The New Majestic
A Renewed Sense of Virginia
Virginians first sat down at this art deco restaurant 75 years ago, and thus began the creation of a state landmark. Five years ago is when Chef Cathal Armstrong and his wife-business partner Meshelle Armstrong shared a bottle of wine at the The Majestic Café, located at 911 King Street. In this neighborhood restaurant, the Armstrong’s conceptualized their vision of a fine dining destination restaurant in Old Town Alexandria that would become the now nationally acclaimed four star, Restaurant Eve.
When the Armstrongs heard that The Majestic Café might be closing its doors. "We just couldn´t allow it", says Meshelle. "It has sentimental meaning to Cathal and me." And thus launched their campaign to reinvent this piece of Old Town history. Along with partner Todd Thrasher, his restaurant veteran-wife Maria Chicas as General Manager, Chef Shannon Overmiller (formerly of Restaurant Eve under Chef Armstrong) and the restaurant´s owners, Murray Bonnitt, former Virginia Governor Mark Warner and his wife Lisa Collis, the restaurant will be brought back to its originality - A family affair amongst Virginians.
The Majestic Café opened at the 911 King Street site in 1949, after moving from lower King Street, where the Gadonas family first established it in 1932. A major construction revamp came in 2000 where it’s art deco style and location made it a popular destination. True to the original with the only permissible neon sign to hang in the historical district of Old Town, the emblem hangs proudly. And in keeping with the restaurant’s integrity, the partners only enhanced ‘her face’ to re-establish her glory. Welcome to The Majestic.
With this newfound identity comes Liquid Savant/Partner Todd Thrasher, who mixes ‘Majestic Classics’, cocktails of the past. Mint Juleps, Hemingway’s Daiquiri and Sidecars are shaken and served along with the local boy’s own childhood favorites-Egg creams! And the wine list, “New World wines. Nothing fancy, yet wines that I think people would enjoy. I’d like it to be very accessible with nothing over $50,” says Thrasher.
The menu offers simple, American classics. And Sundays are a return to family with ‘Nanas´s Sunday Dinner,’ an evening featuring beloved time-honored dishes that change monthly - served family style to share, including a whole pie.
The Majestic is all about memory and comfort. Memory of summer succotash and spring’s minted peas, Mom’s meatloaf and Grandma’s calf’s liver, childhood’s strawberry shortcake, milkshakes, and cookies. Comfort is in the details: the receptive waitstaff, butter-yellow walls and amber accents. A kitchen that sources produce and meats as assiduously as Restaurant Eve — you have to ask the waitstaff to find out that the roast chicken is an organic bird from Polyface Farm near Staunton, Virginia, states Chef and Co-Owner Cathal Armstrong.
How Armstrong feels about the American direction? "This is food we love to eat everyday. Items based on flavors found locally, you know below the Mason-Dixon. I’m Irish, but I love the notion of living in the south".
A sentimental journey for this gem in history is now taking on a new, revived life of its own with a ‘younger sister’ named Restaurant Eve and a ‘younger brother’ named Eamonn´s A Dublin Chipper.
When questioned if the trios next project includes venturing from Alexandria and into the city, Meshelle laughs and declares, “We may have been born in other parts, but we have been ‘Bred and Buttered’ in Virginia and this is home".
