April 2005

The small-plates trend has made yet another inroad: Café Savino has been transformed by owner Savino Recine and John Tsiaoushis, former owner of Acropolis and creator of the Shark Club, into Cloud Dining Lounge.

What was an Italian restaurant now has a raw bar and offers a menu of international tapas and specialty cocktails. The white-on-white setting by designer Walter Gagliano features an iridescent white floor, white faux-leather seating, and beds and tables draped with gauzy white curtains. The lighting gives the illusion of clouds floating along the curtains.

The menu, executed by chef Vincent Torres, includes cold tapas such as lobster, shrimp, and pineapple salad, roasted piquillo peppers stuffed with goat cheese, and tuna ceviche served in a fresh coconut. Hot selections include shrimp and calamari in a turmeric-coconut sauce, mashed Jerusalem artichokes, and twice-fried plantains with a garlic cilantro dipping sauce. Tapas are $3 to $14.95. The drink menu includes Champagne cocktails like the Yellow Fever, with thinly sliced kumquats, Grand Marnier, sugar, and Champagne, and the Cloud Nine, made with vanilla vodka, pear juice, and Prosecco.

Cloud Dining Lounge: 1 Dupont Circle, NW; 202-872-1122.

Open from 5 to 11 PM Monday and Tuesday, until midnight Wednesday and Thursday, and until 3 AM Friday and Saturday.