1100 15th Street, NW
From a press release:
“Philotimo, chef and restaurateur Nicholas Stefanelli’s tribute to Greek food and culture, reopens today (Wednesday) in Washington, D.C. It originally debuted in January 2022, closing six months later due to a fire.
With a refreshed look and an a la carte menu, Philotimo welcomes guests for occasions both everyday and grand—and is ready for its reentrance into D.C.’s exciting dining scene.
Philotimo explores Greece’s rich and regionally vast cuisine,
pulling from the timeless homestyle cooking of the villages to the fresh seaside dining of the islands. The name itself defines the true embrace of hospitality; Philotimo is a word that conveys honor, grace and taking care of people.
“I want to show the depth and beauty of Greece,” says Stefanelli, who has traveled throughout the country over the years. “We’re here to tell the story of past and modern-day Greece, and bring it to the nation’s capital. The minute you walk in, you’re in our house.”
Michelin-starred, and an instant hit, Masseria was Stefanelli’s first solo restaurant, and the fine-dining Italian restaurant in the Union Market neighborhood cemented him as one of D.C.’s most important chefs. In 2017, Stefanelli—his father is Italian, his mother is Greek—traveled to Greece on a wine expedition. His family is from this border-shifting land, and his lineage hails from Ordu, which is present-day Turkey. These extensive R&D trips through Greece and the Black Sea is where he became enamored with the small villages, the winemaking, and the people behind the food—and it encouraged him to tell the story of the other side of his heritage through a culinary lens.
The new menu reveals homemade breads served with new-harvest Greek olive oil and a plethora of small plates, like the taramasalata (a dip of carp roe, olive oil and lemon); tirokafteri (a spicy mash of feta cheese); dolmades (grape leaves stuffed with rice); loukanika (pork and lamb sausage with leeks, orange and coriander); and beef tripe soup (in a luscious avgolemono-style broth, among other options. There’s also a selection of house-cured meats.
The menu maintains plenty of its biggest stars, like the slate of homemade pastas, including mantia. The tiny dumplings—stuffed with veal, dressed in brown butter and plated with a swoosh of yogurt—tell the sweetest tale. The saying goes, the smaller someone makes them, the more they love you.
Entrees include an ode to wild mushrooms, a filet of dorade royale paired with tomatoes, capers and olives; grilled Mediterranean octopus with black eye peas, basil and chili; roasted Shenandoah Valley lamb with lemon and oregano; stuffed quail; and olive-oil braised pork belly with cabbage.
As for dessert, “Greek breakfast” is a play on the way the Greeks start their day: coffee and a cigarette, but at Philotimo it’s chocolate sorbet, coffee mousse and chantilly cream layered in a mug with a rolled chocolate ganache on the saucer. Phyllo dough is made in house for a flawless baklava and the vanilla sundae is a show piece for sour cherries layered with a pistachio praline crumble and phyllo crisps.
The refreshed interior by Grupo 7 (the firm also created the original design) includes a shift in design and colorways, plus the addition of a DJ booth (with DJs spinning Thursday, Friday and Saturday). The high ceilings and large-scale windows let the dramatic light fixtures, in various materials like burlap, rope, crystal and metal, set the mood. There is now a second bar upstairs, and expanded private event spaces (with a private elevator).
The Philotimo team includes general manager and wine director Sotiris Bafitis, who grew up in Greece and the United States and traveled with Stefanelli within Greece. He has worked in D.C.’s defining establishments—Eighteenth Street Lounge, Jaleo, Zaytinya—and then transitioned into a role as a wine importer, bringing Greece’s most interesting bottles stateside. Blaine Welsh is the chef de cuisine, who most recently was executive chef of Destination Unknown Restaurants (Destino, Ghostbuger).
The wine cellar at Philotimo holds 4,000 bottles, focusing on Greek wines and the diaspora of Greek grapes and winemakers across the Mediterranean. The cocktail program is led by Creative Food Group’s beverage director, Joseph Kocjan. Signature cocktails tap into Greek exports like Stray Dog Wild Gin and mastiha, a liqueur, made from the mastic tree, which only grows on the Greek island of Chios. The cocktails range from the more eclectic, like the “Graydon Carter” with Metaxa 5 Stars brandy, Greek mountain tea, honey, lime and sparkling rose to the classic, “If I Were in Mykonos,” with gin, Mediterranean tonic, fruit, herbs and spices.
Philotimo is located at Midtown Center, 1100 15th Street NW, Washington, D.C.
Hours: Open Tuesday to Friday, 5:30 – 10 p.m. and Saturday, 5 – 10 p.m. Coming soon: Kaimaki, an all-day cafe with coffee, wine and cocktails opening in the adjoining space; and brunch at Philotimo.”