About Rose's Luxury
Here’s why it’s worth waiting an hour (or more) for one of the no-reservations tables: because Rose’s makes you feel good.
That’s not as simple as it sounds. How often do you walk out of a place feeling loads better than when you walked in? Chef/owner Aaron Silverman hasn’t just lucked out in hiring good people; he has treated his servers well financially and given them great support on the floor. The result? A staff so sincere, so engaging, and so concerned you enjoy yourself that the vibe becomes infectious.
Silverman could probably send out grilled cheese and make everyone happy, but he mines the seam between satisfying his ego and pleasing a crowd as few chefs do.
Consider an English-pea cake with edible flowers. Looks like an appetizer, answers to “dessert,” and fuzzes the boundaries between sweet and savory so well that you simply submit to it, trusting that the chef knows better than you what you’re going to love. Silverman can do simple, too—his veal parmigiana might resemble everyone else’s, but it tastes like no one’s.
Most dishes fall somewhere between those extremes, such as a beef crudo, which arrives on a grandmotherly saucer, looking like something the kitchen put together on the fly. Yeah, sure. It has a depth and intensity that most steaks never approach. This is Silverman’s MO—to lull you into thinking he and his crew are just a group of kids having fun, then wowing you when you least expect it.
Don’t miss:
- Pork-and-lychee salad
- Cacio e pepe
- Cappricci amatriciana
- Rigatoni with Parmesan cream
- Smoked brisket with white bread and slaw
- Pear napoleon
Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.
Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
