Commonwealth Brewing Company is slated to open in Old Town Fairfax this summer.
Currently based in Virginia Beach, the family-owned artisanal craft brewery will expand to 10420 Main Street, which was previously the home of several restaurants, a judicial center area and duckpin bowling alley.
It will also be the permanent home of Earp’s Ordinary, a new music venue and pub that has been operating a temporary pop-up nearby.
The Fairfax City Economic Development Authority lauded the coming of Commonwealth Brewing to town.
“We’re thrilled to have Commonwealth Brewing Co. bring their beach vibes, excellent beer and inviting atmosphere to the heart of Old Town Fairfax,” the authority said in an announcement on Facebook.
Natalie and Jeramy Biggie created the brewery in 2015 to “embody their life’s passions, connections to family, friends, the ocean and making creatively original craft beers,” according to the company’s website.
The business, which did not return a request for comment by press time, is currently located at 2444 Pleasure House in Virginia Beach.
Ornery Beer Company Public House is officially coming to Herndon.
The restaurant and pub, which already has locations in Fairfax and Manassas, is set to open at Arrowbrook Centre (2340 Silver Arrow Way), a development that is currently under construction at the intersection of the Dulles Toll Road and Centreville Road.
The business was started by Randy Barnette, a craft beer enthusiast and restaurant owner, in 2015 to offer a “more casual stye” brewpub. He’s also behind other concepts in the area, including Hard Times Cafe in Manassas and Mad Fox Brewing in Falls Church.
Barnette estimated the location will open in the third or fourth quarter of 2023, emphasizing that the expected opening is an estimate.
The full-service restaurant will include a three-barrel brewery.
“Our brewing capacity is supplemented by our production brewery in Bristow. Our business model is smaller pub-like restaurants with scratch kitchens, no walk-in freezers, offering great food that pairs well with our beer,” Barnette said.
Barnette said he chose the location because of the business demographics of the area and the mixed-use nature of the project. Herndon is also home to Barnette, who grew up from Herndon and graduated from Herndon High School. He now lives in Bristow.
Items on the menu include variety of beer and ciders, soups, salads, and pizzas.
The Arrowbrook Centre development is planned for more than 600,000 square feet of office space across three buildings,
The initial phases of the development will include 34,000 square feet of ground floor retail and a 274-unit apartment building. Additional development is planned.
Photo via Google Maps
People will be talking about Bruno at Shipgarten in Tysons this Thanksgiving weekend.
Characters from the Disney movie “Encanto” will put on a live performance on Saturday (Nov. 26) as part of the biergarten’s Thanksgiving Barks & Brews Festival, which will run from 1 to 6 p.m. that day.
Advertised as an “annual” festival, though this will be the venue’s first Thanksgiving since opening in May, Barks & Brews will feature local wineries and breweries with over 50 drink options, live music, lawn games, giveaways, and food and activities for both humans and dogs.
There will be a playground, face painting and crafts corner to keep kids entertained, according to the event page.
- 2 p.m. — Smallest and Biggest Dog Competition
- 3 p.m. — Best Trick Competition
- 3:30 p.m. — Encanto Live Character Performance
- 4 p.m. — Hold for Treat Competition
The festival is free, but spots can be reserved in advance through Eventbrite.
Located at 7581 Colshire Drive in the Scotts Run development, Shipgarten is open seven days a week from 11-2 a.m. The pop-up rolled out this summer with restaurants and five bars — all housed in converted shipping containers — as well as a dog park, playground and music pavilion.
The restaurants include a revival of Tysons Biergarten, Waffles and Tacos, Asian fusion concept RollBär, and Salamati Grille, which serves Persian cuisine.
Since there’s no parking at the site, there is a free shuttle that transports patrons from 1700 Old Meadow Road.
While Thanksgiving is still on its way, Shipgarten is evidently preparing for Christmas too, opening a Santa’s Workshop on Tuesday (Nov. 21).
“Get your pictures taken with Santa for free Saturdays and Sundays from 1-8 p.m.,” an Instagram post announcing the opening said. “Also try writing a letter to Santa, crafts with Mrs. Clause or free face painting!”
In December, there will be a Winter Wonderland celebration split across two weeks, with a beer, wine and cider festival on Dec. 10 and a family festival on Dec. 17.
