Enrique Limardo’s First Virginia Restaurant Goes Avant-Garde All Day Lengthy

The immediate that sparked Enrique Limardo’s soon-to-open Surreal was bold, to say the least. The Michelin-starred Venezuelan chef partnered with JBG SMITH, developer of Amazon’s HQ2 in Arlington, to create a restaurant that’s “one thing nobody has ever seen earlier than,” explains Héctor García, chief working officer for Limardo’s Seven Causes Group. “It’s utterly avant-garde and a very new expertise.”

What that meant precisely has been a bit mysterious, however when Surreal (2117 Crystal Drive, Arlington, Virginia) opens this November, diners will step right into a garden-like oasis with a fantastic menu that features Limardo’s exacting and creative tackle all the things from pizza to swordfish carpaccio to sizzling canines.

Surreal is Seven Restaurant Group’s first-ever restaurant in Virginia, becoming a member of a rising hospitality empire that features D.C.’s theatrical Spanish outpost The Saga, upscale cocktail bar and lounge Quadrant, Michelin-starred Mediterranean vacation spot Imperfecto, the unique Seven Causes that began all of it (which is able to quickly transfer to a much bigger location at CityCenter DC), and neighborhood-y spinoff JOY by Seven Causes in Chevy Chase.

Constructed from the bottom up only for Surreal, the one-story restaurant in a park is designed to be the eating crown jewel of the buzzy new Nationwide Touchdown growth. Surreal joins the latest arrival of close by Water Park, a public out of doors area studded with meals kiosks and a restaurant constructed right into a fountain water wall.

Surreal will probably be a extra approachable, neighborhood-focused restaurant, with value factors within the vary of JOY by Seven Causes. It’s additionally going to have a variety of shifting elements, serving breakfast, lunch, dinner, and weekend brunch along with a grab-and-go part for workplace staff to select up salads, sandwiches, and juices. A market will promote all the things from freshly baked croissants and pastries to branded pasta sauces or aprons.

“It’s an all-day expertise, and it modifications all through the day. That’s the fascinating half,” says Garcia.

Jenn Chase

Whereas different Seven Causes Group eating places persist with a components (Saga is a fusion between Spanish and Latin America, for instance), Surreal’s menu is tougher to pin down.

“It’s utterly global-inspired,” Limardo says, and he’s additionally making an attempt to place his personal refined spin on the normal American diner expertise. “For me, it’s extraordinarily enjoyable, my model of meals is type of fusion, I all the time put a spin on classics, that is one of the best enjoyable method for me to do it and symbolize it.”

The menu is huge, with greater than 46 gadgets. Standouts embody the Latin “queso fundido” shakshuka for breakfast, consisting of a skillet topped with a cherry tomato and maitake mushroom ragu surrounding Mexican chorizo, chihuahua cheese, and two fried eggs.

The lunch and dinner menu contains swordfish carpaccio with “Flaming Scorching totopos,” which pays homage to the film Flamin’ Scorching with freshly fried tortillas and Limardo’s particular seasoning with greater than 30 elements that he calls “atomic salt.”

Pasta makes up a piece of the menu, together with a colourful, “all-year Halloween gnocchi” made from purple candy potatoes alongside elements like confit butternut squash and dots of smoked gorgonzola cheese. Dinner will embody fancier dishes like complete butterflied branzino or tomahawk steak alongside down-to-earth choices like Limardo’s Neapolitan-style pizzas, made with 24-hour fermented dough and a sauce incorporating Habanero peppers. “It’s fruity, with a touch of spice,” he says.

Jenn Chase

Jenn Chase

There’s even Limardo’s model of a ballpark canine. For his “Twisted Foot Lengthy Scorching Canine,” he wraps an natural beef sausage with smoked bacon and pan sears it till crispy, then tops the canine with a fried garlic, Oaxaca cheese, fried shallots, a Napa cabbage relish and two completely different sauces (a spicy mixture of ketchup and do-it-yourself mayo and a sauce made with corn). “It’s absolutely loaded, absolutely enjoyable, filled with taste and a really completely different hotdog,” he says.

Bartenders will combine up cocktails like a pina colada made with Venezuelan rum and Agricole Rhum and a negroni topped with a fruity, floral foam. As a part of Nationwide Touchdown’s “Eating within the Park,” program, you possibly can even take boozy drinks outdoors inside the park’s premises. A built-in DJ sales space with audio system outdoors will assist Surreal transition to a late-night spot. “We wish folks to remain right here till late and have enjoyable,” Garcia says.

Surreal’s eating room revolves round a central “island” coated with vegetation that’s meant to make you’re feeling like you might be inside a backyard, all designed by Seven Causes Group’s inventive director Valentina Story alongside OOAK Architects. The monumental bar is sourced with stone from Greece, whereas a personal eating room may have its personal non-public patio and backyard. Two separate patios — one on the roof with heaters and an outside area inside the park — will complement Surreal’s indoor/out of doors “eating within the park” theme.