If you ask Geoffrey Zakarian how the National in Washington will differ from the National in New York, the chef and restaurateur has a quick answer: Trump Winery.
Zakarian's first D.C. restaurant will enjoy the advantage of operating inside the Old Post Office Pavilion, which Donald Trump is renovating into a 270-room luxury project called Trump International Hotel. The Iron Chef and The Donald have talked about sectioning off 200 acres of Trump Winery, located outside Charlottesville, to grow produce for the National as well as for the forthcoming José Andrés project in the hotel.
Zakarian loves opening restaurants in historic structures, like the Old Post Office Pavilion. (Rendering courtesy of Beyer Blinder Belle Architects.)
Zakarian even plans to use old vines and prunings from Trump Winery in the wood-burning grill he hopes to install at the National, assuming the General Services Administration, which leases the building to Trump, approves the open-flame equipment in the historic structure. Zakarian has contracted Grillworks, the designer grill company owned by Washingtonian Ben Eisendrath, to build a contraption to cook meats, vegetables and fish above hot coals.
[Trump buys former Kluge Estate Winery at foreclosure auction.]
“I would love to do a lot of grilling and smoking over wood," says Zakarian during a phone interview. The "Chopped" judge envisions that the old vines, when properly seasoned, would be tossed on top of coals to add an extra layer of wood perfume. Think of it as locally sourced wood smoke.
Grillworks is designing a grill for chef Geoffrey Zakarian, similar to the one it built for Ox in Portland, Ore., above. (Photo courtesy of Grillworks)
Don Trump Jr., executive vice president of development and acquisitions for the Trump Organization, says the deals with Andrés and Zakarian were essentially done when talks turned to a larger question: "How do we take it to the next level?"
[José Andrés to open flagship restaurant inside Trump International Hotel]
The answer was as simple as it was obvious: Carve off a couple hundred acres from Trump Winery and develop a farm-to-table relationship with the two celebrity-chef restaurants at Trump International Hotel, scheduled to open in the summer of 2016. Trump Jr. also expects the winery to produce custom-made blends for Zakarian, who expressed an interest in them.
"It seems like a very natural synergy," Trump Jr. says.
It's too early to talk about what produce the winery might grow, but Trump Jr. confirms that all fruits and vegetables will be selected by the chefs and their staff, likely in consultation with farmers hired to run the operation. "Those guys are the artists," Trump Jr. says of Andrés and Zakarian. "They know what they are doing."
Zakarian says he likes operating inside hotels, where restaurant and hotel staff can learn from each other and benefit each other. He also enjoys, believe it or not, preparing three meals a day. The National inside the Benjamin Hotel in New York serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, mostly refined bistro fare such as grilled branzino, steak frites, roast chicken, steamed mussels and steak tartare. The 160-seat D.C. restaurant, located on the corner of 12th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, won't be a carbon copy, Zakarian promises. (Nor will it provide room service.)
The name and the concept just seemed to fit the nation's capital, where you cater to both tourists and power players, he notes.
"It'll never be the same. It can’t be, just because of the different needs of the neighborhood,” says Zakarian, who is working with partner Louis Ceruzzi to open the National in Washington. "We’re going to find out what the people of D.C. want and kind of tailor to that.”
As for Zakarian's involvement, the chef says he's all in.
"I’m going to be there," Zakarian promises. "I’m going to live there a long time. I’m going to take a big role."
And by the way, don't look for any more major restaurant announcements coming from Team Trump for its D.C. hotel. "That’s probably all we want to do with that kind of food service," Trump Jr. says.