Sonoma Restaurant & Wine Bar, Washington, D.C.

arugula salad - black trumpet mushrooms, pecorino, pine nuts, red wine P3 vinaigrette

I love stumbling into restaurants I have never been to or heard of when I travel. Such was the case for Sonoma Restaurant and Wine Bar on Capitol Hill. It was well past 1 PM and the entire Aquino clan and some friends were all starving and ready to take a break from the sweltering DC heat.

The interiors of Sonoma has clean lines and a comforting ambiance. The wine bar dominates the first floor main dining
room. The restaurant has a wonderful event space upstairs complete with soft seating for up to 175 guests.

We chose Sonoma partly for its mission of using the best naturally-raised ingredients and locally sourced products. I can always learn from these visits and see what we could implement in six.one.six restaurant back in Grand Rapids.

The food reminded me a lot of Chez Panisse in Berkeley. From the Arugula Salad with trumpet mushrooms that tasted like it was just plucked from the backyard garden to the house-made Spaghetti with garlic, ricotta and egg yolk. I ordered the Stuffed Calamari with potato, salumi and squid ink aioli, and to my surprise, my son Jules loved it and we had to order him another portion. My good friend Luigi ordered the Mushroom "burger" with hand cut fries which was nourishing as it was filling despite not having a slab of beef in between the buns.

You can count that I will be back in Sonoma on my next trip to DC. Hopefully, when the weather is a bit cooler.

the wine bar

house made spaghetti - ricotta, garlic, egg yolk, oregano, black pepper

stuffed calamari - potato, salumi, lemon, squid ink aioli

mushroom "burger" - grilled onions & hand cut fries

the long banquette seating