Restaurant Eve's Popular Birthday Cake? It's Not on the Menu Anymore

What? No more birthday cake?

If you haven’t dined at Old Town Alexandria’s popular Restaurant Eve recently, you may not have noticed that one of its most popular menu items is missing. We’re talking about that pink birthday cake with sprinkles, the one that no doubt brings back happy memories of childhood birthday parties to those who ordered it.

Perhaps first lady Michelle Obama’s healthy ways influenced the chef? Or maybe it was the chef himself. Cathal Armstrong too has become an advocate for healthy school lunches and become a healthier version of himself in recent years.

Back to the cake. It became something of an institution there over the years. Here’s Meredith H. from Burke on Yelp: “Of course, I got the personal birthday cake for dessert - DEFINITELY lives up to the hype.”

Here’s what Zagat had to say about the banishing of the birthday cake, in a story published Monday:

When Restaurant Eve’s team decided to take its much-loved miniature birthday cake off the menu earlier this year, co-owner Meshelle Armstrong was barraged with negative feedback. “People went nuts,” she says. “Many customers told us we had ruined their meals.”

There was more criticism waiting when she got home. Her daughter, Eve, the restaurant’s namesake, was devastated. For the past 13 years, Armstrong and her husband, chef and co-owner Cathal, have served the petite pink pastry to Eve in bed for her birthday breakfast. To say their daughter had an emotional attachment to the sweet treat was putting it mildly. She wasn’t the only one. “For a lot of people, the cake represents childhood, comfort and nostalgia,” says Armstrong. “It’s made with simple ingredients. No flash, no glitz, just happiness.”

If you simply must have your cake, there are ways: Go to Society Fair, Restaurant Eve’s sister establishment, and order one there (but better call ahead first).

Read more of Zagat’s “When Classic Dishes Get Nixed” here.

What do you think about Restaurant Eve taking the birthday cake dessert off the menu? Will you miss it?

PHOTO: Restaurant Eve/Patch archive