Hand Roll Sushi Concept, Bar Open In Former Eamonn's, PX Space

ALEXANDRIA, VA — The Handover and King’s Ransom opened Tuesday, Feb. 18 at 728 King Street in Alexandria, replacing Eamonn's A Dublin Chipper and accompanying cocktail bar PX. The Handover and King's Ransom include a hand roll sushi restaurant downstairs and cocktail bar upstairs, similar to how Eamonn's and PX were set up.

The Handover services temaki, or hand rolls prepared by a chef and handed directly to diners at a bamboo bar. It is led by Chef Melvin Urrutia of The People’s Drug, who previously served as chef at the shuttered Flying Fish and led its fish house menu and sushi program for five years.

The Handover has a rotating menu of temaki and sashimi. Guests can find selections of temaki like avocado miso, spicy tuna, hamachi, shrimp tempura, shiitake yamagobo (Japanese pickled burdock root), oshinko (made from pickled daikon), bulgogi steak and a daily chef’s special. A selection of sashimi as well as miso soup, seaweed salad, and edamame with bonito sea salt round out the menu. Each item costs between $5 and $11, and there are combinations of three, four, five and six for $14, $18, $22 and $26 respectively.

King's Ransom is a concept hoping to follow in the footsteps of PX, the former speakeasy known for its influence on the region's craft cocktail scene. The new concept is led by beverage director Jon Schott and Hank’s Oyster Bar's Alex Taylor. The cocktail bar focuses on Japanese whiskeys and rare spirits, including highball cocktails made with a Toki Highball Machine. This machine chills whiskey to the ideal temperature through a water bath and makes water with three times the carbonation of champagne. To date, the bar is the only one in Virginia with a Toki Highball Machine. The bar menu will include five curated highballs, ten rotating cocktails, four spirit-free options, beer and wine with prices between $10 and $16.

Chef Cathal and Meshelle Armstrong's closed their fish and chips restaurant Eamonn's while Todd Thrasher closed the upstairs cocktail bar PX in July 2019. Armstrong and Thrasher's Eat Good Food Group has one restaurant left in Alexandria: Hummingbird at Hotel Indigo. Restaurant Eve closed in 2018, and an investment firm hopes to find a new restaurant for that space. Eat Good Food Group operates Kaliwa, Tiki TNT and Potomac Distilling Company at DC's Wharf. Society Fair, a previous Eat Good Food Group restaurant under new ownership, also closed in July 2019.

The Handover is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. The King's Ransom is open from 5 p.m. to midnight Sunday to Thursday and 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday. For more information, check out Eater DC's coverage and photos of the new concepts.