The Tysons Community Alliance (TCA) hopes to put the “play” in “play-cemaking” with a mini festival on Saturday (April 6) that will feature food, art and opinions about what might make the urban center tick.

Hosted by Celebrate Fairfax at The PARC at Tysons (8508 Leesburg Pike) from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., the TCA Placemaking Fest is envisioned as both an example of how to distinguish Tysons and an occasion for community members to share their thoughts on future activities that could cement that identity.

The TCA will present proposed concepts at interactive stations, where attendees can give feedback while nursing an ice cream scoop from Tysons Creamery or bopping to music spun by DJ Cabezon.

“There’s going to be music, there’s going to be an interactive art piece. There’s going to be food for people and games,” TCA project manager Colleen Hawkinson, who organized the event, said. “We really want families and friends and everyone to come and really enjoy it and experience the activation and what placemaking can be.”

Feedback gathered at the event will inform a placemaking framework being developed by the TCA, a nonprofit community improvement organization tasked with promoting Tysons and guiding its evolution as Fairfax County’s aspiring downtown.

When it was created in October 2022, the TCA identified “placemaking” as a focus of its mission, along with communications, transportation and support for businesses. Acknowledging that the concept can seem intangible, Hawkinson says it can refer to anything that encourages people to interact and spend time in a particular space.

Examples range from physical design elements, such as a mural or splash pad, to events like farmers’ markets and the block parties held at The PARC, which was converted from a defunct Container Store into an event space in 2021.

“It’s about building up these places that then help support and create the sense of community,” Hawkinson said.

To showcase the concept, the TCA Placemaking Fest will have the aforementioned live music by DJ Cabezon, a “collaborative art experience” with local artist Michael Pacheco, photo booths, and food trucks from Tysons Creamery, Colonial Kettle Corn, El Chef Latino and Fine Dining to Go.

There will also be a “mobility maze” where kids can ride scooters through a mini street network with lanes, signs, sidewalks and even railroad crossings. Essentially a traffic garden with a different name, the maze was provided by Tech Painting Company and the transportation engineering firm Gorove Slade.

Admission to the event is free, though attendees are encouraged to register in advance.

The TCA anticipates finalizing its placemaking framework in May, allowing it to start implementing the recommendations as soon as this summer, according to Hawkinson.

“The TCA will certainly move forward on some things,” she said. “Some things might need assistance from the county…and there are areas where our private sector friends and partners may come in and help out, and that kind of gets around the essence of placemaking…all these different entities working toward a common goal.”

Capital One Center will bound into spring later this month with an Easter celebration at The Perch (1803 Capital One Drive).

The Tysons skypark is inviting kids and their parents to an Easter egg hunt on March 30. Visitors will have a chance to meet an Easter bunny, along with actual bunnies, alpacas and a baby goat in a petting zoo run by My Pet Alpaca.

Other activities include sack races, balloon animals, arts and crafts, and “special entertainment” from a DJ at the Perch Putt mini-golf course, according to a media advisory.

After closing for the winter, Perch Putt will reopen this Saturday (March 23) with a new Korean food truck called Bap-Bowl. The menu includes DIY rice, greens and japchae bowls, kimchi, a Korean corn dog and soft-serve ice cream.

For the Easter celebration, the tiki bar Rhum Roost will serve “festive” beverages, such as Peeps hot chocolate and mimosa buckets, and Dos Los Carlos, another food truck, will have breakfast tacos.

Easter at The Perch will also feature:

• A pop-up box office offering fee-free tickets to upcoming shows at Capital One Hall
• Free chair massages from the nail salon and spa Nothing in Between (1590 Capital One Drive)
• A Magnolia Dessert Bar pop-up from Sisters Thai, which is set to open its largest restaurant yet at Capital One Center this year

Tickets for the Easter egg hunt cost $22.20, including an online processing fee, but the rest of the event is free. Capital One Center charges $10 for event parking, advising visitors to instead utilize the nearby McLean Metro station.

Located 11 stories up on top of Capital One Hall, The Perch opened in August 2021 with a dog park, bocce ball pits, an amphitheater and Starr Hill Biergarten. The mini golf course and food trucks were added to the 2.5-acre green space in May 2022.

