Caruso's Grocery sits beside The Roost in Southeast Washington, built as a throwback to the classic Italian-American "red sauce" restaurant: red banquettes, bar seating, and a small dining room. Chef and partner Matt Adler, who was the opening chef at Osteria Morini and has worked with Alain Ducasse and Michael White, modeled the place on Scoozi, the restaurant his father ran in upstate New York. It's a joint venture between Adler and Neighborhood Restaurant Group, opened in 2019.
The menu doesn't try to modernize the classics — chicken parmesan, penne alla vodka, mozzarella en carozza, veal francaise, and garlic bread with four-cheese sauce anchor a lineup focused on execution and ingredient quality over reinterpretation. A Butterfinger sundae has developed its own following among regulars.
Caruso's Grocery has built a devoted local following who treat it as a neighborhood gem, and it landed on Washingtonian's best-of list for 2025.
The menu doesn't try to modernize the classics — chicken parmesan, penne alla vodka, mozzarella en carozza, veal francaise, and garlic bread with four-cheese sauce anchor a lineup focused on execution and ingredient quality over reinterpretation. A Butterfinger sundae has developed its own following among regulars.
Caruso's Grocery has built a devoted local following who treat it as a neighborhood gem, and it landed on Washingtonian's best-of list for 2025.