Rustico

827 Slater's Lane

This is one of my favorite places to eat out in D.C.  The main draw for me is the large beer selection and draft list which includes many difficult to find beers.  The atmosphere (and actual presence of beers on their list) tops Brickskellar.  I don't need a laundry list of bottles like Brickskellar has as much as I appreciate a rotating variety of quality beers.  They have a nice outdoor section in a fairly quiet corner of Alexandria.

I ate there again recently and got the grilled pork tenderloin with oyster sauce and almond crostini (small toasted bread slices) as well as the current sausage plate.  The sausage plate was forgettable as the sausage were very thin sliced and, although tasty, not flavorful enough to really justify such thin slices and small amount of food overall.  The grilled pork tenderloin, however, was amazingly good.  The waiter's unsolicited suggestion was medium (my intent anyway).  The tenderloin was soft, juicy and flavorful and the accompanying oyster/some starch mixture was quite good.  What really blew me away was the toast that my tenderloin had been sitting on.  Soaked with tenderloin and oyster juices, it was a soft, spongy bliss biscuit, except it wasn't really a biscuit.  Bliss bread just doesn't have the same alliterative ring to it.  Anyway, this bliss biscuit and its tasty meat topping are a prime example of why I consider so many restaurants to be overpriced.  When you can get meat in love-mollusk sauce atop a bliss-biscuit for $23, nothing costing much more seems worth it.  My date's roasted chicken breast with fried green tomatoes was pretty good too.  The total bill with a wine, a beer, sausage tray, and two entrees was right about $70.

Anyway, the other times I've eaten at Rustico, I've been very impressed by their mac n' cheese and their pizzas, but this is the first time I've had something that wasn't on the bar menu.  

Also, Rustico has beer glass nights where you get a free beer glass with your order of selected drafts.  I'm talking proper fancy-ass glasswear here.  So if you want a good quality beer drinking glass to emphasize your beer's flavor, it's a cheap way to do that.  Mine just get dusty, but getting them was cool.

UPDATE: Thanksgiving weekend I went to Rustico and got the Roasted Mushroom Pizza off of their late night/bar menu.  It had goat cheese and spinach in addition to mushroom.  It was quite good.  Certainly not my favorite Rustico pizza, but oh so good.

UPDATE: new location in Ballston that I have tried HERE