In the works since early 2022, Sisters Thai’s Tysons restaurant is under construction at 7730 Capital One Tower Road and will feature an outpost of Magnolia, which can currently only be found in Vienna. Capital One Center also anticipates that Stellina Pizzeria, Ox & Rye and Starr Hill Brewpub will open this year.

A more specific timeline for the upcoming restaurants remains elusive, but the development did announce that Ometeo (1640 Capital One Drive North) — a Tex-Mex eatery that arrived in December — added lunch hours this week, opening every weekday at 11:30 a.m.

Spring has officially arrived, and in Tysons, that means the Hello Kitty Cafe Truck is on its way.

The popular mobile shop will pull into Tysons Corner Center this Saturday (March 23), setting up on the Plaza near Shake Shack from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

“Fans of Hello Kitty can look forward to edible goodies and limited-edition merch and best-selling items like Hello Kitty Cafe Plush Toys and giant Hello Kitty Cafe chef cookies,” the mall said on the event page.

Launched by Sanrio in October 2014, the Hello Kitty Cafe Trucks tour dozens of cities around the U.S. every year. Tysons Corner Center has become a regular stop, usually getting a visit in March.

According to Sanrio’s website, this year’s food and drink menu includes macaron, cookie and madeleine sets, along with a “giant chef cookie.” The truck’s merchandise collection will include:

• Treats & sprinkles glass mug
• Ringer tee
• Hoodie
• Cup plush
• Sprinkle mug
• Truck lunchbox
• Stainless steel thermal bottles (18 or 32 ounces)
• 2-piece enamel pin set
• Rainbow canvas tote
• Charm keychain

As noted on the mall’s event page, the truck doesn’t accept cash, limiting payments to credit and debit cards.

SevaTruck Foundation has been granted permanent use of the Lewinsville Center’s kitchen for its food distribution operations.

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved a special exception on March 5 that will let the nonprofit continue making and providing free meals out of the senior center in McLean, which also houses adult day care and child care programs.

With the approval, SevaTruck can continue utilizing the kitchen and a designated parking spot on Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. It typically has two employees and up to two volunteers preparing meals that are then distributed both on-site and at other locations via a food truck and volunteers’ personal vehicles.

“This has been a great partnership, a great thing for the community, and this is a very easy one [to approve],” Dranesville District Supervisor Jimmy Bierman said before the board’s vote. “This is good stuff.”

The special exception was requested by Fairfax County Neighborhood and Community Services (NCS), which operates the Lewinsville Center and offered SevaTruck use of the commercial-sized kitchen in 2021 so it could make meals for low-income residents and others in need during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The county had suspended some zoning requirements to allow temporary uses, such as medical facilities, deemed necessary “to respond to the COVID-19 emergency and its impacts.” However, the local state of emergency for the pandemic ended on March 1, 2022, so operations established during that time now need official approval to continue long-term.

SevaTruck began operating in Fairfax County in 2017, serving over 380,000 meals to date. Getting access to the Lewinsville Center’s kitchen has enabled the nonprofit to “increase its capacity,” NCS North County Region 3 Assistant Division Director Karen De Mijango told the board.

Echoing the sentiments of a coworker who spoke at the Fairfax County Planning Commission’s public hearing on Jan. 24, Braddock Elementary School teacher Joyce Matthews testified that SevaTruck’s assistance has been critical to the school.

Before the pandemic, the nonprofit gave free meals to students who participated in after-school programs, and once COVID-19 shut down in-person classes in March 2020, it provided meals twice a week.

“We could not do the things that we do without SevaTruck,” Matthews said. “…We want to let you know how much of a difference they’ve made, and definitely with the kitchen, it has been much easier. They have become part of our Braddock community.”

Braddock District Supervisor James Walkinshaw confirmed that SevaTruck has done “an amazing job” at Braddock Elementary School and other sites around the county, recalling his experience volunteering to help distribute food out of the back of the truck.

Providence District Supervisor Dalia Palchik called the collaboration between NCS and SevaTruck a “creative use” of a public facility, while Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay noted that the nonprofit’s community service was recognized with a “Best of Braddock” award in 2022.

