“I feel like I completed what I had to do,” says Adam Stein, the founding and now former chef at Red’s Table. After six years under John Jerecki, first at The Light Horse in Alexandria and then at the Reston restaurant for a year and a half, Stein is now working on his own place. The Eleanor will open in Ivy City with four bowling lanes, a movie screen, a stage, an outdoor patio and “36 parking spaces … unheard of in D.C.,” says Stein. The large space will allow for pig and lamb roasts.
Before his last day, almost a week ago, Stein finished the spring menu, and he is now leaving the kitchen to Kevin Ettenson.
Ettenson, 28, most recently cooked at the Sky Dome Lounge at the Crystal City DoubleTree. He’s also worked locally at Sonoma and Stanton and Greene in D.C and started his career as a line cook at Mad Fox after working as a bartender and server at the brewpub.
“Building a larger aquaculture program,” says Ettenson—including adding more Chesapeake oysters to the menu as well as encouraging guests to eat invasive species like the blue catfish (already on the menu) and snakehead—will be part of the shift under Ettenson. “I played a little with it,” Ettenson says of the snakehead, trying it fried on the plancha and in a paella or gumbo. The updated menu will also include a bigger emphasis on housemade pastas, with a veal and pork Bolognese with pappardelle in the works, and an expanded late night menu. “Simple finger foods,” he says, “but elegant presentation.” // Red’s Table: 11150 South Lakes Drive, Reston