Photo via Shipgarten/Instagram
(Updated at 8:55 a.m. on 7/15/2022) After spending weeks perfecting various food and drink offerings, Shipgarten is ready to formally introduce its dining-in-shipping-containers concept to Tysons.
Launched on May 26 with its Tysons Biergarten revival, the Scotts Run pop-up will celebrate the completed rollout of its four restaurants and five bars with a three-day grand opening, starting at 3 p.m. tomorrow (Friday).
“We’ve been doing a soft opening for the past few weeks, making sure everything is perfect, especially the food, and things are looking very, very bright,” said Matt Rofougaran, managing partner for Creative Bar Concepts, which also developed Hops N Shine in Alexandria.
The festivities at 7581 Colshire Drive will include live music and local DJs, a moon bounce, face painting, various games and contests, a UFC Fight Night viewing, a ceremonial keg tapping, and at 3 p.m. on Saturday (July 16), a ribbon-cutting led by Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay.
“I am thrilled to be attending the ribbon-cutting for the ShipGarten pop-up,” McKay said in a statement to FFXnow. “This is exactly the kind of innovative use of urban open space that not only creates jobs but is fun, unique, and responsive to what the community wants. I am looking forward to joining the founding team for a beer and perhaps a curry wurst or taco!”
Concluding with an adults-only stein hoisting competition at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, the full schedule of events can be found on the grand opening weekend’s Eventbrite page.
Since late May, Shipgarten has unveiled a different shipping container each week. The biergarten, which features German beer and cuisine, was followed by the Asian fusion restaurant RollBär in early June and the fast-casual Persian eatery, Salamati Grille.
The final concept, Waffles and Tacos, opened about 10 days ago. As suggested by its name, the restaurant features customizable Belgian waffles and street tacos, along with American craft beer, a whiskey bar, and a distiller bar.
Boasting three 2,500-square-foot tents and what it says is the largest outdoor patio in the D.C. area, Shipgarten used the prolonged soft opening to ensure the staff was fully trained and refine the food and drink menus, Rofougaran says.
In all, Shipgarten has more than 100 beer options and over 60 types of bourbon, whiskey and tequila, according to a press release. Supplementing the bars and restaurants are a dog park, a kids’ playground, TVs and a 24-foot-wide projector screen, and outdoor games, including a giant Jenga and water pong.
“It’s just a big theme park in the heart of Tysons,” Rofougaran said.
After the grand opening weekend, Shipgarten will begin its regular operating hours of 11 a.m. to 2 a.m., seven days a week.
Photo courtesy of Shipgarten/Instagram
(Updated at 9:15 a.m. on 5/25/2022) Land ho! After over two years of anticipated arrivals dashed against the rocky shores of the COVID-19 pandemic and various construction-related challenges, Shipgarten will dock at last in Scotts Run near the McLean Metro station on Thursday (May 26).
The team behind Alexandria’s Hops N Shine will introduce their new concept to the Tysons development with a soft opening for Tysons Biergarten, which will serve beer and German food out of a converted shipping container from 3-9 p.m. through Sunday (May 29).
Shuttle buses will be available to pick up visitors from the McLean Metro station and 1700 Old Meadow Road, and transport them to Shipgarten. (Update: The shuttle bus route has been corrected after this article previously stated it would travel from the McLean Metro to 1700 Old Meadow Road.)
Shipgarten thanked supporters for their patience when announcing the event on social media yesterday (Monday).
“We are just as exciting to build a community around Shipgarten as you are!” the business wrote. “We want to be your destination for a casual get together, happy hour, drink specials, corporate and private events, special occasions, sporting events, awkward first dates, proposals, and ultimately a good old fashioned good time.”
Shipgarten has been in the works since 2019, when the original Tysons Biergarten ended its run as a pop-up near the Greensboro Metro station.
The concept was supposed to open in the spring of 2020, but the rollout was prolonged by “a mix of everything,” from the pandemic to issues with getting contractors to the site, Creative Bar Concepts LLC Managing Partner Matt Rofougaran told FFXnow.
Now that Tysons Biergarten is ready, though, the community can expect 7581 Colshire Drive to get lively fast. Over the next few weeks, it will be joined by three other eateries, all inside reconfigured shipping containers:
- RollBär — Asian fusion cuisine and Japanese whiskey, coming in early June
- Salamati — fast-casual Persian food, described by Rofougaran as “Moby Dick meets Chipotle”
- Waffles & Tacos — custom Belgian waffles and street tacos
The venue will also host a kid’s playground and a music pavilion with live entertainment, trivia, comedy, arts and crafts, karaoke, and other activities.
