DC’s Little Coco’s has a royal restaurant lineage. In 2016, restaurateurs Jackie Greenbaum and Gordon Banks opened Little Coco’s on the Petworth-Columbia Heights border, adding it to their portfolio, which already included El Chucho, Bar Charley, Quarry House Tavern, and Charley Chesapeake Chophouse.1 They partnered with executive chef Adam Harvey, a Montgomery County native. Named for Harvey’s Italian-born wife, Eva Cocozzella, Little Coco’s is a small, unpretentious neighborhood Italian favorite with an interesting idiosyncrasy.
In a cookie-cutter, tailored society where most new houses are painted black and white, Little Coco’s has a refreshingly whimsical personality. The interior’s long, narrow, cozy layout has walls dotted with artwork – pizza-themed riffs on iconic pop-culture images and album covers. The cinder block walls are an industrial design decision, not a joint too cheap to spring for drywall. A large red sign with marquee-style lettering, Hot Pizza & Cold Beer2, dominates a wall. The not-quite-dingy outdoor covered patio could stand a glow-up.
When Little Coco’s opened in 2016, virtually every review extolled its Pizza Frito Classico, a crispy, fried coil of dough stuffed with cheese and tomato sauce. Sadly, Little Coco’s has dropped fried pizza from the menu. Also gone are two pizzas: Pig Destroyer3 (Capicola, pepperoni, porchetta, fontina, tomato sauce) and the Nudja Really Want to Hurt Me4 (Nudja is a spicy, spreadable pork salami from Calabria, Italy). It may seem that the removal of these menu items reflects the aging restaurateurs’ loss of rockin’ spirit. More likely, their cardiologists put the kabosh on these foods.
DishingPizza ordered Coco’s Formaggio, the most basic pizza with mozzarella, pecorino, fior di latte, basil, and tomato sauce. The crust is unusual, with a soft, bready interior and a crispy exterior. Although the pizzas are oven-baked, the crust texture is closer to Roman-style pizza than New York-style. Kudos to Little Coco’s for bucking the Neapolitan wood-fired trend and slinging more interesting pies. Unfortunately, the salty cheese and bland tomato sauce don’t match the crust’s innovativeness. Although the toppings are acceptable, they lack pizzazz.
Here’s the idiosyncratic Little Coco’s feature — modeled after a cruise ship’s unlimited drinks package, Little Coco’s offers a diabolical bottomless happy hour and brunch. Ordinarily, happy hours offer discounted drinks and appetizers. Not Little Coco’s. Nothing good ever comes from charging $36 and challenging patrons to drink as much as possible in a two-hour window. Little Coco’s is child-friendly and sits in a hood teeming with young families. Although it’s an odd juxtaposition, toddlers lumbering around, learning to walk, closely resemble happy hour patrons who have forgotten how to walk.
Every neighborhood has space for a reasonably priced, family-friendly Italian restaurant. Little Coco’s, with its extensive drinks selection and a small but nicely curated menu, is a cut above standard red sauce joints. Not a ringing endorsement, but neighborhood Italian restaurants are seldom superb.
Little Coco’s
3907 14th St NW, Washington, DC 20011
Type: Roman
Pizza quality: 🍕🍕
Overall experience: ⭐⭐⭐
Pie (12″ round): $14.50
Pie price per square inch: $0.13
- The closure of Jackie’s and the Sidecar Lounge in Silver Spring coincided with Little Coco’s opening. ↩︎
- The sign is likely hipster irony, as Little Coco’s has greater aspirations than being a mere pizza and beer joint. ↩︎
- Pig Destroyer is an American grindcore band formed in 1997 in Alexandria, Virginia. ↩︎
- Whippersnappers may not get the Culture Club-Boy George reference. ↩︎