Thursday, October 1, 2026
Good morning. Here's what's in this week's issue:
The Washington West Film Festival brings more than 30 films to Reston, Oct. 8 to 12
Seven Reston and Herndon coffee shops have opened since July 2024, and our new guide covers them all
Brandy Melville is bringing its first Virginia store to Reston Town Center
Five things to do, starting with Salsa in the Park in Herndon on Friday
Kathy & Graham
THE BIG STORIES
WASHINGTON WEST BRINGS MORE THAN 30 FILMS TO RESTON, OCT. 8 TO 12
The Washington West Film Festival opens Thursday, Oct. 8, at LOOK Dine-In Cinemas at Reston Town Center, 11940 Market St., and runs through Monday, Oct. 12. Brad Russell, pastor of Dulles Community Church, founded it in 2011, and the festival gives 100% of its net box office to projects that fight hunger, illness and poor education.
The festival's schedule also lists an outdoor screening of Beauty and the Beast at the Reston Town Center Pavilion this Friday, Oct. 2, at 7:30 p.m., six days before opening night.
Opening night is Stronger Than You Think, the D.C. premiere of a documentary about Ali Truwit, a college swimmer who lost a leg in a shark attack and swam for the U.S. at the Paris Paralympics a year later. The red carpet starts at 6:30 p.m. and the film at 7. Truwit and director Janice C. Molinari stay for a Q&A, and the ticket covers a drink and dessert at the party afterward. At 8 p.m., Union County, a Sundance selection starring Will Poulter and Noah Centineo, follows two brothers through a court-ordered drug treatment program in rural Ohio.
Short Film Friday, Oct. 9 at 5:30 p.m., runs two blocks of shorts around a dessert-and-drinks intermission. Saturday carries most of the program, from a George Mason student showcase at 11 a.m. to The Cashier at 3:30 p.m., a dark comedy with a Q&A featuring actors Tim Reid and Daphne Maxwell Reid. That night, Jimmy screens at 6:30 and 7:30 p.m. The film follows Jimmy Stewart from his Oscar for The Philadelphia Story to his enlistment as a combat pilot, and the 6:30 showing opens with a tribute to Robert Duvall with his wife, Luciana. Karolyn Grimes, who played Zuzu in It's a Wonderful Life, joins the Q&A.
Three films screen Sunday. The last screening is Monday at 7:30 p.m. at the Leila Gordon Theatre in Hunters Woods: Holding Liat, a documentary about a father trying to bring his kidnapped daughter home, followed by a talk with director Brandon Kramer. A General Festival Pass costs $100 and covers the regular screenings, and a $250 Premium Pass adds the spotlight events.
ALSO THIS WEEK
SEVEN RESTON AND HERNDON COFFEE SHOPS HAVE OPENED SINCE JULY 2024
Old Town Coffee opened on Spring Street in Herndon in July 2024. De Clieu and Café Anne followed in the spring of 2025, Simply Social and Roggenart in late summer 2025, MOTW in July 2026 and Beignets & Brew in August. Tona Coffee at Dulles Station is next. We marked National Coffee Day on Sept. 29 with a guide to more than a dozen coffee shops in both towns, none of them a Starbucks, sorted by neighborhood.
Lake Anne Coffee House & Wine Bar pours coffee from Caffè Amouri, a Vienna roaster, on Washington Plaza, and from Wednesday through Saturday it stays open until 9 p.m. with wine, beer and cocktails.
De Clieu moved into the old Soapstone Cleaners building in South Reston in May 2025, nine years after the cleaners closed, and brews Intelligentsia coffee.
MOTW Coffee & Pastries, the brand's first shop in Virginia, serves date and cardamom lattes and Yemeni chai at The Point at Rise on Sunrise Valley Drive until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays.
Weird Brothers Coffee roasts its own beans at 321 Sunset Park Drive in Herndon, and Le Vingt Trois bakes its baguettes and apricot tartes a few doors away at 311.
