Oysters pop up on Hill

They say opposites attract. That could certainly be said of chef Jamie Leeds and mixologist Gina Chersevani — both from New York. One is shy, the other outgoing. One likes to work quietly in the back, the other is made for the front of the house. But their love of food and drink has brought them together in a new partnership.

The duo has teamed up to open a third branch of Hank’s Oyster Bar, on Capitol Hill, this summer. Leeds already owns restaurants in Dupont Circle and Old Town, Alexandria. 

Leeds and Chersevani are among a rare breed of women in Washington who own and operate their own restaurants. That they ended up in business together might surprise some people, even themselves —they didn’t exactly start off on the right foot, according to Chersevani.

“I was totally afraid of her. She was the first chef I had to call ‘Chef.’ She was very intimidating,” she recalled of Leeds.

It was just 10 years ago. Leeds had moved from her native New York to help set up 15 Ria on Rhode Island Avenue in D.C.’s NW quadrant, and Chersevani was among the new bar hires. Leeds asked her to make a Blueberry Smash, but what Chersevani handed her was a cocktail without the “smash,” blueberries bobbing about the glass. Leeds was unimpressed and tersely told Chersevani “Don’t do it again.” It was a life-changing moment.

“That was a big turning point. I was messing around,” said Chersevani, who said she felt her new boss’s disappointment and quickly changed her ways. She went on to make a name for herself on the Washington cocktail scene with stints behind the bars at Rasika and PS 7’s, both in Northwest D.C.

This third incarnation of Hank’s Oyster Bar, like the others, is named for Leeds’s father, who died at the age of 56, when Leeds was just 11.

“He instilled a sense of the love of cooking in me,” said Leeds.

“I wanted it to feel like a family business,” added Leeds of when she opened her first restaurant in Dupont Circle in 2005, “and I wanted to give tribute to my father. The whole concept came about because of my love for food.” 

If her father instilled a love of cooking, Danny Meyer, who owns Union Square Café in New York and the Shake Shack burger chain, helped groom and shape her career choices.

In 1991, Leeds knew she was missing something in her culinary portfolio and wondered what she needed to do to go the distance in the kitchen. Unsure, she turned to Meyer for advice, who suggested she travel to France and learn from chefs there firsthand.

“At that early point in Jamie’s culinary career she was firing on all cylinders based on her innate love for ingredients and food — and I believed she owed it to herself to hone her technical skills in a way that — at least in the late ’80s —seemed  most available in France,” said Meyer in an email.

Leeds agreed to go for a year, and Meyer helped set her up in her first “stage,” or internship, in the Alsace region bordering Germany. (Hank’s Chicken Schnitzel — available on Wednesday only — is a nod to the region and one of her son Hayden’s favorites.) From there she went to Nice in the south and the Gascogne region in the southwest, refining her skills while immersing herself in the cuisine and culture of France.

The year-long apprenticeship equipped her for the road ahead when she returned stateside. The culinary world was her oyster, so to speak.

“It really changed my philosophy,” said Leeds, “knowing that stuff doesn’t have to come out of a can.”

She continued working in New York until after Sept. 11, 2001. With her partner pregnant with their son at the time, Leeds thought it was the right time to take another leap of faith. She wanted to open her own place. 

Leeds didn’t know a soul in the District but felt a kinship with the city; the architecture and the small neighborhoods reminded her of New York, and she quickly felt at home. Within a few years Leeds had amassed enough savings, so she cashed in her retirement, took out a credit line against her house and went out on a limb with the purchase of her first place in Dupont Circle.

In the restaurant business you have to have a public face. Leeds knows this and can turn on the charm when she has to. Although she’s a hands-on boss, she is most comfortable in the kitchen and is content to let others shine, including Chersevani, whose creativity she admires and values. 

“It’s almost like creating a family, teaching, watching people grow,” said Leeds. “The trick is to surround yourself with good people and let them do their thing. I wouldn’t be able to grow without them,” she continued.

Said Meyer of Leeds’s presence in the kitchen, “she has an inner glow when she’s talking, making and plating food. She’d rather have someone else deliver it — but I’ve seen her poke her head out the kitchen just to see the smiles her food puts on her guests’ faces.”

And grow Leeds plans to do. Whatever it is about the restaurant business, chefs can’t seem to stop at starting just one. 

“The goal is probably to open a restaurant every two years ... Ideally I’d like to have seven or eight of these,” said Leeds.