When chef Claudio Pirollo was first looking to open a restaurant in the Palisades 15 years ago, his initial instinct was to do Italian. After all, he’d grown up in his Italian parents’ trattoria and market in Belgium. But at the time, the Italian restaurant scene in DC seemed saturated. Instead, the former personal chef to the Irish ambassador ended up opening Et Voila!, a French-Belgian bistro that’s become a  neighborhood staple.

Now, a decade and a half later, the time is right. Pirollo has opened an Italian trattoria of his own in the Palisades: Claudio’s Table. Pirollo says he’s long been interested in opening another restaurant, but high rents and uncertain conditions had deterred him. But then the owner of casual American restaurant DC Boathouse approached him about buying his Palisades building.