Luigi Vitrone's Pastabilities Restaurant
(C) Copyright 2006, 2007. All rights reserved.
415 North Lincoln Street Wilmington, DE 19805 302-656-9822
HOURS
Monday: CLOSED
Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday: 5 PM to 9 PM
Friday-Saturday: 5 PM to 10 PM
Sunday: By reservation only for private parties of 20 or more.
Reservations accepted via telephone only: 302-656-9822
Monday: CLOSED
Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday: 5 PM to 9 PM
Friday-Saturday: 5 PM to 10 PM
Sunday: By reservation only for private parties of 20 or more.
Reservations accepted via telephone only: 302-656-9822
REVIEWS
Allow me to quote what others have said about Pastabilities :
Delaware Today Magazine said that my "claim to fame" is romance for the eyes, the palate, and that you will forget that you are in Wilmington. My setting is cozy, a softly lighted charming restaurant with three small dining rooms. They could not decide the best dish they had but elected that the homemade pasta and fresh seafood along with my milk- fed veal were sure bets.
The News Journal said: "In a feat that should win design and construction awards, Luigi has shoehorned in a restaurant at his row home that is a gem of glistening modern black glass and chrome design. The entry leads directly through what is the cleanest working kitchen in town. Luigi has excellent regional Italian cuisine at relatively modest prices, and his service staff is well trained, friendly, formal but never stuffy !"
Allow me to quote what others have said about Pastabilities :
Delaware Today Magazine said that my "claim to fame" is romance for the eyes, the palate, and that you will forget that you are in Wilmington. My setting is cozy, a softly lighted charming restaurant with three small dining rooms. They could not decide the best dish they had but elected that the homemade pasta and fresh seafood along with my milk- fed veal were sure bets.
The News Journal said: "In a feat that should win design and construction awards, Luigi has shoehorned in a restaurant at his row home that is a gem of glistening modern black glass and chrome design. The entry leads directly through what is the cleanest working kitchen in town. Luigi has excellent regional Italian cuisine at relatively modest prices, and his service staff is well trained, friendly, formal but never stuffy !"
The News Journal, 1999
For Restaurant Owner, life is full of Pastabilities
by Dawn Ang
It is 3p.m. Friday, and the purple door to Luigi Vitrone’s Pasatabilities is locked.
This two-story row house in the middle of Wilmington’s Little Italy is both the home and business of Vitrone, who lives on the second story and runs an intimate restaurant on the first floor. Stepping through the door of the restaurant, at 415 Lincoln St., patrons are greeted by the aromas of the day, depending on what’s on the menu, be it milk-fed veal or black-ink pasta. Vitrone and his staff are preparing for their dinner guests, who start trickling in when the restaurant opens at 5p.m. In the dining room, the world becomes neon lights, wine-colored walls, chrome furniture, original photographs of Marilyn Monroe and collectible miniature cars. The walls match the color of his signature red-wine pasta, and innovation he has patented. This is the world of Luigi Vitrone.
Not only is the a chef, he also designs restaurants, is an ardent admirer of Marilyn Monroe, enjoys writing and spends time taking care of his 1959 Cadillac, which he stores in climate-controlled garage. He can also rattle off the history of his Little Italy neighborhood dating back to 1897.
“I like this area,” he said. “It reminds me of certain areas of Brooklyn.” Brooklyn is where Vitrone grew up, and where he started working in a butcher shop when he was 9. “My father and grandfather were butchers,” he said. “I didn’t like it. I was always intrigued by the guys working in the kitchen.” Noticing that, his father arranged for Vitrone to apprentice at a pastry shop when he was 14. He continued with several other apprenticeships before attending the Culinary Institute of America. After graduating, he traveled around the country and landed in Baltimore, where he and several partners opened four restaurants.
In 1988, he moved to Wilmington and started Pastabilities as an Italian take-out shop. The business flourished, and he gave up the first floor of his home to convert it into a restaurant serving dishes he developed. He even keeps a notepad by his bed in case he gets an inspiration for a new recipe.
When he’s not putting in 15-hour workdays, he drives around in his pearl-black Mitsubishi 3000GT, enjoys visiting Old New Castle and serves as something of a father figure to his staff of nine. “It’s a ...learning experience,” said Jimmy Thompson, Vitrone’s assistant chef. “I look forward to coming in to work every day.” “He’s just been like a father figure to me,” said Laura Woodroof, the dining room manager. “He helped me find a place to stay, and gave me this job.” And like a doting father, he makes sure his staff is well-fed before the doors to the restaurant open. Friday Friday night’s staff dinner menu?...Hot dogs and potato salad.
For Restaurant Owner, life is full of Pastabilities
by Dawn Ang
It is 3p.m. Friday, and the purple door to Luigi Vitrone’s Pasatabilities is locked.
