Johnny Abrishamkar just might be the most friendly, enthusiastic server you’ll ever meet. And why not? This is a family restaurant, and he’s family.
The place – Sons of Amalfi – has been in business for almost fifty years, most of them in the Washington, D.C. metro area. (“And my only regret,” says Johnny, “is that we didn’t move to Sapulpa years before.”) The food is so good that Johnny can boast about it to his heart’s content – and all his boasts are true.
The story begins sixty years ago when Johnny’s father, Moe Sr., immigrated from Iran and found work cooking at a well-known Italian restaurant in Washington, D.C.. He met Teresa in 1970 – she’d come from Bolivia – fell in love, and the rest is history. (“Though it wasn’t a shotgun wedding,” Johnny happily points out. “Moe Jr. wasn’t born till 18 months after the wedding!”)
In 1977, they, together with a family friend from Italy, Renata Vaccari, bought a restaurant in Rockville, Md. They spent every penny they had and so, rather than buying a new sign, they kept the old restaurant’s big outdoor sign, and thus, the name: Amalfi.
For the first 20 years, Moe Sr. and Renata did everything while Teresa raised the kids. It was a typical red-sauce Italian restaurant, offering lasagna, spaghetti and meatballs. That’s what the customers wanted. Johnny and his brother Jeremy started waiting tables at the age of 18, but Moe Jr. was different.
“His destiny was always the kitchen,” Johnny explains.
Moe taught himself fine dining techniques from all over the world and used them to elevate the food.
“And we didn’t make him cook the traditional way,” Johnny adds. “All we wanted was for the food to be delicious.”
At some point, Renata retired and, starting about 15 years ago, Moe Jr. took over the kitchen.
“Big elevation!” Johnny recalls. “He re-did everything his way. He started sous-viding the chicken, then flash-frying it so the skin crisped. We can’t do that here. The Rockville kitchen was much bigger and we had five cooks. Here, we have only ten tables and Johnny cooks every dish himself. We decided to focus on one thing, and that thing is pasta.”
And those pastas are glorious.
“It’s all handmade, and it’s made from scratch,” says Johnny. “We use Italian flour and top ingredients. We don’t go to Costco, we special order. When there’s pork, it’s Berkshire pork,” he adds, referring to a prized heritage breed of pig.
Try the Parmesan cream pasta. The pleasantly chewy tagliatelle noodles are caressed by a rich and sumptuous sauce made with cream from Red Ridge Dairy, plus nutmeg, pistachio and Parmigiano. The lamb bolo, a Bolognese a lot like it’s served in Bologna, features ground domestic lamb, piquillo peppers, fennel, ginger and tomato.
This food would do a fine dining restaurant proud. And yes, Sons of Amalfi is elegant, white tablecloths and all. But, Johnny stresses, “it’s never stuffy. We want you to feel like you’re eating at our home. You can come from farm work in overalls and you’ll be treated the same as a guy in a suit who has a million dollars.”
The family got tired of East Coast big metro area life and found a home in Oklahoma.
“Oklahoma people are the nicest people I’ve ever met,” says Johnny. Now, he and his family are trying to give back with great food and a heartfelt welcome.”
Photo cutline: Johnny Abrishamkar and his family welcome diners to Sons of Amalfi, where family recipes and handmade pasta take center stage. Photos courtesy Sons of Amalfi
