Ten years in the making, Alfie's finally has a front door - and it's in a Georgetown alley

Ten years in the making, Alfie's finally has a front door - and it's in a Georgetown alley

For a restaurant that no longer exists, Alfie's has had an uncommonly loud afterlife. If you were a DC foodie in 2016, you probably remember it. The northern Thai pop-up lasted less than a year in Park View, opening in February and shuttering over the summer. And yet the place never really went away. It just kept moving.

Chef Alex McCoy has been operating Alfie's as a small-scale pop-up across the world for the past eight or so years - in London, Bangkok, and New York, plus dinners back in DC every few months. The demand was always there. The permanent address wasn't. Until now.

On Wednesday, September 2, Alfie's - now a northern Thai restaurant and natural wine bar - reopens in a custom-built space in Georgetown, with a soft opening kicking off the weekend before. The address: 1228½ 31st Street NW in Georgetown. That half-address is telling. The new permanent Alfie's sits in a redeveloped alley just off M Street and Wisconsin Avenue - the kind of spot you find only if you know to look, tucked inside Hamilton Court, a property undergoing major renovation by developers Ezra and Jessica Glass.

McCoy on the space: "It's got a bit of that feel of a hole-in-the-wall wine bar in Europe, but it also has the feel of a shophouse in Thailand." Both things are true at once, which is sort of the whole point.

Who's behind it

The Georgetown restaurant will be Alfie's first permanent home, where McCoy and business partner Justin Ahn can play with fiery Northern Thai flavors, hyper-local ingredients, and a playful list of Virginia and natural wines. McCoy has done a lot of restaurants since Alfie's first popped up - most notably Lucky Buns, which he recently parted ways with.

Ahn, who closed his acclaimed Annandale Korean-fusion restaurant Incheon earlier this year, is McCoy's partner on the project. The two started talking seriously about working together while cooking in London, per McCoy. "What we have now is the benefit of almost eight years of innovation since the original menus," McCoy told the Washington Business Journal.

The chefs will be cooking and chatting with diners from an open kitchen, sometimes running food to the tables themselves. They want the place to become a regular hangout for restaurant industry staff. That low-ego ambition - two serious chefs, a tiny room, no fuss - is precisely what made the 2016 pop-up stick in people's memories.

What's on the menu

Small. That's the first thing to know. The 25-seat brick-and-mortar is the organic next move for a concept that entered the DC dining scene as a Park View pop-up in 2016. The kitchen is equally compact, which is exactly how McCoy wants it.

The permanent space gives McCoy and Ahn a chance to focus on more local, seasonal ingredients. In Thailand, a certain dish might have dozens of variations depending on what ingredients are available nearby. Accordingly, the menu at Alfie's will change three to four times per week, incorporating locally grown greens, foraged mushrooms, holy basil sourced from a farm on the Eastern Shore, and temperate ingredients swapped in for tropical ones.

The logic is elegant. The original was more street-food focused, with McCoy cooking dishes "as traditionally as possible." Now, he's applying the ethos of Thai cooking to what grows - or swims - around here. "If it's not tamarind, it's sea buckthorn. If it's not mackerel, it's rockfish," he says.

Expect old Alfie's favorites alongside dishes that can change several times a week depending on what McCoy finds at farms, markets, and local fishmongers. Staples include khao soi noodles, housemade Thai sausage, and laab kua, the fragrant Northern Thai version of minced-meat salad. The opening menu features local cockles stir-fried with chili jam, 'nduja, makrut lime, and Sichuan pepper. That dish - cockles, not clams; 'nduja, not pork rinds - is a good signal of where this kitchen lives: on the edge between Thai tradition and whatever the Chesapeake happened to produce this week.

On the wine side, McCoy and Ahn plan a playful list of Virginia and natural wines. For a room this size, a list anchored in Virginia vineyards makes sense both practically and conceptually - it fits the same locally-rooted philosophy driving the food.

The reservation situation

Move fast. Since reservations went live last week, McCoy says they've booked 700 and counting. If this is giving you Little Serow flashbacks, relax - no long lines, but Alfie's will hold some seats for walk-ins. McCoy's preferred scenario: come in, say hi to him and Ahn, grab a $50 bottle of wine, and "just forget everything going on in the world and have a good time."

Reservations are live for the next 60 days via Resy. "It was such a special place in DC even though it was short-lived," McCoy says. "There are so many people - in the industry and not - that have a connection to the restaurant."

He's right. A pop-up that ran for six months a decade ago and still has people clearing their September calendars to book it - that's not nostalgia. That's a restaurant that was always supposed to exist. The alley at 1228½ 31st Street NW just took a while to catch up.

Sources

• Washingtonian: "After a Decade, Alfie's Returns to DC as a Thai Natural Wine Bar"
• Axios Washington D.C.: "Alfie's opens permanent Thai restaurant in Georgetown after a decade of pop-ups"
• The Georgetowner: "Business Ins & Outs: Bombas, Café Tulúm, Alfies, Kith, Edikted"
• What Now DC: "Alfie's Nearing DC Return"
• PoPville: "ALFIE'S announces opening date for new GTown Spot!"
• Annandale Today: "Incheon has closed"
• The Georgetowner: "Business Ins & Outs: Citibank, My Little Chamomile, J.Crew, Alfie's"