If you spot Jeffrey James Higgins walking the aging and uneven brick sidewalks of historic Old Town Alexandria and talking to himself, don’t interrupt. He’s writing his next thriller. He’s also on his way to Elaine’s Restaurant and Literary Salon, which he owns with his wife, Cynthia, just outside of Washington DC. There, every week, he hosts book launches, author events, and signings, and conducts author interviews before a live audience for a future podcast. He’s hosted the famous, like Mark Greaney, Hank Philippi Ryan, John Gilstrap, S. A. Cosby, Tom Straw, and I.S. Berry, and the not-so-famous, along with many debut authors.
Elaine’s is a mile outside of DC (no connection to the NYC restaurant that operated 1963 to 2011), which is known for Politics and Prose and Busboys and Poets bookstores, which fashion themselves as literary salons of sorts. The difference between them and Elaine’s is you can enjoy exquisite Mediterranean cuisine during book parties, book clubs, and critique group gatherings. Upstairs, Elaine’s includes a library and a decorative wall of wine bottles. The real stuff is behind the bar or in the wine cellar downstairs.
The Mid-Atlantic Chapter of Mystery Writers of America has held numerous events at Elaine’s including holiday parties and an F. Scott Fitzgerald festival in 2025 on the 100th anniversary on the publication of The Great Gatsby. The Authors Guild (of which Jeffrey is a local ambassador) holds networking events at the restaurant, and ShortCon—the annual short story writer’s conference—holds its day-long conference there every summer.
Sisters in Crime hosted a monthly meeting there a few years back, which included Elaine’s first author interview with Hank Philippi Ryan.
“Hank’s encouragement motivated me to keep going,” says Jeffrey.
The restaurant was Cynthia’s idea. She always wanted to open one and use her Grandmother Elaine’s recipes for inspiration. The literary salon is Jeff’s baby, since he loves to write authentic spy and crime novels based on his international black ops background. Authenticity in either the menu or the manuscript is not a problem in this family.
Elaine’s offers cuisine based on Cynthia’s family recipes from Alexandria, Egypt. It’s best described as Middle Eastern with French and Greek influences. Elaine’s has won numerous awards including Best Martini, Best Egyptian Cuisine, and Runner-Up for Best Fine Dining in all of Alexandria. They’ve received awards from Restaurant Guru, Yelp, OpenTable, and The Zebra.
The couple took a huge risk in 2022 and invested all their savings to renovate the building at 208 Queen Street, a block from the Potomac River. They suffered the usual government inspector delays and finally opened in spring 2023. Like any new restaurant, it had its birthing pains, but today it’s a thriving neighborhood haunt for locals, book lovers, authors, and tourists.
Every day, with cellphone in hand, Jeffrey Higgins walks from his Alexandria home to his restaurant while dictating his latest suspense or thriller novel. He’s prolific: talking as he’s walking, churning out two, sometimes three novels annually. Higgins is a retired supervisory special agent for the federal government who has wrestled a suicide bomber, fought the Taliban, and chased terrorists across five continents. He received the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Heroism and the DEA Award for Valor. He has both a journalism degree and a master’s in criminal justice.
As anyone who knows him knows, he is constantly in motion. He has to be to juggle both late nights at the restaurant and early mornings with his writing career. And like Politics and Prose bookstore in the Washington DC, Elaine’s is rapidly becoming a tourist destination for bibliophiles when they visit the nation’s capital. Located just a mile south of Ronald Reagan National Airport, it’s an easy Uber ride upon landing.
While Cynthia’s menu has won praise from throughout the Washington region (“elevated comfort food,” Higgins says), Jeffrey’s manuscripts have won the Claymore Award, PenCraft’s Best Fiction Book of the Year, and a Readers Favorite Gold Medal. His novel The Forever Game was selected as one of the best medical thrillers of the 21st Century, and Library Journal selected The Havana Syndrome as one of the Best Books of 2025
“Despite managing the restaurant, my passion is writing,” Higgins says. “We seat 120 guests, and when I looked at the space, I saw an opportunity to give authors a free venue to celebrate their work. It’s not uncommon for an author to go to a bookstore and only sell a handful of books, but because Elaine’s offers great food and drinks, authors draw more attendees. Book events are more like parties.”
