La Grande Boucherie Makes a Jaw-Dropping Entrance Into D.C. | Eater DC

"At its opulent pre-opening party I saw why this may be the hottest new restaurant downtown: a red carpet, jazz band, absinthe towers dispensed at two pewter bars, and servers circulating through a white-tablecloth dining room and wraparound mezzanine as some $80,000 of plated French fare was served up the marbled staircase of the restored Federal-American National Bank Building. Housed in a 14,000-square-foot, 500-seat showpiece one block from the White House and designed to evoke circa-1920 Paris by Jules Gabriel Henri de Sibour, the space dazzles with an extravagant central chandelier and gilded ceiling, mahogany partitions creating intimate nooks, Tiffany glass fixtures, back-lit Belle Époque images, leather booths, walls covered in hundreds of vintage French prints, and billowing palms that make the restaurant feel like a greenhouse. Part of NY-based Group Hospitality’s Boucherie family (the sixth U.S. outpost), the menu leans on classic brasserie fare—French onion soup, escargots, mussels, tuna tartare, caviar service and a dedicated raw bar—while spotlighting meats (filet mignon au poivre, grass-fed ribeye, chateaubriand for two, plus dry-aged and wagyu programs) and seasonal seafood like Maryland blue crab and Chesapeake Bay fish. Corporate executive chef Maxime Kien celebrates spring with creamy gazpacho and local heirloom tomatoes dotted with green fava beans (brightened by a wine vinegar aged in oak), and uses native ingredients such as a pistou (olive oil–based basil sauce) with fettuccini and shrimp; the bustling kitchen is fully on display. Bars on each level (with Paris-imported curved bars and distressed mirrored tiles) pour cocktails like lavender-infused martinis and Old Fashioneds, while the best-selling pink coupe—Absolut, Lillet Blanc, lychee, cranberry and bubbles—arrives topped with tiny floating roses; D.C. mixologist LP O’Brien contributed three signature cocktails. Service will begin with dinner on Thursday, April 18, lunch starts at 11 a.m. and runs into dinner, opening service is 4 p.m. to midnight, and weekend brunch begins at 11 a.m." - Tierney Plumb