07 May 2012

Yet another fabulous DC Italian restaurant

I’ve said this so often that I could start a whole new category of blog posts titled ‘Why can’t we have Italian restaurants like this in Minnesota?’

I had lunch at Potenza when I arrived in DC last week. I didn’t really know very much about it before walking in (no reservation). It wasn’t recommended by anyone. I’d noticed it on previous trips to DC. Anything I’d seen about it had been favorable. But I just decided to give it a try – someplace new. I’m so glad that I did.

Potenza has a very extensive lunch menu. I could have had a salad and pasta. A lot of other diners were having pizza, and they all looked good. I decided to have the weekly special for Wednesday – branzino. The entrées are a little expensive, but they’re a full meal.

The fish was delicately sautéed. It was moist and tender and was served with a wonderful brown butter sauce.

Served with the fish on the plate were two beautiful ravioli stuffed with minced and sautéed mushrooms. They were artfully draped over a mound of fresh spinach that was lightly flavored with thin slices of garlic.

I did have a glass of wine with my lunch. I don’t know Italian whites very well, but there was a trebbiano on the menu that looked interesting. It was crisp, light, and refreshing. It was a nice complement to the branzino. As much as I liked the wine, I was a little taken aback by reading the Wikipedia description of it. It says that trebbiano is not known for making very distinctive wines. So maybe I have unsophisticated tastes when it comes to Italian white wine. Or maybe I got lucky with a good trebbiano. Or maybe it just went well with my fish.

Anyway, here’s another DC Italian restaurant that I thoroughly enjoyed and would comfortably recommend to anyone.

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