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Chef Roberto Donna and restaurateur Nancy Sabbagh have built their latest chapter around two restaurants facing each other on Church Street in Vienna: one devoted to regional Italian cooking and the other to French comfort food.
The husband-and-wife team opened Roberto’s Ristorante Italiano in February 2022, then established Le Bistro across the street in August 2023. Sabbagh owns both businesses and oversees operations, while Donna serves as executive chef.
It is a deliberately modest arrangement for a chef who once managed more than a dozen restaurants across the Washington region.
Donna was born in Turin, in Italy’s Piedmont region, and moved to the United States in 1979 at age 20. Four years later, he opened Galileo in Washington, introducing many area diners to the lighter, seasonal traditions of northern Italian cuisine.
His career brought significant recognition. Donna received the 1996 James Beard Award for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic and was named Chef of the Year by Esquire. He was also honored by the Culinary Institute of America and received the International Prize Caterina de’ Medici from Italy’s Federazione Italiana Cuochi.
Later years brought restaurant closures, financial problems, a federal lawsuit involving unpaid wages at a former restaurant and a 2016 bankruptcy filing. Donna subsequently spent seven years cooking at a smaller Washington establishment as he rebuilt his career.
Now living with Sabbagh in nearby Reston, Donna says the couple is no longer pursuing awards or another restaurant empire. Their focus is offering hospitality and building lasting relationships with Vienna diners.
Two restaurants, two traditions
Roberto’s Ristorante Italiano, at 144 Church Street NW, is an intimate space decorated with Venetian masks and colorful glass accents. Its weekly changing menu draws heavily from Piedmont while featuring dishes from across Italy.
Seasonal offerings have included gnocchi with black truffles and the restaurant’s signature carrot pappardelle. Antipasti include vitello tonnato—roasted veal served with tuna-caper sauce—and burrata accompanied by house-made focaccia.
A whole-roasted Amish chicken for two is carved tableside from a guéridon cart, reviving a traditional European style of service. Donna also regularly leaves the kitchen to visit guests in the dining room.
The restaurant offers a family-style meal on Mondays and hosts wine dinners featuring Italian selections and, at times, wines from Barboursville Vineyards. Twice a year, the couple leads small culinary tours to destinations including Sicily, Tuscany and Puglia. Because the dining room is intentionally small, reservations are strongly recommended.
Le Bistro began as a temporary pop-up after a restaurant space became available across the street at 111 Church Street NW. It soon became a permanent business.
Its French menu reflects both the chefs who influenced Donna early in his career and the French culinary traditions connected to Sabbagh’s Lebanese heritage. Dishes include onion soup gratin with Gruyère, moules frites, boeuf bourguignon and coq au vin with mushrooms and pearl onions.
Donna sought to keep the restaurant accessible, with most main courses priced below $35. Le Bistro also serves Sunday brunch and welcomes families.
Together, the restaurants give the couple a compact operation close to home. Guests can move between refined regional Italian cooking and the relaxed atmosphere of a French neighborhood café without leaving the same Vienna block.
For Donna and Sabbagh, success now means something quieter than the accolades and expansion of earlier years: full dining rooms, returning customers and enough stability for Donna to concentrate on cooking. Their Church Street partnership has turned a celebrated chef’s turbulent career into a closely held second act.