“Sandy feet? No problem! Foot washing station around the corner. "The sign at the patio entrance to Chic’s Laundry speaks volumes about the wildly popular restaurant that opened in March in the tight-knit Chesapeake Bay enclave of Chic’s Beach.
But it doesn’t tell the whole story. While flip-flops and shorts suit it, so do your glam dress and snazzy heels. It’s at once highbrow and low-key, elegant and easygoing, posh but not pretentious. In fact, it perfectly reflects this storied neighborhood, a happy mishmash of stunning million-dollar homes and snug cinder-block bungalows, lovingly described by residents as, “if Virginia Beach’s North End and Norfolk’s Ocean View had a baby.”
The menu bolsters that broad appeal with smashburgers and steak tartare, caviar and collards, house-baked sourdough pizza and bacon-wrapped filet. Fine dining meets fun dining.
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Capitalizing on its Mid-Atlantic setting, Chic’s Laundry revels in ingredients like local crab and sweet corn, Laughing King oysters from the Eastern Shore, and fresh fish caught in nearby waters.
Chef Abriel Levantino zhuzhes things up with peppery-sweet annatto in a full-bodied broth for littleneck clams and house-ground sausage and a fiery peach aguachile playing off sublime bluefin tuna crudo. He lacquers grilled pork ribeye with an orange reduction, shaved fennel, and glazed clementines, maximizing punch and panache.
Sous chef Tayler Sager describes the cuisine as elevated but approachable.
No matter how you play it — mixing up smaller plates, adding a “bump” of caviar to arancini, shelling out for the 16 oz. Creekstone Farms ribeye with salsa verde — trust there will be organic flours and no seed oils (French fries, for example, are fried in tallow to crisp perfection).
A small, uncomplicated, curated wine list pairs well with the sustainably-conscious fare, competing on an even playing field with frisky cocktails. Many, like Maison Chic (Prairie Organic Gin, Dolin blanc vermouth, mixed berry fassionola — a tiki-culture fruit syrup, lemon juice, egg white foam), can be cunningly mocktailored.
Fittingly, Chic’s Laundry was conceived at a party right in this salty coastal community when businessman Drew Monroe met local culinary lion Todd Jurich. Both live in the ‘hood and had been eyeing the former home of Zia Marie (now on Shore Drive). They realized a shared vision for an upscale yet beachy restaurant and eventually teamed up — Monroe as owner and Jurich as food and beverage director — along with Kevin Dubel (operations), Rachael Blake (sales and catering) and Russell Qualls (general manager).
While the restaurant was being stripped down to its studs, Jurich, who is still a hands-on chef-owner at his 34-year-old Todd Jurich’s Bistro in Downtown Norfolk, was chatting at an area hangout with Claude “Beetle” Bailey, aka the “mayor of Chic’s Beach.” (Bailey can recite its history from the 1940s when Luther “Chic” Ledington ran a hot dog stand near Fentress Avenue — hence the name Chic’s Beach — through the Low Rent Regatta years to today). Bailey shared that the place had had many lives including as a dive bar, a lady’s dress shop, and a laundromat. That last one inspired Jurich to suggest a name riffing on famed restaurant The French Laundry in Napa Valley. It stuck.
Chic’s Laundry’s main dining room, all light woods evoking a sleek Nordic spa, pays homage to those dress shop days with vintage sewing machines while the imported Neapolitan terra-cotta-tiled pizza oven (purchased from Pacifica when that eatery/drinkery’s new Laskin Road location couldn’t accommodate it) anchoring the open kitchen quietly hints at Zia Marie’s Italian era.
It’s closed on Tuesdays but on the first one of every month, “Supper Club” offers an intimate, slow-paced, prix fixe showcasing a different winemaker, distiller, or farmer. And the “Laundry Cart” food truck dishes out breakfast and lunch Fridays through Sundays on the patio with bagels, egg sandwiches, doughnuts, lobster rolls, and a walk-up bar. There’s no better way to ease into the weekend.
At its core, it’s a neighborhood joint where amiable, accommodating, unstarched staff welcome you even if you don’t live close enough to golf cart over. You can splurge if you want, but overall prices are pretty grounded. Despite the name, you won’t get taken to the laundry.
