Something lively is happening at Toscani Café and Bar, the rustically romantic Italian restaurant and banquet hall located just a few minutes’ drive from Broadcasting Square. Now that Toscani has reopened its doors for lunch and dinner with its delicious offerings, comfortable touches in lighting and décor, and expansive seating, Berks County can count a new gem in its dining crown.
At dinner, when you start off with a House Red, you’re in for a treat. Not from the usual vineyard, this red is from Montepulciano and is one of the loveliest wines for pairing with Italian food; it is smooth and deep, on the dry side. The house Chianti is equally good. Anything from the bar is expertly concocted, as well (try the Old Fashioned). Do sip on a drink, though, and get an antipasto started in the kitchen, as you page through the extensive menu, trying to decide what to order. Until then, there’s warm focaccia, which magically appears next to a small plate of virgin olive oil for dipping.
The calamari are a treat made special with a capable marinara. But those Sausage Sliders — cheesy, with hunks of Italian sausage and roasted red peppers on top — are clear winners. They are a fun, flavor-filled hint at hearty eats to come.
To make things super easy, and to satisfy everyone in antipasto-land, just get the Signature Sampler for starters. Nestled on a platter are herb-and-Parm-flavored Italian Roasted Chicken Wings, grilled bruschetta, and Mozzarella en Carozza. The latter are luscious little gourmet grilled cheese sandwich triangles, painted with a drop of balsamic. The bruschetta is sweet-tart and fresh-fresh-fresh with the tiniest diced tomato pieces you’ll ever see. Somehow that seems to make the bruschetta explode nicely in the mouth, and it's especially delish when chased by that Montepulciano.
(If a wedding is in your future, it’s now quite easy to imagine all of these appetizers circulating on trays during a cocktail hour, as you socialize merrily in that pre-dinner block of time while waiting for the bride and groom to show up and the dinner to begin.)
Toscani’s chopped salad, tossed with their own Balsamic Vinaigrette House Dressing, is a perfectly proportioned, interesting harvest of garden joy containing the sweet pungency of basil, juicy romaine, arugula and other colorful leafies crisscrossed by potato sticks on top for an extra crunch. Holding its own is a well-seasoned, cheesy Caesar salad made with super-fresh romaine centers. That’s a wide-awake salad, which prepares the palate for the main dish.
Entrees take Center Stage
From steaks to Eggplant Rollotini and a Chicken Margherita served over fettuccini, Toscani’s entrees are many and varied. With an old-fashioned brick oven, pizza is a no-brainer for many, as are pasta platters. Pretty as the shore in summer is the Capellini and Lump Crab dish, tossed with tomatoes and basil, bathed in a white wine sauce. The crab pieces are plentiful but not domineering; the pasta (similar to angel hair) embraces a delicately lemony-garlic sensation.
Grilled Salmon Dolcezza — also featured at Toscani’s Euro-Mediterranean sister restaurant, ViVÁ Bistro & Lounge in Wyomissing — shines here, as it’s brush-glazed with honey and ginger for a sweetly char-flamed taste. It’s served healthfully and prettily on a bright green bed of spinach and broccoli rabé with lemon. Baked cut potatoes and oodles of roasted veggies — baby carrots, squashes, Brussels sprouts, peppers, mushrooms, eggplant and more — accompany.
Flavor Eruption: Chocolate Lava Cake!
For dessert, a tantalizing array of dolcini dishes holding homemade tiramisu, cannoli, panacotta (chocolate with candied walnuts), gelato and more will break down your resistance. So don’t fight. For an unforgettable food memory to satisfy even the most ardent chocolate fanatic, try Lava Cake, a particular gift of Toscani’s congenial Chef Felix Maietta. Do get enough forks for everyone. Though it takes 13 minutes to prepare, it’s worth every single second. It tastes like you are eating dark chocolate cake batter, and it’s gooey like a volcano. Scoop the hot morsels into the little bowl of under-sweet vanilla ice cream on the side, and swoon.
Wedding Bells Up Ahead?
Toscani, ViVÁ and Green Valley Country Club (the banquet facility) are all under the same ownership, and a dedicated ViVÁ staff works with the bride and groom to plan their menu, from antipasto in the cocktail hour to full-scale dinners of carefully prepared and elegantly presented beef, fish, poultry, pasta, or other entrees. Unlike many caterers, where the menu is pre-set and boringly predictable, here the wedding party’s food preferences are taken to heart. There are bridal menus with tiers, but if you want, say, tilapia, you can have it. It’s important to work with the chef to get what you want, says Toscani’s Michael M. Mariott, general manager. Given Toscani’s space, with Green Valley as a separate reception facility, Berks Countians now enjoy more options for The Big Day. And with ViVÁ’s expansion toward new French, Spanish and Mediterranean entrees, plus their lite menu and hugely popular tapas, you'll have even more gustatory choices.
For more, see vivagoodlife.com.
by MARIAN FRANCES WOLBERS | photos by HEIDI REUTER
