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Great meal at the bar last night. Enjoyed an '84 Laurel Glen cab with the meatballs, crab fettuccine, and an order of burrata. Was thinking of ordering a main but the half portion of pasta was pretty darn big! Was very pleased to see an almost completely full bar. May head in again tonight if the Nats are rained out! Sad we didn't get to the Grotto more often.

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Another great meal at the Grotto last night.  Brought along two colleagues who had never been and both had a great time.  I will continue to get the soft shells every time I'm there...they are wonderful.  Happy on a personal level for Dean but am sad that a place I have so many happy memories anchored to will be departing.  I'll be back at least a couple more times.

Wine Madness is just nuts - the 2006 Brunello Riserva from Costanti was awesome and a steal at the wine madness price.  

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54 minutes ago, Rovers2000 said:

Another great meal at the Grotto last night.  Brought along two colleagues who had never been and both had a great time.  I will continue to get the soft shells every time I'm there...they are wonderful.  Happy on a personal level for Dean but am sad that a place I have so many happy memories anchored to will be departing.  I'll be back at least a couple more times.

Wine Madness is just nuts - the 2006 Brunello Riserva from Costanti was awesome and a steal at the wine madness price.  

I was at the bar again last night. Cacio e Pepe and sirloin were great and the ‘01 Marcarini Brunate was both fantastic and an incredible deal. Be back next week!

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12 hours ago, Rovers2000 said:

Another great meal at the Grotto last night.  Brought along two colleagues who had never been and both had a great time.  I will continue to get the soft shells every time I'm there...they are wonderful.  Happy on a personal level for Dean but am sad that a place I have so many happy memories anchored to will be departing.  I'll be back at least a couple more times.

Wine Madness is just nuts - the 2006 Brunello Riserva from Costanti was awesome and a steal at the wine madness price.  

11 hours ago, Keithstg said:

I was at the bar again last night. Cacio e Pepe and sirloin were great and the ‘01 Marcarini Brunate was both fantastic and an incredible deal. Be back next week!

Say hi next time!  I was at Dino's upstairs with a friend, we split the grilled nectarines, I just loved these, might have to make them at home, meatballs, spinach canneloni- the crispy cheese on top is almost reminiscent of pizza in a good way, soft shell crab pasta- plump soft shells, garlicky pasta with almond, very good, and a bottle of wine on Wine Madness (not sure which one, the one we wanted was out, so they brought something similar we liked).  It was nice to see Dean, and just a nice meal with a friend that I could spend hours with, which wasn't rushed and just great.  

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18 hours ago, ktmoomau said:

bottle of wine on Wine Madness (not sure which one, the one we wanted was out, so they brought something similar we liked).  

It was Roghetto from Piancornello.  Grapes are 100% Brunello from in the zone but the wine is not aged in wood so it can't be anything Montalcino DOC. So it's a simple Rosso Toscano. AGed in concrete eggs then a lot of bottle aging before we get it. 15 vintage which is a great vintage and then the 16 will be better!  

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A nice meal at the table in the rear of the bar last night. Nolan and Will took good care of us as we grazed on deviled eggs and two caprese salads followed by two Dino classic pastas, wild boar and duck lasagna. Kay stopped by briefly. Not sure if I will be able to get back again before close. We all wondered where our next clubhouse will be?

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Sad that this place is closing! My husband and I have been going here for over a decade. We went to Dino's to celebrate my pregnancy and we picked her name out during dinner.

We went for an early birthday dinner last weekend but they were out of duck Bolognese (the wild boar was a great consolation) so we might go back one more time

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Our last service is Sunday September 15

We will have two nights of closing parties September 16 and 17.  All reasonable offers will be accepted on our wines!  Lots of wines by the glass at crazy prices and we will be making lots of cocktails featuring back bar spirits.  We will be cooking up everything we have left so the first night is $35 for entrance and all the food you can eat, $24 the second.  

Deets and Tickets

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We went again this past weekend. It was our farewell. We're ff on vacation and so sorry we'll miss the farewell parties for sure. To us, my wife and I, we've dined at Dino and Dino's groto probably 30 to 50 times between just us, DC Crü wino dinners and Mrs. Poolboy bookgroup dinners. It's another part of us that is dying, in a way, but we both have so many fond memories of going to both incarnations.

One of the things we were saying was this - 'Where are we going to go pre-concert at the 9:30? The Lincoln? The Howard? WTF!!!????' It is like an appendage being severed. <sigh>

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2 hours ago, deangold said:

After more than 14 years at two locations, it is time to move on.

Nice to chat with you at the bar Saturday night! Thanks for all the delicious food and drinks over the years. My husband was sad to drink his last Ric Flair, but I just followed you on Twitter, so I'm sure our paths with cross again. Enjoy your well-deserved time off!

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40 minutes ago, DaveO said:

The comments over the last few days from @Andrew Shapiro, Dino's BarKeep, on FB were quite heartwarming.  Nice to see.

He was barely keeping it together behind the bar Saturday night (emotionally). It was very sweet. Hoping our paths cross with his again, too.

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On 9/16/2019 at 10:30 AM, deangold said:

After more than 14 years at two locations, it is time to move on. While we have two closing parties left, Last night was our final night of service. I will miss all our fans. Seeing so many couples bring in kids and saying that Dino was where they had heir first date was amazing. Sharing memories and stories the last time made this a real celebration.

It's hard to realize how many weddings, engagements and even divorces were celebrated at our restaurants. The number of birthday and anniversaries celebrated at one of the Dinos must be in the 5,000 to 10,000 range. We were even the spot three families of former customers/friends chose to celebrate the lives of recently deceased loved ones.

Kay and I look forward to our new life able to spend time together! There will be food-oriented stuff happening, just no more restaurants. To keep up on the curated food adventures, private in-home chef experiences, pop-ups, food trips to Italy and more, please get on our email list or follow us on twitter.

I think I am going to sleep for 3 weeks straight! But I wanted to thank all who supported us over the years.

Geez.  I hope you don't go to bed till after the Tuesday night finale.  I have a ticket for the last evening. 

Seriously best of luck going forward.

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21 minutes ago, DaveO said:

Geez.  I hope you don't go to bed till after the Tuesday night finale.  I have a ticket for the last evening. 

Seriously best of luck going forward.

I ran out of gas at about 9pm so I didn't say good bye to everyone. I did talk to everyone here last night! Looking forward to seeing you tonight!

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Food is great and plentiful.  There is space here.  Ric Flair's remain excellent.

Got there a little after opening at 5:30.  Maybe 30 people or so.  By the time I left about 7:30 there were about 50-70 between the two floors.  From my singular perspective it was an equal mix between olders and those in their 20-30's.  Per a short conversation with Dean, they were blown away by a large crowd that hit them early on Monday.

A large assortment of typical dishes were served during the evening as staff brought out platters of delicacies and you could choose from among them.  The platters kept expanding as the night wore on.   Ooooh.  I had missed on the peaches with bacon at earlier sittings.  That was delicious.  Other dishes were right on target and good.  I could have stayed to "pig out" but what I had was ample and excellent.  Drinks were evidently half price, at least the Ric Flairs were.   Two were ample and I didn't leave drunk.  

Tough tough nut running a restaurant in this city with endless competition and nothing stopping new restaurants from opening.  

I wish Dean the best going forward.

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