About Masseria
Hiding along a block that fringes Union Market is one of the most seductive restaurant spaces around—with a pool-blue patio in front and a warmly lit raw-brick dining room inside. You can choose among three-, four-, and five-course tasting menus, and whatever you opt for, make sure pasta plays a role. Chef/owner Nick Stefanelli came up in some of the area’s top Italian kitchens (the late Laboratorio del Galileo and Maestro), and his sophisticated compositions—linguine with salty, garlicky XO sauce, penne with cauliflower and raisins—are among the city’s best. The cocktails, including a fuchsia Negroni tinted with beet juice, are just as dreamy.
Don’t miss: Foie gras with semolina; mushrooms with turnips and honey; agnolotti with butter and black pepper; squab with plums; corvina with black garlic.
See what other restaurants made our 100 Very Best Restaurants list. This article appears in our February 2016 issue of Washingtonian.
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.
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.
