Casolare, Italian in the Kimpton Glover Park Hotel on Wisconsin Avenue and Davis Street

[sheldman]

Casolare opened a month or so ago, in the Kimpton hotel that is on Wisconsin Ave in Glover Park between Calvert and Davis (?). Apparently the "name" behind it is Michael Schlow, who has James Beard award(s) though I confess I don't know the name. It is a very pleasant warm place, bustling on a Friday early evening - mostly, apparently, neighborhood folks rather than hotel guests. Current menu is here and is self-explanatory - mostly Italian-ish. Everything we ate was well made - not revelatory but good to eat. I mean, it's a hotel restaurant, but one that we will happily go back to, and sit again at the bar, and talk to nice people and eat some good burrata. Park on Davis and check it out if you are in or near the neighborhood.

[Marty L.]

1 hour ago, sheldman said:

Casolare opened a month or so ago, in the Kimpton hotel that is on Wisconsin Ave in Glover Park between Calvert and Davis (?). Apparently the "name" behind it is Michael Schlow, who has James Beard award(s) though I confess I don't know the name. It is a very pleasant warm place, bustling on a Friday early evening - mostly, apparently, neighborhood folks rather than hotel guests. Current menu is here and is self-explanatory - mostly Italian-ish. Everything we ate was well made - not revelatory but good to eat. I mean, it's a hotel restaurant, but one that we will happily go back to, and sit again at the bar, and talk to nice people and eat some good burrata. Park on Davis and check it out if you are in or near the neighborhood.

We thought it was fine; nothing special.  Like so many places these days, a decent place, nice folks, but not worth the $$.

 

[DonRocks]

Forget Michael Schlow - he's a non-entity. And unfortunately, the talented Philippe Reininger - according to the website - joined Michael Schlow concepts in 2014 and "oversees all hotel restaurant operations," which means if he's running the kitchen now, he won't be for long.

Whomever the Chef de Cuisine is will determine whether or not this is a good restaurant, and I don't think that has been revealed. I'm not buying into the bullshit, and neither should anyone else except for hangers-on and boot-lickers (you know who they are).

[sheldman]

I guess I should have realized before posting that I was walking into a minefield ...   But in upper NW, west of Rock Creek, any hint of the possibility of another not-bad place to eat and drink in the neighborhood is an occasion for hope.

[dwt]

3 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Forget Michael Schlow - he's a non-entity.

Wow! Seems kinda harsh, Don. I don't have a clue who MS is, though the name seems vaguely familiar. Is there a story you'd like to share?

3 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Whomever the Chef de Cuisine is will determine whether or not this is a good restaurant, and I don't think that has been revealed.

So true. Remember a certain hotel restaurant back in the day that folks on this forum swooned over? Actually, it may have been back in the pre-DonRockwell/eGullet DC forum days. Firefly, with John Wabeck at the helm. Sigh.

[DonRocks]

On 8/27/2016 at 3:59 PM, dwt said:

Wow! Seems kinda harsh, Don. I don't have a clue who MS is, though the name seems vaguely familiar. Is there a story you'd like to share?

Let me clarify that statement: He's a non-entity *in terms of Casolare* - an absentee, celebrity chef. He won't have any more effect on this restaurant than Eric Ripert had at West End Bistro, or Alain Ducasse had at Adour, or Antoine Westermann had at The Willard Room, or Susur Lee had at Zentan, or I could rattle off twenty other examples. In no way do I mean anything personal by that statement; it's just that the public has been duped by celebrity chefs and marketing for far too long, and the amateur bloggers and - much worse - the professional "journalists" in this town have played right into it all - it's a travesty, and for me to be the only person having the stones to call bullshit on it says a lot about the restaurant situation in this city.

If our political journalists of last generation had the same ethos as our restaurant journalists of this generation, Richard Nixon would have gone down in history as a great President.

That said, if Michael Schlow means something to anyone, simply click on the tag up above, and you'll get a list of all the restaurants he's affiliated with.