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Aggio (Formerly Family Meal), a Spinoff of Volt at One Loudoun in Ashburn - Closed


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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.

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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.

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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". 

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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. 

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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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6 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Just this week, I drove into Baltimore via the B-W Parkway, and saw his face on a billboard; yet, these past couple of years haven't been very kind.

His face is all over Metro station ads too, for one reason: MGM. Basically his only ($$$$) focus right now. 

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17 minutes ago, Kev29 said:

His face is all over Metro station ads too, for one reason: MGM. Basically his only ($$$$) focus right now. 

Yes, now that you mention this, I think it was an MGM billboard - it said something like, "Tuesday is Celebrity Chef Night!" I suspect the investors (I don't know if it's a Hilda Staples thing or not) are making enough coin from the MGM that they can condense the suburban offshoots - it's a good thing, because we were running out of variations on "Voltaggio."

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7 minutes ago, DonRocks said:

Yes, now that you mention this, I think it was an MGM billboard - it said something like, "Tuesday is Celebrity Chef Night!" I suspect the investors (I don't know if it's a Hilda Staples thing or not) are making enough coin from the MGM that they can condense the suburban offshoots - it's a good thing, because we were running out of variations on "Voltaggio."

Apropos he's gone all in at a casino 

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14 hours ago, Ferris Bueller said:

"Aggio Closed Down at One Loudoun" by Chris Wadsworth on theburn.com

I had a sense they were just phoning it in for several months. 

The quality of service at the restaurant did not match the prices on the menu. Hiring professional staff in this area is challenging, but that’s not an excuse to at least try to train the staff. 

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On 7/14/2018 at 5:58 AM, reedm said:

I had a sense they were just phoning it in for several months. 

The quality of service at the restaurant did not match the prices on the menu. Hiring professional staff in this area is challenging, but that’s not an excuse to at least try to train the staff. 

This place seemed doomed from the start (Aggio, not Family Meal).  The last meal I had at Family Meal was depressing, and the canvas sign/banner hung on the exterior saying Aggio while the building itself still said Family Meal didn't leave me confident.  I'm amazed it stayed open this long as I never saw anyone in there.

While I think the location became a problem as the developer shifted parking from lots to garages and further away from the restaurant, there is a sad blueprint for successful restaurants at OL - Uncle Julio's, Matchbox, Eddie Merlot's - all larger chains.  I'm amazed at how busy Uncle Julio's is considering the prices they charge for sub-par food and bad margaritas.

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It is unfortunate 1L has become a restaurant haven.  Initially it was supposed to be more mixed use with a mid/high end grocery store as an anchor.     

I believe, Uncle Julio's continues to do well, as there are few "Mexican" restaurants in the area, conveniently located with good food (I did not say great).  Julio's fills that gap albeit marginally, hence they are printing pesos.  The place is consistently busy at RTC, with apparent waits if the people congregating outside are any indicator.

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21 hours ago, Ferris Bueller said:

I believe, Uncle Julio's continues to do well, as there are few "Mexican" restaurants in the area, conveniently located with good food (I did not say great).  Julio's fills that gap albeit marginally, hence they are printing pesos.  The place is consistently busy at RTC, with apparent waits if the people congregating outside are any indicator.

In the roughly 30 some years where Uncle Julio's has done well in Ballston there have been 4,5, or 6 different restaurants in what must be the exact same space across the patio, the last one being the well regarded Willow.  Uncle Julio's survives--the others have come and gone.  In DC both Cactus Cantina and Lauriol Plaza continue to thrive. Similarly they get minimal attention here as does Uncle Julio's.

The overwhelming most popular ethnic cuisine's in the US are Mexican, Chinese, Italian, (not necessarily in that order but each is significantly more popular than any other ethnic cuisine) and I suspect the volume of cutting edge restaurant volume for those three types are relatively small compared to the volume of sales for more mainline "moderately priced" restaurants. 

They all "meet the market".  I still go to Uncle Julio's plus Lauriol Plaza and Cactus Cantina on occasion.  They all do a satisfactory job.

There is something to be said for "meeting the market".

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34 minutes ago, DaveO said:

In the roughly 30 some years where Uncle Julio's has done well in Ballston there have been 4,5, or 6 different restaurants in what must be the exact same space across the patio, the last one being the well regarded Willow.  Uncle Julio's survives--the others have come and gone.  In DC both Cactus Cantina and Lauriol Plaza continue to thrive. Similarly they get minimal attention here as does Uncle Julio's.

There is something to be said for "meeting the market".

When my son was a baby, I spent more time at Cactus Cantina and Uncle Julio's than I did at Obelisk and Makoto, that's for sure - these places are infant-friendly, with high chairs, servers who are used to dealing with families, and a noisy environment and casual atmosphere that are conducive to whisking a cranky baby outside (as the other parent desperately tries to eat in peace for ten minutes).

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2 hours ago, DonRocks said:

When my son was a baby, I spent more time at Cactus Cantina and Uncle Julio's than I did at Obelisk and Makoto, that's for sure - these places are infant-friendly, with high chairs, servers who are used to dealing with families, and a noisy environment and casual atmosphere that are conducive to whisking a cranky baby outside (as the other parent desperately tries to eat in peace for ten minutes).

When we moved to the Bethesda area over a decade ago I brought my five or six year old daughter to Uncle Julio's (we had been deep in Salvadoran territory in Columbia Heights prior to this).  After about five minutes she asked if she had to finish her food because she didn't like it.  I had already stopped eating.  I'll buy into Cactus Cantina/Lauriol Plaza and ate both places not infrequently, but Uncle Julio's is simply a step too far for me - and yes I've tried it since.

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8 minutes ago, zgast said:

When we moved to the Bethesda area over a decade ago I brought my five or six year old daughter to Uncle Julio's (we had been deep in Salvadoran territory in Columbia Heights prior to this).  After about five minutes she asked if she had to finish her food because she didn't like it.  I had already stopped eating.  I'll buy into Cactus Cantina/Lauriol Plaza and ate both places not infrequently, but Uncle Julio's is simply a step too far for me - and yes I've tried it since.

Ha! That's how I feel about Lauriol Plaza. That said, I haven't been to any of them in fifteen years - Uncle Julio's (formerly known as Rio Grande Cafe) used to have pretty good fajitas, and both they and Cactus Cantina had tortilla-making machines that mesmerized children.

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57 minutes ago, zgast said:

When we moved to the Bethesda area over a decade ago I brought my five or six year old daughter to Uncle Julio's (we had been deep in Salvadoran territory in Columbia Heights prior to this).  After about five minutes she asked if she had to finish her food because she didn't like it.  

Hah!!!!   That is so great!!!   Nice training— and “out of the mouths of kids”!!!!

Not all people have such refined taste buds!!!   I evidently don’t but more relevantly I have friends who enjoy Uncle Julio’s.  

I simply find it amazing that the three aforementioned places have lasted and done so well for so long.

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2 hours ago, DonRocks said:

Uncle Julio's (formerly known as Rio Grande Cafe) used to have pretty good fajitas

In my many recent visits to Mi Rancho in Silver Spring with my now preschooler I've found that fajitas are often the best bet at crappy "Mexican" places.

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