West Falls Turns One: How October at the Commons Got a Weekly Rhythm

"And this is the Little City growing up," Mayor Letty Hardi said under a tent on the Commons at West Falls on Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025. The ribbon-cutting went ahead in a drizzle, and the lawn was already decorated with pumpkins for the development's first Fall Festival that Sunday.

A year later, the Commons has a schedule you can plan around. Free events at the park run on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays all October. On Oct. 1, the anniversary week, a restaurant opened facing that lawn with hours that cover the whole schedule. Several storefronts are still marked "coming soon." The programming is fully running, and some of the retail is still on its way.

The week, as scheduled

The developer, Hoffman & Associates, described the Commons from the start as an 18,000-square-foot green space with seating, flexible gathering areas and a fire pit for free events year-round. West Falls' fall announcement lists free outdoor live music, movie nights, football watch parties and fitness classes for September and October. Here is October:

The Friday lineup is posted. Mike Leverone plays Oct. 2, Josh Walker Oct. 9, James Stevens Oct. 16, Matt Davis Oct. 23, and James Stevens again on Oct. 30. The Oct. 3 watch party shows games on a large screen and has a bar pop-up on site. The Falls Church Independent's Sept. 17 roundup gives 7 p.m. for both movies. West Falls' own event pages say 7:30 p.m., and those pages are the better guide.

The announcement covers programming only through October. It mentions fitness classes but gives no dates for them. If you're planning past Halloween, keep an eye on the West Falls events pages instead of assuming the series continue.

The newest tenant keeps the Commons' hours

Best Buns Bakery & Burgers opened Thursday, Oct. 1, at 265 W. Falls Station Blvd. The News-Press placed it "at Commons Park in West Falls." The original Best Buns opened in 1995 at 4010 Campbell Ave. in Shirlington, and the chain also has locations in Springfield and Tysons. Falls Church is its fourth. It is also the first Best Buns with outdoor rooftop seating, serving cocktails, wine and draft beer above a downstairs grab-and-go counter with pastries, coffee and sandwiches.

ARLnow reports that Best Buns is open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily. The Friday music ends at 9 p.m., and so did the Oct. 3 watch party. A bakery counter that opens at 7 a.m. with a bar upstairs until 9 p.m. covers every hour the park is programmed, from a morning pastry through the end of the last set. The drink list fits an evening on the lawn: margaritas, mojitos, espresso martinis, a limoncello spritz, a pale ale, a lager, an IPA, and chardonnay, pinot grigio and prosecco. The breakfast menu includes bacon, egg and cheese sandwiches and sausage, egg and cheese biscuits.

Jon Norton, CEO of Great American Restaurants, which owns Best Buns, mentioned a local tie when he announced the opening. His high school basketball coach, Jim Smith, now coaches at Meridian High School, next door to West Falls.

The tenant roster is still filling in

Many West Falls storefronts are already open. The directory lists Honoo Ramen Bar, Ice Cream Jubilee, Seoul Spice, Mason's Famous Lobster Rolls, BurgerFi, City Dance, Levine Music, Perspire Sauna Studio and Casabella Salon. Honoo has been open since June 2025, so the ramen bar is older than the ribbon-cutting. BurgerFi's own location page lists hours for 168 W. Falls Station Blvd.

The tenants labeled "coming soon" in the April 2026 version of the West Falls directory are the ones that would bring the most new daily traffic:

• The Fresh Market, 101 Haycock Road. It was announced in 2024 as the development's flagship grocer, targeting "by mid-2026." In January 2026, ARLnow called it the city's next expected grocery opening. The West Falls directory still listed it as coming soon in April. Opening reports conflict, and we found no local news coverage confirming an opening date, so check with the store before you plan a grocery run.
• Dok Khao, 180 W. Falls Station Blvd. This Southern Thai restaurant and café was first announced for August 2025. A DC Spot report from Aug. 1, 2026, gives a fall 2026 window with no specific day.
• La'Baik, listed with no address or date.
• IMAGE Studios, 7136 Leesburg Pike, and Signature Orthodontics, 7141 Magnolia St., both without dates.

This list shows how much of West Falls is still unfinished. The ribbon-cutting celebrated the near completion of Phase I of three mixed-use projects planned between West Broad Street and the West Falls Church Metro Station. A grocer would make the Commons a weekday errand stop, and local news hasn't yet reported that opening. Until it does, Thursday, Friday and Saturday events are what bring people to the park.

Broad Street's year went differently

The changes downtown came through existing storefronts. Wonder opened on Sept. 3 at 100 W. Broad St., in the former Brown's Hardware. It brings together menus from The Mainstay by Marc Murphy, Tejas Barbecue, Alanza, Royal Greens and Limesalt in one order for dine-in, takeout or delivery. A City of Falls Church notice in March had scheduled a grand opening for April 2, so the opening came about five months later than planned.

A few blocks east, Little Beast opened in late April at 119 E. Broad St. It's a family-friendly pizzeria serving Detroit-style and deck-oven pizzas. At Founders Row, The Cheese Cartel opened in spring at 922 W. Broad St., and Lil' Cakes & Creamery opened Sept. 11 at 120 Founders Ave. Lil' Cakes is the chain's seventh DMV location.

September also brought two changes at long-running local spots. Preservation Biscuit Co. at 102 E. Fairfax St. served its last biscuits on Sunday, Sept. 27, after five and a half years. Owner Tricia Barba also organized and handled publicity for recent Falls Church Foodie Treks and the Falls Church Summer Restaurant Week. In 2021, The Washington Post put the shop's Prime Time, a biscuit with shaved prime rib, on its list of the area's 25 best sandwiches. Thomas Harvey has sold Harvey's on West Broad, which he opened in March 2022. He wrote that "Harvey's will stay Harvey's" and that his staff are staying on under the new owners, Andy, Parul and Sam.

The News-Press put the Harvey's sale in the same story as three new arrivals: Wonder, Lil' Cakes and Best Buns. Of those three, only Best Buns opened next to a lawn that already had an October event schedule.

Getting there and parking

The main limit on a Friday night at the Commons is parking. ARLnow describes parking at West Falls as limited. West Falls lists two garages: Garage B on Cardinal Lane and Garage A/D at 370 Mustang Alley. The two sources disagree on Garage B's street number, so use the West Falls getting-here page before you go. Operator ABM lists Garage B as open 24/7 at these rates, as of its August 2026 page:

• Up to 1 hour: $5
• 1 to 2 hours: $7
• 2 to 3 hours: $10
• 3 to 12 hours: $14
• 12 to 24 hours: $18

The only validation offer we found is from Best Buns, which validates 90 minutes of free parking. A three-hour Friday music set runs into the $10 tier, and an all-day watch party goes past the three-hour mark into the $14 tier. West Falls was planned around transit, with the West Falls Church Metro Station and access to I-66 and I-495. For a Saturday of football, the Metro or a walk may be simpler than the garage.

At Vassar Broermann Group, we keep track of things like which West Falls storefronts are still marked coming soon and which Broad Street spots have changed hands, because those details shape everyday life in the Little City. If you'd like to know how a year of changes along West Broad Street and at the Commons might affect your home's value, ask us for a free home valuation and a candid conversation.