100 Very Best Restaurants 2015: No. 31 2 Amys

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Norcia Pizza at 2 Amy's. Photograph by Scott Suchman

About 2 Amys

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A plate of roasted red and yellow peppers striped with anchovies and dashed with olive oil. A simple dish—one you think you could whip up at home. Except, of course, you can’t. Not with this pop of flavor, this depth. That’s the magic of Peter Pastan’s pizzeria, whose list of small plates makes it the best workaday Italian restaurant in Washington.

Pastan is fanatical when it comes to ingredients, which he gets from top suppliers (or makes himself, in the case of his red-wine vinegar), and devoted to the Italian ideal of simplicity. What that means is that nearly every dish is interesting or rewarding or addictive, sometimes all three.

Don’t miss:

  • Deviled eggs
  • Meatballs
  • Salt-cured sardines
  • Smoked swordfish with fennel
  • Anchovies with bread and butter
  • Escarole with hard-boiled eggs and anchovies
  • Margherita Extra, Abruzzese, and Norcia pizzas
  • Cannoli
  • Vanilla ice cream


Ann Limpert
Executive Food Editor/Critic

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.

Food Editor

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.