Rhode Island Reds - Thin Crust Delicious Pizza in Arty Up and Coming Hyattsville

The steamy D.C. weather finally took a break last week and the air cooled down, we decided to take an after work jaunt to Hyattsville to visit a relatively new pizza shop, Rhode Island Reds.  Windows down, we drove for several miles through Bloomingdale and Mt. Rainier to Hyattsville watching the sun set.  We arrived at Rhode Island Reds, a white painted industrial type building at a corner on Rt. 1 and were immediately warmed by the inviting atmosphere.  The atmosphere felt like a back street or even country café in Italy or Eastern Europe. The front portion of the restaurant is a small Italian cooking shop with cans of tomatoes, oils, vinegars, preserves, etc.  The back of the restaurant has a few booths, a few tables, some red paint and primary colored art on the walls.  The walls in the market portion of the restaurant had local fliers advertising various community happenings.  

Now, onto the food, which we loved as much as the atmosphere.  The menu consists mostly of sandwiches, salads and of course, delicious thin-crust pizza.  We ordered a vegetable salad that was bright and colorful and covered with tasty oil-red wine vinegar vinaigrette.  We also tried two different pizzas, the Gina Lolabrigida a classic tomato, mozzarella, and garlic pizza and the Broforino, a delicious garlic pesto onion sauced pizza with anchovies and fresh tomatoes.  Both pizzas were simply delicious, classic, fresh flavors and thin crisp crusts.  All of the pizzas are an eminently reasonable $10 a pop, including ‘make your own’, which we will probably try next time.  Washed down with a glass of house red wine, the dinner was delicious and in our humble opinion rivaled fancier pizza places downtown and the feeling of being in another country-side world made it worth the trip. 

Bibiana - Milano Italian Business Lunch

Written by the Kleinette:

This is the first review of a multipart (okay, probably only two part as restaurant week does not come so often) series on the restaurant group that owns 701, Rasika, Bardeo, Ardeo, the Oval Room and the Bombay Club.  Today, I'm going to focus on Bibiana!  Normally, the Kleiner and I have stuck to reviewing things that we do together, but, recently I visited Bibiana for a work lunch (don't get any false ideas please, this was a lucky day) and noticed that it was part of the group that owned Rasika which is where the Kleiner and I will be doing our restaurant week thing ;)

Bibiana, located at 1100 New York Avenue, is a new Italian restaurant designed in a style the owners describe as "Milano".  The colors were all beiges, silvers, blacks, creams and greys and the look was sleek but not too 'shi shi'.  The menu included very small anti pasto plates, salads, pastas, and main meals of meats and fishes.  I had read multiple reviews of the new restaurant in one of my favorite Washington Post chats with restaurant critic Tom Sietsema exclaiming that Bibiana was either a wonderful expression of Italian cuisine or a place that needed to grow up a bit.

My group shared the artichoke and date, almong ricotta piattis without the pancetta.  Both were oozing with flavor and very delicious light starters for a meal. The artichoke was served cool and tasted well-seasoned.  The sticky sweet flavor of the dates was cut well with the rich creamy ricotta. IF you want to order these dishes keep in mind that they are very small.

For our main courses, we had the Tagliatelle Alla Bolognese, the Smoked Potato Gnocchi, Brussels Sprouts and Pecorino Paccheri and the Large Rigatoni with Couliflower, Raisins and Pine Nuts.  Personally, I had the Rigatoni which was simply delicious.  THe Large noodles were coated with a light olive oil based sauce that mixed into what tasted like a reduced, sweet onion sauce with well softened golden raisins.  The Couliflower was well seasoned with matching flavorings that all melded will into the cheese which offered a kick.  The cheese was shaved and generous in such a way that I could place it on the rigatoni to contribute to the sauce.  I also tried the Gnocchi which were flavorful and light complemented well with the roasted Brussels sprouts (yum!).  The desert list looked really good, but, given that this was a work lunch, and we hoped to continue to work throughout the day, we opted for our espresso style of choice. 

The desert menu however called out, and included such yummy ideas as ricotta pancakes with cardamom sugar toping and  hazelnut semi freddo.  Also, given that this was a work lunch, I didn't have a cocktail, I want to mention that one day, when the Kleiner and I have reason to celebrate (that could be something like a birthday, or a Wednesday signally that the week is half done) I hope that we can try some of their interesting cocktails such as a 'Bibiana' made from Hibiscus Liqour, Creme de Violette and Prosecco or a Gabrielle made of Rye, Chocolate Bitters, Cardamom Syrup and Ginger.  Unique sounding indeed!

Recently I have eaten in a lot of restaurants, many not in DC, and a few here that aim to be high-end establishments.  I have found their dishes often to be played out and their service kind of half-hearted or rushy.  I found the service at Bibiana to be classy yet friendly and to be paced perfectly for the high-end meal that it was.  The dishes were unique and creative and for this I give it whole hearted thumbs up for a fancy occassional [or work lunch?] meal.

I'm looking forward to Rasika for Restaurant Week!