In April, Leo and Brittani Maggio arrived at the espresso bar they had opened in January inside Valletta Port at 682 N. St. Asaph Street and found the doors locked. Over the next several weeks they watched their coffee cups, coffee maker and silverware disappear from a shop they were not allowed to enter. Dan Lagana, CEO of Building Momentum, read about it in ALXnow and offered the couple his company's event space on Eisenhower Avenue. On Saturday, July 25, Dream Chaser's Coffee reopened there, at The Garden Alexandria, 5380 Eisenhower Avenue, Suite C.
That reopening is a good guide to the Eisenhower Valley this fall. The additions people can use right now came from neighbors lending space, from the city finishing a park, and from free evenings on a plaza. The restaurants with the biggest names are still banners on construction hoarding. From Van Dorn to Carlyle, here is what is open, what just closed and what is still a projection.
A café built inside someone else's warehouse
Dream Chaser's is not in a storefront. It sits inside a large commercial flex space that it shares with Building Momentum, the wireless startup Saltenna and Dominion Electric Supply. Leo Maggio described it plainly to ALXnow:
"It's basically a big space with a lot of raw potential, and we're so grateful they want us to come in and help build them a cafe inside."
The café is a block from the Van Dorn Metro station and near Sportrock Climbing Center, DMV Iron Gym and the Scramble indoor playground. Hours are Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Brittani said breakfast and lunch would start in the fall. Her coffee history goes back to Killer ESP at 1012 King Street. She and Leo had their first date there, and she later became general manager of the shop and its Galactic Panther art gallery. A GoFundMe for the family raised $4,700 in between.
It took a neighbor about three months to turn spare square footage into a working café. That pace is the yardstick for the rest of this post.
Hensley Park, back after two and a half years
A short drive east, Joseph Hensley Park at 4200 Eisenhower Avenue closed in November 2023 for renovations. Amenities reopened in April 2026, and the city announced the full reopening in July. Here is what came back:
- Fields: a synthetic turf upper diamond and a full-size natural turf softball field on the lower level, both with new LED lighting, scoreboards, dugouts, safety netting, spectator seating and batting cages
- Gathering space: a replacement picnic pavilion and bathhouse, a new playground, and a flexible court and event area for community programming
- Behind the scenes: expanded parking, upgraded stormwater infrastructure, ADA-accessible paths, new wayfinding, and a new maintenance building and yard
The project traces back to the city's 2014 Citywide Parks Improvement Plan. Residents had listed drainage, better fields, more parking, more trees, a playground and accessibility as priorities. Most of that list is now built. Picnic areas can be reserved online, which opened Aug. 1, or in person at the Reservation & Registration Office in the Lee Center, 1108 Jefferson Street.
"Joseph Hensley Park represents our commitment to creating welcoming, inclusive spaces that bring people together," said Hashim Taylor, director of the Department of Recreation, Parks & Cultural Activities. For anyone planning a fall gathering in Eisenhower West, the pavilion is now a real option.
The block party moves to a Friday night
The corridor's block party changes shape this year. Rock The Ave returns to Carlyle Crossing Plaza, 2455 Mandeville Lane, on Friday, Oct. 9, from 5 to 8 p.m. It is free, and for the first time it runs into the evening. The first two installments were held during the day, and organizers are calling the third a "Twilight Edition."
The Yellow Door Concert Series lineup opens with Walkaways, followed by Late Night Superstars. Organizers also promise local food and businesses, makers and artisans, children's entertainment and community organizations. As of Patch's Sept. 30 report, a limited number of vendor spaces were still open for applications.
Who puts the event on matters here. Carlyle Crossing presents Rock The Ave with the Eisenhower Partnership, which The Alexandria Brief describes as a network of residents, businesses and public officials working on development in the Eisenhower Valley. The event page says the goal is to build Rock The Ave into an annual signature community event for the Eisenhower Corridor. The plaza is steps from the Eisenhower Avenue Metro station, so the walk home after the second set is easy.
One closing at Hoffman Town Center
One address on this stretch went the other way. Rus Uz closed its restaurant at 210 Hoffman Street on Aug. 31 when its lease ended. The family-owned Uzbek and Russian restaurant had been there since 2018. Owner Ismoil Rakhmatullaev closed on warm terms. "AMC has been a fantastic landlord, and we sincerely thank the AMC Theatres team for their partnership over the past eight years," he told ALXnow, and he thanked the Alexandria community as well. The restaurant is still open at 1000 N. Randolph Street in Arlington and 2600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in D.C.
The banners on Mandeville Lane
Carlyle Crossing, which ALXnow describes as an expansion of Hoffman Town Center, is waiting on its two most anticipated restaurants. Catalogue, the Washington hospitality group founded by Steve Salis, told The Alexandria Brief in mid-August that Ted's Bulletin and Honeymoon were projected to open in late fall. The group said it would share updates as they became available. Ted's lists 2471 Mandeville Lane and Honeymoon lists 2461 Mandeville Lane. Neither brand's website gave an opening date. ALXnow's Sept. 15 follow-up said only that Ted's was still in the works and that Honeymoon was tentatively expected this year.
The timeline explains why "late fall" is best read as a target:
- July 2022: Ted's Bulletin is announced for Carlyle Crossing alongside Sidekick Bakery, sharing a kitchen across roughly 7,500 square feet, with an opening slated for 2023.
- Later: plans change, and Honeymoon takes the bakery's space. Sidekick's website now lists only its Ballston location.
- Early 2025: Catalogue says it expects the chicken restaurant to open in late 2025 or early 2026.
- August 2026: "Coming Soon" banners are up on the hoarding, and the projection is late fall.
There is good reason to wait. Ted's Bulletin opened its first restaurant on Capitol Hill in 2010. Carlyle Crossing would be its ninth location and its first in Alexandria. Honeymoon opened in Petworth in January 2022 with Rob Sonderman as chef and has won a Michelin Bib Gourmand three times. Alexandria would be its second location.
Club Studio follows the same pattern. The fitness club leased 37,496 square feet at Carlyle Crossing, and its October 2025 announcement forecast an opening "some time next year." Local coverage has not confirmed an opening date since then.
None of this is unusual for a development this size. Stonebridge completed the 1.3 million-square-foot Carlyle Crossing in late 2021, with more than 700 apartments and about a quarter-million square feet of restaurant and retail space. Filling that much retail takes years. Ted's has now been announced for four years, which is longer than Hensley Park was closed.
Halloween on the Carlyle side
The season's second free event sits closer to the John Carlyle Street end of the corridor. Alexandria Fall-O-Ween runs Saturday, Oct. 31, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at John Carlyle Square Park, 300 John Carlyle Street. The Carlyle Council lists free admission. The program includes local artisans selling Halloween décor and fall jewelry, a beer garden, cupcakes and cookies, a costume parade, and pumpkin and face painting for kids.
Taken together, the valley's October calendar is set. A Friday evening concert on the Carlyle Crossing plaza on the 9th, a Saturday afternoon in the park on the 31st, coffee on Eisenhower Avenue Monday through Thursday mornings, and a reopened ballfield in between are all confirmed. Ted's Bulletin and Honeymoon may open before the holidays. As of today, the only date on record for either is a season.
If you own a home near Carlyle or out toward Van Dorn, these arrivals and delays are the kind of local detail that belongs in an accurate read of what your property is worth. Kristen Jones Real Estate follows the Eisenhower Valley address by address and can show you how this fall's changes along the corridor affect your home. Request your complimentary home valuation.
