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Vidalia

Vidalia

We never set out to be a Southern restaurant,” declares Jeff Buben, chef and co-owner of Vidalia in Washington, D.C. “We were looking for a name and icon that represented American cooking.”

Sallie Buben, Jeff’s wife and business partner, suggested Vidalia onions. It seemed to go with the wood decor they had inherited from the Swiss restaurant that previously occupied the premises, so they settled on it.

Before long, Buben says, “customers, after hearing Sallie’s Southern accent on the phone, were expecting Southern food, and we added a baked Vidalia onion and a few other Southern items to the menu.” After 15 years, shrimp and grits and lemon chess pie remain among Vidalia’s best sellers.

“We aspire to be Southern in philosophy and graciousness,” says chef de cuisine R. J. Cooper, “but very modern in preparation of food.”

Vidalia was immediately acclaimed for its imaginative American cooking, rock-solid consistency and dedication to local ingredients. The restaurant was annually awarded four stars, the highest rating, by Washingtonian magazine, and Buben won the Beard Foundation’s Best Chef Mid-Atlantic award in 1999.

From the beginning, Vidalia has been committed to sourcing the best local ingredients.

“It’s great to see young chefs at the market now, embracing the whole thing,” Jeff Buben says. “People want to be a part of the process, to know where their food is coming from.”

Far from being just a fad, a commitment to local products has become part of the culture, Buben says.

“Plus,” he adds, “local produce just tastes better.”

The quality of the ingredients is certainly part of the reason for Vidalia’s success, but Bob Kinkead, owner of the nearby, award-winning seafood restaurant Kinkead’s, says a more important part of the equation is simply hard work.

“Jeff Buben is about the craft,” Kinkead says. “I’ve watched him keep his nose to the grindstone for more than 30 years, always maintaining the highest level of quality and dedication. He never wavers.”

Buben sees two things as central to the success of the restaurant, both of which remain his greatest challenges as the restaurant gets older. The first is maintaining a balance between the restaurant’s signature dishes, the dishes customers have come to love and expect, and current trends. The second is maintaining hospitality as the restaurant’s No. 1 concern.

“One of our hardest problems after 15 years is how to change effectively,” Buben says. “We need to maintain menu growth but also give repeat customers the dishes they come back for.”

Buben has addressed this problem by including a category called “Vidalia Classics” on the menu.

“We have 10 dishes that change but always offer a couple of the signature dishes that customers remember,” he says, “although we try to bring them back with a more modern twist.”

Buben often has to remind his young chefs that success in the restaurant business means having repeat customers.

“I know chefs get bored cooking the same things,” he says, “but I tell chefs: ‘Nobody will remember your experiments. People come back for the signature dishes.’”

“Change must be gradual” is one of Buben’s mantras.

The longevity of the restaurant’s staff is one of the ways that Buben maintains consistency. Mike Novaris, the dining room manager, has been at Vidalia since the beginning. Doug Mohr, who set up and ran the wine program, was at the restaurant for 10 years, leaving to study for his Master Sommelier certification. Forty percent of the waitstaff, Buben says, has been with him for more than five years. Several of the kitchen staff have been with Buben at this and other restaurants for more than 20 years.

“Jeff inspires a sense of camaraderie and loyalty that I’ve never encountered before,” says Cooper, the chef de cuisine.

Buben is known for his ability to recognize and retain talented young chefs. Over the years, they have included Cathal Armstrong, who now owns the very successful Restaurant Eve and several other restaurants in the Old Town neighborhood of Alexandria, Va.; Peter Smith, who was chef de cuisine at Vidalia for 12 years and is now the owner of PJ7 in downtown D.C.; Eric Ziebold, now chef at the acclaimed CitiZen in Washington’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel; and Cooper, the chef de cuisine for the last four years, who last year won the James Beard Foundation award for Best Chef Mid-Atlantic.

WEBSITE:www.vidaliadc.comPER-PERSON CHECK AVERAGE: $80BEST-SELLING DISH: shrimp and gritsSEATS: 120AVERAGE WEEKLY COVERS: 1,300CHEF/CO-OWNER: Jeff BubenCO-OWNER: Sallie Buben

“There’s a reason why young chefs want to come here,” Cooper says. “You get to find and use the best local product; you get to work with the best wines; and you get to work with Jeff, a chef-owner who treats you as a colleague.

“We often butt heads,” Cooper continues, “but he’s always receptive to a new idea if you can convince him that it will help take the restaurant to the next level. He has a remarkable combination of drive and humility.”

MENU SAMPLER

Yellowtail hamachi cru $15 Crisp veal sweetbreads $15.50

Mediterranean branzino $33.50 Emerald Farm young suckling pig $33

Roasted king trumpet mushrooms $26 Grillades and grits $31.50

Lemon chess pie $10.75 Georgia pecan tart $11

Buben feels his dual role as chef-owner, rather than just being chef or owner alone, has been important to the restaurant’s success.

“Being a chef and owner helps me make good decisions,” he says. “I have to think as an owner, about the long-term best interests of the restaurant, rather than just as a chef.”

It also helps in recruiting and training staff.

“I try to find people who want eventually to do something on their own,” Buben says. “They get training on the cooking and on the business side, and many go on to open their own businesses.”

One of the big changes in 2003 was a complete makeover of the restaurant, moving from the rather rustic decor that he inherited and kept for financial reasons to a more modern feel.

“Part of the challenge was our basement location,” Buben says. “In the ‘70s, when the building was constructed, it was the trend to keep retail off the street and use the prime street location for office space. We wanted to create an environment worthy of the food.”

The new decor is more elegant and flexible, with private dining rooms and expanded bar space for use during happy hours and wine events.

Another change since Vidalia opened in 1993 is that the restaurant’s wine program has been significantly enlarged, from about 100 wines to more than 700. Under the former stewardship of Doug Mohr and now Ed Jenks, Vidalia has built its wine list through building relationships with vintners.

“It just followed what we were doing with the food,” Buben says. “We wanted to cook great food to drink great wine with.”

In the past 15 years, Vidalia’s neighborhood has changed and so has its business. Law and communications firms, which were once the backbone of Vidalia’s lunch business, have moved further east as that part of Washington’s downtown has been redeveloped.

“Fine dining constantly has to find ways to maintain relevance,” Buben says. “That’s one of our industry’s biggest challenges.”

Familiar dishes and familiar staff are certainly part of making people feel comfortable. Sallie Buben, who ran the front door and the reservations at the beginning, was a constant welcoming presence for customers. She has now moved into more of a public relations and business role. People often ask Jeff if he finds it difficult to have his wife be part of the business.

“One partner is all you need in life,” he says. “That’s the person I need to be able to rely on. I like the strength of a husband-and-wife team.”

To ensure the quality of hospitality, Buben now spends more time on the front-of-the-house.

“A chef can get too kitchen-centric,” he says.

In 1998, Buben opened a second restaurant, Bistro Bis, a contemporary French bistro, on Capitol Hill. He now is thinking about a third. Having recruited a talented staff, he feels it’s important to give them new opportunities.

“If we’re not careful,” he says, “we’ll find ourselves empty nesters.”

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