Montalcino in DC

Montalcino, according to Dean Gold's email, is the highest hill town in Tuscany and the inspiration for a special menu at Dino. We bit and really enjoyed one of the best deals in town.

The menu, served family style, starts with crostini -- with white bean, herbed ricotta, and wild boar salami. Then comes the ribollita -- a vegetable soup with bread, a nice broth with some winter vegetables perfectly suited to warming you up and whetting your appetite. This was followed by a second primi, Pappardelle all'Aglione, house-made pasta tossed in a tomato essence they cooked up this summer with roasted garlic and herbs and which is truly delicious. The main course is a stew, scottiglia, that includes three meats braised separately -- pork, wild boar and duck. It's worth hearing Dean's description of the stew in full to get an idea of the care in sourcing and cooking that this restaurant takes.

"Our version is based on Angela Costanti's: the meats are stewed and then served separately....Our scottiglia is made from a trio of meats via slow braising with red wine and just a drop of tomato. Our pork from EcoFriendly Foods is grown by a family of farms from a cross of heritage breeds using open pasture when Virginia's weather permits. This results in a silky pork rich with flavor and luscious, mature fat. We use lean cubes for the scottiglia; and all the meats have a little pork belly mixed in. Second is wild boar from Texas. We use a wild gathered product. Wild boar used to be thought of as simply a nuisance to the ranchers of Texas. But some forward looking folk saw them as a resource to be managed. Now the boar are a source of income to the farmer; and the ecosystem is better off for it. Plus, we get to enjoy this wonderful, lean meat. The third is the leg and thigh from Dr Joe's ducks. These are grown on small farms in Pennsylvania from breed stock developed by Dr Joe, a duck fanatic & former veterinarian. They have a rich and almost spicy flavor: a superb duck."

The menu -- all this for $30 -- includes a dessert (I had a delicately creamy tiramisu, not usually my favorite dessert but this was delicious) or a choice of two cheeses. We also ordered a bottle of Mastrojanni Rosso di Montalcino 2008 because Dean listed it as using a more "modernist" method of winemaking and that the vineyard had been revived by the Illy (coffee) family, and it was very nice despite being young -- fruity, smooth and indeed modern.

Mini-bite bargains

Grazing is not the right word for our efforts to escape the high cost of going out by sampling places in a less expensive way than a full meal. Restaurateurs have recognized this need, and the vast array of small plates, medium-sized plates and gourmet hamburgers is designed to give customers the choice of small bites or large.

This past weekend we ducked into Palena for one of our favorite "bargain" meals -- Frank Ruta's gourmet hamburger, which has to be pure ground sirloin and which is so perfectly seasoned and grilled it remains as my favorite burger in Washington. It comes on homemade buns with a slice of melted cheese.

At the newly increased price of $12, it may not seem like a bargain for a burger, especially since you have to order any sides separately. We split an order of the Palena fries -- French fries, onion rings, "dauphine" potatoes, and some lovely deep-fried marinated lemon slices.

The burger and other less expensive dishes are available in the front of the restaurant, with the back dining room reserved for the prix fixe menus.

Another day, we stopped in at Bistrot Lepic's Wine Bar, upstairs from the restaurant that offers some of the most authentic French cuisine in the city. The decor upstairs is an odd but strangely tasteful mix of Tiki and French provincial, with a humorous series of wall paintings playing on a Bistrot Le Pig pun. I had the Bistrot Le Pig cocktail, a variation on a Planter's punch, and we split a small appetizer of fried goat cheese on a bed of greens. It was a pleasant, relatively inexpensive interlude on the way to a family meal.

Other bargain favorites are Lia's generous happy hour -- which features a great $5 burger and $8 pizzas and is all evening on Mondays and Wednesdays -- and just sitting at the bar at Dino, which has great drinks, free snacks and Dino's assortment of small and large plates if you want to eat.

Dino

When I filled out the Washingtonian questionnaire the other day, I listed Dino as my top favorite restaurant, followed by Brasserie Beck and Komi. Went there last night with a friend from out of town and had a really great meal.

Dean Gold, the owner and executive chef at Dino, sends out a weekly email that really makes your mouth water. A former wine and food buyer at Whole Foods, he pays a lot of attention to sourcing and he lovingly describes where he gets his food and what he does with it.

His recent emails have mentioned the fried baby Anzio artichokes he has flown in from the Santa Monica Farmer's Market, and cardoons from Next Step Produce, a farm in Charles County, Md. So these were the two antipasti we ordered last night. My friend, btw, is vegetarian and one of the nice things about Dino is you have a wide variety of dishes you can order without feeling that you're ordering the vegetarian special.

The carciofi fritti were tender and crispy with a fresh artichoke flavor, fried and served with a slice of lemon. I dipped them into the olive oil on my bread plate and they were delicious. The cardoons had a nice rooty, vegetable flavor. They were cut into strips and sauteed with garlic, lemon and tomato, quite tasty.

We followed with swordfish and winter squash risotto. A recent email explained the Pacific swordfish are caught in sustainable manner and supplied by a local vendor who used to work for the National Marine Fisheries Service on fish sustainability issues. Dean said the saffron that was supposed to be in the sauce didn't make it in time. Nonetheless it was quite tasty and set off nicely with sauteed mizuna, also from Next Step.

At Dean's suggestion (and you need his help navigating the fabulous list of Italian wines), we ordered a Ribolla varietal wine that actually comes from Slovenia, a Movia {Ribolla} 2007. It somehow combined the creaminess of a Chardonnay with the crispness of a Sauvignon Blanc.

Dessert of pistachio torte and bread pudding put on the finishing touches to what is for me a rare three-course extravaganza. Often we mix and match small plates and entrees, get wine by the glass and skip dessert for a less expensive outing.

Dino has always been good, but since Dean made himself the chef -- though he has no formal training as a cook -- it has gone from strength to strength. Slow Food is having a dinner there Nov. 18 which I'm already looking forward to.