“Word will get around,” a satiated well-wisher assures Arash Tafakor, having just finished her first meal at his family’s new place in Falls Church.
Her manifesting is already ringing true, Tafakor says. A flood of friendly faces has kept the bar and kitchen hopping ever since he and his brother, Afsheen, opened Stratford Garden in December with their mom, Afsaneh Moradian, and business partner David Birks.
The sprawling patio, rotating taps and center-city location are a draw. So is the eclectic food menu.
Chef Cameron Cousin, an alumnus of The Maple Room in Vienna and the former Mad Fox Brewing Co. in Falls Church, is responsible for the obligatory gourmet cheeseburger and tantalizing seafood tower on offer.
Tafakor is the one who pushed for the surprisingly popular roster of “conservas”—Iberian tinned fish snacks such as oil-packed sardines and stewed squid. After feasting on them in Spain and Portugal, he noticed D.C. restaurants such as the iconic Old Ebbitt Grill and trendy Osteria Mozza getting in on the action. Intuition prompted him to give the imported delicacies a go at Stratford. They sold out within a week.
Stratford’s tinned seafood boards are served with whipped butter, chopped Fresno chilies, lemon wedges, Maldon sea salt and grilled bread from Lyon Bakery in Hyattsville, Maryland. The anchovy board is bolstered by a grapefruit-size bulb of milky burrata.
Just typing that sentence makes me wish I were back there, composing a mouthwatering bite of salty anchovies draped over crusty, country-style bread with luscious cheese and zesty peppers. Or stacking hearty slabs of preserved tuna belly into a DIY sandwich doctored with the same roasted peppers and a squeeze of lemon. The accompanying butter is fine, but unnecessary in my opinion. I’d suggest using any remaining bread to swab every last bit of seasoned oil out of those tins. (Or else, what are we even doing here?)
The buzz surrounding Stratford is surely bolstered by the goodwill the Tafakor brothers have built with their two other businesses just up the road. Dominion Wine and Beer, a brew and bottle shop with a second floor restaurant, is already a local go-to, as is the adjacent Brick House Butcher, which stocks premium steaks and chops from local farms. The fact that their newest venture preserves a local landmark—the midcentury Stratford Motor Lodge—is another master stroke.
These days, the newly renovated structure includes a spacious bar, an unfussy dining room with exposed brick and wood accents, a covered patio and sun-splashed beer garden, and a casual café serving coffee, pastries, salads and sandwiches. Guests can make themselves at home wherever they choose (bar, high-top, banquette, outdoors) while contemplating a menu with some unexpected twists.
One of Cousin’s biggest swings is house-made gnocchi tossed with three kinds of mushrooms, butternut squash and Parmesan in a savory brown butter sauce. He uses “a ton of ricotta cheese” to make the tender dumplings, piping them directly into boiling water for the first cook, and then frying them to order for spot crisping. The meaty mix of cremini, shiitake and oyster mushrooms lends an earthiness to the ensemble, which benefits from a bright topping of herby chimichurri.
The chef’s Asian-inspired forbidden rice may be even more ambitious. The nutty grains are tossed with a host of dueling ingredients, including crunchy fava beans (love), fragrant coconut curry (too sweet), diced scallions (aces) and red pepper. The wiggly fried egg on top is a fine addition, although a poached egg would add a more velvety, runny yolk to the mix. It’s a good dish, but not quite a perfect one. It’s available as a side, or as an entree topped with grilled shrimp.
Other items are hit or miss. A superlative French dip (juicy sliced rib-eye and crunchy fried onions on a cottony roll) trumps a ho-hum fried chicken sandwich that, to me, was no crispier or juicier than others out there.
Pickled onions and tangy yogurt sauce elevate a succulent lamb burger over its beefier counterpart. Ground pork shines in sliders smeared with shallot jam, but a less satisfying bone-in chop was dried out on the grill and muddled by a cloying maple syrup reduction.
Cousin’s menu will change seasonally, and at least one nostalgic addition is in the works. “We actually found the recipe for La Caraqueña’s chicken salad,” Tafakor says, referencing the cult-status arepa joint that previously occupied the motor lodge building.
He discovered the notes for his predecessor’s reina pepiada while watching the 2010 episode of “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” that brought Food Network star Guy Fieri to the area.
Watch for a resurrected version of the beloved arepa stuffed with avocado and shredded chicken, coming soon to the café menu.
What to Drink
You can’t call yourself a beer garden without free-flowing suds. Co-owner David Birks oversees a rotating list of 16 drafts ($8-$10) that includes domestic brews (Other Half, Sierra Nevada), classic imports (Paulaner, Guinness) and funky sours, including one thirst quencher cut with Japanese tea. Seasonal, house-branded beers produced by Guilford Hall Brewery in Baltimore include a crisp Czech-style lager and a quaffable Vienna lager.
Wines by the glass range from $12 for imported whites (such as Italian Pinot Grigio) and reds (Argentinean Malbec) to $21 for French Champagne (Veuve Clicquot).
The bar offers a few riffs on traditional cocktails ($15-$17), sweetening icy mules with pomegranate, spiking negronis with fig and gilding frothy espresso martinis with chocolate shavings. I wanted the Smokey Dove to pummel me with roasted mezcal, but the spirit’s distinct flavor profile was overpowered by a one-two punch of lime and grapefruit juice. Perhaps a cocktail more suited to citrus lovers.
Stratford Garden
30 W. Broad St., Falls Church, 571-550-9440
Hours
Monday through Thursday: 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Friday and Saturday: 11 a.m. to midnight
Sunday: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Parking
The restaurant has a dedicated lot with dozens of spaces. Street parking is also available.
Prices
Appetizers: $12 to $26
Raw bar: $18 to $70
Entrees: $22 to $52
