Food Club & Special Offers
For more information about the i Ricchi Food Club please click here.
- Food Club: June 28 – July 3
Puglia: Frugality & Abundance
Puglia, at the heel, highlights the desirable qualities of Italian life that draws us all to this amazing country. It is scattered with Baroque architecture, pristine wilderness and wonderful beaches, charming villages, olive and citrus groves, underground caves and Roman ruins. Puglia’s agricultural heritage and enviable coasts make it the perfect place for great food. Ironically, this is “cucina povera,” though rich in produce and ingredients. Here there is a straightforward and practical attitude towards food. Its cooks are creative and have an enormous capacity of making something out of nothing.
- Celebrate Summer at our Annual Cena Bianca (White Dinner)
For weeks now, people have been asking if we will be hosting our Cena Bianca on the Piazza again this year. Certamente! This festive communal dinner has become our annual Rite of the Summer Solstice.
Cena Bianca, i Ricchi, Washington, DC For thirty years, organizers around the world have been planning huge events that bring people from diverse backgrounds together in public spaces to interact, converse and, of course, eat. It has become an international phenomena in more than 70 cities in 35 countries. That was my inspiration, four years ago, when I organized our first outdoor party to celebrate the longest day of the year and the official beginning of Summer.
The original “Diner en Blanc de Paris” began in 1988 when a Parisian man invited his friends to a picnic dinner in the park with the directive to dress in white to be more recognizable. It has since grown to attract thousands and thousands of white clad party goers invited only hours before the secret dining location is revealed. Once invited (it is a complicated process), participants bring everything they will need for an outdoor dinner down to the white table and chairs, linens, decorations, china, crystal and everyone is dressed in white with the greatest decorum and elegance. Before midnight, the dinner ends and every item is removed from the site. That’s quite a lot of work for a dinner party, if you ask me!
We love the concept of bringing people together on our Piazza, so we have decided to do the work for you! All you have to do is purchase a ticket, put on your best whites and show up for a great Summer dinner! Cena Bianca, Sunday, June 26 at 6:30 PM. $95
- Food Club: June 7-12
Emilia-Romagna: 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 upmost 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.
- Cena Bianca: June 26, 2022
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
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Taleggio & mortadella stuffed panzerottiCacio, pepe, pancetta & arugula pasta
*
Tuscan fried chicken
*
Smoky barbecued shrimp
*
Pork ribs – RosticcianaPortobello corn salad
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Rice salad
*
Flatbreads
*
Panna cotta with blackberry salsa$95 (exclusive tax & tip)
RESERVATIONS: Call: 202 835 0459
- Food Club: May 31 – June 5
The 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 24 – 29
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 into today’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 17-22, 2022
Piemonte, Risotto & Napoleon
In their regional cuisines, Italians understand and celebrate their homegrown 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 10-15
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.
- Food Club: May 3-8
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.
- Festa Della Mamma
Mother’s Day Sparkling Celebration
Antipasti (choice of one)
Spring salad – celery hearts, apple, toasted hazelnuts & lemon vinaigrette
Star anise cured salmon, tarragon aioli, haricots verts, potato & Castelvetrano olives
Caprese – assorted tomatoes, fior di latte mozzarella, basil, evoo
Asparagus Fiorentina – eggs mimosa, balsamic vinaigrette
**
Primi (choice of one)
Fresh pea soup, mint mascarpone, thyme croutons
Pasta al forno – creamy baked pasta with zucchini, peas, asparagus, leeks & provolone
Capellini, fresh tomato & basil
Lobster risotto, prosecco & parmesan
**
Secondi (choice of one)
Eggplant parmesan
Chicken scallopine, lemon & capers
Pan seared Maine scallops, wild mushrooms, ricotta gnocchi, parsley butter
Chilean sea bass, creamy white polenta, parmesan carrots
**
Dolci (choice of one)
Panna cotta, balsamic strawberries, cracked black pepper
Torta della Nonna “Grandmother’s” cream, pine nut tart
Chocolate covered profiteroles filled with Chantilly cream
Frutti di bosco, mixed berry sorbetto with fresh spring berries
$89
* a la cart meu also available
Reservations: 202-835-0459 - Food Club: April 26-May 1
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.
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?
