Photo by Alexandria Living Magazine
1300 King St.
Popular deli Call Your Mother plans to open a location in Old Town Alexandria at 1300 King St., after an earlier attempt to open in the area was scrapped.
The location previously housed Pines of Florence, an Italian restaurant, which closed in 2020 and reopened in Arlington.
The 1300 King St. spot is part of a $17 million mixed-use development that includes 33 multi-family homes over ground-floor retail, developed by The Holladay Corporation.
Here's a look at the Call Your Mother plans, according to the permit filed with the City of Alexandria:
Call Your Mother Deli will operate as a small deli primarily selling bagels and coffee drinks along with a number of other menu items and branded merchandise. The noise to be emitted by operations is not expected to surpass typical restaurant noise emissions. On-site parking is unavailable to employees or customers, and the hours of operation are to be from 7 a.m.-3 p.m. The number of employees on any given shift may vary, but is expected to be fewer than 10.
The majority of patrons are expected to order at the front counter and either take their sandwiches/food to go, or remain at the available seating for a short amount of time. There will be no dining-room service, only front-counter service.
The eatery will feature seating for 34 seats at tables and 27 bar stools.
Call Your Mother
Bagel sandwich from Call Your Mother
Call Your Mother's best-seller is the Local Bacon, Pastrami, Impossible™ sausage or no meat + Bodega-Style Local Eggs, American & Cheddar Cheeses, Spicy Honey, on an Everything bagel. (Pictured here.)
Owners chef Daniela Moreira and "Chief Doughboi," Andrew Dana, began what they call on their website, their "wild and wonderful journey" at farmer’s markets in DC. After opening their flagship shop in Park View in the fall of 2018, "it was clear that folks in our community needed MORE CARBS!" Since then, the company has assembled a "dream team" and opened up several new locations throughout DC, Maryland and in Denver, Colo.
"We’re on a mission to spread #bagellove to everyone with an appetite and our next stop might be your back yard (figuratively speaking)!" they note on their website.
The news is welcome to bagel-lovers in Alexandria after an earlier attempt to open here failed.
Many Alexandria residents were eagerly anticipating the opening of the popular D.C.-based bagel shop that was originally set to open in Alexandria in July 2021.
But Eva Martorell and Martin Kamm, who own 130 N. Pitt St. where the deli was originally supposed to open, confirmed to Alexandria Living Magazine that the company pulled out of their lease in February 2022, in order to focus on alternative locations in the DMV area. Call Your Mother opened their first location in Virginia in McLean.
According to the deli, the buildout at the originally proposed Old Town Alexandria location, at the corner of Cameron Street and Pitt Street, was too expensive. Additionally, the deli “had difficulty and struggled in securing building and occupancy permits in the City of Alexandria as they were not prepared for the Old Town Alexandria’s permitting process and nuances,” the owners of the building said.
No word on an opening date.
