Let’s Go Caps …

The Caps beat up on the Bruins tonight winning 4-1 in this preseason matchup.  The win kept our Caps (4-0) perfect in the preseason.  Nicklas Backstrom scored 2 goals in the win.  Ahh, it’s so nice to have a winning team like the Caps to keep our spirits high.

Stop into any V5 location this NHL season, Rock the Red, and catch ALL the Caps games as they push for bringing the Cup to D.C.  Each Velocity Five Sports Restaurant location has over 40 HDTV’s, delicious food, drink specials and the best sports atmosphere in the area.  See why the Washington Post has called Velocity Five “The best sports restaurant to open in Northern Virginia in years…”

Nicklas Backstrom scored two goals in the Capitals' 4-1 preseason win over the Bruins at TD Garden Wednesday. (Getty Images)

Washington Business Journal Article About Velocity Five

 

Restaurateur says he has scored with Velocity Five 

November 21, 2008 by Missy Frederick Staff Reporter 

Velocity Five founder Jim Speros plans to open another branch of the sports-themed watering hole in the Clarendon/Courthouse area and begin franchising the concept in 2009. 

“I want to be the Morton’s of sports restaurants —but moderately priced.” 

That is how founder Jim Speros describes Velocity Five, the growing chain of sports restaurants he started earlier this year. The company is about to add a third location, but Speros is looking to franchise and license the operation next year and transform it into a national brand targeting a new unit every six months. 

“If you look at places like the Cheesecake Factory which has hundreds of locations, there’s no sports restaurant chain out there that has that kind of magnitude,” Speros said. 

The first Velocity Five opened in March in Falls Church, followed months later by one in Potomac Falls. Speros has a letter of intent signed for a third location in the Clarendon/Courthouse area of Arlington, though he would not reveal the exact location because a lease isn’t signed. He aims to have that location up and running by February. 

The Velocity Five venture is a return to his roots for Speros, who helped expand Marriott’s Champions sports bars from three to 37. It also combines trends from some of the entrepreneur’s other experiences, from being an assistant Redskins coach, an owner of the Baltimore Stallions (eventually the Montreal Alouettes), a chief executive of tech firm Sideware, and part of an unsuccessful effort to bring professional baseball to Northern Virginia. 

It was during that effort when Speros began to think harder about sports restaurants. He began envisioning for stadiums a sort of high-end version of a sports bar where food was taken more seriously and the atmosphere was more steakhouse, less generic pub. He and Jerry Burkot, another casualty of the baseball battle, decided to open Velocity Five together. 

The result is a restaurant with dark wood and leather furniture, granite bars, and one artist’s depictions of sports icons rather than an amalgam of memorabilia, though a few items from Speros’ personal collection are seen in a case up front. There is a semiprivate lounge for parties, a private room for board meetings and corporate parties for neighboring firms like Raytheon Co. in Falls Church, and some booths with individual flat- screen televisions so fans can watch the game of their choice (50 screens are scattered throughout the 7,500-square- foot Falls Church facility). The nonsmoking restaurant has a heated outdoor smoker’s lounge. There is even a sushi bar. 

Speros’ focus is on well-populated neighborhoods where he can insert a Velocity Five into a local shopping center and hopefully make it a neighborhood destination. He pays close attention to demographics, looking at studies that indicate, for example, the 2,000 businesses within a two-mile radius of Merrifield or the 30,000 households within two miles of Potomac Falls. He prefers moving into former restaurant space; the Falls Church spot cost $1.5 million to open, which Speros estimates would have been $3 million if he was starting from scratch, infrastructure-wise. 

Speros directly affiliated Velocity Five with the Redskins, bringing players in for charity causes and hosting themed events. He also installed Wi-Fi so fantasy sports teams can hold drafts and reached out to college alumni associations for game nights. 

His executive chef, Rolin Chinchilla, has more than 20 years of experience in food service, working for such organizations as the Great American Restaurants. He helps come up with items such as cilantro chicken wings and “pork wings” to add to the menu. 

Speros said he has been approached by several business owners in areas such as Centreville and Rockville interested in converting struggling restaurants into Velocity Five outposts. He has also been in early talks with officials from FedEx Field for a potential expansion there. 

“If I were trying to open 10 ‘Jim’s Steakhouses’, I could never do it,” he said. “Many people fail because they don’t have a concept.”

