Around Town

The Department of Beer and Wine finally has a new home in Del Ray.

The gourmet beer and wine shop held a soft opening over the weekend at its new location at 2805 Mount Vernon Avenue. The location was formerly occupied by the ASAP Printing and Mailing Company and shares the building with a Truist bank.


Around Town

Hundreds of Alexandria residents gathered on Saturday to celebrate Alexandria’s annual Christmas tree lighting in Market Square.

Mayor Alyia Gaskins announced the magical arrival of Santa and Mrs. Claus, who got into town on a Christmas-themed King Street Trolley. They helped city leaders count down the lighting of the 40-foot-tall plastic tree, which is adorned with some 38,000 lights.


News

Police arrested a 17-year-old Alexandria resident on Friday after he allegedly fired a gel pellet gun from a moving vehicle in Old Town.

The Alexandria Police Department was notified around 12:45 a.m. Friday that a suspect was seen firing an air soft gun from inside a vehicle near the intersection of N. West and King Streets, according to radio dispatch reports. No injuries were reported.


News

The Alexandria Fire Department extinguished a kitchen fire in a West End high-rise apartment yesterday (Sunday) that caused visible clouds of black smoke.

The resident of an apartment at the 5800 block of Quantrell Avenue called AFD around 2 p.m. Sunday to report a smoking microwave. Fire crews arrived at the apartment to find black smoke billowing from the tenth-floor apartment’s balcony.


News

No injuries were reported after gunshots were fired in Alexandria’s West End early Saturday night.

The Alexandria Police Department received multiple calls that shots were fired at the 5300 block of Essex Court just before 5 p.m. According to radio dispatches, a group of juveniles were reportedly fighting in the parking lot of an apartment complex when the shots were fired.


News

Facing a decline in job growth, a struggling commercial real estate market and a climbing population, today (Friday) Alexandria released the draft of its first economic development strategy in nearly two decades.

The 63-page ALX Forward draft plan makes a number of recommends to reverse negative trends, including leveraging economic opportunities in Old Town North, Eisenhower East, the West End, and Potomac Yard; retaining local businesses and attracting high-growth industries like artificial intelligence firms; and strengthening support for the city’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.


News

A Maryland company has applied to open a new valet parking service for three Old Town restaurants.

Silver Spring-based Unipark Valet recently filed paperwork with the city to provide parking for The Fish Market, Landini Brothers Restaurant and Il Porto Italian Ristorante, each along the 100 block of King Street.


Around Town

Third graders at Ferdinand T. Day Elementary School were unexpectedly surprised with free Huffy bikes during an assembly this morning (Friday).

Earlier this month, the students participated in an essay contest writing about what they want to be when they grow up. Only the top three essayists would win bikes, the kids were told.


News

A proposed cafe on King Street in Old Town will head back to the Board of Architectural Review next month after being deferred in the spring.

Business owner Kahan S. Dhillon, Jr., wants to open Kingsley Cafe at 910 King Street, currently the site of a three-level, 1850s-era townhome. The board deferred the cafe in May, and it is now slated to return for consideration during a public hearing on Wednesday, Dec. 3.


Around Town

Why is love so hard? Does ketamine-assisted therapy actually work? How can you tap into your “inner healer”? A new podcast hosted by two Del Ray-based clinical psychologists hopes to answer these questions and more.

Earlier this month, Doctors Eleni Boosalis and Lauren Fisher of Del Ray Psych & Wellness launched the premiere episode of Shrinks On Tap. Aiming to raise mental health awareness and normalize counseling, the pair hosts informal conversations from a podcast studio set-up inside their practice, while sipping on non-alcoholic beverages.


News

Amid deepening federal funding cuts to programs for crime victims, commonwealth’s attorneys gathered in Alexandria today (Wednesday) to listen to survivors’ stories.

The public officials attended the discussion at the National Organization of Victim Advocacy on 510 King Street. Among them were Steve Descano of Fairfax County, Parisa Dehghani-Tafti of Arlington and Falls Church and Remin Fatehi of Norfolk.


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