A baked risotto cake with peas, mushrooms, and sausage is typical of the new Spezie: light, elegant, and refined. Photograph by Scott Suchman.

On a stretch of L Street where downtown-DC dining veers from expense-account steakhouses to carryout salad bars, the Italian Spezie has always held sway. Windows that open onto the street, not-too-stiff prices, and good if not great food made it a go-to spot for lunch and postwork cocktails or dinner. But with the arrival this fall of chef Cesare Lanfranconi, who dazzled with his pastas and risottos at Ristorante Tosca, Spezie is morphing into a different kind of restaurant: one that aims to pull in a crowd because of the food.

Spezie owner Enzo Livia, who also runs the popular Il Pizzico in Rockville, brought Lanfranconi on as a partner and to run the kitchen—Lanfranconi is still part owner of Tosca, too.

At the same time, Spezie underwent a nip and tuck—expansion of the bar and dining room, claret-red walls, and the addition of a communal table of marble. The place still fills up at night, but the backrooms are both roomier and cozier.

Lanfranconi has energized the menu with new dishes while hanging on to a handful of favorites. Fritto misto of shellfish is light and crisp, the piquant mustard-vegetable sauce on the side a nice foil for the fried seafood. Likewise, silky roasted peppers and anchovy-parsley sauce add a pungent riff to a plate of Tuscan salami and olives. Pile it all on a heel of the marvelous Italian bread and you have a do-it-yourself crostini.

At lunch there’s a bright ricotta tart with zucchini and eggplant, and, though not especially Italian, a good, mustardy chicken salad bound with house-made mayo.

Spezie’s longtime signature porcini-filled ravioli with pistachio sauce is still there—and still nicely done. But Lanfranconi has rounded out the pasta roster with several house-made attention-getters. Thick, hollow bucatini with a ragoût of duck and winter vegetables tastes like something you might find in the heart of Tuscany—a version with cauliflower, pine nuts, and raisins earlier this winter was equally good. Rigatoni gets a mellow sauce of Gorgonzola and smoked pork shoulder. Even the pedestrian-sounding pasta twills with eggplant and mozzarella goes beyond cliché with the subtlest of tomato sauces.

The northern-Italian Lanfranconi knows his way around risotto, and the changing preparations are nearly always appealing. 

The kitchen will whip up first-rate spaghetti with tomato sauce or a truly transporting house-made fettuccine with Alfredo if asked. The secret of both is restraint—in cooking and saucing

Venture into main courses and the rewards are a little less certain. Too much grill time is an ongoing problem with meats and some seafood, especially salmon, which has been scorched on a couple of occasions. But three are winners: herb-crusted lamb chops with braised artichokes in an intense black-olive sauce, a rosily tender and flavorful veal chop in red-wine sauce, and dewy whole branzino, fileted at the table and dressed with olive oil, lemon, pine nuts, and basil. Roast-pork filets were a touch overcooked, but the accompaniments—figs, a tart-sweet balsamic-vinegar sauce, and a heap of tender braised red cabbage—made the plate worthwhile. Lanfranconi’s vegetables sing, be they crusty roast potatoes or a warm cauliflower salad.

Spezie has yet to acquire a pastry chef, but Lanfranconi has made inroads on the dessert roster. His individual tiramisus are elegant in their tall glasses, a round of meringue with berries is an airy delight, and honey-vanilla gelato is creaminess itself. A plate of fried figs sounds appealing but suffers by comparison—the fruit is too delicate for its sheath of batter.

Lanfranconi has some work to do—on the menu, in the conception of some dishes, and sometimes in the execution and pacing of the meal—but Spezie clearly has a new modus operandi. It’s still popular, but now there’s one more reason to go: the food.

This review appeared in the February, 2008 issue of The Washingtonian.