Josephine - A French Bistro in the old Columbia Firehouse location, Alexandria

[Escoffier]

Grover and I and two friends were invited to the soft opening of the new NRG restaurant Josephine which replaced Columbia Firehouse.  We were given the complete tour from the lower level (dark, romantic and not for the visually impaired) to the absolute top 3rd floor open space with its own bar.  Suitably impressed with how well the old place cleaned up, Grover and I decided to return for Alexandria Restaurant week.  At $45 per person it was a lot of food, very good food indeed.  Where to start?  Okay, the food

I had:

Hors D'oeuvres:  Wagyu Steak Tartare accompanied by capers, cornichons, shallots, quail egg and gaufrettes.  Nice prepared steak tartare (and definitely ample), with corned (for lack of a better word) Waygu beef.  Almost enough food to qualify as an main course and very good. 

Entree:  Boef Bourguignon with lardons, mushrooms, carrots and pommes puree.  A rather interesting take on BB, a layer of pommes puree (okay, creamed potatoes) with a lake of an excellent wine sauce with a number of extremely tender pieces of beef, mushrooms, lardons, and the previously mentioned carrots.  The beef could have been cut with a fork it was so tender.  To use a rather old bon mot, it would melt on your tongue.

Dessert: Black Cherry Clafoutis with Gran Marnier Ice cream.  A delightfully cherry filled, smooth clafoutis.

 

The Lady Grover had:

Hors D'oeuvres: Beets, Burrata & Balsamic a light start with pickled green almonds, blood orange, hazelnuts, truffle and pomegranate molasses.  This disappeared pretty quickly.  She did say it was really good :-).  

In place of a entree, the Salade Josephine which contained mixed greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, dried cranberries, goat cheese, croutons with a very nice sherry viniaigrette.    Her only complaint?  Almost too much food for a starter.  She did manage to eat about 90% before she ran out of room for dessert.

Dessert was the cardomom creme brulee.  Personally not a big fan of cardomon but she apparently enjoyed it because there was nothing left when she finished with a satisfied sigh.

Now there was wine involved, but as I leave the choice to our server, I'd love to tell you what the pairings were but I was much too busy enjoying them to make notes.

Conclusion?  An American idea of a French bistro with really good food and no Paris attitude (even though every time we've been in Paris, the people were all great).  The staff from the greeter to the servers to the bussers were all attentive, obviously cared that everyone was happy and satisfied with their food and friendly.  Overall, a very good experience and now a regular stop on our Alexandria restaurant list.