Planning is well underway for a new elementary school in Dunn Loring, but some McLean residents argue that Fairfax County Public Schools still hasn’t explained why the project should be prioritized over other needs.

As part of a resolution on the proposed county and FCPS budgets, the McLean Citizens Association’s board of directors urged the Fairfax County School Board last Wednesday (April 3) to “refrain from constructing” the school if officials can’t “provide adequate data” justifying it.

“What they are expecting to do is spend $80 million-ish, and they do not have any data to support the construction of that,” Louise Epstein, who chairs MCA’s budget and taxation committee, said.

Partially funded by bond money once intended for a new school in Oakton, the proposed four-story, 125,905-square-foot building will repurpose the Dunn Loring Administrative Center at 2334 Gallows Road. In addition to relieving crowding at schools in the Dunn Loring, Tysons and Falls Church areas, the project will add new playground facilities to the 10-acre site and move the vehicle access points from Gallows Road to Idylwood Road, according to a rezoning application under review by the county.

While crowding was an issue at Shrevewood Elementary School for years, the school in Idylwood is now operating at 95% capacity, and FCPS projects that will drop to 86% in the 2028-2029 school year, according to its latest capital improvement program (CIP), which was approved by the school board on Feb. 8.

Stenwood Elementary School, which is in Dunn Loring, is utilizing 97% of its capacity right now and is projected to reach 98% in 2028-2029.

In its resolution, MCA acknowledged that FCPS will face “upward pressures” on enrollment from new residential development, including in Merrifield and Tysons, but it says the CIP and its own “independent analysis” based on data provided by FCPS don’t show any near-term impacts on elementary schools in Dunn Loring.

“The School Board’s inclusion of Dunn Loring project in the FY 2025 Advertised Budget is not supported by FCPS 5-year enrollment projections,” MCA’s resolution says, “since no elementary school near Dunn Loring has an existing or projected ‘capacity deficit,’ and elementary schools in that vicinity are projected to have an aggregate ‘capacity surplus’ of 789 seats in 2028-29.”

Per the CIP, FCPS is forecasting capacity deficits at 20 elementary schools by the 2028-2029 school year, including at Spring Hill, Franklin Sherman and Kent Gardens. Boundary changes in McLean will take effect starting this fall. Read More

One restaurant has closed, but another will soon open in the Shops at Avenir Place near the Dunn Loring Metro station.

Burger 7 is no longer serving up patties and gyro wraps at 2670-A Avenir Place. The doors of the fast-casual eatery were fastened shut with a padlocked chain, and the interior looked partially deserted when FFXnow recently stopped by, though there was no sign announcing or explaining the closure.

A Burger 7 employee in Pimmit Hills (7505 Leesburg Pike) confirmed that the Dunn Loring location is permanently closed, but they didn’t know precisely when or why it shuttered, noting that the franchise has a different owner. Emails to the company weren’t answered by press time.

Burger 7 opened at Avenir Place in 2017, replacing a Smashburger, according to its first Yelp review. In addition to Pimmit Hills, where the business originally started in 2011, Burger 7 can still be found in Alexandria and Arlington.

The 2,094-square-foot space is now listed as available on the Shops at Avenir Place’s retail site plan.

New Japanese restaurant on the way

The transit-oriented development won’t be down a restaurant for too long, though. On the other end of the strip, near Salon Lofts and The Casual Pint, signs advertise the impending arrival of Japomen.

This will be the first standalone location for the sushi and ramen restaurant, which can currently be found in the Pike Kitchen Food Hall in Rockville, EpiQ Food Hall in Woodbridge and Lotte Supermarket’s food court in Sterling, co-owner James Park says.

“Fairfax County has demographics to fit [the] Japomen concept,” Park told FFXnow.

Park joined Japomen, which was started by sushi chef Peter Yoo at Pike Kitchen in 2018, during the COVID-19 pandemic. The partners expanded to Woodbridge in summer 2022 and to Sterling when Lotte opened there last year.

Park and Yoo are also behind Tilly Kitchen, a small food hall in Chantilly that complements Japomen’s menu with Korean and Vietnamese dishes.

Expected to open at 2767-J Avenir Place in May, Japomen will serve food similar to what can be found at the EpiQ Food Hall, including sushi rolls, ramen and udon noodle soups and rice bowls. Park says the team will also “continue to innovate new menu items in catering to Dunn Loring customers.”

