Osteria Mozza arrives in Washington DC: Nancy Silverton's phenomenon from California to Italian food restaurant.
The story
"Galeotta" was the focaccia di Recco and who ate it. What made Stephen Starr - owner of the Starr Restaurants group - fall in love with the cuisine of celebrated and emblazoned California chef Nancy Silverton, was the Ligurian delicacy that Starr used to enjoy when she frequented Osteria Mozza, one of Silverton's restaurants in Los Angeles. “We had a normal acquaintance relationship, we happened to chat when she came to the restaurant, but nothing more. When he called me to collaborate I was surprised, but he didn't have to convince me, “ Nancy tells The Washingtonian. About three years have passed since that phone call because, being the great professionals that they are, Silverton and Starr like to get it right, but, finally, last Nov. 10, at 3276 M St NW in Washington the sign for Osteria Mozza in Georgetown lit up.
“Most restaurants open before everything is ready, whereas Stephen confronts all the professionals and takes the time to make sure the restaurant is truly ready when it opens. There was almost a month of intensive training, both in the kitchen and in the dining room," Nancy explains. Although the name is the same as Osteria Mozza in Los Angeles - a restaurant that holds one Michelin and one green star - the menu at the Washington, D.C.- based restaurant also “steals” some recipes from the offerings of “Chi Spacca” and “Pizzeria Mozza,” two other among Silverton's signature establishments. Needless to say, the focaccia di Recco cannot be missing among the proposals, as Robb Report also tells.
"Stephen wanted to create this multimillion-dollar investment restaurant so he could eat focaccia di Recco anytime. I always tell him: this is your $10 million focaccia ," laughs Nancy. Not to be missed, then, is the spicy roast chicken on toast, one of the most popular dishes on “Chi Spacca”: “Sometimes I joke about it and tell customers, ‘You should order the chicken on crostone, but leave the chicken aside,’ because that toast soaking up all the juices is really delicious.” Among the salads, Nancy's Ceasar, her famous deconstructed caesar salad with lettuce, accompanied by toast with aioli, braised leeks, hard-boiled egg and anchovies, should definitely be mentioned.
First courses include fresh pasta such as orecchiette with sausage and chard and tagliatelle with oxtail ragu; while as for main courses, whole sea bass with charred lemon, beef and marrow pie and grilled rib-eye steak with porcini mushrooms. Unmissable is the wood-burning oven where pizza is cooked, but the biggest attraction of Silverton's new restaurant is the Mozzarella counter - Nancy's great passion - to which the chef has dedicated an entire section on the menu, just as happens on the West Coast. Mozzarella-centric offerings include Nancy's Favorite Trio, that is, buffalo mozzarella paired with Cantabrian anchovies, sun-dried tomatoes and peppers, served with “fett'unta” a crispy garlic bread; burrata with braised leeks and mustard vinaigrette; and burratina pugliese drowned in olive oil with dried and fried sweet crushed peppers.
The drink offering includes wines from Piedmont, Tuscany, Campania and Sicily in addition to Champagne and a selection of drinks. Compared to Osteria Mozza Los Angeles, the Georgetown location is much larger, so much so that the 20,000 feet of floor space also contains a market with meticulously selected ingredients used by the chef to create the menu. One can, therefore, purchase: anchovies from the Cantabrian Sea, dried beans, roasted artichokes, olive oil, spices... The building that houses Osteria Mozza Washington DC, dating back to 1865 and formerly home to Dean & Deluca, has been entirely renovated by Roman and Williams; it is a modern space with arched windows, grit floors, marble tables and counters, dark woods, arched windows, a private dining room on the mezzanine level and a light-filled solarium. Focaccia di Recco makes it to the White House.
