From WP's Tom Sietsema :

After a 10-year run, Villa Mozart, the charming Italian restaurant watched over by chef Andrea Pace, is closing after dinner service Nov. 11. The chef, 51, tells me he’s sold the 55-seat business in Fairfax City to someone who plans to reopen it as a Taiwanese dining room with craft beers.

“It’s hard to find good people, especially out here,” says Pace, whose signature rye ravioli with fresh spinach and mountain cheese and flaky apple strudel reflect his background in a part of Italy where German is spoken.

The talented chef is not retiring, fortunately. After a bit of R & R, Pace hopes to open a place of his own closer to D.C., maybe even in the city. But first, he says he’s who is looking forward to not cooking on New Year’s Eve for the first time in 31 years.

******

Talk about an abject failure and a colossal waste of taxpayer money!!!

What should be a vibrant, walkable, inviting downtown is instead a collection of shuttered storefronts, fast-food/fast-casual pits and empty sidewalks.

The economy is doing well, fewer people cook at home, and yet this historic district cannot excite or draw anyone.

How long until The Wine House, Asian Bistro and Sisters Thai close for good?

And heaven help us if Victoria's Cakery ever goes under. The definite sign of the Apocalypse.

Greene Turtle closed because it sucked, plain and simple.

I think a lot of it has to do with restaurants without immediate outdoor parking. You have to maneuver your way to the garage where Wine House is, and then walk a few blocks. If you go to, say, Fairfax Corner, each restaurant has outdoor prarking outside each restaurant.

You barely see what options exist in the city of Fairfax as you fly through the stop lights, so no one takes the time to explore.

While the park in the center square is nice, it might have been better for the surrounding restaurants to make that parking so people could see where the parking for these restaurants was with respect to walking distance.

Shame in FFX City Wrote:
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> Greene Turtle closed because it sucked, plain and
> simple.
>
> I think a lot of it has to do with restaurants
> without immediate outdoor parking. You have to
> maneuver your way to the garage where Wine House
> is, and then walk a few blocks. If you go to,
> say, Fairfax Corner, each restaurant has outdoor
> prarking outside each restaurant.
>
> You barely see what options exist in the city of
> Fairfax as you fly through the stop lights, so no
> one takes the time to explore.
>
> While the park in the center square is nice, it
> might have been better for the surrounding
> restaurants to make that parking so people could
> see where the parking for these restaurants was
> with respect to walking distance.


I know it seems that way, but I guarantee you it is a shorter walk from the parking garage to the Wine Store than anything you can find at Fairfax Corner on a weekend. It is just perception and I include myself in that. I think it is also an "out of sight, out of mind" think too. If you don't pass in front of them, you don't think about going there.

Also, Fairfax City tack on an additional tax on everything you buy when you eat out.

The people with money hire nannies that can cook. They also go to high end restaurants. The rest of the people are low life scum that can't afford to spend a whole lot on going out to eat.

Even though this area has very big (over inflated) incomes compared to most of the rest of the country, the paychecks are gobbled up quickly with large rents and mortgage payments!

> You barely see what options exist in the city of Fairfax as you fly through the stop lights, so no one takes the time to explore.

It's really odd, right.

If you're on 66, you're (potentially) flying past FFX Corner and really don't see much. And if you're in Mosaic, there's no flying anywhere around it. God knows that street and garage parking there is a mess.

So that leaves Old Town. There's no flying around there either. On King Street, you're going nowhere fast, and the hunt for parking pretty much excludes garages.

So why is downtown FFX so troubled?

(Yeah, I know: no good stores, no good restaurants.)

Parking is convenient and free -- unlike Old Town and RTC.

As the other poster noted, there's nothing that grabs your attention. Even the fountain at Old Town Square lacks much pull.

With Scout potentially, possibly ever opening, University Mall renovated and nothing but strip malls and parking lots on either side of downtown, is there really any chance of revitalization -- again?

