Sotto, Chef Keith Cabot's Meat-Centric Basement Underneath Ghibellina in 14UP

[Choirgirl21]

Sotto opened today, March 3, 2015, under Ghibellina (via Washingtonian).

Does Sotto not have its own thread on DR? I can't seem to find one.

[agm]

Well, I guess now it does have a thread.

Four of us ate here last night. Interesting place - downstairs from a very crowded Ghibellina, dark but not annoyingly so. Nice bar, tasty cocktails. The food is primarily barbecue. According to our dining companions, it doesn't live up to DCity (we haven't been), but overall quite good, better than most barbecue options in town. Well-cooked ribs, although I wasn't thrilled with the flavor of the rub. Brisket was moist, tender and flavorful. Good sausages (beef, pork, lamb) with roasted root vegetables on the side. And a big Fred Flintstone beef rib, which they recommend for two people. It was beautifully cooked. There were two crispy fish options - soft-shell crab and catfish. Catfish was ordered by someone else, and I skipped it, but it was proclaimed the best dish on the table. We had roasted carrots and potato salad as sides; the carrots were good, and I might have loved them if I hadn't had the carrots at BLT Steak last week. We shared all three of their starters; my favorite was the hush puppies.

We were somewhat surprised to find live music, but then, we knew nothing about the place. There was a decent jazz quartet playing for the first half of our meal. After a break, they were replaced by a Jamaican-looking duo, both of whom played drums, with one singing, more a drone than a melody. We left fairly quickly.

So, decent barbecue, but not a challenger to DCity (which I really do need to try), and significantly more expensive. On a more positive note, you can't eat in an attractive setting with good cocktails at DCity. But swinging back towards the negative, NQD liked the bar and cocktails, and liked the barbecue, but found a disconnect between the two. I'm fine with it, but then I like barbecue in any setting.

[DanielK]

Just footnoting agm's excellent report - we essentially ordered 5 entrees, 4 sides, and 2 desserts for 4 of us, with 2 drinks each. The total came to about $90pp after tax/tip. If I had eaten that meal at a 3-star restaurant downtown, it's a reasonable total, but it felt expensive for BBQ.

[Marty L.]

Just footnoting agm's excellent report - we essentially ordered 5 entrees, 4 sides, and 2 desserts for 4 of us, with 2 drinks each. The total came to about $90pp after tax/tip. If I had eaten that meal at a 3-star restaurant downtown, it's a reasonable total, but it felt expensive for BBQ.

Ninety dollars per person?!  For BBQ?  Even if the two drinks account for $30 or so, that's still $60, which feeds my family of four -- twice over -- at DC Smokehouse.  What's wrong with this picture?

[Tweaked]

14th Street v. N. Capitol Street.

[Marty L.]

14th Street v. N. Capitol Street.

Tongue in cheek, right?  Of course the rent and overhead are higher on 14th Street than at Florida and North Capitol.  Yet I have eaten at many, many places on 14th Street, including Ghibellina, which I love, and I doubt I've ever spent more than 45/50 dollars pp, let alone 90 -- and that's for much "higher end" food than BBQ.

[DanielK]

Marty, I agree it was way expensive, but there's no way you are eating at Ghibellina (same owners, upstairs) for $45pp *including* tax/tip. And, as much as I love DCity, $30 gets you a rack of ribs or 3 sandwichez, no sides or drinks - hardly dinner for 4.

[agm]

They do seem to realize that they're unreasonably expensive. Their website has the full menu, but with no prices anywhere.

[Marty L.]

Marty, I agree it was way expensive, but there's no way you are eating at Ghibellina (same owners, upstairs) for $45pp *including* tax/tip. And, as much as I love DCity, $30 gets you a rack of ribs or 3 sandwichez, no sides or drinks - hardly dinner for 4.

Ghibellina:  Went a few months back as a party of seven.  Not including alcohol, but including a generous tip and tax, our bill was about $240.  And this was with three entrees in the low-to-mid-20's, as well as a bunch of pasta, pizza, vegetables, a soup, salad, and I believe two or three desserts.  We even had leftovers.

DC Smokehouse:  For a family of four I recently carried out:  a Brisket Champ, a Meaty Palmer, a Half-Smoke, the DMV, ten wings, large spouts, and three small sides.  Looking online, that's $58 plus tip and tax, about $76.  Ok, so "dinner for four twice over for $60" was a slight exaggeration; but this $76 repast covered dinner for four and plenty of leftovers for three the next day.  Even assuming that $60 (rather than 76) would have eliminated the leftovers, what you paid for lesser quality BBQ for one gave us a delicious dinner for four.

Something does not compute.  And I have a hard time believing it's the Ghibellina folks gouging anyone, because their prices upstairs are very reasonable (and at happy hour just about the best bargain in town).

[DanielK]

Like I said, it was crazy expensive. I assure you the bill was correct and what I described above was what we ordered. I'll only add that there were some leftovers, and we all ate more than we should have. Could easily have fed another person with the leftovers, and perhaps two if we didn't stuff ourselves.

[agm]

Something does not compute.  And I have a hard time believing it's the Ghibellina folks gouging anyone, because their prices upstairs are very reasonable (and at happy hour just about the best bargain in town).

Found my receipt. 1/2lb brisket $12, 6 pork ribs $18, sausage sampler $21, beef ribs for 2 (one very large, meaty rib) $36, fried catfish $21. Three snacks for the table $8 each, sides were carrots $13 and potato salad $8. Chocolate hazelnut cake was $8, plus a scoop of ice cream at $4; we had two of each. The rest was cocktails and coffee.