“We are very excited and look forward to serving the Dunn Loring community,” he said.

A new Korean barbecue eatery is now cooking at Halstead Square near the Dunn Loring Metro station.

Meat Project opened the doors to its new location on the ground floor of The Lofts apartment building at 2727-G Merrilee Drive in mid-January, marking its first expansion beyond its original site in Centreville.

For the soft opening, which was announced on Instagram on Jan. 12, the restaurant is operating from 5-11 p.m. on Sunday through Thursday and from 5 p.m. to midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. Its website suggests the start time will eventually move up to 2:30 p.m.

Meat Project was started at 5825 Trinity Parkway in July 2020 by owner Sam Kim and his mother, Grace, who also own Rainbow Food Catering and Manoa Bakery Cafe in Annandale.

Both locations offer all-you-can-eat meats and seafood for $30 per person, or $20 for kids who are under 4 feet tall. Kids under 3 feet tall can eat for free, per Meat Project’s website. There is also a bar that serves beer, wine, sake and soju.

Kim previously told FFXnow that the Merrifield restaurant would have some additional menu and bar items, including cocktails.

Meat Project joins a rush of recent restaurant openings around the Dunn Loring Metro station. In the past few months, nearby Avenir Place has added The Casual Pint, the taiyaki shop Rice Culture and the American-style barbecue joint Myron Mixon Pitmaster BBQ.

Myron Mixon Pitmaster BBQ is officially cooking at the Dunn Loring Metro station.

The Southern-style barbecue joint launched its new location at 2670 Avenir Place with a soft opening on Dec. 28. Initially limited to dinner service, the restaurant expanded its hours on Sunday (Jan. 7) and is now open from 11:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.

“The response has been overwhelmingly positive so far. We’re excited to be in our new home,” Myron Mixon spokeperson Michael Psaltis said.

Led by a world championship-winning competitive barbecue team, Myron Mixon Pitmaster BBQ first opened in Old Town Alexandria in August 2016 and decided to open a second location in the Shops at Avenir Place after the previous tenant, District Barbecue, closed last year.

While the move was previously framed as an expansion, Dunn Loring is now the company’s only location after the Alexandria restaurant closed in December. As first reported by FFXnow’s sister site ALXnow, the original location was sold to new owners who are rebranding it as Mystic BBQ & Grill, Psaltis confirmed.

“After several years in Alexandria and even though we’d love Old Town, we decided it was time for a new location,” he told FFXnow by email. “Our Dunn Loring location will be the only place to get Myron Mixon’s award-winning, delicious BBQ in the DC metro area.”

The menu of ribs, pulled pork, brisket and salads is similar to what Myron Mixon offered in Alexandria, but there are some new items, such as a fried chicken sandwich. Sides include fries, cole slaw, collard greens, a loaded potato salad, peach baked beans and mac and cheese.

A grand opening for the Dunn Loring restaurant is expected during the week of Jan. 22. Psaltis says Wednesday, Jan. 24 is the most likely date, but an exact plan is still being determined.

“We’re looking forward to continue to serve our loyal customers in our new home and to serving our terrific food to new customers in our new neighborhood who might not have gotten to our Alexandria location,” Psaltis said.

Myron Mixon BBQ is the third eatery that the Shops at Avenir Place has added in as many months. The Casual Pint opened outside the Dunn Loring Metro station on Nov. 16, and the taiyaki shop Rice Culture arrived on Nov. 30.

Rice Culture is now serving taiyakis and ice cream just outside the Dunn Loring Metro station.

The pop-up bakery, a regular at several D.C. area farmers’ markets, kicked off the soft opening phase of its first brick-and-mortar shop last week on Nov. 30. Its location in the Shops at Avenir Place (2672D Avenir Place) had been vacant since Bruster’s Real Ice Cream closed in 2020.

“Come through and bring a friend,” Rice Culture said in an Instagram post announcing the opening. “We want to extend our thanks ahead of time for everyone’s patience as we get adjusted to our new space and find our footing.”

Founder MikkiJo Bayawa started Rice Culture in January 2021 with her fiancé Kevin Tsai after getting delivery requests for her homemade taiyakis, a Japanese waffle snack that’s shaped like a fish and stuffed with sweet fillings.

