09/26/2026
The Roma Restaurant- WDC, Conneticut Ave. A mural I did from my DC - post Africa days! A wonderful, unique, delish resto!
Postcard photo of the terrace garden at the Roma Restaurant in Cleveland Park. The Roma was founded in 1920 at 707 12th St NW by Frank Abbo (1890–1970), a Genoese immigrant. In 1932, he reopened it at 3419 Connecticut Ave NW, where it remained for 65 years. The Roma was famous for its traditional Italian fare, including homemade manicotti stuffed with prosciutto and ricotta, which might be served three or four hundred times on a busy day. In addition to the restaurant’s spacious dining rooms, the terrace garden in the rear offered pleasant al fresco dining in good weather. It was in this garden, lined with lush grape vines hanging from groaning trellises, that the annual grape harvest festival, known as “La Vendemmia,” took place, complete with “beautiful girls in native dress,” strolling musicians and the traditional stomping of the grapes in a large vat.
Within months of celebrating the Roma’s 50th anniversary in 1970, Abbo was struck by an automobile and killed while crossing Connecticut Avenue in front of his restaurant. Abbo’s wife, Anna continued to run the restaurant with her son Robert until her death in 1995. Robert closed it two years later, in 1997.