Green Lizard Cycling runs a coffee bar inside a bike shop on the W&OD Trail in downtown Herndon.
Beignets & Brew on Elden Street serves New Orleans-style beignets from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day.
The guide closes with a list sorted by what you need: an early start, a table for a laptop, a stop on a bike ride, beans to take home, pastries or coffee after dinner. Meanwhile Coffee, the comic-book-themed shop in Woodland Park Crossing, closed at the end of August.
QUICK HITS
AROUND RESTON AND HERNDON
Brandy Melville is building its first Virginia store at Reston Town Center, in the roughly 4,600-square-foot space Apple left when it moved next door in 2020. The company has not announced an opening date, and until now the closest stores were in Georgetown and at Pike & Rose in Rockville. Read more
Herndon Mayor Keven LeBlanc says the town is preparing an appeal of the Sept. 17 ruling that left five downtown acres in Comstock's name. The town filed objections to the judge's letter and order on Sept. 25. Read more
Dogfish Head Alehouse applied for a sign permit on Sept. 28 for its 7,550-square-foot restaurant on the second floor of the AC Hotel building, 11995 Inspiration St., at Reston Town Center. Its Virginia ABC license is still pending, and owner Viswa Vasireddy, who also runs Clarity, has targeted October. Read more
The Board of Supervisors took up a plan amendment on Sept. 29 that would raise the non-residential space allowed at the Crescent Apartments site near Lake Anne from 2,000 to 30,000 square feet, enough for a larger Reston Community Center branch. A plan amendment changes the county's long-range guide for a property, not its zoning. The county had not posted the result as of Oct. 1. Read more
The Fairfax County Planning Commission recommended approval on Sept. 23 of 429 to 584 homes on 34.7 acres between Sunrise Valley Drive and the Dulles Toll Road, near the Herndon Metro station. Twelve percent would be affordable or workforce housing, and the Board of Supervisors has not set a hearing date. Read more
Reston Regional Library, next door to the 75-bed Embry Rucker Community Shelter, is the only Fairfax County library branch with a security guard. After an online discussion of safety complaints drew more than 160 comments, the library system said it will train staff at every branch in an empathy-based approach to homelessness. Read more
More than half of the 4,958 Reston homes that sold from January 2022 through September 2026 went under contract within a week, and 68 percent of those sold above list price. Homes that went under contract in their third week sold at a median 98.5 percent of the original list price, and the share kept falling each week after that. Read more
The Board of Supervisors marked the Reston YMCA's 25th anniversary on Sept. 29 with a resolution from Hunter Mill Supervisor Walter Alcorn. The Y opened in 2000 through a partnership among the county, the YMCA of Metropolitan Washington and Reston Land Corp., and it has given members more than $2 million in financial assistance. Read more
Herndon plays at South Lakes on Friday at 7 p.m. in the 29th Baron Cameron Cup. South Lakes is 4-0 and has outscored its opponents 135 to 46, and Herndon is 0-4, but the Hornets have won the last two meetings, hold the trophy and lead the series 15-13. Make your pick in this week's poll. Read more
During a bye week for both football teams, South Lakes' boys volleyball team beat Oakton and Chantilly, and Herndon's field hockey team beat Wakefield School 1-0 in overtime. Read more
Leaves in Reston and Herndon should peak around Nov. 5 this year, according to the Explore Fall forecast, about 18 days after the Oct. 18 peak it projects for Shenandoah National Park. Read more
OPENINGS & CLOSINGS
WHO'S IN, WHO'S OUT
COMING Ebbitt House, 1860 Reston Row Plaza, Reston Station. Clyde's Restaurant Group says it opens in October, with 275 seats inside, two bars and a 125-seat patio with a bar of its own. Its website now takes reservation requests. Read more
COMING Voodoo Brewing, 2315 Dulles Station Blvd., Herndon. Virginia ABC approved the taproom's license on Sept. 18, and the team expected to open about two weeks later. No date is set yet. Read more
COMING Kinnera Bar & Grill, Worldgate Centre, Herndon. A South Indian restaurant specializing in biryani is replacing Kapalsi Indian Cuisine. No opening date yet. Read more
COMING Huey Magoo's, Arrowbrook Centre, off Centreville Road. Construction is underway on the chicken tender chain's first Virginia restaurant, and the company is targeting December. Read more
CLOSING Lakeside Asia Cafe, 11130 South Lakes Drive, South Lakes Village Center. The Sichuan restaurant closed Sept. 30 after 13 years. No replacement has been named for the space. Read more
CLOSING MOD Pizza, 11642 Plaza America Drive. Its last day was scheduled for Sept. 30. Andy's Pizza plans to open in the space after a remodel. Read more
FROM GREATER RESTON LIVING AT COMPASS
What would your home sell for this fall?
