Aria Trattoria

[syzygy8]

It must have opened for business this week. It's where Palomino/Jordan's used to be. www.ariatrattoria.com. Anyone eaten there yet? Anyone know anything about it? Ownership? Kitchen? Etc.?

Edited July 1, 2004 by syzygy8 (log)

[Mark Sommelier]

It must have opened for business this week.  It's where Palomino/Jordan's used to be.  www.ariatrattoria.com.  Anyone eaten there yet?  Anyone know anything about it?  Ownership?  Kitchen?  Etc.?

The guys who run the outside club called Air are running it. Aria, Air, get it? I heard they are doing the catering for the entire gigantic Ronald Reagan Building.

[KHT20]

They've only had a wine list posted outside instead of a menu... I guess we know where their priorities are! Yesterday at lunch was the first time I've seen people actually eating there - the outside patio was pretty packed, and most people seemed to be eating pizzzas. (I use the term "eating" very loosely, since I saw lots of leftover pizza abandoned after the parties left.) The few pasta dishes I saw had the familiar color and texture of Chef Boyardee. I can't make any comments on taste, but my secretary is planning on heading down one of these next days to try it herself, so we'll see.

[syzygy8]

The guys who run the outside club called Air are running it. Aria, Air, get it? I heard they are doing the catering for the entire gigantic Ronald Reagan Building.

Oh. Then it will probably have the quality of Aramark. Ariamark? Airamark?

[KHT20]

Blurb in the Post yesterday.

Went with a couple co-workers today. As the lack of a chef would suggest, the menu was very small. I had the Traditional Panini with provolone, mortadella, sopresetta, and salami. It was pretty good, but very greasy when grilled. There were two or three other paninis (one co-worker had a hamburger panini topped with fontina and pancetta, which she said was very good). All paninis are served with rosemary potatoes, which were leathery and overcooked (but something tells me that if they were fresh, they'd be awesome).

The antipasti bar was pretty standard - the boss seemed to like it more than his panini, though. Also on the menu were two very uninteresting salads (one with grilled veggies and one with three peppery greens), two semi-interesting soups (the chilled tomato-citrus sounded intriguing on this steamy day), three or four simple pasta dishes and four entrees.

The service still has some kinks to work out - our waiter wasn't sure what fontina cheese was and quite a few people tried to take our drink orders. We also had to wait for a table even though there were many throughout the restaurant waiting to be cleared. It was also a tad slow - luckily the boss was there so I didn't feel bad about the 2 hour lunch.

The price was right, though and at this stage the food is decent. I think it'll be pretty interesting to see what happens once they get a regular chef in. If anyone else ventures over, I'd be interested to hear what you think of it. Our table's tally was 1 good and 2 fairs.

[JennyUptown]

Reviewed by Tom

[eunny jang]

the only thing i know about air is what i've heard from my (sketchier club-going) friends and what i've read in the paper - the promoters for the party were apparantly accused of something bad after they shut down the friday-night "hip hop" party in favor of an 80s night because their take for friday nights was too low. There were a couple of style section articles a while back.

i thought the buzz on the restaurant had been bad so far. Glad that Tom has laid down an okay (I guess) verdict.

Edited November 20, 2004 by eunny jang (log)

[jparrott]

It's a whole new crew in town over there...Tony was handed the reins a week before his two-week honeymoon in Italy, and he's just getting his sea legs there...he told me his goal was to change/rework one menu item a week, and he may have had to slip that with their ridiculous lunch crowd.

[chefbrendis]

It's a whole new crew in town over there...Tony was handed the reins a week before his two-week honeymoon in Italy, and he's just getting his sea legs there...he told me his goal was to change/rework one menu item a week, and he may have had to slip that with their ridiculous lunch crowd.

←

Tony is a great friend of mine and has really turned around an operation that didn't seem to have a direction. I dined there finally last wednesday and can report that everything was great. Try the marinated salmon, it really had the authenticity of the truest Italian trattoria. The seafood preparations were top notch and you really, really need to get down there and try his involtini of veal. I feel like his review read much better than the star it was given, and also the timing was a little bit harsh, he waas there but two weeks and charged with turning an entire operation around. That is a difficult starting point for any chef.

His menu now is all his own and his attention to quality, flavors and detail is evident. His creative talent is now in every facet of the menu and people should get there and try it for dinner. Don't sleep onm his pastas either the boy has mad skills

[jparrott]

I also thought the review was quite harsh. In addition to Brendan's suggestions, anything that sounds sausage-y or pate-y is likely to have been made by Tony, who is ridiculously good at that kind of stuff (one of the guys from Polyface Farms is working with Equinox to prepare sausages based on Tony's recipes)..."Tony's sausage of the week" became kind of a mantra at Equinox--expect the same now.

