D.C. has a plethora of bottomless brunch options, but Via Umbria, Georgetown’s Italian market-restaurant-enoteca, manages to be both fun and incredibly inexpensive: $35 for three generous courses, plus bottomless sparkling wine and mimosas. Here’s how it works: you buy your ticket online, in advance. Upon arrival, you are greeted with a glass of prosecco. You can peruse the store, located on the ground level, until 1 p.m., when you are escorted upstairs. Your host will seat you at a communal table and then festivities begin.
Your glass is refilled and your table is gifted with a platter of pastries: croissants, muffins, tarts, you name it. Bread heaven, basically. Next, you help yourself to a buffet of salads, potatoes, and cheese. The day I was there we had a potato casserole and a fennel, pomegranate, and arugula salad with housemade croutons and a balsamic-honey vinaigrette. As you stuff your face you can watch the chefs make your main course in the open kitchen.
For your main course you have a choice of three options. I of course went with the pasta dish, which was corkscrew pasta tossed in a butternut squash sauce. It was super creamy and savory, perfect with a glass of prosecco. My husband went for an egg and spinach panini on warm bread that was made in-house.
After the main course, we were offered two desserts: a super chocolaty bundt cake with a chocolate drizzle and poached pears in a wine sauce. Naturally, IÂ had both.
The food is delicious, the open kitchen and communal table provide for plenty of entertainment, and most importantly, my champagne glass was never empty. Buy a ticket before Via Umbria figures out what a good deal this is and raises their prices.
