A Northern Italian Restaurant with Colorful Pastas and Wood-Roasted Meats is Coming to Glover Park

Divino. 2505 Wisconsin Avenue, Northwest.

Daniel Perron was a cook and Luca Giovannini was a bartender when they met while working at the Blue Duck Tavern about 15 years ago. They reunited on the opening team of Fiola Mare, the swanky Italian restaurant in Georgetown. Now, Perron (mostly, most recently, executive chef of Charlie Palmer Steak) and Giovannini, donahue They’re reuniting for their own seasonal northern Italian restaurant called Divino — the cocktail lounge in Georgetown — that will focus on colorful pastas, wood-fired meats and vegetables. It is scheduled to open at the Glover Park Hotel on Monday, November 18.

“Every week you come you’ll get something a little different, especially from me. I like to change the menu a lot,” says Perron, who is executive chef at Trummer’s and the former seafood restaurant Whaley’s.

One of Divino’s focal points will be a pasta counter where customers can watch tortellini or tagliatelle being made. Perron hopes to differentiate his pastas with multi-colored doughs made with freshly milled flour from Anson Mills. For example, he serves black-striped agnolotti with oxtail braised using activated charcoal, and koginut squash ravioli is pressed into the shape of a zucchini. Meanwhile, the double ravioli combines two flavors in one: tomato-stuffed dough stuffed with homemade ricotta and jumbo lump crab, plus traditional egg yolk dough filled with honey zucchini and parmesan. The dish is filled with caviar.

Perron says on Instagram that chefs are hooked on the idea of ​​colorful pasta: “I think it’s a cool, unique thing,” Perron says. “No one in DC is really doing this.”

Divino inherited a pizza oven from Michael Schlow’s Italian restaurant Casolare, which previously occupied the space, but the new restaurant will not serve pizza. Instead, Perron will use the oven for wood-roasted vegetable and meat dishes and highlight local producers like Karma Farm and pork supplier Autumn Olive Farms. Perron will use some of his steakhouse experience with the tomahawk ribeye costata, which is dry-aged in-house and rubbed with miso and dried porcini powder.

The name Divino has two meanings in Italian: “divine” and “of wine”. Giovannini, former corporate beverage director for Fabio Trabocchi Restaurants, will focus on northern Italian wines to complement the meat-heavy menu. The wine list, which includes at least 20 wines by the glass, will include Barbaresco and Barolo, but Giovannini is particularly excited about Ferrari, the champagne-like sparkling wine from his hometown of Trento. “Unfortunately, apart from a few Michelin-starred restaurants, there are not many restaurants that carry Ferraris,” says Giovannini. Meanwhile, the cocktail menu will feature drinks containing vermouth and wine, as well as negronis.

Considering the hotel’s location, Divino will also open for breakfast. The owners hope to turn their coffee bar into its own destination for espresso drinks as well as a variety of homemade pastries like cornetti and bomboloni. There will also be more seating fare, including frittatas.

Like the menu, the dining room aims to be a little refined and a little rustic, with terracotta tiles and velvety blue banquettes. Come spring, they plan to turn the 60-seat patio into an entertainment venue. A cozy wine garden where guests can enjoy cicchetti (small snacks) and a glass of wine. In the run-up to Christmas, the covered terrace will feature heat lamps to enjoy mulled cider, chestnuts and roasted marshmallows. The hotel will also begin construction on a rooftop bar with panoramic views of DC and its monuments in April 2025.

“The goal is to truly be a destination for wine lovers,” says Giovannini. “You I’ll have a $12 glass of wine, no problemBut you will also discover a new producer that you may have never heard of.”

This story has been updated with more current details from the September version.

Food Editor

Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind DC’s food and drink scene. Before joining Washingtonian In July 2016, she was the Food Editor and Young & Hungry columnist for the Washington City Paper. He is a Colorado native and graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.