Restaurant Eve

[Chef Shogun]

*Bonus points for those who can figure out the significance of the phone number.

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I've already wasted, like, 2 whole minutes staring at the keypad on my phone, YOU EVIL MAN.

Obsessive? me?

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The Way of the Samurai is one of immediacy. Just glad I used the payphone in the lobby.

[mojito]

Hello, you've reach Restaurant Eve. Please listen carefully to the following options as our menu has changed. For reservations, press 1, for a description of today's specials, press 2, for directions, press three, for hours of operation, press 4, to complain about the food or service, please call 1-800-256-9633.*

*Bonus points for those who can figure out the significance of the phone number.

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[FunJohnny]

Made my first foray to Restaurant Eve last night -- and I will attest it fulfilled every bit of the HYPE as far as this diner is concerned. The occasion was my daughter's B'day and she said she wanted to go somewhere "gourmet and French." Couldn't swing a reservation at Citronelle, despite the kind assistance of Mark Sommelier, but TThrasher came through brilliantly and evereything worked out perfectly. My little girl and I had the nine course tasting menu, and my wife, the five. Thanks to Todd who supplied the wine(s) for each course . Todd bemoaned the fact that it was a white wine kind of menu, but even though I'm a red wine guy, I loved the selections -- everything from a rather fruity riesling that was my starter, to the muscadet that Todd poured for the oyster/caviar course were excellent, and I received a good education of the old palette. I was proud of the fact that my daughter proved she was a chip off the ol'bloc by eating and loving everything with the exception of the caviar that came w/ the oyster onion in a pastry shell. The nice gifts provided by the management were inadvertantly left behind by the birthday girl --, hell she was sober and I most definitely was not by the time we rolled out at about 12:30. The funny irony of the evening was one of our servers turned out to be from the same town in Malaysia as my wife. How's that for six degrees...or is it seven?

Edited February 6, 2005 by FunJohnny (log)

[Walrus]

We ate at the bar at R.E. tonight -- yum, yum, yum. I started with the cauliflower and cheddar soup, with quince compote -- I admit to having been unsure about the quince addition, but then I tried it and wow. The flavors work off of each other in such unexpectedly beautiful ways! I followed with the chicken breast with spinach and baby potatoes. Please note that this is the first time in my life that I have preferred spinach to potatoes! And through no fault of the delicate spuds -- they were delish, but the spinach was perfect. It could simply not have been done any better in any way. Yum. The chicken was excellent as well -- the salty crust was addictive, and the flesh of the bird was lovely and tender. We split a side of the risotto (chanterelle [?] and duck) -- very nice, but the only nonstandout of the meal. Perfect as a side, however, which is perhaps the point! For dessert, I had for the first time ever my very own slice of birthday cake. They’ve tweaked the frosting again, and it was very, very good. Pink and sweet and just like my mom used to make -- seriously! A perfect play off the Cake Bible-esque firmness of the cake itself. I did end up trading a few slivers of cake for one of the fritters my partner in crime had ordered. I did not regret the transaction. The fritters were crisp and light and nicely flavored.

The two extraordinary cocktails that Todd, the genius that he is, was presenting were a Red Hot Passion and a Pear…umm…rats, I’ve lost the last word, but it had to be something like Pleasure, because it was…wow. Fermented pear and fermented ginger and at least two other things that have completely left my head because the scent of this drink alone would be enough to knock you loopy. Todd, if you ever launch that line of pear/ginger-scented bath products, I’m there! The Red Hot Passion was also lovely -- a cold beverage (I only got tastes of both these beverages, so please excuse my lack of ingredient information!) with a topping of hot passion fruit foam.

This was our first meal at the bar in R.E., and we had a grand old time. There were lots of lovely people, all enthralled by the food and drink, and it was, as always, a pleasure to chat briefly with Todd and Cathal. In one word? Outstanding!

