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Chef Darren Norris moves between three skillets at Hank’s Pasta Bar, preparing several dishes at once as a large pot of pasta water waits on the back burner.
One pan holds rigatoni bolognese. Another contains chicken marinated for 24 hours with fresh rosemary and minced garlic. In the middle, freshly ground Tellicherry pepper blooms in hot olive oil, beginning the emulsion for cacio e pepe.
The cacio e pepe with chicken emerged as an early favorite during the restaurant’s weeklong soft opening. Norris makes it with Mancini pasta, produced from grain grown on a single estate east of Tuscany. The kitchen selected it after tasting about 20 varieties.
The pasta arrives roughly 70 percent cooked, allowing Norris to finish it in the skillet with pasta water, olive oil and pepper. He adds the sautéed chicken and Pecorino Romano, tossing everything until the sauce becomes creamy, then finishes the bowl with more cheese and a touch of parsley.
For the bolognese, Norris combines finely ground veal, beef and pork with tomato paste, protected-origin San Marzano tomatoes and soffritto made from celery, onion and carrots sautéed in rendered pancetta fat. Chianti and Pinot Grigio also go into the sauce.
Rather than finishing the rigatoni in water, Norris cooks it directly in the bolognese so the pasta absorbs more flavor. Butter, kosher salt and a generous amount of Parmesan complete the dish.
The menu also includes burrata with slow-fermented tomatoes. Norris seals local San Marzano tomatoes with 2 percent sea salt and leaves them at room temperature for 48 hours. He filters the resulting juice through cheesecloth and reduces it into a tomato glacé.
Imported Artigiana buffalo-milk burrata sits over the tomatoes, accompanied by the glacé, Sicilian pistachio pesto and DeCarlo olive oil.
Norris joined Hank’s Pasta Bar after working at Shibuya Eatery, his Japanese restaurant in Chevy Chase. He had known Hank’s owner for more than 20 years and made the move after telling her he was ready for a new project.
His interest in food began as a teenager while traveling through Europe and the United States with his father, a professional tennis player and food and wine enthusiast. Norris initially studied architecture, but a job at an Italian restaurant convinced him that he preferred cooking.
After moving to Washington in 2005, Norris served as executive chef for Ridgewells. He opened Kushi in 2010, and the restaurant was named Washingtonian’s Best New Restaurant of the Year and became a James Beard Award quarterfinalist for Best New Restaurant.
Hank’s Pasta Bar revives a restaurant that closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, but introduces a new format: a sit-down pasta bar operating inside the existing Hank’s Oyster Bar.
Customers can order signature dishes or build their own pasta. The restaurant offers dine-in, carryout, take-and-bake and delivery service at 600 Montgomery Street. Its grand opening was scheduled for May 15.