La Panetteria, Bethesda

Resting in the heart of Old Italy for more than 25 years, La Panetteria features white stucco walls, ceramic-tile floor, and hanging baskets that make it resemble an Old World eatery. Guests seated in the restaurant's indoor atrium enjoy a sunlit dining atmosphere as they savor the freshly baked bread and northern and southern Italian dishes placed before them atop checkered tablecloths. The subjects of the restaurant's period paintings look on enviously as diners dig into homemade pastas, milk-fed veal cutlets, and piping-hot pizzas. All of La Panetteria's entrees are carefully prepared to order, with any dishes not meeting patron's exact instructions taken to the street and thrown into a passing convertible.