Skateboards, to us boys growing up in Rivercrest in the 1960s, were homemade slats of wood with wheels from a sister’s roller skates nailed to the bottom— nothing resembling a suspension system so the rider could tilt and steer.

You can imagine it didn’t take long for my brother to fall off and break an arm.

Today’s professionally made skateboards, sleekly curved and lined with neon decals, are ridden by kids on large, swooping tracks, such as the one at Powhatan Springs Skatepark on Wilson Blvd.

It’s no coincidence that one of the few remaining skateboard shops in our region is directly across the street in the Dominion Hills Shopping Center.

Kiko’s Skate Shop, with its stickers “Poppin’ Wood Since 2004,” opened soon after the Powhatan Springs track went live, I’m reminded by its counterman Arthur Pessotti. He spoke surrounded by shelves of helmets, elbow and knee pads, replacement parts, rider pants (now out of fashion, he says) and stickers with slogans celebrating “The D.C. Wheels” skateboard fundraising team.

But here’s the special twist. The skate shop is actually the sidecar to the older Kiko’s Shoe Repair. Both (formal name Kiko’s Professional Services) are operated by an extended family of Brazilian immigrants, with brother Bruno Pessotti manning the shoe counter. Their father Alvaro, who in the 1980s ran shoeshine stands on Capitol Hill and Reagan National Airport, “still does much of the cobbler work,” Arthur says. The joint operation was founded by brother Phillippe, aided by their late cousin Tulio Pessotti.

The name Kiko’s, I’m told by Alvaro, came from the nickname of a son of an early partner named Francisco.

The shoe operation, though challenged in an era of easy online shopping for inexpensive footwear not considered worth repairing, is what keeps the business afloat. It got a boost when friendly competitor Sam Torrey’s on Langston Blvd. went under in 2020 as proprietor Kervork Tchalekian (whom Alvaro knew) moved to North Carolina to offer service by mail.  

Bruno provides me with heel plates and a shine behind a counter surrounded by selections of shoe polish, brushes, footpads and a decorative pre-1960s Singer sewing machine.

Kiko’s today “is really all one store,” adds Arthur, who started as a 6-year-old helping sweep up the place. Today both brothers share the cleaning and “grunt work.”  “Anyone can stand on this side and sell stuff,” he says. “But you have to actually help customers.”

“Skateboard repair is actually quite simple,” he adds, revealing he has no time to skateboard himself. “There are no screws or nuts, and roller blades and scooters use the same ball bearings — simple and universal.” What discourages those attempting “do it yourself” skateboard repair is applying the sandpaper lining that allows the rider’s feet to grip. “You have to get it just right.”

Northern Virginia used to host a long list of skateboard shops, to whom the Pessottis would occasionally refer customers. “Most have vanished from the East Coast, and no one knows why,” Arthur says. There’s still the Fairfax Surf Shop, and a corporate franchise called Zumiez in many cities.

Kiko’s “used to be a hangout, a community center, before the Internet,” Arthur laments.  Still, their father Alvaro considers the skateboard operation a “charity” that gives shoe customers something to buy. The family, Arthur says, is “too stubborn to shut it down.”

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The Arlington connection was buried in the obits for Don Sundquist, former Congressman and governor of Tennessee who died Aug. 27 in Memphis.

Remember the barbecue chain Red, Hot and Blue? Sundquist and his staff were the brains behind that southern-blues, hickory-smoke emporium founded in 1988.  With branches first in Rosslyn, then Falls Church, Leesburg and Fairfax (the last one standing), its other key investor was Republican strategist and National Committee Chair Lee Atwater.

Amid the blues-music wall posters, “It was common,” recalled pitmaster Sonny McKnight, “to see Congressmen from opposing political parties playing in the band together or sharing a rack of ribs and a cold brew.”