Food

A Northern Italian Restaurant With Colorful Pastas and Wood-Fired Meats Is Coming to Glover Park

Chef Daniel Perron and Donahue owner Luca Giovannini open Divino in October.

Doppio ravioli from Divino. Photograph by Marvin Torres.

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Divino. 2505 Wisconsin Ave., NW.

Daniel Perron was a cook and Luca Giovannini a bartender when they first met working at Blue Duck Tavern nearly 15 years ago. They reconnected on the opening team of splashy Italian restaurant Fiola Mare in Georgetown. Now, Perron—mostly recently executive chef of Charlie Palmer Steak—and Giovannini—owner of Donahue cocktail lounge in Georgetown—are teaming up again for their own highly seasonal northern Italian restaurant called Divino, which will focus on multicolored pastas and wood-fired meats and vegetables. It’s slated to open in the Glover Park Hotel in late October.

“Every week that you come in, you’re going to get something a little bit different, especially from me. I like to change the menu up a lot,” says Perron, who was also executive chef of Trummer’s and former seafood restaurant Whaley’s. 

Striped black and white pasta made with freshly milled Anson Mills flour. Photograph by Marvin Torres.

One of the focal points of Divino will be a pasta counter where diners can watch tortellini or tagliatelle being made. Perron hope to set his pastas apart with multicolored doughs made with freshly milled flour from Anson Mills. For example, he’s working on a black-striped pasta made using activated charcoal. A double ravioli combines two flavors in one: tomato-infused dough stuffed with housemade ricotta and jumbo lump crab plus a traditional egg yolk dough filled with honeynut squash and parmesan.

Perron says he was turned onto the idea of multicolored pastas from chefs on Instagram:  “I think that’s something cool, something unique,” Perron says. “Nobody’s really doing it in DC.”

Dry-aged tomahawk steak rubbed with miso and dried porcini. Photograph by Marvin Torres.

Divino inherits a pizza oven from Michael Schlow’s Italian restaurant Casolare, which previously occupied the space, but the new restaurant won’t serve pizza. Instead, Perron will use the oven for wood-roasted vegetable and meat dishes, highlighting local producers like Karma Farm and pork purveyor Autumn Olive Farms. Perron will put some of his steakhouse experience to use with a tomahawk ribeye costata that’s dry-aged in-house and rubbed with miso and dried porcini powder.

The name Divino has a bit of a double meaning—both “divine” and “of wine” in Italian. Giovannini, a former corporate beverage director for Fabio Trabocchi Restaurants, will focus on northern Italian wines to complement the meat-heavy menu. The wine list, including at least 20 offerings by the glass, will feature Barbaresco and Barolo but Giovannini is particularly enthusiastic about Ferrari, a Champagne-like sparkling wine from his hometown of Trento. “There are not many restaurants, unfortunately, that carry Ferrari besides a couple of Michelin star restaurants,” Giovannini says. Meanwhile, the cocktail menu will go heavy on negronis as well as drinks that incorporate vermouth and wine.

The dining room of Divino. Photo courtesy Divino.

Given its hotel location, Divino will open for breakfast, too. The owners hope to make their coffee bar its own destination for espresso drinks plus an array of housemade pastries like cornetti and bomboloni. There will also be more sit-down fare, including frittatas.

Like the menu, the dining room aims to be a little be refined and a little bit rustic with terracotta tiles and velvety turquoise blue banquettes. Come spring, they plan to turn the 60-seat patio into a casual wine garden where guests can enjoy cicchetti (small snacks) and a glass of wine. 

“The goal is to really be a destination for wine lovers,” Giovannini says. “You’re going to get, like, a $12 glass of wine, no problem, but you’re also going to discover a new producer that maybe you’ve never heard about.”

Jessica Sidman
Food Editor

Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind D.C.’s food and drink scene. Before joining Washingtonian in July 2016, she was Food Editor and Young & Hungry columnist at Washington City Paper. She is a Colorado native and University of Pennsylvania grad.