It’s the first nice Friday evening of the year, and David Saville is smiling as he tends his grill.  “Put another fresh dip in a hot lick on another rack of ribs. Ring that bell,” Saville shouts, as Ed “Woody” Woodard of the Mason Neck Lions rings the bell.  Saville takes a rack of ribs that were cooked in his workhorse “cater car,” dips it in a vat of barbecue sauce made from the recipe that his late father formulated, and freshens it on the grill. Hence, the dip in a “hot lick.” Friday is the only night of the week that American Bar-B-Que & Catering is open for dinner. Saville teams up with…

A more fitting name for Father & Son Seafood these days may be Husband & Wife Seafood, but no matter who’s frying the fish, this longtime Lorton restaurant remains a popular destination for seafood lovers. Diners come from as far away as Fredericksburg for such staples as fish and chips, steamed shrimp and fresh crabs in season, said Jung Cho, who owns the restaurant with her husband, Kye. The Chos took over the carryout restaurant in 2001 from the father and son who opened it in the Gunston Plaza Shopping Center in 1989. Jung Cho said they kept the name because everyone already knew the …

It’s not a stretch to say that Polo Grill was the only sit-down, full-service restaurant in Lorton for a long time. That’s not the case anymore with the transformation of the Lorton area in the last decade, but Polo Grill’s owners say growth is good for everyone. Mike Kiros and Archie Zaro have been running Polo Grill since 2008, taking over from Alexandria restaurateur Ralph Davis, who had run it since 1991. Polo Grill was opened in 1989 by American Bar-B-Que & Catering, which is still operates on Telegraph Road in Lorton. Not much has changed on the outside of the Gunston Plaza Shopping …

It was just a mound of dirt in a part of Fairfax County he considered to be an “armpit.” But to David Abella, it was the perfect place to build the Italian restaurant he had always dreamed of. Out of that dirt rose Pane e Vino, which opened in January 2007 and appears to be the best known restaurant in up-and-coming Lorton Station Town Center. The Italian restaurant added a wine room at the end of 2008 and a wine bar late last year. It was popular from the start. And even as neighboring restaurants were closing because of the poor  economy, Pane e Vino had to expand because customers were …