schnapps and Crabbie’s ginger beer).
The wine list features mostly French selections, including 16 whites ($36 to $180), 16 reds ($30 to $255) and three rosés ($30 to $65) by the bottle. There are 18 wines by the glass (four sparkling, two rosé, six white and six red), ranging in price from $6 to $25.
beer system and replace all the taps and lines. He’s also added live music, Thursday through Saturday from 7 to 10 p.m., and a “traditional session” of live Irish music on Sundays from 4 to 7 p.m.
In some ways, the pub’s well-worn patina imparts a comforting familiarity. The chef’s Irish upbringing often centered around the pleasures of the table—particularly Sunday dinners at his grandparents’ tiny three-bedroom house in Dublin’s inner city. That’s where Martha and Edward Armstrong (known as Mattie and Eddie to friends; Nana and Granda to their grandchildren) made curtains for a living and
raised Armstrong’s father and five siblings. The chef designed his menu to emulate the kinds of dishes that came from Nana’s kitchen.
Twenty-eight-year-old Casey Bauer, who worked for Armstrong at Kaliwa, is the chef de cuisine at Mattie’s and does an admirable job, for the most part, of re-creating her boss’s specialties. Shareable snacks such as a chicken liver paté spiked with brandy, or a sardine spread packing some cayenne heat (misleadingly called “sardines on toast” even though the fish are not visually discernible) are nice accompaniments to a pint of Guinness or Harp,
or a cocktail. I quite enjoy the Bloody Mary-esque Caesar cocktail made with vodka, Clamato juice, Crum’s Nectar hot sauce and celery salt.
For a first course, the smoked haddock soup, rife with flaked fish, steamed mussels and clams in a buttery, dill-accented broth, is so sublime I’d happily eat it in the middle of a heat wave. A heaping, lemony bowl of steamed mussels and cockles is similarly soul-satisfying and a good dish to share with a dining companion.
Moving on to mains, you can’t go wrong with Armstrong’s fish and chips, a dish he perfected for mass-marketing at Eamonn’s and serves with seven sauces—among them, Chesapeake (think Old Bay); hot chili; tartar; a ketchup-and-mayo-based Marie Rose; and curry. A flour and cornstarch batter made with club soda creates a delicate but durable coating that seals the cod so that it stays moist when deepfried. For the chips, russet potatoes are stored for weeks (a practice that ups their starch level) before they are cut into chunky batons and shuttled through an elaborate cooking process that involves overnight soaking, blanching, refrigeration and then frying to order. The resulting fries are crisp on the outside, fluffy on the inside.
Armstrong’s knowledge of French culinary techniques, which he honed during the 10 years he worked for acclaimed D.C. chef Jeffrey Buben, is evident in his preparations. For his version of corned beef and cabbage, the beef is cured for 10 days in a spiced brine, then braised for several hours. A neatly trimmed (and gargantuan)
square of it—plenty for next-day sandwiches—is served with bechamel sauce, boiled potatoes and cabbage confit that’s been slowly braised with butter.
The lobster pot pie arrives piping hot in a crock topped with a shiny chapeau of puff pastry. When breached with a spoon, the flaky crust reveals a heady trove of claw and tail meat, carrots, potatoes and parsnips in a rich lobster sauce flavored with African blue basil.
The brown bread served with many dishes at Mattie & Eddie’s, with its delicate crumb and whole wheat depth, is so good it deserves special mention. Pastry chef Josh Jarvis oversees the bread and dessert program at Kaliwa and Mattie’s, where his pan-fried bread pudding (made with brown bread and batch loaf, an Irish sandwich bread) comes with a salty toffee sauce. The sauce is deftly cooked to the brink of burning, which enhances its caramel complexity.
As I return to writing reviews after a 16-month hiatus, I can’t help giving restaurants a wide berth when I spot short-
comings. I’m all too aware of the obstacles they still face, including high food costs, industry-wide staffing shortages, tremendous stress and, in many cases, staggering debt in the wake of pandemic restrictions. Diners may think everything’s back to normal, but it isn’t.
Not everything is perfect at Mattie & Eddie’s. An interior paint job would go a long way toward brightening up those drab interiors. Food-wise, I’m not sure why rosettes of Irish smoked salmon are served in a bowl of salad. A pork belly entrée billed as “crispy” falls short on that promise due to a flabby surfeit of fat, although its sidekick of colcannon— luscious mashed potatoes laden with butter, cream and kale—is splendid. There are some service issues, too. But when bartender Mairéad Harnett delivers cheery “Hi, loves” and “Here you go, sweethearts!” in her County Limerick brogue while handing over bountiful plates of Irish breakfast and fish and chips, those quibbles seem to wither away. ■
I can’t help gazing wondrously upon the French mini sponge cakes (known as madeleines) that Arlington pastry chef Patrice Olivon sells at the farmers markets at Lubber Run and Fairlington. Delicate and buttery with dots of white icing that make each one look like a cameo brooch, they taste as good as they look.
Olivon was born in Casablanca, Morocco, and raised in the south of France, where he graduated from the Ecole Hotelière de Marseille cooking school. While working in the mess during his stint in the French military service, he made friends with someone who had connections in Washington, D.C., and immigrated in 1979. After a decade at the nowshuttered La Maison Blanche
restaurant, he became White House executive chef (1991 to 2005) and was an instructor and program director at L’Academie de Cuisine cooking school (also now closed) from 2005 to 2016.
In 2019, Olivon set up shop at the Lubber Run market and began preparing his signature patisserie out of a licensed catering kitchen in Falls Church. Operating under the business name J’Aime Madeleine, he initially sold only madeleines ($19.95/dozen or three for $5.25), but has since expanded his repertoire to include jelly-filled sablés (butter cookies, $2.25 each), light-asair macarons ($9.75/dozen) and palmiers—flaky puff-pastry elephant ears made crispy with caramelized sugar (three for $5.75).
Olivon offers madeleines in flavors such as pistachio, strawberry, salted caramel, vanilla bean and lemon,
but he also likes to experiment. For instance, he does a creme brulee version with caramelized potato chips and smoked paprika, which together render a burnt sugar crunch and flavor reminiscent of the hardshell topping on that classic French dessert.
The Lubber Run Farmers Market (Barrett Elementary School, 4401 N. Henderson Road, Arlington) is open Saturdays, 8 a.m. to noon. The Fairlington Farmers Market (Fairlington Community Center, 3308 S. Stafford St., Arlington) is open Sundays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Arrive early, as Olivon usually sells out, or preorder online for pickup. You can also find his sweets at Idido’s Coffee and Social House off Columbia Pike (1107 S. Walter Reed Drive, Arlington). jaimemadeleine.com
ORDER THIS now
Restaurateurs Helen Sanjjav and Anthony Sankar and chef Premnath Durairaj have a winning concept in Spice Kraft Indian Bistro, which opened a second location (the original is in Del Ray) in the former Delhi Club space in Clarendon last November. Durairaj’s gorgeous
and exceedingly flavorful salmon tikka pineapple is a must. The chef marinates pineapple slices and salmon overnight in yogurt seasoned with coriander, Kashmiri chili powder, cumin, garam masala, black salt, mustard oil, fenugreek leaves and ajwain seeds. The fish and fruit are then charbroiled in a tandoor oven and served with a side of a vibrant orange tikka sauce made with tomatoes, onions, spices, butter and cream. Exquisite! spicekraftva.com
A friend and I recently enjoyed a delicious lunch that included avocado multigrain toast with roasted tomatoes, shaved radishes and a drizzle of olive oil; braised brisket and provolone on ciabatta with horseradish cream, arugula and red onions; a green smoothie made with spinach, spirulina, mangoes, peaches, bananas, honey and coconut water; and a glass of refreshing, on-tap hibiscus-honey-rose tea.
The setting? Roots Provisions & Grocery on Old Dominion Drive in McLean. (P.S.: You can top that avocado toast with goat cheese, bacon and/or a fried egg if you like.)
The market, café and bar, which replaced LoKL Gourmet in May, is a joint venture of building owners Ryan Benston, Michael Green and Matthew Ruesch—plus private chef and restaurant consultant Anne Alfano
(now a minority owner), whom the partners tapped to switch up the menu, décor and overall concept.
“[They] are from McLean and recognized the need for more fastcasual restaurants and a cocktail bar,” Alfano says, “a place to congregate, have drinks and food and have fun.”
Roots hosts trivia night once a week and plans to introduce live music, comedy nights and other community-centric activities going forward.
Offering seating for 40 inside, plus 12 outside, the 3,000-squarefoot space is large and airy with high ceilings, exposed brick, wood floors and a living-room-style lounge area outfitted with West Elm furniture. Low lighting and candles in mason jars set the mood at night, as does a cocktail, beer and wine list curated by bar manager Laura Jackson.
“We make all of our sour mixes and flavored simple syrups in house,” Alfano says. “I’m really proud of our
gin and tonic garnished with juniper berries and rosemary.”
Takeaway items for sale in the market include packaged cheeses and charcuterie, milk, eggs, Roberta’s frozen pizzas, Nightingale Ice Cream Sandwiches, beverages (including fresh-squeezed juices, craft beer and hard seltzer), house-made chicken stock, dried pastas, an assortment of oils and vinegars, and prepared foods such as guacamole and chicken salad.
The frozen chicken pot pies made by chef Jenn Crovato of D.C.’s 1310 Kitchen & Bar in Georgetown are so good they’re hard to keep in stock.
The café menu features espresso drinks, breakfast fare, sandwiches, salads and bowls (the quinoa tahini bowl is a best-seller), as well as indulgences such as milkshakes, ice cream cones, cake pops, croissants, chocolate chip cookies, brownies and apple pie. Sandwiches, bowls and salads range in price from $10 to $14. rootsprovisions.com
A Modo Mio Pizzeria
5555 Lee Highway, 703-532-0990, amodomio pizza.com. Formerly Joe’s Place Pizza and Pasta, the restaurant has rebranded with a new chef, a new menu (centering on wood-fired pies) and an interior makeover. L D $$
Aladdin Sweets & Tandoor
5169 Lee Highway, 703-533-0077. Chef Shiuli Rashid and her husband, Harun, prepare family recipes of curries and kabobs from their native Bangladesh. L D $$
Ambar Clarendon«
2901 Wilson Blvd., 703-875-9663, ambarrestau rant.com. Feast on Balkan fare such as stuffed cabbage, mushroom pilav and rotisserie meats. An outdoor terrace with dining pods is available. b R L D G V $$
Amore Congelato
1201 S. Joyce St., 571-483-0891, amorecongelato. com. Thereasa Black’s artisanal gelati are made with organic date syrup (in lieu of cane sugar) and oat milk, in flavors such as s’mores, banana pudding and salted-caramel pretzel crunch. G V $
Arlington Kabob
5046 Lee Highway, 703-531-1498, arlingtonkabob va.com. Authentic Afghan fare includes kabobs, wraps, shawarma and quabli palou (lamb shank with rice). L D $$
Arlington Rooftop Bar & Grill
2424 Wilson Blvd., 703-528-3030, arlrooftop.com. There’s plenty of bar food to go with the games, from burgers and wings to oysters and flatbread.
b R L D A G V $$
Baba«
2901 Wilson Blvd., 703-312-7978, baba.bar. This subterranean café, which transforms into a cocktail lounge at night, is a sister to Ambar next door.