The business quickly gained traction and moved production to Frontier Kitchen in Chantilly, Bayawa previously told FFXnow. It has appeared at the Mosaic District’s weekly FreshFarm market and The Block in Annandale, among other locations across the D.C. region.

With its new, permanent space, Rice Culture has expanded its menu to include soft-serve ice cream, which can be purchased by itself in a cup or with a taiyaki on top. The ice cream flavors — ube, black sesame, corn and pandan — can be swirled, and toppings are available.

Inspired by Bawaya’s Japanese and Filipino heritage, taiyakis can be filled with ube, pandan, nutella, Oreo, or corn and cheese, along with the traditional flavors of traditional red bean paste and vanilla custard. They come in single, three-pack and six-pack orders.

Bayawa says a grand opening will be held in January, but an exact date is still being determined.

For now, the shop is operating during limited hours of 4-9 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday and 11 a.m.-9 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Fairfax County Public Schools has settled on a path forward for its plan to construct a new elementary school in Dunn Loring.

A rezoning application recently submitted to the county proposes demolishing the existing Dunn Loring Administrative Center at 2334 Gallows Road and replacing it with a four-level school building that will be accompanied by athletic fields and playgrounds.

Allowed a maximum height of 65 feet, the four-story building appears to have triumphed over an alternate design that would’ve resulted in a shorter but more sprawling building of two to three stories.

The two-story administrative center started life as an elementary school in 1938, but it got repurposed in the 1970s after declining enrollment led FCPS to close the school, the school system’s legal agent in the case, Hunton Andrews Kurth associate Jessica Vara, wrote in a statement of justification.

“Now, the surrounding community is again in need of a new elementary school in the Dunn Loring area to relieve overcrowded schools in the Dunn Loring/Falls Church/Tysons area,” Vara wrote.

According to the submitted plan, the new school building will be approximately 125,905 square feet in size and be constructed at the corner of Idylwood and Gallows Road, occupying roughly the same footprint as the current building.

The building’s ground level will include music classrooms, workrooms, a cafeteria, a staff lounge and a reception area at the main entrance. The second floor will have kindergarten, third grade and special education classrooms, followed by art, first grade and second grade classrooms on the third floor, and fourth and fifth grade classrooms on the top floor.

FCPS has proposed replacing Murphy Field — the soccer field that currently covers the western portion of the nearly 10-acre site — with a dual soccer/softball field that will be supplemented by four playgrounds:

• An approximately 8,295-square-foot modular playground
• A 2,009-square-foot paved play area for kindergarteners
• A 3,318-square-foot “creative” playground for pre-kindergarten students
• An approximately 11,373-square-foot paved play area

Two new vehicle access points will be constructed on Idylwood Road, replacing the existing driveway off of Gallows Road. The school will have separate drop-off locations for buses and the kiss-and-ride “to minimize the potential for traffic issues,” according to the application.

The school’s parking lot will have 116 spaces, and bicycle racks will be provided. FCPS also plans to construct a new 5-foot-wide sidewalk to connect with the existing concrete path along Idylwood Road.

The application hasn’t been officially accepted for review by Fairfax County planners yet. Per its website, FCPS estimates the project will be completed in 2027.

The Dunn Loring Metro station’s new “beerstro” is set to pour its first official brew tomorrow (Thursday).

The Casual Pint, a pub specializing in craft beer, will throw a grand opening celebration for its Dunn Loring franchise (2676 Avenir Place, Unit F), starting with a first toast at noon, according to a media advisory.

Festivities are planned throughout the day, and supervisors Dalia Palchik (Providence) and John Foust (Dranesville) are expected to attend.

Franchise owners Jenn Longmeyer-Wood and Derek Adams previously told FFXnow that they hope to create a casual, family-friendly gathering spot where local residents can “hang out and just keep it easy.”

Residents of McLean, the pair worked at The Casual Pint in Seven Corners — the Tennessee-based company’s only other location in Northern Virginia so far — before deciding to open their own franchise.

In Dunn Loring, the 1,753-square-foot pub can seat 42 people indoors, including 10 at the bar. Outdoor seating is also available in The Shops at Avenir Place’s courtyard, which Adams and Longmeyer-Wood hope will host musical performances and other events in the future.

