About Restaurant Openings Around DC
A guide to the newest places to eat and drink.
Café Fiorello. 1001 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Café Fiorello has been a fixture across from New York’s Lincoln Center for 50 years. Now, the Italian-American restaurant is opening its second-ever location in another prime piece of real estate on 10th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue (formerly Tadich Grill). It’s set to open May 21 with a menu full of classics—from chicken parm to rigatoni alla vodka—plus a front-and-center antipasti bar.
“It’s the most similar thing we’ve found to where we are in New York,” says Ben Grossman, CEO for Fireman Hospitality Group, which is behind Café Fiorello, Bond 45, Brooklyn Diner, and several others. He notes the group’s other New York restaurants tend to be centered around entertainment centers, including Carnegie Hall and Times Square.
The group has been looking to open something in DC for years, but took their time to find the right spot. They already operate an outpost of Bond 45 and more casual pizzeria Fiorella Italian Kitchen in National Harbor.
When you walk in, you’ll be greeted by a sprawling display of antipasti: cauliflower Milanese, fire-roasted peppers, Sicilian eggplant caponata, herb-roasted mushrooms, lemon spinach, and more. The spread is inspired by an antipasti bar that owner Shelly Fireman encountered in Italy decades ago, and he’s since made it into one of his own signatures. Diners can pick what they want from an antipasti chef and have it brought to the table, or just order the vegetable plates from the menu.
The rest of the menu also replicates a lot of the popular dishes from New York, including Dover sole with lemon beurre blanch, grilled veal chops, and spaghetti carbonara. The vast majority have been on the menu since the original location opened in 1974. An added bonus for DC: a live-fire grill.
Cracker-thin pizzas, with toppings like pepperoni and spicy honey or prosciutto and arugula—are another staple of the restaurant. “When I first had it, when I started with the company, I was like, ‘Oh, this isn’t pizza. Now I can’t eat any other pizza,'” says general manager John Zullo, who worked at the New York location for more than 20 years before relocating to run the DC outpost. “It’s light enough that you can eat the whole pie and not feel guilty.”
The food is paired with several negronis and Aperol spritzes (including non-alcoholic versions), plus a largely Italian wine list. The restaurant will open for dinner to start, with brunch and lunch to follow. There are also plans to eventually introduce grab-and-go breakfast sandwiches, pastries, coffee, and fresh-pressed juices in the mornings.
The restaurant features two separate marble bars, including one with back-lit onyx. The dining room is full of warm wood paneling and hand-crafted furniture from Italy, including lush emerald green booths. (A 40-seat patio is also coming.) The artwork, from political cartoons to oil paintings, come from Fireman’s personal collection and includes framed menus from the original Café Fiorello. A private room for 10 in the back can be accessed by VIPs from a secret back entrance in the office building.
“My hope and our goal is to be a power lunch and power dinner destination,” says Zullo. “Our restaurants in New York have been power lunch destinations for decades.”
Correction: Café Fiorello is at the intersection of 10th Street, not 11th Street.Â
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.