B R L D G V $$
Bakeshop
1025 N. Fillmore St., 571-970-6460, bakeshopva. com. Hit this tiny storefront for coffee, cupcakes, cookies, macarons, icebox pies and other treats. Vegan sweets are always available. B V $
Ballston Local
900 N. Glebe Road, 703-852-1260, ballstonlocal. com. Pair your local brew with a plate of poutine, a New York-style pizza and other bar snacks at this buzzy neighborhood watering hole. L D 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.com. The trendy watering hole serves dishes reminiscent of Chinese and Taiwanese street food, plus sake, soju and Asian fusion cocktails. L D V $$
Barley Mac«
1600 Wilson Blvd., 703-372-9486, barleymacva.com.
You’ll find upscale tavern fare and more than 100 kinds of whiskey and bourbon. R L D A G V $$
Bartaco
4238 Wilson Blvd. (Ballston Quarter), 571-3908226, bartaco.com. A lively spot for tacos (13 kinds) and tequila. Feels like vacation. L D V A $$
Basic Burger
1101 S. Joyce Street, 703-248-9333, basicburger. com. The homegrown eatery (and food truck) cooks with locally sourced, certified Angus beef and cagefree, antibiotic-free chicken. L D $$
Bayou Bakery, Coffee Bar & Eatery « 1515 N. Courthouse Road, 703-243-2410, bayou bakeryva.com. Chef David Guas’ New Orleans-in-
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
$$$$ $71 or more
b Outdoor Dining
Children’s Menu
B Breakfast
R Brunch
L Lunch
D Dinner
A After Hours/Late Night
G Gluten-Free
V Vegetarian
« Best of Arlington 2019, 2020 or 2021 Winner
spired menu changes often, but you can always count on beignets and gumbo. Breakfast all day on Sundays. b B R L D G V $
Bethesda Bagels
1851 N. Moore St., 703-312-1133, bethesdabagels. com. The popular D.C.-area chain is now in Rosslyn. Eat a sandwich! b L V $
BGR the Burger Joint
3129 Lee Highway, 703-812-4705, bgrtheburger joint.com. Top your dry-aged beef with add-ons like grilled jalapeño, pineapple or fried egg. Veggie and turkey burgers are options. L D V $
Big Buns Damn Good Burger Co.
4401 Wilson Blvd., 4251 Campbell Ave., Arlington, 703-933-2867, eatbigbuns.com. Satisfy your cravings with “designer” burgers, shakes, beer and booze. L D $$
Bob & Edith’s Diner
2310 Columbia Pike, 703-920-6103; 539 23rd St. S., 703-920-2700; 5150 Lee Highway, 703-5940280; bobandedithsdiner.com. Founded in 1969, the 24-hour eatery whips up pancakes, eggs, grits, meatloaf, shakes and pie à la mode. 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, lamb kabob, tofu, paneer cheese, chana masala, pickled onions, greens and a variety of sauces. L D V $$
Bonsai Sushi at Crystal City
553 23rd St. S., 703-553-7723, crystalbonsai sushirestaurant.com. A go-to for sushi, sashimi, yakisoba, tempura, teriyaki. Closed Mondays. L D $$
Bread & Water Company
1201 S. Joyce St., 703-567-6698, breadand watercompany.com. The cafe-bakery serves sandwiches, salads, soups and pastries. Grab a loaf of Markos Panas’ addictive, rustic “M” bread to take home. B L V $
Bronson Bierhall
4100 Fairfax Drive, 703-528-1110, bronsonbier hall.com. You’ll find communal tables, 16 German and regional beers on tap, sausages, schnitzel and cornhole in this 6,000-square-foot bar ode to Munich. b L D A $$
Busboys and Poets
4251 S. Campbell Ave., 703-379-9757, busboys andpoets.com. Known for its poetry slams, onsite bookstore and social justice programming, the cafe offers an eclectic menu with oodles of options for vegetarians. b B R L D G V $$
The Café by La Cocina VA
918 S. Lincoln St., 703-596-1557, lacocinava.org/ café-main. This lunch spot operated by La Cocina VA, a nonprofit that trains immigrants for culinary careers, serves soups, salads, sandwiches, Dog Tag Bakery pastries and Swing’s coffee. L V $ Café Colline
4536 Lee Highway, 703-567-6615, cafecollineva. com. Helmed by executive chef Brendan L’Etoile, the cozy French bistro in the Lee Heights Shops satisfies with dishes such as paté maison, duck confit and chocolate pots de creme. b L D $$
Café Sazón
4704 Columbia Pike, 703-566-1686, cafesazon. com. A homey Bolivian café specializing in dishes such as silpancho and empanadas. B L D V $$
Caribbean Grill
5183 Lee Highway, 703-241-8947. Cuban prepara-
tions such as jerk-style pork, fried plantains and black bean soup are mainstays. L D G V $
Carlyle
4000 Campbell Ave., 703-931-0777, greatamerican restaurants.com/carlyle. The original anchor of Shirlington Village is a reliable pick for fusion fare, happy hour and Sunday brunch. b R L D G V $$$
Cava
1201 Wilson Blvd., 703-652-7880; 4121 Wilson Blvd., 703-310-6791; cava.com. Build your own salad, wrap or bowl, choosing from an array of Greek dips, spreads, proteins and toppings. L D G V $$
Cava Mezze
2940 Clarendon Blvd., 703-276-9090, cavamezze. com. Greek small plates include octopus, roasted eggplant, zucchini fritters, souvlaki, briny cheeses and succulent lamb. R L D G V $$$
The Celtic House Irish Pub & Restaurant
2500 Columbia Pike, 703-746-9644, celtichouse. net. The pub on the Pike serves favorites like corned beef and traditional Irish breakfast. R L D A $$
Chasin’ Tails
2200 N. Westmoreland St., 703-538-2565, chasintailscrawfish.com. It’s the place to go for a spicy, messy, finger-lickin’ Cajun crawfish boil. Lunch on weekends only. L D $$
Cheesetique
4024 Campbell Ave., 703-933-8787; cheesetique. com. The cheese shop and wine bar offers small plates, cheese boards and more. b B L D V $$
Circa at Clarendon
3010 Clarendon Blvd., 703-522-3010, circabistros. com. Bistro fare ranges from salads and small plates to steak frites and wild mushroom pizza. Sit outside if you can. b R L D A G V $$$
Colony Grill
2800 Clarendon Blvd., 703-682-8300, colonygrill. com. The Stamford, Connecticut-based pizza chain specializes in ultra-thin-crust “bar pies” with a spicy, pepper-infused hot oil topping. L D G V $$
Copa Kitchen & Bar
4238 Wilson Blvd. (Ballston Quarter), 571-4830324, copakitchenbar.com. Watch sports and munch on Spanish comfort foods like chorizo-manchego flatbread. B R L D A $$
Copperwood Tavern
4021 Campbell Ave., 703-522-8010, copperwood tavern.com. The hunting-and-fishing-themed saloon serves up steaks and chops, 24 draft beers and 30 small-batch whiskeys. b R L D $$$
Cowboy Café
4792 Lee Highway, 703-243-8010, thecowboycafe. 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. b R L D V $$
Crafthouse
901 N. Glebe Road, 703-962-6982, crafthouse usa.com. Locally sourced bar food, plus Virginia beer, wine and spirits equals a good time. b L D A $$
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 and pub grub. 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 Pastry 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 $$
Darna
946 N. Jackson St., 703-988-2373, darnava.com. Grilled kabobs, mezze and traditional Lebanese comfort foods are served in a modern setting. The upstairs is a hookah bar. L D V $$
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. b L D G V $$
Detour Coffee
946 N. Jackson St., 703-988-2378, detourcoffee co.com. This comfy cafe has a college vibe and serves up locally roasted coffee, light bites and weekend brunch. b R L D V $
District Taco«
5723 Lee Highway, 703-237-1204; 1500 Wilson Blvd., 571-290-6854; districttaco.com. A local favorite for tacos and gargantuan burritos. B L D G V $
Don Tito
3165 Wilson Blvd., 703-566-3113, dontitova.com. Located in a historic building, the sports bar specializes in tacos, tequila and beer, with a rooftop bar. b R L D $$
Dudley’s Sport & Ale
2766 S. Arlington Mill Drive, 571-312-2304, dudleyssportandale.com. The 13,000-square-foot sports bar has wall-to-wall TVs, a roof deck, a ballpark-inspired beer list and pub food, plus weekend brunch. b R L D A $$
Earl’s Sandwiches
2605 Wilson Boulevard, 703-647-9191, earlsinarling ton.com. Made-to-order sandwiches use prime ingredients, like fresh roasted turkey. b B L D G V $
East West Coffee Wine
1901 N. Moore St., 3101 Wilson Blvd., 571-8009954, eastwestcoffeewine.com. The cafe with locations in Rosslyn and Clarendon serves espresso drinks, brunch (try the massive Turkish breakfast spread), sandwiches, tapas, beer and wine. B L D $
El Charrito Caminante
2710-A N. Washington Blvd., 703-351-1177. This bare-bones Salvadoran takeout counter hits the spot with tacos, burritos and pupusas. L D V $ El Paso Café
4235 N. Pershing Drive, 703-243-9811, elpaso cafeva.com. Big portions, big margaritas and bighearted service make this Tex-Mex cantina a local favorite. L D G V $$
El Pollo Rico«
932 N. Kenmore St., 703-522-3220, elpollorico restaurant.com. A local institution, this rotisserie chicken mecca gained even more street cred after a visit from the late Anthony Bourdain. L D V $
