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Red Hen’s Mike Friedman opens Aventino and AP Pizza in Bethesda

Classic Roman cuisine pairs with New Jersey-style pizza at two side-by-side restaurants in Bethesda from James Beard semifinalist Chef Mike Friedman.

Aventino Cucina and AP Pizza Shop open at 4747 Bethesda Ave. on Jan. 31. Friedman’s other restaurants include All-Purpose Pizzeria, The Red Hen and Boundary Stone Public House.

Aventino is named after one of the seven major hills in Rome. The menu is traditional Roman dishes, with what a pre-opening announcement said includes, “nods to the Roman-Jewish ghetto and Mid-Atlantic seasonal ingredients,” as well as housemade pasta and desserts from pastry chef Ann Specter, previously from CityZen.

The two-level restaurant seats 130 people and features is a large emerald and marble-clad bar. Here’s the Aventino menu.

AP Pizza Shop features New York and New Jersey-style oven pizza sold by the slice, as well as whole pizzas and antipasti. Here’s the AP Pizza Shop menu.

Friedman is a New Jersey native who grew up in a Jewish household in an Italian neighborhood.

Aventino will be open for dinner seven days a week, and AP Pizza will be open for lunch and dinner daily.

Here’s when you don’t have to tip

The rules for tipping have evolved over the years. Now, with grocery delivery, Uber drivers, Amazon drivers, carryout food, pet groomers, and on and on, it feels like there are more opportunities to empty our wallets. If you're grumpy about tipping, it's probably because norms have changed. It has "become less discretionary, and the tipping percentage has also increased," says Shelle Santana, an assistant professor of marketing at Bentley University in Waltham, Massachusetts. Santana's research focuses in part on the psychology of money, and plenty of emotions are tied up in how we give money.
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