CommonWealth Casts an Eye to the Continent
With this week’s opening of Masa 14, the Latin-Asian fusion restaurant owned jointly by Richard Sandoval and Kaz Okochi, Y&H naturally turned his attention to CommonWealth.
Why? Because neither Okochi (Kaz Sushi Bistro) nor Sandoval (Zengo and too many other places to name) are handling the daily kitchen chores at Masa. They’ve left that to former CommonWealth chef de cuisine, Antonio Burrell.
So where does that leave CommonWealth, Jamie Leeds’Columbia Heights gastropub that was a top 50 performer in this year’s Young & Hungry Dining Guide? It leaves the place looking toward Europe.
Leeds and her new chef de cuisine, Abigail Fellows, the former executive sous at CommonWealth, have revamped the menu, adding more sandwiches and salads and even a turkey burger. They’ve cooked up an “Uncommon” burger, too, which is a lamb patty served with mint relish. Other items that you might see, either on the menu or the specials list, include duck confit risotto, kabocha squash ravioli, and chicken and dumplings.
“We lightened it up a lot,” Leeds tells Y&H.
I asked Leeds if this signaled a shift away from the gastropub concept, with its emphasis on chef-driven takes of classic British dishes. Sort of, the owner says.
“We’re changing to just slightly more traditional European [food],” Leeds says. “Just because I think it’s more accessible to people.”
Looks like Y&H needs to check out this makeover soon.
Photo courtesy of CommonWealth
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Linked From: October 28th, 2009Jamie Leeds to Serve as Next President of National Culinary Organization - Young & Hungry - Washington City Paper
3:40 pm[...] new gig comes as she and her chef de cuisine, Abigail Fellows, have been opening up the menu at CommonWealth, adding some lighter fare and more options beyond the chef-driven gastropub [...]
3:01 pm
A turkey burger? Yeah, that sounds incredibly European.
3:15 pm
I was there last week and saw some of the changes. No more bangers and mash but they did have a proper shepard’s pie on the menu along with the vegetarian one which was the only option. I remember when the place first opened on of the local writers (I think it was the Post) remarked that although they had some traditional pub stuff on the menu, there seemed to be more burgers being eaten than anything else. I guess you can only drag the market so far.