Abel Meri wants to make life easier for his business clients, but at what cost?
Meri is CEO of the Old Town-based Notice Enterprises, an automation company he founded in 2019. Notice has seen exponential growth over the last few years by using artificial intelligence to revolutionize how small businesses manage nearly every aspect of their workflows, from AI receptionists to the composition of lengthy legal documents.
A local entrepreneur is kicking off preparations to launch a new Del Ray event space with a “Wicked”-themed Halloween party and fundraiser this week.
Lee Raynes, the former owner of Bellies & Babies consignment shop, is hosting the party to preview her next business model, an event space called Together Creative Studio. The party starts at 4 p.m. on Friday at 2603 E. Randolph Avenue.
Since it was announced in August, it was no surprise that the Chamber ALX‘s 2025 Business Leader of the Year Award was presented Thursday night (Oct. 23) to the Virginia Tech DC Area Launch Team.
Still, there were a number of other contentious business awards, and ALXnow was at the Westin Alexandria Old Town (400 Courthouse Square) to see them handed out. Below are the winners of the micro, small, medium, large, rising star, non-profit, and overall businesses of the year in Alexandria.
Nowadays it’s as if Gabriela Bell needs her own virtual assistant.
In 2016, the Alexandria-based mother of four kids was getting divorced from a 20-year marriage and needed extra income. As a military spouse, she tapped into her experience working as a virtual assistant and marketed herself as a cost-saving option for small businesses. The following year, she founded Organized Q virtual assistant services, scaling up incrementally until the pandemic in 2020 brought a wave of unexpected business.
Yelyzaveta Pyvovarova is looking for happiness in her portraits. It’s a feeling she’s been trying to recapture in Alexandria since leaving Ukraine after the outbreak of the ongoing war with Russia.
Lyza, as she’s formally known, escaped from Oleksandriya, Ukraine, with her two daughters shortly after the war broke out, and moved to the Alexandria area of Fairfax County in July of 2022. Her husband later joined the family, and since then she launched her own portrait photography business and manages events for ALX Community in Old Town.
An annual Alexandria City High School alumni fundraiser at Chadwicks (203 Strand Street) on Oct. 22 (Wednesday) will benefit the Scholarship Fund of Alexandria, and will feature some special guests.
Starting at 6 p.m., former ACHS Executive Principal Pete Balas will act as bartender, along with current teachers Andrew Orzel and Matt Zahn. The event, which includes raffles, is a great way to reconnect with former classmates, according to the online event announcement.
Georgetown Olive Oil Co. is opening at the end of this month at 1314 King Street in Old Town, its owner tells ALXnow.
Emil Merdzhanov and his team have been working on the interior of the space since July, and said he’s excited to reopen a brick and mortar location since his Georgetown location closed on M. Street four years ago. The company was founded in 2016, and bottles and sells dozens of olive oil and balsamic vinegar flavors, among other items, in their warehouse, distribution center and showroom at 4719 Eisenhower Avenue.
A popular beer garden in Del Ray will remain open in the winter as its owners fight a legal battle with their landlords, who are seeking to evict them.
For the last five years, Jeremy Barber and Justis Frank, the owners of The Garden (1503-1505 Mount Vernon Avenue), shut down during the winter and reopened in the spring. Their landlord, Twenty-Third Street Corridor LLC, is seeking to evict them, and previously deferred their rent during those months, but no longer. With all parties returning to the General District Court on January 8, Barber and Frank will pay monthly rent and plan to keep a heated area in the back of the property open.
Settle back with a good book and relax next Saturday, because Hotel AKA Alexandria (625 First Street) is hosting a silent reading party with a Halloween twist on Saturday, Oct 18.
Tickets for the event cost $39, and from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., book lovers can relax to live piano music in the hotel’s a.lounge+bar. The ticket also includes a festive cocktail, mocktail, and light bites, according to the event announcement. Old Town Books will also be on hand to provide a selection of seasonal books. More on the reading party is below.
Welcome to Friday, Alexandria! Here’s a look at ALXnow’s top stories of the week.
With less than a month until the Nov. 4 general election, this week’s most-read story is on the controversy surrounding Virginia’s Democratic attorney general candidate Jay Jones. The National Review broke the news last Friday (Oct. 3) that in August 2022, Jones sent text messages to Del. Carrie Coyner (R-75), “fantasizing about shooting then-House Speaker Todd Gilbert and his children,” according to the Virginia Mercury story posted on ALXnow.
There’s a watch party in Alexandria on Tuesday, Oct. 14, to see Amy Begnal, the clinical director at Del Ray Psych and Wellness, appear in the new season of the TLC series Baylen Out Loud.
Begnal will appear in three episodes this season, providing pre-marital counseling to Baylen Dupree and her fiancé, Colin Dooley. The watch party will be held from 7:30 to 10 p.m. at Piece Out Del Ray (2419 Mount Vernon Avenue). The show airs at 9 p.m. Dupree, who lives in West Virginia, suffers from a severe case of Tourette’s Syndrome, and the show explores her desire for independence and the steps she takes “toward being in the world on her own,” according to TLC.
