Vita

Friday night, I went to Vita, which has replaced Verde at Erwin Square. Vita is still a Bakatsias creation and it's still just as trendy, with oodles of martinis from which to choose. In addition to redecorating, they now have a menu consisting entirely of salads, pizza and pasta dishes.

I ordered a smoked salmon pizza with cream cheese, fresh tomatoes, onions, capers and shredded apples. It was oval shaped, enormous (at least 12" in diameter) and very good. They have a collection of spices and parmesan that can be added afterwards. They charged me $9, but from looking at the menu, that may have been the lunch menu price. Even so, the $12 that they list on their on-line dinner menu would certainly have been very reasonable. I had plenty to eat, gave away three slices to other people and still had enough to take home for another meal.

Vita: It's So Hot, It's On Fire!

Candles without covers have become increasingly popular at restaurants for some unknown reason. Last night, at Vita, one of my friends almost put the paper drink menu on one of the candles, but he noticed before it was too late.
A few minutes later, I looked down and was forced to exclaim, "Oh my God, it's really on fire now." I quickly took my bread plate, turned it upside-down and covered the flames. Like many restaurants, they cover all of their tables with butcher paper, so it could have gotten even more interesting rather quickly. Another friend slipped the charred drink menu in one of the dinner menus, but I wouldn't have minded seeing our waitress's reaction. At Vin Rouge, where they have similar candles, I've seen many burned plastic menus, so I can't believe this doesn't happen to a lot of people.

I ordered the ravioli of the day, which contained spinach and artichokes. Combined with their house spice mix and parmesan, it was quite good. The portion was smaller than their mammoth-sized personal pizzas, but it was still a great deal at $7.

For dessert, I chose their sorbet and gelato trio. I picked chocolate and cherry gelato with a scoop of raspberry sorbet. From the pile of spoons, you can guess accurately that I had plenty of help with this one. The chocolate and raspberry were an excellent combination.

Vita Blogging: Great Value

In this age of inflation, it's refreshing to find reasonably priced food that's actually good. Last night, the ravioli of the day at Vita was filled with goat cheese, had a roasted red pepper cream sauce and was just $8. It was very good and the sauce was just spicy enough to have just a little kick to it. I don't even like red peppers, but they can add a nice flavor to a cream sauce. I did eat the peppers instead of picking them out, like I usually do. Well, I did pick them out, but I decided to eat them anyway and I'm glad I did. As I've written previously, their pastas and pizzas have been consistently good and inexpensive. Also, all their martinis (fru-fru and non-fru-fru ) are $4 on Tuesday nights.

Vita Blogging: Scampi

Last night, a bunch of friends and I went to Vita again. We thought we'd have our pick of restaurants, given that Hanna was already soaking the area and most people would want to stay home. We ended up having to wait for about 30 minutes at the bar before we got our table. The restaurant was infested with sorority girls and frat boys, who were having dinner parties.

Once we got our table, we had a very pleasant meal. I got shrimp scampi, with angel hair pasta, garlic and herbs. At $14, it's the most expensive item on their menu, which is pretty amazing. The menu didn't say anything about tomatoes, but it had a tomato based sauce, which I believe is kind of unusual for shrimp scampi, so it wasn't what I was expecting. I did enjoy it, though, and they did a nice job cooking the shrimp.