For more than two decades, Ramparts has been a bulwark of the Fairlington neighborhood. Now Mike Anderson, the restaurant’s new owner, hopes that he can keep the clientele while making the restaurant even better.
Renovations to the last section of Ramparts are nearly complete. In just two weeks or so, Simply Fish will open.
The sports bar will stay much the same, Anderson said, with a few slight changes. “We will clean it up and maybe spruce up the furnishings but it will still have that same feel and people will still be able to get the American menu that they are used to at Ramparts.”
But the big push is to open Simply Fish. “We want to get Simply Fish open and see how things go and then do some things with the middle section.”
ANDERSON, KNOWN AS Mango Mike to his friends, bought Ramparts last summer and began work on Simply Fish.
“We went for more subtle colors and lots of fish and mermaids,” Anderson said. “We don’t want people to confuse Simply Fish with Mango Mikes; we want it to have a look of its own.”
It does. On the back wall, a mural depicts mermaids and other sea creatures, a theme that continues in the upholstery of the new booths.
A sculptor is completing work on a nine-foot long fish that will “swim” along a track on the ceiling when the door opens. “We will put glass in front of the lights on the fish to give that kind of shimmery effect so that it looks like it’s swimming,” Anderson said.
The sculptor will be a larger-than-life replica of the new restaurant’s logo – a stylized skeletal fish. “If the large fish works out, we are going to have smaller fish swimming around it,” Anderson said.
The menu, of course, will also be simply fish. To design the menu, Anderson has hired chef Christy Velie, a T.C. Williams grad, and her partner, Tom Przystawik. Velie was the chef at D.C.’s Cafe Atlantico before starting A Chef of Ones Own with Przystawik.
“It’s great to have Tom and Christy,” Anderson said. “A small restaurant like this could never afford to have a creative team like this onboard permanently. But we can have them work out the menu, develop the recipes, train the staff and do some follow-up monitoring.”
VELIE AND PRZYSTAWIK have been working on the menu and recipes for about four weeks and are ready to start cooking and training.
“Mike told us that he wanted a menu that was centered around fish,” Velie said. She and Przystawik want people to eat more fish anyway, and planned a menu they hope will both attract fish lovers and convert diners who aren’t.
Patrons will be able to order six different types of fresh fish each night. “They will be able to pick the type of fish, the cooking method and the side dishes,” Przystawik said. “They can stop there or they can select from one of our toppings.”
The toppings are designed to enhance the fish, but not to have so distinctive a flavor that people won’t try them. “We have developed toppings that we believe go well with all of the fish on the menu,” Velie said.
Her favorite is the sun-dried tomato and pesto topping, while Przystawik’s is the anchovy and olive tapanade. “Both of them have that tangy, fresh taste but they are different,” Velie said.
Anderson will work with several suppliers, but is also focusing on a Honolulu company that supplies fresh seafood to Mango Mike’s. “Their boat goes out on Thursday, they clean the fish for us and ship it Federal Express and we have it by Friday morning,” Anderson said. “It’s unbelievably fresh.”
Velie is excited about Simply Fish, which represents her first time cooking for Alexandrians. “It’s really nice to be able to cook for people in this neighborhood,” she said. “I have lived in Alexandria all of my life. My parents still live here. I graduated from T. C. Williams but have always cooked in restaurants outside the city.”
SHE STARTED A Chef of Ones Own with Przystawik as a personal chef business.
“We would go into people’s homes and cook a week’s worth of meals for them, put them in the refrigerator with heating instructions and leave,” Przystawik explained. “We also do some kitchen mentoring and cater dinner parties.”
Now, with Simply Fish and two other projects, the two are moving more into working on restaurant start-ups – developing menus, training staff and monitoring to ensure that their recipes are being followed correctly.
“Neither of us wanted to be a chef in a restaurant all of the time anymore so this really is the best of both worlds,” Velie said.
Once Simply Fish is well established, Anderson will look at the middle section of Ramparts. “We are considering a Carolina-style barbecue place, maybe,” he said. “That seems to be something that people are interested in having in Alexandria.”
Simply Fish, 1700 Fern St., will open in mid-to-late March. Upstairs, Anderson is planning a lounge that will serve cocktails and a limited menu, to open at 9 p.m. every night. That should be open in April or May. More information about Ramparts is available online at www.rampartsrestaurant.com, or by calling 703 998-6616. More information about A Chef of Ones Own is available online at www.achefofonesown.com.