‘New Europe’ Restaurant in Town: Capitol Prague

Georgetowners craving a modern twist on Europe’s cuisines need go no farther than the intersection of M and Potomac. Capitol Prague, a quaint restaurant and café duo, presents delectable European fare in the heart of the town.
Owners Bohumil Foist and Jaroslav Bosnovic, residing in the D.C., area and Slovakia, respectively, opened the eatery in May 2013. They brought on general manager Lucia Davila, a Slovak Georgetowner to personally represent the restaurant’s roots.
“It is the first restaurant of its kind in Georgetown,” Davila said. While Capitol Prague specializes in Czech dishes, it is expanding its menu to include a variety of nontraditional European favorites. “We’re more than goulash,” Davila said. “We want to have a little bit of everything.”
The restaurant is featuring Oktoberfest selections, available through the end of the month, as well as its on-going lunch combos and weekday happy hour. Choices include beef stuffed potato dumplings, beer braised pork and more. Happy hour consists of appetizers, chef’s specials, European wines, authentic Czech and Slovak beers – especially world-renowned Czechvar beer — and specialty cocktails at reduced prices. It is not limited to October and can be enjoyed 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Lunch deals began when Capitol Prague began serving lunch in September. Guests can mix and match different menu items. One can enjoy soup or salad with half a sandwich for just $9.99, or a hefty meal of soup or salad with Czech sliders or an entrée, plus coffee and dessert for just $19.99. More combinations exist, and hungry passersby are encouraged to stop in to mix and match as they please.
Georgetowner staffers walked across M Street to savor a dine-in lunch experience at Capitol Prague, close to the newspaper’s office.
We stuffed ourselves with smooth, flavored Illy coffee, large-portioned appetizers and lunch entrees. We nestled into comfortable beige seats and ordered a very rich steak tartar and potato pancakes topped with fresh, crunchy red cabbage as starters. We sampled the melt-in-your-mouth goulash as well as the halušky, an authentic Slovak potato spaetzle topped with smoked bacon and bryndza cheese. The halušky turned out to be a collective favorite.
Despite having different food preferences, we were each able to order entrees to our liking. A traditional veal schnitzel with grilled asparagus proved a bit too much to finish after appetizers and samples. The vegetarian relished every last bite of a refreshingly light buffalo mozzarella salad with avocado, drizzled with a balsamic reduction.

Hefty appetizers and entrees left no room for dessert, but we had sampled them earlier in the month. For anyone craving something sweet, options include a fruit parfait, sweet crepes, strudel, traditional bread pudding and rum-infused sponge cake.
Up the avenue, Glover Park has the venerable Old Europe Restaurant, which we also like. But Georgetown now has its own “New Europe” restaurant, Capitol Prague.

Go get a taste of Europe, and check out the Oktoberfest specials before November rolls around.