“I remember that night well, and they’re doing amazing work that’s really benefitting the entire county, especially our Title I schools,” McKay said.

A food truck that delivers free meals throughout Fairfax County has encountered nothing but support in its bid to stay long-term at the Lewinsville Center in McLean, county staff recently told the Fairfax County Planning Commission.

The commission gave SevaTruck Foundation another endorsement by recommending after a public hearing on Jan. 24 that the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approve a special exception amendment so the nonprofit can continue to operate out of the center, which includes a senior center, adult day care and two child care programs.

“It’s an important program,” Dranesville District Planning Commissioner John Ulfelder said. “People think of McLean, they say, ‘Well, people of McLean don’t need this kind of help.’ The fact is there are people in McLean who need it, as well as other areas that can be served by this…It’s an important service that the county provides to help people that really need it.”

The Fairfax County Department of Neighborhood and Community Services (NCS) contracted SevaTruck to make meals for low-income and other vulnerable residents in 2021, according to county planner Zach Fountain. The county board had suspended zoning code provisions preventing temporary uses that could be helpful for responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, SevaTruck’s presence in Fairfax County dates back to its arrival in the D.C. area in 2017, when it began providing meals to Title I schools and low-income neighborhoods. With the NCS contract, it got access to the Lewinsville Center’s commercial-sized kitchen, enabling it to expand its capacity and reach, NCS North County Region 3 Assistant Division Director Karen De Mijango said.

Since launching, the nonprofit has served over 380,000 meals in the D.C. area, including more than 85,000 meals in Fairfax County in 2023, according to De Mijango. In addition to providing food at the Lewinsville Center (1613 Great Falls Street), the employee-run food truck and volunteers have visited communities from Herndon to the Route 1 corridor.

There are no plans to further expand the program, but with the county’s emergency status for the pandemic now expired, the nonprofit needs a special exception to keep using the Lewinsville Center’s kitchen, a dining room and a designated parking spot.

SevaTruck operates from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, with two workers and up to two volunteers preparing meals in the kitchen each day.

“I think what we’ve established the last few years with SevaTruck Foundation, it has worked well for us and the senior program and other campus partners,” De Mijango said. “We would like to ensure this resource continues to benefit Fairfax County residents, especially the Title I schools in low-income communities and neighborhoods.” Read More

A nonprofit that has been serving free meals made at Lewinsville Senior Center throughout the COVID-19 pandemic hopes to establish a permanent presence at the McLean facility.

Fairfax County Neighborhood and Community Services (NCS), which operates the senior center at 1613 Great Falls Street, applied in late 2022 for a special exception amendment that would let SevaTruck Foundation keep using the center’s kitchen to cook, store and package food.

NCS is now seeking public input on its partnership with SevaTruck. It will host four information sessions on the application, starting with a virtual meeting on Thursday, Nov. 16 at 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.

“SevaTruck serves a crucial role in addressing hunger and food insecurity and has a deep understanding of the communities it serves,” NCS said in a press release announcing the meetings.

SevaTruck provides “free, fresh, nutritious warm meals to children attending Title 1 Schools and…living in historically low-income, marginalized communities across Fairfax County and the Washington DC, metropolitan area,” according to a statement of justification for the application.

Areas served so far include McLean, Tysons, Reston, Herndon, Fairfax, Annandale, Falls Church and Alexandria. The nonprofit also has chapters in Richmond, Michigan and the San Francisco Bay Area.

The D.C. area chapter began operating out of Lewinsville Senior Center early in the pandemic after the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors declared a local emergency, which suspended zoning requirements that would “preclude a temporary modification to an activity, use, or structure where the Zoning Administrator determines the modification is needed to respond to the COVID-19 emergency and its impacts.”

However, the county’s official state of emergency for Covid ended on March 1, giving SevaTruck and other organizations or businesses operating under an emergency waiver 12 months to obtain the approvals and permits necessary to continue.

In the application, NCS regional manager Karen De Mijango says two SevaTruck employees work out of the senior center Monday through Friday, preparing 1,800 meals a week that are delivered to around 1,400 Fairfax County residents both on-site and off by an 18-foot-long food truck.

