La Merna opens in Dupont with Chicago tavern-style pizza and cigarette cocktails
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La Merna brings a big does of Midwestern hospitality and Chicago-style tavern pies to Dupont Circle. Photo: Courtesy Brad Bobrow
If your only Chicago pizza experience is chain deep-dish — which is most Chicago pizza around D.C. — run to La Merna.
Why it matters: The cozy new Dupont Circle spot is all about crispy tavern-style pies, homemade pastas and Midwestern hospitality.
- Given the talent behind it, we'd be making a beeline regardless.
The big picture: Chef Bradley Shorten made a ton of hot-lists for his thin-crust pies in the Chicago suburbs. Now, alongside his wife, cheesemaker Meg Schmitt, he's bringing the real deal to D.C.
Dig in: La Merna feels like it belongs in Chicago — and it almost landed there. Friend-investors convinced the couple to swap Bucktown for Dupont Circle instead.
- Shorten is recreating the cheffy, slow-fermented, tavern-style pizzas that made the New York Times dub his other place, Kim's Uncle, "the Platonic ideal of Chicago tavern-style pizza."
- One big challenge? Sourcing the right ingredients — think the right Italian beef, Italian sausage and giardiniera — so they're making almost everything themselves.
Plus, Schmitt is leading the charge for fresh stracciatella, mozzarella, ricotta and other cheeses in-house.
The vibe: Think Midwestern supper club. The cozy, 50-seat dining room is filled with antique and vintage finds, with deep booths and a custom wood bar.
- "The point of the place is to look like it's been here for 80 years," Schmitt says.
Chef cheat sheet: Order the sausage and giardiniera pizza — "that's the true taste of Chicago," says Shorten. Or go for the current special topped with pepperoni, fresh stracciatella and hot honey.
- If pasta's your thing, don't skip the nduja-ricotta ravioli in butter sauce or the handkerchief noodles with short rib ragù.
- Also: Anchovy toast, fried gnudi ("like a mozzarella stick meets an Italian dumpling") and the summery stracciatella toast with melon, prosciutto and Calabrian chili honey.
To drink: Finish with the Amaro-spiked espresso martini, served — if you're so inclined — with a cigarette. Cigs are back, but the pairing "is optional," they promise (no, you still can't smoke inside).
The intrigue: Late-night-only burgers, launching soon after 10pm, seem destined to become an industry draw and magnet for late-night carnivores.
Thought bubble: We asked Axios Chicago food writer Monica Eng what D.C. should expect.
- "That is some of the best tavern-style pizza Chicago has ever seen," she says of Shorten's previous restaurants.
- "If past is prologue, D.C. is in for a treat. Shorten was involved in some of the best versions of Chicago's tavern-style pizza ever made. Enjoy it with a nice can of Old Style."
If you go: La Merna. 2153 P Street NW