As eater_dc describes it, Ellizabetta La Strega Foggy Bottom opens Friday, September 9 at 2401 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, a 170-seat Italian restaurant from restaurateur and advanced sommelier Elli Benchimol. Book it first for Witching Hour and the wine program; hold dinner for a second visit if you dislike opening-week heat.
The reason to care is practical: Benchimol has taken the former Marcel's space, which closed in 2024 after 25 years, and recast it as an Italian bar, restaurant, and private dining room with lunch and dinner from day one. This is not a tiny reservations war. It is a big Foggy Bottom dining room with a narrow aperitivo window, house-made pastas, and enough history in the address to draw early demand.
What Makes Ellizabetta La Strega Foggy Bottom Worth Booking
Ellizabetta La Strega Foggy Bottom is worth booking because it lines up three useful details: an advanced sommelier owner, chefs who know the old Marcel's kitchen, and a 170-seat room built for more than two-tops. Executive chef Jenn Castaneda-Jones and chef de cuisine Stephen Jones previously led the kitchen at Marcel's, so they are not walking into an unfamiliar back of house.
The first move should be the bar, not a full-blown celebratory dinner. Witching Hour runs Tuesday to Thursday from 3 to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 4 to 5 p.m., with cocktails and rotating cicchetti. That is the sharpest opening-week use case: arrive early, test the drinks, see the room, and decide whether you want to come back for pasta and wine.
Compared with Benchimol's Apéro and La Bohème in Georgetown, this is the broader reservation. Apéro is the Champagne-and-caviar bar. La Bohème is the changing tasting room above it. Ellizabetta La Strega gives Benchimol a larger address with lunch, dinner, a bar program, and private dining under one roof. It is better for a mixed group than Apéro, but less focused if you only want caviar and Champagne.
Compared with Marcel's, the format is also different enough that old regulars should reset expectations. Marcel's was a fine dining fixture with a 25-year run. La Strega is aiming at Italian pastas, crudos, cicchetti, bubbles, cocktails, and dishes for two. Book for the new format, not for a resurrection of the old one.
Ellizabetta La Strega moves in cycles within cycles: the moon, the season, the mood, the meal, the night1
Elli Benchimol, Restaurateur and Advanced Sommelier
The Former Marcel's Room Gets a Witch-Themed Reset
The design is the deciding factor for some diners. The 170-seat space now uses sage, olive, and matte-black arched ceilings, according to Eater DC. A glass wall partition with frosted fleur-de-lis patterns remains from Marcel's, but the room is otherwise pointed in a different direction.
Benchimol ties the witch theme to family rather than Halloween décor. Ellizabetta is named for her grandmother, and La Strega means witch, a nickname Benchimol used for her. That matters because the room has a lot going on: black-tiled pass, copper cookware, arched dark ceiling, a ribbon-like chandelier, Chartreuse-toned booths, and warm woods.
If you like your Italian restaurants pale, restrained, and strictly regional, skip the first month and let the opening crowd pass. If you want a moody dining room with owner-made artwork and a bar that does not look interchangeable with every other Pennsylvania Avenue restaurant, book the early slot. Benchimol painted about 10 acrylic portraits of girlfriends for the dining room, and Eater DC reports that Steve Parke, Prince's former personal chronicler, shot black-and-white prints curated above the host stand.
The private dining room, Bella Ciao, is the under-discussed asset. A named private room inside a 170-seat restaurant gives hosts more flexibility than a narrow neighborhood trattoria. Use it for client dinners, birthdays, or a group that wants wine direction without the pressure of a tasting menu.
House-Made Pastas and Aperitivo Service Are the Point
For dinner, the order should start with the house-made garlic confit and rosemary focaccia, crudos, and pasta. Those are the menu signals that matter. The Meyer lemon tagliatelle with caviar, creme fraiche, and lemon-butter sauce is the overlap with Apéro, so it is the obvious bridge for anyone who already knows Benchimol's Georgetown style.
The pasta list has range without pretending to map one region of Italy. Eater DC reports a carbonara play built around tortellini stuffed with ricotta and mozzarella, finished with egg and Parm sauce. The vegan Bolognese is made with a meat substitute, roasted mushrooms, and wine. That dish is useful for a group because it gives the plant-based diner something central rather than another compromise plate.
For two people, consider one pasta and one sharing dish instead of trying to turn the meal into a pasta crawl. The menu includes whole-roasted branzino with salmoriglio and blistered tomatoes, plus rib-eye finished with rosemary, olives, and gremolata. Those plates make the restaurant easier for diners who want Italian flavors but not a table of only noodles.
Lunch has a different job. The restaurant serves lunch and dinner from the start, and the daytime menu includes a porchetta sandwich that uses roasted pork for a Philly-style take on the Italian classic, according to Eater DC. Venetian mussels appear as an entree at lunch and a small plate at dinner. If you are judging the restaurant's ambition, book dinner. If you need Foggy Bottom lunch with more personality than a standard office reservation, lunch is useful.
Use Elli Benchimol's Sommelier Credentials
Benchimol's advanced sommelier credential should change how you book and how you order. This is a wine-owner restaurant, not an Italian opening where the beverage program feels added after the menu. Eater DC reports Italian bubbles, Champagne, and wines from both Italy's popular and lesser-known regions.
That matters because the menu crosses crudo, caviar pasta, vegan Bolognese, branzino, rib-eye, cicchetti, and aperitivo cocktails. Ask for wine help early rather than defaulting to a familiar bottle. If you start with crudo or focaccia, Italian bubbles make sense. If you order the Meyer lemon tagliatelle with caviar, the Apéro connection argues for Champagne.
The trust signals are already there. Benchimol also runs Apéro and La Bohème in Georgetown, and Eater DC reports Wine Spectator and Rammy awards tied to that work. That does not mean every service will be smooth during opening week, but it does mean the wine program is not an afterthought.
For affluent D.C. diners, this is the cleanest reason to track Ellizabetta La Strega Foggy Bottom beyond the theme. You can find pasta across Washington. You cannot always find a sommelier-owned Italian room that gives equal attention to aperitivo, Champagne, Italian bubbles, and private dining.
Practical Details: Location, Timing, and Booking Strategy
As eater_dc describes it, Ellizabetta La Strega opens Friday, September 9 at 2401 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Foggy Bottom. The address puts it near the Kennedy Center and the State Department, which makes Witching Hour useful before a performance, a later dinner, or a post-office debrief.
Witching Hour runs Tuesday to Thursday from 3 to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 4 to 5 p.m. That is the insider window to target first. The restaurant also serves lunch and dinner, and a 25-seat patio is planned once scaffolding is removed. The patio is worth watching because it will change the restaurant's use case once it opens.
Book now if you want a first read on the bar, wine list, and room. Book Bella Ciao if you are planning a group dinner and want the space to do more work than another plain private room. Wait a few weeks if your priority is a quiet anniversary meal with no opening kinks.
The bigger test comes after the curiosity wave. If the Witching Hour rhythm holds, the patio opens cleanly, and the kitchen makes the pastas feel as central as the design, Ellizabetta La Strega will give Foggy Bottom a sommelier-led Italian address with more range than the usual pre-theater reservation.
