• 
• 
• 
• 

American, Italian restaurants
skate into Ballston

Washington Business Journal
November 3-9 2006
By Erin Killian

With the opening this week of the Washington Capitals practice facility in Ballston, new restaurants and cafes are looking for some dollars from all those hungry hockey fans. The owners of two eateries plan to open in March.

One is Craig Carey’s 50-seat fast casual restaurant called Big Buns Gourmet Grill, which will serve food such as burgers and hot dogs at 4401 Wilson Blvd.  He’s moving into 2,400 square feet in a building across the street from the Capitals facility at 627 N. Glebe Road.

Also scheduled for a march face-off is Germany-based Italian fast-casual chain Vapiano, which has signed a lease for 4,600 square feet in the same building.

Other restaurateurs are still negotiating for space in the area.

The nine-story, $42.8 million Capital’s facility, built atop the parking garage attached to Ballston Common mall and has two NHL-size rinks, could spark yet more interest, says Tom Newman, the director of the real estate development group for Arlington Economic Development.

“It took us longer to put the project together than we though,” he says.  “There were some retailers 2 ½ years ago who were really excited about it, who said ‘We’ll wait till it opens until we do something.’”

The county owns the building and is leasing it to the Capitals, which will manage the facility.  Newman says the rinks are expected to bring in a minimum of 750,000 people a year.

“The landscape is changing there,” says John Snedden, owner for Rocklands Barbeque & Grilling Co., who is opening his fourth Rocklands at 3471 Washington Blvd., where the former Pica Deli was.

Snedden owned a Rocklands as part of the Carpool billiards hall on the southwest corner of Fairfax Drive and North Quincy Street for 12 years.  Donohoe Cos. filed plans with Arlington County last year to demolish the building to make way for condominiums – a 232,500 square-foot residential and retail building.  In November 2005, Snedden fled after he spotted a potential new location.

His new 3,000-square-foot space is a block north and two blocks east of the skating facility.  That’s farther away than the Carpool location but Snedden needed to be in a one-story building because his wood-burning equipment requires ventilation systems that don’t work in high-rises.

Carey has applied for permits for Big Buns gourmet Grill and is waiting for approvals.

“It’s a great market,” says Carey, who worked for Great American Restaurants for two years and eventually wants to get Big Buns Gourmet Grill into other local markets.  “It has a lot of potential.”