Some kitchens in this county are cafeterias several floors up in an office building. Plenty of others are small restaurants with a back door onto a strip-center parking lot. The equipment in both is mostly the same. In a high-rise, though, the tech might need a badge and the freight elevator before they’re anywhere near it.
Kitchens inside office towers and hotels
Around Tysons, Reston and Herndon, many kitchens belong to office cafeterias and hotels, or to restaurants on the ground floor of a high-rise. The condensing unit might be up on the roof or in a mechanical room down in the garage. If you’re calling about one of these, tell us where the loading dock is and whether the tech has to check in with building security. That way nobody’s stuck for half an hour at the front desk.
Strip centers and independent restaurants
A big part of the county’s food business is in strip centers: Little River Turnpike in Annandale, the Route 28 and Route 29 centers in Centreville, Old Keene Mill and Backlick Road in Springfield. Many are small independent places, including Korean and other international restaurants, bakeries and markets. Kitchens like that lean on reach-ins and prep tables, and the condenser coils on those usually sit low, right where grease and flour settle. A clogged coil is cheap to clean, and our post on condenser coils shows you how to check yours.
Warehouse space out by the airport
Near Dulles, Chantilly has flex and warehouse space, some of it food distribution. Lorton and Newington have light industrial areas too. Big freezer boxes have their own habits, mostly around defrost and door heaters, and the walk-in freezer page goes into those.
Inspections come from the Fairfax County Health Department, and that’s true inside the City of Fairfax as well.
For the details on a particular town, see Fairfax, Herndon, Reston, Tysons or Springfield. Falls Church, Vienna, McLean, Burke and Lorton are covered as well.
