On Thursday night I had the pleasure of dining at Octavia Restaurant, the latest restaurant by chef Melissa Perello. It was fantastic.
I loved the space as Baker & Banker, and Quince before that. Perello’s design team did a great job opening up the space. The wood finishes have been lightened and somehow the windows feel larger, though I am not certain that the size actually changed.
The Octavia space is not large, however, the design team did a nice job segregating the kitchen while still keeping it open to the restaurant.
Finally, the Octavia space has a bit of a rustic feel that makes you want to get comfortable and stay a while. From the reclaimed wood tables to the leather ties attached to the water bottles, no detail was ignored.
Perhaps most importantly, Octavia’s food was amazing. We tried the oysters, deviled egg, mushrooms “a la grecque,” paccheri with baccala & fennel, spring vegetable panade, and dry aged beef rib-eye (pictured below in order). All were delicious, and I believe that “a picture is worth a thousand words,” so here you go.
As an aside, the whole experience started out a bit uncertain. I made a reservation using OpenTable, input my credit card information, and thought we were good to go. Then, randomly, I looked for my email confirmation to verify the reservation time and couldn’t find the email. It occurred to me that the reservation might not have gone through, but I did not want to presume that was the case because if I was a no-show I had agreed that the restaurant could charge me $25 per person. So, I emailed Octavia’s information email address in search of my reservation. The manager emailed me back right away, but she also could not find it. I figured I was doomed but then, out of the blue, she offered me a reservation at a slightly different time. I was very impressed that a new restaurant by one of hottest chefs in town would go out of their way to accommodate us, especially because the error was clearly OpenTable’s error, not theirs. Great food, a beautiful space, and amazing customer service – I can’t wait to go back!