A 1992 graduate of Maryland’s L’Academie de Cuisine, native New Yorker Jeff Heineman is yet another local boy who makes good in the restaurant business. Well, actually, makes great. Owner and executive chef of his own Bethesda restaurant, Grapeseed American Bistro and Wine Bar, Heineman is low-key, casual and unassuming, despite his very outgoing personality that elicits at least a “hello” from the salesman dropping by on a recent Thursday morning.
And he is quite outgoing about his successes: Visitors learn right away that Heineman with his carefully chosen wines paired with his imaginative cooking has earned awards and write-ups from such prestigious foodie publications as Food & Wine magazine and Wine Spectator. What else should visitors know? That Heineman cooked in France after graduating from L’Academie and returned to work with such D.C. culinary notables as Bob Kinkead of Kinkead’s and Ann Cashion of Cashion’s Eats Place, both award-winning venues. And that he opened Arlington’s funky Rhodeside Grill.
