Josephine — Restaurant in Alexandria

I was so excited to dine here with a friend to celebrate a new job, only to be given a dish containing a gluten pasta after- 1, noting my gluten allergy in the reservation; 2, emphasizing and reminding the clearly green server of my gluten allergy/celiac and to note gluten free on my order for the kitchen and 3, asking in the reservation for an experienced waitperson who could speak to cross contact and be knowledgeable about the gluten free menu options. 3 absolutely did not happen, as the server tried to tell me after I realized I’d just eaten regular pasta for the first time in years that it was gluten free, and couldn’t answer if the frites were cooked in a gluten free fryer. The assistant manager came out and confirmed my worst fear — they had accidentally served me the pea spaetzle with the duck, which was made from regular gluten containing flour. If it hadn’t looked like peas I would have realized before I ate several bites of it. I get so sick from gluten exposure that I burst into tears as she confirmed it. She was extremely apologetic and comped the meal but there’s really not a price you can put on days of severe illness and gastrointestinal damage. And if you’re wondering, we visited on a Tuesday evening around 8 pm — they were not busy by any definition of the word, yet they sat us at a two top right next to another table. It was uncomfortable as we could hear every word the other party was saying due to just how un-busy it was, and a lack of sound dampening materials in the otherwise beautiful restaurant. We eventually asked to move one table down, and they had to push a second two top table with ours as we had ordered so many appetizers there wasn’t room at the two top. We actually felt like they had stereotyped us as two young women that weren’t going to order as much food as perhaps a couple that was seated in the empty booth near us after we were seated…but we had planned to go all out in celebration. It was also clear most of the servers were new to being servers in a fine dining establishment, but we were willing to overlook this given the newness of the restaurant. What I simply can’t overlook is a restaurant purporting to be a fine dining experience with lax procedures around food allergies. It’s not that hard. Have a manager oversee allergy guests and run their food. Have the kitchen staff use allergy specific picks in the dish, and don’t bring out a dish that isn’t flagged allergy for a diner noted as one with an allergy. Train your servers on the difference between a dish when it’s modified to be gluten free vs. the regular composition so they can spot it themselves. Note on the gluten free menu what is modified (gluten free option) vs comes gluten free normally.The one highlight of the evening was the cheese board selection. It was wonderful. This place has potential, but it is not managed well. The implication of that poor management and execution for me? Gut wrenching pain and vomiting literally all night long after dining here, plus a week of autoimmune issues from my body literally thinking it’s still under attack from gluten. All that to say — would I never again step foot in this establishment? I would, if they were willing to make changes. But I’d have to see evidence of it with my own eyes before a morsel of food from here ever...

This review is probably more about the staff than anything else. If you don’t want to read a long review just know this - Sibley (I hope I’m getting her name right) is absolutely incredible, the food is amazing and very well priced, the wine list is great for experiencing higher end wines at a by the glass budget, it’s also a Burgundy baddie’s dream. Overall this place has all the right to be pretentious af and overpriced but it chooses to be much, much better than that.

Okay, longer review time - buckle up babes.

My fiancé and I came in for a sort of post-borthday, intimate celebration. We ordered a glass of wine. Enter Sibley, Industry Queen. I’m no expert in wine but I know I’m about that French Red life so I spouted off some notes I like and homegirl came back with a whole enthusiastic list of great wines by the glass to try. It’s one thing to have a deep knowledge of wine - but to also be so excited to share and educate, it just made for a wonderful experience. We also got a cheese board, and to be honest the only cheese I really loved was the one Sibley recommended so next time I might just have her order for me top to bottom I’m not even joking. Then we ordered the Steak & Fries, I got the Salmon with Roe. We also got cocktails. He got an Old Fashioned and I got the Sweater Weather - so good, do get. Both entrees were so dang good I’ve actually not stopped thinking about both all week.

Okay, this is where things really left ya girl speechless. So, at some point the fiancé and I realized we were there WELL past their closing time, we felt terrible, so we start chugging our wine like, trying to scurry out quickly. I think Sibley noticed and she came over and assured us we were okay and said something about how slow it had been that week because of the holidays. Then I made a slight comment, something like, “oh well I hope you get more birthdays in here regardless of the season”, something like that and I genuinely was not expecting anything from that comment I honestly was just like - I hope you get some Capricorns up in here because legit, if this restaurant had a sign it’s giving January Capricorn. ANYWAYS. We ordered dessert and I can’t remember the name of the dessert, nor could I pronounce it, but it was so dang good. Annnnnd, mind you this is after closing. When she brought the dessert we ordered she also brought a flair candle and an extra dessert.

The staff really goes 10,000 extra miles and takes a place that has all the qualifications to make a person feel like they’re not sophisticated enough, and makes it feel like home.

Last thing - the seasoned butter. THE SEASONED BUTTER. I am a whole raccoon for genuine french butter and while I was a little disappointed to find they didn’t rock french butter, all was forgotten when their seasoned butter entered the chat. I was full blown feral for that butter. So much so that while angel of a human, Sibley, was packing our to-go food for us she added three whole ramekins of the butter for us.

Really love this place, if you’re on the fence about going don’t think, just go. I’m really excited to stop in more casually to continue exploring...

I'm going to first acknowledge that Josephine's has only been open for a couple months, and this was likely their first Alexandria restaurant week, and maybe they're still working out the newness of it. For those interested in visiting Josephine's, keep in mind that the food is French, and therefore you're going to expect to have a rich meal. The staff at the restaurant were all very nice, but it was quite chaotic throughout our dinner. We had a number of different servers and not one dedicated to our table, which could be why it took longer to get some of our order. First up was the "Lighter Side of a 75" cocktail, which was served just under room temperature, but would have been better chilled. It took quite some time and several asks for the cocktail to arrive. For apps we ordered escargot, which was piping hot (and unfortunately scalded the roof of my mouth, but I should have tested it first) but delicious if not slightly basic, and the French onion soup which was well-seasoned and perfectly cooked. For the entree we ordered the steak frites and the seared red drum (a white fish) with squid ink beurre blanc (beurre noir?). Unfortunately our entrees came out before we were finished with our appetizers, and because the table was small we felt very crowded with all of the dishes on the table. We were not provided a steak knife, so the steak (while quite flavorful), was hard to cut with the butter knife that was provided. The frites came with the side of ketchup and I believe mayo, but maybe the mayo is made in-house since it had a bit of a tangy flavor to it. The seared red drum was bold in appearance, but not bold in flavor. It would have benefited from a dash of acid, maybe lemon or capers to lift the flavor and cut the richness of the beurre blanc. We ordered the cardamom creme brulee and the stone fruit tart for dessert. I had asked for a dessert wine to accompany the dessert, unfortunately the dessert wine came out when we were almost finished with our desserts. The cardamom creme brulee was chilled in the center, though I'm used to having it served warm I almost preferred the chilled temperature of it. The cardamom flavor was almost undetectable unless I took a larger bite of it. The stone fruit tart was good, not great, and had an aftertaste of raisin to it. The restaurant itself has three levels for eating, most of them very dark in decor, except for the atrium which is naturally lit thanks to the glass ceiling, and was nice to let the sunshine through. They also offer outdoor seating with a beautiful flower painted wall and lights to enhance the experience. If you're looking for a theme of a dark 19th century Paris dive that sells absinthe, this would be the...