Around Town

The owners of Matt and Tony’s All Day Kitchen + Bar (1501 Mount Vernon Avenue) have filed paperwork to open a sister location across the street in Del Ray.

Restaurant owners Matthew Sloan and Eric Brannon are asking the city for permission to allow 10 seats of outdoor dining for the space formerly occupied by Benny DiForza’s Pizza (1504B Mount Vernon Avenue) for a new restaurant named Little Birdie, according to their special use permit application.


News

The landlords of a popular beer garden in Del Ray have dropped their eviction lawsuit against their tenants.

Despite the win, Jeremy Barber and Justus Frank, the owners of The Garden (1503 Mount Vernon Avenue), are still suing their landlords at Twenty-Third Street Corridor LLC, and plan to go back to Alexandria Circuit Court in October.


Around Town

Regulars at St. Elmo’s Coffee Pub will soon have to get their fix somewhere else — temporarily.

Starting Monday, the coffeehouse at 2300 Mount Vernon Avenue will close for up to 10 days for interior renovations. Owner Larry Ponzi tells ALXnow that the project will give the coffee shop a fresh look.


Around Town

Crooked Beat Records is reopening at its location on Mount Vernon Avenue with limited hours through the end of April, the store announced yesterday (Monday) on social media.

The store at 2417 Mount Vernon Avenue closed after flooding on Jan. 11, and has since been selling merchandise at pop-ups. The store plans to reopen Thursday, Feb. 26, and will remain open on Thursdays from 3-6:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays from 1:30-6:30 p.m. and Sundays from 1-5:30 p.m.


Around Town

After being open for less than a year, a Japanese restaurant in an Arlandria shopping center has merged with a fusion restaurant two doors down.

Signs on the window of the Sake Express Japanese Hibachi (3827 Mount Vernon Avenue) direct customers to get their favorite dishes at the Vietnamese-Japanese fusion restaurant 2D Noodles, which serves pho, sushi, and now, hibachi dishes.


Around Town

Del Ray Hardware was declared the winner of the annual Heart of Del Ray Award on Friday morning.

Hundreds of people voted in the Del Ray Business Association’s annual popularity contest for businesses. Store owner Jay Portlance received an oversized heart to display for a year, symbolizing the store’s place in the community.


News

Alexandria’s Pat Malone is kicking off another year of standing up to cancer.

Starting at 4:26 p.m. today (Tuesday), Malone, a cancer survivor and Air Force veteran, will stand for 24 hours straight at Pork Barrel BBQ (2312 Mount Vernon Avenue) for his 12th annual Stand Up To Cancer fundraiser. Malone estimates that he’s raised more than $100,000 for cancer research over the past 11 years.


Around Town

A new dive bar concept is coming to Del Ray’s pop-up bar at the end of this month.

Fresh from its Christmas-themed concept Joy on the Avenue, owner Bill Blackburn and the Homegrown Restaurant Group are in the midst of outfitting the company’s seasonal pop-up bar. An exact date for the opening hasn’t been set, but Blackburn told ALXnow the plan is to open by the end of February.


Around Town

After experiencing catastrophic flooding earlier this month, Crooked Beat Records will close its doors for good this Saturday.

The local vinyl haven plans to open for its last days at 2417 Mount Vernon Avenue on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Owner Bill Daly said the building’s management wants to do additional repair work, which would require him and his staff to remove all of Crooked Beat’s inventory and then move it back in.


Around Town

Following significant flooding after a water leak this past weekend, a vinyl record store in Del Ray has closed for the foreseeable future and is considering a move.

Crooked Beat Records owner Bill Daly told ALXnow today (Monday) that a pipe on the roof of the building burst, flooding the basement record shop at 2417 Mount Vernon Avenue with several inches of water and ruining merchandise.


News

A new report on traffic safety in Northern Virginia is raising concerns about the number of “near miss” incidents in Alexandria, especially those involving children.

A total of 155 near miss incidents involving children were reported in Alexandria from January 2024 to December 2025 — more than in any other Northern Virginia locality, according to the report from Northern Virginia Families for Safe Streets (NoVA FSS). Of those incidents, 53 of them occurred at a single intersection in Potomac West.


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