Bella Vino Means Incredible Dining

You don't need a dictionary to know this food is good

Lisa Sokolowski

Take every thought you have about fine dining - the costly menu, the stuffiness, the way you have to sit on the first six inches of your chair - and fuggedaboutit. That will give you a better attitude when you walk into the newly-opened Bella Vino in Pittston.

The Italian steakhouse (opened where The Trillo was) is fancy, but if you enter through the bright red drapery in jeans, you won't be escorted out though a backdoor. Instead, you'll be welcomed just the same as your suit-wearing cohorts (however, when the heavy leather-bound menu is placed in front of you, you might be rethinking denim).

A highlight of the menu is the "Simply Organic" section, which has plenty of offerings for green-conscious diners. But it isn't just that the veggies are in a class of their own. Bella Vino also serves free-range meats. Perhaps a grass-fed cow doesn't taste better than any other beef, but it's good to know that the chicken had a cage-free life prior to becoming your dinner.

Before you can even get through the majority of the menu, you've already been greeted by a basket of bruschetta bread and a trio of toppings. Heed this warning, though: The cup that looks like it's filled with seasoned taco meat is actually pureed black olives. We found that out the hard way.

When perusing the menu, owner John A. Stultz was making his rounds and introduced himself. Since we were overwhelmed by the delicious choices, we asked Stultz to choose our appetizer. He easily chose the meatball ($8) since it was the way he chose his executive chef. An Italian restaurant must have a perfect meatball, he said, and anyone who didn't pass the meatball test wasn't hired.

Chef Zachary Dollak got it right. Even though we were a little worried that it wouldn't be enough to feed two, we were pleasantly surprised that the app could give another meaning to "six-inch meatball." While feeding ourselves with a generously seasoned meatball in a great red sauce, Dollak brought us ahi tuna with seaweed salad and orange, carrot, and ginger sherbet served in a martini glass. We didn't order it, so it was nice to see that small perks were accumulating on our table (and we hadn't even told them we were from ec/dc).

Our piping hot chicken noodle soup came next, followed by our entrees: a free-range chicken breast stuffed with spinach, cheddar, and artichoke over a bed of wild mushroom risotto ($22) and a garden roasted vegetable lasagna with a side of onion rings ($14) (perhaps the rings were a little out of place on the menu, but not in our stomachs).

The chicken was cooked perfectly. It wasn't dry or tough, and it wasn't overwhelmed with a flavorful skin that hides the fact that the chicken is bland (we've been to restaurants like that in the past). The stuffing was similar to a comfort food, something warm and heavy that you would want on a bad day.

The lasagna was stuffed with a plethora of vegetables and was covered in the sauce we started missing when our meatball plate was taken from our table.

While we were waiting for our leftovers, we snuck a look at the dessert menu. How could we end a meal at an Italian steakhouse without a cannoli? We actually had two fruit-filled cannolis ($7) to end the meal.

The food is incredible, but it's the extras that set Bella Vino apart. Everything is branded with the restaurant's logo, from the plates to the mints to the extra soft bathroom napkins. The to-go bags are made of a heavy paper bag, similar to something you might get at a trendy boutique.

The bi-level deck wasn't in use when we were there and the lounge downstairs was still being finished. But you can be assured that it will be top-notch down there too, assuming you leave the beauty of the main restaurant's cathedral ceilings to check it out.

And if you don't make it to the deck or lounge on your first trip, rest assured the food will bring you back another time. We've already been there twice.