Filomena's, Georgetown, D.C.

It's the morning after and I'm still stuffed.

Last night, Robert, who'd opted to use food rather than cash as currency, "paid" for my set of golf clubs he bought (did you know that he was on the golf team when he was in college? I keep trying to imagine him in knickers and Argylle socks) by taking Ryan and me out to a Restaurant Week dinner at the establishment of my choice. Don't fret—that's not something I can take advantage of since all participating restaurants have a special three-course $30.06 dinner menu. Robert has had an unusually busy week at the office, so I thought some "down home" cooking in an elegant atmosphere would fit the bill, so after pulling a few strings I managed to get us reservations at the usually-booked-on-Friday-nights-weeks-in-advance Georgetown ristorante Filomena's, the place I've always thought was the best Italian place in Georgetown.

Filomena didn't let us down.

As expected, the canal-side lower-Wisconsin place was jam-packed, and we even had to navigate our way through the crowds of people on the sidewalk just getting in the front door. We were just on time for our late 9:30 reservation and they were clearing the previous diners' plates from our table, so they very apologetically asked us to wait about five minues. They then cruelly forced us to look at the dessert case in the entry area, making our abject hunger all the more urgent.



We also got a chance to begin looking at Filomena's ecclectic decor. They go with the thematic idea that their diners are eating at an Italian grandmother's country house (albeit a very wealthy grandmother), so they have a lot of home-type items around one might find at a grandmother's house. There is a mix of upholstery on the seating areas, fresh flowers abound, the walls are painted like frescos, Italian and Roman statues are everywhere, bits of gardening equipment are here and there, and a lot of kitchen things like copper pots and other items of cooking equipment hang on the walls. I even saw an accordion resting in one grouping. The tables all have little milk glass lamps and each place is set with hand-crocheted placemats. It wasn't more than a couple of minutes, though, that we were escorted to our table alongside a very comfortable banquette.

They have an enormous menu at Filomena's, so I was glad that the R.W. menu shortened our choices. Still, it was a challenge picking just three items.

Robert ordered first. He chose the mozzarella di bufala, which is in essence a caprese salad, the polpettone di carne or meat rolls, and the white chocolate mousse. The salad was an interesting choice for him, since it was layers of slices of fresh water buffalo milk mozzarella cheese interspersced with slices of red and yellow tomatoes highlighted with fresh basil leaves and drizzled with olive oil; Robert doesn't like tomatoes! I was the unexpected beneficiary of his unwanted tomato slices, and they were quite nice. I guess he just likes fresh mozzarella.



His polpettone was enormous! They take ground sirloin, veal, and pork and make a roll stuffed with mozzarella and "rosemary ham" that is then baked and smothered with marinara sauce. Roasted potatoes came on the side. The meat roll was so large he had to take half of it home in a doggie bag.



I started with the zupetta, a big bowl of fresh mussels and baby clams that had been steamed in a rich white wine, garlic, and tomato broth. They gave me a thick piece of crostini bread to go with it, and it had the smoky taste of having been grilled.



Once again, I was able to talk the restaurant into giving me a salad instead of a dessert course, so I got the insalatina di stagione, a plateful of mesclun greens with toasted pecans and bleu cheese crumbles (I thought it would be gorgonzola, but it tasted like bleu to me) in a simple balsamic vinaigrette.



For my main course I decided that since it was Friday I should have fish, and there was on the menu a lovely branzino con ruchetta. I got three nice sized filets of perch that had been pan-fried to a crusty brown and arrranged around a mound of arugula, tomatoes, and red onions in a lemony vinaigrette. The perch was firm and had an excellent texture and flavor.



Ryan began with the salsiccia e friarielli, some toasted crostone bread topped with grilled Italian sausage and sauteed broccoli rabe. I had a hard time trying to explain to him that "broccoli rabe" (also known as rapini) is not the same thing as "broccoli."



He also had the same fish dish for his main course as did I; like Robert, he also chose the white chocolate mousse for dessert. Now, when I saw white and dark chocolate mousses on the menu as the only two dessert choices, I had this vision in my mind of a little tiny bowl with a scoop of pudding-like substance. That vision couldn't have been more wrong. The mousse at Filomena's is essentially a very thick "cake" of mousse, with a thick layer of mousse topped by a layer of cake topped by another thick layer of mousse and then garnished with shavings of white chocolate. A little spot of raspberry coulis with a white chocolate sauce flower inside garnished the plate. The dessert was huge! I got to sample it and it was delightful.



With their meals, Robert had a glass of the house chianti riserva and Ryan had a glass of the house merlot.

After dinner, the restaurant provides every table with decanters of complimentary sambucca (a licorice-tasting liqueur) and amaretto (almond liqueur) with little mini-brandy snifters, It was quite a nice finishing touch to an excellent, lovely meal. Thanks, Robert!