Giovanni's Trattu Italian Restaurant Washington, DC review-post-html.htm

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		RESTAURANT
	REVIEW

Giovanni's Trattu Italian
Dupont Circle
1823 Jefferson Pl., NW
Washington, DC
20-2452-4960
Open Monday through Friday for lunch and dinner,
Saturday for dinner. Dinner until 11 p.m Friday and
Saturday.

When it opened in 1978, this tiny trattoria was one of the
moderately priced Italian alternatives to Cantina d'ltalia and
Tiberio, the reigning pasta palaces. Without a chef as
talented as Joseph Muran de Assereto---whose menu was as
close to authentic Italian cooking as could be found in the
city-—it was useless to try to copy the Cantina. Instead, the
new place borrowed heavily from Tiberio's list of familiar
standards—agnolotti stuffed with spinach and ricotta,
pcnne all'anatriciana, and scallopine alla Marsala—and
listed them at half the price. It didn't take long for many of
Tiberio's customers to discover that their beloved agnolotti
were just as enjoyable elsewhere for less.

Adhering to its original formula of well-prepared, familiar
Italian dishes at low prices, Trattu flourished for more than
20 years, then closed when one of its original owners
retired. Late last year, it was reopened by Giovanni Viezzi,
who began his Washington career as a waiter at Tiberio,
moved to the old Trattu, and spent the past several years at
Café Milano.

Despite his long exposure to Café Milano's authentic Italian
cooking, updated with contemporary presentations, Viezzi
offers a menu very similar to the one served at Trattu 22
years ago. Other than the welcome splashes of color lent
by the fine collection of hand-painted Sicilian earthenware
dishes that accent its hare-brick walls, this cozy dining
room also remains unchanged.

The menu is a museum piece—it captures what Italian
dining was like in Washington a generation ago, long
before Galileo, i Ricchi, Café Milano, Osteria Goldoni,
Obelisk, the Vigorelli, and Red Tomato came along to
show us the rich variety of Italy's regional cuisines.
One might begin a meal at Trattu with the antipasto, a large
platter with a bit of giardiniera (carrots, cauliflower florets,
and red bell-pepper, all pickled in a vinegary brine), slices
of excellent salami, overly thick slices of prosciutto, a slice
of mortadella, a. marinated artichoke heart from ajar, a
small portion of tomato-mozzarella insalata Caprese, a
spoonful of bland squid salad, and a few kalamata olives. In
place of the iceberg lettuce used in Italian-American
restaurants, Trattu's antipasto is updated with leaves of
radicchio, which serve as edible cups for the giardiniera and
the squid salad, and a decorative fluff of undressed baby
chicory. A better choice as a starter is the arugula-and-
radicchio salad with lemon dressing.

Begin with a half order of pasta and you'll have a good first
impression of Trattu. This means avoiding the cannelloni,
whose stuffing is described on the menu as a forcemeat of
veal and ham tut looks and tastes like spinach paste. If you
wish to start with a stuffed pasta, try the agnolotti, plumped
with a filling of spinach and ricotta and moistened with an
excellent tomato sauce.

Bucatini all'amatriciana, a specialty of Roman cooking, has
been a standard among local Italian restaurants since the
late l970s, when its tomato-onion sauce often included
American bacon because the traditional unsmoked Italian
bacon was less available than it is now. Trattu's current
version is wonderful, lightly sauced and spiced with red~
pepper flakes, resulting in the appealing piquancy
associated with the dish in Rome.

The great Neapolitan classic, linguine idle vongole, is
perfectly prepared at Trattu, Its sauce of clams, their
rendered juice, olive oil, parsley, garlic, and dried hot-
pepper flakes achieves a precise balance of flavors. The
heat of the sauté pan emulsifies the olive oil and the clam
juice, producing a sauce that clings to each strand of pasta.

As was the case among the Italian restaurants of the late
I 970s, Trattu does better by its meat and poultry dishes
than it does by its seafood main courses, Pass on the scampi
alla arrabiata. The assertively spicy tomato sauce cannot
mask the iodine flavor of shrimp past their prime.

Diners often are justified in resenting the high prices at
leading Italian restaurants, but sometimes paying too little
can lead to disappointment Trattu's p reparations of veal
scallopine at $13 sound too good to be true. They are. The
veal is so thinly sliced that it is virtually devoid of flavor.

That the kitchen should be able to serve even a barely
passable costaletta all milanese for $14 sounds
improbable, but the dish turns out to be a true bargain.
Gently pounded away from the bone until the meat spreads
to a plate-filling circumference, this veal chop retains its
delicate flavor and moisture under a fragile sheath of
golden-brown bread crumbs. Order the arugula-fennel
salad—which normally tops the chop—on the side, so as
not to turn this fine crust soggy. Preface it with a half order
of either linguine with clams or bucatini all'amatriciana,
accompany the nice! with a reasonably priced bottle of the
delicious 1998 Antinori Santa Cristina, and you'll enjoy
Trattu at its best.

Giovanni's Trattu, 1823 Jefferson PL, NW; 202-452-4960.
Open Monday trough Friday for lunch and dinner,
Saturday for dinner. Dinner until 11 p.m Friday and
Saturday, Dinner for two: $99.

April 2000