Ashok Bajaj's Rosselli is the downtown Italian restaurant DC has been waiting for
The man behind Rasika and Bombay Club just opened his most European room yet - and handed the kitchen to a Michelin-starred chef who cooked in Hong Kong.
In brief
Ashok Bajaj's Rosselli is the downtown Italian restaurant DC has been waiting for
Ashok Bajaj has a habit of opening restaurants in places other people have given up on. In 1988, he launched Bombay Club one block from the White House when Pennsylvania Avenue was hardly a dining destination. Now he's made a similar wager on the New York Avenue corridor near Metro Center - and the result is Rosselli, the most fully realized new Italian restaurant to open in downtown Washington in years.
Bajaj officially opened Rosselli on April 6, 2026, at 1100 New York Avenue NW, at the corner of 12th and H Streets. The space is the former location of Modena - and before that, Bibiana Osteria-Enoteca. Both were good restaurants. Neither looked like this.
A room designed to make you stay
Designer Martin Vahtra of Project Design Associates transformed the old Modena space into a dining room that evokes a private apartment in Milan: soaring ceilings, ornate moldings, gilded frames, velvet drapery, and a layered artwork collection sourced from both major international cities and lesser-known rural artists. Rich earthy tones - caramel, gold, burgundy, and cinnamon - anchor the palette, while expansive windows flood the space with natural light.
Guests enter through a welcoming U-shaped bar before moving into dining rooms that flank both sides of the entry, with intimate alcove seating woven throughout. The plan mixes counter seating with small tables so the room can move quickly while still giving guests a sense of occasion. Bajaj spent over a year on the renovation. The budget exceeded $1 million.
The Italian name Rosselli literally means "rose," the flower. It's a soft name for a room with genuine ambition.
The chef: fifteen years, four continents
At the center of Rosselli is executive chef Carlos Cardona, a Michelin-starred talent born in Bogotá, Colombia, whose 15-year international career spans kitchens across Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas - including Michelin two-star NOI in Hong Kong and Ánima, his celebrated fine-dining launch in Bogotá. Formally trained at Le Cordon Bleu London and certified as a Sushi Master through Maussi Sebes in Argentina, Cardona brings rare technical range to an Italian-focused menu.
How Bajaj found him is one of the better casting stories in recent DC restaurant history. Bajaj told Modern Luxury: 'He cooked 12 dishes for me, and I was blown away. Twelve of those dishes are on the menu.' Bajaj added: 'Every dish of his has an element of surprise, sophistication and refinement, yet you feel like you're eating Italian food with a slight bit of elegance in the cuisine.'
That calibration - familiar enough to feel comfortable, precise enough to feel special - is exactly what Cardona seems to be going for. The opening menu reflects a focus on classic Italian cuisine, presented in a refined, modern fine-dining style.
What to order
The menu balances tradition with creativity through dishes like focaccia paired with a tomato gel, maitake ash, crème fraîche, and bone marrow butter. That opening move tells you everything about Cardona's register: the bread course alone has a technique from four different culinary traditions.
Dinner selections include Agnolotti del Plin with taleggio, sea urchin, and brown butter; Linguine alle Vongole with Manila clams and guanciale; Ossobuco with braised veal shank and Calabrian gremolata; and Ribeye alla Griglia at $42. The menu also runs to lighter plates like crudo and whipped ricotta with fig toast. Burrata with heirloom tomatoes, chicken Milanese, and branzino round out the main courses.
Order the pappardelle. Every table near me did.
The real bet: downtown DC
Rosselli is not just a restaurant opening. It's an argument. Bajaj told WTOP: 'Downtown has been struggling in the last few years, and so the idea behind this was to do a new concept, freshen up the restaurant, bring a new chef and add a great dining scene to Downtown D.C.'
He's not wrong about the problem. The blocks around Metro Center and CityCenterDC emptied out after 2020 and never fully recovered. Bajaj's response - spend serious money on design, hire a chef with a Michelin pedigree, and build a room that earns a dinner reservation rather than just a lunch reimbursement - is about as direct an answer as you can give.
