Meet Jeremiah Langhorne: The chef finds a home for the Dabney in Blagden Alley

Editor's note: This is the second installment in a series tracking Jeremiah Langhorne, former chef de cuisine at the modernist, farm-to-tableMcCrady's in Charleston, S.C., as he opens his debut restaurant in Washington. You can read the first installment here.

While he was still leading the kitchen at McCrady's, Jeremiah Langhorne would make occasional trips to the District to scout locations for his debut restaurant, one of the most highly anticipated since a certain Luxury space on Capitol Hill. It didn't take long for Langhorne to find his spot.

Alex Zink, left, and Jeremiah Langhorne, got their wish: a space in Blagden Alley for their debut restaurant. (Tim Carman/The Washington Post)

Within a couple visits, the chef had zeroed in on Blagden Alley, the historic neighborhood that once mixed architectural styles and social classes back in the 19th century. There was just one problem: No one in the area had a property to lease Langhorne. Instead, real estate brokers paraded him up and down the trendiest commercial corridors in Washington.

Every other area that we checked, it just didnt feel right. People were like, Oh, you guys should go down to H Street!" Langhorne recalls. "We went down to H Street and looked around, but it was like, its not what we want.

The more Langhorne and his business partner, Alex Zink, scouted locations, the more they realized how perfect Blagden was for their restaurant, a project dedicated to building a cuisine out of the flora and fauna of the Mid-Atlantic. The restaurant, like the alley, had a foothold in the past and an eye on the future.

Whether by fate or by obstinacy, the partners got their wish: On Oct. 14, Langhorne and Zink officially sealed a deal with Douglas Development to lease a Blagden Alley space behind a trio of rowhouses on Ninth Street NW. Actually, their space is still an Erector set of steel beams, located on a patch of dirt where an old brick structure once sat. Douglas is expected to complete construction and turn over an empty shell to the first-time restaurateurs by the end of November, and Langhorne hopes to open his 70-seat restaurant by late spring. He plans to call the place the Dabney.

Langhorne can effortlessly break down his reasons for holding out for Blagden, as if he were solving an algebra problem.

First of all, being on the alley is kind of paramount. Its one of the last, I feel like, historic places in the city, especially around this side of the city," he says. "No. 2 was the outdoor space. We really need to have some sort of a garden area; its kind of essential to our philosophy. And having everything on one level floor was also another huge thing for us. Just for me, its kind of the aesthetic and the feel that you get when you walk back in the alley."

The Dabney will incorporate a main bar, an outdoor courtyard, a semi-private dining space and an open kitchen with a giant wood-burning hearth. (Tim Carman/The Washington Post)

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Meet Jeremiah Langhorne: The chef finds a home for the Dabney in Blagden Alley