When the mood for pasta strikes in D.C., options are plentiful. Some are neighborhood favorites, and others count Michelin stars. That doesn’t worry restaurateur Danny Meyer, who debuted his first full-service Washington restaurant last week with Maialino Mare in Navy Yard.
“I feel like with Italian food, there’s never enough,” says Meyer, CEO of Union Square Hospitality Group, which operates some of New York’s most iconic restaurants, including Gramercy Tavern and Union Square Cafe. He’s also founder of the Shake Shack burger chain.
Meyer says he’s excited to expand in D.C., a city he sees as having an “equally sophisticated” dining scene as its mighty neighbor up I-95.
“There’s always been good restaurants here, but now there’s a ton of good restaurants here,” he says.
Maialino Mare is the flagship restaurant of the equally new Thompson Washington D.C. hotel. The restaurant includes a bright, 58-seat dining room that looks far bigger than it is thanks to high ceilings and large windows. There’s space for another 31 people at the bar, and a companion rooftop bar Anchovy Social will debut later this year.
In the kitchen, executive Chef Rose Noel takes cues from the simple, ingredient-driven Roman cuisine served at sister restaurant Maialino in Manhattan. It starts with pastas, like the uncomplicated cacio e pepe, made with loads of black pepper, pecorino cheese, water, and olive oil. Spicy tomato sauce and guanciale (pork jowl) come together in bucatini Amatriciana. And then there’s the namesake slow-roasted suckling pig (Maialino translates to “little pig” in Italian). The recipes are intentionally more familiar than they are exploratory.
“What I love about Rome is that 80 percent of every menu in Rome is exactly the same as 80 percent of all the other menus,” Meyer says.
“Mare” comes from the Italian word for sea, and the menu makes some seafood turns along the way. Ocean influences include spaghetti with clams (vongole) and ricotta ravioli with bottarga, shaved mullet roe. Instead of a veal saltimbocca, the kitchen swaps in scallops for the main protein, along with sage and prosciutto. And rather than using a pounded out veal chop in its Milanese, Maialiano Mare sources skate wing. Pastas and main courses run $18 all the way to $88 for a shareable porterhouse steak for two.
Notably, everything at Maialino Mare is priced with gratuity in mind, eliminating the need to tip. So while that means cocktails are $16 and the cheapest bottle of wine is in the $50 range, it also means that the price is the price, without any surprise fees added at the end. In addition, $1 from every meal served will be donated to No Kid Hungry.
“I hope people will enjoy the experience of signing their check at the end and the price is what it is,” Meyer says.
This “hospitality included” model is one that Meyer has pioneered across his Union Square Hospitality Group as a way to create a revenue sharing model across his entire staff. That includes offering benefits like health insurance, paid time off, and access to a 401(k). The move drew criticism when it was announced in 2015, with Meyer telling Eater NY that a large portion of his legacy staff decided to leave the company.
Similar policies have existed in D.C. with mixed results. The two Michelin-starred Pineapple and Pearls includes gratuity in its price, plus a five percent addition to provide benefits to employees. The now-closed Sally’s Middle Name debuted with an automatic 18 percent service charge on all checks; it was later rolled back in favor of the standard model. Kevin Tien, chef at Hot Lola’s and Emilie’s, levies a 4 percent “employee wellness charge” on all his checks.
The tipping debate swelled in 2018 with the passing of Initiative 77, when 55 percent of D.C. residents voted to replace the tipped minimum wage (at the time $3.33, currently $4.45) with a $15-an-hour rate by 2026. The D.C. Council later repealed the measure.
Meyer explains that while it may not work for every business (“we’re not missionaries,” he says), he’s found it to be a successful way to provide professional and financial growth opportunities for everyone, from cooks to servers.
“A big part of what the [restaurant] experience has to be is a happy staff, and that’s our job to do that,” Meyer says.
And as far as being a New York transplant to this proud and growing food city, Meyer says he looks forward to getting to know the ins and outs of doing business here and embraces the chance to live up to the competition.
“It makes our lives richer to be here at this moment,” he says. “Teams do better when they are playing better teams, they just do.”
Maialino Mare is located at 221 Tingey St. SE.
