Rock n’ Roll Half Marathon Weekend

March 20, 2017March 20, 2017Leave a comment

I ran the DC Rock n’ Roll Half Marathon this past weekend. While this is my 5th year in a row running the race, I have never had to run it in weather this cold. At the starting line, the temperature was in the 20s. In March! I wore three shirts, two layers of pants, a hat and gloves on a day I normally wear a t-shirt and shorts. Marnay, my parents and my grandfather braved the cold to cheer me on at the start and then met me at the midway point in Woodley Park. There is a picture of me at the midway point that they took — if you look closely, you can see a layer of frost on my hat.

I had been training for months and felt well prepared, but this was a tough day to run. Still, I felt proud of myself for sticking it out! I actually ended up with a PR (personal record), beating last years’ time by 3 minutes!

Pizzeria Vetri

It was so cold outside so we didn’t linger at the finish line at RFK. I brought snacks with me on the run, but they all froze! I had seen a sign at mile 12 that said “keep going, you’re only 1 mile from brunch!”, and MAN did that make me hungry. Once I got through the runner finish line area, we headed right for the metro and made our way to Pizzeria Vetri, one of our favorite pizza spots.

We started with a rotolo, a Pizzeria Vetri invention, which looks like a savory cinnamon roll made of pizza dough. The dough is stuffed with ricotta and mortadella, rolled, baked in the pizza oven and topped with pistachio pesto. The use of pistachios really took us back to our time in Milan. Another item that reminded us of Milan is Pizzeria Vetri’s simple prosciutto cotto calzone, cooked up in their 650 degree wood-fired oven. We rounded things out with their incredibly light and crispy margherita pizza. Even though I was really hungry, we had plenty of leftovers.

Hill Prince

We continued the celebration on Sunday by checking out the brand new Hill Prince on H Street NE, from the group responsible for DGS and Whaley’s. The narrow space is a former horse stable and it is simply a modest bar with two to three communal tables in the back and one small table in the front by the windows. There’s no kitchen, so they serve snacks, mainly from local restaurants. All cocktails are $10 or less, which I have noticed becoming a trend in the DC area at places like Ten Tigers Parlour and Colada Shop.

I enjoyed a well-made Americano, made sweet by swapping out Campari for Cappelletti, which is on the sweeter end of Italian bitter liquors. Meanwhile, Marnay had a classic Aviation, with gin, maraschino liquor, crème de cassis (instead of crème de violette) and lemon.

The star of the show at Hill Prince, though, was our bartender Tony. He was incredibly friendly and talkative and genuinely a nice guy. He even took us on a tour of the place, showing us the back patio where they plan on opening a second bar when it gets warm out. We usually don’t get this type of treatment at bars.

The combination of well-made drinks, a cool atmosphere and incredible service makes it likely that we will become regulars at Hill Prince. In fact, we went back on Wednesday with a group of friends for happy hour.

Best Bite
Paul: Margherita pizza
Marnay: Rotolo

Places we visited
Pizzeria Vetri: 2221 14th Street, NW Washington, DC 2009
Hill Prince: 1337 H Street, NE Washington, DC 20002

Marcel’s

February 13, 2017February 22, 2017Leave a comment

Thanks to a generous OpenTable gift card we received from our family for Christmas, we were able to have dinner at Marcel’s, the French-Belgian fine-dining destination in the West End. From 5:00pm-6:30pm each night, Marcel’s offers a $70 per person pre-theater menu. You can choose from one of three options for a first course, main and dessert. When it’s all said and done, you get whisked away in a town car to the Kennedy Center. When we were first seated, our server asked us what time our show was so that the kitchen could get could get the timing down.

For our first course, the local mixed green salad with shaved cucumber, beet, carrot and sherry vinaigrette topped with shaved cheese was a master-course in proper seasoning and texture. Meanwhile, the duck confit tortellini with black trumpet mushrooms and scallions in a parmesan cream sauce was the definition of decadence. We both forgot what was stuffed inside the pasta because all of the flavors went so well together.