“Meals are either picked-up from the senior center by partners, delivered in either a personal car, or in the food-truck,” De Mijango wrote in the statement to the county’s zoning division. “Partners picking up from the center does not cause disruptions to the senior programs. SevaTruck uses the backdoor of the kitchen to load/unload with a cart-roller.”

She noted that SevaTruck is seeking to expand by boosting its base of volunteers to assist with off-site food distributions, but no increase in staff is planned.

The application is currently scheduled to go to the Fairfax County Planning Commission for a public hearing on Jan. 24, 2024. Two more virtual information sessions will be held on Dec. 12 and Jan. 11, and an in-person meeting is planned at the senior center on Jan. 9.

A hearing before the Board of Supervisors, which is responsible for approving the application, hasn’t been scheduled yet.

(Updated at 1:40 p.m.) A German food truck is officially opening its doors in Herndon.

What The Schnitzel — described as the first and only food truck in the Northern Virginia area that sells German fusion cuisine — is celebrating its soft opening on Saturday (July 29) at Arts Herndon. It will be on site from noon to 5 p.m. at the building (750 Center Street).

Melanie Glover founded the business after growing up in the restaurant industry in Germany.

Working as a personal chef under the business name Coburger Bistro, Glover says she wanted to apply her passion for cooking and sharing food after living the U.S. for 17 years. She runs the truck with her son Devin, who both live in Reston and share a passion for cooking.

They chose Arts Herndon for the launch of What the Schnitzel because of its prime location, according to Glover.

“Arts Herndon is great local spot that has lots to offer, and is also a great friend to us and a business partner as well,” she said.

Glover says she chose to launch a food truck over a brick and mortar location because of flexibility in operations and the ability to reach different customers.

Items on the menu include apple strudel and schnitzel sandwiches from around the world.

Devin came up with the name — WTS for short — in an effort to come up with something funny and catchy.

“The main idea is a schnitzel going around the world, so we felt What the Schnitzel was a perfect name to capture that vision and as well as being something people can easily remember,” Glover said.

(Correction: This story initially misspelled Melanie Glover’s name as “Grover.” We apologize for the error and thank commenter Steve Dyas for pointing it out.)

The “Lil Deli” from D.C. hot spot Call Your Mother is now serving up bagels, coffee and more in McLean.

Representing the self-described “Jew-ish” deli’s first foray into Virginia, the mobile truck opened for business in parking lot of the Chesterbrook Shopping Center (6216 Old Dominion Drive) yesterday.

“We’re stoked to bring good carbs and good vibes to the people of North Virginia who have been asking us to expand into their neighborhood for awhile,” Call Your Mother founder and co-owner Andrew Dana said in a press release. “We built this ‘Lil Deli’ to be able to take the CYM experience to more places and are excited that McLean will be its first home.”

Started by Dana and his wife, chef Daniela Moreira, as a farmers market vendor, Call Your Mother opened its first brick-and-mortar location in D.C.’s Petsworth neighborhood in 2018. The business has expanded to 11 locations now, including the one in McLean, a trolley in Bethesda and farmers markets.

Designed to resemble a quaint mobile house, the truck features a walk-up window and patio seating. The deli’s full regular menu is available, including its popular bagels, sandwiches, drinks and desserts such as babka muffins and black-and-white cookies.

Also available will be seasonal items and new products created by the company, like the vegan peanut butter line One Trick Pony that it launched in December.

Lil Deli is open seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. While the truck can be moved, the location is currently being treated as permanent.

“The Lil Deli is on wheels, so we dig the flexibility, but don’t worry we’re here to stay!” Dana said. “The mobile spot immediately grabs your attention when you drive past; they’re fun, vibrant and match the energy we like to bring to the table.”

Now that it has entered Virginia, Call Your Mother has started looking beyond the D.C. area with another location under construction in Denver.

The business also has its fingers crossed for a deli in Old Town Alexandria. FFXnow’s sister site ALXnow was told in March that it could open this summer, but a lease hadn’t been finalized at that time. There are no new updates to share regarding that location, a Call Your Mother spokesperson told FFXnow yesterday.

Former food truck Crab Cab has found a permanent home along Richmond Highway.