Elevation Burger
2447 N. Harrison St., 703-300-9467, elevationburger. 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. b L D V $
Endo Sushi
3000 Washington Blvd., 703-243-7799, endosushi.
com. A go-to spot for sashimi, teriyaki, donburi and maki. L D V $$
Epic Smokehouse
1330 S. Fern St., 571-319-4001, epicsmoke house.com. Wood-smoked meats and seafood served in a modern setting. b L D G $$$
Essy’s Carriage House Restaurant
4030 Lee Highway, 703-525-7899, essyscarriage house.com. Kick it old school with crab imperial, lamb chops and prime rib. B L D G $$$
Farmbird
4211 Wilson Blvd., 571-431-6158, farmbird.com. Grilled chicken is the main attraction at this healthful counter-service café. Order a plate and choose your sides. B L D G $
Federico Ristorante Italiano
519 23rd St., 703-486-0519, federicoristorante italiano.com. Find pasta, chianti and red-checkered tablecloths at this Crystal City trattoria co-owned by Freddie’s Beach Bar proprietor Freddie Lutz. L D V $$
Fettoosh
5100 Wilson Blvd., 703-527-7710, fettoosh.com. Overstuffed pita sandwiches and kabobs keep the kitchen fired up at this bargain-priced Lebanese and Moroccan restaurant. R L D G V $ Fire Works
2350 Clarendon Blvd., 703-527-8700, fireworks pizza.com. Wood-fired pizzas and more than 30
craft beers on tap are mainstays. You can also build your own pasta dish. b L D A G V $$
First Down Sports Bar & Grill
4213 Fairfax Drive, 703-465-8888, firstdownsports bar.com. Choose among 20 draft beers and snacks ranging from sliders to queso dip. L D A V $$
Four Sisters Grill
3035 Clarendon Blvd., 703-243-9020, foursisters grill.com. Here, the family behind Four Sisters in Merrifield serves up banh mi sandwiches, papaya salad, spring rolls and noodle dishes. b L D $$
The Freshman
2011 Crystal Drive, thefreshmanva.com. Nick Freshman’s casual dining concept has something for every appetite and every time of day, from coffee and breakfast sandwiches to oysters and negronis. b B L D V $$
Fyve
1250 S. Hayes St. (inside The Ritz-Carlton Pentagon City), 703-412-2762, ritzcarlton.com/penta goncity. The hotel restaurant serves globally influenced dishes. For a treat, go for afternoon tea.
B R L D G V $$$$
Gaijin Ramen Shop
3800 Lee Highway, 703-566-9236, gaijinramen shop.com. Choose your broth and toppings, from pork shoulder to pickled vegetables. Gaijin makes its own noodles in-house daily. D V $$
Galaxy Hut
2711 Wilson Blvd., 703-525-8646, galaxyhut.com.
Pair craft beers with vegan bar foods like “fricken” (fake chicken) sandwich melts and smothered tots with cashew cheese curds. L D A G V $$
Gharer Khabar
5157 Lee Highway, 703-973-2432, gharerkhabar togo.com. Translated as “home’s food,” this artfilled, 14-seat café serves Bangladeshi fare cooked by chef Nasima Shreen. L D $$
Good Company Doughnuts & Café
672 N. Glebe Road, 703-243-3000, gocodough.com. The family- and veteran-owned eatery serves housemade doughnuts, Intelligentsia coffee and other breakfast and lunch fare. B L V $$
Good Stuff Eatery
2110 Crystal Drive, 703-415-4663, goodstuff eatery.com. Spike Mendelsohn’s Crystal City outpost offers gourmet burgers (beef, turkey or mushroom), shakes, fries and salads. L D G V $
Goody’s
3125 Wilson Blvd., 703-351-7827, goodyspizzain arlington.com. A late-night go-to for New York-style pizza, subs, ice cream and breakfast sandwiches.
B L D A V $
Grand Cru Wine Bar and Bistro 4301 Wilson Blvd., 703-243-7900, grandcru-wine. com. This intimate European-style café includes a wine shop next door. b R L D G $$$
Green Pig Bistro« 1025 N. Fillmore St., 703-888-1920, greenpig bistro.com. Southern influenced food, craft cocktails,
a daily happy hour and weekend brunch draw fans to this congenial neighborhood hideaway. Chef Tracy O’Grady helms the kitchen. R L D G V $$$
Greens N Teff
3203 Columbia Pike, 571-510-4063, greensnteff. com. This vegetarian, fast-casual Ethiopian carryout prompts customers to choose a base (injera bread or rice) then pile on spicy, plant-based stews and other toppings. b L D G V $
Guajillo
1727 Wilson Blvd., 703-807-0840, guajillo mexican.com. Authentic Mexican dishes such as carne asada, mole poblano and churros are favorites. b L D G V $$
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. b R L D G V $$
Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ
1119 N. Hudson St., 571-527-0445, gyu-kaku.com. Marinated meats, veggies and seafood are cooked on tabletop grills. D $$
Hanabi Ramen
3024 Wilson Blvd., 703-351-1275, hanabiramen usa.com. Slurp multiple variations of the popular noodle dish, plus rice bowls and dumplings. L D $$
Happy Eatery Vietnamese Kitchen
1800 N. Lynn St., 571-800-1881, thehappy eatery.com. Vietnamese comfort foods (think banh mi, noodle soups and rice bowls) are the stock-intrade at this Rosslyn food hall. L D $$
Heidelberg Pastry Shoppe
2150 N. Culpeper St., 703-527-8394, heidelberg bakery.com. Fill up on baked goods as well as 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. b L D A $$
Hot Lola’s« 4238 Wilson Blvd. (Ballston Quarter), hotlolas chicken.com. It’s all about Kevin Tien’s Nashvillemeets-Sichuan hot chicken sandwiches. L D $ Ireland’s Four Courts
2051 Wilson Blvd., 703-525-3600, irelandsfour courts.com. Irish fare includes cider-braised short ribs, a Guinness-marinated burger and imported cheeses from general manager Dave Cahill’s family farm in County Limerick. R L D A V $$
Istanbul Grill
4617 Wilson Blvd., 571-970-5828, istanbulgrill virginia.com. Satisfy your craving for Turkish meze and kabobs at this homey spot in Bluemont. L D V $$
The Italian Store« 3123 Lee Highway, 703-528-6266; 5837 Washington Blvd., 571-341-1080; italianstore.com. A cultstatus destination for pizzas, sandwiches, prepared entrées, espresso and gelato. b L D G V $ Jaleo
2250-A Crystal Drive, 703-413-8181, jaleo.com. Spanish croquettes and housemade chorizo carry forth chef José Andrés’ enduring reputation as the maestro of tapas. b L D G V $$$ Kabob Palace
2315 S. Eads St., 703-486-3535, kabobpalaceusa.
com. A Crystal City favorite for grilled meats, pillowy naan and savory sides. L D A G V $$
Kanpai Restaurant
1401 Wilson Blvd., 703-527-8400, kanpai-sushi.com. The STTR (spicy tuna tempura roll) is a must at this Rosslyn sushi spot. b L D G V $$
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 $$
La Côte D’Or Café
6876 Lee Highway, 703-538-3033, lacotedorarling ton.com. This little French bistro serves standards like crepes and steak frites. b R L D G V $$$
Layalina
5216 Wilson Blvd., 703-525-1170, layalinares taurant.com. Lebanese and Syrian dishes aim to please at this family-owned restaurant. Closed Mondays. b L D A V $$
Lebanese Taverna
5900 Washington Blvd., 703-241-8681; 1101 S. Joyce St., Pentagon Row, 703-415-8681; lebanese taverna.com. A local favorite for mezze, kabobs, flatbreads and more. b L D G V $$
Le Pain Quotidien
2900 Clarendon Blvd., 703-465-0970, lepainquo tidien.com. The Belgian chain produces Europeanstyle cafe fare. B L D G V $$
The Liberty Tavern«
3195 Wilson Blvd., 703-465-9360, thelibertytavern. com. This Clarendon anchor offers a spirited bar and creative cuisine fueled by two wood-burning ovens. b R L D A G V $$$
Livin’ the Pie Life
2166 N. Glebe Road, 571-431-7727, livinthepielife. com. The wildly popular pie operation started as an Arlington farmers market stand. B L V $$
The Local Oyster« 4238 Wilson Blvd. (Ballston Quarter), 844-7482537, thelocaloyster.com. Seafood lovers can feast on raw bar, steamers, crabcakes, lobster rolls and “sammies” at this outpost of the Baltimore original. L D G $$
Lost Dog Café
5876 Washington Blvd., 703-237-1552; 2920 Columbia Pike, 703-553-7770; lostdogcafe.com. Known for its pizzas, subs and craft beer selection, this deli/café and its multiple franchises support pet adoption through the Lost Dog and Cat Rescue Foundation. L D G V $$
Lucky Danger
1101 S. Joyce St., Unit B27 (Westpost), luckydanger. co. Chefs Tim Ma and Andrew Chiou put a fresh spin on Chinese-American takeout with dishes such as duck fried rice, lo mein and egg omelet with pickled radish. L D V $$
Lyon Hall«
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 mussels and pickled vegetables. b R L D A V $$$ Mah-Ze-Dahr Bakery
1550 Crystal Drive, 703-718-4418, mahzedahr bakery.com. Café fare at this bright, new addition to National Landing includes La Colombe coffee, pastries, cookies, focaccia, sandwiches and snacks. b B L D $
Maizal
4238 Wilson Blvd. (Ballston Quarter), 571-3966500, maizalstreetfood.com. South American street food—arepas, empanadas, yuca fries, Peruvian fried rice, street corn and churros. L D V $
Mala Tang
3434 Washington Blvd., 703-243-2381, mala-tang. com. Chef Liu Chaosheng brings the tastes and traditions of his hometown, Chengdu, to this eatery specializing in Sichuan hot pot. b L D G V $$
Mario’s Pizza House
3322 Wilson Blvd., mariopizzahouse.com. Open into the wee hours, it’s been cooking up subs, wings and pizza since 1957. b B L D A $
Mattie and Eddie’s
1301 S. Joyce St., 571-312-2665, mattieand eddies.com. It’s not just an Irish bar. Chef Cathal Armstrong’s Westpost establishment serves farmto-table dishes like lobster pot pie, house-cured corned beef, black pudding and sardines on toast, and Irish breakfast all day. b R L D $$$
Maya Bistro
5649 Lee Highway, 703-533-7800, bistromaya.com. The family-owned restaurant serves Turkish and Mediterranean comfort food. L D V $$
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 watering hole on Crystal City’s restaurant row. b R L D A $$
Me Jana
2300 Wilson Blvd., 703-465-4440, mejanarestau rant.com. Named for an old Lebanese folk ballad, this Middle Eastern eatery offers prime peoplewatching in Clarendon. b L D G V $$
Mele Bistro
1723 Wilson Blvd., 703-522-0284, melebistro.com. Like to know where your food comes from? This farm-to-table Mediterranean restaurant cooks with fresh, organic, free-range, regionally-sourced, nonGMO ingredients. b R L D G V $$
Meridian Pint
6035 Wilson Blvd., 703-300-9655, meridianpint. com. The brewpub that John Andrade transplanted from D.C. to Dominion Hills is now under new ownership, but it still serves craft brews, burgers, salads and bar food. R D A G V $$
Metro 29 Diner
4711 Lee Highway, 703-528-2464, metro29.com. Classic diner fare includes triple-decker sandwiches, mile-high desserts, burgers, roasted chicken and breakfast. B R L D V $
Mexicali Blues
2933 Wilson Blvd., 703-812-9352, mexicali-blues. com. The colorful landmark dishes out Salvadoran and Mexican chow. b R L D G V $$
Moby Dick House of Kabob
3000 Washington Blvd., 703-465-1600; 4037 Campbell Ave., 571-257-8214; mobyskabob.com. Satisfy that hankering for Persian skewers and flavorful sides. L D $$
Mussel Bar & Grille
800 N. Glebe Road, 703-841-2337, musselbar.com. Chef Robert Wiedmaier’s Ballston eatery is known for mussels, frites, wood-fired pizza and more than 100 Belgian and craft beers. b L D $$
Namaste Everest
1201 S. Joyce St., 703-567-4322, namasteeverest. com. Try modern Indian and Nepalese dishes, from
lamb or goat curry to momos (Nepalese dumplings), with a mango, mint or banana lassie. L D G V $$
