Potenza (15th and H)

The occasion: a power lunch with Jackie and Doug to network, discuss our current project and reminisce about working together 5 years ago. We needed a downtown restaurant and settled on Potenza at 15th and H. While the restaurant has been on my periphery since it opened in March, Italian (while fantastic) is not something I typically seek out. I've been to Italy and most Italian restaurants are either the checkered table cloth, overly cheesy pasta mom and pop places or the trendy, over-priced places like iRicchi. Potenza, though, reminded me of sitting in a small cafe table clinging to the edge of the seaside hill in Positano savoring every bite, where the atmosphere only added to the flavor of the meal. Italian, to me is about fresh ingredients and seafood. If pasta is there, wonderful. It isn't necessarily about 1000 degree triple baked manicotti covered in Parmesan crumbs like those mom and pop places. Here, I chose the gnocchi in a lemon pesto with shrimp and toasted walnuts. Most places cannot compare to my grandmother's gnocchi (whose recipe came with her on the boat in 1930 from Puglia just over the heel). And most pesto cannot compare to my friend Andrew's who chops down his basil annually and freezes blocks of it like pellets for later use. But the lemon and grilled-perfect shrimp with the fresh and light dumplings made for a perfect lunch. Jackie had a soup and the calamari. Doug had spaghetti and meatballs. We all each had dessert too. I went for the Cannoli to see how it compared with grandma's. They were crisp cinnamon and cocoa laced shells stuffed with ricotta, citron and chocolate chip filling. Grandma has some serious competition. The bakery bordering the H street entrance supplied us with the obligatory bread basket, but there was nothing routine about these treats. A salty breadstick and a light bread-cake with a nutty olive oil took the hunger pangs away as we waited for our lamb meatball appetizer. The meatballs had a sauce with a kick. Rural Italian is how I'd describe the overall menu with the obvious effort by executive chef Bryan Moscatello to find perfectly fresh ingredients. Jackie and I admired the decor but couldn't quite describe it with a single description. The wooden ceiling was transitional modern, but the distressed mirrors, the country spindle chairs (alluding to the menu) and the richly framed photos of La Dolce Vita era movie stars confused the decor. Confuse isn't the right word though. The restaurant is comfortable and beautiful. Our table was in the light-filled area facing 15th street and the American Bar Association. The center of the restaurant is a bit darker and probably pleasantly intimate for an evening date. Their only noticeable quark was the service, and it is less of a complaint than a double mint double take on our Nebraska-esq, twilight zone-strange server. While she wasn't johnny on the spot with the grated parmesan, I have no complaint with her actual service. Overall, a great place for lunch. I might be annoyed by that particular server during a romantic dinner, but certainly a worthy place for a power meal.