Gregorio's - Family Food in Potomac

Gregorio's Trattoria - Potomac

7745 Tuckerman Lane 

Potomac, MD

http://www.gregoriostrattoria.com/

There's a new Italian restaurant in town, and I'm glad to welcome them to Potomac.

Gregorio's is a family-friendly restaurant. It's casual and reminds me of a lot of little restaurants you'd come across in New Jersey. It's owned by the Kahn family. They've been around the area for a long time dealing with a lot of restaurants as vendors, and now they own two. This is their second location, the first being in Reston.

They start you out with some warm bread sticks that fills the air with a great cloud of garlic. That always gets my appetite working.

The wine list has a good selection and plenty of bottles that don't require an expense account. If I remember correctly they are happy to go by the glass on most selections.

We started with some Calamari.

Fried nicely. It got to the table hot and crunchy. They took the right route with the breading. Not so heavy that it falls off, very mildly seasoned.

We had the Mozzarella Caprese. Good end-of-summer tomatoes with fresh mozz. 

They shook my up Manhattan, but we had a discussion about that..

Grandma was in town, so she got to join us. Even Grandmas like the food here!

They've got a comfortable bar to hang out and have a drink. They're just getting started on the bar program. I'll be interested to see how it progresses. It's nice to have a place to go and have a cocktail that's close by.

Their pizzas are good. We've ordered take out from them a couple of times now. Much better than the other locally available pies.

Pizza chef!

Alex had the pasta with sausage and meatballs. Good flavor to the meats.

.I had the veal chop Carmine style with herbed garlic butter. They were happy to switch out my pasta for some sauteed spinach. I have to say that the veal chop was done perfectly and was the most tender I've ever had. I've eaten a lot of veal chops, so that is saying something.

On a side note, they have dishes for gluten-free and carb-free folks. The carb-free lunch plate was really good and just the right size.

Cheryl had the linguini with clams. Not as good as mine, but, then again, whose is? Legal Seafoods tought me well.  I can say that it wasn't lacking for flavor and the clams had been washed well. The sauce is flavorful and there were plenty of clams.

Hello there tasty bivalves!

Grandma had the eggplant parm. I didn't get to try it, but she liked it.

We had to try a couple of deserts. The flourless chocolate tort was perfect. Rich and decadent.

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The cannoli was the best I've had since Piancone's in New Jersey. Exactly the right amount of sugar and vanilla in the marscapone. 

The tiramisu was exactly as it should be. Give it a taste if you can fit some in after the cannoli.

Overall, a great place you can go and get a slice of decent pizza at lunch or have a good dinner with your family without driving downtown or breaking the bank. If you live in the area, it's definitely worth checking out. Their sign is small and they opened quietly. Now that they've got their sea-legs under them, give them a shot.

If you go, let Greg know that you heard about it on Pleasures of the Table.