Mains included pan-seared Norwegian salmon with lobster risotto and English peas and the New York strip steak with potato gratin and white asparagus matchsticks in a cabernet reduction. The salmon had an impossibly crisp skin, but it was the lobster risotto, with its huge chunks of sweet lobster, that stole the show. The New York strip compared favorably to the “DC Steakhouse” course at Pineapples & Pearls, thoroughly seasoned and with a nearly complete absence of grit and gristle. Chef Paul Stearman cooked the steak to medium rare, which is his preference, but the server gave me the option of choosing something else if that is what I wanted.

Dessert is where we encountered a minor hiccup in the meal’s pacing. Everything had been planned out just so, but the restaurant did not account for the fact that the hot chocolate soufflé would take longer than our other dessert. As a result, we arrived at the Kennedy Center minutes before our show started. It didn’t affect our experience at either Marcel’s of the Kennedy Center, though.

The hot chocolate soufflé with raspberry white chocolate ice cream was a showstopper. Our server punctured the inflated soufflé, added the ice cream in the middle and then doused everything with hot chocolate. We also got the chocolate mousse with crispy praline, chocolate caramel sauce and a cocoa nib tuille. The best part was the praline on the bottom, although the whole dessert was good. The soufflé was just amazing, though.

Marcel’s is one of the best examples of old-school fine dining in DC, and the complementary town car ride to the Kennedy Center put it over the top. However, the food is anything but old-school.

Best Bite
Paul: Hot Chocolate Soufflé
Marnay: Duck Confit Tortellini

Address
Marcel’s: 2401 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20037
Closest Metro: Foggy Bottom

Women’s March / Smoked & Stacked / Buttercream Bakeshop

January 30, 2017May 24, 20172 Comments

We live so close that we felt it would be wrong not to attend Saturday’s Women’s March on Washington. While this is a food blog, of course, it was nice to be there and feel like we were part of something important.

Around 1:00pm we got hungry for lunch. We didn’t have anything in mind other than walking north, away from the Mall. A few miles later we ended up in Shaw at Smoked & Stacked, Marjorie Meek-Bradley’s new deli and sandwich shop. Chef Marjorie is a bit of a celebrity from last season’s Top Chef, so we were star struck to see her in the kitchen preparing sandwiches.

Smoked & Stacked is counter-serve restaurant, but I would not call it fast-casual. For example, it doesn’t have that assembly line atmosphere that is a hallmark of fast-casual restaurants. Instead, Smoked & Stacked has a chef-driven menu that clearly had a lot of thought put into them. While you can customize your sandwich, it’s probably best to stick the featured sandwiches.

The star of the show is the housemade pastrami, so we could not miss that. We shared “The Stacked”, which is pastrami, slaw and Dijon mustard on a sea-salt topped milkbread bun. The moist and meaty warm pastrami gets a cool crunch from the slaw. The best part, though, may be the sweet and pillowy milkbread. In fact, it’s so good that it distracts a bit from the pastrami. Still, the chef can’t be faulted if her bread tastes too good.

The sandwiches are substantial in size and would make a hearty lunch. We shared one, plus a bag of Route 11 potato chips, so that we would have room for dessert. Conveniently, Buttercream Bakeshop is directly across 9th Street, NW. The much anticipated bakery is a partnership between former Neighborhood Restaurant Group pastry chef Tiffany MacIsaac and cake decorator Alexandra Muddy-Till.

We shared an “808 Bar”, which resembles a s’more. It ended up tasting like a luscious combination brownie, blondie and fudge sprinkled with toasted coconut. I also got a matcha latte, creamy from steamed 2% milk. The barista asked if I wanted it sweetened. I said “no” but if I could do it again, I’d say yes. This is a purely personal preference, but by having it sweetened, it just would have underscored the decadence of our trip to Buttercream.

