Business news and notes for Apri 24 – April 30, 2008.

Dogwood Tavern is opening Thursday, April 24 at 132 W. Broad Street in Falls Church.  The new casual dining restaurant will serve slightly southern American fare including a raw bar. While Dogwood Tavern is in the space previously occupied by Broad Street Tavern, owners Chris Lefbom, Adam Lubar and Wilson Whitney have made dramatic improvements and changes to the interior and have added outdoor seating in the back. Entertainment will include live acoustic music and sports on large flat screen televisions. Lefbom, Lubar and Whitney also own and operate Ragtime www.ragtimerestaurant.com) and Rhodeside Grill (www.rhodesidegrill.com).

 Argia’s is hosting a book signing with Falls Church resident Cathy Taylor from 3 – 5 p.m. on Sunday, April 27. Taylor has recently published a visual history of Maryland’s lighthouses as part of Arcadia Publishing’s “Images of America” series. Taylor founded Historical Place Preservation to promote the conservation of lighthouses and she and her husband recently renovated the historic DePutron-Wollenberg House on Lincoln Avenue where they reside. Books will be available for purchase for $20 at the signing. Proceeds from the books will to the restoration efforts at the Craighill Channel Lower Range Front Lighthouse. Visit www.craighillrange.org. Argia’s is located at 124 N. Washington Street in Falls Church – www.argias.com.

Famous Footwear is opening a retail store in Idylwood Plaza. Famous Footwear offers brand name shoes for the entire family on the web and in their more than 800 stores nationwide. A date has not been released regarding their opening. For more information about the discount shoe store, visit http://www.famousfootwear.com.

Sonic Soft Car Wash in Falls Church is now offering nonprofits the opportunity to earn 50% of the cost of prepaid wash books including their new Everyday Wash Pass. To learn more about this offer, contact Louis Kim at Louiskim@sonicsoftcarwash.com. Sonic Soft, located at 1050 W. Broad Street in Falls Church, is a full service car wash that offers cleaning of both the interior and exterior of a vehicle. For more information about Sonic Soft visit www.sonicsoftcarwash.com.

 Event Solutions, the Falls Church-based full service event management company, is now offering car and truck detailing. For information call Dan Greenwood at 703-477-9242.

 Falls Church-based SmithGifford and Quorvis Communications have teamed up to create "Sheep," a :30 television spot, designed to promote the Virginia Lottery's Tax Free Million scratch game. Like all Virginia Lottery products, proceeds from the ticket benefit the state's K-12 public school system. The commercial began airing in April, features a "creative" accountant who tries to maximize his client's deductions classifying his home as a farm and his sheep as dependents. For the lucky winner of the Virginia Lottery's top prize, however, taxes will be paid by the Lottery and a $1,000,000 check will be presented to the lottery winner. SmithGifford is an award-winning full-service advertising agency with a number of high-profile regional and national clients including Roy Rogers, AOL, Discovery Channel Stores, Virginia Lottery, Centex Homes, American Trucking Associations, SourceFire, Voxant, Approva, Titan America and Brown's Car Stores. For more information or to view the ad, contact Matt Smith at msmith@smithgifford.com and visit the agency's website www.smithgifford.com.

 A film by GVI, where Falls Church's Bob Burnett is VP/Creative Director, "Stop the Aerial Hunting of Wolves in Alaska", received the Grand Remi Award; the top honor at the Worldfest-Houston International Film Festival this past weekend. WorldFest is one of the oldest and largest film & video competitions in the world, with more than 4,500 category entries received from 37 countries for this year's competition. "Stop the Aerial Hunting of Wolves in Alaska" was produced for Defenders of Wildlife and received its first award recognition at the Falls Church Film Festival, where it received the Best Documentary Award. For more information about the Washington DC based GVI, visit www.g-v-i.com.

 The Falls Church News-Press was recently recognized as being the “Best Remnant of the Liberal Media” by the Washington City Paper in its "Best of D.C." edition, April 18, 2008. Visit www.washingtoncitypaper.com/bestof/2008/ to view the entire issue.

The Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation and the Falls Church Housing Corporation have both joined the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce’s Coalition in support of mixed use development projects and the policies and procedures in place to review such projects. The Coalition is against the Charter Change referendum which would restrict residential units to no more than 40% of any development project on commercially zoned property because it would deny flexibility by decision makers to review projects based on market conditions, citizen input, and the needs of the City. The referendum will appear on City ballots May 6th. Groups interested in joining this Coalition can contact the Chamber office at 703-532-1050 or email sally@fallschurchchamber.org.