Tavola - Charlottesville

This past summer my husband and I had the pleasure to spend 11 days in central Italy. Needless to say we ate more pasta, truffles and pecorino and drank more wine than I thought possible. Enter my renewed love for pasta. So of course we've both been reluctant yet excited to try an Italian restaurant. Enter Tavola. I decided that the night before Thanksgiving was the perfect night to finally try one from Charlottesville's Italian scene.

We headed to Tavola at 6pm and thought surely we'd be ahead of the rush. They don't take reservations and I had been warned they fill up quick. Well that was certainly true. There are only about 10 tables and about 6 more seats along the bar. Unfortuantely 6pm wasn't early enough to get a table straight away, but we did get one relatively quick.

Having spent a week in Umbria, I decided the table needed a bottle of Umbrian wine so I opted for the Col Santo Rosso (Sagrantino-Sangiovese blend) and it was excellent, especially at a mere $33/bottle. Everyone else agreed too. Considering it's $21/bottle at Market Street wine shop, that's not a bad buy at all.

After getting our wine, we decided to all get soup or salad to start which was great, except for the teaser "salad of the day" which was sold out by the time we ordered (circa 6:30pm). I still went for a salad but did one off the menu instead. The salad was a great start of things to come.

For entrees we all went for something different. I chose the red beet and leek risotto with sea scallops. It was excellent and perfectly cooked, plus a beautiful color (see picture at right). My husband went for a classic carbonara and it was delicious while not quite as heavy as I have traditionally prepared it. Others at the table had the pork saltimboca special of the day and the garganelli alla zucca (butternut squash, kale, cream and garganelli pasta). Overall everyone was quite happy with the meal (though we all agreed the garganelli was the least favorite), and I was happy to have a real Italian dinner.

In short I look forward to a return visit and to trying more of the pasta and wine at Tavola!

La Bella

So we keep going to the same places over and over again (namely Cogan's and Green Onion because they're so awesome) but we finally went somewhere new. La Bella is an Italian restaurant in Ghent on 22nd Street, set in an unsuspecting strip mall next to The Market. The inside is nicely decorated, with the entrance being a little Italian store. They had lots of desserts and pastas for sale, but it also appeared you could order a sandwich to go there and the sandwiches sounded wonderful.

Dinner: To start we had a calamari appetizer ($9). I'm always skeptical about ordering this, but there's was a good size plate (enough to share) and was quite tasty. For an entree I had the Penne All Ortolana ($15) which was penne with eggplant, tomato, basil, garlic and topped with ricotta. It was a really heart pasta dish but the ricotta on top gave a nice light touch to it. It was a big portion and I actually took half home. My husband had the Vitello Ai Tre Scallini ($20) which is veal topped with pancetta and provolone topped with mushrooms and sundried tomatoes in a brandy sauce. It was delicious. Seriously, I don't usually eat veal and this was awesome. It came with a side of penne with sauce (marinara or bolognese). I would definitely recommend this dish to anyone.

Drinks: I would say the one disappointment is that there wasn't a huge selection of wine. They did have a nice glad of red that I really enjoyed, but I can't recall the name and the don't have it listed online unfortunately. I remember it was a deep red with hints of blackberry and is one of the owner's favorites. I think it was about $8/glass. They also had a full bar and several different bottled beers.

They had sort of pre fixe menu that was $25 for 4 courses. It included a Caesar Salad and then a smaller portion each for an appetizer, entree and ddessert. 

Overall I would recommend La Bella. I feel like it's hard to find a decent Italian place sometimes, so I was happy to go here and have a decent Italian meal. 

Price: $$

Food: 1.5 forks up

Drinks: 3 drinks (out of 5)

Atmosphere: 3.5 stars (out of 5)

The Boot

Last night I went to the Boot for the first time in almost a year. I returned (after begging my husband) hoping that the service would be better. It was. Luckily the food was just as good as I had remembered!

For those of you haven't heard of the Boot, it's a ways from Colley down 21st Street, but it's well worth the trip. The menu is Italian inspired but uses mostly local and seasonal ingredients. They have a great selection of VA cheese, wines, and beer as well. (Tuesday is half price bottles of VA wine!)

For starters we got a cheese plate. My one critique is there isn't enough cheese on there, especially when they're all so delicious! We had a soft chevre-type, a medium gouda-type, and a hard cheddar type, all from VA. It came with a cut up Asian pear, honey, peanuts, olives, and homemade zucchini bread. Very good overall.

For my meal I decided to skip out on the full portion of pasta and instead do a salad and a half portion of pasta. Great idea because it let me try more! I had the arugula with dried figs, prosciutto and chevre. It was delicious! For a pasta, I had the shrimp and crab in a creamy tomato sauce over penne. A half-portion of this was great because it is a little heavier, but it was very good. My husband had the black angel hair with calamari, garlic, capers and tomato. It was excellent and so light and fresh. I would definitely recommend either of these plates! My husband also did the half-portion pasta and paired it with a fried oyster and grilled romaine salad which he said was awesome.

Although we didn't stay, another great thing about the Boot is the live music almost every night of the week. It starts around 9pm and includes everything from acoustic rock to blues. 

Cost: $$$ (out of 4)

Ambiance: 2 thumbs up

Deliciousness: 4 out of 5 stars