When chef Cedric Maupillier shuttered his celebrated Shaw French restaurant Convivial final 12 months, he thought he may be accomplished with eating places for good.
His enterprise was already struggling when a taking pictures throughout the road despatched diners diving underneath tables. A separate taking pictures shattered one of many restaurant’s home windows, Maupillier says. Quickly after, Convivial closed.
“I used to be utterly PTSD about opening one other one,” Maupillier says. “I stated ‘no extra eating places for me. I wish to do one thing else in my life. I wish to develop into a snowboarding trainer, a climbing teacher.’ I wished to depart the town and transfer to the mountains with my household, and begin over some other place.”
The sensation didn’t final lengthy. When investor Nasr El Hage, who met Maupillier at a French embassy occasion, requested him to steer the kitchen at a lounge-y new French-Mediterranean restaurant he hoped to start out in DC, the 2 clicked instantly.
El Hage handed Maupillier the reins to the culinary aspect of the restaurant, which they named Barbouzard, a riff on a French slang time period for undercover agent. It opens Tuesday, July 29.
Barbouzard isn’t the one buzzy “coastal European” spot to grace downtown DC recently, however it has the strongest culinary pedigree. Maupillier was born in Toulon and has household in Marseille and Cannes, the place he has cooked non-public dinners for the movie competition. After a stint at Central Michel Richard and a time period main the kitchen at Mintwood Place, he dialed in his elegant but unfussy French cooking at Convivial.
At Barbouzard, Maupillier is absolutely embracing the Riviera. His menu right here begins off with chilled seafood, conventional Niçoise tarts known as pissaladière, escargots, and a foie gras opéra cake. Rack of lamb is served with polenta and ratatouille. Daube de boeuf, a standard Provençal beef stew, comes with gnocchi. Dover sole will get a Riviera-style model of the meunière remedy, with beurre blanc, tarragon vinegar, and fried artichoke.
Maupillier is especially pleased with his new bouillabaisse Marseillaise, the normal seafood stew with saffron-yellow broth, which he says he practically perfected at Convivial.
“The best way I prepare dinner the fish, the best way I make the sauce, the presentation, and the sunshine of the restaurant will be capable to produce glorious high quality footage, which individuals love,” Maupillier says. “They first eat with their telephone.”
Each Maupillier and El Hage have been regulars at eating places like Bagatelle, La Môme, and La Petite Maison— locations which have outposts from St. Tropez and Cannes to Miami, Dubai, and Doha. Fittingly, Barbouzard feels a bit just like the south of France by the use of the Emirates or South Seaside.
The 180-seat place is outfitted with loads of bleached oak, glass chandeliers, potted palms, and gold accents. There’s a VIP Champagne lounge, a separate non-public eating room with a wall of flatscreens, and secluded alcove cubicles with sound-dampening panels. Prime-of-the-line audio system pipe in loungey world music that begins to select up in quantity and tempo because the hour will get later, generally performed by DJs or musicians. Barbouzard’s bar will stay open till 1 AM on Friday and Saturday nights.
One VIP nook desk sits underneath a photorealistic picture of a person piloting a motoryacht. That’s becoming: Barbouzard looks like a spot for individuals who personal a yacht, or want they did. There’s a reasonably severe costume code, and plenty of seafood on the menu.
And don’t overlook the last word luxurious ingredient. “Currently individuals are likely to eat a whole lot of caviar,” Maupillier says. “I don’t understand how they make their cash, however they like to spend it on caviar.”
Barbouzard, 1700 Okay St., NW
