Notti Bianche, Washington, D.C.

New Yorker Zack is in town tonight in anticipation of a big book sellers' conference tomorrow, so we took the opportunity go out to dinner after his train got in to Union Station tonight. Now, as we know, there are no Italian restaurants in New York City, so we chose an Italian-themed place right around the corner from my condo, Notti Bianche, instead of doing the usual take the tourist to an Ethiopean place routine.

It was an interestingly eclectic meal, tasty, but not terribly authentically Italian. Here are some of the courses we had:

Appetizers were a grilled duck terrine with a tomato compote they called a "mustarda" and a roasted garlic compote they called a "corstini" that were both sweet and also a mixed greens and sprouts salad and a garganelli pasta with little sausage meatballs and broccoli rabe and a spicy, slightly hot sauce.




For an early salad and soup course, there were two items. There was a hearts of romaine salad that includes some nice parmesan cheese wafers and an unusual little "cup" made of white anchovy fillets and filled with an olive tapenade.



There was also a creamed potato soup that was served in the tiny hollow of a big, broad soup plate that was essentially garnished with two in-shell little neck clams and pieces of soppresata salami. It was tasty but needed more soup.



For pasta courses, there was a rather simple spaghetti pomodoro with just a basic tomato sauce and a linguine with head- and tail-on shrimp. This head-on trend in D.C. lately is a fad that really needs to stop.




Desserts were rather interesting. The chocolate-hazelnut torte with caramel ice cream came with a little rolled Florentine cookie. The torte itself was a little dry, but once the ice cream melted, things were okay.



The waitress highly recommended the panna cotta. The eggless custard mixture was enriched with some crème frâiche and topped with a strawberry-citrus layer, then the whole thing was put on a rhubarb sauce mirror and garnished with homemade sugar and pistachio nut stir sticks.



Wines started with a Bisol prosecco crede N.V. from Veneto, Italy, then a 2003 Castelvero cortese from the Italian Piedmont, then a 2004 Pecchenino San Luigi Vineyard dolcetto that was surprisingly nice, and then a sangiovese selected by the waitress, so I didn't catch the winery or vintage.

Now it's time for bed. G'night!