If the reservation time you'd like is only offering you a limited party size (for example, you see tables available for two, but you're a party of three), try calling the restaurant directly to make your reservation -- some adjustments are available. The demo kitchen offers one seating at 7:30 every Friday. If you're looking to book a reservation in that area, please select that time on a Friday night.   Your senses begin to dance from the moment you walk into Society Fair, the 7000 square-foot “lifestyle food market” and wine bar that restaurant mavens Cathal and Meshelle Armstrong (Restaurant Eve, The Majestic, Eamonn’s Dublin Chipper, P/X, Virtue Feed and Grain) opened in Old Town Alexandria in January 2012. First, you notice the front-and-center coffee bar surrounded by packets of candies, cookies, chocolates and sundry delectables begging to be impulse-bought. Then, your eyes sweep across glass cake stands housing pies, tartlets and skyscraper layer cakes and wicker racks of freshly baked baguettes, country loaves and ciabatta. From there, display cases of cheeses, house made charcuterie, fanciful meats, exotic spices and tantalizing specialty items come into view. A wine and cocktail bar comprise the other half of Society Fair’s space, with a walk-in glass-encased wine boutique in between.  The experience is meant to be interactive: All the items used to prepare food in the wine bar are for sale in the market. The feel is whimsical French Art Nouveau, with black liqueur and royal purple walls, silver scrollwork, pressed tin ceilings and crown molding, black and white harlequin flooring. Plush, red velvet striped banquettes, marble café tables, woven bistro chairs and a marble-topped long bar outfit the wine bar. Behind the bar is a demonstration kitchen where every Friday night, ten lucky guests get to watch the chef prepare their three–course meal and banter wittily—it’s part cooking class, part edible theater.  Sommelier John Wabeck will match the courses with cleverly vetted wines if you’d like, but be sure to start your meal with one of Todd Thrasher’s sophisticated wine-based cocktails. The three-course meal is $75 and the wine pairings are an additional $50. For the non-demo crowd, the wine bar menu includes a terrific selection of meats and cheeses (go for the Big Bad: three cheeses, four meats, three spreads, multiple garnishes) and a choice of ten sandwiches, correctly described as “fine meals on fine bread.” Among those offerings: My Turkish Cousin (roasted lamb shoulder, lemon yogurt, sultana mustard and sautéed spinach served open-faced on flatbread) and The Walter (smoked turkey, Gruyere cheese, bacon, sweet and sour onions on Pullman bread). Dessert is a no-brainer, literally. You’ll be partaking in the coconut cake, espresso brownie or a packet of oatmeal raisin cookies you ordered subliminally the moment you walked in the door.  

If the reservation time you'd like is only offering you a limited party size (for example, you see tables available for two, but you're a party of three), try calling the restaurant directly to make your reservation -- some adjustments are available. The demo kitchen offers one seating at 7:30 every Friday. If you're looking to book a reservation in that area, please select that time on a Friday night.   Your senses begin to dance from the moment you walk into Society Fair, the 7000 square-foot “lifestyle food market” and wine bar that restaurant mavens Cathal and Meshelle Armstrong (Restaurant Eve, The Majestic, Eamonn’s Dublin Chipper, P/X, Virtue Feed and Grain) opened in Old Town Alexandria in January 2012. First, you notice the front-and-center coffee bar surrounded by packets of candies, cookies, chocolates and sundry delectables begging to be impulse-bought. Then, your eyes sweep across glass cake stands housing pies, tartlets and skyscraper layer cakes and wicker racks of freshly baked baguettes, country loaves and ciabatta. From there, display cases of cheeses, house made charcuterie, fanciful meats, exotic spices and tantalizing specialty items come into view. A wine and cocktail bar comprise the other half of Society Fair’s space, with a walk-in glass-encased wine boutique in between.  The experience is meant to be interactive: All the items used to prepare food in the wine bar are for sale in the market. The feel is whimsical French Art Nouveau, with black liqueur and royal purple walls, silver scrollwork, pressed tin ceilings and crown molding, black and white harlequin flooring. Plush, red velvet striped banquettes, marble café tables, woven bistro chairs and a marble-topped long bar outfit the wine bar. Behind the bar is a demonstration kitchen where every Friday night, ten lucky guests get to watch the chef prepare their three–course meal and banter wittily—it’s part cooking class, part edible theater.  Sommelier John Wabeck will match the courses with cleverly vetted wines if you’d like, but be sure to start your meal with one of Todd Thrasher’s sophisticated wine-based cocktails. The three-course meal is $75 and the wine pairings are an additional $50. For the non-demo crowd, the wine bar menu includes a terrific selection of meats and cheeses (go for the Big Bad: three cheeses, four meats, three spreads, multiple garnishes) and a choice of ten sandwiches, correctly described as “fine meals on fine bread.” Among those offerings: My Turkish Cousin (roasted lamb shoulder, lemon yogurt, sultana mustard and sautéed spinach served open-faced on flatbread) and The Walter (smoked turkey, Gruyere cheese, bacon, sweet and sour onions on Pullman bread). Dessert is a no-brainer, literally. You’ll be partaking in the coconut cake, espresso brownie or a packet of oatmeal raisin cookies you ordered subliminally the moment you walked in the door.