Jump to content

Hen Quarter, Southern Cooking from the Owners of Austin Grill - Down to (for Now) One Location in Alexandria


Recommended Posts

On 5/16/2016 at 1:44 PM, jandres374 said:

Old Town location closing:

"Austin Grill & Tequila Bar Closing in Alexandria" on RedBrickTown.com

jandres (I *hate* it when I can't address our members by their first names, but I can't!),

Am I reading the article correctly in that Thompson Hospitality owns Austin Grill, is closing it, and reopening Hen Quarter in the same location in July?

[Well, I guess either way, Hen Quarter gets its own thread (oddly, had this been the last Austin Grill - and I assume that day will come - the existing thread would simply be renamed), so one day in the future, whichever restaurant replaces the final Austin Grill - assuming it, too, is owned by Thompson Hospitality - is going to have a *lot* of posts and views in its thread on day one. I use *such* a simple algorithm for using existing threads, or creating new ones, but regardless of its simplicity, its permutations are seemingly endless.]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Am I reading the article correctly in that Thompson Hospitality owns Austin Grill, is closing it, and reopening Hen Quarter in the same location in July?

Thompson Hospitality is and has been the owner of the Austin Grill chain for some years.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The one thing that I found interesting - and MAYBE gives me some hope for this...the Bethesda Magazine article mentions "brought to life by chef Fred Raynaud", so I took a quick Google. The positive aspect of the results is that his LinkedIn and website show that he has only been with Thompson since February, so he certainly bears no responsibility (in my book, anyway) for Austin Grill or American Tap Room (which I've found tolerable, if wholly uninspiring, on the rare occasions I have ended up at one), He has extensive experience as a corporate chef and has won some awards, but has only worked in one independent restaurant (the French Goat in Lewisburg, WV - anyone been?), which does seem to be well-reviewed on various sites like Yelp, OpenTable, etc.

I'll let someone who knows a lot more than me comment on whether that combination of experience might translate to bringing a concept "to life" and managing quality control among several restaurants with a new concept, but I do think it is a positive sign that Thompson put new blood in charge of whatever this ends up being, In Silver Spring, I do think that with the closing of Jackie's and Sidebar recently, there is the opportunity from both a "Southern" and "cocktail" perspective to be more relevant than Austin Grill was (especially if they stay open on the late side), but I don't know the other markets well enough to comment.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had the opportunity to attend the Friends and Family dinner at the new Hen Quarter in Alexandria. For starters, Hen Quarter is significantly better than Austin Grill. I know, not saying a whole lot there, but I had some concerns since it is still the same company. However, something I learned is that Thompson has created another group within in the company to handle the new restaurants and they are running the show.

The exterior of the building has been painted and the interior contains a lot of wood and some "southerny" décor. As you walk up the stairs to the second level, there is a bourbon bottle chandelier. It's a nice, clean space.

My table tried biscuits, fried green tomato, kale and mango salad, short rib, and chicken and waffles. Everything was good. The short rib was a perfect medium rare and the chicken was crispy. The biscuits came with house made butter and jam. The cheddar and corn waffle was also served with house made butter and a bourbon maple syrup. They use sous vide.

The waiter was nice but seemed a bit nervous. Food was a little slow to come out, but not horribly late. My seat was fairly close to the open kitchen, which was a bit loud. A quieter spot away from the kitchen would be better.

I don't drink so I can't comment on the alcohol selection, but looks like they have a good-sized list of bourbons.

Overall, I think it seems like a good concept and I wish them luck. Main dishes are $17-34.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thompson Hospitality runs American Tap Room (as well as the former Marvelous Market and various other restaurants and retail brands) - not to state the obvious, but I'm thinking the closure of the Clarendon American Tap Room, and the closure of the Marvelous Market bakeries, is related to the opening of Hen Quarter. 

I'm glad to see this group taking forward strides - I also had no idea Thompson Hospitality was the largest minority-owned food service company in the United States, which is quite impressive.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, dgreen said:

Forgot to mention that I think the plan is to open Silver Spring this Fall and Penn Quarter early next year. Both in old Austin Grill locations. 

I can't speak to the financial aspect of anything, but in culinary terms, I'm excited for this company. Well-executed American Southern food is always a welcome commodity.

