The hottest new spot in Washington, D.C. focuses on the traditional heat-packed cooking methods of northern Thailand, while still using local ingredients from around the DMV. Alfie’s, from chefs Justin Ahn and Alex McCoy, started as a pop-up in Petworth in 2017 before traveling around the world, serving diners in New York and London. This year, the restaurant put down permanent roots in a Georgetown alleyway. The co-owners led us through a day in the new kitchen, preparing everything from hand-cut green papaya in som tam salad to the limited-quantity Thai steak frites with a massaman curry peppercorn sauce.
In the video, the kitchen team breaks down rib-eye steaks for their take on a steak au poivre, which they only make five of each night. The steaks are carefully seared for each order, with the au poivre massaman curry sauce is finished in the pan with the leftover beef fat. Classic “bar fries” are served up with the massive 26-ounce rib-eye.
Elsewhere in the kitchen, another chef carves green papayas. The irregular slices of papaya get tossed in a funky, spicy dressing for each order. Ko calls it the “most labor intensive dish on the line;” each order is carefully mixed with fresh tomatoes, peanuts, and a palm syrup and tamarind-heavy dressing. A rich pork belly curry is simmering in the background. Gaeng hung lay (a traditional northern Thai curry) cooks down large pieces of pork belly to get that fatty layer, with pickled garlic and pineapple balancing out the rich flavors of curry paste, tamarind, and fish sauce.
Right before service, the chefs begin prepping herbs and sticky rice that has been soaking overnight and is quickly steamed for that malleable, glutinous texture. McCoy talks about how being a chef is more of a lifestyle than a job, but there’s immense payoff when you get to see diners enjoy your hard work every night. He hopes that Alfie’s will become a place where “you can just forget where you are, have a good time, and just lose yourself in the experience and the food.”