After four years of construction, the 445-room Arlo Washington DC hotel just taking its first guests near Judiciary Square. Ground-floor Arrel is its warm-toned restaurant with a bright grab-and-go cafe that highlights chef Pepe Moncayo's Spanish roots, from growing up in Barcelona with Andalusian parents to being mentored by chefs across the Iberian Peninsula. Both the full-service dining destination and its snack-filled bodega open up for business today, Tuesday, November 19 (333 G Street NW).
Brown leather chairs and soft, velvety gray sofas fill Arrel's inviting multi-layered dining room, putting a modern spin on the worn look of old Spanish cities where brick, wood, and tiles are built on top of each other over time. Behind the yellow chairs at the marble bar, a glass-covered courtyard can be kept warm in the winter and doesn't bake diners with direct sunlight in the summer. Moncayo says he didn't contribute any design details to the space, joking that he's learned from past restaurants that he has no taste when it comes to interior design. But he was adamant that the huge patio with movable tables stay open year-round. "I want the space to be very flexible," he says, with plans to host big parties and flamenco dancing classes come spring.
The Iberian-influenced space reflects the menu Moncayo presented to Arlo executives two years ago when they asked him to come on board after a fateful meal at his Japanese-Spanish fusion spot, Cranes. He knew immediately that he wanted to honor his first foundation in cooking, the vast culinary heritage of Spain. The only problem was cutting down all the recipes he loved into a two-page menu.
"I cut down the middle my choice of dishes, but one that I really, really feel very attached to emotionally is the rabbit rice," he explained. Succulent roasted rabbit and artichokes were always thrown into a crispy rice like his mother used to make during his youth, plus anything else she could find in the market. The conejoy y alachachofa includes carrots and a sauce made from the roasted rabbit.
A specially made Spanish charcoal oven that can get up to 900 degrees will churn out four other rice dishes on the menu that reflect Moncayo's "roots," which Arrels literally translates to, beyond the traditional paellas found across the District. Arroz caldoso, with local crab mixed with sofrito and chickpeas, and the fideau de setas, a paella made from short noodles and a mix of seasonal mushrooms, reflect the teachings of the Torres brothers, Michelin-awarded chefs who were "really obsessed with rice." He can still remember when the siblings coached him through adding the right amount of broth to temperamental stovetop rice.
"'Pepe, you need to listen the rice suffering,'" he recalls them urging. "'Put your ear to the rice, listen to it!'"
Chef Santi Santamaria, an avant-garde chef with Michelin-starred credentials in Spain, also taught him to cook a traditional Catalonian dish called suquet or "Catalan fisherman's stew." The coastal soup cooks down mussels, shrimp, clams, squid, and any other fresh seafood in a flavorful tomato-based sauce that's super comforting during harsh, windy winters. Another hearty Catalonian meal that Moncayo introduces to American palates is a take on surf-and-turf dish known as "mar i muntanya," literally the ocean and the mountains, that cooks cuttlefish and beef meatballs together in a stew.
Introducing all these specialty Spanish dishes while also balancing an upcoming breakfast menu and shared kitchen with the Bodega by Arrels, on the other side of the lobby, is also a challenge. The market serves quick, under-$25 lunches made in 10 minutes that "cross-utilizes ingredients" across his two D.C. restaurants. Paella rice will be cooked up in advance and quickly fried up into a "paella fried rice" for 9-to-5 workers on the go and a Spanish twist on the classic American breakfast combines the main menu's paptatas bravas with butifarra (simple Catalan sausage also served in hot dogs at the bar), bacon, and eggs. Even the high-end tinned seafood and chips, which Moncayo painstakingly sourced from four different distributors to bring in from Spain, will be on sale at the bodega and also served at Arrel's chill bar area.
A chargrilled medium rare tuna belly with olive sauce at Arrels will be repurposed in a confit topping off a salad at the bodega. Later, that same tuna will be found in hand rolls at a rooftop bar, called ART, that's coming in December. The small kitchen space upstairs will mostly serve up raw fish in hand rolls and other Japanese dishes that Moncayo has become known for at Cranes for the last four years. Beverage director Ferit Ozergul, who's manned the bar at Cranes for almost three years, will be making cocktails that mix in Japanese flavors at the rooftop bar, while classic gin and tonics, plus sherry and vermouth-forward drinks to pair with the Spanish food downstairs.
Running a cafe, restaurant, and bar might sound like a lot to take on for Moncayo as he still manages much-larger Cranes a few blocks away. He says he's not feeling stressed after building a team of his tried-and-true managers from Cranes along with an executive chef from MGM National Harbor that has worked at the Voltaggio Brothers Steak House for the past three years. When pressed, he quoted chef Gualtiero Marchesi, the godfather of modern Italian cuisine.
"He said, 'when I'm around and not around, the people cooking is exactly the same,'" he said.