Divine. 2505 Wisconsin Ave., NW.

Daniel Perron was a cook and Luca Giovannini a bartender when they first met at the Blue Duck Tavern nearly 15 years ago. They reconnected with the team opening the vibrant Italian restaurant Fiola Mare in Georgetown. Today, Perron, most recently executive chef of Charlie Palmer Steak, and Giovannini, owner of Donahue cocktail bar in Georgetown – are teaming up again to create their own highly seasonal Northern Italian restaurant called Divino, which will focus on multi-colored pastas and wood-fired meats and vegetables. It is scheduled to open at the Glover Park Hotel on Monday, November 18.

“Every week you come, you’ll get something a little different, especially from me. I really like changing the menu,” says Perron, who was also executive chef at Trummer’s and the former Whaley’s seafood restaurant.

One of Divino’s focal points will be a pasta counter where diners can watch tortellini or tagliatelle being prepared. Perron hopes to set his pastas apart with multi-colored pastas made with freshly milled flour from Anson Mills. For example, it’s served on black-striped agnolotti with activated charcoal-braised oxtail, and koginut squash ravioli are pressed into the shape of pumpkins. Meanwhile, a double ravioli combines two flavors in one: a tomato-infused dough stuffed with housemade ricotta and chunky crab, plus a traditional egg yolk dough filled with honey squash and parmesan. The dish is garnished with caviar.

Perron says he was seduced by the idea of ​​multi-colored pasta from the chefs on Instagram: “I think it’s something cool, something unique,” ​​Perron says. “Nobody really does it in Washington.”

Divino inherits a pizza oven from Michael Schlow’s Italian restaurant Casolare, which previously occupied the space, but the new restaurant will not serve pizza. Instead, Perron will use the oven for wood-roasted vegetable and meat dishes, highlighting local producers like Karma Farm and pork purveyor Autumn Olive Farms. Perron will put some of his steakhouse experience to good use with a costata tomahawk rib-eye dry-aged in-house and rubbed with miso and dried porcini powder.

The name Divino has a double meaning: both “divine” and “of wine” in Italian. Giovannini, former corporate beverage director of Fabio Trabocchi restaurants, will focus on northern Italian wines to complement the meat-based menu. The wine list, featuring at least 20 offerings by the glass, will include Barbaresco and Barolo, but Giovannini is particularly excited about Ferrari, a champagne-like sparkling wine from his hometown of Trento. “Unfortunately, there aren’t many restaurants that offer Ferrari, apart from a few Michelin-starred restaurants,” says Giovannini. Meanwhile, the cocktail menu will be heavy on negronis as well as drinks incorporating vermouth and wine.

Given the hotel’s location, Divino will also open for breakfast. The owners hope to turn their coffee bar into its own destination for espresso drinks as well as a range of homemade pastries like cornetti and bomboloni. There will also be more sit-down options, including frittatas.

Just like the menu, the dining room is a little refined and a little rustic with terracotta tiles and velvety blue benches. In the spring, they plan to transform the 60-seat patio into a relaxed wine garden where you can enjoy cicchetti (small snacks) and a glass of wine. Before Christmas, the covered terrace will be equipped with heat lamps to enjoy hot apple cider, chestnuts and toasted marshmallows. The hotel will also begin construction on a rooftop bar with stunning views of DC and its landmarks in April 2025.

“The goal is to truly be a destination for wine lovers,” says Giovannini. “You are I’ll have, like, a $12 glass of wine, no problem, bBut you will also discover a new producer that you may have never heard of.

This story has been updated from a September version with more recent details.

Food editor

Jessica Sidman covers the people and trends behind DC’s food and drink scene. Before joining Washingtonian as of July 2016, she was food editor and Young & Hungry columnist at the Washington City Paper. She is a native of Colorado and a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.