Eata Vita

Last week I visited Dolce Vita in Manhattan’s Little Italy. It's not often you get a new restaurant opening in that area. This place has gotten a bit of press lately because of their neighbors aren't playing very nice and trying to force out the new kid on the block. So much for Italian hospitality.

Little Italy isn’t my first choice for Italian food. Getting solicited by a hostesses begging me to come in is normally not the way I like to start my meal. Most of the restaurants are usually no better than the Olive Garden, vegetables and pasta are overcooked and nothing is typically fresh. On top of that it's the same boring food, I don't even need to see a menu to know that I can get some fill-in the-blank parmigiana.

But I put all that aside because I thought I’d support my Italian brethren by checking out what they had to offer, plus my dad missed my birthday and promised to pay.

The setting is small but comfortable. Simple table settings with not a lot of frills made it feel very contemporary. The John Legend album playing was better than some Italian opera but not much better. Lacking a liquor license is hurting this place but they’ve made up the difference by offering to go out and buy wine or beer for us.

After reading Preston’s post about mussels I had a hankering for seafood. For an appetizer we split orders of sage fried calamari with a balsamic and orange juice reduction and mussels sautéed in a white wine butter sauce and served with toast points.

All the fish was quite fresh and cooked well. The mussels could have been a bit larger in size, especially for this time of summer but they packed a nice taste.
Calamari was fried well but the reduction on top was too understated and didn’t stand out well.

Both dishes seemed like they sat for a bit and judging that we were the only ones in the place I’m wondering what the chef was doing back there that we couldn’t get a hot plate of mussels.

The place bragged about having homemade pasta using organic ingredients so of course we had to taste some. My dad went right for the homemade pasta ala puttanesca, he’s such the classic. Besides the usual olives, capers, and sauce they spin-it up and add mussels, clams, and shrimp to the dish. I always chuckle when I see this dish on a menu because the name literally translates to "pasta the way a whore would make it", generally it's believed that in Roman times, prostitutes would serve this dish to entice customers, plus it was easy to prepare.

I tried the homemade ravioli. Two large sheets barely contained filling. Cooked nearly to al dente but might have needed another few minutes in the water. Definitely not enough filling to get a satisfying taste of much of anything.

One very redeeming quality of this place was the dessert. They only had one to offer and that a tirimissu. I figured if that's all they were offering it had better be good. Oh my it was! it was made from scratch by the owner's wife when we ordered it.
Very light, creamy and not too much liquor. It's by far some of the best I've ever had.

In the end, I probably won't go back to this place. Just wasn't all that psyched in the end about my meal. But I grabbed a delivery menu just in case anyone at work wants a try!