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The Shaw Bijou - Chef Kwame Onwuachi and GM Greg Vakiner's $95 Seven-Course Menu in Shaw - Closed


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8 hours ago, Jonathan said:

Our fearless chef has just been named by Forbes as one of "30 Under 30," food and drink professionals for 2017...oh the wonders of PR over actual cooking.

"30 Under 30, Food and Drink: Meet the Gastronomes who Will Change Your Diet in 2017" by Maggie McGrath on forbes.com

While still relatively early in the year, this is the most substantial (and substantive) list of 29 year-old luminary foodie heavyweights to date and 25 of them independently define success as "achieving your potential", verbatim. 

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8 hours ago, Poivrot Farci said:

While still relatively early in the year, this is the most substantial (and substantive) list of 29 year-old luminary foodie heavyweights to date and 25 of them independently define success as "achieving your potential", verbatim. 

Now that's some good writing.

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Washingtonian 2 stars

"you get the uneasy sense that you’ve wandered into a cult when servers sincerely relate the story of the time Onwuachi discovered a dish of crabs prepared by a wise old Indian cook or practically brush back tears when describing the fisherman’s pie Onwuachi’s mother made for his birthday when money was tight and she couldn’t afford a gift."

The review is by Corby Kummer of The Atlantic.

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Man. I had a 15-course tasting menu at a pan-Asian restaurant in Brunswick, ME called Tao Yuan a few months ago for all of $68. (Just read that it's now $80 including tip) The chef's name is Cara Stadler; some of you might have heard of her. Not a single "miss" in the entire meal like some of the courses described in the Washingtonian review.

Anyone read the book Reservations Recommended by Eric Kraft? His protagonist would have destroyed this place.

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interesting that a lot of the criticism of The Shaw Bijou sort of echoes the criticism of Eleven Madison Park by Pete Wells (NYT) when it overhauled its menu (the first time) to prix fixe only. the central theme being no story, not the history of food in NYC and not Chef Onwuachi's path to success, is interesting enough to be told over 14 courses as a narrative. it's been pretty consistent for TSB -- I wonder if the new menu will have toned this down.

(notably, after the Wells article, EMP did tone down the narrative quite a bit. they retained a couple bits for flavor, which Wells still hated three years later, but awarded the restaurant four stars with none of the vitriol of the 2012 article).

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6 hours ago, Tweaked said:

Washingtonian 2 stars

"you get the uneasy sense that you’ve wandered into a cult when servers sincerely relate the story of the time Onwuachi discovered a dish of crabs prepared by a wise old Indian cook or practically brush back tears when describing the fisherman’s pie Onwuachi’s mother made for his birthday when money was tight and she couldn’t afford a gift."

The review is by Corby Kummer of The Atlantic.

Hiring a critic who published a screed against tasting menus review a chef/owner's first tasting menu restaurant within weeks of opening is a pretty brutal move.

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I didn't read the previous review of Eleven Madison Park as a screed against tasting menus in general, but against ones that make a huge point of "telling a story" which the diners may not be all that interested in.

Edit: never mind, I just realized the review of Shaw Bijou isn't by the same person.

 

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this isn't a personal experience, but a friend went to the bar last night and told me about it today, knowing that i'd be interested.  she said that the drinks and food that they tried were both good, but while the cocktails that they ordered weren't outrageous at $14, the plates were "laughably small" for the price: "there were 4 baby carrots on one plate and it was $14.  we had 10 shrimp chips and 4 tablespoons of guac for $16.  scratch that, more like 3 tablespoons of guac."  bottom line: "i will go there for cocktails in the future but no snacks."  

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You know, we can prattle on (and on) about a chef's "vision" and "inspiration"and raison d'etre but the bottom line remains the same: Did you like the food, do you feel you got value received for price paid.  In the end, that is what counts. MDW (that would be My Darling Wife) and I have spent $600 for dinner and we've spend $20.  Both dinners have been good in their own way.  Was there a difference?  Of course.  Was the difference worth the price paid?  Well, that's subjective isn't it?  We felt so.  Do you think paying $1000 for dinner for two is worth the price?  Personally, i think that's more for bragging rights than food satisfaction, but then some people aren't happy unless they have a 20 room house for two people.  Chacun a gout, or to put it another way,  de gustibus non disputandum est.

