By Nicole Gill Council, CouncilMag.com

Surveyor, a new restaurant in Navy Yard at the Thompson Washington DC hotel, draws inspiration from its neighborhood – beginning with its name. The way the restaurant’s website describes it, “A Marine Surveyor is the person who examines and certifies a ship for voyage, much like a Chef in their kitchen.” The nautical theme doesn’t just begin and end with the name. It is conveyed through some of the featured cocktails – bowline, clover hitch, poacher’s knot – while knot imagery is prominent on the online menu.

“I love the menu that we made. I think it’s something that really comes from the hearts of the entire chef team.”

Chef Brian Hatfield

Chef Brian Hatfield describes the 4-month-old Surveyor as a “supper house,” but not a supper club. “It’s something that is … very community based, a community feel,” said Hatfield. Its food is “very familiar American cuisine that’s just executed really well,” he said.

Thompson Washington DC hotel is located on Tingey Street Southeast in the Navy Yard community.

Hatfield is no stranger to the DMV having worked in restaurants in Chinatown and the Mount Vernon Square area in the District, and Bethesda, Maryland. Yet, he described Navy Yard as a close-knit community. “When it comes to (the) hospitality industry, it seems like it’s significantly more close knit than other neighborhoods that I’ve been in,” he said, where people either have a connection to the hotel or a fondness for the community.

That feeling of familiarity is one Hatfield hopes to replicate again and again. “We’re not necessarily going for anything that’s insanely flashy, but just a really comfortable environment,” he said. That means making sure the staff has paid attention to details so that when diners return year after year, they get the same quality ingredients they remember from previous visits regardless of who is working. “And I think that level of comfort with knowing what you’re walking into, and the reputation of that, is what we’re going for,” Hatfield said.

Mushroom stroganoff features homemade egg noodles.

““We’re not necessarily going for anything that’s insanely flashy, but just a really comfortable environment.” ”

— Chef Brian Hatfield

The Surveyor menu features classic dishes with some twists. Appetizers include deviled eggs, shrimp cocktail and Parker House rolls. The dinner menu features a pork chop with braised greens, pepper sauce and yams; crab cakes with cole slaw, french fries and remoulade sauce; mushroom stroganoff in a brandy cream sauce with handmade egg noodles; and New Orleans BBQ shrimp with Carolina gold rice, toast points and pickled pepper relish.

“I love the menu that we made,” Hatfield said. “I think it’s something that really comes from the hearts of the entire chef team here, not just for myself. We all put different parts into this.”

While it was hard for Hatfield to pick a favorite dish on the menu, he said the vegetarian stroganoff is one of his personal favorites. The nostalgia factor is high as Hatfield grew up eating stroganoff. Surveyor changes the dish up a bit, first by making it vegetarian, and then it’s “treated in a really upscale kind of way with that level of flavor,” he said. The BBQ shrimp is another favorite with a preparation that strays from the traditional formula. Hatfield said in New Orleans, the shrimp are soaked in butter and seasoning and eaten by hand. Surveyor’s preparation “is a little bit elevated and changed in that we’re making a Worcestershire sauce in house that really infuses some flavor into it,” he said.

Surveyor’s menu includes mushroom stroganoff, roasted half chicken, creamed spinach, pan seared salmon, Parker House rolls, deviled eggs and Caesar salad.

Quality ingredients and the attention to detail are important at Surveyor. Part of that attention involves allowing the staff to be themselves “and give that genuine warm welcome, and not overly scripting things,” Hatfield said. The flexibility of the staff to interact with business diners versus families “has made them enjoy working here in a really good way,” he said.

The coffee bar at Thompson Washington DC hotel.

Surveyor assumes the space that once housed Maialino Mare, the Danny Meyer restaurant that opened just before the pandemic shut everything down. Surveyor has done away with the tablecloths and the padded tables to create a feeling all its own. “The changes are in that sort of cultural and atmosphere sort of thing,” Hatfield said. “There are wood finish tables with a stripe across, sort of inspired by that line that you see coming down boats. The décor is a little bit more simplified.” Gone is the formality of the table, Hatfield said. Instead, it’s been replaced with “a sort of social interaction that builds that comfort level. It’s not lacking in formality at all, but it is familiar rather than formal.”

Appetizers include crab dip at top, Parker House rolls and deviled eggs.

After special menus for Christmas (featuring a choice of short rib, ham or salmon) and New Year’s Eve (with a choice of prime rib, pork chop or branzino), expect a Valentine’s Day special menu. Hatfield said the goal is to create special menus for holidays that can foster that community feel. “We want people to be able to come here for birthdays and for holidays, for date nights, for everything. So yeah. The team that we have is very good at executing those things. So, (there will be) a Valentine’s Day menu for sure.”

Surveyor
221 Tingey St, SE
Washington, DC 20003

Breakfast
Daily
6:30 a.m. - 11:00 a.m.

Brunch
Saturday - Sunday
6:30 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Dinner
Tuesday - Saturday
5:00 p.m. - 10:00 p.m.