Bailey's Crossroads Lost Its Big Grocery Store and Gained a Row of Small Cafés

The biggest storefront in Bailey's Crossroads went dark on February 1. Amazon Fresh at 5811 Crossroads Center Way closed that day as part of Amazon's plan to shut every Fresh store in the country, Annandale Today reported. Amazon said some of the closed stores would become Whole Foods, and the February report didn't name this location as one of them.

All the openings that followed went into smaller rooms. Over the spring, summer and early fall, three coffee shops, a smoothie and dessert café, a Chinese homestyle kitchen, a Mediterranean restaurant, a hookah lounge and a Japanese lifestyle store opened along Washington Drive, Carlin Springs Road, Leesburg Pike, Columbia Pike and inside Seven Corners Center. Together they've changed what this corner of Falls Church offers on a Saturday morning more than any single anchor store could.

Where the New Places Are

The list makes the point on its own. Add Karaz Hookah Lounge, which shares Qahwah's building, and that's eight new businesses, all in storefronts and suites that were already there.

One Washington Drive Building, Two New Tenants

The 3400 block of Washington Drive saw the most change for its size. Yeshi Kitfo closed for good at 3400 Washington Drive, and by April Annandale Today reported a Chinese restaurant was coming in. That restaurant is Chili Wok at 3400-D, which the same outlet covered as brand-new in mid-September.

Two doors' worth of the same building got a second new tenant around the same time. Habibi House Café opened at 3400-B, between Jerusalem Restaurant and Afandina Hookah Lounge. Its owners rebuilt the interior completely. Co-owner Andrew Saleeb described the place to Annandale Today this way:

"It's a community space where people can come and hang out."

The menu backs that up. Saleeb told the outlet the drinks are "not super traditional and not super modern." The lattes come in pistachio, Biscoff cloud and fig. Desserts include kunafa cups of shredded phyllo filled with cream and topped with orange blossom syrup, lotus cream cups, Basque cheesecake, and a pistachio mousse with a raspberry center. With Jerusalem Restaurant on one side and Chili Wok down the row, this building now covers dinner, coffee and dessert without moving the car.

The Café That Took the Bigger Room

Underdog Coffee & Bread is the clearest case of a business choosing Bailey's Crossroads for space. The second Underdog sits at 3511 Carlin Springs Road next to REI. Per Annandale Today's June report, it's three times the size of the original café at 7109 Columbia Pike in Annandale and has an outdoor seating area.

For now the menu matches the Annandale shop. Store manager Kyungjin Yoon told the outlet each location will eventually have its own coffee drinks. The current lineup includes butterscotch, honey cinnamon, pistachio and ube coconut lattes. All-day breakfast covers avocado toast, burritos, sandwiches, pastries and acai bowls. As of that June report, the café opened at 7:30 a.m. every day. It closed at 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday and at 7:30 p.m. Friday through Sunday. The dog-themed decor comes from the owner's love of dogs.

The REI next door helps. You can pick up a pre-hike coffee and the gear in one parking lot.

Leesburg Pike's Small Storefronts Keep Turning Over

Along Route 7 the new arrivals are sweeter and later in the day. Bora Bora Smoothie Cafe opened at 5807 Leesburg Pike in early September. The menu runs from power smoothies and milkshakes to acai bowls, crepes, waffles, croffles, sandwiches and soft-serve. Annandale Today noted the chain started in Dearborn, Michigan, in 2023 and has grown to 34 locations in 15 states. Another one recently opened at Tysons Corner Center.

Farther toward Seven Corners, at 6315 Leesburg Pike, a single building now holds two new businesses that were still in progress in May. Qahwah's own site lists the Yemeni coffee shop as "Now Open" in Suite A with regular hours. Karaz Hookah Lounge, which Annandale Today described in May as still under construction with an entrance on Castle Place, now posts walk-in hours for Suite C.

Turnover runs both ways on this road. At the shopping strip by Leesburg Pike and Glen Forest Drive, the former Mum Aroi and Thai Value Food Market spaces were listed for lease as of July. Small rooms empty out and fill back up faster than big ones, and that's why most of this year's new places could open at all.

Columbia Pike and Seven Corners Center

The Nile Restaurant at 5624 Columbia Pike was set to open on Monday, June 22, according to Annandale Today. Its contact page now reads "WE ARE OPEN" and lists daily hours.

Over at Seven Corners Center, Ebisu held its grand opening at 11 a.m. on May 1 at 6320 Seven Corners Center. FFXnow described it as a Japanese lifestyle store selling imported snacks, beauty products and household items. It's a good stop for holiday stocking stuffers that won't show up at any other store on Route 50.

The Bigger Projects Are Still on Paper

The large-scale change near Seven Corners is moving through county review, not construction. Here's where each project stood at last report:

1. Cavalier Club, Seven Corners. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved a rezoning on July 14 that allows an additional eight-story, 238-unit building. The plan includes two public park spaces totaling 28,300 square feet and a 10-foot shared-use path along Wilson Boulevard, Annandale Today reported.
2. Grand Mart and Pistone's site, Seven Corners. The county accepted a 450-unit mixed-use proposal for review on July 1. It calls for two 85-foot buildings, about 30,000 square feet of nonresidential space, an outdoor plaza and a one-acre urban park. It's a proposal, not an approval.
3. Columbia Crossroads, 5831 Columbia Pike. This proposal for the Crossroads Interim Park site is a seven-story, 160-unit affordable-housing building with community-service space on the ground floor for Neighborhood Health and Second Story. It also extends Seminary Road to Columbia Pike with a shared-use path. As of a July report, a Planning Commission hearing was scheduled for November 4. The developer hoped to start construction in 2028 and finish in 2030.

Even at the fast end of those timelines, the parks and paths in these plans are years away. The cafés on the table above are open this week.

I've run a small shop in Falls Church for fifteen years, so I'm always cheering when a local business makes an old storefront its own. If you've found a favorite on Washington Drive or Leesburg Pike this fall, or you're thinking about how a property near these blocks could work for you, Kelly Millspaugh Thompson would love to hear about it over a pistachio latte. Let's Connect.