Since opening, Higgins has hosted nearly two hundred authors for interviews, Noir at the Bar readings, and panel discussions. Most weeks he hosts at least one author interview, and some weeks he’s crammed in as many as four literary events.
“Talking to writers is one of my guilty pleasures, and I myself have interviewed about 190 authors,” he says. “I discuss the craft and business of writing with authors. I don’t script the questions, and I let the conversations grow organically, which is entertaining for attendees and allows us to dive deeper into topics. I take pride in asking authors questions they’ve never heard before and getting very personal responses. Everyone connects to writing in different ways, and I love it when authors open up about what story means to them.”
Higgins tries to hold the discussions to forty-five minutes to keep the audience wanting more, but sometimes that’s impossible. Sometimes, authors even come in to discuss their older work.
“It’s never too late to re-launch a book and find new readers.”
The adventure began when Jeffrey and Cynthia rented the building that for thirty-eight years housed Bilbo Baggins, a hobbit-themed restaurant and bar. It closed during the pandemic, and they leased the building in spring 2022. Having a restaurant had been Cynthia’s dream since she was twelve and she told her grandmother, Elaine, she’d own a restaurant and name it after her. Cynthia was the general contractor and designer during the nine months it took them to renovate. Elaine’s opened in March 2023, but not without last-minute chaos and tragedy.
“My brother-in-law, Amir, was supposed to manage our restaurant, but he died unexpectedly just before we opened,” says Jeffrey. “I took over as both manager and general manager, but my wife is the creative brains behind everything from the interior design to our delicious food.”
Many restaurants have opening day disaster stories, but Elaine’s had more than its fair share.
“Our executive chef didn’t show up for opening day, claiming illness, and he hadn’t scheduled any other line cooks for our big day. Instead of delaying the opening and disappointing many people, we contracted cooks for hire, had friends chip in, and my wife supervised the kitchen.
“Staffing is a notorious problem in the restaurant industry, with the average employment being around two months, but we’ve been fortunate to develop a wonderful team.”
His wife, also an author, grew up in the restaurant business, but Higgins had little experience in hospitality, other than working briefly as a barback and busser when he was young.
“I had to learn the business on the fly, but we were profitable within two years, which is incredibly fast for a restaurant.”
“We don’t charge authors for the space for literary events,” Higgin says, “because as a writer, I understand how difficult it is to make money, and we don’t want economics to be a deciding factor. After months or years of work on a project, it’s meaningful for an author to celebrate their work with others…Much of writing is solitary, and I think it’s important to share the moment with other people. Readers get a big kick out of hearing the story behind the book.”
In 2025, Higgins launched a podcast for Elaine’s Literary Salon. Hope Gibbs is the podcast producer and almost immediately grew it into one of the top three in Apple and Spotify podcasts for literary salons.
“So, we’re off to a good start. We have many authors scheduled for interviews.”
In September 2025 Higgins launched a website for Elaine’s Literary Salon (elainesliterarysalon.com). Already, it includes nearly sixty author interviews.
Higgins’ immersion into the writing community doesn’t stop there. He also working on—what else—a nonfiction book for aspiring writers tentatively titled The Write Path. And he now provides some limited services to aspiring writers seeking help with query letters, manuscript critiques, and Facebook ad creation. He’s also created Elaine’s Writers Club for writers.
“The business has changed so much in the last five years, and much of what writers think about the business is not true,” he says. “I’m qualified to write the book, not just because I’ve interviewed so many authors about this, but because I’ve made so many mistakes. I was point man on tactical teams in the past and I consider myself first through the door for authors.”
After retiring as supervisory special agent in the DEA, Higgins was featured on a law-enforcement podcast and gave numerous interviews as a law-enforcement expert to Bloomberg, the New York Times, CNN, National Geographic, and ABC News. He was recently interviewed on SpyCast, the International Spy Museum’s podcast.
But today, he’s focused on Elaine’s and writing fiction.
“I’ve come full circle and I’m back to my true love of writing.”
