COVID-19 has changed just about everything, including Alexandria food culture. In just under a year, it has transformed the way the city thinks about restaurant dining, changing not only the ways locals dine at restaurants but also how their restaurants serve them food.
According to the city’s revenue division, 17 out of 422 local restaurants, about 4%, have closed during the pandemic. When compared to the national average, this figure appears low. According to the National Restaurant Association, one in six restaurants have closed nationwide because of COVID-19.
While the last year has presented many challenges for local eateries, restaurateurs in Alexandria are surviving and adapting despite all the obstacles.
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Poca Madre, chef Victor Albisu s modern Mexican restaurant. Photography by Greg Powers, courtesy of Poca Madre.
Restaurants are commercial entities, but they’re also intensely personal. Some, you become so close to that it feels like family. Thus, during this year of so many sad closures, everyone’s list of the places they miss the most will be different. Here’s mine.
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Washingtonian offices were about a ten minute walk to this bakery/sandwich/salad spot, which was founded by Mark Furstenberg in 1997. The bread master sold it long ago, but the blueprint remained and it was always jam-packed. And there was something so uplifting about getting a freshly fried fish sandwich or a prosciutto flatbread for a desk lunch, instead of a boring Cobb. Not surprisingly, as downtown has cleared out, it’s closed for “the foreseeable future.”