Matt Adler has no desire to reinvent the Parmesan wheel. Maybe it’s a sign of maturity, or simply the confidence that accompanies experience, but the chef and partner at Caruso’s Grocery does not care to wow customers with any newfangled culinary creations at the anticipated full-service Italian-American restaurant that opened this week in Capitol Hill.

On the contrary, he’s a preservationist. His cause? The classic “red sauce joint” in the mold of Scoozi, his father Larry’s place north of New York City, where Adler worked the line as a teenager and throughout culinary school.