Nam-Viet
1127 N. Hudson St., 703-522-7110, namvietva.com.
The venerable restaurant specializes in flavors of Vietnam’s Can Tho region. b L D V $$
Napoli Salumeria
1301 S. Joyce St. (Westpost), 571-431-7903, napoli salumeria.com. Chef Antonio Ferraro’s market/café offers pizza, pasta, panini, dolci and grab-and-go provisions. b L D V $$
Northside Social Coffee & Wine« 3211 Wilson Blvd., 703-465-0145, northsidesocial arlington.com. The homey, two-story coffee and wine bar (with a big patio) is always busy...which tells you something. b B L D V $$
Oby Lee
3000 N. Washington Blvd., 571-257-5054, obylee. com. Crepes and quiche are the bill of fare at this European-style café, bakery, wine shop and coffee roastery. b B L D G $$
Old Dominion Pizza
4514 Lee Highway, 703-718-6372, olddominion pizza.com. Order thin crust or “grandma style” pies named after local high school mascots. L D G $
Open Road
1201 Wilson Blvd., 703-248-0760, openroadgrill. com. This second location of the American saloon (the first is in Merrifield) is a solid pick for burgers and beers, or a proper entrée (blackened salmon,
grilled half chicken, steak frites) and a craft cocktail. b L D $$
Origin Coffee Lab & Kitchen
1101 S. Joyce St., 703-567-7295, origincoffeeco. com. Housed in a modern warehouse-like space (a former Starbucks), this Westpost coffee shop roasts its own beans and serves all-day breakfast, as well as bar munchies and dinner plates. b B R L D V $$
Osteria da Nino
2900 S. Quincy St. (Village at Shirlington), 703820-1128, osteriadaninova.com. For those days when you’re craving a hearty portion of spaghetti and clams, or gnocci with pesto. b D G V $$$
O’Sullivan’s Irish Pub 3207 Washington Blvd., 703-812-0939, osullivans irishpub.com. You’ll find owner and County Kerry native Karen O’Sullivan behind the bar, pouring pints and cracking jokes. L D A $$
Palette 22
4053 Campbell Ave., 703-746-9007, palette22.com. The gallery-café specializes in international small plates. b R L D V $$
Pamplona
3100 Clarendon Blvd., 703-685-9950, pamplona va.com. Spanish tapas, paella, grilled fish, pintxos, cocktails, snacks and sangria. b R D A V $$
Peking Pavilion
2912 N. Sycamore St., 703-237-6868. This fami-
ly-owned restaurant serves standbys such as moo shu pork and beef with broccoli. L D $$
Peruvian Brothers at The Stand
1601 Crystal Drive, 703-413-8048, peruvianbroth ers.com. Can’t catch up with their food truck? Stop by the Crystal City kiosk for empanadas, alfajores and Inca kola. B L $
Peter Chang Arlington
2503-E N. Harrison St., 703-538-6688, peterchang arlington.com. The former Chinese Embassy chef brings his fiery and flavorful Sichuan cooking to the Lee Harrison Shopping Center. L D $$
Pho 75«
1721 Wilson Blvd., 703-525-7355, pho75.res taurantwebexpert.com. The piping-hot soup at this local institution is all about fresh ingredients. b L D V $
Pie-tanza
2503-B N. Harrison St., 703-237-0200, pie-tanza. com. Enjoy pizza (including gluten-free options), calzones, lasagna, subs and salads. L D G V $$
Pike Restaurant (Pike Pizza) 4111 Columbia Pike, 703-521-3010. Bolivian dishes satisfy at this no-frills eatery. Try the salteñas stuffed with chicken or beef, olives and hard-boiled egg. L D $
The Pinemoor 1101 N. Highland St., 571-970-2592, thepinemoor.com. Reese Gardner’s country-west-
Celebrating 11 years in Arlington: Fire Works has proudly served hot and fresh pizzas from our wood-fire oven that are best enjoyed with a beer from our extensive offering of local, regional, and international labels.
All doughs and pastas are made in-house daily from scratch. Relax in our newly expanded covered patio seating or enjoy a libation from our outdoor bar. With indoor and outdoor seating, take-out, and gluten-free offerings all available, explore and enjoy our menu your way.
ern saloon turns out steaks, burgers, local seafood and weekend brunch. b R L D G V $$
Pupatella«
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. b L D V $$
Pupuseria Doña Azucena
71 N. Glebe Road, 703-248-0332, pupuseriadona azucena.com. Beans, rice and massive pupusas at dirt-cheap prices. L D V $
Quarterdeck
1200 Fort Myer Drive, 703-528-2722, quarterdeck arlington.com. This beloved shack has served up steamed crabs for 40 years. b L D V $$
Queen Mother’s Fried Chicken
918 S. Lincoln St., 703-596-1557, rocksolidfood.com. Chef Rock Harper's celebrated fried chicken sandwich operation shares a kitchen and dining space with The Café at La Cocina VA. 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 $$
Ragtime
1345 N. Courthouse Road, 703-243-4003, ragtime restaurant.com. Savor a taste of the Big Easy in offerings such as jambalaya, catfish, spiced shrimp and oysters. Or feast on the waffle and omelet bar every Sunday. b R L D A V $$
Rasa
2200 Crystal Drive, 703-888-0925, rasagrill.com. You’ll find a bowl-oriented menu at this Indian fastcasual eatery by co-owners Sahil Rahman and Rahul Vinod. Start with basmati rice and pile on options like chicken tikka, lamb, charred or pickled vegetables, lentils, chutneys and yogurt sauces. b L D G V $
Ravi Kabob House
350 N. Glebe Road, 703-522-6666; 250 N. Glebe Road, 703-816-0222. Curries, kabobs and delectably spiced veggies keep this strip-mall café plenty busy. L D V $$
Rebellion on the Pike
2900 Columbia Pike, 703-888-2044, rebellionon thepike.com. This irreverent tavern sports a deep list of craft beers and whiskeys, and serves burgers (including one zinger called the “Ramsay Bolton”), six kinds of wings and other pub grub. b R B D A $$
The Renegade 3100 Clarendon Blvd., 703-468-4652, renegadeva. com. Is it a coffee shop, restaurant, bar or live music club? All of the above. And Patrick Crump’s adventurous menu includes everything from cinnamon lambchop lollipops to lo mein. B L D A $$
Rhodeside Grill
1836 Wilson Blvd., 703-243-0145, rhodeside grill.com. Feast on chops, meatloaf, burgers and po’boys accompanied by every kind of hot sauce imaginable. b R L D A V $$
Rice Crook
4238 Wilson Blvd. (Ballston Quarter), ricecrook.com. Korean-inspired rice bowls, salads and wraps made with locally sourced meats and produce. L D $$
Rien Tong Asian Bistro
3131 Wilson Blvd., 703-243-8388, rientong.com. The large menu includes Thai and Chinese standards, plus sushi. L D V $$
Rocklands Barbeque and Grilling Co.
