Beer lovers and shoppers alike will find things to keep them busy this weekend in Alexandria.
If you want to sample beers from different places, Alexandria’s Port City Brewing Co. is gathering breweries from around the country for its Port to Port Beer Festival. Shoppers will have extra reason to head out on the town between Virginia’s sales tax holiday and Old Town Boutiques’ special Tax-Free Weekend promotion.
The Del Ray Montessori School, earlier this month, won approval from the city to change ownership and reopen a decades-old daycare that closed in Old Town last year.
The city’s planning and zoning director, on Aug. 5, approved change of ownership paperwork, allowing Del Ray Montessori School to reopen at 721 N. Columbus Street. That is the former home of the Flagstone School, a licensed daycare for young children (18 months to five years old) that closed last fall after more than 30 years in business.
Madame Coco’s Emporium will return to Old Town in mid-September alongside Long Dark House, a new bookstore focused on science fiction, horror and dark titles.
The new businesses will share space at 1510 King Street. Madame Coco’s Emporium is the brainchild of Meshelle Armstrong, while Long Dark House is the realization of a lifelong dream by Chanthal Harris.
The Alexandria Police Department is looking for the suspect behind an alleged attempted robbery involving the victim’s vehicle earlier in July.
Around 12:15 a.m. on Monday, July 13, APD was dispatched to the area of N. Henry Street and Pendleton Street in Old Town for a fight without weapons. The victim told police that he parked his white Toyota Corolla sedan and left it running with the hazard lights on and doors open to “conduct business” outside a dental office, and returned to his car to find an unknown man getting into it, according to a recently released search warrant affidavit.
As retailers across Virginia will have tax-free promotions on certain items during this weekend’s sales tax holiday, a group of Alexandria’s independent boutiques will cover the sales tax for their entire stores.
More than 15 Old Town Alexandria boutiques are participating in a tax-free shopping weekend Friday, Aug. 7 through Sunday, Aug. 9, covering the sales tax for customers on clothing, gifts, home decor and other items. The Old Town Boutique Community is hosting the event with support from the City of Alexandria to encourage support for local businesses during back-to-school shopping.
Alexandria’s Clerk of the Court just launched an e-filing system for non-attorneys representing themselves in civil and criminal case filings.
Clerk Greg Parks launched the portal on July 20, reversing a decades-long practice where only Virginia attorneys have been able to file cases and look at court records remotely. The new system allows people who aren’t lawyers to register in the court’s e-filing portal and file documents via the Virginia Judiciary eFiling System.
As Black Business Month approaches in August, Montie Green is reflecting back on her journey to open her Old Town business Velvet Wax & Beauty.
Green is a licensed cosmetologist and opened her first salon in Hampton ten years ago. The location at Old Town’s Crilley Warehouse (218 N. Lee Street, Suite 100) has been open for four years.
After the permanent closure of the 200 block of King Street to vehicular traffic was approved last year, Alexandria is making upgrades to the block.
The Alexandria Department of Transportation & Environmental Services announced plans to add permanent improvements to the pedestrian block. The last city budget allocated $350,000 to make improvements to the 200 block pedestrian zone.
The King Street corridor in Old Town is gaining another coffee shop as Mudhouse Specialty Coffee Roasters opens its doors this week.
Mudhouse will open on Wednesday (July 29) at 1119 King Street, staff confirmed to ALXnow. This will be the Charlottesville-founded coffee roaster’s sixth location, joining two in Charlottesville, and ones in Richmond, Crozet and Charleston, S.C.
Foodies will have the chance to try new eateries or return to old favorites during the next Alexandria Restaurant Week in August.
Alexandria Restaurant Week, held twice a year in January and August, will be held over 10 days from Friday, Aug. 14 to Sunday, Aug. 23. Full-service restaurants will serve prix fixe dinner menus at $35, $45 or $55 per person, and fast casual restaurants will have their own offers.
Old Town stationery store Penny Post is getting ready for its biggest day of the year.
Penny Post (1201 King Street) will hold its fifth annual Stationery Store Day, an in-store-only event to celebrate all things pen, paper and analog. It will take place from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 1.