On 1/3/2017 at 2:29 PM, Bart said:

Finally, this place is getting some press!

And as someone much wiser than most said; "All publicity is good pubilicity".  Well, maybe not.

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On 1/4/2017 at 1:27 PM, franch said:

interesting that a lot of the criticism of The Shaw Bijou sort of echoes the criticism of Eleven Madison Park by Pete Wells (NYT) when it overhauled its menu (the first time) to prix fixe only. the central theme being no story, not the history of food in NYC and not Chef Onwuachi's path to success, is interesting enough to be told over 14 courses as a narrative. it's been pretty consistent for TSB -- I wonder if the new menu will have toned this down.

(notably, after the Wells article, EMP did tone down the narrative quite a bit. they retained a couple bits for flavor, which Wells still hated three years later, but awarded the restaurant four stars with none of the vitriol of the 2012 article).

I think that among other things, this whole debacle has been instructive to the dining public at large in that comparisons between restaurants in different cities are ineffective, and having short stints at famous restaurants doesn't equal a superlative experience. All the EMP talk is totally overblown, and has been from the get go. Kwame is a talented guy, but at the end of the day he was a Line Cook at EMP. Not chef de cuisine, and not for an especially long tenure. The Shaw Bijou wasn't as if a long-time Lieutenant of a famous chef went out on his own opened a new place (see Benno, Carmellini, Ziebold, etc etc), despite the media (and the SB team's) portrayal.

Also, having eaten at EMP through  every iteration from Kerry Heffernan through Humm pre and post-Meyer - story aside, EMP delivered fantastic food. The jury may still be out on the Shaw Bijou, but early returns indicate that changes are required.

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17 hours ago, jca76 said:

 "there were 4 baby carrots on one plate and it was $14.  we had 10 shrimp chips and 4 tablespoons of guac for $16.  scratch that, more like 3 tablespoons of guac." 

I'm sure the narrative made it all the more rich and hearty.

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13 hours ago, Escoffier said:

You know, we can prattle on (and on) about a chef's "vision" and "inspiration"and raison d'etre but the bottom line remains the same: Did you like the food, do you feel you got value received for price paid.  In the end, that is what counts. MDW (that would be My Darling Wife) and I have spent $600 for dinner and we've spend $20.  Both dinners have been good in their own way.  Was there a difference?  Of course.  Was the difference worth the price paid?  Well, that's subjective isn't it?  We felt so.  Do you think paying $1000 for dinner for two is worth the price?  Personally, i think that's more for bragging rights than food satisfaction, but then some people aren't happy unless they have a 20 room house for two people.  Chacun a gout, or to put it another way,  de gustibus non disputandum est.

And as someone much wiser than most said; "All publicity is good pubilicity".  Well, maybe not.

Well said.

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6 hours ago, Keithstg said:

Kwame is a talented guy, but at the end of the day he was a Line Cook at EMP. Not chef de cuisine, and not for an especially long tenure.

Note, however, that you could write the *exact* same sentence, substituting "José" for "Kwame" and "El Bulli" for "EMP" (of course, José had won a James Beard Award long before opening Minibar, so he'd paid his dues to a greater extent).

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48 minutes ago, DonRocks said:

Note, however, that you could write the *exact* same sentence, substituting "José" for "Kwame" and "El Bulli" for "EMP" (of course, José had won a James Beard Award long before opening Minibar, so he'd paid his dues to a greater extent).

And, of course, Minibar first opened as a 6 seat bar (8 seat? can't remember) on the second floor of Cafe Atlantico and cost $65 per person.   

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1 hour ago, DonRocks said:

Note, however, that you could write the *exact* same sentence, substituting "José" for "Kwame" and "El Bulli" for "EMP" (of course, José had won a James Beard Award long before opening Minibar, so he'd paid his dues to a greater extent).

Sure. Of course Jose started with Cashion's and  Jaleo, not barmini. Seems like an obvious difference.

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3 hours ago, Jonathan said:

And cafe atlantico...and maybe zaytinya as well. And it was $65. Let's reiterate...it was $65.