Washington Post Article About Velocity Five

 

NightLife

Where Redskins Football Is Off And Running 

Friday, August 29, 2008; Page WE06

The buzz: Not long ago, all a sports bar needed was a couple of satellite sports packages, flat-screen TVs showing the games, cold beers and a menu with decent wings and a good burger. Anything else — signed memorabilia, appearances by Redskins cheerleaders, trivia nights — was just gravy.

Not anymore.

The Crystal City Sports Pub set the bar high last year when it unveiled a new floor that was closer to a multiplex, with three enormous, high-definition projection screens. Then former Redskins superstar Lavar Arrington opened the Sideline Sports Bar, which boasts a scoreboard-style display and plenty of televisions. A packed happy hour and weekend parties with popular radio DJs have made it one of Prince George’s County’s hottest nightspots.

Now we have Velocity Five, the sports bar that moved into the Shark Club’s old Falls Church digs in March. It has more mahogany and inlaid wood than a downtown steakhouse. The 8,000-square-foot venue has with 50 high-definition TVs, leather couches and velvet rope areas. But all that flash doesn’t hide the fact that Velocity Five is, at its heart, a place for Redskins fans.

The scene: Velocity Five is the creation of Jim Speros, an assistant coach on the Redskins’ 1982 championship-winning team and a partner in the Champions sports bar chain. Though Speros left RFK Stadium to work for several other teams, there’s no doubt where Velocity Five’s loyalty lies. “We’re always partial to the Redskins,” says manager Rigo Lagdameo, “so when the ‘Skins are on, we’ll have half of the TVs on the Redskins and half on all the other games.”

This Thursday, when the Jim Zorn era begins at the Meadowlands, the screens will be dominated by the burgundy and gold. Afterward, the postgame Redskins radio show, hosted by John Riggins, will broadcast live on ESPN 980 AM from Velocity Five’s restaurant area.  Since the game starts at 7 (during Velocity Five’s popular $3 happy hour), crowds are expected. In other words, get there early.

For the rest of the season, Velocity Five will show every NFL game. (Ask at the front desk where you should sit to see certain telecasts.) While the row of screens behind the bar will broadcast all the live action, the main lounge and barroom is prime territory. Eight large U-shaped booths face individual entertainment centers adorned with their own large TV.  It’s not just football that’s keeping sports fans coming in: Velocity Five has been organizing well-attended parties for Mixed Martial Arts and Ultimate Fighting Championship bouts. At one event in August, hosted by Big O and Dukes from WJFK, there were no seats left about an hour before the matches started. Lagdameo says that more fight-watching events will take place in October and that reservations are allowed for groups of eight or more.

Even when there’s not a big game on, Velocity Five is a good place to hang out. The bilingual bartenders banter with a diverse cast of regulars in English and Spanish while baseball and ESPN play silently on screens behind the bar.

In your glass: Expect cold pints of American beer, and Velocity Five offers a short martini menu. The mojitos are good outside happy hour, but during the rush they’re hurriedly prepared and can taste like it.

On your plate: The menu has a large list of chicken wings, including blue-cheese-drenched Kentucky Derby, Jamaican jerk spices and just-plain-hot Buffalo Bill’s Spicy. 
Price points: Happy hour runs until 8 Monday through Friday, and the list of $3 cocktails ranges from ’70s classics (the Fuzzy Navel) to ’00s trends (mojitos) along with such standards as margaritas. The drinks aren’t world-class, but they’re good value.

The real steal is the $3 draft beers; the selection includes Pilsner Urquell, Yuengling, Blue Moon, Miller Lite — everything but Guinness. Daily food specials include half-price burgers on Mondays, and on Fridays, plates of wings are half-off.

Need to know: Velocity Five boasts on its Web site that it’s two blocks to the Dunn Loring Metro station, and although that might be technically true, it’s a long, lonely walk at night past a boarded-up travel agency, a shuttered Pizza Hut, an industrial park, a garden supply center and apartment complexes.

Also, although the bar is listed as being on Lee Highway, Velocity Five is around the back of the shopping center, next to a Korean supermarket and a Virginia ABC store. Parking is plentiful.

Nice to know: There’s an outdoor smoking area that’s a section of the strip mall’s wide sidewalk, cordoned off with benches and shrub-filled planters. Unfortunately, there’s no TV outside to keep track of the game.