Aggio

The presentation and creativity were there, but the taste and technique weren't. We ordered several plates, including the squid ink pasta, the beet dish, a kale salad, and the chocolate cake for dessert. I don't remember the rest, which goes to show something. The beet dish was easily the best, and it was also the simplest. Everything else tended to taste seriously oversalted, and the kale salad was heavily overdressed, both of which really surprised me since they seem like rookie mistakes, and Brian Voltaggio is definitely not a rookie. The little crispy breadsticks were "cool" but not very flavorful and didn't have any of the coziness of Italian food; I would have preferred actual breadsticks or some crostini and bruschetta. They grated scallops over some of the plates, which was also "cool" but didn't do anything for the flavor profile. The service was fine but unremarkable. I've always have the same experience at Range: I feel like I'm paying a good deal extra just to feel fancy. If you're going to go out-of-the-box with things like squid ink pasta, you have to be able to execute them properly or you just come off as presumptuous.

Reference: See Tom Sietsema's "Excellent" review in March 30, 2014, WP Magazine (Washington Post), pp. 23-25.