Food Club & Special Offers
For more information about the i Ricchi Food Club please click here.
- Food Club: June 15-20
Because of its strategic location in the center of the Mediterranean, Sicily attracted numerous invaders, all leaving their mark on local cuisine. It is simple food, “cucina povera,” but immensely rich in ingredients, giving us some wonderfully flavorful options for our summer Sicilian menu. Fruits and vegetables are abundant. Eggplant, fennel, tomato, citrus, peaches, pistachios, almonds, olives, ricotta and swordfish are all featured.
Though agriculturally rich, Sicily has suffered under the weight of adversity. Internationally acclaimed film, Cinema Paradiso, offers a particularly poignant glimpse into post war rural life – still amazingly relevant today. We think it is an enriching addition to this week’s menu, creating an authentic Sicilian experience.
- White Dinner June 20, 2021
Cena Bianca
Celebrate the Solstice and the longest day of the year under the fading
summer light at our annual White Dinner on the Piazza at i Ricchi.
Dress in white and bring your appetite to this much anticipated summer feast!
We’ll supply the rest, under the stars and twinkling lights – white linens,
white flowers, white candles, white sparklers and a magnificent summer dinner.Menu
Featuring Bianco Spritz Cocktails
Anise cured salmon
with tarragon mascarpone
White lemon pizza
Taleggio & mortadella
stuffed panzerotti
Cacio, pepe, pancetta &
arugula pasta
Tuscan fried chicken
Smoky barbecued shrimp
Pork ribs – Rosticciana
Portobello corn salad
Rice salad
Flatbreads
Panna cotta with blackberry salsa$89 (exclusive tax & tip)
RESERVATIONS: 202-835-0459 or www.iricchifoodclub.com
- Food Club: June 8-13
Emilia-Romagna – Italy’s Heartland of Ingredients
Think of your favorite Italian ingredients…pasta, olive oil,
parmesan, balsamic vinegar, prosciutto, and cured meats. These are the cornerstones of Italian cuisine and they are what make Emilia-Romagna one of the most important gastronomic regions of Italy. Italians have an innate sense of place. Land is of utmost importance as the source of ingredients for their century’s old recipes. It is the root of their heritage and their cuisine – an expression of local values.This week’s menu showcases these mainstays and more of Italian regional cooking and brings me back to some fun memories as a young American roughing it in the Italian Apennines.
- Food Club: June 1-6
Big Night!
“In love and life, one big night can change everything.”
Just like in the film “Big Night,” the Ricchi’s had the opportunity to serve a dinner that would forever change the trajectory of their lives. Only after a month of opening their Tuscan restaurant, newly inaugurated President George Herbert Walker Bush came to dinner, creating a media buzz that would firmly establish them as Washington’s newest authentic Italian restaurant.
This week’s menu highlights i Ricchi dishes that were relatively unknown when they opened in 1989, but which have become customer favorites.
- Food Club: May 25-30
Leave the Gun, Take the Cannoli!
Many Italian Americans grow up thinking the specialties prepared by their grandmothers are authentically Italian. Though certainly rooted in recipes from the “old country,” many were changed as immigrants adapted to their new home in America and to the ingredients they could find.
“It is the memories and experiences the Italian immigrants brought with them, coupled with the products they found, that developed in totoday’s Italian-American cuisine,” says renowned Italian chef and author, Lidia Bastianich.
Much of mainstream America was introduced to this immigrant culture through movies like “The Godfather.” This week’s menu highlights some of the most beloved dishes made famous by the movie.
- Food Club: May 18 – 23
Piemonte, Risotto & Napoleon
In their regional cuisines, Italians understand and celebrate their home grown specialties, much of which are rooted in long traditions. Piemonte is rich in ingredients ranging from the Alps to the rice paddies of its plains, to the manicured vineyards on the rolling hills of Le Langhe. Our menu this week showcases all of these, embellished with local folklore and historic battle stories.
- Food Club: May 11-16
Kicking off Festival Season in the Italian Riviera
Italy’s best kept food secret is the “sagra”, a festival organized to show off the typical enogastronomic products of a particular area. During the second week of May the “Sagra del Pesce” is held in Camogli, a stunning seaside village south of Genova on the Ligurian coast, also known as the Italian Riviera. This week we pay homage to the coastal ingredients and spirit of this beautiful region and perhaps remember some of our own summer getaways and beachside picnics.
- Fashion Show
Join us on May 22nd at 3:30pm for a fashion show fundraiser to benefit the Miss America Scholarship Organization on the Piazza! The candidates from this year’s Miss District of Columbia Scholarship Organization will be modeling the latest designer gowns from Signature. There is no admission fee for this event. Join us for a to support these young women. We will be adhering to all CDC and DC guidelines.
Reserve a table: 202-835-0459.
- Food Club: May 4-9
Presenting: Spaghetti Westerns & Tuscan Cowboys
The original cowboys were Italian! Oh yes they were! The Butteri of southern Tuscany have been an intrinsic part of the Maremma area for centuries, riding and roping long-horned cattle on horseback. Maybe that explains, in part, why Italians have always been intrigued with the American West.
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, recognized as one of the top ten films of all time, was an Italian-made Western, emblematic of the widely popular genre of movies directed by Italian, Sergio Leone, in the 1960s and 70s that were ultimately dubbed “Spaghetti Westerns.” They were a stark depiction of the Old West, featuring characters who possessed both heroic and villainous traits, the most prominent being “The Man with No Name” portrayed by Clint Eastwood.
This week’s menu is inspired by simple, straight-forward foods that could have been eaten in the marshes of Maremma or on the Plains of the American West.
- Chef Chris Ricchi featured by the Women Business Collaborative
Chef Christianne Ricchi was featured by the Women Business Collaborative. The feature presents Chef Chris’ perspective on the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and how she has managed i Ricchi during this time.
- Food Club: April 27 – May 2
It’s A Roman Holiday!
The iconic Academy Award winning movie, Roman Holiday, helped to position post-war Italy as a mecca for film, fashion and modern culture. A story of a nemph-like princess, played by Audrey Hepburn, it recounts her one glorious day on the lam in Rome. The 1950’s viewer is introduced, possibly for the first time, to the seductive Eternal City through her experiences — like riding on a run-away Vespa, dancing in a piazza, sitting at a sidewalk café or enjoying a gelato on the Spanish Steps.
But you can’t talk of Rome without celebrating its food. To taste true Roman cooking, it is essential to eat in it’s small “osteria” or “trattorie.” Our menu this week highlights some of Rome’s most beloved and popular dishes – dishes that you will find in most every Roman Trattoria today.
Will you join us for dinner and a movie — and escape with us to Rome?