Of course that was 75 years ago and the U.S. dollar was worth a whopping 65 cents and you could buy a side of beef for $3.49. :)

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I would say that most chefs, even ones with prestigious resumes, go down on this path starts with a restaurant that offers a la carte and move to tasting menu only after they become really established.  In fact, I think the most recent comparison would be Johnny Spero, by all accounts a really good chef with an excellent pedigree and lower prices, but still failed to make it work. 

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1 hour ago, astrid said:

In fact, I think the most recent comparison would be Johnny Spero, by all accounts a really good chef with an excellent pedigree and lower prices, but still failed to make it work. 

Here are my thoughts on Suna .

Question - How does a 1/2-star chef get hired by José Andrés to become Chef de Cuisine at the Michelin 2-star Minibar?

Answer - He doesn't: Suna was a 3-star restaurant. José knew what he was doing when he made the hire.

Spero has the honor of being the only chef in Washington, DC history to get shafted more than David Ashwell.

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I have not been there.  What I gather from other media and comments above is that this place to date (pre change) was about 90% promotion and 10% food and value.

Since the price and menu change I'll wait to see what others say.

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5 minutes ago, Simul Parikh said:

Hubris...

Yet, Americans love comebacks.

Hopefully he does what he should have done in the first place - high quality, small operation with good food, good service, and blossoms. 

Blossoms are essential for any good restaurant, I agree...especially in the springtime.

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47 minutes ago, Simul Parikh said:

Hubris...

Yet, Americans love comebacks.

Hopefully he does what he should have done in the first place - high quality, small operation with good food, good service, and blossoms. 

That's too bad for the employees, and I hope they find new positions quickly. 

That said, the original concept was a bit insane. I can't think of a single highly experienced chef who could pull off a restaurant at that price point--why would anyone think an up and comer could pull it off? 

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1 hour ago, reedm said:

That said, the original concept was a bit insane. I can't think of a single highly experienced chef who could pull off a restaurant at that price point--why would anyone think an up and comer could pull it off? 

The greatest truths are simple ones - the question (literally, the million-dollar question) is: How could *anyone* have ever thought this might have succeeded? It was obviously not just me that saw a zero-percent chance of success - there simply isn't enough money in this town to support such a thing - but how could any human being in the entire world envision that this had a chance of working?

I didn't want to come out and say something so negative, but I would have bet the majority of my net worth that this would fail, because it's impossible that it could have succeeded.

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46 minutes ago, jandres374 said:

Closed

As a landlord the financials and what comes next is interesting to me. Who has lost here, financially? I assume a corporation paid for the renovation, which will then declare bankruptcy? And the owner is left with a fully outfitted restaurant assuming he did not sign a personal guarantee with anybody, though given his lack of gravitas on this closing one thinks he's not on the hook. This closing is with neither bang nor whimper, more like a shrug. Odd all around.

"He’s not yet sure what he’ll done (sic) with the building, which he owns." He=Kelly Gorsuch. 

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24 minutes ago, Lisa Fricano said:

As a landlord the financials and what comes next is interesting to me. Who has lost here, financially? I assume a corporation paid for the renovation, which will then declare bankruptcy? And the owner is left with a fully outfitted restaurant assuming he did not sign a personal guarantee with anybody, though given his lack of gravitas on this closing one thinks he's not on the hook. This closing is with neither bang nor whimper, more like a shrug. Odd all around.

"He’s not yet sure what he’ll done (sic) with the building, which he owns." He=Kelly Gorsuch. 

I too was curious.  But Gorsuch owned the restaurant and he owns the building.  He'll lease it out to some others I presume.

2 and a half months is freaking crazy short.  As a business you have almost no time to grasp what is going on financially as checks fly out the window all related to start up.

I assume it was hemorrhaging money.  Only Gorsuch knows and we don't.  If so good move by him.  Wish somebody had smacked me over the head with that wisdom years ago.

Good luck to the chef and others going forward.

