Walk down Wilson Boulevard this month and you'll pass two storefronts that tell opposite stories about how long it actually takes to open a restaurant in Clarendon. One went dark and came back to life in the space of a long weekend. The other has had signage up since last summer and only just started serving food.
Carbonara closed its original spot between Courthouse and Rosslyn after a 30-year run, then reopened on September 4 a few blocks over in Clarendon, in the former Mazaro space at 2909 Wilson Blvd. Same city, new address, barely a pause in between. Meanwhile at 310 N. Glebe Road, Nash & Smashed had been sitting behind construction paper for more than a year before it finally started serving its Nashville Tenders and Oklahoma Smashed burgers in late August, with a grand opening still a month out.
Both are real, both are open (or nearly), and both got covered as part of the same wave of Clarendon dining news. But if you've been checking a restaurant's Instagram every few weeks wondering why it still isn't open, the gap between those two timelines is the thing worth understanding. It isn't about hype or bad luck. It's about what used to be in the space.
The Four-Day Turnaround
Carbonara's move worked because it wasn't really construction, it was a swap. The Mazaro space was already a functioning restaurant kitchen: hood vents installed, grease traps in place, walk-in coolers wired and plumbed. When one restaurant concept leaves and another moves in behind it, the new operator is mostly buying equipment, hiring staff, and printing menus. Carbonara's relaunch menu leans into that speed with build-your-own pastas, small plates like fried burrata, and pizzas including a Salsiccia Grigliata topped with Italian sausage, peppers, arugula, and mozzarella. That's a menu you can execute the week you get the keys, because the kitchen behind it never stopped being a kitchen.
The Two-Year Build
Compare that to what's happening two blocks away at The Crossing Clarendon, where Three Notch'd Brewing Company signed its lease for the ground floor of the former Barnes & Noble back in October 2024. The Charlottesville-based brewery isn't dropping into an existing restaurant. It's converting bookshelves into a 350-seat brewpub with a full kitchen, a whiskey distillery, and a tasting room, which means new plumbing, new ventilation rated for both cooking and brewing equipment, and permitting that a straight restaurant swap never has to touch. As of this past spring, president Scott Roth was still framing the finish line as a target rather than a date.
"We are targeting a completion on construction around September and will definitely be opening the doors and welcoming guests this fall," Roth said in April.
That's nearly two years from signed lease to open doors, and it's not because anyone dropped the ball. It's the standard timeline for turning a retail floor into a working brewery.
Buffalo & Bergen tells a version of the same story with a smaller gap. Chef Gina Chersevani's soda-fountain deli signed on for 1028 N. Garfield Street, the former UnCommon Luncheonette space, back in spring 2025 with a target of opening that summer. As of this writing, more than a year later, it's still listed as coming later this year. Even inheriting a food-service space doesn't guarantee a quick turn when the concept itself needs specialized build-out. Chersevani's shop centers on a vintage 1930s Bastian-Blessing soda fountain used to mix carbonated cocktails, and getting a piece of equipment like that properly plumbed and code-compliant takes longer than swapping out a pizza oven.
Nash & Smashed had it hardest of the three. Its Glebe Road location moved into a former Boost Mobile storefront in the Buckingham Center, meaning there was no kitchen infrastructure to inherit at all. The location was originally slated to open last summer, but the date kept slipping as management waited on county approvals, according to reporting from ARLnow. The signage sat up for more than a year before the doors finally opened.
Here's how the four compare side by side:
| Restaurant | What was there before | Originally targeted | Status as of this month |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carbonara | An existing restaurant (Mazaro) | Reopened days after closing old location | Open since September 4 |
| Nash & Smashed | Boost Mobile retail store | Summer 2025 | Open since late August, grand opening pending |
| Buffalo & Bergen | An existing restaurant (UnCommon Luncheonette) | Summer 2025 | Still finishing build-out |
| Three Notch'd Brewing | Barnes & Noble retail floor | Q2 or Q3 2026 | Construction wrapping, fall opening targeted |
The pattern holds even when the before-and-after both involve food service. A luncheonette closing doesn't hand off the specialized fountain equipment a soda-and-cocktail concept needs, and a retail floor with no kitchen at all is always going to take longer than a straight restaurant-to-restaurant swap, no matter how optimistic the opening announcement sounds.
What This Means for Your Walk Down Wilson
If you're the kind of person who's been refreshing a restaurant's website for updates, this framework at least tells you what to watch for. If a concept is filling a space that used to hold a restaurant, expect weeks, not months. If it's converting a bookstore, a phone store, or an old bank branch into something with a kitchen, ventilation, and seating for hundreds, expect a year or more from the day the lease gets signed, and treat the first announced opening date as a floor, not a promise.
Right now that means Carbonara and Nash & Smashed are both actually walkable tonight. Buffalo & Bergen and Three Notch'd Brewing are both still finishing, and there's no reason to expect either one before the weather turns.
The Two Events Framing the Month
The corridor's calendar has its own version of this same before-and-after split. Rosslyn Jazz Fest filled Gateway Park this past Saturday, September 12, with a full day of music along the river, the kind of low-key outdoor stage that closes out the summer concert run before fall settles in.
Clarendon Day picks up where that left off. Arlington's largest street festival returns Saturday, September 26, centered on Clarendon Metro Park and spilling across eight surrounding blocks, with more than 20,000 people expected to turn out based on past years. The day opens with a yacht rock set from Captain Seawalker, moves into a 1 p.m. slot from D.C. ska band The Fuss, and closes at 4 p.m. with rock band Legal in the District. Local vendors including CG Ceramics, Salty Beach Jewelry, and Trini Pepper Sauce will be set up alongside food from Bites of Joy Cookies, Mac's Donuts, and Spice Kraft Indian Bistro. Several streets around the Metro station close for the day, so Metro is the easier way in.
That festival is where the two-clock problem becomes visible in one afternoon. Carbonara and Nash & Smashed will both be open for the tens of thousands of people walking past them that Saturday. Buffalo & Bergen and Three Notch'd Brewing won't be, not because anyone missed a deadline, but because a soda fountain and a 350-seat brewery were never going to be ready on the same schedule as a restaurant moving into an existing kitchen. Next year's Clarendon Day is a safer bet for both.
If you're weighing a move to this corner of Arlington and want the same kind of on-the-ground read on what's actually open versus what's still under construction, Sullivan Brownell tracks this neighborhood as closely as we track the market inside it. Reach out anytime you want the real timeline, on restaurants or on real estate.
