The weather during my stay out in the Washington D.C. area was cool, but rain-free. That is, until the final day of the trade show after I left the site to head back to my hotel. It was raining pretty steadily by the time I got back to my hotel and I really didn't want to venture out. However, when I got back to the hotel, I found that the kitchen - and bar - were both closed Sunday night. Faced with having to venture back out into the rain, I didn't want to go far from the hotel. I did a quick Google search to find restaurants near me and there really weren't many - at least any that I was interested in going to. However, there was an Italian restaurant just up the road from the hotel and I thought I'd go check it out. It was literally pouring rain when I took off from the hotel to head to That's Amore Grill.
Gennaro Ferrigno was born in Naples, Italy and worked in his family's bakery starting as a young boy. In his mid-30's Ferrigno immigrated to the U.S. and ended up working as a chef in a family member's restaurant in Chicago. Ferrigno eventually made it to the Washington D.C. area in the 80's working at handful of restaurants. In 1992, Ferrigno and a partner started That's Amore Grill. While Ferrigno retired and moved to Florida in 2003, members of this family continue to run the restaurant to this day.
That's Amore is located along Shady Grove Road in Rockville, not far from the Washington National Pike/I-270. (see map) The rain had subsided by the time I pulled into the parking lot and I parked in front of the building. There are two entrances with awnings - one is for the banquet facility on a subterranean level, while the other entrance is for the bar/restaurant.
The main dining room is right when you walk in the door. It was sort of fancy with a patterned carpet floor and back-lit stained-glass windows set into a wood paneled wall. There were a lot of pictures of Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra on the walls around the dining room.
There is a second part to the dining room that can be closed off for private dining or events. The ceiling featured ornate dark wood trim and the center piece to the room was a large tropical plant. The few diners they had at That's Amore that evening were seated in this section of the dining area.
The bar is to the right when you walk into That's Amore. It featured a faux back-lit sky light and more back-lit stained glass behind the bar. There were NFL football games on the TV's in the place and there were a few diners at the bar or at hightop tables in the lounge area.
On one side of the bar/lounge was a small indention with lights above the little area. That's Amore has live jazz music on Wednesday nights and I was also told that they used to have music in there on Sundays, but it didn't seem to draw the crowds.
I took a seat at the bar and the bartender came over with a menu. She introduced herself as Faith and she made sure she used my name when engaging me the rest of the visit. She turned out to be a wonderful bartender/server and made me feel welcome and comfortable doing my time there.
Faith asked me what I would like to drink. I saw that they had Peroni on tap and I ordered one of those. After getting my beer, moments later someone brought out a basket of focaccia bread with olive oil and parmesan cheese. The focaccia bread was warm and delicious. I was a bit famished since I hadn't had any lunch that day.
The menu had a number of interesting items to choose from. The appetizer part of the menu featured grilled calamari - a house specialty, as well as stuffed mushrooms, fried calamari, bruschetta, and mussels served with roma tomatoes and capers topped with herbs and red pepper flakes. A number of salads were also available on the menu for starters.
There were a number of pasta dishes on the menu including gnocchi with pesto, penne pasta in a tomato vodka sauce, fettuccine alfredo, and stuffed tortellini in an alfredo/parmesan sauce. I asked Faith if the tortellini was meat-stuffed or cheese-stuffed and she informed me it was the latter. Build your own pizza was also available at That's Amore.
There were also a number of Italian specialties available such as veal or chicken parmesan, chicken or veal marsala, and chicken or veal piccata. Lasagna, eggplant parmesan, and chicken Vesuvio were also on the menu. There were also grilled or oven-baked items such as rack of lamb, a USDA Prime New York strip steak, and grilled shrimp and scallops in a roasted red pepper cream sauce available.
Quite honestly, I wasn't really certain what I wanted that evening because a lot of the selections sounded good to me. I kept going back to the pasta section of the menu and it was down to the fettuccine alfredo (Faith tempted me by telling me they could put grilled shrimp in the dish) or a pasta with bolognese sauce. A choice of pasta came with the bolognese sauce and I asked Faith if they had tagliatelle noodles. "No, I wish we did," she said. I ended up ordering the bolognese with linguine noodles.
The bolognese sauce was thick, meaty and had a bit of a spicy tomato flavor. I didn't detect any cream in the bolognese sauce, but that was fine. The flavor was good - not the best bolognese I've had, but it wasn't bad at all. For a rainy Sunday night, it was a hearty and filling meal. I thought about getting a glass of red wine with the meal, but I just stuck with Peroni to help wash it all down.
During my time at That's Amore, there were a number of to-go orders that were picked up at the bar. As I was finishing up with my meal, a customer came in the pick up a to-go order and he was drenched. "It's pouring out there," he told Faith as he was paying for his order. I thought that I'd stick around a little longer to see if the rain would let up. (It never did.)
I asked Faith if I could see the dessert menu. They had a handful of items on the dessert menu including cannoli, bread pudding, a New York cheesecake served with a fresh berry compote, and a chocolate chip devil's food cake with a rich chocolate cream frosting. Many of those sounded good to me, but I got the tiramisu. Faith said that it was made in-house and I could tell by how fresh it was. It was served with fresh cream, chocolate drizzle and powdered sugar. The tiramisu was delicious - it was the highlight to my meal at That's Amore.
That's not to say that the bolognese with linguine was bad - far from it. It was a good wholesome Italian-style meal that was perfect for the weather outside. Faith was a very good bartender/server and she made me feel comfortable while I was there. For a suburban Italian restaurant, That's Amore Grill was definitely worth a try.
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