Virginia Beach Stores, Retail, and Restaurants

[loftboy22]

sorry... double post

Edited September 30, 2008 by loftboy22

[loftboy22]

So... I have heard this rumor for quite some time now that Anthropologie is coming to the ground level retail in the new boutique hotel that will be built just south of the BRAVO building at Town Center. So many people have told me this, yet when I spoke with the company via email they denied any knowledge of coming to the Virginina Beach area. I was just wondering if anyone else has heard this and can maybe shine some light on this topic. Thanks!

[urbanvb]

Welcome to the forum! Thanks for the info. I have never heard of Anthropologie myself but am wishing for some great new retail for TC. Let us know if you hear anything else.

[NorfolkGal]

So... I have heard this rumor for quite some time now that Anthropologie is coming to the ground level retail in the new boutique hotel that will be built just south of the BRAVO building at Town Center. So many people have told me this, yet when I spoke with the company via email they denied any knowledge of coming to the Virginina Beach area. I was just wondering if anyone else has heard this and can maybe shine some light on this topic. Thanks!

See this article in The Pilot: http://hamptonroads.com/2008/09/anthropolo...beach-locations

[urbanvb]

Anyone have an update on Trader Joes? I was out that way Sunday and the former NC Company Furniture building is empty with a for lease sale sign on the door.

[rusthebuss]

The NC company location is where the Trader Joes was talking about opening at? Guy, have you contacted the realtor that is leasing the building?

[urbanvb]

I haven't contacted him, just wondering since the story broke in the Pilot. Oh, ok, read the article again. It says first quarter of 2009.

[scm]

I haven't contacted him, just wondering since the story broke in the Pilot. Oh, ok, read the article again. It says first quarter of 2009.

They are making nice progress on the finish out -- front and interiors are gutted. I think they can make 1Q '09 no problem.

If I can remember the camera next time I am there, then I will get some pics.

[scm]

Ate at Zoe's on 19th Street last night. One of the best meals at the Oceanfront, it features excellent steaks and sides, a fantastic small bar, and an extensive wine list. Unfortunately, New Year's Eve will be their last night for a while. Closing due to "financial irregularities" involving a bookkeeper. The Executive Chef is trying to buy it and re-open at a future date. Might be more to follow, but I expect the worst.

[Norfolk4Life]

But yes, I love going town center and eating at the nice resturaunts

ew. have you looked up the health department reviews of some of the restaraunts at Town Center? Bravo had 1. California PK had 8 violations (including out of soap at employee sink - i.e. can't wash hands). Cheesecake Factory only had 2. Daily Grind had 8 (including not washing hands and storing food on or near floor). Funny Bone had 6. Gordon Biersch had 15 (including not washing hands, no hair restraints, and dirty food-contact surfaces). Guadalajara had 7. Keagan's had 12 (including food stored at wrong temps, dirty food-contact surfaces, and toxic substances applied/stored on/near food-contact surfaces). McCormick and Schmick's had 8 (including food stored at improper temps, dirty food-contact surfaces, and using the sink as a storage bin - i.e. no handwashing). Melt Gelato had 10 (including no hair restraints, food stored on/near floor, storing raw food where it may contact ready-to-eat food, and cleaning chems may contact food). P.F. Chang's had 5 (including handling food without gloves). Red Star Tavern had 14 (including no hair restraints, dirty food-contact surfaces, and dead insects on/near food-contact surfaces). The Royal Chocolate had 3. Ruth's Chris Steakhouse had 11 (including no food service manager and dirty food-contact surfaces). Sonoma had 5. Taza had 16. Town Center City Club had 5. Zushi had 5.

I know that most restaraunts have a few. I dont mind going to places with alot of minimal violations but when they have problems washing up or cleaning then I find other places. I certainly wouldnt go to Town Center to eat when Downtown Norfolk has many restaraunts that, together, average far below 5 in number of violations (most have fewer than 2). Greenbrier area has many clean ones as well as does Downtown Portsmouth and Hill Top.

But, to each his own.

