Friday Local Dining: Trattoria Da Vittorio

A Restaurant Befitting of its Location.

It's somewhat hard to believe that a red-hot location on north end of Laurel Street would be a difficult spot to make a go of it in the restaurant business, but that seems to have been the history at 617 Laurel Street.  With it's proximity to Blue Line Pizza and other fine dining establishments on the 600 and 700 block of Laurel, one would think that this location would be a “slam dunk” for any restaurant.  It certainly doesn't hurt that 252 parking spots just opened up across the street, either.

But that seems to have been the case with the previous restaurant Positano Locando.  After undergoing a few iterations to the layout of the restaurant, they ultimately pulled up stake and moved to the East Bay, leaving residents to wonder how such a good location could be a revolving door in the popular San Carlos dining district.  But the dining public is a fickle crowd, after all.

Well, diners will be happy to know that a restaurant worthy of such a great location is alive and well at 617 Laurel Street, and I believe they have the right formula to be successful there:  Trattoria da Vittorio.

Great Food.

This is a no-brainer, but with very few exceptions a restaurant must have great food in order to survive, and the Trattoria delivers confidently in this area.  With a menu laden with pizza, pasta, and other traditional Italian fare, the food is truly excellent.  I especially enjoy the different varieties of pizza, where less is actually more (try one and you'll see what I mean).  Simple, authentic, and delicious.

A Smart Happy Hour.

But great food alone doesn't fill the seats in a restaurant all week, especially in a town that tends to lean heavily on Thursday-Saturday for dining out, and this is where their stroke of brilliant planning comes in.  Like many restaurants, Trattoria da Vittorio has a happy hour;  in their case, it runs from 3-6PM daily.  Understanding that just serving discounted drinks is the norm for any happy hour, they take it several steps further.

First, the Trattoria puts some of their best appetizers on the happy hour menu at steep discounts:  Pizza margherita, fried calamari, and various options of their excellent bruschetta are just a few of the happy hour treats you get for $8 or less.  And during happy hour, all wines by the bottle are 50% off, so for a group it's actually less expensive to split a bottle of wine than it is to order by the glass.

Second, and this is where the ultimate stroke of genius comes in, they offer their happy hour all day on Mondays (just in the bar area).  So all of the specials on the happy hour menu can be ordered all throughout the evening.  The result?  While other restaurants along Laurel might either be closed or just tending to sparse crowds on Mondays, the Trattoria is brimming with diners.

So check out Trattoria Da Vittorio this weekend — or, just wait until Monday's all-day happy hour.  But just get there early for happy hour because it fills up quickly!