Food & Drink: Review: Cooking From the Heart

A choice of VINIA dishes. (ROBERTO GONZALEZ)

Have you met Fabio Perricelli? If not, you might want to make a reservation at VINIA.
Tucked away in Hannibal Sq., VINIA embodies the excellent personal, Winter season Park day night. Very low lights, cozy seating and a pink neon bar generate an simply romantic location, when an amazing selection of wine and genuine Italian and Brazilian dishes include the ending touches to the experience.
But maybe the most charming factor of the restaurant is the operator himself.

SO, WHO’S FABIO?

Fabio is “a meals lover, not a chef.”

Technically, he’s VINIA’s co-proprietor, along with spouse Paula Perricelli.

But he’s so a great deal a lot more. He’s also a desk-busser. A server. A greeter.

All through the night, you’ll catch Fabio doing work the space, speaking to company, and touching each and every aspect of the working experience. He even washes his have dishes. Fabio is so involved in VINIA’s procedure that if he’s not current, the restaurant will near.

“We do as we do in Europe—family family vacation,” he explained. “I like to be in this article each and every working day.”

VINIA drew inspiration from Fabio’s fond memories of owning lunch with his father. They’d pay a visit to a restaurant for lunch, keep to talk during the afternoon, and then get meal.

With a aspiration to open up their individual restaurant with the same truly feel, Fabio and Paula searched throughout Central and South Florida for the best place, but finally did not find what they’d envisioned. Appropriate ahead of returning home, they unexpectedly found out Winter season Park. It was like at first sight.

Fabio was enamored with the plan of a location with a ton of foot site visitors, similar to Park Avenue, which offered a “street restaurant” as an alternative of a “plaza cafe.” The only barrier was the value.

Just about every morning, he would stop by a new street in the Wintertime Park spot, browsing for the excellent spot. When he settled on Hannibal Square, former supporters mentioned he was nuts and that the leases have been much less pricey because of to the sluggish desire in the spot. Fabio would not be deterred.

“I considered in myself and my concept,” he said.

Now, the entrance to the space feels the continuous move of visitors, possibly stopping in for a drink at the bar or inquiring about the upcoming available desk.

Paula and Fabio with daughter Olivia. (ROBERTO GONZALEZ)

FABIO’S Table

It is this perception of shut-knit community that inspired Fabio’s Desk.

“I always thought that food items is like hearth it provides men and women jointly,” Fabio reported.

His enthusiasm for the restaurant is potentially why the “Fabio’s Table” practical experience is so very well-acquired. The multi-study course, themed wine pairing and meal encounter is held on a handful of weekend evenings just about every thirty day period, where visitors are seated at their individual personal tables. In gentle of the pandemic landscape, this presents the illusion of a chef’s desk without the near make contact with of a communal gathering.

Throughout the evening, company have the enjoyment (actually) of partaking with Fabio, who shares tasting notes and stories, as he would with company all around his individual table. The knowledge is $125 per individual with wine pairings, $85 with no. Reservations are expected at minimum 24 hours in progress.

VINIA FAVORITES

Can not make it to a Fabio’s Desk function? Concern not. As a enhance to the intimate offering, the VINIA Favorites menu functions dishes from the Fabio’s Desk celebration as a result of a 3-program food with wine pairings. On Wednesdays and Thursdays, it is set to the tune of dwell new music. The menu took form amid the onset of the pandemic when the communal chef’s table occasion was staying reimagined.

“You really don’t have to occur any special time or working day,” Fabio stated. “Every night can be a distinctive night.”

The night starts with a 1st-study course choice of either warm bread with burrata and purple and eco-friendly pesto or Romeu & Julieta (Brazilian cheese bread with guava sauce). The previous is paired with a light white wine, the latter with a crimson. My compliments to Paula, as the cheese bread is her loved ones rcipe. These minor bites are the culinary equivalent of joy, and I will not be confident otherwise.

For the main class, friends can consider the pan-roasted Capture of the Day with Asparagus Mousse and Lemon Confit Cake (paired with white wine) or a hearty house-built Pasta with 24-hour braised Oxtail (paired with red). For the next, I’d counsel inquiring for extra bread to soak in the remaining jus prior to finishing your food. Fabio confident us that you can’t ever “ask an Italian for also significantly bread.”

The evening closes with 3 decadent desserts: Affogato (vanilla gelato with caramel espresso), Cuscuz Tapioca (tapioca and coconut comfortable pudding with dark coconut and caramel) and Pot de Creme au Chocolat (rich chocolate custard with Chantilly creme and sea salt). Each individual dessert arrives with an involved wine pairing. It’ll depart you asking yourself how you at any time settled for a meal with only one particular dessert when you could have been experiencing a few.

It is worth mentioning that your wine pairings will not be determined by VINIA’s supplier suggestion, as is normally the case in numerous places to eat.

“I do the pairing that I would do for myself and that I would appreciate,” Fabio stated. “It’s by no means a pairing that my supplier presents to me. I constantly pick what wine would fit best.”

Romeu & Julieta. (ROBERTO GONZALEZ)

Possibilities FOR ALL

In addition to the multi-study course foods, company can also enjoy a standard menu with shareable plates like empanadas, flatbreads, Paula’s amazing cheese bread, and more, plus hearty pasta dishes and a minimal variety of items from the Fabio’s Desk menu, based on availability.

For visitors who choose to delight in plant-dependent selections, Fabio goes the excess mile. Not like eating places that offer a confined assortment of dishes or produce plant-based mostly solutions with couple of ingredients, Fabio reimagines the dish totally.

“I really don’t just get elements out,” he said. “I do a distinct dish with the very same concept.”
Be expecting selections like Pasta con Zucchine e Pomodorini, vegan Affogato and Cuscuz De Tapioca Com Calda.
No issue which dining working experience you opt for, a meal at VINIA will sense as even though you’re eating in Fabio’s have residence kitchen area.

“Everything that I do, I do with my heart,” Fabio stated.

Editor’s Be aware

Vinia presents an at any time-modifying menu, centered upon seasonal availability. Dishes may well fluctuate from what we have explained listed here.

Vinia Wine & Kitchen area

444 W. New England Ave., Ste 119

Wintertime Park

viniawinebar.com

$11-20