AC and I recently turned 30, and my very thoughtful father and stepmother set us up with a gift certificate to Restaurant Eve, the big buzz place in Alexandria right now. Lucky for us, we live very close to Eve so we’ve frequently enjoyed their proprietary cocktails (we wrote about them here). We’ve also eaten there once when AC’s father treated us to the tasting room, which was a completely over-the-top experience that, in my case, involved nine courses. So, once again we find ourselves headed for Eve for another amazing meal. This time we opted for the bistro, which we found was just as revelatory.
We decided to pull out all the stops on this meal, nonetheless. We both started out with appetizers: the housemade gnocchi in housemade ricotta cheese and the selection of charcuterie. The gnocchi was second to none—light and pillowy, as opposed to most gnocchi, which are often dense and chewy. Most of us think of cured meats when the word “charcuterie” is used, but in this case, the dish was mostly a pate- and terrine-oriented array of meats. There was a small pot of chicken liver paté, slices of duck pastrami, rabbit terrine, squab terrine, one more terrine that I can’t recall, and “fromage de tête,” which, though it was technically head cheese, was thin slices of flavorful sausage rather than slices from a jellied cube of snouts. I almost never pass up the opportunity to enjoy paté or terrines, while AC prefers to steer clear of the liver products.
For entrees, I opted for the Muscovy duck breast with a “doughnut” peach (basically a freshly stewed half peach), all over a bed of slaw. As it was presented to me, the waiter poured some doughnut peach au jus over the top. The duck was meaty and juicy like a perfectly cooked steak, and it soaked up the wonderful peachy jus. AC went for the ribeye steak, which came with a potato galette. The steak, according to AC, was the second best steak he’s ever had, the absolute best being from Peter Luger’s in New York. Still, it’s a very respectable position to be in, and he even ate all the fat—a rarity. And the galette was out of this world. It was presented to us on a small cast-iron skillet, popping and sizzling. The inside was appropriately creamy while the crust was crispy and golden and heaped with minced garlic. There was so much garlic, in fact, that I was certain we could be smelled from several tables away. But I happen to be obsessed with garlic, so I put my self-consciousness aside and shamelessly enjoyed this little piece of heaven.
While we’re still discussing savories, it’s critical that I spend time discussing the homemade bread. Slices of warm, crusty whole wheat bread simply melted in our mouths, and that was before the butter was applied. I don’t know what these cows are fed, but the butter was the richest I’ve tasted. I hypothesized that it’s Irish butter, as I’ve tried that before, and the taste was similar. The proprietor and head chef is also Irish, so perhaps he just had to serve it in his restaurant. Still, even though we had loads of food coming to us, we insisted on a second round of bread, totaling six slices each. And we ate it all.
Half way through our entrees, AC declared that there would be no dessert, but that he would look at the menu. I countered that we shouldn’t even look at the menu, as we would definitely be tempted to order and eat two desserts, resulting in major stomach strain (and I was wearing my super-skinny pants that night, stupidly). A few minutes later AC said to me “I’m not even looking at the dessert menu; we’re not eating dessert.” I concurred. But what happens is, wait staff usually have this line that they say. It goes something like this: “Would you like to see our dessert menu?” The response, “yes,” was involuntary. Next thing we know an amazing parfait of pistachio custard, apricot puree, and buttermilk cream arrived in front of me, all layered beautifully in a highball glass. AC got the Chocolate and Marshmallow dessert, which was a cool idea, but the execution was a bit lacking. It was a sliver of rich chocolate with a graham cracker pastry beneath it, accompanied by only a smidgen of marshmallow on the side. Even after he was done, we had to do double duty on the parfait because of the volume of it. Each layer was pretty dense and due to the width and depth of the highball, the dessert seemed to never end. Plus, I was really testing the strength of the hook-and-eye closure on my pants. Still we’re glad we did it, as it was a top-notch meal, and in addition, the service and ambience at Eve are first class. Case in point: As we were waiting for our table to be prepared, the head chef and local celebrity Cathal Armstrong stopped on his way to the busy kitchen to say “hello.” That’s just how things go down in Virginia (and Ireland?).
Next stop: Eamonn’s: a Dublin Chipper, a fish-and-chips place and brand extension of the Eve empire. Only this one is straight up peasant food and alcohol. Count us in.
Restaurant Eve
110 South Pitt Street
Alexandria, VA
(703) 706-0450
