Such A Catch

I'd been meaning to go back to Pesce for some time, it having been my favorite restaurant when I last lived here (feeding the running joke that I'm well acquainted with D.C. -- the D.C. of ten years ago), so I was delighted when H2 suggested it as a mid-week treat.

After studying the extensive chalkboard menu and the Restaurant Week menu, we opted to start with branzino-stuffed grilled squid and spinach against a colorful inky palette and a plate of bright, lemon-accented carpaccio. We were just as taken with our main dishes of roasted bluefish with butternut squash and seared scallops nestled in a bed of risotto made blush pink by roasted beets. The dishes were uniformly well executed and considerable in volume, both of which we appreciated.*

The restaurant used to be housed in a cozy townhouse, but recently moved into a much larger space previously occupied by Johnny's Half Shell. Unfortunately, it traded space for warmth and charm. Happily, the food was still as wonderful as I remembered and the memory made even better by the company.

*I understand portion control, or the lack thereof, is a contributing factor to the expanding collective American waistline, and therefore A Bad Thing not to be celebrated, but trying to reason on an empty stomach is a fool's errand.