Chartreuse Bistro Christopher Corrie Chartreuse Bistro

Chartreuse Bistro

205 E. City Hall Ave. (Monticello Ave.)
Norfolk, VA 23510
757-965-2137
Map
Cuisine: Contemporary
Palate meets palette at this petite Euro-styled city bistro by husband-wife owners, he the chef, she the artist.
Openings: Lunch Tues.-Fri., Dinner Tues.-Sat.

Features


Chartreuse Bistro Restaurant Review:


If you didn’t know better, you’d think Chartreuse was a trendy art museum bistro in a hip European capital. But it’s the farm-to-table (stylish) restaurant of Christopher Corrie, a meticulous chef whose talent can be observed from the Thumbelina-size bar, and his artist-decorator wife Karine Varga, creating front-of-the-house magic with an uncanny sense of shape and color. A synergistic team, the two change the menu daily upon meeting with their farm-foraging vendors. The trim selection of appetizers, entrées (one always vegetarian) and desserts could include glistening Chincoteague oysters on the half shell or tuna crudo belted with lardo, sprinkled with May peas; rabbit stew or house-made fettuccine with pomodoro sauce, local shrimp, scallops and Hungarian hot peppers and lavender pink peppercorn crème brûlée. Yellow sweet potato bisque may be among the soups. Libations run from craft beers and well-edited wines to homemade sodas and spirits doctored with herbs (highlighted during weeknights’ “Cocktails & Crudo,” Chartreuse’s answer to happy hour). With just six tables, small is the operative word here. But flavors are big and impactful, and the skilled staff ably, affably conveys the bistro’s ethos, making it look deceptively easy to be green.