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A view of the bar
area.
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H O W I T A L L G O T S T A R T E D
. . .
Allison’s Restaurant is family owned and operated by
brothers Jim and Bill Hamrock. Jim has been in the
restaurant industry since the age of 15, working summers as
a teenager at Phillip’s Restaurant in Ocean City, Maryland.
He moved on to Amelia’s, a fine dining restaurant in Crystal
City, Virginia, then for the next 22 years as the Executive
Chef at Pulicinella, an Italian restaurant in McLean. Jim
went to culinary school at L’Academie de Cuisine in
Bethesda.
Younger brother Bill began working in restaurants at the age
of 13. Despite warnings from his older brother of the rigors
of the business, Bill attended the Culinary Institute of
America in Hyde Park, New York. Upon graduation, he started
his professional career at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Tyson’s
Corner, Virginia. He has also worked in Nantucket,
Massachusetts and Zurich, Switzerland. He came back to
Virginia and worked at the Carlyle Grand Café and the 17th
Street Bar & Grill in D.C. before opening his own venture in
Arlington, Portabellos, An American Café. He is also a
partner at Pasha’s Café, also in Arlington.
Jim moved to Crofton with his wife, Chona, and after 12
years of commuting to Virginia, he decided to quit
Pulcinella where he was now a managing partner, and open a
restaurant closer to home. With both brothers’ experience as
restaurateurs, it was a natural fit to go into business
together and open Allison’s Restaurant, named after Jim and
Chona’s daughter (Bill’s idea, even though he has 3 kids of
his own!). It certainly is a family affair, with Jim running
the kitchen, Bill managing the front, and Chona “working the
crowd” and making sure the customers are happy. It is their
goal to make Allison’s Restaurant a local favorite where
diners can have great food with good friends in a
comfortable setting. |
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