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JV Restaurant, Family-Owned Dive Bar with Live Music and Expanded Space - Open Since 1947 in Falls Church


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Here's another that wasn't on the Oldest Restaurants in the Washington, DC Area list (until today).

Of note: the "Live Music Room" on the left is a new space - they apparently just got the space next door (either that, or this is a new sign because I'm certain that wasn't up a year ago).

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In case you don't know where this is, it's in the same strip shopping center as Present, at the intersection of Route 50 and Annandale Road.

The aforesaid JV's "Live Music Room" was not there when we went there in late October/early November of 2014.  They sure could use it though, because prior capacity was about 50, and that included people having to sit in booths with their backs to the stage.

I grew up about a mile from this place, played Little League baseball at a field directly adjacent to this strip mall, and I always felt like (with no real evidence) that this was a "locals" bar that you did not want to enter if you did not already belong to the group of regulars.  I was not one of said regulars.

When I entered for the first time, a couple of months ago, I think I was probably right had it been 10 or 20 years earlier.  Now, it seems very welcoming, but the décor is stuck in the past, a la Vienna Inn.  We only had beers (no draft beer at the time), so I cannot comment on the food, other than it looked like a somewhat limited, standard dive bar menu.

The live music seems to be the real attraction, so hopefully the addition of the "Live Music Room" will allow them to book some slightly bigger acts.  To that end, the strip mall and the size of JV's kind of reminds me of the original Birchmere down at the back end of Fairlington, in a similar strip mall t0 JV's that I think was razed and subsumed into what is now the expanded (over the original) Shirlington shopping/eating district.

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I heard from (the GM) Lorraine, and I include this with her permission, lightly spell-checked, as she told me she wrote it after 2:30 AM:

Hello Don,
It has taken us almost a year to expand due to Fairfax City taking forever to get permits. We were partially open in November.  Fully opened on January 16th. Seat 120 people now. 
Our meatloaf has been on the Food Channel with our homemade crab soup and blueberry crisp.
Come by and try some. We offer a full menu of  good food. Our burgers have been getting a reputation too.
The music scene is hot here. 9 SHOWS A week! 2 on Sat and 2 on Sunday.
Hope to see you!
Thank you for the shout out!
Lorraine
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when i want to go to a bar/lounge 9 times out of 10 i want to sip, and sup, someplace sawnk. oh, but that 10th time, i want to go to a old fashioned dive bar. good jukebox, faded vinyl booths, and crusty bartenders that usually call everyone champ or hon. my favorites, in no particular order...

the raven, 3100 block of mount pleasant street, mount pleasant - great jukebox with an eclectic range of rock'n'roll and old motown, and no credit cards accepted. has gotten a tad bit too popular for my tastes. packed on weekend nights.

tune-inn, 3rd and penn., capitol hill - this place is the perfect anti-dote to bars packed with hill staffers who can't seem to talk about anything but politics.

fox and hound, 17th and q (i think), dupont circle - you have to love a place that serves you a glass of vodka and a small bottle of tonic.

what are your favorites?

How about JV's in Falls Church? Is that place cool?

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15 hours ago, Simul Parikh said:

How about JV's in Falls Church? Is that place cool?

JV's has some solid live blues jam sessions.  A house band plays an hour long set then they start rotating in other musicians who have signed up for a song or two.

Some of the same musicians who played at the late great Zoo Bar run the Monday night session.

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10 hours ago, Tweaked said:

JV's has some solid live blues jam sessions.  A house band plays an hour long set then they start rotating in other musicians who have signed up for a song or two.

Some of the same musicians who played at the late great Zoo Bar run the Monday night session.

Many years ago (I do mean many) we used to go here to see bluegrass-oriented bands on the weekends.  Sounds like they are still carrying the torch for live local music.  If I had unlimited money I'd stake places like this to make sure they never went away, although it looks like this one doesn't need my help.

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On 2/13/2015 at 5:53 AM, JBag57 said:

I grew up about a mile from this place, played Little League baseball at a field directly adjacent to this strip mall, and I always felt like (with no real evidence) that this was a "locals" bar that you did not want to enter if you did not already belong to the group of regulars.  I was not one of said regulars.

Yeah, that's what's kept me from going. It seems so small that it would be hard to be anonymous. "Hey, who's this?"

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