Anything is possible for Vienna’s former Faith Baptist Church site — anything within the financial reach of a town whose annual budget comes in under $50 million, that is.
The 3-acre property at 301 Center Street South was a “godsend” for the town, hitting the market just as the search for a temporary home for the Vienna Police Department was becoming urgent, Councilmember Ed Somers said during a town council work session on March 28.
No matter how many times the name and owners change, the ground-floor restaurant in the office building at 226 Maple Avenue West seems destined to serve Thai cuisine.
Following in the steps of Tara Thai and the recently departed Tom Yum Thai, the newly opened Burapa THAI & Bar comes from a face familiar to local diners: co-owner Bo Boonyaket was the owner and chef at I-Thai’s Side Street & Sushi Bar in Tysons until it shuttered last year.
Annandale Chick-fil-A Opens Today — “Chick-fil-A will open Thursday, April 7, at 7130 Little River Turnpike, Annandale…To celebrate the grand opening, the restaurant will surprise ‘100 local heroes making an impact in Annandale with free Chick-fil-A for a year.'” [Annandale Today]
Starkist HQ in Reston Now Open — Relocating from Pittsburgh, the tuna manufacturer opened its new corporate and administrative headquarters at 1875 Explorer Street in Reston Town Center on Tuesday (April 5). The office can accommodate more than 70 employees, and the company is marking its arrival with a community distribution event for the Reston-based nonprofit Feed the Children. [Starkist]
The finalists for the D.C.-area restaurant industry’s annual RAMMY Awards are out, and a few Fairfax County hotspots made the cut.
Organized by the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington (RAMW), a regional trade and advocacy group, the 40th annual RAMMYs represent a shift toward normalcy after two years of slightly modified proceedings to reflect the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Defamation Trial Over Domestic Violence Op-Ed Starts Next Monday — “Johnny Depp, 58, and Amber Heard, 35, who were briefly married from 2015 to 2017, are set to begin their long-anticipated defamation trial with jury selection that day. The trial is expected to last through the end of May, and the case has drawn national and international attention.” [Inside NoVA]
D.C. Area TV News Anchor Dies — “For decades, Bruce Johnson’s voice could be heard emanating from TV sets around the Washington region, delivering the day’s news with both gravitas and humor. Johnson, who spent 44 years at local CBS affiliate WUSA9, died of heart failure Sunday morning, according to the station.” [DCist]
When Cunningham Park Elementary School Principal Katherine Le asked if she would paint a mural for the school, Ellen Singletary responded as any job interviewee would: she said yes.
Singletary landed the job, becoming the art teacher for the Vienna school of roughly 400 students, but thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, it took more than two years for that proposed mural to materialize.
Vienna is dipping into its sidewalk trust funds again.
During its March 21 meeting, the Vienna Town Council approved spending $261,448 to build sidewalks along two residential streets using money from the Robinson Trust Sidewalk Initiative, which was established by the late councilmember Maud Robinson’s estate after her death in 2019.
Vienna’s newest Mexican eatery serves up margaritas as well as tacos and fajitas.
El Sabor Grill is now open in the town’s Cedar Park Shopping Center (262 Cedar Lane), taking over the two suites that El Sol Restaurante & Tequileria vacated in January.
Health Department Updates Covid Data — The county’s dashboard for COVID-19 data will report the 7-day average number of daily cases instead of the number of new cases, and two other metrics were added to the dashboard. The additions are the 7-day average number of daily new deaths, and the current community level, including the metrics that determine the level (hospitalizations, hospital capacity and cases within a community). [Fairfax County Government]
FBI Relaunches New HQ Search — “President Joe Biden’s administration made it clear that the federal government would be consolidating the FBI’s headquarters outside of D.C. in the General Services Administration’s fiscal year 2023 budget request…The move has been in limbo for years. During then-President Barack Obama’s administration, the GSA had narrowed down potential locations to Greenbelt, Landover and Springfield.” [Bisnow]
A central traffic signal in Vienna is set for an overhaul.
The Vienna Town Council voted unanimously on March 21 to award a contract for a reconstruction of the Maple Avenue and Park Street traffic signal, a project that has been in the works for more than a decade.