Best Bite
Paul and Marnay: The Stacked

Address
Smoked & Stacked: 1239 9th Street, NW Washington, DC 20001
Buttercream Bakeshop: 1250 9th Street, NW Washington, DC 20001
Closest Metro: Mt Vernon Square

Hazel

October 6, 2016February 22, 2017Leave a comment

Being back in DC means that we get to check out some of the newer restaurants that we’ve been too busy to get to over the last few weeks (see the previous post). On a dreary Thursday night during one of the rainiest weeks of 2016, we checked out Hazel in Shaw. Hazel is an Asian-accented restaurant from Neighborhood Restaurant Group (Partisan, Rustico, Sovereign, plus many others) and Chef Rob Rubba. It is located in a brand new mixed-use building across V Street from the 930 Club.

The first thing that one notices upon entering at night is that the space is dark and moody. From our perch at the bar there were spotlights above us that illuminated the otherwise dark space. We spent the evening watching the rain through the floor-to-ceiling windows that wrap around the restaurant.

As with any Neighborhood Restaurant Group restaurant, the beer list was stellar. But Hazel also has a strong focus on cocktails. I enjoyed the Too Short a Season, which was basically a spritz, my cocktail obsession of the moment. The sweet yet bitter taste of the Cappelletti, also known as Specialino in its home of Brescia, really shined through the rest of the ingredients. Marnay got a saison, her favorite style of beer, from Oxbow.

Chef Rubba’s menu is entirely small plates, with two family-style “huge” plates: a whole snapper and a roasted duck. I am seeing this trend of having family-style portions pop up more and more on menus and I am a huge fan. It takes dining from a semi-solitary activity and turns it into an experience, where interaction among others is required.

But on to our food. English muffins slathered with whipped nduja, a spicy spreadable salami, Greek yogurt and olive oil jam were a striking example of the way hot and cool play off of each other. The nduja, yogurt and jam were layered in a ramekin so that it resembled a sunny-side up egg.

We liked the littleneck clams in a brown butter miso broth, but would not be inclined to order them again. After we finished the chewy clams, we took the small bowl of steamed rice and let it soak up the umami-packed broth. An above average dish but not a repeater.

My favorite was their Korean fried chicken style ribs, which is quickly becoming their quintessential dish. The ribs are crunchy, sweet, spicy and meaty, pretty much the four adjectives that make up an optimal dish. The heat was noticeable, and my sinuses would confirm this, but it didn’t overwhelm the other flavors.

We were very fond of the food at Hazel. What set it apart from all of the other new restaurants with great food, though, was the atmosphere. We felt like we spent a few hours after work hanging out in an exclusive club with superb food.

Best Bite
Paul: Korean fried chicken style ribs
Marnay: English muffins with nduja, Greek yogurt and olive oil jam

Address
Hazel: 808 V Street, NW Washington, DC 20001
Closest Metro: U Street

Centrolina

August 29, 2016February 22, 2017Leave a comment

For Marnay’s birthday celebration, we made reservations at Chef Amy Brandwein’s Centrolina, located in CityCenter DC. We were 15 minutes late for our 8:00pm reservation—our fault, although we did call ahead to let them know. However, we were not seated until 8:35pm—their fault. They acknowledged it and made up for it, though, with a gratis cheese plate. Not the first time that I have seen this technique in a restaurant and I think it works really well to engender good will.

Centrolina (pronunciation: “Chen-tro-leena”) specializes in housemade pasta dishes, which we were most excited about. We ordered one small plate, one large plate and two pastas. The melone with cucumber, tomato and extra virgin olive oil was refreshing on a hot day, although it would have been better if the salt and pepper was applied evenly. The few bites I tried with salt and pepper were markedly better than the ones without.

The branzino was a standout, with its crispy exterior. The crisp skin and tender flesh went well with the cool butter beans and yogurt sauce it was resting on. We would get this dish again.

