Long After Being Told to Move, Aslin Beer Co. Still Fighting to Open New Home

It’s been nearly two years, and Aslin Beer Company is still waiting for approval to move into its planned tasting room and bar in Herndon.

The company is waiting on the Department of Public Works to approve grading plans as a deadline looms for the Heritage Preservation Review Board to consider approval of the project at its upcoming meeting next month.

In the summer of 2017, the brewery was told it would have to leave the Town of Herndon due to the limitations of its current space (257 Sunset Park Drive). So Aslin found a new home at 771 Elden Street, which was the location of the former Napa Auto Parts, and planned to open the Aslin Tasting House later that year, Reston Now previously reported.

Originally, the new location planned to have 2,500 square feet of interior tasting room space and another 2,500 square feet of outdoor space — including a rooftop deck and bar, bocce ball court and covered deck.

Then last year on Dec. 10, Aslin resubmitted plans with a revised design that include terrace seating and a rooftop bar.

Herndon’s Heritage Preservation Review Board held a work session last Wednesday (Jan. 2) that included discussion on the redesign and amendments, which the board had previously approved.

Ira Saul, an attorney representing Aslin, “stated no additional structural changes would be made, other than the removal of the cantilevered deck area on the second floor and removing the exterior stairway for an internalized stairwell to the second floor,” according to draft minutes from the meeting.

Saul said that a second-floor fireplace with a stone veneer, second-floor rain screens and a second-floor overhead trellis near the rear of the building that appeared to have been removed from the submitted design would be included in future drawings. Additionally, the two different color schemes in the submission will get clarified in the future to have just one color scheme.

Board Member Ossolinski requested that the formal application submission include perspective color renderings of the structure — as had been provided during the original case review and subsequent approval — to help clarify the differences between the new and the revised design.

Once the Department of Public Works approves the grading plans — a prerequisite to Heritage Preservation Review Board approval — the beer company will be able to submit the final application by the Jan. 14 deadline for the board’s February meeting.

Aslin Beer Company declined to comment for the article.

“The town remains committed to working with Aslin’s owners through this process,” Anne Curtis, the chief communications officer for the Town of Herndon, told Reston Now.

Images via Google Maps and the Town of Herndon