The 38 Essential Restaurants Around D.C.
"Matt Adler’s decidedly unmodern tribute to classic red sauce joints takes diners on a well-worn path that carefully steers clear of the contrived. Dishes heavy on nostalgia, quality ingredients, and technique are served in a red banquette-lined, vintage photo-laden dining room that buzzes with hospitality and delight. Tender chicken parm with a light breading gets tucked under a zingy marina, hunky garlic bread arrives with a bowl of four-cheese sauce for dipping, and shrimp scampi gets splashed with house-made limoncello. Drinks, like a Manhattan with an amaretto rinse and antipasti dirty martini, receive equally attentive treatment. Keeping with the theme, the menu is surprisingly affordable. Adler also runs a second location in Maryland’s Pike & Rose complex and is a partner in the newly opened Cucina Morini in Mt. Vernon Triangle." - Tierney Plumb, Emily Venezky
