New Restaurant Planned for Former Chez Andree Location

ALEXANDRIA, VA -- The Del Ray area dining scene is heating up once again.

A new restaurant will be opening this fall at the location of former longtime Alexandria institution Chez Andrée.

The family-run French restaurant at 10 E. Glebe Road was a go-to spot for many Alexandria for more than 50 years when it closed its doors last year. The restaurant served up a menu with a country French twist, thanks to the origins of Andrée G. Lecureux, who hailed from France and helmed the kitchen when she and her husband Stanley opened in 1965. Son and owner Steve Lecureux said he was looking for a buyer after his mother passed away last year and after his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. The owner of the building is MRS Properties of Vienna.

Now, business partners in the new restaurant -- Hubert Benson, Gregory Dushaw, John Kurtz, Kevin Keefer and Teresa Keefer are planning to open a new eatery at the location and have filed paperwork with the City to make renovations to the building including to the kitchen and bathrooms.

The new restaurant will be named Northside 10 in a nod to its address and in keeping with the partners' ownership and involvement with their current restaurant, Southside 815 in Alexandria.

The new restaurant's menu will have a Southern influence and will share some of the favorites from the Southside 815 menu including pulled pork and pulled chicken sandwiches, fried chicken, fresh seafood and salads and much more, Kurtz said Thursday. Kurtz is the longtime general manager for Southside 815. Teresa Keefer will oversee the kitchen at the new restaurant, as she does at Southside 815.

The partners are hoping to open Northside 10 by mid-September, Kurtz said. "We'd like to go in quicker but we're just trying to be realistic."

In their application, the owners say their goal is to "operate a neighborhood restaurant that focuses on the desires and needs of the surrounding community."

They expect to hire about the same number of employees (30-35) that worked at the previous restaurant and do not plan on expanding the building so there will still be the same number (47) of parking spaces as before.

They hope to feature live acoustic music at Northside 10.

Proposed hours are 6 a.m. to midnight, Sunday-Thursday and 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. Fridays and Saturdays.

Patch will continue to provide updates as progress on the new restaurant moves along.