A new spot with coffee and boba tea is coming to Old Town.
Bloom Tea has filed an application with the Board of Architectural Review to fix up 425 S. Washington Street — repairing some windows in the back and adding new signage — to open Bloom Tea.
Owner Thao Uyen Than told ALXnow that the new location will specialize in Vietnamese coffee and boba tea.
Bloom Tea joins a small cadre of boba tea locations around Alexandria, including the nearby Pho Nam at 606 King Street.
The application is heading to the Board of Architectural Review on Wednesday, July 19. Than said there’s no firm idea yet of when the shop will open.
Image via Google Maps
Where’s Waldo? Kids and parents with eagle eyes can spot him this month in 25 Alexandria businesses.
After you find Waldo at 10 businesses, spotters can collect prizes at Hooray for Books (1555 King Street) in Old Town. Collectors with at least 20 stamps on a passport (found at any participating business) can claim a Waldo temporary tattoo and store coupon.
The annual promotion will end with a grand celebration and prize drawing for a set of Waldo books at the store on July 31 at 4 p.m.
Find Waldo at these businesses:
- Alexandria Visitor Center (221 King Street)
- AR Workshop Alexandria (1212 King Street)
- Beeliner Diner (3648 King Street)
- The BEST Gift Shop (112 S. Patrick Street)
- Conte’s Bike Shop (1100 King Street)
- The Company of Books (2200 Mount Vernon Avenue)
- The Dog Park (705 King Street)
- fibre space (1319 King Street)
- Fresh Baguette (1101 King Street)
- Gold Works (1400 King Street)
- Happy Place (105 S. Union Street)
- Hooray for Books (1555 King Street)
- King Street Souvenirs (217 King Street)
- Lavender Moon Cupcakery (116 S. Royal Street)
- Pacers Running (1301 King Street)
- Penny Post (1201 King Street)
- Red Barn Mercantile (1117 King Street)
- Rocket Fizz (1701 Centre Plaza)
- Stitch Sew Shop (1219 King Street)
- Ten Thousand Villages (915 King Street)
- Today’s Cargo (1102 King Street)
- Turkish Coffee Lady (1201 King Street)
- The UPS Store (107 West Street)
- Uptowner Cafe (1609 King Street)
- Whistle Stop Hobbies (1719 Centre Plaza)
After being closed since January, Abyssinia Market and Coffee House will reopen on Saturday (May 13) in Old Town, owner Lily Damtew recently announced on Facebook.
“I’m very happy to announce that we’ll be reopening the coffee shop this Saturday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.” she wrote on Facebook. “All beer and wines are on sale everything must go. Thank you for all the love and support you showed us, we hope to see you on Saturday!”
Damtew wrote on Facebook that the shop will be closed on Sundays, and that regular store hours will be posted on the door.
The Ethiopian coffee shop closed in January. The closure was due to health and other issues, Damtew wrote on a Go Fund Me that launched in March. So far, $3,845 has been raised.
The coffee shop made headlines during the pandemic in 2020 after an unruly customer refused to wear a face mask. A separate Go Fund Me set up for the coffee shop that year raised more than $21,000.
Do you take your yoga with coffee or tea?
By this summer, the Harold family of Alexandria want to add a third business in Old Town — Connect & Sip Cafe at 1320 Prince Street. The proposed cafe would be located next door to their PIES Fitness & Yoga Studio at 1322 Prince Street. If all goes well with the permitting process, they’d like to open up by mid-summer.
“The building is completely gutted right now,” owner Marsha D. Banks-Harold told ALXnow. “Our yoga studio is very unique and that we’re a community, so people come here, they sit before class and each other, check in on how everyone’s family is doing. We’re really about connecting and that’s where the wellness piece comes in. Especially post pandemic where people have been so isolated, it’s really an opportunity for people to come together sit down sip on a cup of tea, or a cup of coffee and really get to know their neighbors.”
The property is located on the corner of Prince Street and N. West Street, directly across the street from popular knitting shop fibre space (1319 Prince Street).
The cafe would sell coffee, tea, small plates of food, pastries and CBD products. The 2,100-square-foot property is envisioned to seat 50 people inside and 12 outside on a 600-square-foot area in the rear of the property. Their proposed operating hours during the week would be from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Wednesday, from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday and Friday, from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturday and from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Public comments on their special use permit application expire on May 4.
Last October, Banks-Harold, her husband Jefferey and son Gabriel reopened PIES Fitness & Yoga in Old Town. The move came after the family lost the least to their studio at 33 S. Pickett Street, which first opened in 2008. Also last year, the family launched a CBD business, Daydreamers Oasis, and started selling those products in the studio.
The problem with the new Old Town space, Marsha said, is that it lacked a waiting area for people to hang out before and after workouts, crushing the vibe fostered in the previous West End location.
“With the cafe, they’ll have a place to continue those conversations,” she said. “It gets a little crowded in the studio.”
Incidentally, Marsha and Jefferey are both full-time patent supervisors at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. They got married in 1992 in Shiloh Baptist Church, which is about a block away from the building they now own in Old Town.
“This whole part of town has gone through gentrification,” Jefferey said. “Just for us to be able to get back into town and have a place here is special.”
Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii will open this month at 2466 Mandeville Lane in Carlyle.
The location in the Hoffman Town Center is the first of three that owners Michelle and Richard Lee plan to open across Northern Virginia over the next three years.
“Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii was a great fit for us for multiple reasons,” Michelle Lee said in a press release. “We were initially attracted to the company culture, community giveback efforts, and meaningful story behind the name. We spent three months doing research to ensure this was the right business decision for us. After trying the product, we flew out to meet the CEO and other team members. That trip was so encouraging and solidified that this was absolutely the right move for us.”
