Rosedale. 4465 Connecticut Ave., NW.  Frank Ruta has kept the same sourdough starter alive since he was a chef in Ronald Reagan’s White House in 1988. He used it to bake loaves at his long-gone yet beloved Cleveland Park restaurant Palena and into more recent years as chef of Annabelle in Dupont Circle. He’ll continue to incorporate the sourdough starter into thin-crust pizzas and bread at Rosedale, a farmhouse-styled American restaurant near the Van Ness Metro serving seasonal small plates and rotating rotisserie specials. The restaurant, opening Thursday, October 24, is the latest from restaurateur Ashok Bajaj, whose many restaurants include Rasika, Bombay Club, Annabelle, La Bise, and others. Bajaj says many of the clientele who come to his restaurants live in Upper Northwest DC. With Rosedale, he wanted to create neighborhood place for them that was a little more affordable and relaxed but still had upscale atmosphere. “I don’t want to sound too pompous here, but this probably will be the place in town where you want a pizza and a glass of wine? You’re actually sitting on a $600 chair,” Bajaj says. Ruta aims for “delicious, simple cooking” at Rosedale: “It’s kind of cliche to say that we’re going to lean a lot on what the farmers are giving us and picking for us, because it seems like everybody’s doing that nowadays… but that’ll be the focus, basically.” Chickens will be a mainstay on the rotisserie grill at Rosedale. Photograph by Greg Powers. Ruta’s naturally leavened pizzas land somewhere between New York and New Haven styles with toppings like bacon, fig jam, and ricotta or spinach, lemon, and pistachio. The rotisserie grill will be another highlight: spinning chickens one day, and leg of lamb, duck, squab, or fish the next. Potato and smoked cheddar croquettes with mayo and sambal. Photograph by Greg Powers. Beyond that, the menu consists of shareable appetizers, including potato-and-smoked-cheddar croquettes, veal carpaccio with anchovy, or chicken livers with pickled honeycrisp apples and scallions. You’ll also find a handful of salads, plenty of vegetable sides, and a couple pastas, such as butternut ravioli or amatriciana with house-cured guanciale. Bigger mains include a 45-day dry-aged steak or sole l’anglaise. Going forward, Rosedale will introduce brunch, and Ruta is thinking about making his own bagels—something he did at the end of his Palena days. To drink, expect classic cocktails—from a barrel-aged fig Manhattan to a Last Word—and a focus on organic, sustainable, and biodynamic wines, with glasses ranging from $12 to $19 and bottles starting at $48. Rosedale gets its name from a historic farmhouse in nearby Cleveland Park. Photograph by Greg Powers. Rosedale is named after a historic farmhouse in Cleveland Park that was built in the late 1700s by a colonel who fought in the Revolutionary War. The restaurant embraces a modern farmhouse look with natural woods, blue bookshelves, and lots of greenery. “When you sit here, it feels that you’re transported to a farmhouse somewhere in the country in France or Italy,” Bajaj says. “But of course there’s Connecticut Avenue in front of us, so we have we put nice curtains in the windows.”The post Frank Ruta’s Seasonal Pizzas and Rotisserie Coming to Rosedale Near Van Ness first appeared on Washingtonian.