JBag57

This expected opening is now squarely on my radar screen!  I go to the Whole Foods there fairly frequently, and as recently as last weekend, and reading this here is the first I heard of TW opening in the Staples space.  Thanks!  Now if we could just get a decent new restaurant where Hooters was supposedly thinking of opening (old Champps Americana on the opposite side of the plaza to the new TW).

I live relatively close to Meadowlark Gardens (I pass it on one of our two routes into downtown Vienna), and I went there on Monday and snagged 4-5 Corphish in just the parking lot.  I am about halfway to evolving, so I need to go back this weekend, if not sooner.  I mostly missed out on the Wailmers at Southside/Yeonas park, in that they did not seem to be spawning as much during the evening as they apparently were during the day. 

The Italian cold cut sub I had several months ago was decidedly pedestrian, so I had not been anxious to return.  I will have to visit the new location and try something different.  Did they bring the Simpsons' Pinball Party game along to the new place?

Funny, I went here for the first time ever on Sunday evening.  Great burger and great small business.  I had only a burger with pepper jack cheese and roasted green chilies, and a beer, and left stuffed.  I am not sure it is the best burger in and around town, but it is up there!

I think it is the case that you must walk each Feebas that you want to evolve that full 20K.  Now if I could just catch one...

This place closed sometime around the start of the year.

I drove past this place last weekend, and it is now branded "Misomen" and not Asian Kitchen.  I have no idea if it is the same ownership, and have no other details whatsoever.

Silph Road Reddit (very good reference, if something of a "fire hose" of information) has a thread that strongly suggests that the specific Feebas you want to evolve must be walked for 20 km.  Any Feebas can be walked for candy necessary to evolve, however.  Also possibly in flux is the issue as to whether you can evolve the 20km-walked Feebas while it is still your buddy, or must it be swapped out.

I just saw that event announcement today.  I wonder when it was announced, because I follow both on various media, and NRG is usually good about getting notifications out by email.  I might have missed it, though.  In any event, I am going to try to work that into my evening schedule as well, for a quick stop in. 

@TedE they must have known you were thinking of coming into town.  They have announced that they will be open from 11-8 every day this week!

They have also started work on a legitimate tasting room somewhere in downtown Herndon.  I am not sure as to progress or expected opening.

Brewing capacity is steadily increasing as they redo their original location to use the space that had been the tasting room.  They probably could use still more.

@TedE if you are coming in next week, be sure to follow them on either or both Instagram (@aslinbeerco, I think) and Facebook.  The have generally been doing can releases (no growler fills in the past couple of months, probably due to the aforesaid reconfiguring of their current space) from 3-8 on Thursdays and Fridays, from 11-4 on Saturdays, and 12-4 on Sundays.  But those have varied, and there have been a couple of weekends where they have run out of what they had canned, and did not open on Sunday. (and they might not open on Sunday next week anyway, given that it will be Christmas Eve)  They usually announce what beers and what times "day of" or the day before, on these social media outlets.

16 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Pro Tip: There's a surprisingly good Filipino restaurant on the north side of Route 50, east of Seven Corners, called Fairfax Inn (blue sign on the bottom floor of an office building) - it has been there for awhile, and is open for breakfast (the first time you go, try the Tapsilog - a portmanteau of Marinated Beef (TAPa), Garlic Fried Rice (SInangag), and Fried Egg (itLOG). It's a simple, very common meal, but is tasty and satisfying.

The stated location, while not inaccurate, is a little misleading.  Fairfax Inn is north of Rt. 50, but not really on the "North side" of Rt. 50, in the sense that might make one think it is along the Rt. 50 service road.  It can be reached by taking the ramp leading to Rt. 7 from eastbound Rt. 50, and turning right on Sleepy Hollow road at the top of the ramp, just before taking a right on Rt. 7.  It is in a medical building immediately on the right once you have turned on to Sleepy Hollow Rd.  One can also get there by taking that same Rt. 50 ramp, and, prior to reaching the top, taking a right onto Seven Corners Place, which services a row of townhouse-style offices, and continuing past those offices up to Sleepy Hollow Road (you will be at the back side of the medical building that houses Fairfax Inn).

I only go into this much detail because it is worth seeking out for lunch or breakfast if you are in the general vicinity.  Quite a ways back, I worked in one of those townhouse offices, and used to do lunch af Fairfax Inn occasionally.

I just received an email this morning advising that Ah-So has begun taking reservations for slots starting on December 15.  I expect there will be a week's worth of soft opening activity ahead of that.  Just a heads-up to get a topic started on this place.  (I didn't see one, but if there is, please merge).

I will give it a try sometime soon.