[sdelgato]

While I respect Mr. Sietsema's palate, I just wished people would come to their own conclusions and not genuflect every time he has an iffy experience. Do yellow walls make your food taste any different (unless it chips and falls into what you are eating ) ? No. If you want to read what he has to say, by all means read, but don't form an opinion until you experience it for yourself. We are not a society of sheep...

[bilrus]

While I respect Mr. Sietsema's palate, I just wished people would come to their own conclusions and not genuflect every time he has an iffy experience.  Do yellow walls make your food taste any different (unless it chips and falls into what you are eating  ) ? No.  If you want to read what he has to say, by all means read, but don't form an opinion until you experience it for yourself.  We are not a society of sheep...

←

I'm not sure anyone here has been doing that. I actually read the review to be OK.

[DonRocks]

For several years now, I have read Tom Sietsema’s restaurant reviews in earnest, taking exception with certain things, but generally in accord. However, his review of Aria has weakened the tongue of the glacier to the point of calving, and so I go, leaving in my wake offal of bergy bits and growlers in my beer hall putsch. He writes:

Hovering above your head, here and there, are hula-hoop-size rings of light that look like something out of a Vegas lounge. They're cheesy.

These “rings of light” so quickly dismissed as Vegas kitsch harbor a complexity lying outside the field of the Paris scope, reaching downward from the ceiling and serving to contract the angle of the diner’s perceived azimuth down, down, down and away from the hard-featured grizzly white ceiling tiles, at once forming an amalgam of the central balustrade of the dining room’s circular columns with the equally circular concavity buried in the courtyard outside, echoing the annular selvage of the Rios building, and expanding, expanding their wake into the four surrounding monuments, the circle of Fort Defenses, the Washington beltway, the Chesapeake watershed, the eastern seaboard, the western hemisphere, the earth itself, the exosphere, the elliptical orbit around the sun, the Milky Way, the periphery of the heliopause, our globular cluster, the spiral arms rimming our galaxy, the Local Group, the Virgo Supercluster, and perhaps even to the edge of the visible universe itself.

I call on Tom Sietsema to resign as Washington Post Food Critic. It is time someone who cares about our galaxy to step in and lend a more appropriate fashion aesthetic to our expanding nebula of restaurants.

Did I mention that I hate stars?

Rocks.

[JAMISON]

For several years now, I have read Tom Sietsema’s restaurant reviews in earnest, taking exception with certain things, but generally in accord.  However, his review of Aria has weakened the tongue of the glacier to the point of calving, and so I go, leaving in my wake offal of bergy bits and growlers in my beer hall putsch.  He writes:

Hovering above your head, here and there, are hula-hoop-size rings of light that look like something out of a Vegas lounge. They're cheesy.

These “rings of light” so quickly dismissed as Vegas kitsch harbor a complexity lying outside the field of the Paris scope, reaching downward from the ceiling and serving to contract the angle of the diner’s perceived azimuth down, down, down and away from the hard-featured grizzly white ceiling tiles, at once forming an amalgam of the central balustrade of the dining room’s circular columns with the equally circular concavity buried in the courtyard outside, echoing the annular selvage of the Rios building, and expanding, expanding their wake into the four surrounding monuments, the circle of Fort Defenses, the Washington beltway, the Chesapeake watershed, the eastern seaboard, the western hemisphere, the earth itself, the exosphere, the elliptical orbit around the sun, the Milky Way, the periphery of the heliopause, our globular cluster, the spiral arms rimming our galaxy, the Local Group, the Virgo Supercluster, and perhaps even to the edge of the visible universe itself.

I call on Tom Sietsema to resign as Washington Post Food Critic. It is time someone who cares about our galaxy to step in and lend a more appropriate fashion aesthetic to our expanding nebula of restaurants.

Did I mention that I hate stars?

Rocks.

←

Space Cowboy Rockwell,

Here's an idea, Why not ask the Chefs and Restaurant professionals what they think about their designation in the galaxy.

[JPW]

For several years now, I have read Tom Sietsema’s restaurant reviews in earnest, taking exception with certain things, but generally in accord.  However, his review of Aria has weakened the tongue of the glacier to the point of calving, and so I go, leaving in my wake offal of bergy bits and growlers in my beer hall putsch.  He writes:

*trimmed*

I call on Tom Sietsema to resign as Washington Post Food Critic.  It is time someone who cares about our galaxy to step in and lend a more appropriate fashion aesthetic to our expanding nebula of restaurants.

