Arugula and roasted beet salad topped with gorgonzola cheese. Photo by Molly Stone

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My family has eaten at La Villa at least twice a month for the last 16 years, since it opened in 1995; and to date, not one of us has tasted everything we desire on the menu...yet.  We have gone there in the evening for quick and healthy (Vermont Farm Fresh) family dinners, for special occasions, with neighbors and with out-of-town visitors; we have ordered take out for home movie nights with toddlers and teenagers: Greek and flank steak salads, three cheese pizza, and pizza Provencal. The breadth of the menu choices run from simply perfect  conventional fare (noodles with marinara or cheese pizza) to the Mediterranean's sophisticated and sublime (Duck Confit salad, Flank Steak Bruschetta, Shrimp and Scallop Rissotto). Adding to La Villa's enticing long list of soup to tiramisu offerings also is a Chef's Features menu that changes weekly. This fact alone begins to explain why we haven't been able to keep up with our "wish-to-try-this list" at La Villa: new soup choices, appetizers, salads, flatbreads, ravioli, and new entrees are offered every Friday. Now perhaps you can understand that even after 16 years, we haven't been able to keep up with La Villa's many temptations. 

Chef owners Adam and Jill Spell are still at the helm, along with the relatively newer addition of Stefan Rafan-Lee, La Villa's executive chef. Rafan-Lee is of Italian heritage, was raised in southern Vermont, and really did learn to cook at his father's knee. While in college, he worked at another Italian restaurant and joined La Villa in 2009. Here he swiftly worked his way up to executive chef with a lifetime of good cooking experiences, creativity, and a love for local Vermont farm fresh ingredients. Rafan-Lee loves to create new weekly specials, but nonetheless proclaims his favorite item on the menu is Chicken Piccata.

The Chicken Piccata is also one of my daughter Scarlett's favorite dishes. She likes its light and bright flavors - lemon, capers, and white wine, served with warm wilted spinach and moist tender chicken.

This evening, I began with the Roasted Beet Salad. The colorful composed salad with its bright green, peppery arugula and deep red and yellow beets spoke to me that night. For an entrée I ordered the grilled organic Scottish salmon served with garlicky Brussels sprouts, and thinly sliced parmesan potatoes gratin. Think of those complementary colors: deep red, pink, green, yellow, and white; think of the flavors: peppery, warm, bitter, and sweet; think of all those vitamins too. It was a perfectly delicious, healthy, and nearly guilt-free meal. I did indulge in one wonderful glass of French red wine, Chateeau Roquecourbe, Minervois, 2006; for a fan of hearty Italian wines, this wine was a most pleasant surprise. My daughter Molly longed for two of her favorite dishes: pizza sticks for an appetizer and tomato basil linguine for an entrée. In less skilled and devoted hands, these dishes could be pedestrian, but with La Villa's fresh local ingredients, chopped tomatoes and fresh basil, (rather than pasty tomato squeezes and dried herbs), the flavors are light and bright and not heavy, bitter, or bland.

Check La Villa's website for weekly specials and to make reservations. Its full menu is available for takeout and they offer a take and bake pizza option as well for those who would rather take it hot out of the oven at home. And don't forget to check for the price fixe specials for Valentine's Day couples: La Villa, we <3 you.

La Villa Bistro

Monday-Saturday 11 a.m. until closing, Sundays 4 p.m. to closing.

Route 7, Tenneybrook Square

www.lavillabistro.com

985-2596