New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
Not your nonna’s restaurant
VIA IN NEW HAVEN AIMS TO DRAW YOUNG CROWD WITH ITALIAN STREET FOOD, COCKTAILS AND NEON SIGNS
With neon signs, smoking cocktails and two living walls with thousands of plants, Via in New Haven isn’t your nonna’s Italian restaurant. The gastrobar, which opened on Crown Street in October, specializes in Italian-influenced street food and small plates — and offers plenty of Instagram material, between its graffitied restroom hallway, drinks with creative garnishes and a risqué accent wall, with the image of a woman swallowing strands of spaghetti.
“Our idea when we came here was to offer that casual dining experience for Italian food,” said Kyle Liberman, one of Via’s partners. “There are plenty of very nice Italian restaurants in New Haven, where it’s white tablecloths, fine dining, dark rooms . ... We wanted to be a little bit more hip, and with the times, and give people that casual experience where they can still have fun, but not sacrifice food for fun.”
Via’s partners have extensive experience with Italian food. Dan Camporeale is also a partner in several southern Connecticut Italian restaurants, including Molto in Fairfield and Matto in Shelton, Spiga in New Canaan, Lugano in Greenwich and the newly opened
Ecco Wine Bar in Trumbull. Camporeale brought Liberman, a longtime manager at Molto, aboard in New Haven for his first partnership experience.
With a younger crowd in mind, Via’s menu focuses on small plates ($11 to $18) easily shared among groups. Top sellers include filet mignon tips with housemade chimichurri and mashed potato, short rib empanadas, short rib arancini, pesto mac and cheese and spaghetti cakes, topped with carbonara sauce and fried egg.
Lobster shows up in ravioli and guacamole, and vegetable options include roasted cauliflower with truffle cream sauce, fried artichokes with lemon aioli and potato gnocchi with butternut squash cream sauce. Other dishes include spare ribs with spicy scarpariello sauce, fried cheese curds with chipotle aioli and “Italian tacos” with shrimp, filet mignon or chicken parmesan.
“Street pizzas” ($13 to $15) a new addition to the menu, are small pies, about seven to eight inches in diameter. Toppings include vodka sauce with breaded chicken, mozzarella with spicy hot oil, “California” style with shrimp, arugula, cherry tomatoes and avocado and arugula with prosciutto and shaved parmesan.
With pizza being a New Haven staple — and BAR just next door — “we’re not trying to compete with [other pizzerias],” Liberman said, but guests have enjoyed having a taste of pizza along with the rest of the offerings.
Via also has fun with its cocktail menu ($13 to $17), featuring an espresso martini topped with a cinnamondust stenciled restaurant logo and the “Smoke Show,” a spicy prickly pear margarita garnished with a rolled and lit “joint” of sage. “Tinder Date,” with pineappleinfused vodka and blueberry puree, is adorned with a plastic figurine of a shirtless man, and a new drink called “Dnruk Txeting,” with raspberry-infused Patron tequila, housemade hibiscus syrup and Thai chili bitters, gets a scattering of letters printed on edible wafer paper to represent alcohol-influenced misspellings.
The restaurant also offers brunch on Saturdays and Sundays, with dishes like cream-filled cannoli pancakes and sriracha honey-drizzled chicken and waffles, paired with mimosas, bellinis and Bloody Marys. For Valentine’s Day, Via will offer a “lovers’ brunch” this weekend, including a prix-fixe menu with a cocktail included.
Via is open from noon to 11 p.m. Monday through Thursday, noon to 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sundays. 203-745-3067, @vianewhaven on Instagram.