Roll with It
Backyard Bocce and Wine on U Street

You’ve got to admit it: the Europeans do some things better. No, not economic stewardship. Or freedom. But... well, there’s soccer.

Also: other, lower-impact sports. Those that can be enjoyed along with a glass of wine in one hand, and duck sausage in the other.

Yes, we mean bocce.

Introducing The Plaza at Vinoteca, a backyard patio now open nightly to add some bocce to your evening libations.

Just as you have in the past, you’ll head to this cozy wine bar after work. But now you’ll make a beeline for the back door, and enter the kind of drinking and hand-eye coordination oasis you’d find in a back alley in Palermo.

Take a seat at the concrete bar and have one of 20 wines by the glass (available for five bucks before 7pm). For once, however, your bartender might not be the most important guy behind the bar. That would be the grill man, diligently turning out ricotta crostini and lamb sliders from a special outdoor-only menu.

Properly fueled, you’ll grab a bag of balls off the bar and try to scare up an opponent to join you on the 30-foot bocce court. Its bed is made from crushed oyster shells, and there’s a fountain at one end, a roller so you can groom away the bad bounces and even an old-fashioned scoreboard.

You can call in the box score for tomorrow’s paper.