There’s nothing like home cooking. But who’s home to cook these days? That seems to be the raison d’être behind Food Matters, an Alexandria cafe/market/wine shop/catering operation where retro plates get upgraded with local and artisanal fixings. Though some dishes are better eaten in the airy dining space with its futuristic plexiglass tables—the skinny fries sprinkled with parsley, for one—many travel to the kitchen table with ease.
Food Matters is a family affair. Husband and wife Tom and Christy Przystawik own the place with Christy’s parents, Victoria and Gerry Hebert. The Przystawiks met at Café Atlántico when Christy was head chef and Tom her sous chef. Several years ago, they struck out on their own with a catering business, which last winter morphed into Food Matters.
Though the cafe sits on a neighborhoody corner across from a manmade lake in the Cameron Station development, the concept is unusual enough that it attracts comers from the surrounding area.
As might be expected of a restaurant devoted in part to home-meal replacement, comfort food is king. At lunch, look for such retro classics as Cape May chowder thick with clams and a BLT made with toasted white Pullman, ripe tomatoes, and thick-cut bacon.
The dinner hour brings plates such as roast Amish chicken—a bit dry but nothing a pour of the pale gold gravy won’t fix—with perfect Yukon Gold mashed potatoes and garlicky sautéed greens. Cut into ribbons, the greens—usually spinach, kale, or beet—may be the best thing on the plate. Orecchiette with Parmesan cream is appropriately al dente with just a kiss of sauce—the sort of dish you might find for lunch in an Italian home.
Some items, like the Roseda Angus burger with its lovely grill marks, can be had all day. So can the cafe’s take on Buffalo chicken wings with bleu-cheese sauce—they’re overbreaded, but the house-pickled parsnips and carrots almost make up for it. Likewise, a too-spicy chili butter overwhelms a fine chicken sandwich on brioche.
Wine is available by the glass and bottle (and to go), as are several boutique beers.
Other crowd-pleasing attractions: a salad station where you point and a chef tosses, all-you-can-eat pasta on Wednesday night, and daily hot-food specials to go, including the house meatloaf. In general, the quality of these is not up to the made-to-order items. Neither are the house-made but packaged-to-go desserts like carrot cake and hazelnut bread pudding, stashed in the cooler.
The best finish, alas, doesn’t travel well at all. Dubbed “handwiches,” these intensely chocolatey chocolate-chip cookies filled with bittersweet chocolate and vanilla ice cream are fabulous. Next time I’ll bring the cooler.
This review appeared in the December, 2007 issue of The Washingtonian.
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