Social Restaurant Group to open Provision No. 14

PHOTO: Provision No. 14 logo courtesy of Provision No. 14

Later this month, into the glut of new restaurants on 14th, enters the Provision No. 14 with Executive Chef James Duke of 1789, the recently closed Tallula in Clarendon, and the Great American Restaurants, at the helm. "I love to create interesting and surprising interpretations of familiar food and flavors by using different techniques and making everything from scratch."

Chef de Cuisine will be John Leavitt, formerly a chemical engineering student in college who dropped out to pursue cooking as a career. 2941 and Carlyle in Shirlington beckoned before joining Chef Duke to open the Driftwood Kitchen. Both chefs opened the restaurant in October 2014 before leaving six months later to join the newly opening Provision No.14.

While the aforementioned listed restaurants have serviceably, unremarkable dishes, it will be fascinating to see whether corporate constraints led to unimaginative plating -- and a desire to leave to pursue a more emotional attachment to each dish -- or whether the Social Restaurant Group’s venture into the punishing, 80% failure rate of restaurants will flourish on the restaurant gold coast currently known as 14th Street irrespective of imagination.

One can only hope the sample tasting menu item of Pork Pata, a Filipino dish made from a whole pork leg that is braised, hung to dry for a day, and then also deep-fried, will be more alive with flavor rather than boring.