Vivoli is one of those restaurants we don’t favor too much, even though the food is good. There are two reasons we slight them, and it’s not really intentional.
First, the restaurant is in a Sunset Boulevard strip mall with another restaurant we like a lot. Vivoli sometimes loses out at the last second, as we pass the door to the other place and decide to go there instead.
Second, we tend to measure all Italian restaurants against the yardstick of our favorite, Il Buco. When compared to Il Buco, everybody loses out.
As I mentioned, though, the food at Vivoli is good. They also have a nice wine list. It’s not very extensive, but there are a few good selections of Italian wines at decent prices. The cheese and tomato sauce pizza was simple and rustic, done with a very thin crust which was a little burned around the edge. We ask for it that way. I chose a Sangiovese from Umbria to accompany it.
Terre de’ Trinci concentrates on Sagrantino wines, but they do a few others in addition. The Sangiovese is one of them. It’s $8 per glass at Vivoli.
Medium red in hue, this 100% Sangiovese goes purple around the edge of the glass. The nose is earthy with black cherry notes dominating and an almost minty overlay. The palate is smooth enough - it’s a very drinkable wine - and the medium mouthfeel carries flavors of currant and cherry.
I would have liked the finish to be a bit longer, but the pairing with the pizza was good enough to keep me from thinking about that too much.
First, the restaurant is in a Sunset Boulevard strip mall with another restaurant we like a lot. Vivoli sometimes loses out at the last second, as we pass the door to the other place and decide to go there instead.
Second, we tend to measure all Italian restaurants against the yardstick of our favorite, Il Buco. When compared to Il Buco, everybody loses out.
As I mentioned, though, the food at Vivoli is good. They also have a nice wine list. It’s not very extensive, but there are a few good selections of Italian wines at decent prices. The cheese and tomato sauce pizza was simple and rustic, done with a very thin crust which was a little burned around the edge. We ask for it that way. I chose a Sangiovese from Umbria to accompany it.
Terre de’ Trinci concentrates on Sagrantino wines, but they do a few others in addition. The Sangiovese is one of them. It’s $8 per glass at Vivoli.
Medium red in hue, this 100% Sangiovese goes purple around the edge of the glass. The nose is earthy with black cherry notes dominating and an almost minty overlay. The palate is smooth enough - it’s a very drinkable wine - and the medium mouthfeel carries flavors of currant and cherry.
I would have liked the finish to be a bit longer, but the pairing with the pizza was good enough to keep me from thinking about that too much.
No comments:
Post a Comment