By Susannah Black
“You can do Southern food without being gravy-laden,” says Nicole Jones.
Jones, the creative force in the kitchen at Stomping Ground, an upcoming, Southern-style restaurant opening in Del Ray next month, wants to debunk the myth that all Southern cooking is mac and cheese and fried chicken. Jones says she plans for ” healthy Southern recipes with Southern ingredients based in Southern tradition.”
Having spent her formative years in Georgia, Jones had always been interested in Southern cooking. Jones attended night classes at L’Academie de Cuisine and apprenticed as a line cook at D.C.’s Blue Duck Tavern before pairing up with Del Ray Pizzeria owners Sean Snyder and Erik Dorn for Stomping Ground. “This all happened in a weird series of events … I was there enjoying some nachos and a server said they were looking for a chef at a biscuit house.”
After an interview and a tasting, Jones committed to cooking for Stomping Ground. “This is my first time with a kitchen of my own … it’s exciting,” says Jones, who is paired with pastry chef Heather Roth, a former contestant on “Top Chef: Just Desserts.”
The name Stomping Ground is in reference to the familiarity and hyperlocal community feel that Jones wishes the restaurant to emote. “We want it to be the kind of place that you could go in your neighborhood and eat on a regular basis … it’s a synonym for your local neighborhood.”
Stomping Ground will be open seven days a week and will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner. “It’s going to be a biscuit house in the morning,” says Jones, centering breakfast around 10-12 housemade, buttermilk biscuit sandwiches: a classic bacon, egg and cheese; braised collard greens with black-eyed pea spread; fried chicken with a tahini-honey glaze; and a low-sugar housemade Nutella-like spread with a blood orange marmalade.
Breakfast items will also include oatmeal with baked apricots, housemade yogurt and granola, vanilla chia pudding with almond milk and coffee sourced from Alexandria’s Swings Coffee.
Paying homage to her Lithuanian family heritage, Jones’ menu will include dishes like a lamb sausage biscuit sandwich with housemade sauerkraut. On the dinner menu, chicken stew with sour cream dumplings; cranberry bourbon pork belly with hot mustard, collard green slaw and apple sauce; and steak and kugeli (Lithuanian baked potato pudding) will be available. Jones will also give a nod to the Southern tradition of funeral sandwich sliders—sandwiches traditionally brought to a post-funeral reception—small ham, cheese and poppy seed dressing sandwiches complete with fresh bread from D.C.’s Lyon Bakery.
Jones will tap into area farms, with vegetables from Pennsylvania’s Tuscarora Organic Growers Cooperative, greens from Maryland’s Spring Valley Farms, pure syrup from Tennessee’s Muddy Pond Sorghum Mill and dairy from Trickling Springs Creamery. “We want to be sustainable in all of our practices,” says Jones, “we’ll stay true to the tradition of [using] whatever is in season.”
In the case of unused produce, Jones says that she will perpetuate the tradition of pickling and preserves. “Whatever beautiful vegetables don’t make it onto the menu, we’ll pickle them” and experiment with condiments like pickled Vidalia onion jam and housemade hot sauce with fermented Fresno peppers, vinegar and salt.
It’s a lot to take on for a chef’s first time helming the kitchen, but Jones revels in her newness. “I’m green, and I’m comfortable saying I’m green,” says Jones. / Stomping Ground, 2309 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria
