A lot can happen in a week. Bibiana Osteria-Enoteca, the decade-old Italian darling by Knightsbridge Restaurant Group’s Ashok Bajaj, shuttered for a complete makeover at the end of August. A crew of 20 worked just a handful of days (and nights) to transform the 140-seat restaurant and outdoor patio into Modena, a completely revised “Italian-influenced” eatery with a menu nodding to, but not limited by, its classic Italian predecessor.
It’s become a trend for D.C. restaurateurs to change up their concepts when business lags or when they’re ready for a refresh, especially for Bajaj. Over the last few years, he’s transformed three of the group’s dining rooms—Ardeo, Bardeo, and NoPa Kitchen, all serving American cuisine—into Indian street kitchen Bindaas, Israeli restaurant Sababa, and the Mediterranean-influenced Olivia. As Bajaj told DCist last month, Modena has the most in common with its forerunner of any of his revamps, but is through and through a new restaurant.
Modena’s look and feel—a cool teal and blue color scheme, hanging plants and window boxes, freshly lacquered tabletops, street scenes of Italy, a name borrowed from a city in Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region—isn’t the only switch the team made on a time limit. Executive chef John Melfi worked around the clock to create or re-envision 20 dishes and six menus in under a month. Melfi, who says he’s known for modern French, Italian, and Southern influences, previously served as executive chef at Bajaj’s The Oval Room and Fabio Trabocchi’s Fiola Mare, and lent his expertise to powerhouse spots like Blue Duck Tavern.
Instead of just sticking to the Italian classic recipes (though a few traditional items, such as a veal, pork, and beef Bolognese, bolstered by Melfi’s family recipe, will stay), Modena will go a more playful route with its pastas and entrees, incorporating avocado and periwinkle snails from Maine (“We take them out with a toothpick,” Melfi says) into a sausage-stuffed calamari dish. A grilled yellowfin tuna is served on confit fennel, tomato, and olives. Cured salmon ravioli are piped with mascarpone cheese and lemon. Seasonal ingredients like donut peaches, corn, and melon also make appearances in main courses and desserts. While Bibiana regulars might recognize the spaghetti and clams, Melfi adds fried croutons and takes the clams out of the shell for ease.
He also created new sweets to end a meal: yogurt panna cotta around a raspberry coulis center, hazelnut chocolate mousse sprayed with cocoa butter with a side of hazelnut milk and citrus gelato, or a fig lemon tart set in a caramelized praline crust.
“I think we’re trying to elevate everything a little bit, from our bread service to our ice cream to petit fours after dinner, without trying to make it too stuffy or expensive,” says Melfi. “Hopefully offering different levels of dining experiences will keep people coming back on more than a special occasion.”
There are several avenues for dining at Modena. During the week, the restaurant will offer a $20 lunch at the bar (with entrée and wine or dessert) and a $30 three-course business lunch in the dining room. Dinner pastas and entrees will run $22 to $36. During happy hour, select cocktails and wines will be $7 each, with snackables $10 or under.
Another addition is an antipasti trolley cart, which will rove around the dining room dim-sum style and offer a rotating selection of shareable bites, such as a ricotta cheese tart, roasted beets and blue cheese, marinated olives, or an heirloom tomato salad (three for $15, seven for $20). The team says portions are small enough that diners can order from the cart and still be hungry for an entrée.
Wine is a fixture of the beverage program, as one might expect from a place with Italian roots. But instead of confining the 225-bottle list to Italy (thought it still tilts about 65 percent that way), Modena expanded to offerings from Spain, the United States, and other producers around the world. For the cocktail list, general manager Steve London, an addition to the team from Knightbridge’s Rasika, changed all but the Bibiana Manhattan (as a nod to the restaurant’s past, he notes).
“Italian ingredients in cocktails are amazing because you have such a large section of amari to choose from, fantastic vermouths,” London says. “You have a smorgasbord of things to play with.”
The Amalfi Coast cocktail uses agave and vodka infused with a Teaism brew. The Great Belzoni, named after Italian explorer Giovanni Belzoni, features rye whiskey, Don Ciccio & Figli’s amaro, and bitters. For the Hotel Cozumel, the bartenders roast pineapples in the kitchen’s pizza oven and marinate them in raw sugar syrup as a riff on the Cuban Hotel Nacional cocktail. The Modena Sour gets a top-off from Lambrusco bubbles.
Even as the team goes more creative with the city’s options for Italian dishes, the restaurant still celebrates the country many of its ingredients hail from, all the way down to its name.
“[Modena] is a good region and city to be named after,” Melfi says. “[Some] Parmesan is from there, balsamic vinegar is from there, Ferraris … They know what they’re doing with food and cars over there.”
Modena is located at 1100 New York Ave NW (main entrance on 12th and H Streets). Open for lunch Monday-Friday 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Open for dinner Monday-Thursday 5 p.m.-10 p.m., Friday-Saturday 5 p.m.-10:30 p.m. Happy hour runs Monday-Friday 3 p.m.-7 p.m.
