Back in my (Boeing) community relations days, I developed a
close friendship with my counterpart in DC.
Recently, he has received an opportunity for a position in Boeing
Headquarters in Chicago, so another very good friend from DC decided we would have a
little "good bye" dinner for him. Leaving
guy is also pretty much a food guy and gets around DC a lot, so we let him pick
the venue. Based on a recent experience,
he recommended a place called La Strada (Osteria & Enoteca), an Italian place
in Del Ray (yes, there is one in DC). I
peeked at their web site and figured it would be a sleek, modern restaurant.
So MFO and I drove up to our (staying) friend's place in SW Tuesday afternoon,
then went we all went and picked up "leaving" who drove us all to
Well, it turns out that La Strada and the Enoteca are two
different places
With the “Eno” to the left, and La Strada to the right. The "sleek" picture on the web site (did you look?) is actually the
Enoteca, but the plainer Strada on the right is anything but.
Again, I have never been to Italy, but I would suspect that this place
is replicated in many little squares and villages there. Upon entering, it is anything but sleek,
quite the opposite, with just some wooden tables in a very plain setting.
What you see is approximately half of their tables. The lady who greeted us was in her fifties
(?), very plain, just a white blouse over some "pedal pushers" (okay, I’m not a
fasionista). Hello, are you here for
dinner? Sit wherever you would like; only
one other table occupied at this point. It was a bit ealy since we pushed the hour a bit since it was
a work night, and we had a drive home. That
one occupied table was a “mom” with a couple of little ones, who eventually had issues, but
left fairly soon. I thought it was more
proof of just a homey, family style place. We took a
table along the wall opposite what you see. She handed us menus, only one sheet in a plastic
sleeve, but took one back because “it's greasy!”. Like your Mom would..The menu was simple with the
usual Italian classifications of Antipasti (five choices); Insalata (3); Zuppa
(minestrone plus du jour or the Italian equivalent); Pasta (9); Pesce (2), and Carne (5). Also a few Contori - which we would call sides. Pretty doable. I was surprised to not find my benchmark Veal
Piccata listed, although Ossobuco (Milanese) was. A unique feature was that everything could be
ordered “Solo” or “Famiglia”. Prices were
reasonable, most “solo” were in upper teens with the family version around one and a
half to two times that price.
Soon a gentleman came around who looked like the other half
of the lady that seated us, dressed in plain black and of a similar age. Not unfriendly but not warm either. He supplied the wine list and asked if we
would like a glass, but we said we were still in conversation stage and not ready for
libations. On his heel, and left. The two sided wine list was also in a
sleeve, with one side for Vino Bianco and the other for Rosso. It was arranged
only by region (Arbruzzo, Puglia, Piemonte, La Marche, etc.), and within that the
variety and vineyard (Barbaresco DOCG, 2005 Produttori
del Barbaresco (Nebbiolo)). No descriptions, you kind of had to know your
grapes. I finally settled on an Orvieto
‘Novilunio’ , 2008 Tenuta
Poggio del Lupo (Grechetto,
Verdello, Drupeggio, Malvasia), and ordered up a Soave for MFO. Bread was brought to the table with the wine,
in a basket and only olive oil for dressing. I will never understand why they can't slice the loaf all the way through!
I thought the bread indifferent, but I lean toward French. No frills, no fan fare. Plunk.
Although conversation
flowed, so did the time so we finally got down to paying attention to the food. It took a bit of struggling (I dunno, what are you
having?), but with shared forks in mind, we finally settled on the Linguine alla Carbonara (a sucker
dish for our non leaving friend – a devotee of St. Louis versions); MFO took the
Gnocci on the recommendation of leaving friend;
and LF himself tried an interesting looking pork chop preparation (Costoletta di
Maiale – Pork chop with a pine nut, currant, balsamic sweet and sour sauce over
mashed potatoes and sautéed spinach), and I finally settled on (no veal
piccata) Spaghetta al Aglio y Olio (pasta, garlic, extra virgin olive oil)
with the shrimp scampi option (plus five bucks total $19.95). We also decided on the “famiglia” Insalata
Caprese (homemade mozzarella, roasted tomatoes, and pesto vinaigrette). Due to the flowage of time, other tables
began filling, but again with folks not looking like they were “going out”,
just coming to eat and chat.
Our salad arrived colorful and a wonderful fresh start to the meal
It was very flavorful. The homemade cheese was firm and subtly
flavorful, not rubbery and squishy like some versions of "mozz", and the tomatoes and pesto was a great combination. Our "family" ate the whole thing. Nothing was left on the plate! When the main courses arrived, the pork chop (not surprisingly)
turned out to be most interesting dish on the table. The chop was tender and the whole combination (despite some initial misgivings) worked well.
My spaghetti, while
not a great presentation - what else could you do??
Was cooked just right,
al dente on the pasta and the (large!) shrimp were very flavorful, tender and just opaque. There were actual slices of garlic clove,
sweet and fresh, not at all tangy. there was a third shrimp hiding under the one on the left. MFO’s gnocci were light, not "lumps of dough" as you get sometimes, the (pork, beef,
and veal!) sauce hearty to say the least. It was a large portion with the result that I was fortunate enough to benefit from
the left overs at dinner last night.
Staying Friend said that he still liked the STL version of Carbonara better,
but this was a close second.
Again, one of those
just right places, with décor, service, and food all in harmony. No glitz, just plain service and really
well prepared food. Like a corner family restaurant. Not a “special”
place, but if you want good, solid, reasonably priced, rustic (a bad word, but
you might get my drift) food, the feeder would send you there. He would return. There was just kind of a nice feel about the place (aided by our staying and leaving friends of course).
On the way back to our car in SW, LF drove us around close by the close by community of Shirlington a bit. Many, many, small and larger cafes and
restaurants most with outside seating. I
was amazed that most of them were full, and this early on a Tuesday night. Scene looked vibrant. It was fun to hear LF
tick them off as we passed. No good,
just okay, very good, average, etc. He gets around.
We wish him well in
his new situation in the Windy City and are looking forward to be guided there,
and are very grateful that staying friend will be…
If you go to La Strada
on the “family” side, don’t worry about
DFD
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