Brunch at Mike Isabella's Graffiato with the Girls

Sometimes, all you need is a lazy weekend without any particular things to accomplish other than cooking and photographing a few recipes, doing a bit of light cleaning while blasting Reggaeton, failing an attempt to exercise and planning a get-together with friends for brunch. Last weekend's agenda was just that!

There are a zillion places in the DC area for brunch, and I love each of them for a different reason. This time, my friends and I decided to check out the recently introduced brunch menu at Graffiato.

After catching up on the latest happenings, we decided to order one of everything from the brunch menu and then add some items from Graffiato's regular menu.

Below is a quick run-through of some of my favorite dishes.

We started with an order of Cinnamon Knots served drizzled with Nutella. They were crispy, light, hot, and, lucky for me, not too cinnamon-y. A bit of sweetness with coffee never hurts! Surprisingly, none of us ordered cocktails. Another time...

Another sweet dish on the brunch menu, Apple Calzone with whipped mascarpone, looked rather bland and unappetizing to me, so I skipped it.

Then, came one of my favorites: Meatballs with creamy polenta and a farmed egg. I honestly wish I would have ordered this dish for myself instead of sharing it with the girls. It was that good! You already know I'm a huge fan of all the components in this dish. The meatballs were tender and well-seasoned, the polenta was creamy and not too heavy, and the egg yolk oozed out as soon as one of us broke into it. {I think it was Nikki.}

My second favorite dish was the Breakfast Pizza with bacon, potato, broccolini and cheddar. The thinly-sliced potatoes were crispy and slightly smothered in egg, the bacon added a bit of fattiness while the broccolini reminded you that spring is on its way.

We also ordered Jersey Shore Pizza with fried calamari, tomato, provolone and cherry pepper aioli. To die for! I think Graffiato should serve a bowl of these crunchy calamari rings as an appetizer accompanied by the cherry pepper aioli.

And, of course, we could not forget the pasta! The Spaghetti Carbonara with pancetta, parmesan and an egg was delicious for brunch and made me incredibly excited for what's coming up this weekend: making fresh pasta with my friends Cecilia and Jenn.

Needless to say, we were happy with our food choices:

But then we decided to order one more thing: peanut butter gelato. What a sweet end to a fun brunch with friends!

I look forward to more brunch dates with these great girls: Nikki, K, Cecilia, Jenna, Melissa, Daphne and Michelle.

PS Remember you have until Monday, March 26th to enter the OXO giveaway I'm hosting.