New dining options at the Eden Center
Lots of new things are going on at the Eden Center, the Vietnamese-focused shopping center in Seven Corners.
A sugarcane juice shop, called Mia & More, opened Dec. 29. Crabby Noodles, a restaurant specializing in pho and seafood, also opened last month. And the Pop Up District, a food hall plus short-term popup shops, is coming in the third quarter of 2024.
Truong Tien, a restaurant in the interior of the shopping center featuring traditional Hue royal cuisine, has been drawing crowds since it opened a few months ago. This is the type of food served to the emperor in the imperial city of Hue during Vietnam’s Nguyen dynasty in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Related story: Crabby Noodles opens in the Eden Center
Mia & More is located in the former Pho VA spot, at 6765 Wilson Blvd.
It offers 12 flavors of sugar cane juice, including kumquat, passion fruit/pineapple, and strawberry/dragon fruit. The sugar cane juice is imported from Vietnam, says franchise owner Ken Pham.
The shop also sells nine kinds of smoothies (including durian, strawberry, avocado, taro, and coconut/mango) – and snacks, such as popcorn chicken, French fries, and wings with fish sauce.
The 8,000-square-foot Popup District will be located in the former Cho Eden Supermarket, which had been in the Eden Center since the 1980s.
The food hall in the Pop Up District will have a Chinese dumplings vendor, a bánh mì shop, a coffee shop, a full bar, a dessert shop specializing in matcha, another desert vendor, a Thai food vendor, and possibly another street food vendor, says co-owner Jay Tran, who also owns the TeaDM bubble tea shop at the Eden Center.
Those restaurants will have three-year leases, Tran says, but there will also be two revolving spaces for pop-up shops that will be open for just three to 10 days.
Tran envisions that arrangement as a way to give a boost to young people trying to start a business but don’t have the wherewithal to sign a long-term lease. He expects the popups will attract entrepreneurs selling clothing, packaged food, or artworks.
Tran says a popup concept would have been helpful when he was starting out. Before he opened the TeaDM franchise, he sold Vietnamese food from his home. He wanted to open a brick-and-mortar store but couldn’t find a location and didn’t have any business experience.
The Pop Up District will be open late to attract younger customers – until midnight on weekdays and 2 a.m. on weekends.
The Eden Center is now fully leased, says Alan Frank, general counsel and senior vice president at Capital Commercial Properties Inc. Nearly all of the businesses are Vietnamese, although there is a Thai restaurant and a Korean barbecue place.
The Falls Church City Council approved a plan last June laying out a vision for reinvestment in a 10-block area that includes the Eden Center. That plan would serve as a guide in case landowners want to pursue redevelopment.
The planning process raised objections from members of the local Vietnamese community who worried businesses would be forced out. In response, the city council added language to discourage displacement.
Related story: City of Falls Church commits to preserving Vietnamese culture at the Eden Center
Capital Commercial Properties has no plans to demolish or redevelop the shopping center, says Frank. “We’re holding pretty true to our Vietnamese roots. Our goal is to continue it as a home for the Vietnamese American community forever if we can.”
