Our friend Dean Gold who owned Dino's in Cleveland
Park may have closed this winter, but he reopened with a bang at DINO's
GROTTO in Shaw at 1914 Ninth Street, just below U St and it's even
better than before.
We went with several friends and Samuel on
Sunday night and everyone had a superb time with excellent service from
Hope and the wonderful hospitality from the owners that everyone always
experiences.
Downstairs is THE GROTTO or bar, and up a half
flight of steps is a large airy dining room with composite/linoleum like
tables, brick walls, Venetian watercolors and a beautiful encased quilt
on the wall towards the rear.
It's simple, not too noisy, even when full, and very cozy.
Samuel
was feeling uninspired and ordered the Garlic & Oil Spaghetti and
really did not want to taste anything else. He did ask for some tomato
sauce to put on the spaghetti, but I have to say I think our son is
reverting into a bore when it comes to dining out!
We started
with a Vignetti Massa herbaceous "Timorasso" 2010 from Piemonte which we
loved wit all the varied starters we passed around:
CARCIOFI alla GIUDIA which were awesome deep fried baby artichokes with silk road spices, lemon & black salt.
SQUASH BLOSSOMS in season (yay) which are griddled with herbed ricotta, house summer tomato essence with a bit of a spicy kick
I
had ordered PICKLED RAMPS & LOCAL GREEN BEANS along with my main
coarse but am so happy that Hope brought them with the appetizers since
they packed a real pickle punch and would have overwhelmed my entrée.
Will
tried the half portion of CHECCA-a local heirloom tomato, fresh
mozzarella, abundant garlic, black pepper, basil occhipinti, olio on
spaghetti.
And I went the route of Charcuterie which was oh so rewarding with a plate of
PICKLED LAMB TOUNGUE (Border Springs) with Anchovy Salsa Verde which was tender and tasty
"CORNED
BEEF" -19 day spice-brined beef (Shenandoah Valley Co-op) with
horseradish, caper & mascarpone cream -your grandma never made it
like this!
SHROOMS & PORK with Hazelnut, ginger mostarda that was also divine.
There are other meat and cheese options making this antipasto of protein a big plus on my menu choices every time.
By
this time we had switched to a ZIDARICH "Teran" or Terrano grape KASRTS
2009 from Fruili near Slovenia which does indeed have that limestone
characteristic from the karst topography, even though the wine is fairly
light in depth.
For the main course we could not resist the
SOFT SHELL CRABS which were grilled with summer tomato sauce and served
with roasted new potatoes coated with yummy herbs. It made me glad to be
back in DC as we have missed these treats so much.
For
dessert Will went choco crazy for the TORTA AL CIOCCOLATO with walnut
crumble, Valrhona chocolate ganache and whipped cream which he instantly
asked to be switched for vanilla gelato!
I adored my less
indulgent PEACH PARFAIT which had fresh baked spiced peaches with house
granola and a dash of whipped mascarpone to hold it all together almost
like a breakfast parfait. YUM!
It took us several months since Dino's Grotto opened in Shaw, but it won't take that long for us to go back!
It took us several months since Dino's Grotto opened in Shaw, but it won't take that long for us to go back!