This two-story row house in the middle of Wilmington’s Little Italy is both the home and business of Vitrone, who lives on the second story and runs an intimate restaurant on the first floor. Stepping through the door of the restaurant, at 415 Lincoln St., patrons are greeted by the aromas of the day, depending on what’s on the menu, be it milk-fed veal or black-ink pasta. Vitrone and his staff are preparing for their dinner guests, who start trickling in when the restaurant opens at 5p.m. In the dining room, the world becomes neon lights, wine-colored walls, chrome furniture, original photographs of Marilyn Monroe and collectible miniature cars. The walls match the color of his signature red-wine pasta, and innovation he has patented. This is the world of Luigi Vitrone.
Not only is the a chef, he also designs restaurants, is an ardent admirer of Marilyn Monroe, enjoys writing and spends time taking care of his 1959 Cadillac, which he stores in climate-controlled garage. He can also rattle off the history of his Little Italy neighborhood dating back to 1897.
“I like this area,” he said. “It reminds me of certain areas of Brooklyn.” Brooklyn is where Vitrone grew up, and where he started working in a butcher shop when he was 9. “My father and grandfather were butchers,” he said. “I didn’t like it. I was always intrigued by the guys working in the kitchen.” Noticing that, his father arranged for Vitrone to apprentice at a pastry shop when he was 14. He continued with several other apprenticeships before attending the Culinary Institute of America. After graduating, he traveled around the country and landed in Baltimore, where he and several partners opened four restaurants.
In 1988, he moved to Wilmington and started Pastabilities as an Italian take-out shop. The business flourished, and he gave up the first floor of his home to convert it into a restaurant serving dishes he developed. He even keeps a notepad by his bed in case he gets an inspiration for a new recipe.
When he’s not putting in 15-hour workdays, he drives around in his pearl-black Mitsubishi 3000GT, enjoys visiting Old New Castle and serves as something of a father figure to his staff of nine. “It’s a ...learning experience,” said Jimmy Thompson, Vitrone’s assistant chef. “I look forward to coming in to work every day.” “He’s just been like a father figure to me,” said Laura Woodroof, the dining room manager. “He helped me find a place to stay, and gave me this job.” And like a doting father, he makes sure his staff is well-fed before the doors to the restaurant open. Friday Friday night’s staff dinner menu?...Hot dogs and potato salad.
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The News Journal 2/23/07 by Eric Ruth
If Luigi Vitrone had ever been desperate enough to ask me what I thought about his restaurant concept way back when he opened, he probably would have been moderately miffed (or possibly homicidal) at my response.
There are too many reasons why this won't work, I might have told the beefy chef (over the phone, preferably). You've shoe-horned a gourmet restaurant into a space too small for even a sub shop. You make your poor customers wriggle through the kitchen on their way to dinner, then squeeze their derrières behind these little plasticized flecks of tables, shoved shoulder-to-shoulder in the rooms of an old row house. As if that weren't enough, Little Italy's parking is impossible, the name seems to have been lifted from a poorly conceived '70s game show, and the cluttered décor has all the whimsical harmony and artfully restrained aesthetics of a Chuck E. Cheese.
It all goes to show, you shouldn't put too much credence in what those idiot restaurant critics have to say. Now in its 19th year, Luigi Vitrone's Pastabilities has slowly conquered my pessimism through love and sustained its vitality through a diligent insistence on delivering the earthy, simple beauty of Italian cuisine. The soft bite of hand-crafted pasta and the deep lushness of the sauces speak of a quality that is rare this far from New York. Here, a 14-ounce strip steak finds its true Italian accent through a lusciously chunky sauce of onions, peppers, tomatoes, wine and cheese ($27.95); and even the humble eggplant Florentina ($20.95) manages to reach a certain rustic refinement, thanks to a crisp breading and a lush treatment with spinach, cheese and pomodoro sauce.
There's only one person to credit for that, and you'll no doubt see him when you arrive, toiling over a pan of bright, slightly tart broccoli rabe ($9.95), or dressing a softly robust grilled polenta cake with gorgonzola cheese and perfectly perky red sauce ($8.95). Despite its self-induced shortcomings, Pastabilities still may be the best (and really the only) place for reliably satisfying upscale Italian love in the city.
True, Luigi can be guilty from time to time of some sloppiness and boastful puffery, a wine list that's less than inspirational and some cooking moments that are too ho-hum for his prices. "Black Pepper Pasta" ($23.95) seems to contain nothing that justifies the name, and its sauce of wine and yogurt (yes, yogurt) has too much of a boozy accent to complement the shrimp's bright edge of citrus and garlic.
Those intermittent lapses in harmony are more tolerable on a menu so full of appeal. In a city enamored with sketty-and-meatballs sensibilities, Luigi lets his New York credentials set a higher standard, proved by such ambitious dishes as zuppa di pesce ($27.95) and validated by such steadily crafted successes as his marvelously chewy, richly sauced spinach and lobster ravioli ($20.95). At their best, Pastabilities' tastes are focused, restrained, but also lush and extravagant. Hunter cannelloni ($20.95) has a soft, but pleasingly dense character -- mainly thanks to the handmade pasta, but also because it avoids being just another overstuffed mess of ricotta and sausage and because the sauce delivers that straightforward snap of garlic and tomato.
