“A Table Down The Street” follows Howie Southworth, author of “A Taste of Alexandria,” one local barstool at a time. No reviews. Only encounters. The bartender chasing perfection, the chef with a story, the regular who swears this place was better before you found it. Food and drink may be the excuse. People are the point. A corner seat can tell you everything.
Dany is the guy behind the bar at La Pluma. He suggests pupusas. Dany also reads minds, apparently. Street food is my current speed. “With a Pinot Noir rosé,” he prescribes. What? He says people who stick to reds never learn the trick. States it like he’s seen this conversation play out enough times to stop doing the lecture. So I don’t argue. I listen. Rosé turns out to be the right move.
He isn’t only the barkeep. The place is his with his wife Iliana. She’s the chef. He handles the wine. Also the build. They dug out the earth themselves to fit a kitchen in. Took a while. Oyster shells still buried underfoot from when this was something else. Original brick left where it stood. Reclaimed wood everywhere. Wine shelves, chairs, trim. At some point I stop asking what’s decorative and what’s holding the place up.
It feels built, not designed. And I’m handed a filled glass curated by the same hands that crafted the place. That’s unique. Also unique, La Pluma is the only pan-Latino spot in town. And a wine bar, just to bring it home. It leans into Old Town well. And slightly out of it. That’s the move. It usually is.
Dany talks about the location like it was part of the plan all along. Route One. Patrick Street. Close to everything without being of any one thing. “King Street. The river. The Metro. Even the airport, if you feel like it,” he beams. And this neighborhood filled with Airbnbs, that can’t hurt.
Out back, a brick patio under some shade, set just far enough off Route One that it stops being a problem. Happy people back there…