Since Ellie Bird landed in Falls Church’s Founders Row in April 2023, the restaurant has taken off. Its creative flavor pairings and casual ambience with five-star service have earned it a growing list of accolades, including the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington’s 2024 RAMMY Award for New Restaurant of the Year, The New York Times’ Best Restaurant List and the Best of Arlington’s Best New Restaurant of 2024.
Chef Yuan Tang and his wife, Carey (with whom he co-owns the place), have been in the spotlight before. Their first D.C.-area restaurant, Rooster & Owl, which they opened in 2019, earned a coveted Michelin star.
We spoke with the acclaimed chef about life in The Little City (the Tangs live in Sleepy Hollow, just 10 minutes from where they grew up), where he gets the freshest ingredients and how he plans Ellie Bird’s inventive menu.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
You lived in Hong Kong until age 12, when you moved to Falls Church. Your career later took you to New York City, where you worked at Michelin-starred restaurants Jean-Georges, The Modern and the now-shuttered Dovetail. What made you return to Falls Church?
We were living in New York City, and we knew we wanted to start a family, so we decided to move here. We were nudged by a job offer that Carey received to work at The George Washington University. She was working for the donor relations stewardship department at Columbia University, and then she got recruited to GW, and eventually she ended up at Children’s National. She’s always been in the nonprofit world, not the restaurant business. I sort of dragged her into it.
How did you come up with the concept for Ellie Bird?
We came up with it during the pandemic. Many places had to pivot to takeout, and so did we at Rooster & Owl. We developed some dishes that were more toward comfort and more casual, and we found that we were pretty good at that. We were able to create something that is both innovative and comforting at the same time. We decided it might be a good idea to open a restaurant like that.
What’s behind the bird-themed names?
The bird theme is actually kind of random. My wife and I decided in 2018 to open a restaurant. We were sitting in our living room thinking of names to call it and just naming things we saw. She is a lover of animal art; we have a ton of different pieces. I literally was sitting there like, “How about Elephant and Giraffe? How about Alligator?” We had a rooster, we had an owl, and one of us said, “How about Rooster and Owl?” Carey was working during the day at nonprofits, so she’s an early bird, and I typically work at night, so I’m the night owl. We thought that name really represented us well. With Ellie Bird, we decided to continue the bird theme and went through the same process: We started naming birds, like parrots, sparrows, blue jays. Our second daughter was just born, so we said, “How about we use Ellie’s name and then just add the word bird behind it,” and that’s how we came up with that name.
Last time we caught up with you, Carey said your next restaurant will be named after your older daughter, Nori. (You might need another for your son, who was born last year.) Is that in the works?
We hope so in the future. We have talked about it.
Where do you like to dine out when you’re not in the kitchen or running around with your three children under the age of 6?
Thompson Italian is just down the street from us and is a really amazing place, also owned by a husband and wife, and we’ve bonded really well with them. We love going to the Eden Center. That’s so close to us and has so many good Vietnamese and pho restaurants. One of our favorites for dim sum is Hong Kong Pearl in Seven Corners. Dim sum is great for kids because the food comes really fast and it’s delicious.
Our dining critic raved about the oyster larb and the kimchi bouillabaise when you first opened. What are some of the most popular dishes at Ellie Bird now?
I love making pasta, so we always have a couple pasta dishes on the menu. The one that we have now is quite popular—a fennel seed-infused rigatoni that we make in house and serve with a dry-aged Bolognese, oven-roasted Roma tomatoes and parmesan cheese. We have an added option to do a roasted bone marrow to go with it. That’s one of my favorites.
Do the awards Ellie Bird has won put pressure on you to keep the menu fresh?
I probably put the most pressure on myself. I think some of us chefs have some level of ADHD: We get tired of seeing the same dishes over and over again. Even my in my other restaurant, I’m constantly pushing myself to evolve the menu, to go with the season. With the accolades obviously comes more patrons, so we do remind our staff every day that we are receiving these recognitions as an honor. We have to live up to that reputation.
How do you determine when to make changes?
We basically change with the seasons. We start with the produce that our local farmers are producing. We get a list from them on a weekly basis to see what they’re growing, what’s ripe. We design a menu change around that.
Walk me through the process of making a change.
It’s basically an ongoing discussion that I have with all my chefs and sous chefs. We usually have a monthly meeting to talk about general directions that we want to go and what ingredients we want to use. Then we begin an R&D process that takes one to three weeks, depending on the dish and the availability of ingredients. Once we like a dish, we get everyone to taste it. Even the dishes I make everyone has to approve. We do this collaborative process where each chef is taking a dish or two, and then we make it, we taste it ourselves, we evaluate, we make modifications, and then it goes on the menu.
Where do you source your ingredients?
We have a farmers market here in Falls Church that we frequent on a weekly basis. We stop by to see what products are out there, and if any farmers can work with a commercial client. Not every farm stand can produce the quantities we need. There are some that we have worked with for many years, such as Earth N Eats in Pennsylvania and Moon Valley Farm in Maryland. Recently, we started working with Shenandoah Seasonal in Virginia—they have really great lettuce. Fresh Impact Farms is our micro-herb grower in Arlington.
What about proteins?
We have to source those through purveyors. The meat farmers don’t really sell directly to restaurants, but we do our best to find local products. For example, for beef, we work with Seven Hills Food in Virginia and Roseda Farm in Maryland.
What does it mean to you to bring a restaurant with such a great reputation to Falls Church?
We decided to build here so that we can elevate the dining scene in this area, and it means a lot to us to be able to do that. We both had our first hospitality jobs as teenagers within minutes of where we are now. I was working at the Red Lobster (the location is now home to Penzeys Spices), and Carey was working at Applebee’s, which is now another development. We both started a hospitality career right on Broad Street. It’s really cool to come full circle, build a restaurant here and bring more attention to this area. That’s really an awesome thing to see happen.
How has the Falls Church dining scene changed over time?
Falls Church had a lot of chain restaurants when I was growing up. I do see we are going more toward different concepts, toward modern cuisines. Overall, the level of cuisine has elevated in this area. It’s really, really amazing to see, and people are ready for it. One of the major worries we had coming in was that people were not ready for this chef-driven concept. We were pleasantly surprised that people are receiving us well and enjoy having us in the neighborhood.
Find Ellie Bird at 125 Founders Ave., Falls Church