By Leona Baker. Photos by Jacqui Renager/Performance Foodservice Virginia
Chef and restaurant owner Dana Clark Epstein’s Hampton roots run deep. When she was a kid, her family owned a lumber company in the heart of Phoebus, originally opened by her great grandfather back in 1908. A few generations later, young Dana would occasionally wander down from the lumber shop on Saturdays to a lamp store called the Electric Glass Company, located on the corner of Mellen and Mallory Streets with its distinctively angled, corner shop-style front door.
“I would just come in and look around at all the pretty things,” she remembers.
Now Epstein and her husband Phillip, the “Baker” half of the duo’s aptly named The Baker’s Wife Bistro & Bar, are the ones serving up pretty things—from bouillabaisse to braised lamb shank—in that very same spot. The space has been elegantly reimagined as an “upscale restaurant with urban flare.” A French-inspired dinner menu (emphasis on inspired) complemented by an international wine list and a luxurious jazz brunch have helped them carve out a delicious niche since opening a little more than two years ago.
The Epsteins’ sweet and savory partnership has been a recipe for success at The Grey Goose, the bakery and café they have also owned for more than 16 years not far away in Downtown Hampton. Phillip’s baking and pastry prowess, honed at destinations like The Trellis, The Homestead, Kingsmill Resort, Tides Inn and more, are on full display at both restaurants, where his expertly crafted baguettes, croissants, bread puddings and other desserts are the stuff of happily stuffed patrons.
When the pair began exploring the idea of opening a second restaurant nearby, says Dana, she knew they wanted to offer something different. “I literally kind of looked down the street and said, ‘Taco, seafood, pub food…What’s missing?’ We really didn’t have anything that was French or French-inspired. Knowing that was kind of the basis of what we learned in culinary school and our cuisine in the U.S. and the world, it just made sense.”
Though her vision was never to serve “hard-core authentic” French cuisine, she still wasn’t sure Hampton was ready or how people would respond. Turns out, there’s a big appetite for adventure out there, and diners are willing to try new things—from bone marrow to frog legs. It helps, she notes, to make culinary connections to dishes that may be more familiar or close to home.
“We do a cassoulet,” she explains. “Well, in the South, we do a pot of beans. It’s the same thing. So, it’s kind of interesting when we say, ‘It’s a braised veal shank and they say, ‘Well, what does that mean?’ And we say, ‘Well, it’s cooked low and slow like a pot roast. Think of it as lamb pot roast.’”
The places where traditional French dishes or preparations intersect with our own regional, coastal cuisine is also ripe for flavorful explorations, she explains.
“Oysters are a good example. In Virginia, we might just do cocktail sauce and lemon, and in France they would do a mignonette. When we serve something like that, people love it, and they really respect it. But at the same time, our chef, Blake Saylor, has made this incredible fermented hot sauce. So that seems more Southern to me, but they love it with the mignonette. Then, we might do some sort of roe, like trout roe, on the oyster. But they eat roe and caviar everywhere. That’s a big Southern thing. So, it’s funny when people say, ‘I don’t know French food.’ I say, ‘Sure you do. You just don’t know you know it.’”
Saylor can be found working his magic in the open kitchen behind the bar most nights. That’s a treat for those who will enjoy sipping a craft martini or a glass of pinot gris while watching the chef and his team put the finishing touches on dishes like a Coquille Saint Jacques made with Outer Banks dry-pack scallops and fennel, served over butternut risotto with rosemary brown butter, or a Maple Leaf Farms seared duck breast with roasted beets, parsnip purée, confit butternut and cherry demi-glace.
The prequel to any French-inspired feast at The Baker’s Wife is the visual feast that greets you when you walk through the front door. A painstaking pandemic-era build-out brought the wow factor to a space steeped in local history. Delicate handmade chandeliers mimicking flowering tree branches, warm industrial pendant lights and stained glass behind the bar are accentuated by pops of cerulean blue upholstery. White-washed brick, gold accents and a retro broken quarry tile floor set the mood in the Harrison Room, which is named for the neighborhood’s namesake, Harrison Phoebus, and is one of two elongated seating areas in the restaurant.
Whether you’re dining inside or on their charming outdoor covered patio, be sure to start with a selection or two from their “Shares & Snacks” menu with featured items such as a house-cured salmon plate, fromage and charcuterie boards, foie gras, escargot and more. In terms of mains, their fresh catches are always good bet like a recent showstopper special of squash-scaled halibut (a halibut filet topped with thinly sliced summer squash) served with Carolina gold rice, blistered heirloom tomatoes, a crab-stuffed squash blossom and trout roe chive beurre blanc. Or keep it classic with a Coq Au Vin Rouge or Steak Périgueux.
Desserts are divine, and Sunday brunch is a big hit with live music to accompany next-level cocktails, omelets, Benedicts, crepes, sandwiches, salads and French toast. Or how about another recent special, house-made cronuts with Bischoff cookie butter? Yes, please. Look for changing menus, new twists on classics and fresh seasonal ingredients each time you go. A just-introduced oyster happy hour means $1 briny beauties from 5-6 p.m. daily at the bar. Wine lovers will want to check out their wine club and seasonal wine dinners as well, including a Bordeaux dinner featuring five wines and six courses on Oct. 5. There’s also a New Year’s Eve dinner in the works so you can start making your plans now to toast to 2024 in style.
Learn more at BakersWifeBistro.com or on social media @bakers_wife_bistro.
Leona Baker
Leona Baker is the former Editor-in-Chief of Coastal Virginia Magazine. She is a writer, creative, communications professional, food freak, news junkie, nature and travel lover and mom. She holds a degree in English from James Madison University and a degree in Dance & Choreography from Virginia Commonwealth University. She previously served as Senior Copywriter for Spark 451, Director of Marketing & Communications at Virginia Wesleyan University, and Senior Editor of Port Folio Weekly.
