About Restaurant Openings Around DC
A guide to the newest places to eat and drink.
Evelyn Rose. 111 Church St NW, Vienna, VA.
In April, Vienna fixture Bazin’s on Church closed after an 18 year run. Its ambitious replacement is already up and running: modern American restaurant Evelyn Rose opened June 1.
Chef Nick Palermo and owner Sam Schnoebelen—formerly chef and manager at Clarity, the fine-dining room a few blocks away— are aiming to create a restaurant that’s at once elegant and approachable. “The kind of space that can provide that feeling of high-level dining simultaneously with that feeling of a neighborhood space that’s comfortable,” Schnoebelen says.
Still, don’t expect chicken tenders. There are a few riffs on comfort food—such as a deconstructed French onion soup re-envisioned as a plate of onion rings with beef-shank ragu, caramelized onions, and comte cheese—but also dishes like an English pea torchon with pickled pearl onions, or halibut poached in kombu oil.
There is, however, a burger. It’s ground in-house from ribeyes, then sandwiched on housemade brioche buns slathered with smoked-beef-fat aioli. Pastas come in the form of hand-rolled spinach ricotta cavatelli with meatballs and tomato gravy, or a yolky pappardelle with fermented black beans, eggplant, and beluga lentils.
Palermo describes his skate in lemon butter sauce, set atop spinach and sunchoke confit, as “a play on a classic francaise.” He says the dish was a personal challenge, since he has always “judged restaurants by how good their francaise fish was.” The menu shows off high quality meats, like Green Circle chicken (seared and paired with collards), ribeyes from Maryland’s Roseda Farm, and an Australian wagyu shortrib. Palermo’s pork shoulder is a process: it’s cooked in a sous-vide machine for 24 hours, cold smoked, grilled, and finally glazed with honey mustard.
Desserts are simple and nostalgic—think chocolate peanut butter custard or a lemon meringue tart. Ice cream is spun in the kitchen each morning and becomes a bed for freshly baked triple chocolate chip cookies. Seasonal cocktails include a daiquiri with Diplomatico white rum and rosemary and a watermelon margarita with fresh juice.
The restaurant, which has been five years in the making, is named after Schnoebelen and Palermo’s grandmothers, who they credit for fostering their love for food. Schnoebelen jokes that his grandmother Evelyn was a terrible cook, but always gathered his family around the table. Palermo’s grandmother Rose had their family over every Sunday night for dinner, inspiring his father to open a bar in New York City—and landing Palermo in restaurant kitchens at age 14.
The venue goes for a homey vibe, with exposed brick, framed photos of Evelyn and Rose, and shelving made by Schnoebelen’s dad from an oak tree that grew at his Fairfax childhood home. The restaurant’s mission, Palermo says, is to leave you “feeling at home on a Sunday.”
