Is this Arlington restaurant still there today? (Alexandria, Orange: to rent, house)

[rlrl]

I'm not sure if i should post this in DC or Va. I'm curious if this restaurant is still in Arlington, Va. back in early 1980 when i was a teen I visited DC and ate dinner in this big elaborate restaurant called Orleans in Arlington, Va which featured a HUGE salad bar. I had never seen a salad bar that elaborate. I also enjoyed the restaurant immensely. Is it still there?

[alexandrian]

Do you mean Tom Sarris' Orleans House? That would fit the description. Unfortunately, it closed just last month.

[rlrl]

I only remember being told the name was Orleans and in Arlington. How long before '80 was it there for?

[claude henry smoot]

What odd timing, eh? As Alexandrian notes, the Orleans House just closed a few weeks ago. The entire block is being raised for a pair of ~30 story office/residential towers called Rosslyn Central Place. They literally just finished auctioning off everything from the SteamBoat salad bar to the ornate lights found around the exterior of the restuarant.

I recall the news media reporting some wait staff had been on board for 30-40 years - so it's defnitely been around! Sorry to say the resturant is no more - but the timing of your question would have only been funnier if it had come the day after the wrecking ball shows up.

[rlrl]

yes i will never forget those lights and i think when we left there was a big crowd waiting to be seated. what a place!

[ersatz]

Wow. Closed? And just when I plan to move back to Arlington. I loved the Orleans House. Nothing else like it in NoVA. So it's being replaced by some generic office/store complex? How very disappointing.

[claude henry smoot]

Originally Posted by ersatz

So it's being replaced by some generic office/store complex? How very disappointing.

Well, let's face it - that land is really best suited to further Arlington's efforts to focus growth around the Orange Line. And the Orlean's House was not really the model for "smart growth". If they could have found a way to rent space in the new towers' ground floors - that would have been nice. Rent's probably pretty pricey though.

Personally I think the new towers are a plus, and they're certainly not generic office/store complexes. These will be some of the tallest buildings in the DC Metro area...

Map of buildings at Rosslyn in Arlington, VA

[rlrl]

through links i was reading some reviews of the Orleans house, some good, some not good. When i read a review where someone was concerned about tainted food and illness as well as mice, i thought back to 1980 when i was a teen and saw it as a really splashy place that the feds and Congressional people dined at. Has the reputation tarnished over the past 30 years?

[ersatz]

Orleans House was a Washington DC institution. I don't know about splashy but it was very popular with federal workers. It had good Southern cooking and an awesome salad bar.

[alexandrian]

The food was just average IMO but it was a fun place to eat.