[vdogg]

ew. have you looked up the health department reviews of some of the restaraunts at Town Center? Bravo had 1. California PK had 8 violations (including out of soap at employee sink - i.e. can't wash hands). Cheesecake Factory only had 2. Daily Grind had 8 (including not washing hands and storing food on or near floor). Funny Bone had 6. Gordon Biersch had 15 (including not washing hands, no hair restraints, and dirty food-contact surfaces). Guadalajara had 7. Keagan's had 12 (including food stored at wrong temps, dirty food-contact surfaces, and toxic substances applied/stored on/near food-contact surfaces). McCormick and Schmick's had 8 (including food stored at improper temps, dirty food-contact surfaces, and using the sink as a storage bin - i.e. no handwashing). Melt Gelato had 10 (including no hair restraints, food stored on/near floor, storing raw food where it may contact ready-to-eat food, and cleaning chems may contact food). P.F. Chang's had 5 (including handling food without gloves). Red Star Tavern had 14 (including no hair restraints, dirty food-contact surfaces, and dead insects on/near food-contact surfaces). The Royal Chocolate had 3. Ruth's Chris Steakhouse had 11 (including no food service manager and dirty food-contact surfaces). Sonoma had 5. Taza had 16. Town Center City Club had 5. Zushi had 5.

I know that most restaraunts have a few. I dont mind going to places with alot of minimal violations but when they have problems washing up or cleaning then I find other places. I certainly wouldnt go to Town Center to eat when Downtown Norfolk has many restaraunts that, together, average far below 5 in number of violations (most have fewer than 2). Greenbrier area has many clean ones as well as does Downtown Portsmouth and Hill Top.

But, to each his own.

Do you have a link to the reviews for these restaurants as well as downtown Norfolk? I'd be interested to see these. Also guys, we have a thread for Town Center and one for restaurants. Lets try to keep this one focused on Gateway Tower please.

[spiker3]

ew. have you looked up the health department reviews of some of the restaraunts at Town Center? Bravo had 1. California PK had 8 violations (including out of soap at employee sink - i.e. can't wash hands). Cheesecake Factory only had 2. Daily Grind had 8 (including not washing hands and storing food on or near floor). Funny Bone had 6. Gordon Biersch had 15 (including not washing hands, no hair restraints, and dirty food-contact surfaces). Guadalajara had 7. Keagan's had 12 (including food stored at wrong temps, dirty food-contact surfaces, and toxic substances applied/stored on/near food-contact surfaces). McCormick and Schmick's had 8 (including food stored at improper temps, dirty food-contact surfaces, and using the sink as a storage bin - i.e. no handwashing). Melt Gelato had 10 (including no hair restraints, food stored on/near floor, storing raw food where it may contact ready-to-eat food, and cleaning chems may contact food). P.F. Chang's had 5 (including handling food without gloves). Red Star Tavern had 14 (including no hair restraints, dirty food-contact surfaces, and dead insects on/near food-contact surfaces). The Royal Chocolate had 3. Ruth's Chris Steakhouse had 11 (including no food service manager and dirty food-contact surfaces). Sonoma had 5. Taza had 16. Town Center City Club had 5. Zushi had 5.

I know that most restaraunts have a few. I dont mind going to places with alot of minimal violations but when they have problems washing up or cleaning then I find other places. I certainly wouldnt go to Town Center to eat when Downtown Norfolk has many restaraunts that, together, average far below 5 in number of violations (most have fewer than 2). Greenbrier area has many clean ones as well as does Downtown Portsmouth and Hill Top.

But, to each his own.

This is quoting Norfolk4Life from the Gateway Tower thread...

Hate to break it to you, but every city in the area has different health code standards. The logic that I'll eat in downtown because they scored less only works if every city has identical health standards, which they do not. The city of Chesapeake is nothing like the city of Norfolk which is nothing like the city of Virginia Beach. I've worked as a restaurant manager in Chesapeake, Norfolk, Virginia Beach and now Suffolk.

