Graffiato’s Got the Buzz, with the Cooking to Match

Washington, D.C.’s burgeoning culinary scene received a big boost last month with the opening of the area’s most hotly anticipated restaurant.

Mike Isabella, formerly the head chef at Zaytinya, branched out on his own, opening his first-ever restaurant: Graffiato.

Isabella is best known for his performance this past spring on Top Chef All-Stars. There, squaring off against 20 of the nation’s best chefs, Isabella made it all the way to the final episode, finishing second in an extremely close competition.

Fresh off his near-win, Isabella returned to the city he’d already gained a culinary foothold, D.C., to open his first restaurant.

Finding a location in an old printing building on 6^th Street between F and H St. NW, behind the Verizon Center, Isabella set about building his dream restaurant: an Italian-themed eatery inspired by his grandmother’s cooking.

The design of the two-story restaurant is intentional minimalist, with sealed concrete floors and wooden tables adorned with no more than a tin can filled with fresh herbs. Earth tones—grey, brown and black—dominate the space. However, it does not come across as drab. Rather, with how packed the restaurant has been since opening day two weeks ago, the space feels lively and energetic.

The menu is Isabella’s own creation, his unique take on Italian cuisine. When people think of Italian, sharing large plates comes to mind. Graffiato flips that notion, serving instead small plates—Italian tapas—still made for sharing.

A meal there can consist of six courses and good hour of dining. You can pick and choose as you please, but waiters recommend trying something from every section.

Upon arrival, customers are greeted with a gratis bowl of spiced pistachios. Then, it’s a cheese and ham course, with sheep, goat and cow’s milk cheeses, all from farms within the D.C. area (although there is an Italian gorgonzola on the menu). The same goes for the ham plate, with all slices coming from pigs raised in the area.

Following those appetizers is a vegetable course, with fresh produce cooked up in intriguing ways. These include bell peppers blistered in the kitchen’s wood burning oven and woodsy mushrooms with sweet cherry peppers, also roasted in the oven.

That course is followed by pizza, with fantastic choices that are nothing akin to what you’d expect from an Italian kitchen. These are pizzas taken to the next level.

Sure, there’s a classic choice with a tomato base, but the more innovative pies are the ones you want to try. The best may be the Countryman, which comes with black truffles and fontina cheese. It’s served with a sunny-side up duck egg which, table-side, is smeared all over the pie, adding an amazing creaminess to the pizza.

After pizza comes a typical Italian pasta course, although these too are given special twists. Polenta is paired with pork meatballs and parmesan cheese, as well as another duck egg on top, again adding depth to the plate. A potato gnocchi arrives on top of braised short ribs, burrata cheese and baby arugula, giving the dish an unexpected bite.

The last course (unless you choose dessert) is meat-based, all straight from the wood oven. Among the most popular choices are the crispy chicken thighs, which are served above a spicy, blended pepperoni sauce. It’s the dish that nearly won Isabella Top Chef All Stars.

Even better though, are his braised pork ribs, which come out both crispy and succulent. They fall off the bone, yet have a wonderful, snappy, herb-crusted exterior, earned from a few minutes in the wood-fired oven.

Drinks at the restaurant are reasonably priced, with a number of good wines in the $30 range. Cocktails come in at $9, with beers between $6-7. There is one special, a bucket of miniature beers (Budweiser, Rolling Rock, Corona and Miller High Life), six 8-ounce beers for just $15.

Plates typically run between $10-12 and the restaurant recommends about four plates per person for a meal. Since they are designed to share, a single trip to Graffiato can cover most of the menu, and it can be done without breaking the bank.

So while Graffiato is certainly packed thanks to Isabella’s television fame, it’s worth a shot to try and score a reservation at what is right now Washington D.C.’s most sought after restaurant.

-David

Baseball is Back, So it’s Time to Take a Trip to Nationals Park

It may be cold, rainy and dreary this week, but summer is right around the corner. How can you tell?  Well, the official first rite of summer occurred just this afternoon.

Yes, baseball season started today with the Washington Nationals losing to the Atlanta Braves. Sure, it was 40 degrees and gloomy, but baseball is back, and that means warmer days and beautiful evenings at the ballpark are coming soon.

If you weren’t able to make it to opening day, don’t fret. Baseball has the longest regular season of any sport, with 82 homes games, and the cheapest tickets around.

The Nationals, because of years mired in mediocrity, almost never sell out their stadium. That means you can attend games for a great price.

The best way to go about buying tickets is to visit the website StubHub.com, and wait until the day of to purchase. The website is a ticket-exchange site where fans can buy and sell tickets, and as game time nears, prices drop drastically.

This morning four hours before the season’s first pitch, tickets in the upper deck at Nationals Park were on sale for 75 cents, with the ability to purchase up to 14 seats in a row.

If you don’t want to wait until the last minute, inexpensive tickets can still be purchased well in advance. For every home game the Nats have tickets between $5-15 available on their website. Either way, swoop some up and head over to Nats Town.

Nationals Park is located on South Capitol Street, just one mile from the Capitol Building in Southeast DC. The easiest way to get to the stadium is by taking Metro, and getting off at the Navy Yard stop on the Green Line.

Driving to the game is difficult with the stadium’s new location. Most parking around the stadium is in underground garages and can run upwards of $20 a space. The area around the stadium is unfortunately still a work in progress, with not many options for eating and drinking before or after a game. The team’s poor performance came at the same time as the recession and development in the area stalled. But that should change in the next few years. Not many people recall that when the Verizon Center opened 11 years ago, Chinatown was a neighborhood in transition. Now it’s a vibrant, thriving community.

That aside though, the stadium is still a wonderful place to visit. This is just the fourth year the stadium has be open and it’s retained the feel and shine of a new ballpark. The stadium was designed to be wide open, with unobstructed views throughout the ground-level concourse. That way, fans can still see the action while visiting concession stands. And for as mediocre as the team is, the stadium has a number of delightful treats to enjoy.

There are half-smokes from D.C. institution Ben’s Chili Bowl, but also chili cheese dogs from Hard Times Café, a local Virginia restaurant. The team has also added a new burger stand, Shake Shack, a New York-based chain, which is supposedly delicious.

But of course, all that’s secondary to the real treat, baseball, which we all get to enjoy for the next seven months.

-David