The seafood restaurant and bar opened last week in a 1,500-square-foot space in Penn Daw at 6238 Richmond Highway, as first reported by On the Move. It’s next to also newly-opened Kung Fu Tea and across from Krispy Kreme. Menu highlights include crab cakes, salmon fries, and shrimp baskets.

This is Crab Cab’s and owner Ghazal Amir’s first brick-and-mortar location after nearly a decade serving out of a mostly-D.C.-centric food truck. Amir is a mother of three, from Alexandria, and went to high school just down the road at what’s now called Alexandria City High School. So, it made sense to bring her business back close to home.

“It’s a very busy location,” Amir told FFXnow about why she decided to open up here. “Along Richmond Highway, it’s a lot of fast food or older [restaurants]. So, we are bringing something a lot newer and modern to the neighborhood.”

Since she was a kid, Amir had always wanted to open her own restaurant. For years, she worked in nearly every aspect of the restaurant industry – from buser to cook to bartender to cocktail waitress, she said. In 2013, she decided to strike it out on her own and open a food truck that served crab cakes and other seafood dishes.

“I wanted to offer people something higher quality than just a burger,” she said.

Amir said for much of the time running the Crab Cab food truck was quite successful, living off recommendations and knowing what blocks were best for business. But when the pandemic hit, office workers and their appetites dried up.

She started taking the truck to apartment buildings and hospitals, while also donating food to nurses and workers at the height of the pandemic. The kind act didn’t go unnoticed.

“People said, ‘Hey, why don’t you come to our neighborhood? People would actually buy your food. It’s really good.’ So, we went to one neighborhood and after that, it just grew,” she said.

It was earlier this year when she started seeking out space for Crab Cab’s permanent home. But “a lot of doors were closed in our face,” she said because she would ask for a tenant improvement allowance that a lot of landlords didn’t want to provide. In the end, Amir found a landlord – JCR Companie – that “believed in me” and provided some funds to revamp the space.

A combination of her own funds and the landlord resulted in an updated, modernized space that Amir said is “really beautiful inside.”  Crab Cab opened last Monday with help from her three kids, who all work at the restaurant.

“They have helped me a lot and stuck by me,” Amir said. “I wouldn’t be able to do what I’m doing if I didn’t have those people in my corner helping.”

There’ve been challenges, of course, in the first week of operation, including the need to hire more help and Amir learning how to run a full-service restaurant for the first time.

But the shell of success is there. While Amir spoke with FFXnow, twice she stopped to ask customers how their meal and service was.

“I just want to leave behind a legacy for my children,” she said.

Jamaican cuisine, street tacos, and a tiki bar are coming to Capital One Center — alongside a mini golf course set to open next week.

The three food trucks that got airlifted to The Perch skypark in November will be occupied by Grandpa Hank’s Jamaican Kitchen, Los Dos Carlos Street Tacos, and Rhum Roost, Capital One Center revealed today (Friday).

The eateries are each housed in different 1950s-era vehicles, per the news release:

Grandpa Hank’s Jamaican Kitchen offers soulful Jamaican cuisine from a vintage British double decker bus, while Los Dos Carlos serves upscale street tacos from a sleek converted Greyhound bus. Rhum Roost, Northern Virginia’s only tiki bar, is colorful and spirited, offering an upscale menu that invites guests to indulge in an inventive cocktail or frozen drink, all being served through the window of a wrapped boxman bus.

The announcement comes ahead of this weekend’s Perchfest celebration, billed as a music festival that will also serve as a preview of the food trucks and the 18-hole Perch Putt mini golf course.

Tickets for Perchfest are free but limited in availability. The festivities will take place from noon to 11 p.m. tomorrow (Saturday) and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday (May 22).

Perch Putt will officially open to all next Thursday (May 26).

“We’re over the moon to bring the Perch Putt experience to Tysons East,” Perch Putt Manager Chris Deatherage said in a statement. “Perch Putt is the perfect addition to The Perch’s existing entertainment options because it provides a fun & lighthearted environment for families, friends or colleagues to connect and spend time together. We hope that we can be your go-to spot to make new and exciting memories.”

The mini golf and food truck complex constitutes the second phase of The Perch, which opened in August with Starr Hill Biergarten, lawn games, an amphitheater, and a dog park.