We price homes against recent sales in your own neighborhood. Get a range in a couple of minutes.
THINGS TO DO
OUR FIVE PICKS FOR THE WEEK
FRI., OCT. 2 · 4:30 P.M. · ALABAMA DRIVE PARK, HERNDON
Salsa in the Park. A free Hispanic Heritage Month party until 6:30 p.m., with a salsa workshop, face painting and crafts, and a chance to weigh in on the park's planned renovation. No registration needed.
SAT., OCT. 3 · 10 A.M. · RESTON FARM GARDEN MARKET
Fall Fun Fest. A mini train, an inflatable corn maze, a petting zoo and cider doughnuts at 10800 Baron Cameron Ave., Saturday and Sunday until 5 p.m. Tickets are $19.99 for kids 3 and up and $7.23 for adults, and adults need a child with them.
SAT., OCT. 3 · 11 A.M. · RESTON TOWN CENTER PAVILION
Dogfest. A free afternoon for families and their dogs until 3 p.m., raising money for Canine Companions, which gives service dogs to people with disabilities at no cost.
SAT., OCT. 3 · 8 P.M. · LEILA GORDON THEATRE, RESTON
The Seldom Scene. The bluegrass band that started in 1971 plays Reston Community Center's Hunters Woods theater. Tickets are $25 for Reston residents and $35 for everyone else.
SUN., OCT. 4 · 9 A.M. · STANTON PARK, HERNDON
Tree Rescue at Stanton Park. Volunteers cut invasive wisteria and English ivy off the trees at 910 Third St. Wear long sleeves and boots, bring gloves and water, and register ahead.
ASK THE INSIDERS
Who was Baron Cameron?
A question readers have asked us more than once
Baron Cameron Avenue takes its name from Thomas Fairfax, the sixth Lord Fairfax of Cameron, a Scottish title that King Charles I created for his family in 1627. In 1719 he inherited the Northern Neck Proprietary, a grant of about 5.3 million acres between the Rappahannock and Potomac rivers that took in the land under Reston and Herndon today. He settled in Virginia in 1747, hired a 16-year-old George Washington to survey his land west of the Blue Ridge the next year, and spent his last decades at Greenway Court in the Shenandoah Valley. Fairfax County, formed in 1742, is named for him and uses his family's arms. Nicholas Fairfax holds the title today as the 14th Lord Fairfax of Cameron.
READER POLL
Who takes the Baron Cameron Cup on Friday?
We'll share the results next Thursday.
Last week: Ebbitt House at Reston Station took every vote for the new restaurant you most want to try.
A FINAL NOTE
YOU KNOW YOU'RE FROM RESTON WHEN…
…you've walked to a friend's house without once touching a sidewalk next to a road.
Openings, closings, questions, and corrections
Know a neighbor who'd like it? Send them this link.
Reston Insider is written by Kathy and Graham Tracey of Greater Reston Living at Compass, and you can call or text us at (703) 231-7049.
Compass, 11943 Democracy Drive, Reston, VA 20190 | (703) 783-7485