Centrolina needs to hold on to the server we had. She was in charge of the entire room and extremely knowledgeable about the menu. She gave us our space but also understood when we needed some help. Marnay’s Mom loves Prosecco, although it was not on the menu by the glass. Instead, the server steered her towards a glass of Franciacorta, a sparkling white from Lombardy made using the champagne method. That means that it undergoes secondary fermentation in the bottle, as opposed to a steel tank like Prosecco.

As mentioned early, we were excited about the pasta dishes. My take is that they were mostly good, although a bit of a mixed bag. The fusilli with tomato, fennel sausage and calamari was delicious, the salty sausage and the chewy calamari going particularly well with the fusilli. The neri, or squid ink pasta, with tuna crudo and spicy nonnata di pesce loaded with Calabrian chiles was good, but also could have benefited from more salt. I have had a similar dish at Osteria Morini in the Navy Yard which was considerably better.

It’s worth noting that the fusilli was the only dried pasta on the menu. I could taste the difference, in favor of the dried pasta. It held its chew and soaked up more sauce than the slippery fresh squid ink pasta.

We tipped off our server that it was Marnay’s birthday, so the pudding-like budino we shared for dessert came with a candle on top. Centrolina is a solid restaurant with good, but not amazing food. It is worth a trip if you are in the area.

Best Bite
Paul: Fusilli pasta
Marnay: Branzino

Address
Centrolina: 974 Palmer Alley NW, Washington, DC 20001
Closest Metro: Metro Center

Rose’s Luxury

August 18, 2016February 22, 2017Leave a comment

At 8:30 on a Wednesday night, Marnay and I and six of our friends had the incredible fortune to dine (with reservations!) at one of the best restaurants in DC for a five course pre-fixe meal.

All eight of us started the night off with a cocktail, the best way to start a meal at Rose’s. Since the food options were decided ahead of time, we sat back and let the talented staff put on a show. The first hit of the night was Rose’s whimsical bread course, a take on a baked potato with potato brioche and a side of whipped sour cream butter topped with chives and crumbled potato skins. After devouring the bread, the staff brought over a single-bite amuse bouche: a potato chip with crème fraiche and salty orbs of trout roe, or, for the vegetarians, capers.

Our first full course was foie gras and chicken liver pate with plum mostarda and slices of toasted brioche on a bed of plums. While the rich pate was great on the toast, one of our dining companions noted that it was even better on the soft potato brioche.

Next up was grilled romaine heart with hard-boiled duck egg, crispy potato, herbs and creamy buttermilk dressing. The strong flavor of the grill on the romaine made this dish a winner. It tasted like we were all hanging out at someone’s backyard barbecue.

The servers and staff at Rose’s Luxury want to make sure that you are having fun. They are extremely skilled and knowledgeable, but they are equally laid back and funny. While the restaurant has received numerous accolades (2016 James Beard Award Best-Chef Mid-Atlantic Aaron Silverman, Bon Appetit Best New Restaurant), and its heart Rose’s is just a neighborhood restaurant. It just happens to have incredible food and be nationally recognized.

Anyway, our next dish was their signature dish and the one that I was looking forward to the most: Pork sausage, lychee and habanero salad. The salad comes in a bowl topped with a poof of coconut milk cream, which acts as the dressing. As our server explained, the fifteen-ingredient salad tastes best when all of the ingredients are mixed together so that the disparate salty-sweet-spicy components become one. While I loved this dish, if you are not a fan of very spicy foods, like one of our companions, this is not the dish for you at Rose’s.

My favorite dish of the night was the confit goat with BBQ Sea Island red peas, creamy Carolina Gold rice and garlic bread crumbs. This dish received universal praise from everyone at the table. It was layered together with the confit goat on top, the BBQ peas and breadcrumbs in the middle and the rice on the bottom soaking up all of the umami-flavor.

Now I know that this seems like a lot of food, but we still have four more courses! The pasta course of bucatini with sungold tomato sauce, basil and parmesan was one of my surprise favorites. Best parts: the texture and chew from the housemade bucatini and the sweetness of the fresh tomatoes. Our main course was smoked brisket, better than at any barbecue restaurant I have ever been to, with Sunbeam white bread, horseradish cream and slaw. We had this the only other time we were at Rose’s and I thought it was better this time, more tender.

