In a glass-enclosed room at the front of Sfoglina Pasta House, a young woman is deftly converting a thin sheet of spinach pasta dough into neat rows of tortelloni, each filled with a plump dollop of smoky pulled pork. (A sfoglina, pronounced sfo-LEE-na, is a female person who makes pasta by hand.)
Soon, the little hat-shaped dumplings make their way to the open kitchen where, after a quick al dente bath, they are tossed with fresh spinach, sage leaves and brown butter sauce, and artfully arranged on a floral-pattern plate with a ring of barbecue sauce and sprinkle of grated pecorino.
If the tortelloni sound good, they taste even better. This is not surprising, given that Sfoglina’s owner is chef and restaurateur Fabio Trabocchi, who made a splash at Maestro (now closed) at the Ritz-Carlton in Tysons from 2000 to 2007. After a stint in New York City, Trabocchi returned to Washington and, with his then-wife Maria (the couple divorced in November) opened his flagship restaurant, Fiola, in 2011. Fiola earned its first Michelin star a few years later, and today Trabocchi’s empire includes five D.C.-area restaurants, plus two more in Miami and Venice, Italy. Full disclosure: He’s a friend of mine.
Trabocchi has a reputation for high style, and the 4,500-square-foot space at 1100 Wilson Blvd. bears that out. Building owner Monday Properties courted the chef for several years before he finally said yes to the ground floor of a tower whose tenants also include WJLA, Raytheon and Politico, and a neighborhood that’s home to heavy-hitters like Nestle.
“We looked at Virginia four years ago but didn’t think it was the right time,” says Trabocchi, who has two other Sfoglina locations in the District. “But now the Rosslyn dining scene is starting to take off and it’s the right fit for our brand. We’ve gotten a very warm welcome from the people working and living there.”
Sfoglina presents fine-dining caliber food in a luxe casual setting. The vibe is apparent even before you enter the restaurant proper. The design by Lynne Whyte and Yasmine Agha, with input from Trabocchi himself, finds tufted, white leather stools (tall chairs, really) at a marble bar that spills into the lobby. Inside the dining room, elaborate glass sculpture chandeliers from Mallorca and printed linens hang above booths made of rustic whitewashed wainscoting.
Careful details abound, from the polished copper napkin rings to the etched coupe glass that holds my lovely Shaken not Swizzled cocktail, made with Chartreuse, pineapple juice, lime and Falernum. It’s garnished with a rosemary sprig clipped to the rim with a tiny clothespin.
The servers’ uniforms are chic—women in black floral-print dresses, and men sporting crisp chefs’ coats over a shirt and bow tie. Bussers don Sfoglina T-shirts with different sayings on the back, such as “Pasta Never Sleeps” or “In Pasta We Trust.”
Erin Clarke, who has been working for Trabocchi since 2004, heads the kitchen here, and offers a tantalizing feature not available at other Sfoglina locations. I’m talking about the mozzarella bar, which allows you to construct your own antipasti plate from a list that includes several iterations of mozzarella ($8); vegetables ($3); fish ($6); and meats ($6). In my case, a starter smorgasbord includes fresh burrata, grilled artichokes, prosciutto, slow-roasted tomatoes and tuna confit with capers. Those a la carte items can add up quickly (my spread is $26) but it is easily enough for two or three people to share.
From the small plates list, grilled baby squid splashed with lemon, olive oil and garlic are so tender and flavorful you almost don’t need the Romesco sauce that comes with them, but I find myself sopping up every drop of that tomatoey-garlicky-almondy sauce anyway with the warm crusty bread that arrives at the table with high-quality Italian olive oil.
Sfoglina offers nine pastas—nearly all of them house-made—and the option of pairing any pasta on the menu with any listed sauce. An order of squid-ink linguine is perfectly chewy and intermingled with tender pieces of lobster and a sauce made from lobster stock, tomatoes and lobster roe. It’s served in a CorningWare casserole, which is an ironic attempt at hominess. Trabocchi’s in on the joke, though—fully aware that his idea of casual is to festoon a salad with only four edible flowers instead of five.
Another adventure in mixing and matching finds potato gnocchi with the faintest hint of nutmeg—“as light as cumulous clouds,” said my companion—tossed with sautéed mushrooms and a porcini cream sauce with a splash of Madeira wine. These potato dumplings are not the pasty globs you encounter at average Italian restaurants.
Regrettably, an order of lasagna does fall victim to pastiness; its multiple layers of overcooked spinach pasta could not be resurrected by a bold Bolognese. And an entrée of veal cutlet in sage and brown butter sauce is overcooked and dry. But these are rare missteps.
Claudia Barrovecchio is the executive pastry chef for Trabocchi’s restaurants. By all means, do order a swirl of whatever gelato and sorbet she’s offering on the day of your visit. A medley of vanilla gelato and tangerine and blood orange sorbet is a Dreamsicle come true, all the better with its accompanying waffle cookie. Alternately, the chocolate hazelnut cake—a dense and fudgy indulgence, layered with hazelnut buttercream and chocolate ganache and topped with gold-dusted nuggets of hazelnut crunch—is a riff on Baci candy that earns a chef’s kiss.
Sfoglina Rosslyn opened in October, but runs as seamlessly as a restaurant that has been open and operating at the top of its game for a year. The servers are gracious, informed and clearly well-trained. They know the menu back and forth, a rarity these days. The cooking is refined, and the surroundings are elegant, inviting and gloriously soundproofed. In Trabocchi, Rosslyn can trust.
What To Drink
It’s refreshing when thought is put into every aspect of a beverage program, including the nonalcoholic offerings. The libations menu includes three fresh-pressed juices (I love the vibrant green one made from cucumber, apple, kale, spinach, ginger and parsley, $8) and two no-proof mocktails (go for the not-too-sweet grapefruit sparkler with agave and lime, $8).
Cocktails ($14 to $16) are divided into three categories: spritzes, Negronis and classics.
The robust selection of Italian wines includes 16 by the glass ($10 to $24); 17 white wines by the bottle ($45 to $150); and 36 reds in bottles ($44 to $315).
Sfoglina Pasta House
1100 Wilson Blvd., Arlington (Rosslyn)
202-525-1402
HOURS
Monday – Friday: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
Saturday: 4 to 9 p.m.
Closed Sunday
PARKING
Free parking (up to 3 hours) after 5 p.m. in the building’s garage (entrance on Wilson Boulevard)
PRICES
Appetizers: $12 to $16
Pastas: $19 to $24
Entrées: $28
Desserts: $8 to $14