Roman Food Has A True Roman Pedigree At Via Via In Queen’sNew York

Roman cuisine seems to be having its moment in New York with new trattorias and older restaurants all featuring dishes like cacio e pepe, penne all’amatriciana and spaghetti alla carbonara, made with varying degrees of success and authenticity. Yet for ten years now one of the most exemplary of chefs, Antonio Morichini, has been doing all these dishes and many more from the Roman repertoire with the deft refinement of someone born and bred in the Eternal City. He worked at several of Rome’s top ristoranti, including Il Convivio Troiani, Roscioli and Acquolina, then moved to New York to work as executive and corporate chef in various restaurants in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Westchester. Via Vai opened on a bustling restaurant row of Queens in 2014.

And because Via Vai is so small––36 seats––he can handle a full house by making everything himself, from fresh pastas through dessert. He’s proud of saying that if he is not in the kitchen Via Vai is not open, so that consistency has been a given for a decade now. His wife Cynthia is also hands-on.

The daily menu offers all the classic Roman dishes above but adds more daily that are particularly his, like the wonderful branzino that he bakes within a cartoccio of focaccia dough that steams the fish and makes it enormously succulent with oil and lemon.

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The premises are modest, with dark walls hung with black and white photos, a tile floor and a long tufted banquette. The noise level is just fine, and his manager Stella makes everything hum from picking up the phone to taking orders, popping wine bottles , telling you specials and serving it all up with gusto from start to finish.

Via Vai’s wine list is very solid and well-priced with many under $80 along with a number of beers (no liquor).

Among the antipasti is a platter ($28) of mortadella, soppressata and a savory rustic pie, as well as an unusual salad called rape rosse ($16) of red beets, arugula, melon, pine nuts and goat’s cheese.

Morichini makes a very good Margherita-style pizza ($17) with a nice, pliable crust, more Neapolitan than Roman.

I keep being amazed at how well pasta is now being made in New York restaurants (French examples exempted), and I’d most certainly rank Morichini’s among the very best in terms of delicacy, exemplified by a special of sheer ravioli filled with shrimp ($28). His tonnarelli cacio e pepe ($23) is first-rate in the creaminess achieved by careful incorporation of simple ingredients, and if you want a textbook version of bucatini all’Amatriciana ($28), his will serve impeccably. The risotto with full-flavored saffron ($32) had the precise “waviness” of the grains pumped through with chicken broth (which he makes himself).

We tried the branzino cloaked in the focaccia and it was superb. Other main courses are few, from pork fillet with thinly sliced prosciutto ($28) to large shrimp in a katafi crust with sauteed spinach and a dash of balsamico (($34).

Desserts have the flavor and supple texture of being homemade: Tiramisù ($13), panna cotta ($10) and gelati ($13).

Via Vai’s prices are, by comparison with Manhattan and Brooklyn’s (where pastas are running above $30), modest, and if you‘re driving in, you won’t have to pay that obnoxious new nine-dollar fee you would going south of 60^th Street in Manhattan. The subway to take is the N or Q to Ditmars Boulevard. Plus, the restaurant is only a few minutes from LaGuardia, so next time my plane has an inevitable three-hour delay, I know exactly where I’ll be relaxing for a great Italian meal.

Open Tues.-Sun. for dinner.

VIA VAI

31-09 23^rd Avenue

Astoria, Queens, NY

347-612-4334