Dessert was two courses—first up, a deceptively simple bowl of vanilla ice cream with sea salt and olive oil. This was another dish that received universal praise at the table. Finally, our last course of the night was coconut ice cream with kiwi, lime zest and edible flowers on top of a caramel sauce with what I think were pieces of sugar cone. This was a good dish, no doubt, but I think we all would have been fine without it.

Out of all the meals we have reviewed on this blog, I would put Rose’s in a tie with Vernick Food & Drink in Philadelphia for the best meal ever. A truly special experience.

Best Bite
Paul and Marnay: Goat confit

Address
Rose’s Luxury: 717 8th Street, SE Washington, DC 20003
Closest Metro: Eastern Market

Kinship

July 14, 2016February 22, 2017Leave a comment

We made reservations a month out for dinner at Kinship, the new restaurant in Mt Vernon Triangle from acclaimed chef Eric Ziebold (James Beard Award Best-Chef Mid-Atlantic, 2008).The menu is separated into “Craft”, “History”, “Ingredients”, “Indulgence” and “For the Table.” This is one of the few restaurants where an introduction to the menu from the server is actually necessary.

The restaurant feels like it is in someone’s narrow rowhome, with brick walls and low lighting. We knew going in exactly what we wanted to eat so we ordered drinks and food and the same time. I started with the Kinship Spritz (Cocchi Americano, Dolin Blanc, Blanc de Blanc Sparkling Champagne) and Marnay got a glass of French Chenin Blanc. For some reason, my drink came at least five minutes before Marnay’s. When it finally arrived, her glass of wine was brought by the manager of the front of the house (who happens to be the chef’s wife) instead of our server. The exact same thing happened when we ordered a second drink. There is no doubt that we received great service at Kinship and we left feeling like VIPs. There was just a lot of duplication of effort among the staff. Not really a critique, just something that we noticed.

Our meal started with the torchon of white mushrooms from the “Craft” section, a riff on a torchon of foie gras, with baby beet and wild mushroom salad served on top of a huckleberry gastrique along with slices of toasted brioche. The torchon was rich and earthy on its own but it was transformed when spread on the toasted brioche along with the gastrique.

We also ordered Kinship’s famous roast chicken, from the “For the Table” section. We got a little hungry waiting for it to be made (it takes at least an hour) but I am glad we did not order another dish because the chicken is a lot for two people. When the chicken was finished, the server presented it to us (perfect picture opportunity!) before bringing it back to the kitchen to cut into pieces. The garlicky, buttery skin was the best part of the dish. Second best was chef Ziebold’s famous Parker House rolls, pillowy and soft. Last, but certainly not least, was the well season fried potatoes.

Kinship is a cozy neighborhood restaurant with James Beard Award quality food at reasonable prices. The roast chicken, for example, cost less than two individual entrees. While we had to make our reservations a month in advance, the full menu is offered at the bar and there was no one sitting there when we arrived at 7:00pm on a Tuesday.

Now go and try it!

Best Bite
Marnay: Torchon of White Mushroom
Paul: Torchon of White Mushroom

Address
Kinship: 1015 7th Street, NW Washington, DC 20001
Closest Metro: Mt Vernon Square

Whaley’s

July 6, 2016March 20, 2017Leave a comment

Marnay works near Farragut Square and I take the MARC train to Baltimore, so the perfect spot for us to meet after work is Union Station. On a beautiful Wednesday, we met up and went to Whaley’s in the Navy Yard by the fastest and easiest way possible…Bikeshare!

Whaley’s is a raw bar and seafood restaurant from the team behind DGS, appropriately set on the Anacostia waterfront. I have been really into Italian apertivos lately, especially since I started reading Spritz by Talia Baiocchi and Leslie Pariseau, so I ordered an Americano. An Americano is made of Campari, sweet vermouth and soda water. Marnay got House Cocktail #2, which is a refreshing combination of gin, yellow chartreuse, tarragon, cucumber and lemon.

