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Alewife is chef-owner Lee Gregory's first solo restaurant.
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Alewife is located in Church Hill at 3120 E. Marshall St.
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The inside of Alewife seats 45 guests.
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The bar at Alewife seats 10 guests.
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The open-air kitchen allows diners to witness the action taking place.
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Lee Gregory has seen more than a few accolades in his career as a chef and restaurateur.
He’s been nominated three times for Best Chef Mid-Atlantic by the James Beard Foundation.
He headed the kitchen at The Roosevelt, which, shortly after opening in 2011, was dubbed one of the 100 Best Restaurants in the South by Southern Living magazine and quickly become a staple on the Southern dining scene known for country pâté and seasonal fare.
Three years later, in 2014, he co-opened Southbound, recognized as one of America’s Best New Restaurants by Bon Appetit.
But this time around, when Gregory opens Alewife, the seafood-focused restaurant at 3120 E. Marshall St. in Church Hill, in early September, it will be his first solo venture.
There will be no Kendra Feather — the powerhouse restaurateur with whom he opened The Roosevelt — and no Joe Sparatta, fellow award-winning chef and co-owner of Southbound — to lean on.
Both those partners have their own spots; Heritage for Sparatta and several local eateries for Feather. Now it's Gregory’s turn.
“This is the first time for me, and it’s different; I’m taking on a different risk, but it may be more rewarding,” he says.
Although sole restaurant owner is a label Gregory has not yet worn, it is one he welcomes.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to replace the first-born feeling of The Roosevelt and the nostalgia, but you have to take some risks as you get older and face new challenges,” he says.
Alewife sits on the corner of 32nd and Marshall streets, an area Gregory describes as "the last frontier" before the Montrose and Fulton neighborhoods — a walkable, historic location reminiscent of another restaurant venture at 25th and M streets he helped to open seven years ago.
“It feels very similar to The Roosevelt,” says Gregory. “I kind of fell for the corner and saw cool possibilities.”
Others around him have as well. In addition to The Roosevelt, within just 2 miles of Alewife, a clutch of award-winning, nationally recognized eateries graces the streets, including Sub Rosa Bakery, Metzger Bar & Butchery, and Dutch & Co.
“It blows my mind,” says Gregory. “It’s a very unique and special thing; not many neighborhoods you can walk around in any town and find that. Just to be a part of that felt like a good idea.”
Gregory’s venture with Alewife may be a new experience, but it is also a return to his roots, a flashback to the beginning of his culinary career when he worked alongside Dale Reitzer from Acacia-Midtown, the “seafood guy” who served as his mentor. It was at Acacia that Gregory truly became acquainted with all things salt water.
“For me, it’s almost like a sigh of relief smelling the water,” says Gregory, a South Carolina native.
At Alewife, he aims to capture the spirit of river and beach communities, the mentality and lifestyle embodied by people who live near the water. Although Richmond is cleaved by the James River, with the Chesapeake Bay a mere 70 miles away and the seafood haven of the Northern Neck even closer, Gregory feels river culture doesn’t resonate here as it should.
“We drive across the river here what feels like 10 times a day, but I still think the greater population doesn't have a James River culture and it's just a thing you drive across,” explains Gregory.
He hopes to shed light on the bounty of the river and the bay and showcase sustainability at Alewife through working partnerships and alliances with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the VCU Rice Rivers Center.
The menu at Alewife will feature "second-tier," more sustainable fish that diners may not find familiar and fishmongers may struggle to sell, such as Spanish mackerel, snakehead, river catfish or bluefish, all from the Mid-Atlantic and Chesapeake Bay.
“We’ll be extremely focused and narrowed and showcase the stuff that gets pitched [by fishmongers],” says Gregory.
He wants diners to rethink seafood, be adventurous, open and in tune with the options close by and to stray away from the norms of ordering rockfish and over-fished grouper.
“We have to figure out what else to eat. There’s other great stuff out there, and a lot is by-products [fishermen are] not fishing for. That’s the [stuff] we need to buy, that’s the stuff we need to eat," he says.
Gregory plans to work with smaller-scale fishermen who can cater to the restaurant's needs, striving to make the experience more personal by sharing the story of how the fish got to the plate.
Alewife won’t only be pushing diners outside their comfort zones, it will push Gregory as well.
The restaurant, which he describes as exuding a “Life Aquatic" vibe, seats 45 guests, with an open kitchen putting Gregory and Sous Chef Bobo Catoe at the forefront, something unfamiliar and perhaps uncomfortable to him.
“I need to be more personable, and Joe and Jason are fantastic at it, and I’m trying to push myself,” says Gregory of charismatic local chefs Joe Sparatta and Jason Alley of Comfort and Pasture.
“I’m horrible at it; I’ll be the first to admit it. I come from the mindset 'A chef should be in the kitchen,' and this restaurant in some way is psychologically breaking down walls and forcing ourselves to be something different."
Inside Alewife, the vibe is minimalist and clean. Pops of bright blue, burnt sienna and mint green provide a palette of calming, welcoming colors. The bar, which seats 10, is reminiscent of a sushi counter, adorned by a mix of vintage-style glassware along with more modern pieces. Gregory refers to the restaurant as his version of a refined fish shack.
The menu at Alewife begins with starters including broiled oysters and an onion loaf with smoked trout roe. The "raw and chilled" section presents a corn soup with pickled shrimp and salads with local vegetables, but leaves room for fluctuating options like clams, oysters and crudo.
There's an "on the bone" portion of the menu featuring crispy snapper with creamed corn, marinated tomatoes and tarragon, along with confit chicken accented by braised and charred leeks and a lemon-thyme vinaigrette — and an "off the bone" section featuring broiled flounder with a farro salad and braised radish.
Dessert options include a soft serve sundae with a maple twist and espresso ganache, along with a seasonal offering of pavlova with sherry-fig preserves, whipped vanilla mascarpone and Manakintowne herbs.
Gregory's intention is to present a thoughtful menu with three or four items on a plate — a simple showcase rather than an extravagant display.
He says Alewife “will not be like The Roosevelt or Southbound, a little bit more no-reins and in a sense no-rules, as long as we're somehow reflective and supporting the bay — that’ll be the fun challenge.”
Alewife will be open Tuesday through Saturday from 5 to 10 p.m., with the bar open until midnight.