Here’s more from The Casual Pint on its food and drink offerings:

CASUAL PINT BEERS & BEVERAGES:

Casual Pint of Dunn Loring’s expertly curated selection of beers includes options from a 22-tap draft beer system, as well as single beer cans and bottles available for purchase to drink on-site or take home along with crowlers and growlers available to-go. According to Adams, their craft beer selection will always include IPAs, Pilsner and a dark brew or two on tap, as well as at least one cider and seasonal offerings. The restaurant also serves a curated range of wines, ciders, non-alcoholic beers, and various soft drinks for a diverse beverage experience.

CASUAL PINT MENU:

Casual Pint of Dunn Loring features a small menu of all-star classic fare, including 12-inch handmade German pretzels from woman-owned Prop and Peller, served with house made beer cheese. Additionally, customers can enjoy brats, burgers, flatbread pizzas, wings, salads and wraps. Eventually, the team will begin adding seasonal items and regional specialties, incorporating ingredients and items from local butchers, locally grown vegetables, and locally owned/small-business specialty items.

Diners can also take the full Casual Pint experience home with food and craft beer to go, including Growler Fills, Mix-A-Six Packs out of our bottle & can cooler or packaged beer off the dry shelves. Kegs are also available for any occasion with advance orders.

The Casual Pint of Dunn Loring will be open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Monday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to midnight on Friday and Saturday, and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Sunday.

A land design and engineering firm will expand soon with a new office in Fairfax County, where it already regularly consults on development projects.

Headquartered in Woodbridge, Land Design Consultants (LDC) announced Thursday (Nov. 9) that it will open a second Northern Virginia office in Metroplace I, an 8-floor office building at 2650 Park Tower Drive near the Dunn Loring Metro station.

Intended to give the company a base closer to its clients in the D.C. area, the new, 4,000-square-foot office will focus on landscape architecture services with studio space for 20 employees, who are expected to move in this coming January, according to a press release.

“This is an exciting step forward as our company celebrates nearly 40 years offering land development engineering, planning and surveying services to our valued clients,” LDC President Matt Marshall said in the press release. “This new office will allow us to continue our mission of providing technical expertise, sustainable design and quality work that contributes to the success of our clients’ projects.”

The landscape architecture studio will be led by LDC Director of Project Managment Jessica Bradshaw, according to the firm.

Founded in 1985, LDC provides planning, civil engineering and surveying services to developers. Its Fairfax County work has included The Lofts at Reston Station, Stonebrook at Westfields, and the redevelopment of the Four Seasons Tennis Club in Merrifield into the Marche’ townhomes.

Current projects include The Flats at Tysons, a condominium development that will be built on a parking lot behind the Fairfax Square shopping center, and Workhouse Place, single-family houses currently under construction next to the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton.

MetroPlace I has four spaces available for lease, totaling 12,875 square feet, according to property manager Lincoln Property Company.

Fairfax County is designing a new layout for Prosperity Avenue near the Dunn Loring Metro station.

The new configuration will reduce the roadway from four to two lanes by adding a road diet and protected bicycle lanes between Gallows Road and Prosperity Metro Plaza, the two-building office center whose tenants include U.S. Customs and Immigration Services’ D.C. field office.

The project will also convert existing on-street bicycle lanes that start to the west and continue until Hilltop Road into protected bike lanes.

Design funding will come from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG), whose Transportation Planning Board awarded $80,000 to the project last week as part of its Transit Within Reach program.

COG is “excited” about the county’s proposed improvements to Prosperity Avenue, which currently has a “very wide” design that “encourages drivers to speed and discourages people from walking and biking,” according to John Swanson, the principal transportation planner for the regional nonprofit.

The affected section of Prosperity Avenue has a 35 mph speed limit. A 19-year-old man from Chantilly was killed in a crash on the road last December, but that occurred to the south between Route 29 and Arlington Blvd.

“This part of Fairfax is undergoing a lot of change and the county is really committed to making the Dunn Loring station the center of a vibrant, walkable community,” Swanson said. “…This kind of project will make a real difference at the local level and will serve as a model for the region.”

The idea for the Prosperity Avenue safety project emerged out of discussions that started in April between representatives of businesses along the roadway and Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik’s office.

Since then, the district office has been working with county and state transportation staff to develop their proposal.

“I am delighted to see that this project design was approved for funding!” Palchik said in a statement. “After hearing from local businesses about safety concerns for their staff and visitors, my office worked diligently with FCDOT and VDOT on a proposal for a road diet for Prosperity Avenue. This design work will help improve safety for our pedestrians, especially for staff and community members visiting the USCIS offices or attending naturalization ceremonies.”

