Photo courtesy of HomeGrown Alexandria
HomeGrown Alexandria began serving up breakfast Monday in Old Town Alexandria.
HomeGrown Alexandria opened its doors Monday in Old Town Alexandria at 1600 King St., adjacent to Archer Hotel Old Town Alexandria (formerly the Lorien hotel).
The breakfast, brunch and lunch spot, open from 6:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily, will offer "$1 Bottomless Coffee" through Friday to customers. HomeGrown Alexandria.
The HomeGrown concept is opening its first Virginia location in Alexandria and the company lies to feature locally sourced menu items. For the Alexandria location, look for Swing's Coffee Roasters, Crum's Hot Sauce, Lehigh Valley Dairy, Backbone Mountain Maple Syrup, Belmont Farms Distillery–Kopper Kettle and more.
The location also features local artwork featuring Alexandria as the subject.
Here's a behind-the-scenes look, from a recent social media post by the company: "From big smiles to first bites, there was so much energy at our final practice-run before opening. We hosted our closest friends & family to a sneak-peak of our newest daytime eatery and were humbled by the turnout and kind words. The tables were full and our hearts were even fuller."
Photo courtesy of HomeGrown
Jon and Lauren Rolph
Here's more about the new eatery, from an earlier interview with Jon Rolph, president and CEO of Thrive Restaurant Group, published by Alexandria Living Magazine:
Rolph and his wife, Lauren, “wanted to make HomeGrown about more than eggs and bacon,” he said.
“We invite people into kindness, no matter their political persuasion. Everyone would agree, we need more kindness. That’s the spirit and soul of the concept. It doesn’t have to be a grand gesture, just a smile, a tone."
In addition to kindness, the couple's vision for the concept grew after realizing just how popular going out for breakfast has become in recent years.
“We’re in the business and we knew one of the fastest segments was breakfast, brunch and lunch,” he said. “We saw a lot of people doing business meetings over breakfast.”
The location for the restaurant in Old Town Alexandria has been home since 2009 to BRABO Brasserie, which plans to close after Saturday, Nov. 23, according to Archer Old Town, the hotel adjacent to the eatery.
While the new restaurant and hotel will be two separate businesses, hotel guests will likely be part of the mix of breakfast-lovers drawn to HomeGrown as they head out for the day.
More than eggs and bacon
The idea for the restaurant has its roots in how people treat each other, especially first thing in the morning.
"Customers are more likely to treat their co-workers with kindness when they leave and head out to work," Rolph noted.
In addition to a friendly waitstaff (who will also be encouraged to be friendly to each other), customers can also expect kids’ menus made for coloring that can also be mailed to family and friends. “We have a mailbox…and they can send a note to their grandparents,” Rolph noted.
Keeping it local
Ahead of their opening, Rolph said they are busy sourcing local partners for the menu for their scratch kitchen, as well as artisans to create the furniture for the restaurant and emerging artists to create artwork that will convey a sense of community and kindness at the eatery.
The menu will feature homemade tarts (or Pop’d Hearts, as they call them), coffeecake, "which you don’t see a lot of any more,” Rolph noted. You’ll also find mimosas and Bloody Marys.
“And we have healthier items, like the Ironman Scramble,” made with fluffy egg whites, marinated chicken breast, mushrooms, green pepper, avocado, shaved parmesan and fresh tomato. Feeling indulgent? Biscuits and gravy will be on the menu as well.
The restaurant will rotate the top part of their menu seasonally, about every eight weeks or so — so, depending on the season, you may be able to order pumpkin loaf French toast or lemon loaf or pistachio.
Second-generation restaurateur
A second-generation restaurateur, Rolph followed in his father’s and uncle’s footsteps.
Although he now makes his home in Wichita with his wife and six children, he said he often visited Virginia in the 1970s for the openings of his family’s Carlos O’Kelly restaurants and the Pizza Huts they opened in the Shenandoah Valley. “My uncle (Darrel) was an early pioneer with Pizza Hut and then a Mexican restaurant, Carlos O’Kelly’s, that was started by my father (David) and my uncle.”
Twenty years ago, after living in Falls Church during an internship year, Jon Rolph got his start in the family business and began thinking about growth vehicles. “And my wife and I and my team created the HomeGrown concept.” The concept was launched in 2017.
This will be the first HomeGrown restaurant to open in Virginia and outside of the Midwest for that matter. (The other locations are in Kansas, Missouri, Iowa and Arkansas.)
"Virginia has been a good market to us — Carlos O’Kellys, Pizza Hut — now to come back 20-plus years later, it’s exciting for us,” Rolph said.
Might he expand and add more restaurants in Virginia? “Let’s go do one great restaurant and if the marketplace loves it, we’ll do more,” he said.
Opening a restaurant in Alexandria will give his company a chance to learn the market, he said, and "develop relationships, see what we should be doing, the demand, and we’ll respond to that."
