Tim Ma’s Kyirisan to Open in Shaw Tuesday
Kyirisan, 1924 Eighth St. NW in The Shay development, will open in Shaw on Tuesday.
Kyirisan, chef Tim Ma’s Chinese-French bistro, opens in Shaw on Tuesday.
(Photo: Mark Heckathorn/DC on Heels)
The Chinese-French bistro from chef Tim Ma and his wife Joey Hernandez – originally set to be named Freehand until a trademark challenge — is their first in the District and joins Water & Wall in Ballston and Chase the Submarine in Vienna. They previously owned Maple Ave in Vienna, but sold it last spring. It will also be the first that they are sole owners of with no investors or partners, as is the case with the others.
The restaurant’s name – pronounced kyr-i-sahn – comes from the couple’s three young children. It combines the “k” from “kun,” the name assigned to the children’s generation by a Ma ancestor, with the phonetic spellings of the Chinese words for “one,” “two” and “three,” or “yi,” “er” and “san.”
The interior of the 62-seat restaurant, with space for another 12 outside, has a palette of blue and white with wood and gold accents. A set of antique bird-adorned panels imported from China come from Ma’s uncle’s former restaurant.
The menu blends Chinese and French cuisine – a nod to Ma’s heritage and his training at the French Culinary Institute. But other dishes will be creations from the staff, most of which came from Water & Wall, while others come from Southeast Asia in general including Burma, Korea and the Philippines.
The menu is divide into “in the ground,” “on the ground” and “under the water.” It features dishes such as deep-fried tofu with black pepper sauce, Filipino hanger steak with calamansi sauce, duck breast with scallion pancakes and hoisin orange sauce, mussels with Asian chorizo, and Ma’s crème fraiche chicken wings, which are on the menu at all of his restaurants. It will also feature his take on chicken and waffles — fried duck livers served with a waffle cut in half and filled with duck-blood caramel. Each category’s plates will be organized by size and served on custom dinnerware made by Cloud Terre, a local design studio.
The bar program includes a short wine list put together by the sommelier at Water & Wall along with classic cocktails and beers from D.C. and Virginia.
Kyirisan will be open for dinner from 5:30-10 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday beginning Mar. 22. Expanded dinner service and weekend brunch may follow at a later date.
1789 Restaurant to close for up to two months this summer
The upscale 1789 Restaurant and its more casual downstairs restaurant and bar The Tombs will close for up to two months in July and August for repairs to the roof on the Federal-style townhouse they share.
1789 Restaurant in Georgetown will close for up to two months in July and August for roof repairs.
(Photo: 1789 Restaurant)
Maureen Hirsch, director of marketing for Clyde’s Restaurant Group, which owns both restaurants, told the Washington City Paper the roof on the building is falling apart. The restaurants could not stay open during the work to the mid-1800s building located at 1226 36th St. NW, she said.
All employees at both restaurants will be offered jobs in any of Clyde’s Restaurant Group’s other eateries during the construction.
1789 and The Tombs will also undergo kitchen renovations, although when has not been worked out yet. Also, 1789 will convert its adjoining F. Scotts private dining space into a regular dining room over the next year. The expansion will allow 1789 to have more public dining space, as well as a much larger bar and first floor restrooms, which the restaurant doesn’t currently have. Designs for the expansion are not complete.
F. Scott’s will close in July, but work on the expansion won’t be finished until next summer.
Bruster’s gives free cones to customers in pajamas
Bruster’s Real Ice Cream, 18519 N. Frederick Ave., Gaithersburg in the Floor & Décor Shopping Center, giving away free single-scoop waffle cones to all customers who visit in their pajamas from 11 a.m.-11 p.m. today, Mar. 19, during its annual customer appreciation day.
Visitors in the pajamas to Bruster’s Real Ice Cream in Gaitherburg on Saturday will get a free single-scoop waffle cone. (Photo: Bruster’s Real Ice Cream)
The store is located on Route 355 just north of Route 124, Montgomery Village Avenue. The shop makes it’s ice cream fresh daily in the store. It has more than 40 flavors daily.
Park Hyatt hosts springtime tea for two today
The Park Hyatt Washington, 1201 24th St. NW, will host its next Park Hyatt Mini-Masters of Food from 2:30-4 p.m. today in it’s the Tea Cellar.
The Park Hyatt Washington will host a springtime tea for children ages 5-10 from 2:30-4 p.m. today.
(Photo: Park Hyatt Washington)
Children between the ages of 5 and 10 are invited to join Park Hyatt Washington’s resident tea specialist Christian Eck and Rebecca Czarniecki of Tea with Mrs. B for a springtime afternoon tea. Children and parents will learn about the history and etiquette of high tea in the interactive session, which will also include sweet and savory treats from the hotel’s Blue Duck Tavern. They will also explore different types of tea and learn how herbal and floral teas are created, and enjoy the Queen of England’s favorite tea as well.
