Four days from now, on Friday, August 28, Crooked Run Fermentation opens its first Alexandria taproom at 2003 Mount Vernon Avenue, in the space that used to be Dolce & Bean, the neighborhood dessert shop. Co-founder Jake Endres spent six months visiting Del Ray on weeknights and weekends before he brought a designer into the project, trying to get the feel of the block right before he committed a single fixture to it.
That kind of patience says something about how this stretch of the Avenue actually works, and it is the reason this summer's run of openings is worth more than a passing mention on a neighborhood group. Three new places to eat or drink have opened on Mount Vernon Avenue in under ten weeks. None of them are strangers to the block.
The count
| Spot | Address | Opened | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Little Birdie | 1504B Mount Vernon Ave | June 23, 2026 | Chicken-forward comfort food from the Matt & Tony's team |
| Cubbies | 2218 Mount Vernon Ave, above Del Ray Public House | July 18, 2026 | Chicago-style hot dogs and Italian sausage, weekends only |
| Crooked Run Fermentation | 2003 Mount Vernon Ave | Opening August 28, 2026 | Beer, natural wine, and chicken tenders from the Leesburg brewery |
Little Birdie took over the space that had briefly been Benny DiForza's Pizza, which opened in February 2024 and closed the following October. Cubbies runs Friday evenings, Saturday afternoons and evenings, and most of Sunday, tucked into the upstairs bar space at Del Ray Public House. Crooked Run's taproom is 800 square feet, roughly the same footprint as the brewery's original Leesburg location, and its opening food menu centers on buttermilk-brined chicken tenders fried to 165 degrees and served with house-made hot honey mustard.
Three storefronts changing hands in one season is not unusual for a commercial strip built on small, independent operators. What's unusual is who signed the leases.
Why these aren't strangers
Matthew Sloan, the chef behind Little Birdie, did not have to look far to find his second location. He already runs Matt & Tony's All Day Kitchen + Bar directly across the street at 1501 Mount Vernon Avenue, a restaurant he opened in 2022 that is a 2026 RAMMY finalist for Best Brunch. Sloan is also a former managing partner of Alexandria Restaurant Partners, the group behind The Majestic, Mia's Italian Kitchen, and Ada's on the River. He built Little Birdie's chicken-and-seafood menu with chef Eric Brannon, who joined the Matt & Tony's team after that restaurant was already established and spent several years helping refine its menu before getting a concept of his own.
Crooked Run is the closest thing to an outside arrival on this list, and even that comes with a caveat. The brewery began scouting Alexandria locations in January 2025, toured the Mount Vernon Avenue space that October, and did not sign a lease until May 2026. Endres brought on Monica Alford, an Alexandria native, to guide the design, and co-founder Lee Rogan, who spent seven years as a construction project manager before joining Crooked Run full time, oversaw the build-out himself.
"We've gotten to know a lot of the Del Ray community in our comings and goings already," Endres wrote in a company newsletter, "and it seems like people are genuinely excited for us to open our doors."
Getting the permit took work. The building permit came in faster than the 90-day wait Crooked Run's expediter had projected, but Endres was blunt about the process. "One mistake and you go to the back of the line again," he wrote.
None of this is a coincidence, and it is the actual reason the Avenue feels different walking down it this month than it did a year ago. The people opening these doors already had a stake in the block before they opened them.
The old standbys haven't moved
None of this displaces what already defined a week here. The Del Ray Farmers' Market still runs every Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon at the corner of Mount Vernon and Oxford Avenues, open year round, with more than 20 vendors selling produce, meat, cheese, and baked goods during peak season. The Del Ray Vintage & Flea Market still sets up the second Saturday of every month across its usual spots on the 1800 and 1900 blocks.
First Thursday changed hands this year, though not the way the new restaurants did. The monthly event returned on May 7 at Pat Miller Neighborhood Square with the Del Ray Citizens Association running it for the first time, after the Del Ray Business Association had produced it for nearly three decades. The event itself looks the same. Who organizes it does not.
Cinema Del Ray, the free outdoor movie series at the Mount Vernon Recreation Center fields, ran its usual third-Saturday schedule from May through August and has now wrapped for the season. If you missed it this year, the next screening is a next-summer problem.
Two more to watch
A block up from Crooked Run, Hypergoat Coffee Roasters is building out a cafe and roastery at 2423 Mount Vernon Avenue, in the former First Agape Baptist Community of Faith building. City permits posted in the storefront window confirmed the project in mid-August. Co-founder Rodrigo Ramos declined to share details, saying the company preferred to keep things quiet until it was further along.
Del Ray has also been waiting on word about whether Crooked Beat Records makes a return to the Avenue, a question that has circulated alongside other activity on the same stretch of blocks. Nothing is confirmed yet, which is its own kind of update if you've been wondering.
What's left on the fall calendar
Alexandria's own Summer Restaurant Week wrapped on August 23. RAMW's regional Restaurant Week picks up the very next day, running from today, August 24, through September 6, which means participating restaurants across Del Ray and the rest of the city are already back in prix fixe mode.
Two events happen off the Avenue but on most Del Ray residents' calendars anyway, both at John Carlyle Square Park in Eisenhower East. Alexandria Oktoberfest runs September 19 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., with a beer garden, German food, and the annual stein-holding contest. The Annual Art Festival follows on September 26 and 27, ten to five each day, free and open to everyone.
If you caught the 6th Annual Bands & Brews Summer Bar Crawl on August 15, you already know the format: more than 30 artists spread across 15-plus Del Ray restaurants, with proceeds going to the Scholarship Fund of Alexandria. And if you were at Pat Miller Square back on June 7 for the 17th Annual Taste of Del Ray, you watched Spice Kraft Indian Bistro sweep both the Judge's Choice and People's Choice awards on the strength of its Butter Chicken Pot Pie, with Visit Alexandria president and CEO Todd O'Leary serving as judge.
The Avenue doesn't reinvent its calendar so much as it adds to it. The market still happens on Saturday morning. The flea market still happens on the second one. What changed this year is what's open after you're done shopping.
Del Ray keeps changing in the way a small commercial strip changes, one storefront and one lease at a time, mostly run by people who already had a reason to be there. If you're watching this stretch of Alexandria for reasons that go beyond where to get dinner on a Tuesday, ONE Residential has been paying attention to the same blocks for a long time and is glad to talk through what you're seeing.
