Food

Details on the Carving Room, a Boozy Delicatessen Coming to Chinatown

A gastro-deli with infused liquor is heading our way this fall.

Oded Weizmann is currently testing sandwiches—like this corned beef beauty—for the Carving Room. Photograph courtesy of Oded Weizmann.

If early 2012 is the era of the Americana-enhanced eatery lined with reclaimed wood, then late 2012 (we hope) will be the era of the boozy delicatessen. There’s the rumored “cocktail deli” from Gina Chersevani, and craft beers alongside matzo-ball soup at the pending DGS Delicatessen. Now Oded Weizmann shares the latest details for his upcoming gastro-deli, the Carving Room.

Weizmann and partner Rachel Steiman plan to bring two dining styles to the 55-seat space on the outer edge of Chinatown: grab-and-go (or stay, if time allows) at lunch for the office crowd, and a sit-down scene at dinner and on weekends with waiter service and a cocktail menu featuring infused liquors. The fare, and the philosophy, remains similar throughout. Homemade products are the focus, starting with the meats: pastrami, corned beef, roast lamb, turkey, and beef, which can be tucked between Lyon Bakery rye or a caraway-studded “weck roll,” hand-carved by the pound, or served on a “Jewish charcuterie plate” for dinner. Seasonal pickled vegetables, condiments like spicy mustard and bacon-onion compote, and sides such as potato salad and vinegary slaw will also be made from scratch. Dishes such as roasted tomato or eggplant salads and fried phyllo cigars stuffed with meats are nods to Weizmann’s Sephardic Jewish family, originally from Morocco.

An opening is slated for September, and the owners are hoping for a mild fall so patrons can make use of the restaurant’s spacious 40-seat patio and ten draft brews. Check back for more details closer to the opening.

Related:
Barry Koslow Shares Details on DGS Delicatessen

Food Editor

Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.