First Taste: Angelina Italian Bistro

The new Angelina Bistro -- the unique Italian restaurant -- is a breath of fresh air. Actually, the chef Joel Vassallo and owners Tom Agosta and Mike Viviano, refer to their restaurant’s cuisine as ‘Italian-inspired’ Mediterranean, a label that allows them to use ingredients outside of a specific region in Europe and focus on local ingredients.

Chef Vassallo has created a menu that stays away from the heavy and exorbitant, and instead, focuses on simplicity and balance. He spent seven years at the Five Lakes Grille where he honed such skills as making charcuterie in house.

The dishes tend to be vegetable-focused with less emphasis on a big piece of meat and more on the continuity of the whole dish. Vegetarians feel welcome (owner Agosta is a vegetarian) as the menu is almost half vegetarian. This is juxtaposed with chef Vassallo’s intimate understanding of the pig and other animals that he cures and smokes on location.

Unless you order a dish under the menu heading, “large plates,” the plates are more of a tasting size meant to be shared and accompanied with other dishes and perhaps a glass of wine or two.

The antipasti bar, attached to the open kitchen, displays like a sushi bar, and ventures beyond the usual antipasti offerings, offering made-in-house items like pistachio mortadella and cold-smoked salmon to refreshing vegetable dishes such as pickled broccoli, fennel, carrots and fresh mozzarella .        

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