That knack for joining seemingly opposite sensibilities, for bringing bawdy notions into peaceful coexistence with more elegant ideals, also brings appeal to such desserts as a deadly rich bananas Foster and a moistly dark chocolate brownie with ice cream. They, like the rest of Pastabilities, are a dead-on reflection of the chef in all his over-the-top and down-to-earth contradictions. If you put that combination in a better building, you'd surely have a better restaurant, but considering how well I've predicted Luigi's success so far, maybe it's better he stays right where he is.
P.S. Our restaurant may seem small but that's probably because our portions are so large! ---The Pastabilities Crew
If Luigi Vitrone had ever been desperate enough to ask me what I thought about his restaurant concept way back when he opened, he probably would have been moderately miffed (or possibly homicidal) at my response.
There are too many reasons why this won't work, I might have told the beefy chef (over the phone, preferably). You've shoe-horned a gourmet restaurant into a space too small for even a sub shop. You make your poor customers wriggle through the kitchen on their way to dinner, then squeeze their derrières behind these little plasticized flecks of tables, shoved shoulder-to-shoulder in the rooms of an old row house. As if that weren't enough, Little Italy's parking is impossible, the name seems to have been lifted from a poorly conceived '70s game show, and the cluttered décor has all the whimsical harmony and artfully restrained aesthetics of a Chuck E. Cheese.
It all goes to show, you shouldn't put too much credence in what those idiot restaurant critics have to say. Now in its 19th year, Luigi Vitrone's Pastabilities has slowly conquered my pessimism through love and sustained its vitality through a diligent insistence on delivering the earthy, simple beauty of Italian cuisine. The soft bite of hand-crafted pasta and the deep lushness of the sauces speak of a quality that is rare this far from New York. Here, a 14-ounce strip steak finds its true Italian accent through a lusciously chunky sauce of onions, peppers, tomatoes, wine and cheese ($27.95); and even the humble eggplant Florentina ($20.95) manages to reach a certain rustic refinement, thanks to a crisp breading and a lush treatment with spinach, cheese and pomodoro sauce.
There's only one person to credit for that, and you'll no doubt see him when you arrive, toiling over a pan of bright, slightly tart broccoli rabe ($9.95), or dressing a softly robust grilled polenta cake with gorgonzola cheese and perfectly perky red sauce ($8.95). Despite its self-induced shortcomings, Pastabilities still may be the best (and really the only) place for reliably satisfying upscale Italian love in the city.
True, Luigi can be guilty from time to time of some sloppiness and boastful puffery, a wine list that's less than inspirational and some cooking moments that are too ho-hum for his prices. "Black Pepper Pasta" ($23.95) seems to contain nothing that justifies the name, and its sauce of wine and yogurt (yes, yogurt) has too much of a boozy accent to complement the shrimp's bright edge of citrus and garlic.
Those intermittent lapses in harmony are more tolerable on a menu so full of appeal. In a city enamored with sketty-and-meatballs sensibilities, Luigi lets his New York credentials set a higher standard, proved by such ambitious dishes as zuppa di pesce ($27.95) and validated by such steadily crafted successes as his marvelously chewy, richly sauced spinach and lobster ravioli ($20.95). At their best, Pastabilities' tastes are focused, restrained, but also lush and extravagant. Hunter cannelloni ($20.95) has a soft, but pleasingly dense character -- mainly thanks to the handmade pasta, but also because it avoids being just another overstuffed mess of ricotta and sausage and because the sauce delivers that straightforward snap of garlic and tomato.
That knack for joining seemingly opposite sensibilities, for bringing bawdy notions into peaceful coexistence with more elegant ideals, also brings appeal to such desserts as a deadly rich bananas Foster and a moistly dark chocolate brownie with ice cream. They, like the rest of Pastabilities, are a dead-on reflection of the chef in all his over-the-top and down-to-earth contradictions. If you put that combination in a better building, you'd surely have a better restaurant, but considering how well I've predicted Luigi's success so far, maybe it's better he stays right where he is.
P.S. Our restaurant may seem small but that's probably because our portions are so large! ---The Pastabilities Crew
Luigi Vitrone’s Pastabilities Restaurant wishes to thank Eric Ruth, Fred Comegys and Ciro Poppitti, III for our most recent review in the 2/23/07 edition of The News Journal.
Thanks, Eric, for giving us a review that was so funny and whimsical it brought tears of laughter to our eyes and that was so deliciously descriptive of our food that it brought drool to our lips!
Thanks Fred for photographing our steak with the colorful flair and signature style that has always set you apart from the pack.
Finally, thank you to Ciro for the inspiration to create the Steak alla Poppitti, one of our most beloved menu items.
Thanks, Eric, for giving us a review that was so funny and whimsical it brought tears of laughter to our eyes and that was so deliciously descriptive of our food that it brought drool to our lips!
Thanks Fred for photographing our steak with the colorful flair and signature style that has always set you apart from the pack.
Finally, thank you to Ciro for the inspiration to create the Steak alla Poppitti, one of our most beloved menu items.
