Via Matta when you're feeling classy...

Via Matta has been on my list of “someday” restaurants for a while now. It receives consistently good to great reviews on Yelp and is conveniently located downtown. Sadly though, it’s a bit off my dining price point for a standard night out. Last night, however, I had a date planned with my bestie (Packie) to go see Wicked (fantastic show, btw…definitely go if you haven’t!), so we decided to get all jazzed up and head out for a nice dinner before the show.

We made reservations for 5:30 – absolutely not needed on a Tuesday night, but if you’re registered with OpenTable.com, you make a reservation for everything. Reservations add up to free gift cards, and who doesn’t love that? We showed up at 5:26 since we came straight from work, and the hostess informed us that we were a bit early and the dining room wasn’t open yet. Seemed a little picky to me, but you don’t have to ask us twice to get a drink at the bar before dinner, so that’s just what we did.

Their cocktail list was unique and creative but nothing jumped out at us, so in the end we decided to spring for Cosmos…$12 each and delicious. Prices were as to be expected at this particular establishment.

The hostess came over mid-martini and told us our table was ready, so we carried our pretty pink drinks over and found our little table for two decorated with tealights (good spot for a little romance if you’re there on a date). They served us some delicious bread with olive oil while we decided on our meals. We ordered a bottle of the Salviano, Orvieto Classico ($36)…purely because it’s from a region of Italy I studied in during college and because Orvieto tends to put out nice wines. And it was nice, indeed!

We ordered the spicy calamari with tomatoes, olives and capers ($14). Also, delicious. And, being the classy place this is, they brought us our own little bowls of calamari instead of making us divvy it up from a shared plate. For dinner, I opted for the Chitarra (basically homemade spaghetti) with lobster, peas and spicy tomato sauce ($28). Again…fantastic. I wasn’t even terribly hungry going into dinner, and I polished off this entire meal. So very good. Packie had the Chicken alla Milanese with cherry tomatoes, arugula and red onion ($23). The meal was good, but to use her words, it was “nothing to write home about.”

Overall, it was a really nice dining experience. Like I said, you’re likely to drop a pretty penny in this place so make sure you like your date a lot if you’re planning on treating them to dinner here. But a great place for a relaxing, classy - even romantic evening.

Salute!
Little B