The Neighborhood Restaurant Group (NRG) was founded in 1997. What began modestly with the Evening Star Cafe, a rollicking corner restaurant in Alexandria’s Del Ray neighborhood, has now grown to include fifteen restaurants, a wine shop, a bakery and coffee shop, a butcher shop with three locations, a food hall, a brewery, a retail shop with five locations, and a food e-commerce business. Combined, the restaurants employ nearly 1000 people and participate in a number of charitable projects to benefit organizations such as Share Our Strength, Capital Area Food Bank, Boys & Girls Club of America, Alexandria Child Fund, Carpenter’s Shelter, Martha’s Table, DC Central Kitchen and Think Local First DC.

 

As its name suggests, NRG is a group of companies, not a single corporation. We are a collective of talented and committed restaurant professionals who share common goals: to open and operate independent, exceptional, distinctive, and conscientious chef driven restaurants with ambitious beverage programs, to create unique gathering places that reflect the communities in which they are located, and to surpass the expectations of our guests.

 

NRG’s businesses include the Evening Star, Planet Wine, Vermilion, Rustico (two locations), Columbia Firehouse, Birch & Barley, ChurchKey, Buzz Bakeshop, The Grand Delancey, Red Apron (three locations), Bluejacket, Iron Gate, The Partisan, B Side, The Sovereign, Hazel, Slice Joint, The Roost, Caruso’s Grocery and Owen’s Ordinary, and others. The Neighborhood Restaurant Group remains focused on and committed to its community and guests and is constantly seeking new ways to better serve them both.

 

Since breaking into the restaurant scene, the Neighborhood Restaurant Group has received countless “RAMMY” award nominations from the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington and has won more than a dozen of the awards.

 

In 2010, NRG founded the non-profit Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food & Agriculture, an organization focused on creating a more equitable and sustainable local food system. In addition to other programs and initiatives, Arcadia’s Mobile Market operates fourteen weekly farmers markets in food deserts throughout the region. Arcadia also maintains and operates an educational farm that hosts thousands of children annually for field trips and multiple sessions of a summer farm camp, as well as a Veteran Farmer Training Program