Rofougaran says the team decided to start with Tysons Biergarten, since it has an established fanbase, and many workers from the previous pop-up have returned.
However, he’s excited to debut new concepts like Waffles & Tacos, which replaces the planned Chalkboard BBQ.
“As time went on, we kept on thinking [about] what people like,” Rofougaran said. “We want to come up with something creative and fun, so these are the ideas we came up with. We think this is what’s really going to be successful.”
More food, drinks, and events will be added over the coming weeks, with the hours of operation eventually extending from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m. seven days a week.
Like the Greensboro Metro site, Shipgarten is a pop-up, so it won’t stick around forever. Located on currently undeveloped land opposite the Mitre 4 building, the site is part of Scotts Run’s “Taylor” block, which is planned for over 1 million square feet of primarily residential and office development.
Construction is currently underway on Skanska’s Heming apartment building, set to be completed next year. Master plan developer Cityline Partners also recently got Fairfax County’s approval to turn vacant land on Anderson Road into a temporary park.
Rofougaran says there isn’t an exact timeline yet for when Shipgarten will have to vacate the site, but it will hopefully stay for the next couple of years.
“The beauty is it’s been made out of shipping containers and tents,” Rofougaran said. “We can take everything and move it down the street.”
Photo courtesy Shipgarten/Instagram
Some of Fairfax County’s top breweries are rolling up their sleeves and joining a global campaign to support Ukrainian refugees displaced by the ongoing Russian invasion.
The “Brew for Ukraine” movement emerged in early March in response to a call for support from Pravda Brewery, a company based in Lviv, Ukraine, that has shifted to brewing Molotov cocktails for the country’s defense efforts.
Pravda released the recipes for its five most popular beers, now branded the “Victory beer series,” and encouraged other breweries to craft and sell them as a fundraiser.
Ornery Beer Company, which is based in Manassas with a restaurant and pub in Fairfax City, announced yesterday (Thursday) that it has partnered with seven other Northern Virginia breweries to produce Putin Huilo, a dry-hopped golden ale that takes its name from a common derogatory phrase for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The participating Fairfax County breweries are Reston’s Lake Anne Brew House, Fair Winds Brewing Company in Lorton, and Caboose Brewing Company, which runs Caboose Commons in Merrifield and Caboose Tavern in Vienna.
Other collaborators include the Quattro Goombas Winery & Brewery in Aldie, Loudoun Brewing Company in Leesburg, the Manassas-based Tucked Away Brewing Company, and Winchester Brew Works.
According to a press release, the businesses gathered at Ornery’s production brewery in Manassas on March 25 to make the ale, and they will reunite on Wednesday (April 27) to package the resulting 8,000-plus cans of alcohol.
Putin Huylo will be on sale at all eight breweries starting on April 29. They will have four-packs of 16-ounce cans available for $20.
“A $20,000 donation, from the proceeds of our Putin Huylo collaboration, will be made on Monday May 2nd, split among World Central Kitchen-Ukraine, GlobalGiving Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund, and Pravda Brewery’s community efforts in Lviv, Ukraine,” Ornery said in the press release.
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, more than 5 million people have fled Ukraine since Feb. 24, the day Russian military forces crossed the border into their neighboring country. It’s considered the largest refugee crisis in Europe since World War II, and as of Wednesday (April 20), the UNHCR had recorded 5,264 civilian casualties.
Northern Virginia, including Fairfax County, recently wrapped up an almost month-long donation drive to collect coats and other winter clothes that will be delivered to refugees in Poland. Volunteers will sort and pack donations from across the region this weekend (April 22-23) at the Oakton Stake Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (2719 Hunter Mill Road).
After first setting its roots down in Falls Church, Settle Down Easy Brewing is planning to open a second location soon.
The brewery, which describes itself as a “nano brewing operation” on its website, plans to open up shop at 2952E Chain Bridge Road in Oakton.
A summer opening is anticipated, a business representative told FFXnow. The owner was not immediately available for comment.
Established in 2018, the brewery serves a variety of beer and food items. Its flagship beers include No. 1 Dry Hopped Kolsch, hop Was Phonic, and 2 Cloud 9.
The new location will be next to Oakton Chesapeake Cafe.
Photo via Settle Down Easy/Facebook
