By Nicole Bayne
Reston Town Center is giving up Paulo’s Ristorante and bringing in sister restaurant NEYLA Mediterranean Bistro, which is planning to soft-open May 2.
Thomas Gregg, who became CEO of Capitol Restaurant Concepts in December, says that after 15 years NEYLA’s Georgetown location was “no longer a good fit” and moving to Reston would allow for a larger, more casual restaurant.
“There isn’t really an eastern Mediterranean venue in Reston,” says Gregg, though Reston Town Center will soon welcome Barcelona Wine Bar, a Spanish tapas restaurant.
Chef Eric von Gehren, who has been with CRC since 1987 and has helped open many of the company’s restaurants, will be executive chef and will redesign the menu. He learned about Mediterranean cuisine while living overseas in Lebanon where he helped CRC founder and chairman Bechara Nammour open over 10 restaurants.
Crossover dishes will include roasted eggplant with sheep’s yogurt, raisins and smoked paprika oil; wild green pie with fennel, pine nuts and lemon aioli; chicken shawarma; falafel; hummus and tabbouleh; and a layered pistachio baklava cake and poached figs with yogurt cream for dessert. Family-style plates include salt-crusted branzino and slow-roasted lamb shoulder.
The new NEYLA will highlight small plates, or mezze, of “new items that maybe people haven’t heard of before,” Gregg says, like kafta, skewered ground lamb or beef with roasted tomatoes, parsley and radish. “It’s our way of letting people explore the traditional eastern Mediterranean food on the menu in a way where you don’t have to order a meal you could potentially dislike,” says Gregg.
Lunch will focus on Mediterranean salads available to-go including the Turkish roasted duck salad with beets, pumpkin, cracked wheat, mint, cilantro, hazelnut and sesame.
There will be brunch too (which “will probably involve a bottomless mimosa,” Gregg says), and the drink program has been expanded to include regional wine, local craft beer and house cocktails.
Gregg is working with D.C. architect and designer Olivia Demetriou of HaptsakDemetriou+, the company responsible for the design of D.C. hot spot Rose’s Luxury, and will include a large outdoor patio.
“Our goal is to retain the original nature and the quality of food people have come to expect from NEYLA,” Gregg says. / Soft opening May 2: NEYLA Mediterranean Bistro; 11898 Market St., Reston
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