Water & Wall, restaurateur Tim Ma’s elegant eatery that served Asian-French food, announced today that it is closing. The Virginia Square restaurant served its last meal on Valentine’s Day.
“After 3 ½ years, we have decided to close Water & Wall,” read a brief message on the restaurant’s Facebook page. “We hope you’ll visit us at Kyirisan and Chase the Submarine. We have loved being a part of your lives.”
As news of the closing filtered out, customers expressed their dismay on Facebook: “The cooking there was so good that I ate things that I normally would NEVER eat. Sad to see it go,” one wrote. Another said: “Waaaah! We love our neighborhood spot.”
Ma described his restaurant as “New American” cuisine, which featured inventive twists, such as rabbit taro gnocchi with tiger figs; quail with sausage and white truffle risotto stuffing; and pork belly porchetta with fermented apple honey. It was named for the Manhattan street intersection where he and his then-fiancée (now wife and business partner), Joey Hernandez, lived in 2008 while he attended the French Culinary Institute and worked at the acclaimed Momofuku Ko restaurant.
Ma has been busy the past few years: In addition to Water & Wall, which opened in November 2013, he opened the fast-casual sandwich shop Chase the Submarine in Vienna in November 2015 and a fine-dining restaurant, Kyirisan, in D.C.’s up-and-coming Shaw neighborhood in March of 2016. He also is a consulting chef for Ten Tigers Parlour, a café and lounge in D.C.’s Petworth neighborhood. Last June, he handed over the cooking duties at Water & Wall to a new chef, John Leavitt.