“Navy Yard restaurant with a new perspective on traditional Levantine cuisine” Albi Opens Feb. 20th!

1346 4th Street, SE

From a press release:

“Chef Michael Rafidi, one of Washington, D.C.’s most promising culinary talents, announces a February 20 opening for Albi, his Navy Yard restaurant with a new perspective on traditional Levantine cuisine. Arabic for “my heart,” Albi will offer a menu inspired by Rafidi’s Middle Eastern heritage and informed by Mid-Atlantic ingredients. Rafidi’s highly anticipated debut restaurant is located at 1346 4th Street SE in The Yards development, offering a main dining room of 76 seats, a 10-seat hearth table, a seasonal patio, and private dining space within 4,000-square-feet. Rafidi is also consulting on the menu at a second location of Brent Kroll’s wine bar, Maxwell Park, which will open next door to Albi in about a month, while Kroll is behind Albi’s exciting wine program.

“My grandfather was a chef in D.C. for decades and honored his Palestinian ancestry through his food. Those early memories I have with him in his kitchen helped shape who I am as a chef,” Rafidi said. “When I decided to open my own restaurant, it seemed natural to return to my roots and cook the food I grew up eating, but from the perspective of where my travels, training, and experience have taken me through my career.”

Menu

Rafidi, a Montgomery County native, has a deep reverence for ingredients farmed and foraged in the Mid-Atlantic. This emphasis on regionality reverberates through his cooking, as the chef cleverly incorporates local produce and herbs, fruits, vegetables, and meats from area farmers, into a menu that offers a journey through new Levantine cuisine and highlights wood and charcoal cooking. Rafidi’s travels through Lebanon helped hone his refined and creative approach to Middle Eastern cookery, which takes shape in dishes like sfeeha and fatayer (Lebanese meat and spinach pies), manti dumplings with kefta, urfa chili crisp, and garlic yogurt, and kibbeh naya prepared two ways – a version with raw lamb and spices, another spotlighting in-season vegetables, from beets in winter to tomatoes in summer – both served with man’oushe and garlic toum. These and other seasonally driven, artfully presented snacks, small plates, and shish lead the way for a section of mains that includes large-format smoked whole chicken, leg of lamb, and whole spice-crusted cauliflower cooked over an open hearth and served shawarma style. The Sofra, meaning “a set table” in Arabic, menu will also be available at the hearth table and eventually in the dining room.

In the hands of Brent Kroll, a 2018 Food & Wine Sommelier of the Year, the wine program at Albi will feature bottles and by-the-glass options from Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Turkey and Georgia. While Kroll will take the lead on wine education and the overall drinking experience at Albi, lead sommelier William Simons, an Advanced Sommelier within the Court of Master Sommeliers and recipient of the prestigious Rudd Scholarship, will guide guests through the list on a nightly basis.

The-200 bottle list will highlight savory white and smoky reds specifically chosen to complement Rafidi’s menu. Expect to see classic and esoteric selections separated on the list for both traditional and adventurous drinkers. There will be 20 wines offered by the glass and sommelier pairings available, and the wines by the glass will all be temperature-controlled at four different serving temperatures.

Chris Francke, owner of Middle Eastern craft cocktail bar Green Zone, will lend his expertise to other aspects of the beverage program as bar director.

Space

D.C.-based architecture and interiors studio Grupo7 led Albi’s design. The glass-fronted space blends a modern and clean aesthetic with patterns, textures and colors inspired by the Levant region of the eastern Mediterranean. Steel-framed doors and polished concrete floors nod to the industrial background of the Yards District where the restaurant is located, softened by such warm, inviting elements as distressed wood paneling, richly colored and patterned tile-work, textured banquette seating, and hand-made wood tables from Bicyclette Furniture in Philadelphia. The open kitchen houses a hearth with live fire and a wood-fired pita oven, and is visible from almost every seat in the house. Parisian artist Lucas Beaufort created a 50-foot mural that runs over the kitchen and 12-seat bar.

Maxwell Park, Coming March 2020

Adjacent to Albi sits a second location of Kroll’s adventurous wine bar, Maxwell Park, that will open next month and offer 30 seats. Its original sibling in Shaw was named one of the best bars in America by Esquire in 2019. Rafidi will serve as a consulting chef of both properties, curating a menu of local cheese, charcuterie, and other snacks.

Yellow, Coming Spring 2020

Sandwiched between Albi and Maxwell Park is Albi’s enclosed private dining area, complete with pastry kitchen and barista counter, that will double as a daytime cafe opening this spring. Yellow will serve pastries that merge French technique with Middle Eastern ingredients and influences, as well as coffee and specialty espresso beverages. Chef Gregory Baumgartner, a Northern Virginia native, will helm the pastry programs at both Yellow and Albi, returning to his roots after several years at Atrium, 71Above, and other Los Angeles dining staples.”