We sat at the large wrap around bar, near the very prominently displaced raw bar. Whaley’s is rather small on the inside, although there appears to be just as much outdoor waterfront seating as indoor seating. Tempted by the aforementioned raw bar, we got poached Gulf shrimp from Alabama as well as 6 local oysters from New Jersey, Virginia and Maryland. We rarely see oysters from New Jersey around here, so I was excited to try them.

No exaggeration, these were the best oysters we have ever had. They were perfectly shucked with absolutely no grit and chilled to the perfect temperature. The shrimp were huge and buttery and something I would get again without hesitation.

We still haven’t gotten to my favorite dish! We ordered the crispy fried squash blossoms, filled with the same shrimp and placed on top of a swipe of ginger aioli. The blossoms are then topped with chives and esplette pepper. The squash blossoms actually come from the same town in Alabama as the shrimp.

Whaley’s is very new and we noticed a few hiccups, mainly with bartenders not remembering how to make drinks and servers not sure where to bring plates. These were minor and they did not directly affect us, we just could hear a lot from our perch at the bar.

I recommend Whaley’s if you are in the mood for quality raw seafood at reasonable prices and an A+ view. We will be back!

Best Bite
Paul: Squash blossoms
Marnay: Oysters

Address
Whaley’s: 301 Water Street, SE #115 Washington, DC 20003
Closest Metro: Navy Yard

Momofuku CCDC

June 22, 2016February 22, 2017Leave a comment

On a Tuesday night we made reservations at one of DC’s most popular new restaurants, Momofuku CCDC. This is the DC offshoot of David Chang’s extremely successful Momofuku empire. The restaurant offers limited reservations and we made ours’ a month out.

The space is rather bare, with concrete floors and not much on the walls. There is a giant peach projected above the bar, which is a nice touch. The curved wooden seats do not even have backs. My first impression was that this does not seem like a restaurant where guests are expected to linger. While we reviewed the food menu, we started off with some drinks. I got the Seven Spice Sour, which had some serious heat. It consisted of sake, yuzu, lime and shichimi, that ubiquitous reddish-orange spice found at Japanese restaurants. Marnay got a Grenache rose from Provence, the birthplace of rose.

Our food was coursed out, but it came fast. The first two dishes to arrive were the Shiitake Buns with hoisin, scallion and cucumber and the Rockfish crudo with yuzu, bonji and sliced apples. The shiitake buns tasted like they were filled with crispy bacon. It was incredible what they did with the mushrooms…it was pure magic.

There was no indication on the menu that the Rockfish would be raw until the server told us after we ordered. Not a problem, but a little warning on the menu would be nice. The paper thin slices of raw fish came with bonji sauce, a David Chang trademarked creation similar to soy sauce.

Very soon after these two dishes left the table, the famous Momofuku Ramen arrived. It is a pork based soup with sliced pork belly, pulled pork shoulder and a beautiful poached egg floating in the middle. Piercing the egg provides even more delicious richness to the broth. The bowl was substantial and even though we shared it, we were not able to finish.

Out of all the reasons to come to Momofuku CCDC, we were most excited to try dessert from Milk Bar. Trying their famous Cereal Milk ice cream is almost a cultural experience and we were looking forward to it. Honestly, though…we were a bit disappointed. I guess it tasted like milk-flavored soft-serve, but we thought there would be a lot more flavor. Same goes for the Compost Cookie that we ordered. It was good enough, but we were expecting great. Momufuku CCDC is not about to give Osteria Morini a run for its money as best restaurant for dessert in DC.

Outside of Milk Bar, Momofuku CCDC is very good. I think that the next time we go we will just get dessert from RareSweets. Or, if we’re feeling really adventurous, we will go to the bar at DBGB and order the Baked Alaska.

