Via Veneto
Fabrizio and Marco came to America from Rome. Warren is their rock star partner (Duran Duran, Frank Zappa). Chef Ruben is their longtime friend. Via Veneto is their creation.
Located on Main Street in Santa Monica, Via Veneto is narrow and cozy with artwork and mirrors adorning the walls and drippy white candles on each table. Add suave Italian servers into the mix and suddenly you forget you are in America. There was a long list of specials in addition to the menu that featured mostly Southern Italian dishes and flavors.
Upon arrival we were treated with freshly baked bread (just the right amount of crunch in the crust), green olives, and a bit of olive oil for dunking; a promising start to the meal.
Our first course was white eggplant (flown in from Italy according to our server) parmigiana, minestrone, and a seafood salad. The sauce surrounding the eggplant was the brightest and most lovely marinara sauce I have ever had. The minestrone was a surprise - it was pureed and moss green in color and although it was all one smooth texture you could taste multiple layers of vegetable in each spoonful. The seafood salad was one of the specials for the evening and our server didn't give much of a description except to say "you must get this" in his thick Italian accent...so I did. A hefty portion of perfectly cooked calamari, spot prawn, and scallops all tossed in lemon juice, chopped tomato, and fresh herbs - absolutely divine.
The second course consisted of pumpkin ravioli in a sage brown butter sauce, lobster ravioli in a red tomato sauce, and spaghetti with seafood. All of the pasta was house made and to die for. Both raviolis were delicious but the lobster was the clear winner as so many restaurants tend to pair their lobster ravioli with an overwhelmingly rich cream sauce and instead this ravioli was paired with a wonderfully seasoned red sauce. The spaghetti was lightly dressed, tossed in with mussels, shrimp, and scallops, and then sprinkled with a bit of spicy red pepper flakes. At the end of each mouthful there was just the right amount of zing from the pepper flakes and the spaghetti noodles were cooked ideally, just beyond al dente.
For dessert it was panna cotta and tiramisu. The panna cotta was the best panna cotta I have ever had. I usually don't get excited about panna cotta as I relate it to mexican flan and the consistency can tend to be just plain funky. Our server mentioned that he didn't care for panna cotta in general, either, but that their panna cotta was "the best" ...so panna cotta it was. Wow. So delicious. It was served over a blackberry coulis and we just about licked the plate. The tiramisu was pretty great too but the panna cotta was outstanding.
On the way out the door we were thanked and sent off with a plethora of air-blown kisses and "Ciao Bella"s.
3009 Main Street
Santa Monica, CA
90405
Sarah Simms