Traffic already stinks. You can hardly get anywhere.

What about closing Main Street and/or North Street between 123 and Old Lee Highway and making it a pedestrian area? Actually add grass and trees and anything interesting to draw people?

We already snake through the Judicial Center. How about dumping more traffic there?

Got_To_Eat Wrote:
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> From WP's Tom Sietsema :
>
>
> “It’s hard to find good people, especially out
> here,” says Pace, whose signature rye ravioli

Wonder how much the pay was.

It's been an awfully long time since I've eaten in downtown Fairfax. In fact, I think the last time was 10+ years ago when the Connaught Place was still open. They tore down the building to build the park with the water fountains. They served a pretty good Indian buffet there.

Got_To_Eat Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> So why is downtown FFX so troubled?
>
> I’m going to take a wild guess here - City not business-friendly. Offers no tax incentives to come here and nickle-and-dimes the life out of 'em once here.
If the City wants businesses to move here, they need to make it profitable for them to come. Duh.

Fairfax City is the most pedestrian-unfriendly "city" in Virginia. Ugly shithole, thanks to the kind of voters who elect a meth-head fudgepacker. Avoid.

I never went to Villa Mozart.

In truth, I never went to most of the stores that close around here.

Maybe there is a connection between whether the stores attract us and whether they survive.

Parking is definitely an issue. It doesn't matter that there are options/places to park.. it's just that it's limited, spread out, and typically rather crammed. Driving through Fairfax city in general sucks. The area isn't flat/level and it's pretty narrow and claustrophobic.

Narrow sidewalks and drunk Congressman Connolly driving on those streets makes for an univiting combination.

This placed rivaled Auberge. Elegant, delicious and impeccable presentation. Parking however was the worst. I think FC just wants one bar after another as long as their tax revenue is maintained. Chains are all that most of us in suburbia will be offered and the SYSCO trucks rather than a true chef brings the grub to the plate.

And don't forget Woodies takes away parking, and isn't even OPEN.

Woody's Ice Cream takes away parking, and isn't even OPEN

Mr. Woody should be forced by the City of Fairfax to allow the public to park in his privately owned lot.

What's the good of electing Democrats if they are not going to take away our property rights?

TF Wrote:
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> This placed rivaled Auberge. Elegant, delicious
> and impeccable presentation. Parking however was
> the worst. I think FC just wants one bar after
> another as long as their tax revenue is
> maintained. Chains are all that most of us in
> suburbia will be offered and the SYSCO trucks
> rather than a true chef brings the grub to the
> plate.

It was ok, but not as good or authentic as Olive Garden.

I find it unfortunate that the Fairfax city planners cannot do a better job planning an inviting environment.The bones are in place for a very cool city venue. How about the Old Courthouse turning into an Eastern Market type venue? Driving people in from all over the area. The hideous building housing the Wine House and Bollywood only shows how good those places are to overcome any street visibility. Where is the fun and the vibe? Instead, it has become a retail money pit. The one thing they are doing right is the tickets on the traffic lights. Bravo.

Havabite is solid Greek and Italian food with free parking up front and several lots near by.

Place has been there since 1978. 4o years ain’t bad

Villa Mozart had excellent food and service.

With the over-zealous fairfax city police looking to pull over anyone coming out of a restaurant and charge them with DUI for having a single beer with dinner (true story happened to my boss at a WORK dinner! He got off the charges but still had to sit in the drunk tank, be booked, and pay a lawyer)....

I am glad Fairfax City's restaurant area is sinking fast.

All the OP's bloviation of an apocalyptic end to Fairfax City and a new restaurant already has it's name up on the awning of the old Villa Mozart.

Downtown Fairfax City is quaint, safe and enjoys and abundance of free parking-

Especially on Main Street where Havabite, East Wind, Nina’s and Belkisimo are located.

It is quite rare that one doesn’t locate FREE parking.