SPORTS: The Forest Park boys basketball team is having another big year. PAGES 9, 10
February 1, 2024 | Vol. 23, No. 5 | www.princewilliamtimes.com | $1.00 Covering Prince William County and surrounding communities, including Gainesville, Haymarket, Dumfries, Occoquan, Quantico and the cities of Manassas and Manassas Park.
Microtransit offers on-demand trips — for free By Shannon Clark and Jill Palermo Times Staff Writers
PHOTO BY DAYNA SMITH
Lauren and Jared Fisher visit Old Busthead Brewery in Vint Hill with their two young daughters.
Keeping business brewing
As market tightens, local breweries must find their niche By Dayna Smith
Special to the Fauquier Times
In an increasingly crowded Virginia craft beer market, breweries aim to survive by finding ways to be different, embracing and doubling down on the niches they fit best. The result is good for the beer consumer in the sense that there is something for everyone — from crowded bars with live music and dancing to a quiet taproom offering Sunday brunch with a friend. Want a place to play a game of Old Maid with your kids? There is a brewery for that, too. Consider these different scenes,
all within a 30-minute drive: • In Manassas, one of the hottest entertainment complexes in the area is 2 Silos Brewing Co., and it was rollicking on a recent evening. People of all ages — babies to baby boomers — were packed into the long communal tables. A musician was singing, the tune struggling to compete with all the crackling conversation. • A bit north in Haymarket, two friends with dogs caught up over a couple of “Jazzercise the Demons” hard seltzers at Trouvaille Brewing Company. At another table, a man sipped and swiped — a “Data Center” lager in one hand, iPhone in the other. Trouvaille, built into a former elementary school, is the
opposite of 2 Silos — a nanobrewery in a studio-sized space with a small-town cafe vibe. • At Old Busthead Brewery in Vint Hill on a recent Saturday, the taproom was lively. Lauren and Jared Fisher were there with their two young daughters playing Old Maid. They moved to the area four months ago from Florida. “We’re originally from New York, and I would go out to breweries with my girlfriends on Fridays,” Lauren Fisher said. “Our neighbors recommended this place, so we came here with the girls. It feels a little bit like cheating. We get to have a little bit of fun, and they get to have fun.” See BREWERIES, page 4
Should Manassas Drive be ‘Park Boulevard’ in Manassas Park? page 3
It’s been about a year since OmniRide launched its first “microtransit” vans in Manassas Park, Dumfries and Quantico, and the service is slowing gaining popularity among residents. Drivers Jamal Hageb and Antwan Kiett say lots of new riders book trips every day alongside their usual customers. Their “regulars,” as both Kiett and Hageb call them, vary in both age and how they use the service. There’s a woman who lives in the apartments behind Target on Va. 234 who uses microtransit to get to her church in Dumfries on Sundays. There’s a man who books rides to his job at the Holiday Inn Express from his apartment off Richmond Highway. Other folks call for rides to jobs at Rosie’s Gaming Emporium, IHOP and Target, Kiett and Hageb said. “These are people who do not have cars. Unlike in D.C., you really need a car to get around here,” Hageb said. “So, they call us when they want to go shopping at Walmart, Food Lion or Target — or if they need to go to work.” OmniRide is perhaps best known for its fleet of blue buses that shuttle workers to Metro stations and major employment centers in Washington, D.C., and Northern Virginia. Another fleet of green buses travels local routes that serve See OMNIRIDE, page 2
PHOTO BY JILL PALERMO
OmniRide microtransit driver Antwan Kiett waits for a rider outside the Target on Va. 234 in Dumfries.
Bob & Edith’s Diner opens in Manassas, page 5
NOW OPEN GoWell URGENT CARE Stonebridge at Potomac Town Center 14900 Potomac Town Center Woodbridge, VA. 22191
www.GoWellUrgentCare.com
Come see why over 2,200 patients have given GoWell Urgent Care five-star Google reviews!
88 DULLES, VA