The City of Falls Church tested its Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area for the first time on a Saturday in June. That area is the walkable zone where adults can carry a drink outdoors in an official cup. Six months later, the same program is written into the plans for both of the Little City's big December nights. The first outdoor Little City Holiday Market on Saturday, Dec. 12, has a holiday edition of Little City Sips running from 5 to 10 p.m. Watch Night on Thursday, Dec. 31, has a New Year's Eve edition running from 5 p.m. to midnight, according to the Little City Sips page on Visit Falls Church.
That means the December calendar runs on a framework most of downtown only learned this year. Where you can carry a cup, which door you have to stop at, and when the drinks outlast the shopping will shape both evenings.
Three nights in, the City picked quality over quantity
ARLnow reported in June that the pilot would launch that Saturday, June 13. A second event followed on Aug. 22, and ARLnow described the zone as the blocks bounded by W. Broad Street, Park Avenue, Little Falls Street and N. Washington Street. A third ran on Oct. 17.
At its July 7 meeting, the City's Economic Development Authority reviewed the pilot. A summary on Falls Church Forward lists what members flagged:
- Enforcement of the rule against carrying one establishment's cup into another was inconsistent.
- Some participating restaurants ran out of cups.
- Few retailers took part, and members suggested more outreach to experiential shops such as Clay Cafe.
- Live music drew people but had gaps.
Members also leaned toward "quality over frequency." They preferred rotating the event to different sections of Broad Street over expanding the zone, and they named the Holiday Market and Watch Night as possible future Sips dates. Both are now on the schedule. The City chose to hold only a few Sips nights and attached two of them to December's largest gatherings.
December 12 runs in two shifts on one street
The market and Sips overlap, but they don't start or end together. The Holiday Market page lists the market from 3 to 9 p.m. on Little Falls Street between Broad Street and Park Avenue, with free admission. Little Falls goes car-free for the day. The posted times split the day into a family afternoon and an evening for adults.
| Time | What's happening |
|---|---|
| 3, 4 and 5 p.m. | Storytime with The Wandering Shelf's mobile bookstore in the Little City Kids Corner |
| 3:30, 4:30 and 5:30 p.m. | Family game sessions with Cozy Nook Games |
| 5 p.m. | Little City Sips opens |
| 9 p.m. | Market closes |
| 10 p.m. | Sips ends |
The Kids Corner's last scheduled session starts half an hour after the first Sips drink can be poured. Most of the other children's activities in the corner have no set times. Sharkey's Cuts for Kids runs a Letters to Santa mailbox, and its team plans to reply to every child who writes. Cloud Nine Slime Bar brings holiday slime. Acton Academy, The Learning Quest and The Toy Nest host a button-making table. Santa will be in Stylish Patina's parking lot for photos, and the shop is also hosting gingerbread and sugar cookie decorating.
The same Stylish Patina lot is the food court. Borek-G Cafe and Market, Cafe Kindred, The Cheese Cartel and Seaside Oyster Company are listed there. Audacious Aleworks is holding a beer pop-up at Stratford Garden on W. Broad, and Homestretch is running a gift-wrapping station.
The vendor list has more than 45 names, ranging from Clay Cafe Studios, Entangled Local Yarn Shop, Green Archer Comics and Istanbul Kitchen to Kristina's Swede Treats, Suzanne Updike, Printmaker, Late Comeback Press, Chef Craig's Woodcrafts and The Naughty Nougat.
The cup rules decide your route
According to the City's Sips page, the rules work like this:
- Buy your drink at a participating business, and it comes in an official Little City Sips cup.
- Drink it outdoors, inside the marked DORA boundary, during Sips hours.
- You can't bring alcohol in from outside the area or carry it past the boundary.
- A drink from one participating restaurant can't go into another participating restaurant, so finish it or toss it before you walk in.
- Retail shops that display a "Welcome" window cling may let you bring your drink inside.
- Anyone buying or drinking alcohol must be 21 or older and should bring a valid ID.
The fourth rule is the one the EDA said was inconsistently enforced over the summer, and in practice it sets the order of your night. Pick up a drink at one spot, browse the market tables on Little Falls, and finish the cup before you walk into the next restaurant. Action Music at 111 Park Ave. and Clay Café at 101 N. Maple Ave. are listed as Welcome locations, so those two are easy shop stops along the way.
