About Obelisk
Today’s dining scene often favors the adventurous (edible insects!), so there’s much that’s deeply pleasurable about Peter Pastan’s 29-year-old tasting room. Tricks are few—plates of burrataare set out for maximum room-temperature creaminess—and hassles are none, thanks to a poised waitstaff who leisurely pace the five-course meal. Linger over the antipasti (also a Pastan strong suit at 2Amys and Etto), the generous wine pairings, and the pastas, such as house-made noodles with squid. To say the cooking is simple doesn’t give the kitchen its due—sourcing the best ingredients and showing skillful restraint is a talent in its own right.
Don’t miss: Gargati with squab ragu; snapper with chickpeas; grapefruit granita with candied-fennel ice cream.
See what other restaurants made our 100 Very Best Restaurants list. This article appears in our February 2016 issue of Washingtonian.
Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.
Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