Best Bite
Paul: Shiitake Buns
Marnay: Momofuku Ramen

Address
Momofuku CCDC: 1090 I St, NW Washington, DC 20001
Closest Metro: Metro Center

Masseria

March 19, 2016February 22, 2017Leave a comment

Masseria is a unique restaurant that actually looks like three restaurants in one. Set on a barren, industrial stretch of 4th St NE, although one block from Union Market, there was plenty of space to build the restaurant however they wanted. The front is an open courtyard lounge area with couches and some small tables. The first indoor dining room is all windows, even the part that is attached to the second indoor dining room. Finally, the back dining room, with the open kitchen, has no windows and mostly cinder block walls. It truly feels like a wine cellar.

We were lucky enough to eat in the “wine cellar” dining room. At Masseria, you choose a four or five course pre fixe menu. You do not have to choose one from each category, but your last course must be cheese or dessert. Cocktails are the best way to start a meal. We got The Toronto, with Dickel Rye, Fernet, a touch of sugar and a lemon twist. We also got the Count Camillo, with St. George Gin, Contratto Bianco Vermouth and Beet Infused Campari. I really enjoyed the sweet earthiness from the beets while Marnay liked how the sugar cut the bitterness from the Fernet in the Toronto.

We were served gratis arancini, potato doughnuts with mushroom powder, focaccia and a squid ink sesame breadstick that had some serious heat. Our first courses could not have been more different. Marnay got the cobia crudo with fennel, blood orange, basil, basil seeds and green chiles. The chiles were hot but the cold, raw slices of fish mercifully took out much of the punch. I got tender sweetbreads in a sweet and salty salsa benadetto with almonds. This was one of my favorite bites of the meal.

Our second course was pasta, which Masseria excels in. I got the linguine with XO sauce, olive oil, garlic and a handful of spicy breadcrumbs. XO sauce, which is a Chinese dried fish-based sauce, is one of the most delicious sauces on earth, so it makes perfect sense that an Italian chef would want to play around with it. The breadcrumbs soaked up the sauce and the housemade linguine had a good chew to it. It’s hard for me to decide between the linguine and the sweetbreads as my best bite. Marnay got the egg raviolo with Louisiana Crawfish, Olio Santo and Falanghina Zabliglione, possible the best looking dish of the night. It tastes best with all of the ingredients eaten together, in one bite. Leave any element out, however, and the dish just was not the same.

Another great presentation: Two “scarpettas” of semolina bread served in a cigar box, intended for the remaining pasta sauce.

The third courses are divided into fish, meat and vegetables. I went the vegetable route with the wild mushrooms, turnips, Tuscan kale and honey, and I am glad that I did. The meaty, umami-packed mushrooms certainly did not make us miss meat. Marnay’s striped bass with bacala, potatoes, black garlic and a brown butter sauce was a heavy misfire.

Dessert included more free bites, such as passionfruit sorbet with coconut crema and pineapple salsa. This was truly one of our favorite parts of the meal. I ordered a plate of poached rhubarb with lychee ricotta spuma, preserved lemon meringue and rhubarb sorbet. Marnay got the crostata al marmellata, which was a spiced pasta frolla, preserves, berries, malted milk gelato and almonds. We each really enjoyed our desserts. My favorite part was the cool, soft sorbet with the crispy meringue and the spuma eaten all together. Marnay liked how her dessert looked simple but clearly involved a tremendous amount of skill. Our check came along with cannoli and a housemade lemon gelee.

The only quibble I have with Masseria is that the servers tend to be absent most of the meal. This is a good thing in the sense that you are saved from unwanted intrusions, but it does lead to glasses being left empty for long periods of time.

Masseria is an experience with the food to match. It is not an “everyday” restaurant but for special occasions, it is a great choice.

Best Bite
Paul: Sweetbreads
Marnay: Linguine with XO sauce

Best Sip
The Toronto

Address
Masseria: 1340 4th Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002
Closest Metro: Noma

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Category: Washington DC