Merrifield doesn’t announce itself. It sits quietly between Falls Church and Fairfax, easy to drive past on Route 29 without realizing how much is packed into a few square miles. But spend a day here and you’ll understand why locals rarely feel the need to leave — there’s a walkable town center, a Metro stop, green space, live music, and one property on Lee Highway where two very different restaurants share a building.
Here’s how we’d spend a day in our own neighborhood.
Lunch at Open Road
Start at Open Road Merrifield, 8100 Lee Highway. This is where Metropolitan Hospitality Group opened the very first Open Road back in 2013, and more than a decade later it’s still the neighborhood spot people bring their families to. Doors open at 11 a.m. on weekdays and 10:30 on weekends.
The room reads Americana — wood floors, wood tables, and a long bar that anchors the space. Come as you are, suit or shorts. The kitchen sources seasonal ingredients and puts out hearty, shareable food: the Open Road Burger with Tillamook cheddar and an onion ring, blackened or fried mahi tacos with cabbage jalapeño slaw, Peruvian spiced half chicken off the wood grill, wagyu meatball sliders, and classic wings with ten sauces to choose from. There’s a full pizza menu too, and on weekends brunch runs until 3 p.m. — challah French toast with crispy corn flakes, huevos rancheros, steak and eggs.
The covered patio on the side of the building is dog-friendly and comfortable in most weather, and it’s where trivia happens on Tuesday nights from 7 to 9.
If lunch calls for a cocktail, this is where our own spirits come in. Every cocktail at Open Road is built on spirits from Open Road Distilling Co., our distillery in Reston Town Center. The Cucumber G&T uses our American Gin with salted cucumber and orange bitters. The OR Crush is built on orange-infused American Vodka. The Bourbon Smash leans on Independence Bourbon. And the Maple Old Fashioned is made with Eagle Eye Rye that’s been aged in white oak barrels for three weeks before it ever reaches the glass.
That’s the difference: none of these are made with whatever a distributor delivered. They’re made with something we produced ourselves.
Worth knowing — happy hour runs Monday through Friday from 4 to 7, and Open Road Distilling Co. bourbon, rye, gin, and vodka are $8 the whole time. There’s also a different special every weeknight from 4 p.m. on: burger night Monday, $1 oysters Tuesday until they run out, wing night Wednesday, keg-clearing pint deals Thursday, and a fish fry Friday.
Afternoon: Explore the Neighborhood
Right next door to our property, Merrifield Garden Center has been an area institution for decades. Even if you’re not shopping for anything, it’s a genuinely pleasant place to wander through on a nice afternoon — greenhouses, display gardens, and a scale most people don’t expect until they’ve been.
From there, Merrifield’s town center — the Mosaic District — sits about a mile away and is easily walkable from the Dunn Loring–Merrifield Metro station. The 31-acre development is built around a two-acre green where people picnic, kids run around, and dogs generally run the show. It’s a good place to spend an afternoon on foot.
The Angelika Film Center anchors one corner of the green and is one of the better arthouse cinemas in the region — worth checking the schedule if the weather turns. In summer, Films in the Park runs Thursday evenings on the lawn, and Mosaic LIVE brings free outdoor concerts on Saturday evenings. Strawberry Park was also added to Fairfax County’s Arts in the Parks series for 2026. On Sundays, the FRESHFARM Mosaic Market runs year-round at District Avenue and Strawberry Lane.
If you want to get farther out, the Washington & Old Dominion Trail runs just north of the neighborhood — 45 miles of paved trail and one of the best assets in the region for an afternoon walk or ride. Meadowlark Botanical Gardens and the trails around Vienna are a short drive up, and Falls Church City is ten minutes east.
Dinner at TRIO Grill
Come dinner, you don’t have to go far — you don’t even have to leave the property. TRIO Grill shares the building at 8100 Lee Highway with Open Road, and it’s an entirely different experience.
When we built these two restaurants side by side, the goal was two great concepts that didn’t compete with each other. Each has its own scratch kitchen and its own identity. Open Road is casual, loud in the best way, and built for groups. TRIO is where you go for a date night, a business dinner, or an occasion worth dressing for.
The room feels like a classic American grill — dark wood, leather seating, an indoor fireplace, comfortable booths, and an outdoor patio with a fire pit. The menu leans into steaks and fresh seafood: beef carpaccio with truffle aioli and gaufrette potatoes, soy-glazed pork belly with cucumber wakame salad, blue bay mussels in spicy tomato sauce with truffled garlic bread, tuna tartare nachos on wonton chips. The wine list has earned its reputation, and Northern Virginia Magazine readers named TRIO a runner-up for Best Modern American Restaurant in the 2026 Best of NoVA poll.
The cocktail program is where the two restaurants meet. TRIO’s list is built on the same Open Road Distilling Co. spirits pouring next door, just taken somewhere more refined. The Espresso Martini — vanilla-infused American Vodka with Mr. Black coffee liqueur, house-brewed espresso, and an espresso foam — is one of the most-ordered drinks at the bar. The TRIO Manhattan is built on Eagle Eye Rye with Carpano Antica and barrel-aged bitters. The Barrel Aged Maple Old Fashioned uses the same rye with maple and two kinds of Angostura. The Bee’s Knees pairs our American Gin with Drambuie and honey. There’s also an Independence Bourbon cocktail with Aperol, Ancho Reyes Verde, and a house-made passionfruit shrub.
Same distillery, same four spirits, completely different expression from the ones you had at lunch. That’s the thing no other restaurant group in Northern Virginia can do.
The bar opens daily at 4 p.m. The dining room and patio open at 5 Monday through Thursday and at 4 Friday through Sunday, with happy hour Sunday through Friday from 4 to 7. Live piano plays Wednesday and Thursday from 6 to 8 and Friday and Saturday from 5 to 9 — a baby grand, not a playlist. And TRIO houses Merrifield’s only cigar lounge, which is exactly the kind of thing you don’t expect to find on Route 29.
Late Night: Back Across the Building
If the night’s still going, walk back over to Open Road. Live music runs Thursday through Saturday from 7 to 10 — the current lineup is posted on the Merrifield page — and the bar keeps a deep whiskey and bourbon selection alongside a craft beer list that leans heavily local, with pours from Virginia and D.C. breweries.
It’s a rare thing to be able to start a day with lunch and end it with live music without moving your car. That was the idea from the beginning.
Getting Here
Both restaurants are at 8100 Lee Highway, Falls Church, VA 22042 — on Route 29, just east of Gallows Road, next to Merrifield Garden Center. There’s a dedicated parking lot on site, plus additional parking after 5 p.m. daily at 2843 Hartland Road, directly across from the Sunoco station. The Dunn Loring–Merrifield Metro station on the Orange Line is a short trip away.
Reserve a table at Open Road or book at TRIO Grill. And if the cocktails leave an impression, our distillery is worth the drive out to Reston — Open Road Distilling Co. offers daily tastings and bottles to take home.
Follow along @drinkopenroad to see what’s pouring.
Open Road Merrifield and TRIO Grill are part of Metropolitan Hospitality Group, a locally owned restaurant group operating across Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C. since 2005. Both restaurants pour spirits from Open Road Distilling Co. in Reston Town Center.
