Join us today at 11 AM to chat with Ann Limpert. Wondering where to have that last Restaurant Week meal? Or how the city’s newest steakhouses are faring? Or maybe you just need a dinner recommendation. Leave a question now for Ann, and she’ll get to as many as she can.
Ann: Good morning! Many DC menus have been taken over by Restaurant Week (which is not ideal when you’re on the critic beat), so I took some time to check out a few spots outside the RW bubble.
First up, Logan Circle’s Red Light, which is mostly a packed Gen Z bar but now serves some of DC’s only Detroit style pizza. Multitalented pastry chef Naomi Gallego’s pies are small—they’re really meant for one or two—but man they are good. I only sampled the straightforward pepperoni (next time I’ll try the one that’s topped with pierogi), and she’s nailed it. The puffy pan-baked crust with cheese baked right into it. The racing stripes of hyper-robust red sauce on top. The delicious crusty, caramelly edges. Can’t wait to go back.
And Picollina! Washington is really lucky to have Amy Brandwein’s new Italian cafe, right across from her hit Centrolina. I loved the pork panuozzo, a calzone-like pocket holding porchetta, sweet onions, and a ton of bitter greens, and the crisp round holding a little salad of avocado and tomato. If there are any bomboloni—the sugared, vanilla-custard-filled Italian doughnuts—left in the case, grab them.
Disappointment of the week: It serves me right for ordering a drink called the Mar-a-Lago, but I’m powerless against the lure of rum and coconuts. At Cherry, the entire drink turned out to taste like the watery dregs you get at the end of a cocktail—no flavor, barely any boozy kick. Womp.
Onto your questions! Ask them in the form below; the chat transcript shows up underneath.
