In the past eight months, Steve Oshana opened the bar at Elisir, left that restaurant, moved to Gaithersburg to open cocktail concept Quench in Rockville, got let go from that venture, moved back to DC, and now is back behind the bar at BLT Steak. Oshana joins a number of new staffers at the downtown steakhouse, which has seen a lot of changes surrounding the hire of chef Jon Mathieson (Inox, 2941) in April following the departure of Victor Albisu.
“I feel like Napoleon returning from Elba,” says Oshana, who moved back into his old DC apartment. He worked his first shift last night at BLT and says he and the rest of the bar staff will spend the summer shaping up the cocktail program. “What we discussed up front is that if you can’t make a Manhattan really well, and you can’t make a perfect Sazerac, a complicated cocktail menu is not really going to fly. We are hitting hard on classics, on technique, on achieving consistency.”
General manager Adam Sanders tells us he believes Oshana will become “the face of the bar” and help improve the drinks program so it matches the quality of the food and mirrors the restaurant’s overall philosophy of offering “classics with a modern twist.” Look for a fully rejiggered cocktail menu at BLT Steak come fall.
