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Don, Not sure if you'd prefer to place this in the former "Family Meal" thread, but I didn't find another thread for Aggio in Ashburn. I've been to Aggio three times now. We first visited before we moved to Ashburn, and I thought it would be fun to check the place out. We sat next to the open kitchen to celebrate a birthday. Everything was great, but the place was empty and the service was a bit off. Oddly enough, there was little interaction with the chefs despite the fact the place was nearly empty. We moved to Ashburn in July, and our second visit was a couple of of weeks ago. Here's what I posted to yelp (hoping to give a little boost to their business). I'm finally getting around to providing a mention here, in hopes that some of Rock's readers will give it a try. **************************** If you enjoy fresh house-made pasta and delicious drinks that are fairly priced, do yourself a favor and go to Aggio. The food certainly stands up to some of the best in the DC metro area, and the prices make the establishment an absolute bargain. Our server was excellent, and she was friendly and attentive during the entire meal. We enjoyed a couple of wonderful cocktails, that thanks to happy hour pricing they were also an incredible value. All drinks are half price during happy hour. $4.50 for a well-made boulevardier? Yes, please. The warm focaccia arrived with whipped ricotta with accented with lemon zest and pepper, as well as a whipped mortadella spread that was plated on a *pesto reduction. Both were wonderful. We chose the Burrata and the Brussels for appetizers. Both were delicious; the burrata dish featured beautiful and tasty heirloom tomatoes, and interestingly was topped with olive oil "soil". We both ordered pasta for our entrees; the Cacio e Pepe was a creamy, silky version topped with a 63 degree egg (think lightly cooked yolk). (No picture of that dish) The lasagna consisted of several layers of tender pasta that was crisp around the edges, and enveloping an incredible lamb bolognese. The dish was both light and rich and rich at the same time, and its certainly one of the best versions of lasagna I've tasted. ******************************************** We paid another visit a week later, and the food remained excellent. I enjoyed a short rib dish, served with fresh corn polenta, glazed carrots, and gremolata, that was superb. It had an interesting texture--very similar to pastrami-but the flavor was rich and the meat was tender. I asked about the preparation, and was told that the beef is marinated and then prepared sous-vide. We ordered a goat cheese ravioli that was described as "Ravioli, goat cheese, garlic scapes, corn" but when the dish arrived, it was prepared much differently, and served with roasted beets. Hmmm. During this visit, our server was pleasant and worked hard, but it was very apparent she had not received nearly enough training. I'm not saying this to be harsh, but she knew almost nothing about the menu, and didn't know anything about wine basics. Fortunately, the manager, who we thought was just the bartender, visited our table when we asked about wine pairings. He recommended a red for the ravioli, which I thought was odd until he explained the change to the preparation. As it turns out, he has worked with Voltaggio for some time, and he had been brought in to help with the front of the house. I realize Ashburn does not have the server "bench" that's available to DC restaurants, but I really hope Aggio will devote some time to improving the service by educating their staff about the basics. They made changes to simplify their menu, so it certainly appears they are making changes to drive their business. Prices are reasonable, and I don't know of another place in this area that features homemade pasta.
