Eatonville Restaurant

The restaurateur behind the two hangouts, Andy Shallal, named and fashioned Busboys and Poets as an homage to poet and writer Langston Hughes. Eatonville, his latest venture, is a love song to Zora Neale Hurston, another Harlem Renaissance writer with DC ties (she attended Howard University). Hurston hailed from Eatonville, Florida, the country’s first incorporated African-American township.
For Shallal, connecting food to history and folklore is almost as important as the food that brings people to the table. “What I love is the fact that the concept is not just food on a plate,” he says. “It really tells a story. It honors the past, and it honors the African-American culture, particularly on the U Street corridor.”
The decor is as colorful as the neighborhood, with splashy murals and crystal chandeliers. A wall of windows brings the outside in, and a patio brings the inside out—both aspects that seem to play up to Shallal’s concept of integrating the restaurant with its surroundings. “I like to define the community rather than just fit in, whenever possible,” he says. To that end, he tries to locate in new developments—Eatonville is in the new Flats at Union Row condo complex—rather than open something in an existing structure.
So there’s plenty of backstory and a vibrant dining room. But how’s the food? Our early visit revealed that chef Rusty Holman is whipping up promising fare that draws from Southern, low-country, and Cajun cuisines.
—The Washingtonian by Rina Rapuano