About DC Restaurant Openings
A guide to the newest places to eat and drink.
La Merna, 2153 P St., NW.
When Chicagoans say “let’s get pizza,” they rarely mean deep-dish. More often than not, they’re referring to something closer to the tavern pies served at places like Vito & Nick’s, Pat’s, or Obama’s favorite, Italian Fiesta.
The crust is cracker-thin, and the slices are square and small enough to sit on a cocktail napkin. G. Bradley Shorten, a Chicago native, and Meg Schmitt, who is originally from St Louis, both grew up eating variants of tavern pizza. At their new Dupont Circle restaurant, La Merna, the two are spotlighting this very midwestern style of pie, along with other Italian dishes. It’s in soft-opening mode now, and reservations are available starting August 13.
“In Chicago everybody eats tavern pizza,” says Schmitt. “Deep dish is more like if you have guests coming in who have heard about Chicago-style quote-unquote ‘pizza’ and want to try it.” (Fighting words for Giordano’s, the Chicago deep-dish juggernaut that recently opened in downtown DC.)
Shorten started off serving free pizza from a basement in Chicago’s Ukrainian Village neighborhood and running a restaurant called Pizza Fried Chicken Ice Cream. These days, he operates Kim’s Uncle Pizza in a century-old space in the Chicago suburb of Westmont. Schmitt owns the plant-based cheese company Cheeze And Thank You.
A friend and investor approached them about opening a location on P Street, and the two are now splitting their time between Chicago and DC.
Shorten, who studied architectural design, immediately set to work rebuilding the space.
“You’re comfortable as soon as you walk in, like, ‘oh I’ve been to a place like this before,’” Shorten says. “All the inspiration comes from classic old school Chicago tavern pizzerias, and supper clubs in Wisconsin that we grew up going to.”
The walls are clad in wood panelling, the booths are deep red vinyl, the floor is checkerboard patterned, and much of the warm lighting comes from old fashioned lamps on each table.
La Merna’s menu is just as classic, albeit adapted somewhat for DC tastes. Schmitt’s cheeses (none here are plant-based) find their way into ravioli, fazzoletti, and gnudi pastas. Stracciatella, made half an hour before service each night, is piled onto toasts with melon, prosciutto, and Calabrian chili. Another toast appetizer is topped with anchovy and whipped herb butter. A shaved fennel salad incorporates roasted fennel stems, castelvetrano olives, walnuts, and blue cheese.
La Merna’s pizzas get a variety of toppings— but Shorten encourages first timers to try the crumbled fresh sausage, which is even more popular than pepperoni at classic pizza taverns back home. “Sausage is king in Chicago,” he says.
House cocktails are mainly creative riffs on what you’d find at a midcentury cocktail bar: a tomato martini; a gin and tonic with peppercorn and coriander; and the “Coffee & Cigarettes,” an amaro-spiked espresso martini served cheekily with a single cigarette.
For Shorten and Schmitt, La Merna is recreating the kind of place they love, just transplanted to a new city.
“We did the menu pretty much just like we did in Chicago,” Shorten says, “and we’ll just let it rip and see what happens.”
Ike Allen covers politics, food, culture, and transportation in DC and writes the monthly Hidden Eats column for the magazine. He grew up in DC.
