The Neighborhood Restaurant Group was founded in 1997. What began modestly as the Evening Star Cafe, a rollicking corner restaurant in Alexandria’s Del Ray neighborhood, has now grown to include 16 restaurants, a wine shop, a bakery, a butcher shop, a full service catering business, and Arcadia, a non-profit sustainable farming and food initiative. Combined, the group employs nearly 700 people and participates in a number of charitable benefits. As its name suggests, the Neighborhood Restaurant Group is a group, not a corporation. It is a collective of talented and committed restaurant professionals who share common goals: to surpass the expectations of the guest; to open and operate exceptional, distinctive, and conscientious chef-driven restaurants with ambitious beverage programs; and to create idiosyncratic gathering places that reflect the communities in which they reside.