Michael Scaffidi

Plume One of Washington D.C.'s finest restaurants read more
Plume One of Washington D.C.'s finest restaurants read more: WASHINGTON DC’S BEST FINE DINING RESTAURANT

Voted Washington, DC’s best fine dining restaurant by Zagat, Plume Restaurant at The Jefferson hotel serves as a discreet and elegant backdrop to the culinary artistry of our award-winning executive chef, Chris Jakubiec. Choose a cozy nook or a table by our inviting fireplace as you savor classic dishes crafted using traditional techniques and seasonal restaurant menus that are inspired by the harvest from Thomas Jefferson's kitchen gardens at Monticello.

Savor a bottle of the restaurant’s more than 1,300 labels. Plume’s wine list spans more than a dozen nationalities and dates back to a rare 1780 Borges Madeira Bual, presided over by sommelier Michael Scaffidi, formerly of The French Laundry. Among the more than 50 vintages are those Jefferson himself enjoyed in his time as well as newer wines he might select were he alive today.

Providing the final flourish to this unforgettable dining experience is service as discreet as it is attentive, and always informed.

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: MICHAEL SCAFFIDI

Michael Scaffidi ought to be in pictures, but his screenwriting career was waylaid by an unforeseen passion for wine. The southern California native majored in film and screenwriting at Loyola Marymount, but, like many, turned to bartending to help pay his bills. From his post behind the bar, this student of human nature became fascinated by his colleague, the sommelier. Scaffidi investigated the Court of Master Sommeliers. At the age of 23, he passed its first level.

Scaffidi’s career took him to Santa Barbara’s Bacara Resort before leading to The French Laundry, where he spent three years before moving on to San Francisco’s Campton Place and The Greenbrier Resort. While he loved the experience, he yearned for a more cosmopolitan lifestyle, and jumped at the chance to build a wine cellar worthy of the Jefferson name.

What followed was a great deal of research, intensive cellar design, the development of the ideal wine program, and the ongoing search for vintage Madeira. Scaffidi uses much of Jefferson’s travels and experience as the general basis for the hotel cellar, where he focuses his offerings on wines from around the world, also honoring Jefferson’s attempts at viniculture by celebrating the best of American wines.

WASHINGTON DC’S BEST FINE DINING RESTAURANT