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With all of the chatter about the Isabella Galleria deal, as well as the regrettable (already) deal that the Nationals struck to rename the Red Porch as the Budweiser Whatever, it seems that the news this week that was overlooked is that the Redskins have partnered with some restaurant group to open a Redskin-themed restaurant at One Loudoun. You sub-50 year olds will be able to find and post links easily, so help me out. Interesting that the Redskin name itself is not part of the branding. Will not be going unless I see 10+ favorable reviews on this forum... -
Location: 20575 Easthampton Plaza, Ashburn, VA 20147 (Right off of the Loudoun County Parkway exit on Rt. 7) Website: http://drafthouse.com/northern_virginia/one_loudoun Menu (PDF): https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/30900543/menu_loudoun2013_web_reduced.pdf EDIT : there may be a 'bug' in reading the menu in a browser window - if things look bad or parts look as if they're missing, save it as a file and open it in the PDF viewer you use manually - that should fix it. ...or just click here and look at the image files: http://drafthouse.com/northern_virginia/one_loudoun/one_loudoun_our_menu/ For those who don't know, Alamo Drafthouse is a first-run movie theater with a twist. The 'twist' being that they actually serve halfway-decent food that kicks the hell out of anything you could ever buy at an AMC concession stand. Each show has reserved seating, and they only sell tickets one week in advance, so no long-term reservations are possible, which is a bit of a pain, but you get over it rather quickly. Also, if you want the promptest service by the ushers, pick the middle row - they 'hover' near the exit, and it's easiest for them to see the upturned order cards on the seats overlooking the center crosswalk - it's also got the most room for them to maneuver. They suggest you get to the theater ~30 minutes before your showtime, to have ample time to order food. The food itself is, as you can see on the menu, not *insanely* priced, but still a bit steep. The best value is the 'bottomless' soda and popcorn, which for ten dollars means you could get yourself and a friend a drink and still not total the price of a single 'combo' at one of the AMCs around here. The other reason to show up early is that if you show up after the movie has already started, they won't let you in the theater due to their 'no-latecomers' policy. You will be refunded, though. The caveat is that each time you want a 'refill' of either, you need to fill out another order card and stick it in the metal slat, and hope one of the ushers sees it. Turnaround time is anywhere from ~5-15 minutes based on my experience. Filling out 1-3 refill cards beforehand while the house lights are up is a good idea, for reasons you'll see in the next paragraph. Now, since this is a restaurant review site, I might as well talk about the food itself, of which my experience is limited. The only entree I've had there is their 'Royale With Cheese' burger, and while it's far from the best burger I've ever had, it's certainly by no means the worst. You do experience a certain amount of paranoia eating something that involves meat juices (if you put 'medium' on your card, they'll listen) and ketchup in the dark, and one difficulty in eating something complex at Alamo is that the 'table' they give you is an inconvenient distance from your seat. I'm 6'1" and *I* have to hunch forward or make the distasteful move of holding my metal 'meal tin' up close to my face as I gnosh on my burger. Also, though they do give you lights to peruse the menu during the movie, they're super-dim, which makes not only viewing the menu difficult, it makes filling out an order card doubly difficult unless something bright is playing on-screen to provide ambient light. Or you can take a risk and pull your cellphone out and use the screen with a cupped hand (they have rather strict 'don't be a nuisance' guidelines). Other than that, the other thing I decided to fish for was their 'cookie trio,' which is very worth it a la mode. I think I enjoyed the PB&Banana one the most simply because I knew what to expect from the chocolate varieties, and was pleasantly surprised by the 'outlier' of the bunch. Also, Alamo doesn't show *just* first-run movies. Going to see "This is the End" there (verdict: funny, yet don't bring a woman to it - there's nothing for her), they advertised an upcoming event where they'd be showing Silence of the Lambs complete with a four course dinner attached to it based on the cuisine from the movie (human-flesh-free) matched with specially-commissioned wines, the boxes of which you can see if you visit the website (or if you just click here: http://www.personalwine.com/silenceofthelambswine ). They also have 'quote-a-longs' where I believe the 'absolutely no talking ever' rule is circumvented so the audience can fill in the line, 'sing-a-longs,' which sound like a fresh kind of hell, and last but not least, they're at the tail-end of their "Summer of '83" promo, which showcases movies like WarGames, Risky Business, and National Lampoon's Vacation. If Loudoun's too far out for you, you'll be happy to hear that the One Loudoun location is just their 'pilot' spot, and they're already looking for places to set up closer to and inside the Beltway, especially in Fairfax County itself. I wish them luck in that regard, since I can't think of many places where they could drop a building as large as the Loudoun location without buying up and demolishing something that already exists. It's exceptionally easy to drop 30 bucks just on just yourself at this place, and they certainly know it. But unlike other places where they badger you into the upsell, Alamo doesn't. You don't get an evil eye from the ushers if you go cheap (if anything, it just means less walking for them), and everyone seems to be happy, which reflects on what I've heard that it's a positive working environment (which means less chance of spit in your food).- 17 replies
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