Three sensational new upscale restaurants have opened their doors in the City of Falls Church in recent weeks, and their impact on the City promises to be game changing.
These and other new eateries, retailers and entertainment venues moving toward opening in the coming months come as new apartments and condominium projects in the Little City are beginning to fill up, promising a vibrant, walkable urban environment at the Little City’s West Broad Street corridor spanning its West End, Founders Row complex and Broad and Washington historic downtown nodes.
Seoul Prime, a lavish and stately Korean steak house in the Founders Row 1 complex is now open and owner Wanbok Lee has designed the new space to accommodate private parties, large and small, as well as the general public in a classy state-of-the-art Korean beef barbecue protein heavy venue that features at-your-table preparation and cooking.
It is Lee’s second Northern Virginia restaurant, following on his successful Korean barbecue in Centreville, the Honest Grill. Open 5 to 10 p.m. weekdays, it is featuring brunch at 11 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday, and stays open to 11 p.m. on Saturday at 9 p.m. Sunday. Korean-American fusion is the general term for the offerings and Danny Kim is the executive chef.
It is fitting that Soeul Prime opens out to the plaza at Founders Row 1 where across the way, the lights from two other of the wider region’s most acclaimed restaurants, Elly Bird and Nu, are only steps away. And right next door, coming next spring, will be the Paragon Theater complex, which in anticipation of opening, has been signed on as a new member of the F.C. Chamber of Commerce.
Zevian, beneath the Kensington Assisted Living at 700 W. Broad, has opened, filling the long-vacant restaurant space there right next to what has become one of the most heavily trafficked events in town, the monthly new show openings at the gallery of the Falls Church Arts.
Zevian is the creation of Adem Kaplan, also owner of the popular Sfizi Italian a block away, and the new restaurant is, like Kaplan, Turkish and the swank new interior is a welcoming environment for patrons who can access the place from early morning to late at night. It opens with a breakfast menu at 7 a.m., brings on a lunch menu at 10:30 a.m. and remains open throughout the day to welcome a dinner crowd in the evening to 10 p.m. The location was near capacity with diners during the Arts gallery reception last weekend.
Two kinds of fish, lamp chops, grilled octopus, and ravioli typify the menu for Zevian, which translates to “generous,” Kaplan told the News-Press.
Dolan Uyghur is now open on S. Maple at the site of the former Pizzeria Orso, and the menu features the same fare that has proven popular at a Connecticut Avenue location in D.C. and more recently in Chantilly.
The cuisine at Hamid Kerim’s eagerly anticipated restaurant is a blend of Central Asian and more traditionally Chinese preparations with lots of lentils, noodles, fried rice, chicken and lamb prepared as soups, stews and kabobs.
Pilaf with lamb shank, churchura, baked baba ganoush, kebabs and lamb chops are features on the menu.
The unique Uyghur cuisine grows out of the 10 million Uyghur people living in northwest China who have been the subject of incredible persecution by the Chinese government.
Another recent restaurant opening in Falls Church has been the Casa Mariachi at 133 E. Annandale, featuring Tex-Mex and Latin flavors with an extensive menu of fajitas, quesadillas, tacos, burritos, wings, appetizers and soups.
Moreover, as announced at the monthly meeting of the Falls Church City Council’s Economic Development Committee at City Hall yesterday, the light dining Little Beast restaurant has signed a lease to go into the Broad and Washington project that features the Whole Foods market and Creative Cauldron entertainment venue. The apartments above that complex are reportedly now 45 percent sold.
Coming very soon are the Paris Baguette in the Tower Square Center, the Grill Marx Steakhouse that now has its required building permits on S. Washington and extensive interior improvements at the Bowlero bowling alley are near completion.
While other jurisdictions in the D.C. region face high levels of vacancies in commercial and office spaces, in Falls Church the vacancy rate is at 6.1 percent here, and at 2 percent for retail.