The Transit Within Reach funds will cover the project design up to 30% completion, according to the Fairfax County Department of Transportation. That will encompass the bicycle lanes from west of the Metro station to Hilltop Avenue, which is expected to be completed around the end of 2024.

The COG funding will also give the county an estimate for how much it’ll cost to implement the project.

“Once complete, FCDOT will identify funding to complete the design and construct the project,” a department spokesperson said.

Launched in 2021, the Transit Within Reach program provides consulting services for the design and preliminary engineering of “small, high-impact bicycle and pedestrian projects,” per COG.

The Transportation Planning Board approved a total of $250,000 in funding from the program at its meeting last Wednesday (Oct. 18). The other projects were a shared-use path in Gaithersburg and a sidewalk in D.C.

FCDOT is also working on a separate study to identify potential improvements on Gallows Road. Staff told community members at a meeting last month that traffic congestion, crashes, a lack of sidewalks and general pedestrian, bicycle and transit safety are all issues on the 7-mile corridor, Annandale Today reported.

While that study won’t assess or make recommendations for Prosperity Avenue, it could “be informed” by the road diet and bicycle lanes project, according to FCDOT.

Image via Google Maps

An upcoming bar and restaurant hopes to turn the Dunn Loring Metro station into a hopping place.

On track to open in late October next to Quickway, The Casual Pint (2676 Avenir Place, Unit F) is envisioned as a family-friendly gathering spot, where community members of all ages can relax even as adults 21 and older savor a range of craft beers and wine — and yes, the brews will come in pints.

“It’s not a sports bar, but we will have sports. It’s not a music venue, but we’ll have music,” said Derek Adams, co-owner of Casual Pint’s new Dunn Loring franchise. “It’s in the name. It’s a casual place to just come in and hang out and just keep it easy.”

Based in Knoxville, Tennessee, The Casual Pint describes itself as a “craft beerstro” that serves up local, regional and national craft brews in a laidback environment more evocative of a coffee shop than a nightclub.

The company began in 2011 as a family-owned beer market that focused on selling take-home and packaged beer before evolving into more of a restaurant/bar. It has expanded to eight states through independently owned franchises, including one near Seven Corners where Adams and fellow Dunn Loring owner Jenn Longmeyer-Wood worked before deciding to open their own location.

For Longmeyer-Wood, who knows Adams as a longtime friend of her husband, The Casual Pint’s appeal stems in part from nostalgia for a now-shuttered gastropub called Pig & Fiddle that her family frequented when they lived in Minnesota.

“It had local craft beers, small menu, totally family-friendly, and it was the place to just go and hang out, have a good beer or hang out with friends, bring your family,” Longmeyer-Wood said. “When my husband and I moved back here with our kids, we were like, there’s nothing like that here. So, when Derek…started talking to my husband about [The Casual Pint], we were like, yes, this is the thing that we want to invest in and bring here.”

When looking for a site for their franchise, Adams and Longmeyer-Wood were drawn to the Shops at Avenir Place for its proximity to the Metro station, the new I-66 parallel trail and plenty of residences.

They also landed a space previously occupied by the kabob chain Moby Dick that faces directly out onto a courtyard with outdoor seating. The property owner is planning to refresh the space at the end of October with new furniture that will be available to all retail and restaurant patrons, Adams says, though he doesn’t know yet exactly how many seats there will be.

Inside, the 1,753-square-foot pub will have seating for 42 people, including 10 seats at the bar. According to its owners, the Dunn Loring franchise is pioneering a more modern look for The Casual Pint, eschewing the wood paneling that dominates in other locations for painted concrete walls and tiles.

As for what will be on tap, the team plans to bring in craft beers made by small or up-and-coming breweries from Virginia, particularly the central and southern regions, and across the country. When encountering breweries while on the road with her son, who plays travel hockey, Longmeyer-Wood says she would text Adams to see if they distribute in Virginia.

“Being able to bring that in here is really great, that we can expand beyond just the breweries in Northern Virginia,” she said.

In addition to beer, The Casual Pint will serve wine, cider, non-alcoholic beer and soft drinks. For food, the menu will be similar to the one in Seven Corners, featuring burgers, flatbread pizzas, wings, bratwurst, salads and wraps. Read More