3471 Washington Blvd., 703-528-9663, rocklands. com. Owner John Snedden has been slow-cooking barbecue since 1990. b L D G V $
Ruffino’s Spaghetti House
4763 Lee Highway, 703-528-2242, ruffinosarling ton.com. It’s under new ownership (Mina Tawdaros bought it in October, fulfilling a lifelong dream), but the menu still includes classics classics such as veal Parmigiana and chicken piccata. L D V $$
Rustico
4075 Wilson Blvd., 571-384-1820, rusticorestau rant.com. You’ll find more than 400 beers to complement dishes from pizza to grilled trout and pastrami pork ribs. b R L D G V $$
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 $$
Ruthie’s All-Day«
3411 Fifth St. S., 703-888-2841, ruthiesallday.com. Chef Matt Hill’s Southern-inspired “meat and three” serves up wood-smoked meats, chicken and fish with creative sides ranging from kimchi dirty rice to crispy Brussels sprouts with fish sauce vinaigrette. Breakfast (with house-made biscuits) offered daily. b B R L D G V $$
Saigon Noodles & Grill
1800 Wilson Blvd., 703-566-5940, saigonnoodles grill.com. The Rosslyn eatery owned by Arlington resident Tuan Nguyen serves pho, banh mi and other traditional Vietnamese dishes. L D G V $$ Salt 1201 Wilson Blvd., 703-875-0491, saltrosslyn. com. The speakeasy-style cocktail bar, which shares a kitchen with Open Road, serves tasty nibbles (cheese plates, oysters, carpaccio) with classic Sazeracs and Old Fashioneds, as well as nouveau craft cocktails. D $$
Samuel Beckett’s Irish Gastro Pub
2800 S. Randolph St., 703-379-0122, samuel becketts.com. A modern Irish pub serving Emerald Isle recipes. b R L D A G V $$
Sawatdee Thai Restaurant
2250 Clarendon Blvd., 703-243-8181, sawatdeeva. com. The friendly eatery (its name means “hello”) is frequented by those craving pad thai or pad prik king. L D V $$
Screwtop Wine Bar and Cheese Shop 1025 N. Fillmore St., 703-888-0845, screwtop winebar.com. The congenial wine bar/shop offers tastings, wine classes, and small plates for sharing and pairing. b R L D G V $$
Sense of Place Café & Roastery
4807 First St. N., 571-319-0414, senseofplacecafe. com. The “laptop free” café serves Enzymo coffee drinks, matcha tea, sweets and sandwiches. B L $
SER 1110 N. Glebe Road, 703-746-9822, ser-restau rant.com. Traditional Spanish and Basque dishes in a colorful, friendly space with outstanding service. b R L D V $$$
Sfoglina Pasta House
1100 Wilson Blvd., sfoglinapasta.com/rosslyn. Fabio Trabocchi’s Rosslyn outpost is a destination for housemade pasta (you can watch it being made), a “mozzarella bar” and Italian cocktails. Closed Monday-Wednesday. b L D V $$$
Silver Diner«
3200 Wilson Blvd., 703-812-8600, silverdiner. com. The kitchen cooks with organic ingredients, many of which are sourced from local suppliers. Low-calorie and gluten-free menu choices available. b B R L D A G V $$
Slapfish
671 N. Glebe Road, 571-312-4610, slapfishrestau rant.com. Grab some clam chowder, fish tacos or a lobster roll and pretend you are beachside. L D $$
Sloppy Mama’s Barbeque
5731 Lee Highway, sloppymamas.com. Joe and Mandy Neuman’s barbecue joint offers woodsmoked meats galore— brisket, pork, chicken, ribs, turkey, sausage. Plus hearty sides and banana pudding for dessert. b B R L D $$
Smokecraft Modern Barbecue« 1015 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. b L D G V $$
Smoking Kow BBQ
2910 N. Sycamore St., smokingkowbbq.com. At this Kansas City-style ’cue joint, meats seasoned with a rub of 15 spices are smoked over cherry and hickory wood for 18-20 hours. L D $$
South Block«
3011 11th St. N., 703-741-0266; 1550 Wilson Blvd., 703-465-8423; 4150 Wilson Blvd., 703-4658423; 2121 N. Westmoreland St., 703-534-1542; southblockjuice.com. Cold-pressed juices, smoothies and acai bowls. b B L V $
Spice Kraft Indian Bistro
1135 N. Highland St., 703-527-5666, spicekraft va.com. Occupying the former Delhi Club space, this contemporary concept by restaurateurs Anthony Sankar and Premnath Durairaj gives Indian classics a modern spin. b L D $$
Spider Kelly’s
3181 Wilson Blvd., 703-312-8888, spiderkellys.com. The “come as you are” bar offers a sizable beer list, creative cocktails, salads, burgers, snacks and breakfast at all hours. D A G V $$
Stellina Pizzeria
2800 S. Randolph St., 703-962-7884, stellina pizzeria.com. Visit this bright Shirlington eatery for Neapolitan pies, fried artichokes, squid ink pasta and a deli counter that offers house-made pastas, sauces, antipasti and dolci to take home. b L D $$
Supreme Hot Pot
2301 Columbia Pike, 571-666-1801, supreme hotpot.kwickmenu.com. This Pike eatery specializes in Szechuan hot pot, as well as skewered meats and a few Cajun seafood dishes. A sauce bar allows diners to choose and create their own dipping sauces. D G $$
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 $$
Sushi-Zen Japanese Restaurant
2457 N. Harrison St., 703-534-6000, sushizen. com. An amicable, light-filled neighborhood stop for sushi, donburi, tempura and udon.
L D V $$
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. b 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 with fresh ingredients. b B L D $$
Taco Bamba Ballston
4000 Wilson Blvd., 571-777-1477, tacobamba.com. Every Bamba location tucks an homage or two onto its menu. Here, the taco options include the El Rico Pollo, stuffed with “Peruvian-ish” chicken, green chili puree, aji Amarillo aioli, salsa criolla, serrano chile and crispy potato. B L D V $
Taco + Pina
4041 Campbell Ave., 703-567-4747, tacoandpina. com. Try an order of Fanta pork carnitas or the vegetarian “chile relleno” taco, and cool your heels with a frozen roasted pineapple margarita. b L D V $$
Taco Rock
1501 Wilson Blvd., 571-775-1800, thetacorock.com. This rock-themed watering hole keeps the margaritas and Micheladas flowing alongside creative tacos on housemade blue-corn tortillas. B L D V $$
Taqueria el Poblano« 2503-A N. Harrison St., 703-237-8250, taqueria poblano.com. Fresh guacamole, fish tacos, margaritas and mole verde transport patrons to the Yucatan. L D G V $$
Ted’s Bulletin & Sidekick Bakery
4238 Wilson Blvd. #1130 (Ballston Quarter), 703848-7580, tedsbulletin.com. The retro comfort food and all-day breakfast place has healthier fare, too— which you can undo with a visit to its tantalizing bakery next door. B R L D G V $$
Texas Jack’s Barbecue
2761 Washington Blvd., 703-875-0477, txjacks.com. Brisket, ribs and pulled pork, plus sides like raw carrot salad and smashed cucumbers. b L D A $$
T.H.A.I. in Shirlington
4209 Campbell Ave., 703-931-3203, thaiinshirling ton.com. Pretty dishes include lemongrass salmon with black sticky rice. b 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. The signature dish is No. 61, deep-fried, sugar-glazed squid topped with crispy fried basil. b L D G V $$
Thirsty Bernie
2163 N. Glebe Road, 703-248-9300, thirstybernie. com. Wiener schnitzel, pierogies and bratwurst provide sustenance in this Bavarian sports bar and grill. b R L D V $$
Toby’s Homemade Ice Cream
5849-A Washington Blvd., 703-536-7000, tobys icecream.com. Owner Toby Bantug makes premium ice creams, floats and sundaes. Coffee, pastries and bagels available in the morning. B L D V $
Trade Roots
5852 Washington Blvd., 571-335-4274, fairtrade roots.com. Lisa Ostroff’s Westover gift shop and cafe serves fair-trade coffee, tea, pastries, salads, organic wine and snackable fare like mini empanadas and Portuguese flatbread. b 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
4238 Wilson Blvd. (Ballston Quarter), 703-5270930, truefoodkitchen.com. Emphasizing “anti-inflammatory” fare, the menu will convince you that healthy tastes good. b L D G V $$
TTT – Tacos, Tortas & Tequila
2900 Wilson Blvd., tttrestaurant.com. Ivan Iricanin’s ode to Mexico has all the colorful options you’d expect—tacos, enchiladas, street corn, six kinds of salsa and fruity margaritas, plus a sprawling rooftop lounge with expansive views. b B R L D $$
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. R L D $$
Turu’s by Timber Pizza
4238 Wilson Blvd. (Ballston Quarter), timber pizza.com. Neapolitan(ish)-style pizzas fresh from a wood-fired oven. L D V $$
Uncle Julio’s Rio Grande Café
4301 N. Fairfax Drive, 703-528-3131, unclejulios. com. Tex-Mex highlights include mesquite-grilled fa jitas, tacos and margaritas. b R L D $$$
Urban Tandoor
801 N. Quincy St., 703-567-1432, utandoorva.com. Sate your appetite with Indian and Nepalese fare, from tandoori lamb to Himalayan momos (dumplings). Lunch buffet daily. L D V $$
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. A local hive for burgers and draft microbrews. The adjoining market’s “Great Wall of Beer” stocks more than 1,000 do mestic, imported and craft beers in bottles and cans. b L D A $$
Which Wich
4300 Wilson Blvd., 703-566-0058, whichwich.com. A seemingly endless menu of sandwiches and wraps with more than 60 toppings. b B L D V
Whino
4238 Wilson Blvd., 571-290-3958, whinova.com.
Part restaurant/bar and part art gallery, this latenight spot (open until 2 a.m. Thursday-Saturday) features cocktails, shareable plates and a dynamic interior featuring street-art murals and “low brow” art exhibits. L D A $$
Wild Tiger BBQ«
1201 S. Joyce St. (Westpost), wildtigerbbq.com. The pop-up concept by chefs Kevin Tien and Scott Chung features barbecue with an Asian flavor. Shin-shamen-rubbed proteins like pulled pork, ribs
and brisket are served with kimchi pickles and your choice of five house-made sauces. L D $$
William Jeffrey’s Tavern
2301 Columbia Pike, 703-746-6333, william jeffreystavern.com. Brought to you by the owners of Dogwood Tavern, this pub on the Pike features Prohibition-era wall murals and mixes a mean martini. b R L D A G V $$
Wilson Hardware Kitchen & Bar 2915 Wilson Boulevard, 703-527-4200, wilson hardwareva.com. Serves creative cocktails, boozy slushies and local craft beers, plus small plates, burgers and entrées like steak frites and duck confit. In nice weather, head to the roof deck. b R L D A G V $$$
World of Beer
4300 Wilson Blvd., 703-576-0395, worldofbeer. com. The beer emporium features 40 taps and a rotating roster of hundreds of brews to go with your German soft pretzel, parmesan truffle fries or pimento cheeseburger. L D V $$
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. b L D $$
Yume Sushi
2121 N. Westmoreland St., 703-269-5064, yume sushiva.com. East Falls Church has a destination for sushi, omakase (chef’s tasting menu) and a sake bar with craft cocktails. L D V G $$$
Zofia’s Kitchen
4238 Wilson Blvd. (Ballston Quarter), 703-5506220, zofiaskitchen.com. Chef Ed Hardy’s pierogi operation stuffs the Polish dumplings with all kinds of fillers—beef brisket, bratwurst, beets, crab Rangoon, “loaded baked potato” or smoked whitefish with green apple, to name a few. L D V $
2941 Restaurant
2941 Fairview Park Drive, 703-270-1500, 2941. com. French chef Bertrand Chemel’s unlikely sanctuary in a suburban office building offers beautifully composed seasonal dishes and expert wine pairings in an artful setting. L D V $$$
Abay Market Ethiopian Food
3811-A S. George Mason Drive, 703-820-7589, abaymarketethiopian.com. The seasoned grassfed raw beef dish kitfo is the specialty at this friendly, six-table Ethiopian café. L D $$ 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, www.an thonysrestaurantva.com. The family-owned Greek and Italian diner serves standbys like spaghetti, pizza, gyros and subs, plus breakfast on weekends. R L D V $$
B Side
8298 Glass Alley (Mosaic District), 703-676-3550, bsidecuts.com. Nathan Anda’s charcuterie steals the show at this cozy bar adjoining Red Apron Butcher. The cocktails rock, too. L D $$
Badd Pizza
346 W. Broad St., 703-237-2233, baddpizza.com. Order a Buffalo-style “cup-and-char” pepperoni pie (so named because the pepperoni slices curl into crispy cups) and a baddbeer IPA, locally brewed by Lost Rhino Brewing Co. L D $$
Bakeshop
100 E. Fairfax St., 703-533-0002, bakeshopva.com. See Arlington listing. B V $
Balqees Restaurant
5820 Seminary Road, 703-379-0188. Order Lebanese and Yemeni dishes like lamb in saffron rice, saltah (a vegetarian stew) and saffron cake topped with rose petals and crème anglaise.
