In the Hands of the Pasta Mamas

- NoVA correspondent Dogburt

I may be in the minority, but I have found dining in our nation's capital to be somewhat of a challenge. When I've visited Chicago or NYC or LA, it has always been easy for me to settle into an earnest search for both fine dining as well as the magical hole-in-the-walls. Yet for some reason DC represents the equivalent of a dining writer's block. I know there is good stuff there, but I have a tough time extracting the cream from the chaff. Perhaps it is my fault, since I spend a great deal of my waking hours in the city, but general fatigue of the city leaves me unfortunately uninspired.

So with that trepidation always lurking, I cling to my sure things with all my might. One of those is my favorite DC Italian restaurant, Filomena Ristorante. Tucked in the corner of historic Georgetown, Filomena is quite nondescript in comparison to other more lavish spots. If you choose to drive there, your best bet is to park in the Georgetown Park Mall's underground garage and walk across Wisconsin Ave to the small opening.

Have you ever gone into a historic building, or a well preserved home, or grandma's kitchen, and just smiled? When you enter Filomena, you will simply smile, because upon entering, immediately to your right, is a tiny, ancient kitchen where a little old lady is hand making pasta. On my most recent visit, she was hand-stuffing raviolis. Regardless of what you were thinking about on the outside of that door, on the inside of that door, all you can think about is eating the very thing that this little old lady, whom Filomena boasts as its "Pasta Mama," is making.

You won't want to leave the side of the Pasta Mama, but eventually you will have to part ways (possibly not before whispering to her, "will you come home with me?") and head down a flight of stairs into an atmospheric dining area that conveys New Vesuvio, but in a good way. It is almost always busy with commotion and crowds, but the manager and wait staff go out of their way to make you feel comfortable.

Ah, but how is the food? Short of describing the nuances of every dish I've ever eaten there, the easiest all-encompassing statement I can make is that the food matches the rest of the experience, if not surpassing it. I have shared in dishes of pizzas, linguinis, raviolis, and in my most recent visit, a penne dish called Penne con Salsicce. The care by which the sauces, meats, and pasta are made help redefine your thinking on what Italian food does to a man. It makes you feel warm and good inside and that you wish for a little while you were an authentic Italian.

If you dine for dinner, you are then treated with courtesy after-dinner cordials. Thoughtfully (if not dangerously) they don't just bring you a tasting glass; they actually leave the full decanter on your table to imbibe at your leisure.

No, you're not done yet. To finish things off, you have at your option and capacity the choice of tasting their pastry chef's magic. The first time I went there with my family, the chef came out to talk to us about her cakes. She recommended a decadent chocolate cake, and said that with this cake, she would quite happily sit down with it and a glass of milk and enjoy her breakfast. After one bite I knew exactly what she meant.

You leave the restaurant begrudgingly, but it is now time to walk off your dinner. The historic area of Georgetown is the perfect place to go arm in arm with your loved one, delaying the inevitability of fishing your car out of the garage and leaving the place that you swear your loving Italian grandma is calling you back for one more bite of ravioli.


Filomena Ristorante
1063 Wisconsin Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20007
(202) 338-8800