Any indication as to whether the pizzas are being "improved" on?  They had a pretty solid NY style pizza as it was, possibly could be made better with a couple of tweaks.

I agree with Destruya on the Santini's steak and cheese--not only value, but good tasting.

Don, I don't understand your comment about preferring tomato sauce to LTM, and commenting that Arlington Kabob serves the latter, as if that might not be the norm.  I have never heard of tomato sauce on a steak and cheese or a cheesesteak, except on ones called something like "pizzasteaks" or "pizzacheesesteaks".  LTM is fairly common on steak and cheeses and (Washington variety) cheesesteaks.  I do agree that the green kabab sauce might go very well on the AK cheesesteak.

Interesting that Nordine has moved to Reston Station (Wiehle Ave. Metro), which, I believe, has no free parking (maybe the Metro lot on the weekends?).  Or maybe their lease terms include full parking validation for customers.

Chase posted on Facebook that they were closing, but the message indicated that something like "Sandwich Shop" was going to open, seemingly at the same location and backed by the same people.

Unless they have managed to make their steak taste like something other than cardboard, I will continue to pass.  It used to be, and probably is now, a great "looking" cheesesteak, but I can't get past the utter lack of beef taste in the meat.

Thanks for the heads up on this!  I just joined the Reserve Society on the "sours and wilds" side (Terreux).  I figure I will be able to pick up some of the barrel-aged beers as singles as the year goes on.  The Bruery is currently firing on all cylinders, and I had not heard that they were setting up this DC outpost.

Clarity is in the midst of expanding to add two additional private dining rooms to the one they already have, due to continued high demand for private party space.  I would say that they are doing quite well.  My wife and I are there frequently for the same reasons noted by jsfairfax--moderate pricing in consideration of the quality of the dishes.  I often just get two appetizers, which usually are fairly imaginative, and that more than fills me up most times.

Dupont's loss is my gain (at least in October, when the burgers hit B-side)!  That burger made with Ancient White Park beef was really good the one time I made it down to the Red Apron Burger Bar!

RABB had some terrific pricing on some really good HH beers, but I guess that didn't drive enough traffic to the location.

And, when I finally looked up the address and drove to Afghan Bistro, my first thought was "this is Lorton, not Springfield!"

Well, since I am over near this place several times a week, on average, I am definitely going to hit it up soon.  It is in a somewhat non-descript office park, and is right around the corner (same building, it appears) from one of my favorite local breweries, Aslin.  I had seen that there were a number of restaurants in this office park, but it never even crossed my mind to try any of them!

Thanks for posting the review!

3 hours ago, DonRocks said:

I haven't noticed, but I also haven't had any last longer than 24 hours in a few days - I accidentally left a *Pidgey* at Shirlington this afternoon, and it's still there after two hours. 

It's quite possible they fixed the "multi-day" problem, which would be great.

I hadn't noticed either, but will try to start paying attention, and report back.  I had noticed that they were coming back with greater frequency, but did not notice any regularity.

I don't know that that would fully fix the "multi-day" problem, in that if you were to go out in the late evening and put mons in two gyms, and they both automatically came back to you in 24 hours max, you would only get 50 coins out of it.  At least you would be guaranteed that, though, if one or both stayed in their gyms long enough.  The only motivation to put more than one in would be insurance in case one of yours comes back too early for you to max out the 50 coins.  But then you would have to do the same thing over, every night. 

Even though I have missed a couple of days of getting 50 coins, I have been putting mons in anywhere from 3-5 gyms, with the hope that they come back on different days, and I try to avoid gyms that tend to be stagnant, like that one on Hunter Mill Road at Cartersville Baptist Church.  Under the old gym regime, that gym was level 10 red team 99+% of the time since the game started.  There were (are still?) a couple of early level 40 players out in the Reston area that considered that "home base".   It still, under the new gym meta, tends to stagnate red longer than most gyms these days.

On the Mr. Mime front, I caught 4 in and around Rome in the Spring as we walked (and walked, and walked) the city! 

My wife and I had a late dinner at the Fairfax location.  Although we are not experts on Cajun or Creole food (to the point where I am not sure what the difference is-please feel free to pile on me for this), what we had was pretty tasty.  We shared a side of fried okra as an app, and I had a cup of the sausage and chicken gumbo for a starter.  Red beans and rice (on the menu as Red beans and sausage) for me, and shrimp and grits for her as entrees.

They are open until 10:00 during the week, and I think until 11:00 on Friday and Saturday.

Another couple at the bar mentioned a speakeasy, and that turned out to be a separate, small room, off one side of the bar.  Since the room had street frontage with windows and no apparent window coverings, I am not sure how private it really is, unless there is no foot traffic. (there was virtually none tonight, being relatively late on a Monday evening).