One of my favorite places for Italian food in The District is Etto. The tiny spot on hip 14th Street isn’t fancy, but the food is absolutely fabulous. Both the wood-fired pizzas and antipasti are made right behind the bar. Love that. That’s why I prefer to sit at the bar, so I can watch the cooks prepare the food. Etto shows that good food doesn’t have to be pretentious. All the dishes are made with high quality products and very fresh seasonal produce, so little can go wrong. Often I just order several antipasti with bread. The daily changing menu offers all kinds of inventive dishes, also with lots of veggies. Recently we had a beautiful salad with red watercress, grilled green asparagus with a spicy orange dressing, and roasted cauliflower with saffron and pine nuts. But the pizzas are definitely good as well. They are kind of soft and chewy, like the Neapolitan ones, and therefore pliable and easy to eat with your hands. No reservations, walk-ins only.
