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Phone: 202-686-2966 |
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Wine Wednesdays: - 3 wines & an antipasti trio for $25 |
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Click here to read Jeff Dufour's interview of Dean
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Vote for Dino in AOL's City's Best Italian! May 20 - A Night in Montalcino with Isabella Dusi & the wines of Ciacci Piccolomini d'Aragona Brunello & Rosso with a 5 course menu honoring the flavors of Montalcino Raising funds to save the 1000 year old church of S Pietro in Montalcino. May 29: Dino donates 20% of its revenues to SOME We will offer a special $40 tasting menu in addition to our regular menu SO OTHERS MAY EAT, fighting hunger & homelessness in Washington DC! Reserve now!
Updated May 17, 2008 Wow! Spring is finally here with a vengeance! We now are bursting at the seams with really good produce! We are really starting to have a wide choice of veggies of many sorts! All I can say is “Yippee!” Seafood: We still have a small supply of Wild White Sturgeon from the Quinault Tribe in Washington State. This is the only healthy Sturgeon population in Washington and this Native American tribe takes great care in processing their catch. I am not sure if we can get any more. I am now only being offered Columbia River sturgeon, which are being overfished. So unless the quinault are offered again, the Sturgeon will be gone in a day or two. The Sturgeon comes with our Orange Juice Campari Reduction with sherry vinegar, cream & a touch of butter. We are getting a nice supply of Alaskan fish from Marine Stewardship Council certified sustainable fisheries. That’s the best certification out there to guarantee that the fish was caught in an environmentally responsible fashion and in regulated quantities that will assure fish availability for generations to come. Wild Ivory King Salmon lacking the gene that gives the Salmon it color (from the natural beta carotene it eats), Ivory Kings are sweeter, juicer & richer flavored with a white color. Only 1% of all Kinds are Ivory. Our salmon will be served with roasted mushrooms, grilled ramps & a four citrus pesto & pine nut pesto. I hope we can get more next week. Wild Sable, also known as black cod or butterfish, is mild, buttery & moist, served with a white peppercorn vinaigrette atop a roasted kumquat & fennel salad Veggies: In Toscana, a sure sign of spring is the appearance of Garmugia on the tables of Lucca, Florences very urbane neighbor to the West. Garmugia is a stew of Baby Fennel, Asparagus, Fava & Artichokes with Pancetta and Spring Garlic. Given that everything on the list is now in season, we are now offering this rustic dish, served with a grilled fettunta (bread grilled with olive oil & garlic), cooked in the true Italian style: long braised to a dull monochromatic green, unleashing their true essential flavors! People are asking me what spices are in it and the answer is: none, just the veggies! Local Asparagus also show up on our grilled veggie plate or wrapped in prosciutto, seared & brushed with Saba (Modena’s balsamic molasses if you will). Ramps are still upon us in our ramp, morel & asparagus risotto and, of course, on the grilled veggie plate. The grilled veggie plate, it is really one of my favorite dishes on the menu: ramps, asparagus, white or red scallions, domestic Treviso, baby bok choy & baby fennel & eggplant. I think it’s a shame when any table doesn’t order one of these to share. We have a goodly selection of Mushrooms and that inspired me to replaced our wintery braised eggplant pasta with a new Rigatoni ai Funghi: an assortment of 'shrooms {this week: beech, royal trumpets, hon shimeji, piopini, nameko, crimeni & shiitake) cooked with green garlic, garlic & rosemary. It is a simple olive oil based sauce. The Baby "Purple Lilac" Artichokes are still available from the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market, picked on Wednesday and to the restaurant every Friday. In addition to the Garmugia, we offer them in a very simple presentation: deep fried & served with lemon & Hawaiian black lava salt. When they are gone, we have to wait till the next Friday to get more! Greens are showing up everywhere on our menu from a garlicky puree of bitter greens on our veal breast to Mixed Asian Baby Greens on the sturgeon to Baby Bull’s Blood Beet Greens on the beet salad. We are getting local organic Lamb's Quarter which will be served in a salad with a simple dressing. We have local Rhubarb in a new dessert: rhubarb cooked in its own juices with a touch of strawberry preserves topped with a graham cracker-almond crumble & cinnamon gelato. All of these offerings are subject to availability. Tom Sietsema