1 review

1. Marlo Kolb  

   on August 27, 2016
   

   One word: Ossobuco. Okay, maybe that's two words. In any case, that's reason enough for you to drop whatever you're doing and make your way over to Bevanda.

   I first walked into Bevanda on a weekday evening. To be perfectly honest, I wasn't impressed by first impressions. We were one of two other patrons in the restaurant, and we were brought to a table in the back. The place had a musty smell about it that didn't do wonders for my appetite. My wife commented that it smelled like "grandma's closet". The decor is similar; it's not necessarily old, but it does have an old, dated feel to it.

   That said, the service was impeccable from the start. We were greeted warmly by a tall Italian man in a tuxedo, speaking in a very authentic Italian accent. As I tend to do, I asked him his recommendation for the best dish in the house, and he said it was the ossobuco. Actually, he had to repeat it a few times before he realized I had no idea what it meant before he said "the veal shank".

   This surprised me at first–usually at Italian restaurants they'll automatically say something like the chicken Parmesan or the spaghetti and meatballs. I learned later that while the lines here in the US tend to be a little blurry, there is a distinct difference between southern Italian food (which tends to be more along the lines of what we're to calling "Italian food", e.g., using more olive oil and tomatoes) vs. northern Italian food, which tends to use more butter and cream and generally tends to be a higher end dining experience.

   We started with some complementary bruschetta, mozzarella cheese, and olives, which was excellent.

   We also had an order of the antipasto. To me, this was a little hit-or-miss. The grilled portobello was the star of the plate: nice and juice with the perfect tinge of balsamic vinegar. The shrimp was fresh, large and had a nice snap. On the other hand, the mozzarella squares and fried clams had a bit too much breading for my taste, but were still decent.

   But as I said, the star of the evening was the ossobuco. It was an amazing meal. The dish came with a generous side of gnocchi with a sauce that wasn't overpowering as I find in many other restaurants. As for the veal shank, it was amazingly tender, as if it'd been braised for hours. The meat literally fel off the bone, and there was a little fork stuck in the shank bone where you could dig out the marrow. I'd actually never tried marrow before, but I decided to put on my best "Green Eggs and Ham" hat and dig in. The flavor was amazing. It was a wonderful, savory, slightly sweet taste that just enveloped you and felt especially good on a chilly day.

   My wife had her usual linguine with clams, and said that the clams were among the freshest she's had. And this is coming from someone who's eaten a lot of linguine and clams in her day.

   We did make a return visit a few weeks later on a Saturday evening. This time, the restaurant was filled to capacity and I didn't notice that musty smell anymore. The service was still excellent and the ossobuco was even larger this time around. But on the flip side, this time there was a substantial amount of sand in the clams. To the restaurant's credit, the manager seemed genuinely concerned when we brought this up to him and said he'd "have a talk with the fish guy". But of course, this is more a matter of preparation than the actual quality of the seafood (which was still very good).

   Overall, I definitely am a fan of Bevanda, and will be back.

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