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I can't pretend to grasp the economics, but it doesn't make sense to me for the restaurant to close without giving the new concept a chance.  I was there this past week (was going to start writing it up tomorrow) and the food was quite good.  At $95 I thought the meal was well worth it.  I will say, however, that the restaurant was fairly empty, which clearly was a problem.  However, Kwame and the staff seemed optimistic about future growth. I thought they needed some serious PR to get people in post-revamp. Clearly they couldn't overcome the negativity the original concept and some early reviews brought them.  It's just sad, but Kwame is young and talented and he will recover from this.      

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13 hours ago, southdenverhoo said:

have more words ever been written on this site about a place that served so few meals? 

no insult intended to the principals, in whose shoes, though less publicly and dramatically, I have stood...

The only restaurant that may come to mind is Indian Ocean waay back in the day.

Wow, how undercapitalized was this place?!? Or, how skittish were the investors? Not much of a lead time to set a new direction, budget, etc etc.

On the plus side, I guess I can look forward to bidding on those reindeer chairs in the next Rasmus auction.

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8 hours ago, Lori Gardner said:

I thought they needed some serious PR to get people in post-revamp. Clearly they couldn't overcome the negativity the original concept and some early reviews brought them.      

This restaurant and this chef got more PR than most restaurants and most chefs will ever get in their lives. What this place needed was not PR. It needed to serve diners a great meal at a great perceived value from day one (like every other restaurant in town) all the while making prudent financial decisions to assure the longevity of the place. They didn't do that. They were bleeding money and making poor decisions before the doors even opened. Hopefully lessons will be learned here and the unemployed will find new jobs. 

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13 minutes ago, Jonathan said:

This restaurant and this chef got more PR than most restaurants and most chefs will ever get in their lives. What this place needed was not PR. It needed to serve diners a great meal at a great perceived value from day one (like every other restaurant in town) all the while making prudent financial decisions to assure the longevity of the place. They didn't do that. They were bleeding money and making poor decisions before the doors even opened. Hopefully lessons will be learned here and the unemployed will find new jobs. 

I agree with you.  My point is that the new concept was a great meal and the price was fair. Unfortunately what came before it was too damaging all around.

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On 8/31/2016 at 0:57 AM, Jonathan said:

This isn't a celebration of food and wine and life. It's a celebration of one guys "story" and celebrity. It's mediocre food. It's vastly overpriced. It's so many things that I find offensive...that to actually speak my mind and share my opinion feels good. Feels calming. Feels cathartic. I can only hope that a meal for 2 in November or January or May 2017 (if they have opened yet or opened and then have since closed) feels half as good at quarter the price.(or some fraction of a fraction of a whole or what not)

Just had to go back and see some of the things said about this place prior to opening...

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38 minutes ago, Lori Gardner said:

IMy point is that the new concept was a great meal and the price was fair. Unfortunately what came before it was too damaging all around.

If that had been the original concept, we wouldn't be writing the obituary, we'd be talking about the food and service. This was poorly planned and conceived way before it became a physical presence.  Ten minutes of serious mulling over the number of people who will spend almost $500 to eat dinner more then once should have stopped this nonsense before a dime was spent.  I doubt this restaurant would have survived on Rodeo Drive, much less in DC.

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13 hours ago, DaveO said:

I too was curious.  But Gorsuch owned the restaurant and he owns the building.  He'll lease it out to some others I presume.

2 and a half months is freaking crazy short.  As a business you have almost no time to grasp what is going on financially as checks fly out the window all related to start up.

I assume it was hemorrhaging money.  Only Gorsuch knows and we don't.  If so good move by him.  Wish somebody had smacked me over the head with that wisdom years ago.

Good luck to the chef and others going forward.

"[The restaurant] bled too much, at too much of a clip, to be able to salvage it," says Gorsuch, the president of Gorsuch Holdings, a company that operates upscale salons and other luxury brands. "It just cost a lot of money. It was a very expensive business. I've never quite seen that in business at all. That was new for me. The numbers were staggering."

Apparently even seasoned businessmen can be blinded by stardust.

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1 hour ago, Keithstg said:

The only restaurant that may come to mind is Indian Ocean waay back in the day.

Wow, how undercapitalized was this place?!? Or, how skittish were the investors? Not much of a lead time to set a new direction, budget, etc etc.

On the plus side, I guess I can look forward to bidding on those reindeer chairs in the next Rasmus auction.

What's the Rasmus auction?

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