In terms of business, look at Georgia Brown's - nobody talks about it, and it was mediocre even twenty years ago, but it's still around because they advertise in national publications and get the tourist business. Just as Americans flock towards hamburgers, people gravitate toward Southern cooking, perhaps more than any other regional cuisine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One of the folks in the office went here for lunch today, and got two small plates, the deviled eggs and fried green tomatoes.  He said that just the plate of tomatoes would have been an entirely satisfactory lunch in quantity.  He said he enjoyed both quite a bit but didn't give details on prep or presentation.  He's lost his regular lunch spot -- he went Bittersweet daily for years, getting a half a sandwich, a cup of soup & a cookie (to eat later) -- so he doesn't like a lot of food at lunchtime, FWIW.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Per Bethesda Magazine, Silver Spring will be opening up sometime in October. The menus for the Alexandria location are already online.The best part to me is that the Alexandria location is open until midnight Monday-Thurs and 1 AM Fri-Sat, and if they keep those hours in Silver Spring, it will add a desperately needed "late-night" spot in that traditional "Downtown Silver Spring" complex, where nearly everything other than McGinty's is closed by the time a concert at the Fillmore or a moderately late movie at the AFI ends..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I went to Hen Quarter on Friday night for a friend's birthday celebration.  I got an order of biscuits and the flappers (chicken wings), other people ordered fried green tomatoes, a salad of some sort and some other things.  Our waiter was Sean and we had another really nice waitress, who was from Texas, but I can't remember her name, I want to say Jackie, they were incredibly nice given our large  and probably a bit boisterous group.  I really liked the redesign of the space, it looks completely different, and the ceilings now look so high.  My mint julep needed crushed ice and more of it, and a straw.  Also we asked for water and it came in jugs, but we had to ask for glasses, but again, we were a big group and I think overall the service was really good.  I thought the fried chicken wings were really good.  I liked the breading and I thought they tasted great.  It was a fairly large serving of wings.  They had a couple pieces of pickled veg in the middle, if I were them I would take out one wing, and add more pickled veg, also I got the wrong dressing on the side- the menu said goddess, but I totally got hot honey, which was good, but again I think they should serve a bit more veg and the goddess dressing.  But I really liked the chicken and would go back and have it again.  The biscuits were fine, everyone else at the table really liked them, they just weren't my style biscuit.  They had I think chives in them, and were cut sections put together so they pulled apart into small sections.  I am more of a crispy crumbly biscuit person (think bojangles type of style) then a pull apart style.  Again, they were fine, other people even said they loved them, I am just picky about biscuits as I like them the way my family makes them, which are more like lard skillet biscuits.  I would like to try some of the salads and would like to try the Southern Board, too. Overall, this place seems very promising, and a big improvement over Austin Grill.    

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tried the Hen Quarter special here. Fried chicken was was quite good and went well with the hot honey, Collards (on the "meaty" side of the meaty/tangy divide) were ordinary. As noted the above the biscuit is an herby thing and was served with a heroic amount of butter on the side. Beer selection was somewhat Virginia-focused; I had the Devils Backbone Schwarzbier. Certainly an upgrade over late-period Austin Grill but the question with these types of places is always how long they continue to give a crap.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No, but the French word for cock is tail.

Shitchi knot.

"Free Range Cocktails" on pinterest.com

Something originating from the Free Range Chat?

Chat is the female version of Queue in French.

If you spend $699 on this coffee table, you get a free range, and a chat with a therapist.

Thera pis't: when Santorini erupted.

Santorini, MacLean; Santini's, McLean.

McLean Deluxe, Mike cleaned deal, lucks.

Eye Guest Tit, so I won on Jeopardy. 

Geo Party: All proceeds donated to Greenpeace.

Green Piece: A hot Martian woman.

Marsh in in vase shun: Mars-Attacks-Heritage-1-The-Invasion-Beg

Did anyone besides me get disturbed by "Destroying a Dog?"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, fuzzy510 said:

$25 for a plate of chicken and waffles?!?!?!

Ha! Ha! Ha!

Yeah, and people pay it happily. Not a thread of people saying, "Well, if you went to Roscoe's, you could get it for way cheaper. And it would be more authentic". Like, for example, wonton soup. 

I've never seen two such different agendas arguing essentially the *exact* same thing. (Let's do the "Ethnic Cuisine is Underpriced" thing in its own thread - it merits its own topic).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No, Don. You're missing it entirely. That's not what I'm arguing at all here.

