La Tomate: Fully-Vested

Posted by Blake the Megalomaniac (Follow Me)- Blake the Megalomaniac is a graduate of Virginia Tech and now lives the Adams Morgan section of Washington DC. - To see more posts by this author click here

My crew and I had no destination. We just knew that it was 5:00pm and consequently, dinnertime. We left my condominium and figured we drive down Connecticut Avenue until some eatery tickled our fancy. Lo and behold, we found a parallel park right in front of La Tomate.

La Tomate is located on the corner of Connecticut Avenue and R street Northwest and as their website suggests, it is hard to miss.

The cuisine was regional Italian. From what region of Italy, I don’t know. I actually don’t even know when referring to a cuisine type, whether regional means a specific region or not, but one would assume. I think I’ll figure that out once I get more experience in restaurant critiques. I do know that La Tomate is no Olive Garden, and obviously that’s a good thing. Nothing against Olive Garden, but if you’re going to go chain-style Italian dining then I’d start with Carrabas.

I digress.

To be frank, upon entering La Tomate it looked as if it were half trendy small bar scene and half old-school, upscale dining scene. It was early, but the bar patrons were generation Y’ers (what age group exactly is Gen Y anyway?); basically I mean the bar crowd was younger, while the dining area patrons were of the age where white’s only bathrooms were not uncommon. An interestin’ dichotomy.

The staff was “helpful” and “friendly,” sorry I couldn’t help but sound like a restaurant review on yahootravel but that’s why I used quotations. Each entity from the host to the servers and bell boys had accents with their speech. I appreciated that. La Tomate touts itself as family-run and family-operated since 1987. Now whether or not the whole staff was of Italian decent or not, they had accents and it made the experience cool. The menu being written in Italian was also a nice touch.

The wine list was extensive as it should be. The menu insert was relatively long which symbolized to me that not only was it regional but seasonal. Definitely a plus. I had the Veal with brown sauce while another person in my party had the veal shank. Both were cooked to perfection. One thing I can say about the menu was that it shied away from the traditional American Italian dishes we’ve come to expect (e.g. Lasagna or Fettucini Alfredo) and that in my mind was unique and refreshing.

The staff was cool. The food was well-portioned and delicious. The seating (we sat in a window nook and people watched people walking and trying to parallel park they’re SUVs) was exactly what someone new to the city would want. All-in-all a satisfying experience.

La Tomate’s Website

Until next time, u do the dishes…