Bajaj opened DC's legendary Bombay Club in 1988 and now oversees a long list of restaurants in town, including Annabelle, Rasika, and Malabar. Rosselli is the one that feels most like a statement.
Practical details
Rosselli is at 1100 New York Avenue NW (corner of 12th and H Streets). Dinner runs Monday through Wednesday, 5 to 9:15 p.m., and Thursday through Saturday, 5 to 9:30 p.m. The restaurant is closed on Sundays. Lunch is served Monday through Friday. Happy hour runs 5 to 6:30 p.m. on weekdays. Valet is available Thursday through Saturday for $15. Average dinner entree runs $26 to $42. Private dining spaces are available for intimate dinners and larger celebrations. Reservations at rossellidc.com.
The Room 2026 Summer Restaurant Week runs August 24 through 30, and Rosselli is the kind of place worth booking before the city remembers it's there.
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CAN I KICK IT? screens New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument, on Aug. 22. (Courtesy SHAOLIN JAZZ)
The live-cinema series CAN I KICK IT? returns to the National Mall this month with what its producers are calling the "Gangsters on the Mall" chapter of their free outdoor summer run. On Saturday, August 22, the SHAOLIN JAZZ production brings the 1991 crime classic New Jack City to the Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument for a night of film, music, and community under the DC summer sky.
What sets the event apart is the sound. As the film plays, DJ 2-Tone Jones builds an original score in real time, reimagining one of the most iconic crime movies of the ’90s through hip-hop, soul, funk, and more. It is less a movie screening than a live performance built around the film.
The details:
Film: New Jack City (1991), with a live soundtrack by DJ 2-Tone Jones
When: Saturday, August 22 — seating opens at 7:30 p.m. (bring lawn chairs and blankets); film begins at 8:30 p.m.
Where: Sylvan Theater at the Washington Monument, Independence Ave SW & 15th St NW
A parking note from the organizers: expect road closures and restricted parking east of 14th Street NW due to a separate race event in the District. Roads west of 14th Street NW will be accessible and available for parking.
New Jack City is the second of three screenings in this year’s free CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series, which opened with Black Panther at Skyland Town Center and concludes with Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial on September 5. Produced by the Washington, DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, the series has presented more than 150 live cinematic experiences at venues across the country, from Lincoln Center to SXSW.
"I wanted to be able to tell good stories with substance and remove the ‘ego’ out of the art," said Andrew Huang during a recent interview. Now, he’s building his career at the intersection of discipline, creativity and innovation.
Andrew Huang, founder of New Place Studios. (Courtesy photo)
As a Chinese American, Huang was reared with a deep respect for hard work, consistency and excellence. He describes his childhood as "not so affluent" and later attended college to hone his passion for videography. "In college I tried to do something I loved, which was video, but along the way I knew that I had to find a job. And so I thought, ‘what was the low hanging fruit to get to that stable 9 to 5 job?,’" he stated.
Later in life, Huang found himself working for corporations where his creativity was often limited, eventually leading to burnout. "I worked in a corporation for a long time and there were a lot of missing pieces. I wanted to fill in gaps missing in corporate video production," said Huang.
He later described how his upbringing and a mindset of "survival" led him toward a corporate career. However, his desire for balance and authentic storytelling ultimately pushed him to take the entrepreneurial leap.
"I founded a new place where you can create video and film with ‘substance and style,’" said Huang. His desire for work-life balance and passion for storytelling naturally evolved into a small business based in Virginia. With the launch of New Place Studios, the entrepreneur quickly found himself reconnecting with the values that would become the foundation of everything he creates behind the camera.
Huang said being a business owner has allowed him to first embrace himself. While others may see video as simply capturing moments, he sees it as a way to preserve stories that inspire, connect and leave a lasting imprint.
By combining cinematic visuals with cutting-edge production techniques and a keen understanding of branding, Huang helps organizations and individuals communicate their vision with purpose. He said understanding a client’s "why" serves as the compass for delivering the services they need.
One benefit of working with a small business, he said, is that clients get to see the production process unfold through a micro lens while working with the same faces throughout the entire project. "The work feels personal," said Huang.
