AREA CHEFS ADAPT TO COOK & SERVE WORDS BY TRENT JOHNSON
What do you do when the world is turned upside down and the community you serve can no longer walk through your doors? You cook. You recede back to the lab, or the kitchen, and tinker. Yet, local chefs are doing more than cooking. Rather than succumb to the disastrous circumstances caused by Covid-19, a number of people you know best for crafting delicious meals are still doing just that, plus a whole lot more. “It’s almost too crazy to wrap our heads around,” says Andrew Dana, co-owner and founder of Call Your Mother Deli and Timber Pizza Company. “It’s probably good we can’t sit back and say, ‘Oh my God, what’s happening?’ We’re just compartmentalizing. How do we get this much amount in our bank account to pay our staff? It’s been batshit crazy, but we haven’t been able to dwell on it. We’re just being positive and staying positive.” Positivity is great, but restaurants need help and are dealing with logistical problems on several levels. Even with this truth hovering over their respective futures, local eateries are grinding to maintain D.C.’s treasured sense of community, whether cooking meals for frontline workers and people in need, adapting their spaces into makeshift grocery markets, or by granting patrons a dose of normalcy. Photo courtesy of Paul Taylor.
OPEN FOR BUSINESS. Dana and his team at Call Your Mother not only offer deliveries and curbside pick-up from their revered Park View location, but also opted to open a new Capitol Hill spot as well, despite limitations and fears caused by the pandemic. The decision was simple: The building was ready, and they had the capacity and are operating with a “safety first” mindset. So why not? “It sort of came together in a week,” Dana explains. “We’re having these Zoom calls with managers and trying to come up with creative ways to make money so we can support people. We just slowly came to the realization that we could make more bagels. The people that live over there know how it works, we’re not reinventing the wheel. And the opportunity to do something fun and positive in this time, we were ready to jump on that, and give a glimmer of good news. ” The feedback from Capitol Hill residents is overwhelmingly positive, despite the deviation from a normal Call Your Mother experience. Another restaurateur who opened doors post-Covid is chef Christian Irabién, with his pop-up Muchas Gracias in Forest Hills. On the heels of establishing an entirely different concept weeks before, Irabién and his team switched up their plans with support from the braintrust behind Comet Ping Pong, and transitioned a “sensory dining experience” to taco platters intended to feed entire families. “Every person we knew who had worked with us or purveyors or farms, everyone was finding themselves in a giant bubble of uncertainty,” Irabién says. “That lit a fire under us to open the doors [and go] back to what we know how to do.” What Irabién knows how to do is serve the community, which extends far past fans of his food. Since inception, Muchas Gracias has partnered with Tables Without Borders and Friends and Family Meal in an effort to do more than feed. The pop-up’s website also houses a living guide for immigrants in D.C. who may be facing hardships such as furlough, which includes a how-to Medium article penned by Irabién. “[That’s] the mission of Muchas Gracias: to support the Latin American community, a giant portion of which is undocumented,” he says. “This community already has a lot less access. There’s language barriers and trust issues, particular[ly] for the undocumented faction of the community. So the messaging is: We’re open to responding and providing food to our neighbors. We can support them in several ways.” ADAPT & SUPPORT. New establishments aren’t the only spots responsible for fresh ways to connect in the city. Adam Greenberg’s Coconut Club, known for its tropical menu items and airy storefront, has undergone several evolutions since mid-March. While you can still dig on spam fried rice and grab a to-go cocktail, Greenberg has also tried his best to give people comfort food, regardless of cuisine. “There’s no time to have an ego or get stuck in your ways,” Greenberg says. “Because of our social media presence and who we are, we just want to feed the public. I don’t give a shit [as to what it is]. Every single week, something new is coming and we’re trying to stay ahead of it.” Some of the new items offered by Greenberg’s skeleton crew in April included chicken and eggplant Parmesan, Passover meals and lobster roll kits. Aside from its food, Coconut Club has also developed a makeshift market within their walls open Wednesday through Friday in hopes of helping people buy essentials without venturing to empty-shelved, long DISTRICT FRAY | 15