The location was originally scheduled to open in the summer of 2022. The company doesn’t say exactly what day in March the shop will open and its phone number is disconnected. Still, when it does open guests will get their first taste of coffee for free by joining a rewards program.
The company was founded in 1989 in Hawaii “with a goal of sharing American-grown, premium Hawaiian coffee from Kauai, Waialua (Oahu), Maui, and 100% Kona coffee with coffee lovers everywhere,” according to its website. It was sold in 1995 and there are now two dozen franchises around the world, with the nearest to Alexandria being in Virginia Beach.
“We’ve heard for years, from our fans visiting our longstanding Virginia Beach location while on vacation, that they’d love a Bad Ass Coffee to enjoy every day in northern Virginia, and at long last, we’re thrilled to say Aloha to Alexandria,” said Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii CEO Scott Snyder.
What’s with the name? According to Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii:
In addition to premium coffee from the famous Kona region of the Big Island, Bad Ass Coffee also sources from Kauai and Maui. Its name pays tribute to a very important animal in Hawaiian coffee history: The Donkey. Legend has it that for generations, donkeys could be heard bellowing as they carried precious loads of coffee beans down the steep mountains of the Big Island. The people of Kona named these hard-working donkeys the “Bad Ass Ones” because of their reliably strong, but stubborn nature in carrying their precious cargo.
Photo via Facebook
Carlyle could be getting a new coffee spot early next year.
Hawaiian coffee chain Bad Ass Coffee Of Hawaii previously announced plans to open at 2466 Mandeville Lane in the Carlyle neighborhood sometime this past summer, but Ashburn-based news site The Burn reported the chain could now be eyeing a Jan. 31 opening.
The Jan. 31 date shows up on Google for the Alexandria location.
The original Bad Ass Coffee of Hawaii opened in 1989 and focused on offering coffee grown in the Hawaiian islands. It came to the mainland in 1995 and spread from there. The name comes from the donkeys of Kona, Hawaii, who carried coffee down the mountains.
Photo via Facebook
(Updated 1:40 p.m.) A coffee shop founded by Iraqi immigrants has filed a permit to open in Old Town.
Lily’s Chocolate and Coffee is coming to 631 King Street at the intersection with S. Washington Street. The site was previously Francesca’s until it closed in 2020.
The shop first opened on Vienna’s Maple Avenue in 2021 and specializes in a pastry called lokma.
“We differentiate ourselves by using the best kinds of chocolate from around the globe,” the owners said in the application. “At Lily’s Chocolate & Coffee, not only do we serve light and delicious desserts, but we also serve a wide range of hot and cold beverages to serve our customers with a unique, unforgettable experience.”
The shop will be open from 7 a.m.-9 p.m. from Sunday to Thursday, and open from 7 a.m.-11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
Photo via Lily’s Chocolate & Coffee/Facebook
Old Town coffee shop Turkish Coffee Lady (1001 King Street) is marking its anniversary with a new art exhibition of painted tiny objects.
The current exhibition focuses on U.S. cities represented on miniature food art, like a coffee bean or popcorn.
“A Virginia born woman-owned small business, Turkish Coffee Lady will celebrate its anniversary in the DMV area with a breathtaking miniature art exhibition by artist Hasan Kale known as Microangelo,” the release said. “Kale; a world-renowned micro art master who can turn tiny objects into minuscule paintings, will exhibit his masterpieces in the heart of Old Town Alexandria.”
The exhibit started on Aug. 1 and will continue through Thursday, Sept. 1.
Turkish Coffee Lady opened in Tysons Corner Center in 2017 and the Old Town location opened in January this year, so it isn’t quite aligned with the store’s anniversary.
Founder Gizem Salcigil White said in the release:
“I am incredibly grateful for having the chance to celebrate this important milestone with our community members. After traveling the world with a non-profit award-winning Turkish Coffee Truck for eight years, we introduced our unique coffee and culture house to DMV’s culture adventurers five years ago through our first brick and mortar store. After two years into the pandemic, we survived the storm as a woman-owned business and opened our flagship store in Old Town, Alexandria. To express our gratitude and appreciation to all of our supporters over the past five years, we will proudly mark our anniversary with our new arts director Mr. Kale’s special art exhibition and continue our mission of building friendships one cup at a time”.
The release said a portion of the art exhibit sales will be donated to Children’s Emergency Fund to provide aid to children and families at risk in Ukraine.
In addition to the art exhibit, the coffee shop will also host traditional handcrafts like ceramic tile painting and Turkish coffee brewing on sand.
Photo via Hasan Kale/Instagram
A Bad Ass Coffee Of Hawaii franchise will be opening in later summer in Carlyle, but an exact date has not yet been set.
The company website lists the location at 2466 Mandeville Lane as being in development.
“We are still in the early stages of construction for this location, but are hoping to open late summer 2022,” Badass Coffee told ALXnow in an email.
It costs between $304,500 and $620,000 to open a Badass Coffee franchise, according to the company website.
The company was founded in 1989 in Hawaii “with a goal of sharing American-grown, premium Hawaiian coffee from Kauai, Waialua (Oahu), Maui, and 100% Kona coffee with coffee lovers everywhere.” It was sold in 1995 and there are now two dozen franchises around the world, the nearest to Alexandria being in Virginia Beach.
A new one-stop shop for life’s essentials — coffee and wine — is coming to Old Town.
A new shop called Pluma Cafe and Wine Bar has filed a special use permit to build a restaurant at 1000 Cameron Street. According to the application, the first floor will be the coffeehouse with the wine bar on the second floor.
Designs included with the application show a cozy interior, with two tables and rows of seating facing North Patrick Street and Cameron Street.
The application also said the new shop will have around 18 seats outdoors.