Huang does not regret leaving behind the flash-over-substance mentality and corporate hustle culture. That does not mean the Asian American entrepreneur has been without challenges in the industry. "It’s relatively hard to find other Asian American creatives or people who would want to work with me in the DMV," said Huang.
He identifies the industry culture in which everyone is trying to blend in, creatives may fear displaying their Asian identity and some feel pressure to adopt an American corporate persona. He also points to what he describes as a level of gatekeeping within the industry. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2024 statistics, Asian American and Pacific Islander entrepreneurs own more than 3 million businesses and employ 5.2 million people in the United States.
After tapping into organizations such as SCORE, which offers free small business mentorship, New Place Studios has become a trusted creative partner throughout the DMV (Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia). The company produces a range of creative services, including commercials, corporate branding, documentaries, film, 2D animation, motion graphics and photography.
For Huang, entrepreneurship has become more than a departure from corporate life. It has given him the freedom to create with intention, build meaningful connections and tell stories that go beyond the surface.
The 2026 CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
For three Saturdays this summer, some of Washington’s most familiar public spaces will do something they rarely do after dark: fill up with blankets, lawn chairs, and the sound of a movie being scored live, in real time. CAN I KICK IT?, the traveling “live cinema” series produced by the DC-based multimedia arts company SHAOLIN JAZZ, is bringing a free outdoor run to the city — pairing three era-defining films with an original soundtrack performed on the spot by DJ 2-Tone Jones.
The premise is what sets it apart from a normal screening in the park. Rather than simply pressing play, 2-Tone Jones builds a score as the film unfolds, pulling from hip-hop, soul, funk, jazz, rock, electronic music, and sounds from around the world. The result, the organizers say, is less a movie night than a one-time performance — the same film you know, wired to a soundtrack you have never heard and will not hear again. Guest DJs warm up the crowd starting at 7:30 PM before each 8:30 PM screening.
The 2026 outdoor schedule
All three events are free and open to the public.
Saturday, August 8 — Black Panther at Skyland Town Center. A pop-up marketplace and community activities kick off the evening; guest DJs at 7:30 PM, film at 8:30 PM. Marvel’s superhero epic gets a one-night-only live score in Southeast DC.
Saturday, August 22 — New Jack City at the Sylvan Theater, Washington Monument. Seating begins at 7:30 PM; the film starts at 8:30 PM. The 1991 crime drama plays out at the foot of one of the country’s most recognizable landmarks.
Saturday, September 5 — Scarface at the Lincoln Memorial. Seating at 7:30 PM; film at 8:30 PM. The series closes with Brian De Palma’s crime saga against the backdrop of the Memorial, scored live from start to finish.
First up: Black Panther at Skyland Town Center on August 8. Poster courtesy of SHAOLIN JAZZ.
A DC company with a national footprint
SHAOLIN JAZZ describes itself as a Washington-based arts company working at the intersection of music, film, art, and culture, and CAN I KICK IT? is its signature production. According to the organizers, the series has staged more than 150 live cinematic experiences around the country — at performing arts centers, museums, festivals, and cultural institutions including Lincoln Center in New York, SXSW, the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, Republic Square in Austin, the Tacoma Armory, and The Cary Theater.
“CAN I KICK IT? has always been about creating a shared experience,” said Gerald Watson, co-founder of SHAOLIN JAZZ. “When you combine iconic films with live music in public spaces, something special happens. People aren’t just watching a movie — they’re experiencing it together. That’s what makes these nights so memorable.”
Cinema as a community event
The DC run lands as cities across the country look for new ways to activate public space through arts and culture — and this series is a straightforward pitch for how to do it: take a landmark everyone already knows, add a film everyone has an opinion about, and let a live soundtrack turn the evening into something neighbors experience shoulder to shoulder. Families, film buffs, and music fans are all invited, and admission won’t cost a thing.
The CAN I KICK IT? outdoor series runs August 8, August 22, and September 5. All events are free; check SHAOLIN JAZZ (shaolinjazz.com) for the latest details and any weather updates before heading out.