The tea is $95 for one adult and one child. For reservations, call 202-419-6620 or email masters.phwashington@hyatt.com.
Commissary hosts Pre-Purim Palooza on Monday
Commissary, 1443 P St. NW, will host its second annual Pre-Purim Palooza from 7-9 p.m. on March 21.
Commissary’s Pre-Purim Palooza from 7-9 p.m. on Monday features an Israeli buffet with three kinds of hamantaschen. (Photo: Kosher Like Me)
The menu includes bottomless appetizers including an Israeli buffet featuring falafel, hummus, tzatziki, pita, olives and three traditional and nontraditional flavors of hamantaschen.
Tickets are $20 per person or $32 with two drinks and can be purchased online. Ten percent of the proceeds will go to the Jewish Food Experience.
Columbia Room to open Punch Garden on Tuesday
The newly reopened Columbia Room, 124 Blagden Alley NW, will celebrate spring with a new Tasting Room menu inspired by Japanese flavors and the opening of its outdoor Punch Garden.
The Columbia Room’s new spring cocktails include the Cherry Blossom Tea (l to r), An Early Morning Swim in Puerto Vallarta and the I Never Promised You a Zen Garden. (Photos: Scott Suchman)
The restaurant will unveil the new menu and christen the Punch Garden on March 22 to coincide with the vernal equinox.
The new menu in the 14-seat tasting room features all new seasonal cocktails and food pairings for Columbia Room’s three- and five-course tasting experience. The new drinks and snacks offer a range of flavors and ingredients, including pickled cherry blossoms, toasted rice orgeat, matcha salt and red sandalwood powder.
The I Never Promised You a Zen Garden is a mix of Junmai Daigingo sake infused with red shisho leaf, blanc vermouth, umeshu (plum liqueur) and gentian served atop a zen garden, complete with plum sugar “sand,” mochi “rocks” and a rake. The Cherry Blossom Tea blends sochu, pickled cherry blossom tea, honey and apricot liqueur.
Ten punches and bottled cocktail blends will be available in the Punch Garden. An Early Morning Swim in Puerto Vallarta is a tangy punch made with silver tequila, jugo verde, supercharged OJ and jalapeño, while the R&RBT is made with Rhum agricole and rhubarb basil tonic.
Columbia Room’s spring menu will be available until June 21, while the Punch Garden will be open through early fall.
Jack Rose holds “courtside” happy hours during March Madness
Jack Rose Dining Saloon, 2007 18th St. NW, will hold “courtside happy hours” throughout the March Madness college basketball tournament through Apr. 4.
Jack Rose Dining Saloon will host its “courtside” happy hour in its heated rooftop terrace bar.
(Photo: Shauna Alexander)
Jack Rose will air the games (during business hours) on the four large flat screen TVs on its heated rooftop terrace while serving half-priced bites like fried chicken skins, smoked whiskey wings, jalapeno hushpuppies and baked Wisconsin fontina cheese. The bar will server $5 pints, $7 punches and $9 whiskeys during the games.
Beginning Mar. 24, the bar will have a Beer Madness bracket, featuring four breweries – Goose Island, Smuttynose, Victory and Devils Backbone – facing off in a friendly beer battle. Starting at the Sweet 16 and running through the end of the tournament, one beer from each of the four breweries will compete in each category. Spirited fans can “vote” by purchasing their favorite brews, which will all be $5 during game time, and the beer with the most sales will move on to subsequent rounds, eventually being crowned winner of Beer Madness. Categories include dark, crisp, hop and a wild card.
Et Voila! introduces Thursday regional menus
Et Voila!, 5120 MacArthur Blvd, NW, 20016, debuted its new regional menus featuring different regions of France. The dishes are paired with wines from the same region.
Et Viola! will serve special regional French menus the next two Thursdays. (Photo: Shawn Keeley)
The special menus are available from 5-10 p.m. Thursday through the rest of March for $28 per person. Last Thursday, Alsace was featured.
This coming Thursday, Mar. 24, the menu will feature the Midi-Pyrénées in southern France and separated from Spain by the Pyrenees Mountains. The cuisine is a balance between French and Spanish cultures, blending the country casseroles of southern France with the spicy cooking of Spain. The featured dish will be a cassoulet paired with a glass of Madiran wine.
On Mar.31, the featured region will be Brittany. France’s most northwestern region, it is a hilly peninsula extending out toward the Atlantic Ocean. Surrounded by the sea, Brittany offers a wide range of fresh seafood and fish, especially mussels and Belon oysters. It is also the second-largest cider-producing region in France. The featured dish will be the many varieties of Brittany oysters paired with a glass of Cider Brut.