[wmsmurray]

I was lucky enough to get called for jury duty for the City of Alexandria yesterday and then get struck from the jury pool. I'm guessing the defense attorney didn't like the fact that I was related to a law enforcement officer. Anyway, with $30 bucks (courtesy of the City of Alexandria) burning a hole in my pocket and it being only noon, I decided that lunch at Eve would be an ideal way to spend the early afternoon. I had been to Eve once before - my wife and I had dinner in the tasting room. Ever since then I had meant to come back and try the bistro. I am glad I did - everything was great. I decided to eat at the bar and there were only two other people there at the time, so it was quiet and the service was perfect. I had the pork belly and what a revelation! I've never had that dish before but reading about it here, I wanted to try it. The skin was perfectly crisped and browned, the meat was juicy, the layer of fat was just the right thickness and the sauce was (for lack of a better word) yummy. I have no idea what was in the sauce but it was such a perfect accompaniment to the pork and the veggies. I had a glass of pinot noir (OK - I had two) that fit perfectly with all the flavors. A great way to spend the afternoon. Thanks again all those at Eve for a wonderful experience.

[iamthestretch]

I got a taste of Todd's Red Hot Passion today, and I'm not ashamed to say that I liked it.

As mentioned above it's a bi-temperate concoction, with a warm layer of passion fruit foam, crushed Red Hots and ... this is the Flaming Mo moment ... cinnamon Altoids afloat atop a chilled syrup of hibiscus flowers steeped in sweet leaf tea and spiked with honey, vodka and some other good booze. When you drink it, you get hot sherbet in the top of your mouth and flowery punch in the bottom at the same time, which both delights the senses and befuddles the brain. Two of these would be worthy investment on any hot date, gents.

[Camille-Beau]

I'm not sure on which menu it will be posted (Bistro or Tasting) but keep an eye out for the killer cassoulet (note - not the official name :) Had a preview tasting of Cathal's creation of duck confit cassoulet topped with seared fois gras.... truly an amazing dish!!! Knowing that my my beloved Parsnip Soup with Sweetbreads and black truffle will be rotated off the menu eventually, I look foward to the addition of new dishes like this one. Another potential new addition would be the 'taters two ways (again, not an official name) Roasted fingerling potatoes -- one with butter & black truffles and another with creme fraiche and caviar... Yummy!

Restaurant Eve just keeps getting better and better!

[Camille-Beau]

Ok, time to head south to the bar at Eve... Cauliflower soup and pork belly confit, here we come :)

[JPW]

So there I was Saturday morning, preparing to go to work ( ); one sock on, crying baby under one arm, rooting through the closet for a shirt, and the phone begins ringing. Kicking myself for not plugging the upstairs phone back in, I manage to make down the stairs without falling or dropping anything. WHo the hell would be calling me at 9:07 on a Saturday? It was our fairy godmother, the Duchess of Duke Street, with an offer out of the blue to babysit Peanut that night. Once I hung up, I begin thinking, "Where do we want to go?". I somehow remembered that she lives 2 blocks from what used to be that dank repository of my power drinking friends, Santa Fe East. I think that some place called "Eve" now inhabits that spot.

So, at about 6 PM, Mrs JPW and I sidled up to the bar for our first taste of the Eve. Initially, I was too amazed at how much better the place looked to notice much else. Mrs JPW tucked into a glass of the Kimball Chardonnay while I started off with a glass of the Monastrell. We began with the oxtail ravioli for me and the smoked salmon for her. The ravioli was very good. I thought the filling was perfect, but unfortunately the pasta was slightly overcooked. Still very tasty though. I'm not a big salmon fan at all, but Mrs JPW loves the stuff. We both agreed that this was among the best we had ever had. Absolutely perfectly prepared and executed. The only drawback is that I think it works better as a tapas dish or happy hour snack than as a meal course.

For seconds, we had the confit of pork belly (me) and the game bird terrine (her). We both really enjoyed the terrine and its lovely combination and balance of flavors. The confit was orally orgasmic. Just spectacular. The accompanying braising liquid was just OK, but who could really care while inhaling that beautiful piece of pig.