First, the only thing you can put stock into is REPEAT violations, which should be listed as such. Second, critical violations are the only violations that stores and health inspectors are concerned with, meaning that while any violation is 'bad' obviously, critical violations have be fixed in 24 hours while regular violations have at least 30 days (depending on your score as much as 90 days to be corrected) So to say I'll eat here because they have a 1 but not here because they have a 6 is illogical. If that's 6 repeat violations showing a legitimate record of unsanitary, fine, but to penalize a place for a single isolated incident is nearly a phobia. Also, while we're at it, health inspectors are just like everyone else, they like to be flattered, interacted with and worked with. In Norfolk, you average 'far below a 5' literally (not exaggerating!) every single health inspection visit i ever had consisted of the inspector walking into the rear of my place, talking for a while to myself or one of my managers, peeking his head around a corner, finding two items wrong (usually a dirty vent and food particles on the floor) filled out his report and left. We knew when he was coming, what he'd look for, how long he'd stay and how we'd have no problems because we had cultivated a hand-holding relationship with him. Other establishments for some reason did not do this, specifically Chili's at MacArthur, who in the same round of visits had 8 critical violations but let the inspector walk unaccompanied throughout their building and ignored him. It's all politics.

So while it's commendable that you research and know health violations for various places throughout the area, and you patronize places based on said scores, 99.5% of people do not follow your example, for what i believe to be good reason. A routine health inspection is typically NOT a snapshot of a place's sanitation record. I've been a manager at places that i could not believe managed to pass an inspection (no names, haha) as well as at places that were clean as a whistle but we overlooked or missed a few number of trivial things (like the no hand soap thing, do you really believe they leave it empty all day everyday, or is it more likely it ran out and no one had seen it yet? there's a reason it's not a critical violation) As I said, in your research if you see repeat violations, particularly critical ones, then by all means stay far away, as there is a pattern of unsanitary practices. But don't penalize an establishment based of one snapshot out of 90 that found a handful of minor items wrong.

[/off pedestal]

[Norfolk4Life]

Hate to break it to you, but every city in the area has different health code standards. The logic that I'll eat in downtown because they scored less only works if every city has identical health standards, which they do not. The city of Chesapeake is nothing like the city of Norfolk which is nothing like the city of Virginia Beach. I've worked as a restaurant manager in Chesapeake, Norfolk, Virginia Beach and now Suffolk.

the health code is base on the Virginia health department's standards. VB and Ches both follow those standards. On Norfolk, the VA Dept of Health says, "The City of Norfolk has a local ordinance governing restaurants that is more stringent than the Board of Health

[baobabs727]

ew. have you looked up the health department reviews of some of the restaraunts at Town Center? Bravo had 1. California PK had 8 violations (including out of soap at employee sink - i.e. can't wash hands). Cheesecake Factory only had 2. Daily Grind had 8 (including not washing hands and storing food on or near floor). Funny Bone had 6. Gordon Biersch had 15 (including not washing hands, no hair restraints, and dirty food-contact surfaces). Guadalajara had 7. Keagan's had 12 (including food stored at wrong temps, dirty food-contact surfaces, and toxic substances applied/stored on/near food-contact surfaces). McCormick and Schmick's had 8 (including food stored at improper temps, dirty food-contact surfaces, and using the sink as a storage bin - i.e. no handwashing). Melt Gelato had 10 (including no hair restraints, food stored on/near floor, storing raw food where it may contact ready-to-eat food, and cleaning chems may contact food). P.F. Chang's had 5 (including handling food without gloves). Red Star Tavern had 14 (including no hair restraints, dirty food-contact surfaces, and dead insects on/near food-contact surfaces). The Royal Chocolate had 3. Ruth's Chris Steakhouse had 11 (including no food service manager and dirty food-contact surfaces). Sonoma had 5. Taza had 16. Town Center City Club had 5. Zushi had 5.

I know that most restaraunts have a few. I dont mind going to places with alot of minimal violations but when they have problems washing up or cleaning then I find other places. I certainly wouldnt go to Town Center to eat when Downtown Norfolk has many restaraunts that, together, average far below 5 in number of violations (most have fewer than 2). Greenbrier area has many clean ones as well as does Downtown Portsmouth and Hill Top.

But, to each his own.

This is nothing more than a hatchet job on VBTC wrapped in a promotional campaign for DTN, masquerading as an informed, cautionary epistle. Haven't we had enough of what 40 years of sibling rivalry hath wrought?

[Norfolk4Life]

if it is nothing but

a promotional campaign for DTN

, then why would it say

Greenbrier area has many clean ones as well as does Downtown Portsmouth and Hill Top.

