Charley Prime Foods Brings Lakefront Pastas and Wagyu to Gaithersburg | Eater DC

"Billed as a grown-up Bar Charley, Charley Prime Foods opened at Gaithersburg’s Rio Lakefront Mall on Sunday, May 14 in the former Tara Thai space at 9811 Washingtonian Boulevard. The redesigned restaurant—black-and-white checkered flooring and slick green booths—fits about 90 inside and another 100 on a pretty waterfront patio, and it currently operates 5 p.m. to midnight daily with brunch and lunch rolling out soon. Longtime chef and partner Adam Harvey leads the kitchen with Little Coco’s chef de cuisine Russell Pike, and the expanded menu leans into steaks and homemade pastas: spicy rigatoni with marinara and Calabrian chiles; a squid-ink tagliatelle dotted with Hawaiian shrimp and spicy ’nduja crumbles; Little Coco’s elbow-noodle riff on cacio e pepe and a seasonal goat cheese ravioli; classic fish and chips, French onion soup, garlic cheesy bread made in-house, and a roasted lamb French dip with harissa aioli, onions, Swiss, and fries. Greenbaum calls the steaks “ridiculously sumptuous and well-priced,” pointing to an 8-ounce bavette for $27 alongside splurges like American and Japanese A5 wagyu and heritage prime Angus from the family-run Meats by Linz. The beverage program, supersized from their pint-sized Bar Charley, offers more than 40 drinks (including over a dozen on tap) with D.C. top sellers such as the “Quack-quack-erac,” various Old Fashioneds and mules, a Charley Manhattan, an updated Rum and Cola, a tap margarita called “Always Passionably Late,” and a nitro negroni; the 14-seat bar and sizable patio are positioned as ideal for summer drinking, with a pergola planned for shade." - Tierney Plumb