Caruso's Grocery

Chef Matt Adler's Capitol Hill restaurant is a love letter to Italian American cooking. Walls lined with framed photos and shiny red booths call back to the type of red sauce joints so common on the East Coast (Adler spent his early years as a line cook at Scoozi, his dad's Italian restaurant). The menu at Caruso's Grocery is filled with classics made with markedly fresh ingredients and mastered with cheffy skills; each bite of the thinly-pounded chicken parmiginia yields a satisfying snap and swims in marina sauce, and the creamy Alfredo is studded with chunks of mushroom. Finish your meal off with a hefty wedge of tiramisu.