Palena

Dining in the cafe is a fine way to experience the tasty confections at palena, but one poor server was working the entire cafe so it was a bit slow and parched at times. However, I’ll definitely be back.

Palena stopped offering Saturday lunch, which was probably a good business decision but still sucks for me. Nonetheless I am changing my rating to 10, because the team of Ruta and Amernick rule. I’ve had three dinners in the front room (aka Palena cafe) in the past few months and everything — everything! — is fantastic. This is one of DC’s finest. The cafe menu prices almost all items at $10, and although the portions aren’t large, it gives the budget-watching diner a chance to eat food of the highest caliber. And if you’re seated in the cafe, you can choose individual dishes from the prix-fixe menu, but you’ll pay a lot more for them.

If there’s gnocchi on the menu, get it.

And if you like cocktails, try the Sicilian martini (vodka and a grappa-like liquer infused with lemon). It’s the next best thing to a caipirinha.

5/26/05:

So now I’m on to Saturday lunch in the front (more casual) room. What a freakin’ bargain! And fantastic food, priced mostly at ten bucks a plate. The Palena fries, for instance: okay shoestring potatoes, but also fantastic fried mashed potato, the best onion rings in all of known space and time, and lemon. Yes, fried lemon slices. Unbelievably good. One day I had an artichoke and fontina panini — I usually dislike sandwiches — ohmygod was that good. Last time I had what I must say is the closest thing to the Platonic ideal of ebeth-eats — near perfect food (for me): called canederli, it was two sheep’s-milk ricotta dumplings served on a stew of asparagus and royal trumpet mushrooms. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I was having a religious experience. I could eat here daily and never be bored. But dishes like this I find supremely comforting, not challenging. YMMV.

1/20/05:

Wow. wow wow wow wow wow. A recent four-course dinner consisted of a wild hare terrine; the very best gnocchi preparation I’ve ever had, bar none; venison; and a lime tart. I also sampled a terrific chestnut soup that my husband ordered. This is very refined food for people who eat slowly to savor every bite. The service, though very good, did not quite live up to the exemplary level set by the cooking, so I must rate Palena at 9.

1/22/04: I really need to get back to this place; only ate here once, in June of 2002, I think. In a rather odd location, next to a gas station, but still chef Frank Ruta cooks some of the finest new Italian in the city. Expensive, but worth it.