b L D V $$
Bamian
5634 Leesburg Pike, 703-820-7880, bamianres taurant.com. Try Afghan specialties like palau (seasoned lamb with saffron rice) and aushak (scallion dumpling topped with yogurt, meat sauce and mint). L D V $$
Bartaco
2920 District Ave. (Mosaic District), 571-549-8226, bartaco.com. See Arlington listing. L D V A $$
Caboose Commons
2918 Eskridge Road (Mosaic District), 703-6638833, caboosebrewing.com. The microbrewery that started along the W&OD Trail in Vienna has a second location serving house brews and creative eats, including plant-based options.
b L D V A $$
Café Kindred
450 N. Washington St., 571-327-2215, cafe kindred.com. Pop in for a yogurt parfait, avocado toast, grilled eggplant sandwich, or an espresso fizz. B R L V $$
Celebrity Delly
7263-A Arlington Blvd., 703-573-9002, celebrity deliva.com. Matzo-ball soup, Reubens and tuna melts satisfy at this New York-style deli founded in 1975. Brunch served all day Saturday and Sunday. B L D G V $
Clare & Don’s Beach Shack«
130 N. Washington St., 703-532-9283, clareand dons.com. Go coastal with fish tacos, coconut chicken or one of the many meatless options, and maybe catch some live outdoor music. Closed Mondays. b L D A G V $$
DC Steakholders
6641 Arlington Blvd., 703-534-4200, dcsteakhold ers.com. The cheesesteak truck has a storefront in the former Frozen Dairy Bar space, where proprietors Usman Bhatti and Lilly Kaur are carrying forth FDB’s nearly 70-year frozen custard recipe. L D $$
District Dumplings
2985 District Ave. (Mosaic District), 703-884-7080, districtdumplingsfairfax.com. Asian-style dumplings, sandwiches and wraps. L D $$
District Taco« 5275-C Leesburg Pike, 571-699-0660, district taco.com. See Arlington listing. B L D G V $ Dogfish Head Alehouse 6220 Leesburg Pike, 703-534-3342, dogfishale
house.com. Microbrews, burgers, sandwiches, salads and wood-grilled pizzas. L D G V $$
Dogwood Tavern
132 W. Broad St., 703-237-8333, dogwoodtav ern.com. The menu has something for everyone, from ancient grain Buddha bowls to jambalaya, burgers and coconut-curry salmon.
b R L D A V $$
Dominion Wine and Beer
107 Rowell Court, 703-533-3030, dominionwine andbeer.com. Pairings come easy when a café shares its space with a wine and beer shop. Order up a plate of sliders, a cheese board or some Dragon shrimp to snack on while you imbibe.
b R L D V $$
Duangrat’s
5878 Leesburg Pike, 703-820-5775, duangrats.com. Waitresses in traditional silk dresses glide through the dining room, bearing fragrant noodles and grilled meats, in one of the D.C. area’s most esteemed destinations for Thai cuisine. b R L D V $$
Elephant Jumps Thai Restaurant
8110-A Arlington Blvd., 703-942-6600, elephant jumps.com. Creative and comforting Thai food in an intimate strip-mall storefront. L D G V $$
Elevation Burger
442 S. Washington St., 703-237-4343, elevation burger.com. See Arlington listing. b 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. b L D $$
Fava Pot«
7393 Lee Highway, 703-204-0609, favapot.com. Visit Dina Daniel’s restaurant, food truck and catering operation for Egyptian fare ranging from breakfast pudding with raisins, pistachios and coconut, to lamb shanks with okra. And oh the bread!
B L D G V $$
First Watch
5880 Leesburg Pike, 571-977-1096, firstwatch. com. Mainstays at this breakfast and lunch café include eggs Benedict, lemon-ricotta pancakes, housemade granola, power bowls, avocado toast, juice bar tonics and brunchy cocktails. b B R L V $$
Four Sisters Restaurant
8190 Strawberry Lane, 703-539-8566, foursisters restaurant.com. Mainstays include clay pot fish, grilled meats, lettuce wraps and pho. b L D V $$
Haandi Indian Cuisine« 1222 W. Broad St., 703-533-3501, haandi.com. The perfumed kabobs, curries and biryani incorporate northern and southern Indian flavors. L D V G $$
Hong Kong Palace
6387 Seven Corners Center, 703-532-0940, hong kongpalacedelivery.com. The kitchen caters to both ex-pat and American tastes with an enormous menu of options. L D $$
Hong Kong Pearl Seafood Restaurant
6286 Arlington Blvd., 703-237-1388. Two words: dim sum. L D A V $$
Huong Viet 6785 Wilson Blvd., 703-538-7110, huong-viet. com. Spring rolls, roasted quail and shaky beef are faves at this cash-only Eden Center eatery. L D G V $$
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. b B R L D $$
Jinya Ramen Bar
2911 District Ave. (Mosaic District), 703-9927705, jinya-ramenbar.com. Embellish your tonkotsu or umami-miso broth with more than a dozen toppings and add-ins. b L D A V $$
Johnsons Café
301 S. Washington St., 703-534-3838, thejohnsons cafe.com. The global cuisine includes samosas, falafel, Moroccan lamb and a host of traditional Indian dishes, plus breakfast sandwiches and French toast. Closed Tuesdays. B L D V $$
JV’s Restaurant
6666 Arlington Blvd., 703-241-9504, jvsrestaurant. com. A dive bar (the best kind) known for live music, cold beer and home-cooked meatloaf, lasagna and chili. L D A V $$
Koi Koi Sushi & Roll
450 W. Broad St., 703-237-0101, koikoiva.com. The sushi is fresh and the vibe is fun. b L D $$
Le Pain Quotidien
8296 Glass Alley (Mosaic District), 703-4629322, lepainquotidien.com. See Arlington listing. B L D V $$
Liberty Barbecue«
370 W. Broad St., 703-237-8227, libertyfallschurch. com. This tasty venture by The Liberty Tavern Group serves smoked meats, fried chicken and all the ac-
companiments. Order a Grand Slam (four meats, four sides) and feed the whole fam. R L D $$
Little Saigon Restaurant
6218-B Wilson Blvd., 703-536-2633. Authentic Vietnamese in a no-frills setting. b L D $$
Loving Hut Vegan Cuisine
2842 Rogers Drive, 703-942-5622; lovinghut fallschurch.com. The Vietnamese-inspired vegan eatery offers menu items like rice vermicelli with barbecued soy protein and claypot rice with vegan “ham.” L D G V $$
MacMillan Whisky Room
2920 District Ave. (Mosaic District), 240-994-3905, themacmillan.com. More than 200 kinds of spirits are offered in tasting flights and composed cocktails. The food menu includes U.K. and American pub standards. b R L D $$
Mark’s Duck House
6184-A Arlington Blvd., 703-532-2125. Though named for its specialty—Peking duck—it offers plenty of other tantalizing options, too, such as short ribs, roasted pork and dim sum.