The current roster of businesses that sell Sips drinks has eight names:
- Clare & Don's Beach Shack, 130 N. Washington St.
- Dogwood Tavern, 132 W. Broad St.
- Ireland's Four Provinces, 105 W. Broad St.
- Lucky Thai, 240 W. Broad St.
- Maneki Neko Japanese Restaurant, 238 W. Broad St.
- Northside Social, 205 Park Ave.
- Pho 88, 232 W. Broad St.
- Stratford Garden, 300 W. Broad St.
That's the roster for the program in general. The Holiday Market page says to check the Sips page for updates on participating restaurants, the boundary map and the music lineup as Dec. 12 gets closer.
December 31 uses the same rules on a bigger footprint
Watch Night covers more ground. The Watch Night page closes W. Broad Street to traffic between N. Maple Avenue and S. Washington Street from 7 p.m. to midnight. Plans include outdoor tents, fire pits, live bands, a DJ, bounce houses and gaming trucks for kids, light-up features and warming stations. The night ends with the historic star drop at midnight. The City calls this year's edition expanded.
The timing works the same way it does on Dec. 12, only reversed. Sips starts at 5 p.m., two hours before the street officially opens for Watch Night, so you can buy a featured drink and walk downtown before the tents fill up. The City says it will post the participating restaurants, featured drinks and Sips map closer to the date. A free shuttle will connect East Falls Church Metro, the celebration and other stops in the City. The George Mason Square, Broad & Washington and Kaiser Permanente garages offer free public parking.
The new dining rooms inside and near the zone
December's Sips nights are the first winter test for a downtown that added several places to eat this fall. The Falls Church News-Press reported on Sept. 30 that Wonder Food Hall had opened at 100 W. Broad St. in the former Brown's Hardware space, with several restaurant concepts under one roof for dine-in, takeout and delivery. Wonder's own location page lists daily hours of 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. The same News-Press report noted that Lil' Cakes and Creamery had joined Modera Founders Row at 120 Founders Ave. It also reported that Harvey's on W. Broad had a new owner, and the founder said in his announcement that the restaurant will keep its name and its staff.
Farther west, ARLnow reported that Best Buns Bakery & Burgers opened Oct. 1 at 265 W. Falls Station Blvd. in West Falls, with a grab-and-go bakery and cafe, a full-service bar and a rooftop patio. It's well outside the downtown Sips zone, so it's a good choice for a sit-down meal on the nights in between.
The rest of the calendar, in date order
The weeks before and between the two Sips nights are full too:
- Saturdays, Nov. 7 through Dec. 26: Falls Church Farmers Market, 8 a.m. to noon, City Hall Parking Lot.
- Wednesday, Nov. 11: Veterans Day Ceremony, 11 a.m., City of Falls Church Veterans Memorial, 223 Little Falls St.
- Saturday, Nov. 28: A Very Victorian Christmas at Cherry Hill Farmhouse, 312 Park Ave., 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., free with no registration.
- Tuesday, Dec. 1: Winter Wonderland at The Market Square at Modera Founders Row, 110 Founders Ave., 5:30 to 7 p.m. The evening includes performances by Creative Cauldron and the Meridian High School Choral Group, Santa arriving by firetruck, and Polar Express train rides. Garage parking is free from 4 to 9 p.m. with no validation.
- Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 5 and 6: Holiday Gift and Craft Show at the Community Center, 223 Little Falls St., 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Saturday and 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Sunday.
- Saturday, Dec. 12: Little City Holiday Market, 3 to 9 p.m., with Sips from 5 to 10 p.m.
- Monday, Dec. 14: Family Movie Night with The Grinch at Mary Riley Styles Public Library, 6 to 7:30 p.m.
- Thursday, Dec. 31: Watch Night, 7 p.m. to midnight, with Sips from 5 p.m. to midnight.
Dec. 5 is the busiest Saturday of the stretch. The farmers market opens at 8 a.m. in the City Hall lot, the craft show opens at 8:30 a.m. in the Community Center, and the library's Cozy Cookie Decorating session runs from 11 to 11:45 a.m. One week later, the outdoor market sets up on the same street as the Community Center.
At REP Real Estate Partners, we follow how blocks like Little Falls Street and W. Broad change from one season to the next. If this December has you curious about which streets sit within an easy walk of the Sips boundary and the Watch Night closure, Charisse is happy to talk it through. Request a Concierge Consultation.
