1 of 6
Chilled Matheson oysters
2 of 6
(From left) Chefs Dezhan White and Bobo Catoe Jr.
3 of 6
Dinner rolls served with yuzu jam, sour butter and smoked trout roe
4 of 6
Part of the Odyssey Fish dining area
5 of 6
Surf and Turf Arayes, stuffed pitas with pork, shrimp, labneh (soft yogurt cheese) and Old Bay za’atar
6 of 6
Stuffed pacchetti pasta with beef cheek, ricotta, tomato, mozzarella and breadcrumbs
Often, when chefs open a restaurant, there’s one dish they expect to be an easy order, something approachable and familiar that can satisfy every seat at the table. For the newly debuted Odyssey, from chef-owners Lee Gregory and Bobo Catoe Jr., also of Alewife, that menu item is dinner rolls. Served six per order, the butter-bathed Parker house-style buns are accompanied by miniature Bonne Maman jars of yuzu jam and caviar tins filled with smoked trout roe and housemade sour butter.
"There’s some stuff at Alewife that, like, every table gets, and I’m kind of hoping that that will be a thing everybody will get here,” Catoe says.
Channeling the carb-y comfort of bread service — although they aren’t complimentary, ringing up at $13 — the buns are nostalgic and new all at once.
In its early stages of opening, Odyssey, located at 6919 Patterson Ave. in the former Billy Pie space, is the latest venture from the Alewife duo. The West End eatery marks a swim into uncharted waters: The 30-ish-seat sister business to their Church Hill restaurant doesn’t have a typical hood setup in the kitchen; instead, a wood-fired oven.
“You got something that neither Bo nor I have done; it’s a pizza oven, and that’s it,” Gregory says. “I think it will be a challenge trying to figure out what will work for all of us so we can live up to the customers’ expectations and Bo can live up to his own expectations and also figure out how not to compromise too much.”
But Catoe, a Southern chef with an affinity for cookbooks and being on the water, is up for the challenge. While Odyssey held a yearlong residency at Hatch Local food hall, it did indeed have a hood to work with there.
“This is certainly going to be the hardest place to cook in, but there’s lots of years of, I hope, brain at this point,” Catoe says with a chuckle.
Open since mid-March, Odyssey exudes the energy of a younger, perhaps more lighthearted sibling to Alewife. While the first of anything can ignite an overbearing parental, perfectionist nature that comes with wanting to make things just right, the second project (or child) brings forth a bit of ease and flexibility.
The offerings at Odyssey reflect that energy, its dishes more casual and a smidge spunky. Cocktails are on draft, beer and wine selections are tight, and a TV is mounted on the wall.
Sections of the menu are broken up by cold, hot and dessert selections. The cold listings include chilled Matheson oysters with mango, Makrut lime and basil; steelhead crudo with citrus-chile salt, burnt shallot, buttermilk and kumquat; and a capicola-laden chicory salad with blue cheese and olives.
The hot offerings include a melange of dishes that play well with fire, from escargot with guanciale butter to Surf and Turf Arayes, a Middle Eastern-inspired stuffed hand pie of sorts with pork, shrimp, labneh (soft yogurt cheese) and Old Bay za’atar. Patrons will also find baked trout from Virginia-based purveyor Smoke in Chimneys served atop a bed of pesto rice; a dry-aged pork chop with Manakintowne greens; a New York strip with creamed kale and rye bread miso; and a bubbling beef cheek-stuffed pasta blitzed with Parmesan that arrives in a cast-iron vessel.
“I usually hate pasta, and I think the stuffed pasta is pretty cool … it’s like little manicottis,” Catoe says.
For dessert, guests can enjoy a jiggly panna cotta swaddled by caramel ganache and topped with whipped cream, crunchy salt and chocolate sprinkles, along with Tang-a-misu, featuring lady fingers dipped in a chamomile tea combined with white chocolate and a dusting of the orange-flavored powdered drink mix.
Pizzas, leaning more toward flatbread, will join the menu in the near future. In Odyssey’s open kitchen, Catoe is joined by Dezhan White, 23, a longtime back-of-house employee who started working at Southbound (co-owned by Gregory and chef Joe Sparatta) while in high school. “We’ve had him with us for a long time, off and on, and we keep managing to suck him back in,” Gregory says.
As the operation eases toward full tilt, Gregory adds, “We’re kind of really excited to be in a place where you don’t have to drive by every restaurant in town to get to it. It’s a different neighborhood and fun to be a part of something kind of new to us.”
Odyssey is currently open from 5 to 9:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and will extend its hours in the coming weeks.
