About Graffiato
Mike Isabella, with his brash, Top Chef-branded
“Jersey Mike” persona and pizza-cutter tattoo, isn’t the likeliest
candidate for getting veggie-haters to eat their Brussels sprouts. But his
roasted, maple-sauced beauties set atop a slick of Greek yogurt could make
converts of even the most skeptical. So, too, a dish of roasted
cauliflower with pecorino and mint or of beets with ricotta and
orange.
Round out the array of sharable plates at this thunderously
loud Italian joint in the shadow of the Verizon Center with rich pastas
and heftier meat dishes. And of course, true to Isabella’s tattoo, the
thin, Jersey-style pizza is really good, too. Don’t miss:
Flatbread with pepperoni sauce; crispy potatoes with lemon and Parmesan;
chestnut risotto with Taleggio; Jersey Shore pizza with fried calamari and
cherry-pepper aïoli; chocolate panna cotta. Open: Daily
for lunch and dinner. Moderate.
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.