. I really have nothing against VB, they just need to be a bit stricter on the TC restaurants. I have eaten there before. Id like to eat there again, once I see a few less violations. In fact, I would love to be able to ride the Tide from my house to TC and eat there more frequently.

[Former Resident of HR]

Trader Joe's has the signs up and the location is listed on the website as "coming soon". Does anyone know an opening date?

[HarryVB]

Trader Joes is located where the Old North Carolina Company use to be on Laskin Road in Virginia Beach.. in the hilltop area

[Weaver24]

Trader Joes is located where the Old North Carolina Company use to be on Laskin Road in Virginia Beach.. in the hilltop area

I wished they located in a more centralized area like Pembroke. Its too far traveling all the way to northern Newport News and way down Hilltop, which is near oceanfront. They will probably only have one southside location, and its way out there on Laskin Rd. Pembroke and Greenbrier would've been more centralized. I would love to shop there on a daily/weekly basis but its too far. There are two on the peninsula but I guess its still good to have one on the southside.

[mlsimons]

I wished they located in a more centralized area like Pembroke. Its too far traveling all the way to northern Newport News and way down Hilltop, which is near oceanfront. They will probably only have one southside location, and its way out there on Laskin Rd. Pembroke and Greenbrier would've been more centralized. I would love to shop there on a daily/weekly basis but its too far. There are two on the peninsula but I guess its still good to have one on the southside.

They should have located in town center on the 1st floor of the Westin parking garage. I said this way before they ever announced the Hilltop location and before the Beacon decided to move.

Now we have a prime retail spot (in Independence) being used as a commerce park. Poor decision! Anyways, a grocery needs to locate in town center sooner or later.

[Weaver24]

They should have located in town center on the 1st floor of the Westin parking garage. I said this way before they ever announced the Hilltop location and before the Beacon decided to move.

Now we have a prime retail spot (in Independence) being used as a commerce park. Poor decision! Anyways, a grocery needs to locate in town center sooner or later.

That would've been a good location, as well as across Independence Blvd where the old HQ is located. Ghent is also a good location for a Trader Joe's IMO, as well as Greenbrier. The grocery stores in Norfolk suck (except for the Harris Teeter and The Market "Farm Fresh" in Ghent). You have a bunch of Bottom Dollars, poorly managed Food Lions with limited selection, poorly managed Wal-Marts, and very expensive and run down Fresh Pride's. I need to be able to buy a lot of healthy foods at affordable prices and Trader Joe's would be very suitable for me...and their prices are reasonable and affordable, unlike Farm Fresh and Whole Foods. They have a lot of prepared wraps, lunch kits, wines, frozen foods/fish, trail mixes, whole wheat/flaxseed crackers, 100% pure juices, organic and fresh produce, unique breads, meats, etc. that you can't find in grocery stores in Norfolk. There is a box of organic cereal that was $2 and some change at Trader Joe's but nearly $5 at Farm Fresh. Hilltop also have a great grocery store called The Fresh Market, which is alot more expensive and full of snobby customers, but it is also a great supermarket. I still prefer a Trader Joe's because of their exclusivity, selection and affordability. It's unfortunate that Norfolk doesn't have any of this. But I don't want to rain on anybody's parade...its still great they opened on the southside, but Pembroke/Greenbrier/Ghent would've been better for all of southside, since it appears they will only have one southside location.

Edited March 24, 2009 by Weaver24

[HarryVB]

The 1st floor of the westin is The New Virginian Pilot newspaper company. They are doing the interior now.. I walked by the other day. they also have the Virginian Pilot sign up on the corner of columbus street and independence.. A vertical sign..

[Former Resident of HR]

Does anyone know AN OPENING DATE?

[vdogg]

Does anyone know AN OPENING DATE?

Honestly, no but I can give you a rough estimate. They said last year that it would take 3 or so months to construct the pilot space. It looks like they started in February so maybe looking at May or June. I imagine the moving date wouldn't be too long after that.

[urbanvb]

Last time I went by the Circuit City there was a For Lease sign on the property. It was reported the city had bought this property for LR but I guess not.

[varider]

I know the city needs to make sure the property is zoned for urban development but what is the city planning on doing with a huge lot just for light rail?! I mean a light rail station doesn't need that much room.. Unless it's gonna be light grand central station or something lol