R L D A V $$
Meaza Restaurant
5700 Columbia Pike, 703-820-2870, meazaethio piancuisine.com. Well-seasoned legumes and marinated beef are signatures in this vivid Ethiopian banquet hall. b L D G V $$
Mike’s Deli at Lazy Sundae
112 N. West St., 703-532-5299, mikesdeliatlazy
sundae.com. Fill your belly with homemade corned beef, cheesesteaks, breakfast and scratch-made soups. Save room for ice cream! b B L D 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. b B R L D A $$
Nhu Lan Sandwich
6763 Wilson Blvd., 703-532-9009, nhulansandwich. com. This tiny Vietnamese deli at Eden Center is a favorite for banh mi sandwiches. L D V $
Northside Social Falls Church« 205 Park Ave., 703-992-8650, northsidesocial va.com/falls-church. Come by in the morning for a breakfast sandwich and a latte. Return in the evening for a glass of wine and a plate of charcuterie, or a wood-fired pizza. b B L D V $$
Oath Pizza
2920 District Ave. (Mosaic District), 703-688-6284, oathpizza.com. The dough here is grilled and seared in avocado oil (for a crispy texture) and the toppings are certified humane. L D G V $$
Open Road
8100 Lee Highway, 571-395-4400, openroadmerri field.com. See Arlington listing. b R L D $$
The Original Pancake House 7395-M Lee Highway, 703-698-6292, ophrestau rants.com. Satisfy your breakfast cravings with pancakes, crepes, waffles, French toast and more. B R G V $
Our Mom Eugenia
2985 District Ave. (Mosaic District), 434-339-4019, ourmomeugenia.com. Beloved for its real-deal Greek fare, from saganaki to souvlaki, the critically acclaimed family business that began in Great Falls has a sister restaurant in the Mosaic District. b L D $$
Padaek
6395 Seven Corners Center, 703-533-9480, padaekdc.com. Chef Seng Luangrath’s celebrated Falls Church eatery, hidden in a strip mall, offers both Thai and Laotian cuisine. L D G V $$
Panjshir Restaurant
114 E. Fairfax St., 703-536-4566, panjshirrestau rant.com. Carnivores go for the kabobs, but the vegetarian chalows elevate pumpkin, eggplant and spinach to new levels. b L D V $$
Parc de Ville
8926 Glass Alley (Mosaic District), 703-663-8931, parcdeville.com. Find French fare such as omelets, escargots, paté, mussels, duck confit, steak frites and boudin blanc at this spacious Parisian-style brasserie. Hit the rooftop lounge for cocktails. b R D $$$
Peking Gourmet Inn
6029 Leesburg Pike, 703-671-8088, pekinggour met.com. At this James Beard Award semifinalist for “Outstanding Service,” it’s all about the crispy Peking duck. L D G V $$
Pho 88
232 W. Broad St., 703-533-8233, pho88va.com. Vietnamese pho is the main attraction, but the menu also includes noodle and rice dishes. Closed Tuesdays. L D $$
Pizzeria Orso
400 S. Maple Ave., 703-226-3460, pizzeriaorso. com. Neapolitan pies and tempting small plates, such as arancini with chorizo and Brussels chips with shaved grana. b L D G V $$
Plaka Grill
1216 W. Broad St., 703-639-0161, plakagrill.com. Super satisfying Greek eats—dolmas, souvlaki, moussaka, spanakopita. L D V $$ Preservation Biscuit
102 E. Fairfax St., 571-378-1757, preservation biscuit.com. Order the signature carb with a sampler of house-made jams, or as a sandwich, with fillers ranging from fried chicken, hot honey and candied bacon to guacamole and egg with lemon aioli. L D V $
Raaga Restaurant
5872 Leesburg Pike, 703-998-7000, raagarestau rant.com. Chicken tikka, lamb rogan josh and cardamom-infused desserts. b L D G V $$
Rare Bird Coffee Roasters
230 W. Broad St., 571-314-1711, rarebirdcoffee. com. Lara Berenji and Bryan Becker’s charming Little City café roasts its own beans and recently expanded its space. L D $
Red Apron Butcher
8298 Glass Alley (Mosaic District), 703-676-3550,
redapronbutchery.com. The premium butcher shop and deli sells hot dogs, burgers, charcuterie, prime steaks and sandwiches. L D V $$
Rice Paper/Taste of Vietnam
6775 Wilson Blvd., 703-538-3888, ricepapertasteofvietnam.com. Try a combo platter of pork, seafood and ground beef with rice-paper wraps at this Eden Center favorite. L D G V $$
Settle Down Easy Brewing
2822 Fallfax Drive, 703-573-2011, settledowneasy brewing.com. The rotating beer list at this nanobrewing operation is always fresh. Neighboring El Tio Tex-Mex Grill provides a taco stand and other food choices. Closed Mondays. b L D $
Sfizi Café
800 W. Broad St., 703-533-1191, sfizi.com. A family-owned trattoria, deli and wine shop serving classic Italian fare—pasta, pizza, parm. L D $$
Silver Diner «
8150 Porter Road, 703-204-0812, silverdiner.com. See Arlington listing. B R L D A G V $$
Sisters Thai
2985 District Ave. (Mosaic District), 703-280-0429, sistersthai.com. The Thai restaurant has a vibe that feels like you’re dining in your cool friend’s shabbychic living room. L D $$
Solace Outpost
444 W. Broad St., 571-378-1469, solaceoutpost. com. Filling the former Mad Fox space, this Little City microbrewery serves house-brewed suds, plus fried chicken, five kinds of fries and woodfired pizza. D A V $$
Spacebar
709 W. Broad St., 703-992-0777, spcbr.com. The diminutive bar offers 24 craft beers on tap and 18 variations on the grilled cheese sandwich. D A V $$
Sweetgreen«
2905 District Ave. (Mosaic District), 703-9927892, sweetgreen.com. See Arlington listing. b 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. L D G $$$
Taco Bamba
2190 Pimmit Drive, 703-639-0505, tacobambares taurant.com. Taco choices range from traditional carne asada to the “Iron Mike,” a vegan rendition stuffed with roasted cauliflower, salsa macha and mole verde. B L D $
Takumi Sushi
310-B S. Washington St., 703-241-1128, takumiva. com. The sushi and sashimi here go beyond basic. Think tuna nigiri with Italian black truffle, or salmon with mango purée. Closed Sundays and Mondays.
L D V $$
Ted’s Bulletin
2911 District Ave. (Mosaic District), 571-830-6680, tedsbulletinmerrifield.com. See Arlington listing.
B R L D $$
Thompson Italian« 124 N. Washington St., 703-269-0893, thompson italian.com. Gabe and Katherine Thompson’s celebrated kitchen turns out house-made pastas, roasted chicken, take-home supper trays and some of the best desserts around. b D $$$
Trio Grill
8100 Lee Highway, 703-992-9200, triomerrifield. com. Treat yourself to steaks, chops, raw bar, craft cocktails and cigars. The patio opens daily at 4 p.m. for happy hour. b D $$$
True Food Kitchen
2910 District Ave. (Mosaic District), 571-3261616, truefoodkitchen.com. See Arlington listing. b R L D $$$
Uncle Liu’s Hotpot
2972 Gallows Road, 703-560-6868, uncleliushot pot.com. Customers do the cooking in this eatery inspired by the ubiquitous hot pots of China’s Sichuan province. L D V $$
Agora Tysons
7911 Westpark Drive, 703-663-8737, agoratysons. com. The Dupont Circle mezze restaurant brings its Turkish, Greek and Lebanese small plates to a second outpost in Tysons. R L D G V $$$
Amoo’s Restaurant
6271 Old Dominion Drive, 703-448-8500, amoos restaurant.com. The flavorful kabobs and stews are crowd pleasers at this hospitable Persian establishment. b L D G V $$
Aracosia
1381 Beverly Road, 703-269-3820, aracosiamclean. com. Score a table under strings of white lights on the covered patio and order savory Afghan specialties such as braised lamb shank and baadenjaan chalou (roasted eggplant with saffron rice). b L D V $$
Asian Origin
1753 S. Pinnacle Drive, 703-448-9988, asianorigin va.com. Liu Chaosheng’s restaurant hits all the standards (kung pao chicken, beef with broccoli) plus twists like pumpkin with steamed pork. L D V $$
Assaggi Osteria & Pizzeria
6641 Old Dominion Drive, 703-918-0080, assaggi osteria.com. Enjoy a date night over plates of orecchiette with artichoke and veal paillard. The adjoining pizzeria serves wood-fired pies. b L D G V $$$
Badd Pizza
6263 Old Dominion Drive, 703-356-2233, badd pizza.com. See Falls Church listing. L D $$
Café Oggi
6671 Old Dominion Drive, 703-442-7360, cafeoggi. com. Choose among classic Italian dishes such as mozzarella caprese, beef carpaccio, spaghetti with clams and tiramisu. b L D G V $$$
Café Tatti French Bistro
6627 Old Dominion Drive, 703-790-5164, cafetatti. com. Open since 1981, the kitchen whips up classic French and continental fare. Closed Sundays.
L D G V $$$
Capri Ristorante Italiano
6825-K Redmond Drive, 703-288-4601, capri mcleanva.com. A chatty, family-friendly spot known for tried-and-true Italian dishes such as spaghetti carbonara and veal Marsala. b L D G V $$$
Eddie V’s Prime Seafood
7900 Tysons One Place, 703-442-4523, eddiev. com. Total steakhouse vibe, except with an emphasis on seafood. L D $$$$
El Tio Tex-Mex Grill
1433 Center St., 703-790-1910, eltiogrill.com. See Falls Church listing. L D $$
Esaan Tumbar«
1307 Old Chain Bridge Road, 703-288-3901, esaanmclean.com. This tiny eatery specializes in northern Thai dishes—papaya salad, larb, nam tok. A good bet for those who like heat. L D $$
Fahrenheit Asian
1313 Dolley Madison Blvd., 703-646-8968, fahren heitasian.com. A no-frills destination for Sichuan spicy noodles, dumplings, mapo tofu and other Asian comfort foods. L D V $$
Fogo de Chao
1775 Tysons Blvd., 703-556-0200, fogodechao. com. The upscale chain showcases the Brazilian tradition of churrasco—the art of roasting meats over an open fire. R L D $$$
Founding Farmers
1800 Tysons Blvd., wearefoundingfarmers.com.
The farm-to-table restaurant features Virginiasourced dishes and drinks. B R L D $$$
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 $$
Ichiban Sushi
6821-A Old Dominion Drive, 703-48-9117, ichiban sushimclean.com. A neighborhood go-to for sushi, udon, tempura and teriyaki. Closed Sundays. L D $$
J. Gilbert’s«
6930 Old Dominion Drive, 703-893-1034, jgilberts. com. Everything you’d expect in a steakhouse and lots of it—prime cuts of beef, lobster, wedge salad, steakcut fries and cheesecake. R L D G V $$$
Kazan Restaurant
6813 Redmond Drive, 703-734-1960, kazanrestau rant.com. Zeynel Uzun’s white-tablecloth restaurant, a fixture since 1980, is a nice spot for kebabs, baklava and Turkish coffee. L D V $$
Lebanese Taverna 1840 International Drive, 703-847-5244, lebanesetaverna.com. See Arlington listing. b L D G V $$
Lost Dog Café
1690-A Anderson Road, 703-356-5678, lostdogcafe. com. See Arlington listing. L D $$
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 $$
McLean Family Restaurant
1321 Chain Bridge Road, 703-356-9883, themcleanfamilyrestaurant.com. Pancakes, gyros and big plates of lasagna hit the spot, and you may stumble upon a politico or two. Breakfast served until 3 p.m. daily. B L D V $$
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 $$
Moby Dick House of Kabob
6854 Old Dominion Drive, 703-448-8448; 1500 Cornerside Blvd., 703-734-7000; mobyskabob.com. See Arlington listing. L D $$
Mylo’s Grill
6238 Old Dominion Drive, 703-533-5880, mylos grill.com. Enjoy spanakopita, souvlaki and American classics. Friday is prime-rib night. b B L D $$
Pasa-Thai Restaurant
1315 Old Chain Bridge Road, 703-442-0090, pasa thairestaurant.com. Go for a classic Bangkok curry, or a chef’s special such as spicy fried rockfish with chili-basil-garlic sauce. b L D $$
Patsy’s American 8051 Leesburg Pike (Tysons), 703-552-5100, pat
sysamerican.com. Find greatest-hit dishes from other Great American Restaurants properties in a space resembling a vintage railway station. b R L D A G V $$
Pulcinella
1310 Chain Bridge Road, 703-893-7777, pulcinella restaurant.com. A stop for classic spaghetti and meatballs, linguine and clams and wood-fired pizza since 1985. L D $$
Randy’s Prime Seafood & Steaks
8051 Leesburg Pike (Tysons), 703-552-5110, randysprime.com. Randy’s (named for Great American Restaurants co-founder Randy Norton) serves prime cuts, duck-fat fries, seafood towers and other steakhouse standards. L D G $$$$
Rocco’s Italian 1357 Chain Bridge Road, 703-821-3736, roccos italian.com. The Juliano family makes everything in-house from family recipes. b L D G $$
Roots Provisions & Grocery
8100 Old Dominion Drive, 703-712-7850, roots provisions.com. Part café and part gourmet market, this McLean storefront has fresh sandwiches, smoothies, acai bowls, salads and coffee drinks, plus pantry staples, local produce, organic dairy products and grab-and-go snacks. B L G V $
Silver Diner« 8101 Fletcher St., 703-821-5666, silverdiner.com. See Arlington listing. B R L D A G V $$
Simply Fresh 6811 Elm St., 703-821-1869, simplyfreshva. com. A local favorite for pulled pork, chicken and brisket. Plus Greek diner fare and breakfast. b B L D G V $ Tachibana
6715 Lowell Ave., 703-847-1771, tachibana.us.
Sushi aside, the chef’s specials here include starters such as clam miso soup, monkfish paté and savory egg custard. L D $$
Rewild co-owner Joe Ressler knows the answer he should give when asked why he decided to open a boutique focusing on houseplants (that he’s always loved plants and had a green thumb from birth). But
the truth is, he was a horticultural novice when he and his business partners, Lily Cox and Kyle Cannon, opened their first store in 2018 in D.C.’s Shaw neighborhood.
