The Pines of Florence, Alexandria, Va.

After touring the George Washington Masonic Memorial, as it was dinner time, we walked down King Street into Old Town Alexandria in quest of a non-national chain place to eat. While I'd been thinking of going down to all the places by the river, it was one of those hot, sultry, summer afternoons and Robert was getting hot, so we found a place on the west end of King Street, a mom-and-pop Italian ristorante called The Pines of Florence. We were quite pleased with our find, too, as the food was good, the servings large, and the prices cheap, with entrees being mostly in the $9 to $14 range.

Robert got the spaghetti carbonara. Now, the classic carbonara recipe has egg, parmesan cheese, bacon, olive oil, and herbs, but it looked to me like they'd added a splash of cream. Robert liked it quite a bit, and it was much prettier than it looks in the photo.


I got the veal osso bucco accompanied by some linguine, and all of the dish was covered in a thick tomato sauce with lots of onions, green peppers, and mushrooms and all with a buttery richness. The veal was pretty good. While I was disappointed (though not at all unexpected) not to be offered a marrow scoop, once I got through the meat and all that tomato sauce, I was pleasantly surprised to find a nice section of the leg bone with a big opening and an ample amount of bone marrow. The marrow was easily extractable with my table knife, and made a delicious spread on the bread they provided.