News and notes from Reston (tm).

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Retail Ruckus: Marvelous Market To Be Replaced By Mysterious Burgery, Plus North Point Empties Out

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Along with a cupcakery and saladry, Reston's fake downtown gritty urban core will soon be home to a fancy new burger place, because one high-end burger joint simply isn't enough for a midscale retail plaza authentic downtown area. But which one? This fancy sign, presumably focus-grouped by a top marketing firm to "build anticipation," isn't telling. One possibility could be brgr, a New York chain which opened its first Virginia location in RTC-esque Ballston last year. (No word on whether its motto is "we skimp on vowels and pass the savings on to you.") Another possibility suggested by Confidential Restonian Operative "Michael," who risked the wrath of Fake Downtown Security to snap this photo, is Elevation Burger, which is based in Falls Church and has a fancy "iPhone app" and an even fancier futuristic Coke machine. (We're secretly hoping for a nice fry pit like In and Out Burger or a White Castle, but that seems unlikely.)

In any case, the as-of-yet unidentified burgery will take the pace of Marvelous Market, which is now closed.

Meanwhile, almost-as-fancy-as-RTC North Point Village Center has become the subject of some muttering online because of a series of departures of tenants in recent months, including the learning center, Just Pets and the UPS store. Now, Blockbuster is apparently getting ready to vacate, as all the kool kidz use their Netflix machines, whatever they are, to watch the latest "Star Wars," or whatever's the new cool "movie" to come out on "video" these days. Is this the precursor to redeveloping the shopping center into some fancy mixed-use project with multiple burgeries, and maybe even a cupcakery?

While all five village centers will be part of discussions by the Task Force With an Unpronounceable Acronym this year, that seems doubtful anytime soon, given how far North Point is from the planned Metro stations. And Blockbuster has been shuttering hundreds of stores nationwide due to the aforementioned Netflix and those shiny silver discs we keep trying to put into our CD Walkman. And similar rumors started while the Tall Oaks stucco wasteland shopping center was bereft of a grocery store. But at times, it's just indifferent management combined with a still really quite crappy economy, at least so long as you're trying to sell something other than artisan cupcakes and grass-fed, free-range burgers.

Update: According to our BFFs at Patch, who did some of that "reporting" thing we keep hearing about, the future burgery has been revealed as neither brgr nor Elevation Burgers, but Marvelous Market's own entry into the artisanal protein disc business. After the usual suspects denied involvement, we had been secretly hoping it was going to be a subversive, Banskyesque exhibit challenging our cultural ambivalence towards the food we eat. But we're good with some fancy breaded onion rings instead.

26 comments:

  1. Fingers crossed for a Five Guys so I don't have to make the treacherous journey into Herndon anymore.

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  2. Uh. Isn't there a FIve Guys at Plaza America?

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  3. Oh gosh there is NOthing high end about Five Guys! ick! Ive yet to have good burgers there! Please, Ray's Hell Burger would be better!

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  4. I had my doupts that Marvelous Market minus the bakery would make it with Panera right accross from them. I understand that the bread that they did have was made by another frim and trucked in. But there is something about the smell of fresh bread baking. In Europe bakeries are the local cafe. Ville De France was the first real bakery in this area. In other upcsale locations Marvelous Markets do quite well and their own bread is quite good. Town Center is such a high rent that only the precisly right sort of enterprise seems to endure there.

    Happy New Year, Year of the Rabbit.

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  5. I love Five Guys, but there's already two near RTC. We definitely need something better (and cheaper) than Counter, so Ray's or Elevation would certainly be welcome. I wonder how they'll deal with that kinda cramped Marvelous Market space.

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  6. For what it's worth, a co-worker pointed out that EB always puts the lettuce & tomato under the burger. Of course, the poster could just be using a stock photo. Also, EB doesn't seem to claim to use "locally sourced ingredients".

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  7. "the most advanced interactive retail environment available" made me spit out my coffee. I picture Johnny-5 rolling around serving us.

