Elli Benchimol just put a spell on Marcel's old address

Elli Benchimol just put a spell on Marcel's old address

For a quarter century, the address at 2401 Pennsylvania Avenue NW meant one thing to Washington diners: Marcel's, Robert Wiedmaier's formal Belgian-French restaurant with its white tablecloths, besuited servers, and a baby grand piano that practically constituted a dress code on its own. Marcel's closed in 2024. The space sat there, freighted with memory, waiting.

On September 9, Elli Benchimol walked in and rearranged the furniture, metaphorically and literally.

Ellizabetta La Strega opened that Tuesday in the West End, and nothing about it resembles what came before. The walls are black and chartreuse green. Benchimol's grandmother, Ellizabetta, was known for her Sicilian hexes, her spirituality and superstitions, and a cure-all herbal brew she concocted for anyone who was sick. The family nicknamed her La Strega, "the witch" in Italian. That grandmother is now, quite literally, all over the room: Benchimol painted all the artwork on the walls herself, a series of portraits of women in flowery headdresses, each named after someone she loves.

"I always thought [Marcel's] was very beige and kind of stuffy," Benchimol says of the haute Belgian restaurant. "And it's such a beautiful space." She had a point. The bones, high ceilings, generous square footage, a room that can breathe, were always there. The 3,600-square-foot space now holds 170 guests across its dining rooms and bar/lounge, with an additional 25 seats on the patio.

An Italian room from a Champagne-and-caviar person

If you know Benchimol at all, you know her through Apéro, the Champagne-and-caviar bar she opened in Georgetown in May 2021, and through La Bohème, the intimate tasting room that runs upstairs. She honed her craft in her native Northern California wine country, going on to open Apéro and rack up Wine Spectator and RAMMY awards along the way. She's an advanced sommelier. Italian food is a pivot.

It's a considered one. "I'm just huge into all things witchy, and I feel like craft cocktail art is a little bit of a witchcraft anyway, as far as apothecary and putting all the flavors together and making your own syrups and tinctures," Benchimol says. That ethos, precise, ingredient-driven, personal, runs straight from Apéro's Champagne pours into this new room's pasta bowls.

The kitchen belongs to two people who know the address well. Jennifer Castaneda-Jones, culinary director for all of Benchimol's restaurants, and chef de cuisine Stephen Jones both came from Marcel's. They're not starting from zero in an unfamiliar back-of-house. They know the sight lines from the pass, the loading dock, where the walk-in sits. That kind of institutional knowledge matters in a room this size.

What's on the plate

The lunch and dinner menus open with small plates: fried artichokes with a lemon and caper aioli, mozzarella sticks with an 'nduja marinara sauce. Pasta is the main event. There's lemon tagliatelle with caviar and crème fraîche, and a tuna crudo with olives and toasted pistachios. The lemon-caviar combination is an obvious callback to Apéro, Benchimol isn't pretending otherwise.

The bar spotlights Italian bubbles, Champagne, and wines from both Italy's popular and lesser-known regions. Spritzes and seasonal cocktails arrive in sparkly-orange goblets shaped like an owl. The drink menu aims to have a female focus, highlighting female winemakers and spirit producers. Given that Benchimol spent years building a reputation around her wine selections at Apéro, this list will be worth paying attention to.

The Witching Hour is the way in

For anyone who wants to read the room before committing to a full dinner, there's a smarter entry point. During the Witching Hour, La Strega's take on Italy's traditional aperitivo hour (Tuesday to Thursday, 3 to 5 p.m., and Sunday from 4 to 5 p.m.), cocktails come with cicchetti, or small Venetian tapas that rotate weekly.

That two-hour window is genuinely useful. The West End has not historically been DC's liveliest aperitivo neighborhood. But 2401 Pennsylvania has real foot traffic from the nearby George Washington University corridor, the Kennedy Center crowd on nights they're running early, and office workers from the stretch between Foggy Bottom Metro and Washington Circle. An affordable, walk-in-friendly late-afternoon slot is a smart move for a 170-seat room that needs to fill on weeknights.

The stretch of Pennsylvania Avenue NW is having a resurgence, welcoming one of New York City's best Palestinian restaurants and the revamped look of chef Michael Mina's Four Seasons stalwart Bourbon Steak. Ellizabetta La Strega is the latest addition to that corridor, and the one most likely to be mistaken for a place in Rome, at least until the owl goblets arrive.

"Ellizabetta La Strega moves in cycles within cycles: the moon, the season, the mood, the meal, the night," Benchimol says. "Italian, with a little magic."

Reservations are open now via the restaurant's website. Walk-ins are welcome at the bar. The owl goblets, per Benchimol, are not optional.

Sources

• Axios Washington D.C., "Ellizabetta La Strega opens in former Marcel's space" (Sept. 8, 2026)
• Washingtonian, "Witchy Italian Restaurant Ellizabetta La Strega Opens in Foggy Bottom" (Sept. 8, 2026)
• The Georgetowner, Business Ins & Outs (Aug. 31, 2026)
• Washingtonian, "14 New Restaurants We're Excited About This Fall and Winter" (Aug. 25, 2026)
• Eater DC (via cfood.org), "Inside Foggy Bottom's Mystical New Italian Restaurant" (Sept. 2026)
• Ellizabetta La Strega, official website
• Apéro Georgetown, official website