Did I mention that I hate stars?

Rocks.

←

And a good Monday morning to you too Don.

[landrumm2000]

For several years now, I have read Tom Sietsema’s restaurant reviews in earnest, taking exception with certain things, but generally in accord.  However, his review of Aria has weakened the tongue of the glacier to the point of calving, and so I go, leaving in my wake offal of bergy bits and growlers in my beer hall putsch.  He writes:

Hovering above your head, here and there, are hula-hoop-size rings of light that look like something out of a Vegas lounge. They're cheesy.

These “rings of light” so quickly dismissed as Vegas kitsch harbor a complexity lying outside the field of the Paris scope, reaching downward from the ceiling and serving to contract the angle of the diner’s perceived azimuth down, down, down and away from the hard-featured grizzly white ceiling tiles, at once forming an amalgam of the central balustrade of the dining room’s circular columns with the equally circular concavity buried in the courtyard outside, echoing the annular selvage of the Rios building, and expanding, expanding their wake into the four surrounding monuments, the circle of Fort Defenses, the Washington beltway, the Chesapeake watershed, the eastern seaboard, the western hemisphere, the earth itself, the exosphere, the elliptical orbit around the sun, the Milky Way, the periphery of the heliopause, our globular cluster, the spiral arms rimming our galaxy, the Local Group, the Virgo Supercluster, and perhaps even to the edge of the visible universe itself.

I call on Tom Sietsema to resign as Washington Post Food Critic. It is time someone who cares about our galaxy to step in and lend a more appropriate fashion aesthetic to our expanding nebula of restaurants.

Did I mention that I hate stars?

Rocks.

←

Space Cowboy Rockwell,

Here's an idea, Why not ask the Chefs and Restaurant professionals what they think about their designation in the galaxy.

←

Perhaps one day the experimental, futuristic, but closer than we think, world of nano-robotic, oeno-pharmacological technology can help us answer these and many other urgent questions.

Perhaps one day there will come a man who dares to try...

Perhaps one day there will be a place for such visions to be explored...

[Busboy]

For several years now, I have read Tom Sietsema’s restaurant reviews in earnest, taking exception with certain things, but generally in accord.  However, his review of Aria has weakened the tongue of the glacier to the point of calving, and so I go, leaving in my wake offal of bergy bits and growlers in my beer hall putsch.  He writes:

Hovering above your head, here and there, are hula-hoop-size rings of light that look like something out of a Vegas lounge. They're cheesy.

These “rings of light” so quickly dismissed as Vegas kitsch harbor a complexity lying outside the field of the Paris scope, reaching downward from the ceiling and serving to contract the angle of the diner’s perceived azimuth down, down, down and away from the hard-featured grizzly white ceiling tiles, at once forming an amalgam of the central balustrade of the dining room’s circular columns with the equally circular concavity buried in the courtyard outside, echoing the annular selvage of the Rios building, and expanding, expanding their wake into the four surrounding monuments, the circle of Fort Defenses, the Washington beltway, the Chesapeake watershed, the eastern seaboard, the western hemisphere, the earth itself, the exosphere, the elliptical orbit around the sun, the Milky Way, the periphery of the heliopause, our globular cluster, the spiral arms rimming our galaxy, the Local Group, the Virgo Supercluster, and perhaps even to the edge of the visible universe itself.

I call on Tom Sietsema to resign as Washington Post Food Critic. It is time someone who cares about our galaxy to step in and lend a more appropriate fashion aesthetic to our expanding nebula of restaurants.

Did I mention that I hate stars?

Rocks.

←

Allright, Rocks -- what was in the brownies?

[morela]

In the midst of Dessert Storm,

This must be "Star Wars"

[FunJohnny]

Allright, Rocks -- what was in the brownies?

←

Or, more likely, the 'shrooms!

Edited November 29, 2004 by FunJohnny (log)

[jparrott]

Dinner Tuesday night and snacks last night at Aria (after a night of schnooking)--trio of bruschetta great (with a squash salad, marinated squid and decent shrimp), the bolognese as good or better then Equinox's, and involtini of veal stuffed with prosciutto cotto and served with rapini that made Tony look conspicuously like a Marchese nonna.

Pizza's just okay, a good bar snack for a group because it cools down pretty fast. Mushroom cannelloni rocks (and a huge portion-yipes).