Vace - Washington, D.C.; Bethesda, MD

A couple of weeks ago when I posted about Carmines in Chinatown, I asked my Facebook friends for their favorite Italian restaurant in D.C. I got a lot of recommendations, but since two of my colleagues recommended Vace in Cleveland Park, I decided to check it out.

Now Vace is not your typical restaurant. I would classify it as an Italian market or delicatessen. For those of you who know me well, you know I have a pasta shape obsession, so Vace was essentially my Disneyland!! First of all, the small shop features an amazing selection of dried pastas with some exciting creative shapes. The true highlight though was in the freezers - the frozen pastas! And I did not hold back. Chris and I purchased gnochi, meat ravioli, pumpkin agnelloti, spinach and cheese cannelloni, meat cannelloni and three sauces! For those of you wondering, that came to $43 (woops) including a last minute slice of pizza. It took everything in my power to not also buy the spinach and cheese ravioli and mushroom agnelloti, but that will have to be for next time!

After we left with our purchases, Chris ate his pizza slice on a bench in Cleveland Park. Now Chris being from New Jersey has high expectations of what pizza should taste like. When he said it was really good I almost fell off the bench. I have not heard him say that about D.C. pizza once! Points to Vace.

As we walked home, we had a big decision to make - what to have for dinner! After much debate and conversation, we decided we would save the cannelloni for a special occasion and try the gnochi. Chris would have the meat sauce and I would try the walnut sauce.

We made our Italian feast tonight and it was exactly that! The gnocci was delicious and we both enjoyed our respective sauces. While the walnut sauce was a touch on the heavy side (I literally had a teaspoon of it.), the bite I had of Chris' meat sauce was delicious.

For those of you in search of Italian, I would highly recommend Vace. It makes a great Sunday dinner and you can keep the pastas frozen for quite some time.

And so ends my first Italian tour of the city. Don't worry there will be more, but I think it is time to embark on my first official Asian tour of the city.

Vace you get 4.5 out of 5 dumplings!

www.vaceitaliandeli.com