Now here's a good deal (and my pre-birthday) at Dino!

Previously, I talked about how Restaurant Week may not be worth it. Well how about Restaurant Week every week (Sunday through Thursday)? Dino's does that. Three courses, $35 (app, main, dessert with an after dinner drinky poo). But the best part is that most of the menu is open to the promotion. They even have a Menu de la Serra which is $25 for three courses (but the main is a pasta and no after dinner drinktastic). To quote G, "Dino is high on the price-value curve." In EnRish that means, you get a lot for your munny.

G loves it for the FREE corkage (Tuesdays through Thursdays). You just can't beat this deal, especially since the food is quite good! It's just the way I like it for a casual eatery: straight forward, mindful preparation (without fussiness), and nice ingredients!

Last night we went for a little pre-birthday celebration dinner.

So simple and delicious: Grilled romaine topped with lemon and anchovy dressing.

Boar pate and other charcuterie goodness. I think I tasted a bit of anise!

This pickled sweet ginger was TO DIE FOR.

Your basic clam and mussel linguine. Extra garlicky; extra good and lusty.

We brought this Spanish wine.

Hey Ricotta is NOT just for lasagna! This parfait was made of very sweet fresh cream ricotta with grapes! And I even got a little candle (thankfully, there was no singing -- Olive Garden 'tis not).

Even boring and basic tiramisu was well-executed! Yum!

I'm heading to locales unknown this afternoon for a surprise birthday weekend! Can't wait to see what food awaits me there!

Salad Pizza is My Favorite, Posto

In my last two posts, I made reference to pizza. It made me realize that I had not had American pizza in quite a while (the big slice I had at my bachelorette night doesn't count as pizza...or food).

So we walked over to Posto Friday night. The new-ish neighborhood Italian place--brought to you by the guys over at the swanky Tosca (not to be confused with the La Tasca chain)--is their more democratic eatery. More casual, no white table cloths, but certainly not down market. The prices are recession-friendly, and the service is good (they replace your silverware after each course and everything).

We started with the brageola. So many cured meats are made of pork - this is not one of them. A dried cured beef, it was unassuming and yummy served with a tossing of arugula, walnuts, thin slices of pecorino and a garlic and celery sauteed warm dressing. Celery? It worked.

We brought with us this bottle. Corkage was only $20. (Did you know that it's illegal to charge more than $25 for corkage in DC? Now you do.)

I like, what I call, salad pizza - a warm pizza with some sort of uncooked greens on top. I had the Canales pizza, a pie made of melted bufala mozzarella and fresh sliced tomatoes, topped with prosciutto and fresh, cool arugula. The contrasting saltiness of the thinly sliced prosciutto with the peppery coolness of the arugula along with the additional dimension of the soft, creamy warmth of the mozzarella was to-die-for.

G had the Picante, a meat pizza with sausage and spicy salami (thus the name). The crust (on both our pies) was thin, tender and chewy with the slightest amount of char. Really nice.

Despite being REALLY loud - the floors are concrete and the ceiling is high- it was an enjoyable experience. They also have a very coveted outdoor patio space that is nice, as well, and is less noisy (save for the street din). As I mentioned in a previous post on Posto, we're glad it's in the our neighborhood. We'll go again.

On our way home, we stopped by ACKC for some macarons...more on those in a separate post.