Photo credit: Janet Donovan
“To be honest, I’m here because Stephen Starr invited me to be here so it’s not anything that I would’ve felt confident enough to do on my own,” Nancy Silverton told Hollywood on the Potomac at a VIP opening reception for her latest culinary venture: Osteria Mozza. “Certainly not something of this scale, but knowing Stephen and all of the support that I would get from him, it seemed like it was doable.”
After years of collaboration, James Beard Award-winning restaurateur Stephen Starr and renowned LA chef Nancy Silverton are set to open the Michelin-starred Osteria Mozza in Washington, DC. This marks the restaurant’s first location on the East Coast, a significant win for locals. The opening highlights the regional Italian cuisine that has established Mozza as a staple in LA and solidified Silverton’s status as one of the world’s top chefs.
David Hagedorn and Maha Hakki
We wrongly assumed that Silverton was Italian, but she is not. However, she fell in love with Italy many years ago and bought a home in Umbria. “I have had my house for 25 years. I’ve been going to the same town for 28 years. I just fell in love with this small town that I went to three summers in a row and I wanted to have a house because I wanted to have my own kitchen. I wanted to do what I wanted to do on vacation, which was cook.”
“I originally started cooking in my college dormitory kitchen. It was like a work assignment. It meant that I got half off of my dorm payment, but that’s not why I did it. I did it because there was a really cute boy that worked in the kitchen. That’s a good reason. And the rest is history.”
Osteria Mozza is a restaurant, a retail store, a bar and more. It is situated within the Georgetown Park retail development, in a historic market on M Street NW that dates back to 1865. This space has been beautifully transformed by the New York-based design studio Roman and Williams into a modern, inviting venue. Stunning arched windows fill the interior with natural light, while the striking terrazzo floors complement the marble tables and bar tops, dark wood accents, and hints of exposed brick. The Solarium features floor-to-ceiling windows, redefining outdoor dining by bringing the experience indoors. Additionally, a private dining room on the mezzanine offers an intimate setting for gatherings, accommodating up to 20 guests. It’s exquisite.
Osteria Mozza spans 20,000 square feet dedicated to authentic rustic Italian cuisine. Highlights include a marble-topped Mozzarella Barand a unique market exclusive to the DC location. The vibrant market features specialty olive oils, spices, fresh produce, jarred and tinned Italian delicacies, and more, all personally curated by Silverton herself.
“I came to see the space when Dean and DeLuca was closed but I wasn’t able to come in and look, so I just looked in the windows. It was just cement floors and like an abandoned building. The next time I came by was after they demolished it, so it was still a square box. There was the sort of the atrium on the side still. The basement was spectacular. It was all old brick. And then the third time I was in the space was yesterday, and I’m like, wow.” Agreed. “I’m definitely going to be coming back every couple months, so you could ask the staff when I will be here because they’ll know my schedule. It’s so doable. I love the Red Eye. I love leaving late at night in Los Angeles and arriving early in the morning. It’s like you’re here in five minutes.”
Silverton opened the original location with Joe Bastianich in 2007. She has played a pivotal role in shaping modern Los Angeles food culture and enhancing Americans’ appreciation for wood-fired cooking, handmade pastas, and regional Italian techniques.
Joe Bastianich
Osteria Mozza DC will highlight the iconic dishes that established Silverton as a global culinary icon. The menu features some of her most celebrated creations from the original Mozza on Melrose Avenue, including the crisp, stracchino-stuffed Focaccia di Recco—beloved by Stephen Starr—and Nancy’s Favorite Trio, which consists of delicate mozzarella di bufala paired with Cantabrian anchovies, sun-dried tomatoes, and peppers, alongside Silverton’s golden-brown fett’unta (the ultimate garlic bread). Fans will also be drawn to Nancy’s Caesar, a surprising deconstructed version of the classic salad, and the renowned tagliatelle with hearty oxtail ragu.
The bar complements this culinary experience with a focus on Italian flavors, offering a carefully curated wine list that showcases classic and innovative selections from Italy’s Piedmont, Tuscany, Campania, and Sicily regions. A thoughtfully selected array of Champagnes rounds out the offerings.
“I’m very, very proud to be here and the reason why I am here tonight is because I saw this building around four years ago, five years ago, and I just was blown away by the space and the energy that I felt when I walked into this room,” Stephen Starr told an impressed audience, “and I didn’t know what to do with it. But as I thought about it and talked to Joe Bastianich, who was a friend, he said, ‘You know what, this should be Nancy Silverton’s.’ And we talked, we met with Nancy. So we got the whole corner here in Georgetown. One other short story, there’s an accordion here, which I have PTSD about this, because when I was like seven years old, I wanted to play the guitar and be a rock star. But my parents made me take accordion lessons and that’s what I did. And I want to say, once again, I’m proud to be partners with Nancy and to Joe. It’s been such a pleasure dealing with them and Joe has been a fantastic resource of Italian cuisine and culture. And one other thing without making a declaration, here’s to Tuesday night.”
