I'm all about the happy hour menu. It forces me to leave the office at a respectable hour and still be home in time for dinner. For a restaurant that's on my walk home from the office I'm ashamed it's taken me over two months to check out. Rural Society in the Loews Madison Hotel at 15th and M is one of the latest streak house additions to hit DC. I've experienced Jose Garces' cooking before on past trips to Philly, notably JG Domestic, and always found it to be impressive, which Rural Society was too.

The happy hour at Rural Society offers a paired down appetizer menu along with the $5 wines we're accustomed to seeing on happy hour menus across town. With dishes including Chorizo Con Queso - a pork sausage stuffed with chimichurri, Empanada Tucumana - braised wagyu beef belly, and my personal favorite the Fugazza - a street food style doughy pizza filled with onions, mozzarella and oregano, which all manage to come together in one perfect melted bite. All three items were excellent, the empanadas especially so, packed with meat wrapped in a golden flaky crust - definitely worth the $5.

I've started to cut out dairy from my diet, at least to the best that I can. Coffee at home it's coconut creamer, if I'm craving a burger I'll skip the cheese. These are easy maneuvers. I still however crave a slice of pizza from time to time, I'm not talking your Papa John's or Pizza Hut, I don't need to break my no dairy rule for those, even after a drink or two I'm well behaved. Rarely can I eat a whole pizza, nor do I want to. It's a sharing dish, but it's not easy finding someone who will be happy to share a pizza sans cheese, at Ghibellina I think I've found the slice.

The Marinara at Ghibellina is worthy of a mention. I think we can all agree that the pizzas here are amongst the best in the city - brick oven roasted, slightly burnt crust, topped with razor-thin slices of garlic and fresh basil in a sea of rich tomato sauce. Delicious. More notably, during their happy hour which runs daily from 4-6:30, at $6.50 a pizza paired with a $5 glass of wine it's perhaps one of the best deals around.

If I made good choices we wouldn't be having this conversation, but I don't.

Ghibellina, 1610 14th Street NW, Washington, DC (closest metro: U Street)

© COPYRIGHT RUSSELL W. WARNICK, 2014 - 2022. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

DISCLAIMER / CONTACT