“From a business standpoint, it just seemed like a great niche where we could be really educational and passionate about something,
by Rina Rapuanoand plants are so aesthetically appealing,” says Ressler, whose company will open a second Rewild in Ballston Quarter this fall. “Now I’m actually a very avid houseplant enthusiast. I probably have 25-ish plants in my own home. So I turned into one of our customers, but it took some effort.”
Ressler says he and his colleagues started eyeing Arlington when a good portion of the clientele at their Georgetown pop-up, which ended this summer, seemed to be coming from south of the river.
“We tend to attract a lot of Virginia customers, and it’s always been a little bit outside of our delivery range,” he says. “Ballston’s just such a great part of Virginia. It’s close to Clarendon, it’s got its own little community and is very central.”
The Ballston shop will offer all the same amenities that Shaw customers rely on, including a 90-day guarantee on all plants, free repotting services and a built-in support group for budding botanists that includes a blog and YouTube tutorials. The new store will also allow the owners to expand their delivery range significantly.
Plants range in price from $5 to $1,500, with large, rare plants on the more expensive end.
“Our business is very simple, you know? We just sell nice plants and nice pots, and we pot them and give you good advice,” says Ressler. “A little bit of information goes a long way with houseplant ownership.” rewilddc.com
Falls Church resident Anielka Azarian was in the middle of a bedroom refresh when her mother, Anita Poot Cu, came to visit from their home in Campeche, Mexico, a few years ago. Seeing a macramé wall hanging that Azarian was considering purchasing on Etsy, Poot Cu revealed that she herself had learned macramé in middle school—and balked at how much the decorative items were going for these days. She offered to make something similar.
“I’m a flight attendant, so I was going on trips,” recalls Azarian. “She was staying at my house, so that
was her little project, to do the wall hanging. I came home, and she had a wall hanging looking exactly like the one I wanted.”
When the pandemic hit and Azarian was furloughed, she opened an Etsy shop featuring her mother’s creations. The collection sold out in 24 hours. Soon, Poot Cu was teaching her daughter about knot-making from Mexico via FaceTime, and a sidehustle was born.
Now Azarian sells online as Luna Maya Macramé, as well as at a few retail locations and at pop-up markets, where she regularly convinces folks that the craft is more than just those plant holders from the ’70s.
“You can actually make really pretty cool, not-so-traditional wall
hangings, more modern-looking [pieces] to decorate your house,” she says. “There’s a little bit for everyone. It’s amazing how it came back.”
She chose the name Luna Maya as a nod to her roots in southern Mexico, where the Mayan civilization thrived and is still celebrated today. “In the Mayan culture, the moon is sacred, and so is my business,” she says. “Putting these two words together was a perfect match for us.”
Azarian has grown her offerings to include those ubiquitous plant holders, which she says are her most popular item—perhaps thanks to the pandemic plant boom—along with artistic wall hangings, bottle and yoga-mat carriers, and even shelves and purses. Prices range from $20 for bottle holders to $350 for large-scale, customizable wall hangings.
With the anticipated arrival of a baby this year, she has been experimenting with nursery-inspired pieces. She expects to have a new line available come fall.
“I’ve been crazy over rainbows and mobiles and just cute little things to decorate the nursery,” she says. “I think that’s definitely my next project.” @lunamaya_macrame on Instagram
Named by Smithsonian magazine as one of the most anticipated new museums of 2020, the Harriet Tubman Museum of New Jersey, located in Cape May, opened virtually last year and in-person this year on Juneteenth (June 19, the date that commemorates the end of slavery in the U.S.). The exhibits pay tribute to Cape May’s role in the Underground Railroad and Tubman’s life as an abolitionist and women’s suffrage activist. Tubman worked in Cape May as a cook and domestic worker in the early 1850s, raising money to return to Maryland’s Eastern Shore to rescue more enslaved people. The museum is housed at Howell House, formerly the parsonage for Macedonia Baptist Church. Interesting items include a signed first-edition printing of the 1872 book The Underground Railroad Records by abolitionist leader William Still, and several African masks and art pieces that belonged to the Rev. Robert Davis, a former pastor of the church who once lived at Howell House.
Additional exhibits include a timeline of Cape May’s Black history, a list of the once plentiful and varied Black-owned businesses, plus details on other notable residents, such as Stephen Smith. After buying his freedom, Smith went on to run a successful coal and lumber business and became an active conductor in the Underground Railroad. Admission is $10; $5 for ages 10 and younger. Reservations are recommended. Harriet Tubman Museum of New Jersey, 632 Lafayette St., Cape May, New Jersey, harriettubmanmuseum.org
Opened in Cape May, New Jersey in the summer of 2019, Lokal Hotel is an intriguing cross between an Airbnb (self check-in and spacious) and a beachy-chic boutique hotel (excellent “invisible service” by text and iPad, or in-person by request).
To help guests feel at home, each of the eight apartment-style suites includes a dining area and ample amenities, from beach bags, Yeti coolers and beach towels, to a kitchen stocked with coffee from Out There Coffee, a local shop. Two rooms have ocean views; all have comfortable porch seating. The heated saltwater pool is open past Labor Day. During beach season, a service attendant sets up umbrellas and lounge chairs on the beach across the street (including on weekends in September). Additional chairs and umbrellas are available on-site for use in the offseason. Rates begin at $744 and drop to $411 per night after Labor Day. Lokal Hotel, 5 Stockton Place, Cape May, New Jersey, 609-536-9157, staylokal.com
Surround yourself with art at the new Quirk Hotel in Charlottesville’s historic downtown. Opened in June 2020, the property includes a contemporary main hotel adjacent to two historic homes dating back to the 19th century. Similar to its sister, Quirk Hotel Richmond, the new hotel features works by local and national artists throughout the property, in guest rooms, public spaces and the Quirk Gallery. The bi-level gallery and shop also serve as gathering places for artist talks, receptions and trunk shows. Check quirkgallery.com for dates.
Each of the 80 guest rooms and suites features floor-toceiling windows, a modern desk, pink sound machine, and custom headboards designed by a Richmond-based abstract painter. A handful of rooms include private balconies.
The Lobby Bar, the centerpiece of the hotel’s grand entranceway, offers wines from local vineyards and the Shenandoah Valley, and is home to a “Love & Happiness” hour named for the whisper pink Benjamin Moore paint color found in Quirk hotels, which are part of Hyatt’s Destination Hotels collection. Head to The Pink Grouse, the property’s signature restaurant, for small plates and more, and to Bobboo, a barrel-aged spirits bar for
whiskeys from around the world. Have thin crust pizza and cocktails indoors or out at Q Rooftop and enjoy sweeping views of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Quirk Café, located at street level in one of the historic buildings, is a favorite coffee spot for guests and locals alike.
Rates begin at $250 per night. If you’re bringing your dog, add on the $150 “Posh Pups” package, which includes Quirk dog toys, a “Dog in Room” door hanger and a $100 refund after room inspection. Quirk Hotel Charlottesville, 499 W. Main St., Charlottesville, Virginia, 434-729-1234, destinationhotels.com/quirk-charlottesville.
Twenty years later, remembering the indelible mark that 9/11 left on Arlington
JUSTIN SCOTT WAS a rookie firefighter when Arlington County’s Fire Station 8 on Lee Highway (now Langston Boulevard) was called to the Pentagon on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. A crew from Fire Station 5 in Aurora Highlands had been among the first to arrive (joining a firetruck from Fort Myer that happened to be on-site), followed soon after by a screaming battalion of units from other stations and jurisdictions.
What they encountered was catastrophic, unprecedented and unforgettable. “There was just one piece of the plane I could see,” recalls Scott, who today holds the rank of Captain II with Arlington Fire/EMS. “It was the letter C, from American Airlines.”
Along with countless other responders, Scott spent hours working to suppress the fire raging on the Pentagon’s west side. Al-Qaeda hijackers had flown
American Airlines Flight 77 into the building as part of a coordinated terrorist attack that took down the World Trade Center towers in New York and doomed United Flight 93 to crash in western Pennsylvania. Like many of his peers, Scott labored to the point of exhaustion that day and eventually was sent to an Alexandria hospital for observation. As soon as his vitals were stable, he hitched a ride back to the burning Pentagon and got back to work.
By that evening, Arlington’s fire stations were packed with fire, law enforcement and emergency personnel catching sleep where they could and refueling on the copious amounts of food dropped off by local residents. They would need the energy in the difficult days that followed—for containing the blaze, stabilizing the building and recovering victims.
In the aftermath, attention turned to commemorating the fallen and preventing similar attacks. Some of the changes that transformed Arlington were practical, such as the rerouting of Route 110 farther from the Pentagon. Others were emotional and solemn. On Sept. 12, 2002, a special memorial service was held at Arlington National Cemetery for the 184 Pentagon victims, 57 of whom were buried near a five-sided marker in Section 64. The National 9/11 Pentagon Memorial, with its 184 illuminated benches, opened to the public on Sept. 11, 2008.
Over the past 19 years, the annual Arlington Police, Fire, Sheriff and ECC 9/11 Memorial Race has drawn more than 40,000 runners and raised more than $800,000 for 9/11-related charities. Arlington’s Community Emergency Response Team, founded on Sept. 10, 2002, in response to 9/11, employs trained citizens who help first responders during disasters.
“The love and support this county showed during 9/11 was unlike anything I’ve ever seen,” Scott says. “It’s indescribable. There was so much giving. Everyone bonded that day.” ■