I occasionally joke about opening a restaurant when I hit the lotto. Having enough cash in the bank so that I wouldn't really care if theplace made money and Mrs JPW has always laid claim to creating the dessert menu just so that she could have birthday cake whenever she wanted. As she reviewed her card, she exclaimed "Those bastards stole my idea!!!!". So a slice (actually more like a slab) of cake was in order. Result? One extremely happy mammy (and a happy mammy means a happy pappy). I had some lovely cheese and a glass of bourbon.

Nothing complex here. Just top notch ingredients prepared with excellence. With the one exception (an extremely minor one at that), the technical expertise of the kitchen staff really shone through.

PS - the coffee was pretty damn good.

[mdt]

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Hoping to be in bikini shape by the summer.

Joe Willey

That pork belly is a wonderful thing. I really do need to get back there.

Anyone else scared by his sig?

[bmiller]

I visited Eve for the first time late yesterday evening and had a pleasant dinner in the Bistro. Everything was more refined than I expected at the Bistro portion – service flowed smoothly, things were kept out of sight, and the area felt like a thirty seat room even though it’s got about twenty more than that.

I’d already decided to stick to cocktails, and started off with a Pickled Martini – it was pungent but excellent, with a cleaner and sharper taste than I had expected. The pickled air topping the drink (similar to Oyamel’s salt air margaritas) made a great textural contrast, but I wish there has been more of a taste contrast between the drink and the foam.

It took us a while to place our order, but we settled on the pork rillettes and the cauliflower and cheddar soup followed by a shad roe special entrée and the ribeye. I couldn’t have been happier with the starters – the rillettes with mustard on warm ciabatta were great with the martini as well as the accompaniments of cornichons and very tender pickled carrots. The soup was like velvet and delicious though a bit one-dimensional until hitting the quince compote, at which point it came alive like Frampton.

Rushing back to the drink menu before the entrees, I ordered an Eammon’s Cup (I think?), a combination of Irish red lemonade and whiskey with a couple of speared jellied discs taking the place of cherries. Even better than the picked martini, a very well balanced drink. Shad roe is always a joy, and this was very well prepared. The potato cake was a bit overbrowned at the edges, but the spinach accompaniment was perfectly cooked, so much so that the first taste was surprising.

Though sated at this point, it would have been a shame to leave without looking at the dessert menu, so we ended up with the banana cream pie and a cheese plate. I asked our server for a glass of sherry and he was kind enough to bring out smaller portions of two to better pair with the different cheeses. Unfortunately he paired both glasses with my jacket sleeve and then the floor. He quickly replaced them and cleaned up the broken glass but I was somewhat surprised to see the sherry on the bill at the end of the night given that there was no offer to pick up a dry cleaning tab either.

The cheeses were all great – I picked a Brinata, Midnight Moon (a domestic 1-year firm goat cheese), and Cashel Blue. The Brinata and Midnight Moon were a bit close in taste for a 3-cheese selection, but I was the one who picked them. They were both slightly sweet when eaten with the poached dried apricots. The Cashel Blue was in a class by itself – it was nicely mature and had been very well kept. I barely got a bit of the banana cream pie, but it tasted as good as it looked. Certainly a good experience overall, and the best meal I've had in Virginia since Maestro. Next time will definitely be the full 9 course Tasting Room experience.

[mnebergall]

Some good new stuff going on at Eve.

First, and I'm surprised to find my self saying this, but the tripe (yes, tripe) at Eve is unbelievable. Chef Cathal says he cooks it for 46 hours, and I believe it, almost fork tender. And the stuff he serves it with: nuggets of sweetbreads, some white beans, some pearl onioins, some baby brussels sprouts. When Chef Cathal told me what he was bringing me, my skin sort of crawled because I have never had tripe before and would never ever dream of ordering it. But my trust in Chef Cathal is total so I held my nose and tried it. My eyes were opened as well as my taste buds. The blend of the texture of the tripe with the flavors of its accompaniments was perfect. I don't know how he comes up with this stuff, but it never ceases to amaze me. If you are in the Bistro, be a little adventerous and order the tripe. You will be amazed.

