There have been a couple of changes lately at the old Vito's Cafe, a sterling Italian restaurant in a shopping center on York Road in Cockeysville. Last summer, the family-owned establishment, which had been a BYOB, got a license to serve wine, beer and liquor. And more recently, the restaurant, which opened in 1994, changed its name to Vito Ristorante Italiano.
I had never been to this restaurant before a recent visit for this review, but I had heard people sing its praises. Here, in a strip mall, they said, was superb Italian fare. It was fancy enough for business entertaining and special occasions, but it was still family-friendly. And the Northern Italian food, they said, was old school, in the best way, prepared with fresh ingredients according to classic recipes. The menu is very straightforward.
If you have a favorite Northern Italian dish, you can expect to find it here. Clams casino, shrimp scampi, chicken piccata — they're there. The veal listing reads like a greatest hits recording: piccata, saltimbocca, Marsala, Sorrentina, Francese and Oscar. Regulars know about a couple of off-menu items, which co-owner Tony Petronelli told me are almost always available — namely, Dover sole and a 22-ounce veal chop. Now you know, too. We saw the veal chop pass by on its way to another table; it looked to be a real beauty.
I enjoyed the food and swooned over it twice, first over an appetizer of clams casino, and later over an entree of perfect, perfect veal Marsala.
The clams casino was the best version of this ubiquitous appetizer I remember having. The clams were firm and very hot, and the bacon tasted like it had been fried to order. Just beneath the buttery bread crumbs were pools of warm clam juice, which a good chef remembers to leave in the shell. The veal Marsala's pleasures began with a magnificent sauce — velvety and buttery, with subtle wine notes — and continued with medallions of thin, tender veal that were the size and shape of medallions; often, elsewhere, the pieces of veal are too large and too thick.
These two dishes were exceptional but everything was prepared with the kind of attention you appreciate seeing in long-running restaurants.
A calamari appetizer was subtle: simply a plate of lightly breaded, and gently fried, fresh-tasting squid, served with a pitcher of warm, spicy marinara. I thought its simplicity was admirable, but maybe it was too respectable. I found myself defending it against tablemates who thought it was ordinary.
I'd order the fettuccine Bolognese again. The sauce, which was not too creamy or salty, clung to the al dente pasta. Vito uses egg fettuccine, which has a rich, subtle flavor that holds up well to a robust sauce. The elegantly presented shrimp scampi was notable for the mildness of its lemon-garlic sauce; it walked a fine line between elegance and dullness. If you're used to very garlic-heavy scampi sauces, Vito's version might underwhelm you.
For dessert, Vito imports sweets from Bindi, a pastry maker based in Milan, and also makes a few things in house, like tiramisu and sweet and custardy zabaione served over strawberries. The excellent tiramisu was as it should be: a light confection assembled from espresso-soaked ladyfingers. If you've had your fill of bland, spongy tiramisu, this one will win you back. As for the zabaione, I didn't actually pick up the bowl and lick the last bit of it clean. But I wanted to.
I enjoyed my meal very much at Vito, which, in spite of its name change, has not gone too fancy. Tony Petronelli, who co-owns Vito with brother Vito Petronelli, told me there are plans to renovate the dining rooms, and perhaps add a seated bar near the entrance, now that the restaurant has a liquor license.
But that's down the road, as is an expansion of the new wine list, Petronelli said, which now has about two dozen moderately priced bottles, mostly from Italy and California.
So if you're worried about changes to your favorite Italian spot in Baltimore County, don't be. And remember, the last big change the Petronellis made was to hire Luca Pesci as the restaurant's executive chef. Pesci arrived at Vito's Cafe in 2008, directly from Boccaccio in Little Italy, a bastion for Northern Italian cuisine for years.
It's hard to say from this distance how much Pesci influenced the cuisine at Vito and how much was already there, but his name definitely helped put the restaurant on Baltimore's dining map. Boccaccio had an ardent following, and so does Vito.
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Nearby reviews: Dish Baltimore - Cockeysville / Hunt Valley