| With
Bella Via, Long Island City in Queens takes a big step up from red
sauce and Frank Sinatra. It's a small neighborhood restaurant, but
fresh, grilled dishes and imaginative thin-crust pizzas make it a
large presence on Vernon Boulevard, which, if it is the "beautiful
street" of the restaurant's name, proves that the owners have a
rich sense of humor. The heart and soul of
Bella Via is its coal-fired brick oven, the fiery furnace that
turns out a half-dozen styles of pizza, all built on a proper
foundation of thin, crisp flaky dough. Two of the best are an
arugula and prosciutto pie, with the arugula scattered generously,
and a white pie of mozzarella, ham and Parmesan cheese. Grilled dishes are
pretty much infallible. Baby calamari, striped with black grill
marks and drizzled with a light walnut sauce, are lifted from the
heat at just the right moment, when they're still tender. Grilled
vegetables, smoky from the fire and firm to the bite, need nothing
more than a simple marinade of olive oil and thyme. The pasta
category performs well. It includes old standbys like rigatoni with
sausage and broccoli rabe as well as newfangled creations like
capellini with shiitake mushrooms and shrimp. Good ingredients and
correctly cooked pasta seem like revolutionary ideas, given the
depressed level of competition in the area. Ricotta-spinach gnocchi
with tomato and olives may be the standout here. About half the main
courses are warhorses like chicken marsala and calf's liver with
onions and balsamic vinegar. They are competently done. Interest
picks up with dishes like grilled salmon with mustard sauce and
grilled pork chops in a caper and Barolo sauce. My approach, after
several meals at the restaurant, was to hit the grilled appetizers
hard, throw in a pizza or two as well, and feast on pasta. The
pleasure is doubled by the sheer implausibility of the situation.
Hard by the Midtown tunnel, food expectations run very low.
Tournesol, another fresh face down the street, showed that Long
Island City, touted as New York's new Left Bank, could tolerate a
smart little bistro. Bella Via is making the same argument in
Italian. -- William Grimes From "Diner's
Journal," The Times, 4/11/03. |
Although “terrific coal-oven pizza” is the main attraction,
this “neighborhood Italian” near the Long Island City waterfront
also has a way with “homemade pastas” and other “solid” standards;
the “casual setting” works for a “relaxed” bite.