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  8. The world seems to be divided into to camps, those who love Five Guys and those who don't get what the big deal is. Count me in that latter group. I've tried Elevation Burger a couple of times and while it's decent, I'm not as enamored with it as Ray's Hell Burger. I had no idea about the brg:shack place and I happen to work not far so I'm thinking I'll try it out today. Looks a bit like a bastards offspring between Ray's and Elevation, so should be interesting!

    Sad to see the market go, though, since it was one of the places you could get a variety of food to go quickly. I don't think they have anything else like it there. Would be nice to have some kind of market, but I guess people don't go to RTC to do shopping, they go there mostly just to eat or consume entertainment...

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  9. I, for one, welcome our new fast food overlords.

    It might just bring me back to Reston's Fake Downtown.

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  10. Of course, the task force is going to consider North Point village center. The county wants to squeeze in as many people as they can into Reston. Many more people will be living at the village centers, though maybe so no gracefully as those who live at Lake Anne Plaza.

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  11. Why can't they get some really haute cuisine, like a Ho Jo's Cafeteria? Nothing quite like fresh-carved beast from a still smoldering carcass. I used to adore the one in Tyson's.

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  12. Yeah! HoJo's all you can fried clams!

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  13. Five Guys belongs in Lake Anne --- serving crap to the sewer rats who "live" there.

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  14. Another Maconari Grill---I can't friggin WAIT!!!

    More wine and bread and tea for me!!

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  15. Rod -- welcome back.

    Are you running for the RA board?

    I discovered an oddity --- two of the RA directors, one of whom has a term ending, list the same home address...could it be that they are cohabitating and living in sin?

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  16. Ray's Hellburger would not market their burgers that way; Ray is way too eccentric. I think his are absolutely the best in the region, though. This is more likely to be Elevation Burger... or something from California. All I know is, I'm looking forward to giving it a try!

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  17. On the bright side, we're bringing all these manufacturing jobs to Reston instead of shipping the jobs to China. Brewing coffee, flipping burgers, baking cupcakes, and other food production now counts as manufacturing...

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  18. And if the stinking Teahadists and their affiliates have there way, there are going to be alot more people in Muaveburg looking for jobs as burger flippers or cupcake bakers.

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  19. like how everyone's debating a strip mall anchored by a Giant and featuring a Burger King at the edge of the parking lot

    more pathetic identity crises unfold each day in your Mauve playground, where the desire to stand out from other off-ramp housing/office/shopping center clusters meets the reality that your outdoor chain retail developments are about as unique as the ones in Rockville, Fairfax Corner, and Pentagon City

    now if you're going to get all self important about your suburb, then you need to start acting like self-important suburbs in Marin County, CA or Brookline, MA, and maybe get a film festival going, or stop eating at restaurants where all the waiters and waitresses start clapping and singing and lighting sparklers because it's someone's birthday

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  20. We've got restaurants where all the employees start shouting and clapping if you drop a buck into the tip jar. How much more high class can we get?

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  21. Where is that restaurant?

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  22. Boy anon 3:39 -- that's about the best comment posted on this site ever!

    And, it's so true!

    What does Reston have? It's annual self-oriented "reston festival" and the self-serving "multicultural" festival sponsored by hudgins? gag!

    The ice rink?
    The sumemr concerts?
    The lakes?
    The "village" centers?
    The nature house?

    Even Columbia does better than Reston!

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  23. 10:48 I think your robes and pointy hat are showing again.

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  24. @8:44

    That must be a typo. Wouldn't they have to disclose a relationship like that - two folks from the same "family" on the board? Heck, they don't allow that at my measly place of employment (and trust me, we ain't in charge of $12,000,000 -whatever).

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  25. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  26. "Ray" has heartburn whenever people from Reston or anyone outside the beltway eats in his Arlington restaurants. I cannot imagine him condescending to locate a restaurant (steak, burger or otherwise) amongst the sanitized yet culturally unwashed psuedo-urbanites of Reston, even if it means he forgoes wealth and popularity. When he puts a burger stand at Dulles Airport, Nationals Park or Verizon Center, then maybe he will consider Reston.

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