JV's Restaurant

J V's Restaurant is a Falls Church and Fairfax County, Virginia institution that evolved from a strip mall eatery, founded in October 1947, into one of the Washington, D.C. region's premiere locations for live music, without losing its rustic atmosphere. [http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?node=cityguide/profile&id=797886&lat=38.8701000&lon=-77.1749000&displaySearchTerm=&displaySearchLocation=&cat JV's Restaurant: Bars & Clubs in Falls Church, VA on washingtonpost.com's City Guide ] ] Its slogan is "Ageless Charm Without Yuppie Bastardization". Located on Arlington Boulevard, Route 50, just west of Annandale Road, J V's has provided a venue for live music for well over four decades. In 2004, the Wammies, governed by the Washington Area Music Association, presented J V's with a special award, voted on by the participating Washington-region musicians, the Special Appreciation Award as their favorite live venue. [ [http://www.wamadc.com/wama/special.html Washington Area Music Association (WAMA) ] ]

History

Founded in the immediate post-World War II years by brothers Louis and George Dross who, as a Greek resistance fighter against the German forces, was captured and held as a prisoner-of-war for 18 months, emigrated to the United States with his wife shortly after that conflict's conclusion, with the establishment always maintaining a strong support for POWs/MIAs.

Originally a small diner operation located in an undeveloped area of Fairfax County in the Jefferson Village Shopping Center, it was named the Jefferson Restaurant, as were all businesses in the art-deco strip mall (i.e. Jefferson Barber, Jefferson Bakery) after the adjacent infant neighborhood on the northwest corner of Route 50 and Annandale Road. Local Falls Church phone numbers in that era all began 532- or 533-, JEfferson 2 or JEfferson 3. The restaurant's original number was JE2-2222. A movie house, added to the complex next to the restaurant in 1948, would be named the Jefferson Theatre. [The Washington Post, Weekend, November 28, 1997,page 22.]

Proprietor George Dross's past experience as a foreign national prisoner-of-war proved an attraction for military personnel from Fort Myer who would drive the five miles from Arlington County, also on Route 50. Eddie Fisher, later a Hollywood celebrity, would motor west to have breakfast with the proprietor and chew the fatFact|date=July 2008. (From 1952 to 1953, Fisher was the official vocal soloist for The United States Army Band (Pershing's Own) and a tenor section member in the United States Army Band Chorus (an element of Pershing's Own) assigned at Fort Myer.)

By the late 1950s, the restaurant had become a place for live performances by local artists who would drop by and jam. It changed its name formally to J V's Restaurant in the early 1960s, after the Jefferson Village Shopping Center, and formalized the schedule for live music performances about 1980. Prior to that, it had been mostly open-mike. Many musicians, famous and not-yet-famous, have appeared over the years, including members of Patsy Cline's band, the Country Gentlemen, the Seldom Scene, Tony Rice, Roy Clark, Catfish Hodge, Billy Hancock, and various members of such bands as Molly Hatchet, Eric Clapton, Blackfoot, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Rod Stewart, and Willie Nelson's Ungrateful Bastards. [The Washingtonian, February 2002, pages 34, 121.]

An attempt was made to secure a liquor license in the 1960s, but Virginia laws proscribing the exact size of tables in said-licensed establishments were missed by fraction of inches, and the management said the heck with it, and it has remained a beer joint to the current day.

This latter day honky-tonk pays regular homage to the military, and hosts participants in the annual Rolling Thunder motorcycle gathering in honor of POWs and MIAs. ["Rolling Thunder", The Official Rolling Thunder Magazine, May 23-26, 2008, May 2008, Volume VIII, Washington Thunder Washington, DC, Inc., Winchester, Virginia] Several local musicians have composed songs about the establishment and Lorraine Campbell, the current owner, and daughter of the founders.

References

External links

* http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/cityguide/profile?id=797886&p=print
* http://www.jvsrestaurant.com/index.php
* http://www.myspace.com/jvsrestaurant