La Tagliatella in Clarendon Has Closed

Ciao, La Tagliatella.

The Italian restaurant closed its doors today, after struggling to attract enough business to support its high-rent Clarendon location. The struggles followed a scathing Washington Post review that said La Tagliatella “makes a strong case for hazard pay for restaurant critics.”

We’re told the restaurant, located at 2950 Clarendon Blvd, went out with a bang during its last two nights in business, with $3 drink specials and 75 percent off wine.

We reported in January that rumors were swirling about an imminent closing.

The restaurant, owned by Polish company AmRest, was the third American location of a franchise that was popular in Europe, and was viewed as a harbinger for potentially hundreds of additional U.S. locations. In May, the Washington Business Journal reported those expansion plans were on hold, and theorized the Post’s review — which called La Tagliatella “a threat to our nation” and compared it unfavorably to Olive Garden — might have had something to do with it.

La Tagliatella had a planned location in the Village at Shirlington at the former Extra Virgin space, and still has signs up that say “coming soon,” but the manager we spoke to said those plans have since been scuttled.

The restaurant opened in Clarendon in the prime spot at the corner of Clarendon Blvd and N. Garfield Street, formerly home to Restaurant 3, in 2013.

No word yet on what might replace La Tagliatella.