A new steakhouse has settled in at Westpark Corporate Center in Tysons.
The Midwestern chain 801 Chophouse quietly opened its first East Coast location on the ground floor of the office building at 8484 Westpark Drive in early August.
“Join us for an unforgettable dining experience with prime steaks, fresh seafood, and exceptional service,” the restaurant said in an Instagram post announcing its launch on Aug. 6. “Stop by tonight and let us make your evening extraordinary!”
Though the company is new to the D.C. area, 801 Restaurant Group founder and co-owner Jimmy Lynch and his wife grew up in McLean, and their son, Jamie Lynch, who now helps run the business, was born in D.C., according to the Washington Business Journal.
The Lynch family opened the first 801 Chophouse in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, in 1993, expanding to eight locations over the years, including the new one in Tysons. They also run a seafood restaurant called 801 Fish in Denver, Colorado, and 801 Local, a neighborhood eatery and cocktail bar, in Frontenac, Missouri.
Taking the place of McCormick & Schmick’s, which closed its Tysons location in 2018 and its Reston location in 2021, 801 Chophouse is currently open during dinner hours from 4-10 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 4-9 p.m. on Sundays. There are happy hours on weekdays from 4-6 p.m., and lunch hours are “coming soon,” per the website.
In addition to different kinds of steak, including wagyu, prime rib, and dry and wet-aged varieties, the dinner menu offers seafood, pork and lamb chops, a half-roasted chicken, soups and salads, and desserts by pastry chef Joshua Jarvis. A $56 three-course menu is available on Sundays.
The 12,500-square-foot restaurant has six private dining rooms that vary in capacity, accommodating anywhere from six to 36 people. They boast Virginia-specific names like Dogwood, Great Falls, Old Dominion, Peach Grove and Potomac, though the Hawkeye room nods to 801’s Iowa origins.
The company didn’t return requests for comment by press time.
Office owner seeks to add rooftop amenity
With a new restaurant now operating, the owner of Westpark Corporate Center is looking to further enhance the two-building office complex’s appeal by installing a rooftop amenity for tenants.
At its meeting on Tuesday (Sept. 10), the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the property owner’s request to increase the 8484 Westpark building’s height by 14 feet to allow the amenity.
“The rooftop amenity space would be primarily glass-enclosed walls, likely be used as an exercise room, to improve the amenities available to tenants in order to retain or gain leases in an increasingly challenging office market,” a land use representative for Westpark Corporate Center LLC said in a June 17 letter to the county’s planning department.
According to county staff, the existing development plan for the site, which was last revised on Nov. 9, 2021 when the board approved The Boro’s expansion, set a building height limit of 125 feet. The amenity space will bring the height up to 139 feet, but it’s still expected to be shorter than a penthouse containing mechanical equipment that’s not counted in the height calculations.
The amenity also won’t be visible from the public sidewalks on Route 7 (Leesburg Pike) and Westpark Drive, a county staffer told the Board of Supervisors.
Before the vote, Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik, who represents that part of Tysons, said she anticipates the amenity space “will be a great asset and benefit” to Westpark Corporate Center, complementing recently implemented public pedestrian improvements.
Over the summer, The Meridian Group, the developer behind The Boro, added a High-Intensity Activated Crosswalk (HAWK) signal at the Boro Place intersection, and construction wrapped up on the first three blocks of the Tysons Community Circuit that will eventually become a 4.75-mile-long recreational trail.
The first portion of The Boro’s expansion — The Trillium, a senior living apartment community — also opened to residents on Aug. 1.
“In a time when we know office is really struggling, between the office uses, the restaurant…and then additional amenities will help this area continue to be a place where communities and businesses want to locate or relocate,” Palchik said.
