The hotly anticipated contemporary Mexican restaurant Pascual is landing on Capitol Hill tomorrow. Chefs Matt Conroy and Isabel Coss – also behind Georgetown’s Lutèce – are cooking up a hearth-centric, Mexico City-inspired menu we can’t stop drooling over.
Pascual's Take on Mexican Cuisine
The intimate 40-seat restaurant will only have one taco on the menu. “We want to showcase Mexican food outside what people think Mexican food is,” Coss told me. All of Pascual’s dishes will have an element that touches its central wood grill, from charred veggies to smoked masa cocktails. The restaurant is a Popal family production (also behind Lapis, Lapop, and Lutèce) but expect lots of personal touches from the chefs as well like Oaxaca ceramics and a wine list full of the chefs’ favorites.
Chef Isabel Coss with a giant buñuelo. (Photo by Deb Lindsey)
What to Order
Coss swears by the Parsnip Tamal. “We all know the tamal, but this dish feels like you’ve never had one before,” she says. The tamal is steamed in a banana leaf and served with mole blanco and an endive salad on top. “That and a Mezcal and you’re good to go,” according to Coss.
But you also can’t miss the sweet potatoes, which Conroy says showcases the restaurant's hearth-forward cooking. They are roasted over the coals and topped with a cocoa salsa and queso fresco.
The grill at Pascual. (Photo by Deb Lindsey)
What’s Next?
In a few weeks, the restaurant will start serving coffee and pastries from their side window panaderia called “Volcán.” Expect aguas frescas, Mexican pastries, carajillos, and cold brew café de olla.
😋 Hey DC Inside Dish: Where Conroy and Coss Eat Out
“My perfect day would be lunch at Maketto, dinner at Izakaya Seki, and dessert at Bar Spero,” says Coss. Conroy adds that he loves the freshness of Izakaya Seki's menu and considers the wine list to be one of the best in D.C.