Gives Dino 2 Stars in the Washington Post Magazine Sunday November 18, 2007 Tom writes: "Pals and I marveled over salads featuring sweet, fragrant heirloom cantaloupe with winy prosciutto, and tomatoes in a dark rainbow of colors, minimally dressed with olive oil. Light and fluffy meatballs, delicately enhanced with garlic and herbs, were supported by a fresh-tasting tomato sauce, and whole branzino put us right at the seashore, save for the starched napkins in our laps. The fish, excited with capers, lemon and a spicy olive oil, was flawless." Read the full review! Dino is now offering meats and seafood from all natural and sustainable sources. Read more about our commitment! "50 Most Amazing Wine Experiences" Rachael Cooper, About.Com, July 2007 WETA.org "DC Dining" You voted Dino Best Wine Bar! We finished second in Best Italian Thanks for your support!! Dino lands atop the "Excellent & Affordable Wine List in DC" February 2007 "Best Bargain Wine List" January 2006 "Best of DC - Cheese plate" December 2005. Our GoalWelcome to Dino, our rustic Italian restaurant and enoteca in Cleveland Park, Washington DC. When Kay and I travel to Italy, we love to go to wine bars and small family style restaurants featuring simply prepared dishes from local ingredients along with reasonably priced and really good wines. Kay & I have opened Dino to share our love of authentic foods and wines in a comfortable, casual setting. Please join us and we will do our best to make sure you have a great time! We focus on locally grown produce and artisan produced ingredients. Our crew uses these top notch, incredible foods in a simple fashion to allow you to savor their flavors. Our menu changes regularly to capture what is fresh and in season. Dino's style is best described as traditional... with a twist! We wish to serve you in a knowledgeable yet casual style. We hope you find Dino as fun as we do! All of Dino, including our patio, is a non-smoking environment. Our MenuWe offer a menu designed for snacking and sharing, or for a full meal. Our cheeses and cured meats, a noted specialty, are artisan made. Our meats and seafood are as fresh and natural as we can get. We support small family-owned & artisan producers whenever possible. See our menu. In addition to good food, we think good wine is paramount. All of our wines are selected only after we evaluate them for both flavor and value. We never put something on the list just because it gets high ratings or because it is famous. All our wines are picked because we think they are great and deliver value. We price our wines so you can afford to drink really good stuff. 20 wines are available by the Ombra (3 oz. taste) and Quartin (8 oz carafe). The main wine list is called our focus list (See our focus list). It is organized in sections that describe the wines. Even if you are not familiar with wine, you can find something that will meet your tastes. In addition to our 90 selection focus list, we have "The Dino Wine Book" (opens a large pdf file), a collection of over 200 additional offerings at all price levels. Our bar selection is a little different too. We offer an all artisan bar featuring handmade spirits from tiny producers. Bar Manager Chris Cunningham is always coming up with new concoctions for your taste pleasure! We look forward to seeing you soon!
Reviews"Dino is no longer just a great place to drink wine, but has blossomed into an excellent restaurant as well.....Except for the Polenta dish, this entire meal was without red meat, and Dino is one restaurant that does more than pay lip service to vegetarians. If I wasn’t running around trying to keep up with every place in town, Dino would be in my regular rotation. Racheal Cooper, DC Guide of About.com, recently wrote of Dino "The menu includes a variety of warm and cold starters with traditional items such as antipasti, olive and prosciutto, and some unique offerings such as a Tuscan crepe: chicken, artichoke, roasted tomato, smoked mozzarella, pesto & tomato sauce and a wonderful Cold Roasted Red Pepper Soup." "Dino’s concept is straightforward: find the freshest and best ingredients, put them together in traditional or sometimes not-so-traditional combinations, kick up the spices a notch, and presto, you have a dish—many of them in fact. Dino offers several different dining experiences, all worth trying, because each visit can yield a distinctly different meal experience....By focusing on offering good food and good wine at reasonable prices in a causal and comfortable setting, they have succeeded in bringing a bit of dolce vita to us all." "a casual restaurant that's doing lots of things right …. Bottom Line: An appealing Italian restaurant for a casual night out." |
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