Al Tiramisù

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

Washington DC's Most Consistent Italian Table

On March 3, 1996, Chef Luigi Diotaiuti opened Al Tiramisu on P Street in Dupont Circle with a clear ambition: to offer the most authentic Italian fine dining experience possible in Washington DC. Nearly three decades later, Washington Post food critic Tom Sietsema put it simply — "when I'm asked where to go for Italian, Al Tiramisu is usually on the tip of my tongue."

That kind of consistency is earned, not given. Gambero Rosso has included Al Tiramisu on its Top Italian Restaurants list every year since 2018, and the restaurant has appeared on the "50 Top Italian Restaurants in the World." The Insegna del Ristorante Italiano — the seal of approval granted by the President of Italy — hangs alongside Slow Food DC's Snail of Approval as further testament to what Chef Luigi has built here.

The Chef Behind the Kitchen

Luigi Diotaiuti was raised on a farm near Lagonegro in Basilicata, the rugged southern Italian region that shapes everything he cooks. His formal training took him through some of Europe's most prestigious kitchens — the Hotel Georges V in Paris, the Grand Hotel Bauer Grunwald in Venice, and properties in Tuscany and Sardinia — before he brought those skills to Washington.

In 2018, the Federation of Italian Cooks in Florence dubbed him "Ambassador of Italian Cuisine." In 2017, he was named "Ambassador of Basilicata's Cuisine in the World." The Italian Cultural Society presented him with an Award of Excellence at the Embassy of Italy in 2024, citing his "outstanding skills, entrepreneurship, and dedication to promoting the finest authentic culinary traditions beyond Italy's borders." He is also a Certified Italian Sommelier, which informs the restaurant's extensive wine list and craft cocktail program.

Beyond the dining room, Chef Luigi founded a non-profit in Italy focused on sustainable agriculture, biodiversity, and preserving culinary traditions at risk of disappearing — including an annual transumanza event now in its ninth edition.

The Room and the Menu

The dining room was designed to evoke the ancient cave and wine cellar interiors of Basilicata — intimate, warm, and deliberately unhurried. It's the kind of space where neighborhood regulars, foreign dignitaries, and the occasional celebrity (former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, actor George Clooney, and journalist Chris Wallace among them) all feel equally at home.

The menu reflects Chef Luigi's farm-to-table roots and his classical Italian training. House-made pastas anchor the offering: fettuccine with veal ragù, ricotta gnocchi in cacio e pepe, wide laganelle with mushroom ragù, and ravioli filled with Swiss chard and caciocavallo in a butter sage sauce. Main courses range from lamb chops with thyme, rosemary and garlic to a ribeye with black truffle butter and a daily whole grilled fish. Starters include burrata from Salento with local honey and black truffle, and beef carpaccio with aged Parmigiano Reggiano. Daily specials extend the menu further, keeping the experience fresh for regulars.

The Mediterranean spirit of the cooking — honest ingredients, pure flavors, nothing superfluous — is what has kept this corner of Dupont Circle full for nearly thirty years.