Next on the hit parade, cassoulet, topped with a slice of seared fois gras. He makes his own Toulouse sausage and duck confit to blend with the beans. Exquisiste (but only for those entering the chamber of secrets (i.e., tasting room)). Chef Cathal says he will only make cassoulet when all of the ingredients are in alignment, as they certainly were tonight. Damn, Sam I am.

The cheese course seems to get better and better. I ordered three cheeses and they came with a wonderful accompaniment of hazel nut honey, cardamom infused apricots and some apple butter. I can't remember any names of the cheese, only one was an Irish bleu. Plus a glass of vouvray.

Last, I begged the Chef for the return of the fresh sardines (and my reaction to eating sardines, until I had them at Eve, was similar to my aversion to tripe). He said that he would email me if he was able to get them and that Thursday (yes, St. Patrick's Day, a special day for Chef Cathal as we all know), would be the day when the sardines would be the best. (I expect that the tasting room on Thursday will be tasing mighty fine.) He has only had the sardines twice before. I can't wait. My buddy and I have stools reserved at the bar for 6:30 on Thursday.

Edited to add: Jake, was that you at the end of the bar? How did you get past me withoutl saying hello?

Edited March 15, 2005 by mnebergall (log)

[jparrott]

Twasn't me. I was at Jaleo last night.

[Alan7147]

Does the Bistro at Eve accept reservations or is it like the bar area at Palena which is first come first serve?

[mnebergall]

Does the Bistro at Eve accept reservations or is it like the bar area at Palena which  is first come first serve?

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The bistro at Eve does take reservations (recommended). I generally sit at the bar where the bistro menu is available. There are some small tables in the bar area where they will serve you as well.

[JPW]

Does the Bistro at Eve accept reservations or is it like the bar area at Palena which  is first come first serve?

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The bistro at Eve does take reservations (recommended). I generally sit at the bar where the bistro menu is available. There are some small tables in the bar area where they will serve you as well.

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Those little tables are more like coffee tables in height.

Can make it a little awkward to eat.

Try to get a spot at the bar if at all possible.

[mnebergall]

Does the Bistro at Eve accept reservations or is it like the bar area at Palena which  is first come first serve?

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The bistro at Eve does take reservations (recommended). I generally sit at the bar where the bistro menu is available. There are some small tables in the bar area where they will serve you as well.

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Those little tables are more like coffee tables in height.

Can make it a little awkward to eat.

Try to get a spot at the bar if at all possible.

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Joe is right, those tables are very short and I do not recommend attempting to eat there, although people generally do eat there. The bar is much preferable.

[SanFran88]

Had a wonderful dish today at lunch. I believe it will be part of the celebration of all things Irish tonight in the Tasting Room, but it definitely deserves to be reincarnated in some form. I don't what Cathal's calling it, but it consists of a wonderful, earthy circle of black pudding topped with seared fois gras surrounded by a jus made from veal stock, apple cider, rosemary, and a touch of vinegar. Garnished with a little apple brunois. Truly lick the plate fabulous. In other news, the spring menu should be trotted out in a couple of weeks. Hopefully it will feel like spring by then.

[Camille-Beau]

Had a wonderful dish today at lunch.  I believe it will be part of the celebration of all things Irish tonight in the Tasting Room, but it definitely deserves to be reincarnated in some form.  I don't what Cathal's calling it, but it consists of a wonderful, earthy circle of black pudding topped with seared fois gras surrounded by a jus made from veal stock, apple cider, rosemary, and a touch of vinegar.  Garnished with a little apple brunois.  Truly lick the plate fabulous.  In other news, the spring menu should be trotted out in a couple of weeks.  Hopefully it will feel like spring by then.

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We were lucky to be in the Tasting room at Eve last night for the special St. Patrick's Day 7-course dinner. As described by SanFran88, the Black Pudding with Fois Gras was spectacular and something we hope becomes a regular menu item. It was earthy and spicy with the sauce described above along with the added touch of slightly sweet pea shoots which worked perfectly when combining all of the items into each bite.

