West Orange Eatery Serves Up Italian Comfort Food Aplenty

Style:

Local haunt meets date-night spot serving Italian comfort food. Flat-screen TVs, a handful of tables and a granite bar up front give way to a spacious dining room.

The scoop:

West Orange natives and siblings Nicholas Giambattista and Andrea Giambattista-Barbaro, along with their spouses, are first-time restaurateurs with deep roots in the area.

The menu:

To start, fried zucchini fritters deliciously ooze ricotta, mozzarella and Parmesan. The terrific stuffed avocado is filled with crab, shrimp, tomato and red onion, then drizzled with balsamic. Mains are varied: house-made pastas, braised short ribs, garlic-herb seared salmon. A slew of salads can be topped with chicken, shrimp or steak. Thin-crust pizzas, like the eggplant (above) and the creative Peppered Pig with mozzarella, blue cheese, bacon, caramelized onion and cracked pepper, are delicious. For dessert, try Love Knot cookies, a rich butter cookie with anisette icing and rainbow sprinkles, or the fried zeppolis, served piping hot.

Heads up:

The ample menu is supplemented by nightly specials. Free parking in the nearby municipal lot.