Good Thursday morning, Alexandria!
🌤 Today’s weather: Clear throughout the day. High of 53 and low of 36.
☔ Tomorrow: Light rain until evening. High of 46 and low of 36. Sunrise at 6:29 am and sunset at 6:10 pm.
🚨 You need to know
Beloved Alexandria biscuit restaurant Stomping Ground is closing next month, Alexandria Living Magazine first reported.
Owner Nicole Jones said in an insightful letter that despite community support, in several ways the restaurant never fully recovered from the pandemic
The Del Ray staple was at a high pre-pandemic, having just opened a new location in Tysons Galleria and Jones helped launch bagel shop, Bagel Uprising, next door in Del Ray. But Jones said the restaurant has been mostly treading water since the Covid pandemic.
“You would think after all of these efforts I would be happy that Stomping Ground survived the pandemic,” Jones said. “But that’s all we did, we survived. We didn’t flourish. We didn’t grow. We got hard. We lost the magic that made our 1400 square feet a place you wanted to come every day. Everything feels a little less bright.”
Jones said the newest challenge has been struggling to keep up with the rise in ingredient costs.
“Earlier this year, as we fought our newest battle; the raw cost of our ingredients, I knew I had to do something,” Jones said. “While watching the price of flour, dairy and eggs, the soul of our recipes, skyrocket, I watched my staff become more complacent every day. Without the community, Stomping Ground is not the third space it once was and working there feels more and more like just another job.”
Jones said since the pandemic, she’s watched tips go down and hours reduced. Seeing a need for change, Jones said the restaurant will close in April, but something new is in the works.
While I’m not ready to totally give up, I am ready for a change. Our team has decided that in April 2023, we will shutter our beloved biscuit house to make way for something entirely new. We will share more details as they become available – we are so very excited about the project. It makes financial sense, it makes my team renewed at the idea of something REALLY new. We know that the next chapter will hopefully delight our customers again. In the meantime, please join me in saying goodbye to my beloved first restaurant. She has been so good to all of us.
Locals took the news of the award-winning restaurant’s impending close hard.
Waking up to the news that Stomping Ground is closing pic.twitter.com/A03K5r9QA5
— Becky Hammer (@beckyhammer) March 9, 2023
Third spaces are the secret sauce of a thriving community, as this beautiful letter on the closure of Stomping Ground makes clear. Many current friends started as people I nodded and smiled at every time I was in Stomp – can’t thank you enough Nicole.https://t.co/vczIq8yK2u
— Jesse O'Connell (@jesseocnl) March 9, 2023
📈 Wednesday’s most read
The following are the most-read ALXnow articles for Mar 8, 2023.
- Arlington attorney arrested for allegedly stealing credit cards from Alexandria office building (3405 views)
- Grammy winners and other stars send in letters supporting The Birchmere’s new electric sign (421 views)
- Power (mostly) restored after early morning outage in Del Ray | ALXnow (369 views)
- Arlington attorney arrested for allegedly stealing credit cards from Alexandria office building (303 views)
🗞 Other local coverage
- St. Patrick’s Day 2023: Pub Crawls, Events Around Alexandria
Patch (Wednesday @ 4:55 pm)
- Alexandria Restaurant Inspections: Rodent Droppings Violation
Patch (Wednesday @ 12:33 pm)
- ‘King Lear’ Smashes All Shakespeare Theatre Company Sales Records
Zebra (Wednesday @ 11:48 am)
- Bad Ass Coffee Opens in Alexandria
Alexandria Living (Wednesday @ 11:08 am)
🐦 Tweets of note
Congratulations to our 2️⃣0️⃣ ACPS teachers who have been awarded new or renewed National Board Certification in 2022. @NBPTS is the most respected professional certification in education, designed to develop, retain and recognize accomplished teachers.https://t.co/busBRMTXac
— Alexandria City Public Schools (@ACPSk12) March 6, 2023
📅 Upcoming events
Here is what’s going on today in Alexandria, from our event calendar.
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Good news, D.C. area. You can save money on your next home cleaning with Well-Paid Maids. It’s easy!
We offer a discount when you set up recurring cleans — and the discounts just increased this week!
For weekly cleans, get $30 off each cleaning.
Potomac Harmony is Back! Following a gap year of competing, then virtual rehearsals during the pandemic, followed by the well-earned retirement of our long-term director, a year of a director search, Potomac Harmony hit the regional contest stage in Concord, North Carolina in March for the first time since 2018! It was exhilarating, reaffirming, and rewarding!
The chorus hit all of its goals, the biggest of which was to have fun and sing our best on contest stage — we did both! Because we earned a score over 400 points, our new Director, Allison Lynskey, was awarded the Novice Director award, photo above. Additionally, one of our charter members, Jackie Bottash, was nominated for and honored with the Leadership Excellence award. It was a celebratory weekend!
What’s next? So much! We now look forward to upcoming performances, growing our membership, and expanding our musical product with new arrangements and an education component each week. It’s an exciting time to be part of this ever-growing ensemble!
Alexandria NAACP, Shiloh Baptist Church, DPC to hold City Council…
The Alexandria Branch of the NAACP, Shiloh Baptist Church, and The Departmental Progressive Club to hold the City Council Candidate Forum for ALL Candidates in the City of Alexandria Virginia. The event is Free of Charge and Open to The