Another outstanding dish was the oh-so-Irish "Corned Beef and Cabbage". The Corned beef was incredibly succulent and fell apart when merely touched by the fork. The beef was also surprisingly spicy. The brining alone takes several days, followed by an 8-hour braising to achieve the texture and flavor of this incredible dish. The 'cabbage' was actually buttery baby brussel sprouts which were the perfect accompaniment.

As I hoped for, based on an earlier posting, the duo of roasted fingerling potatoes made an official appearance as one of the courses -- one topped by black truffle butter and the other with creme fraiche and osetra caviar - excellent dish! Lovely cheese course of 4 types of Irish cheeses, followed by a traditional dessert called Barm Brac which is basically a spicy raisin/currant studded cake. The Barm Brac also came with a small charm (usually baked inside the cake, much like a Mardi Gras King cake) -- a very good way to end the dinner.

I've not listed everything from the menu, but wanted to give a few of the many highlights. We were offered, and accepted, a wine-pairing for the dinner. All of the wines were excellent and worked perfectly with the menu. Cathal - we look forward to seeing some of these dishes end up on the regular menus. Looking forward to 3/17/2006

-Camille

[mnebergall]

Well, last Monday after work I was having glass of wine at the bar at Firefly when my cell phone rang. It was Tami, one of the bartenders from Eve calling to tell me that they had the fresh sardines on special that evening. I said to Tim: "check please." This is the third time, to my knowledge, that Chef Cathal has had the fresh sardines. If you look up thread, you will find my commets regarding the first time, I apparently was not around for the second coming, but made it for the thirt. Chef Cathal sources his sardines from Portugal and he says that they arrive fresh on Thursdays and that they are at their best when FOB. Getting there for them on Monday after they were fresh on the previous Thursday gave me some pause but I went anyway. I will have to say that I wish I had been there the previous week as the ones I had were a little past their prime, but still good. A buddy of mine was there for them when at their prime and said they were delicious. The next time I hear that there are fresh sardines on offer, I will put out the word so that all can experience them, they are not to be missed. What with the house made aiolo. Alas, I was out out town when they were at there peak of freshness. But the preparation was nevertheless, outstanding. Some sort of batter and then flash fried.

[jparrott]

Funny, I heard their sardines were from California. Guess my snitch was wrong. Not that there's anything wrong with Portugese sardines (which were on special at Zaytinya last weekend, BTW). They used to be a staple of my boozy Friday lunches at Equinox in a past life.

[Tweaked]

I can see the conversation in the kitchen now - damn we still got sardines left over from last week...quick call Nebergall he'll eat them, he'll eat anything

[mnebergall]

Expect to see spring lamb as a special in the bistro and on the tasting room menu for the next few weeks. They source whole lambs so you get to experience cuts seldom seen. For instance, last night, the lamb special that was placed in front of me included braised lamb shoulder, two nice rib chops, lamb sweetbreads, lamb kidney and lamb liver. Hurry before the spring lamb season is over.

[mdt]

Expect to see spring lamb as a special in the bistro and on the tasting room menu for the next few weeks.  They source whole lambs so you get to experience cuts seldom seen.  For instance, last night, the lamb special that was placed in front of me included braised lamb shoulder, two nice rib chops, lamb sweetbreads, lamb kidney and lamb liver.  Hurry before the spring lamb season is over.

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That sounds like some tasting plate. How about them innards?! Too bad he did not put some brains on the plate. Kind of makes me wish I stopped by there for dinner last night.

[mnebergall]

Expect to see spring lamb as a special in the bistro and on the tasting room menu for the next few weeks.  They source whole lambs so you get to experience cuts seldom seen.  For instance, last night, the lamb special that was placed in front of me included braised lamb shoulder, two nice rib chops, lamb sweetbreads, lamb kidney and lamb liver.  Hurry before the spring lamb season is over.

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That sounds like some tasting plate. How about them innards?! Too bad he did not put some brains on the plate. Kind of makes me wish I stopped by there for dinner last night.

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He probably had some brains back there, I didn't ask. My guess is that the lamb will be around for a couple of weeks.