At the same time, Arlington may be witnessing the rise of a new guard. It includes restaurateur Mike Cordero, whose MACNAC Group owns A-Town Bar & Grill in Ballston, Don Tito in Clarendon and Barley Mac in Rosslyn. This summer MACNAC will open G.O.A.T., a sprawling, 9,000-square-foot sports bar, in the former Hard Times Café space across from the Clarendon Metro station.
Reinvention, Cordero says, is one key to his company’s success. It started in 2012 when he joined forces with his son, Nick, and partner Scott Parker to convert Caribbean Breeze—a Latin restaurant he owned that had grown stale after nine years—into the sports bar that is now A-Town. Since then, he says, sales at the property have doubled.
“The weak are going to be weeded out, and the strong are going to stay,” Cordero says. His model is decidedly different from white-tablecloth spots like Willow, whose quiet dining room and artisanal menu made it a popular choice for business dinners and romantic special occasions. Instead, A-Town and Don Tito (whose tagline is “Tacos, Tequila and Beer”) have cultivated a following among Millennials with specials like extended happy hours, half-price menu items, live entertainment, DJ giveaways and a direct-to-table bottle service that allows patrons to avoid standing in line at the bar.
Barley Mac, which opened in April 2016, kicks things up a notch with dishes like Wagyu beef meatballs, truffle fries and squid-ink linguine, but it also has a lively atmosphere and a dedicated football menu that’s available in the bar and patio areas during games.
Molly Wolford, 25, an advertising research analyst who works in Rockville, Maryland, and lives in Clarendon, notes that small, tactical moves have given places like A-Town and Don Tito a leg up, and it’s not about house-made charcuterie or sustainably farmed arugula. Rather, the restaurants run their happy hours from 3 to 8 p.m. instead of the typical 4 to 7 p.m. “I get off work at 6 p.m. in Rockville,” Wolford says, “so it’s hard to make it to happy hour by 7 p.m., but 8 p.m. works.”