If a white person does ____ food, it becomes okay to justify its price point. I'm arguing about the "Christopher Columbization" of something like fried chicken and waffles. "Ooh let's put it it Old Town and charge $25" and no one bats an eye. Same thing with Pok Pok and many other places. It's majority culture taking something that has been made by poorer cultures, dressing it up, and charging 2x/3x. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 hours ago, fuzzy510 said:

$25 for a plate of chicken and waffles?!?!?!

Curious if that's for a whole or half chicken. Totally puts in perspective the $56 whole chicken at Kinship if you get half a chicken fried at a place that is not putting in nearly the technique and effort that Kinship is doing and charging roughly the same amount. The smokehouse chicken is listed as a half for $24. I have not yet actually gotten the chicken at Kinship, but commenting based on the raves of everyone who has.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, dinoue said:

Curious if that's for a whole or half chicken. Totally puts in perspective the $56 whole chicken at Kinship if you get half a chicken fried at a place that is not putting in nearly the technique and effort that Kinship is doing and charging roughly the same amount. The smokehouse chicken is listed as a half for $24. I have not yet actually gotten the chicken at Kinship, but commenting based on the raves of everyone who has.

I hope it's for a whole chicken, because $25 for a half chicken with waffles is ridiculous and unjustifiable.

I also hope it's for a half chicken, because while $25 for a whole chicken is at least understandable, serving a whole chicken as what can be gleaned as a personal entree from the menu is just as ridiculous and unjustifiable.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good point. I doubt it's a whole bird - I attached 2 pictures from Yelp. They aren't the only people doing this with fried chicken. Live Oak in Del Ray has a $12 fried chicken "special" on Monday, which is a leg and a thigh. It's tasty, but not a lot of food at all. That's about a quarter chicken, right? Missing a breast and a wing to be a full half. EDIT - the pictures are from Hen Quarter, I was just mentioning Live Oak as comparison.

chicken and waffle.jpg

chicken and waffle 2.jpg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

We went to Hen Quarter in Old Town with Hubby's parents after doing the Escape Room.  I thought some things seemed a bit overpriced, but also the portions were too big, as well.  We started with deviled eggs, biscuits and pimento cheese.  I didn't love the pimento cheese with the naan, it was fine, but not great, I think melting it just lost something in a way.  The deviled eggs were very good, my best friend makes them better, but she is very talented, note it's only 3 per order.  The biscuits were better than the last time I had them and really good with the fig jam served.  I saw them bring a plate of chicken and waffles and thought it was an order for two people, it seemed terribly large for one person.  Hubby got the smokehouse chicken- this was half a chicken with a large portion of mashed potatoes and greens.  I thought the chicken was juicy, and it was good, I liked the sauce.  FIL had what to me was a Fred Flintstone sized pork chop, it had a really good rub on it and was very juicy (I wouldn't be surprised if it was partially cooked sous-vide as it was big).  I had the flappers (double wings) with succotash instead of fries and salad it came with, you can sub any sides, but the mac and cheese without any additional charge (mac and cheese is $2).  After all the apps, I could only eat 3 of the double wings and took the rest home with some succotash.  But the wings were good and I like the breading and thought they were fried well.   SIL took home about half her dinner, and I took home an additional wing from my MIL.  I think this is a great place to get some appetizers and share, especially with people who aren't super adventurous, the food was good, and it is very safe food. There wasn't anything that we really didn't like, except I just didn't prefer the pimento cheese, but others seemed to like it.  Anyway, as we didn't pay- no complaints on costs, but the portions did seem like it is the type of place that you could split an app or side and entree and probably have plenty of food.  And I would guess they likely have good happy hour specials.  The second floor does have a nice little view over King Street and it was kind of fun to watch everyone out and about.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Silver Spring location has closed per their Facebook page.

"We are sad to announce our Silver Spring location is closed as of today, however a new concept will be coming soon! Thank you to all our customers, and don't forget to check out our Alexandria or DC locations!"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, cheezepowder said:

The first floor has been converted to a chicken sandwich place called The Rub while the second floor is still Hen Quarter (via Alexandria Now).

This is smart - I didn't even know there was a second floor. Hen Quarter enthusiasts will still come (and ask), and the chicken sandwich place will cater to the lunch crowd.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...