801 Pennsylvania Still Drawing the Rich and Powerful

Reprinted from: Yeas and Nays: The Examiner - Washington DC
By Jeff DuFour and Patrick Gavin
January 25, 2007 issue


Jack Abramoff’s old haunt - redesigned, reconceptualized and renamed from Signatures to D’Acqua under its new ownership - held its official grand opening Tuesday night, while that most political of events, the State of the Union address, was going on only eight blocks up Pennsylvania Avenue.

Should we read anything into that? Not at all, said a restaurant spokeswoman, who called the timing “purely coincidental.”

Several members of Congress, including all the Italian-American members, were invited, but most were busy reacting to the president’s speech.

Guests included sports super-agent David Falk; German Ambassador Klaus Scharioth; former Rep. Jim Stanton, D-Ohio, and other friends of chef-owner Francesco Ricchi and the restaurant’s new investors; and HGTV’s Yvette Piaggio, who designed the restaurant’s interior.