On Friday July 24th, An Englishman, a Chinese Man, and an Indian were willfully placed out of their depths, a true dining coming-of-age. We entered Vetro 1925 as boys, eager and craving, and we left men, full of food and wide-eyed wonder. We lost our pre-pubescence to a three course meal, enveloped in soft jazz and posh décor, and left with a single question: Why can't this happen everyday? Strong words, yes. Embellishment? Hell no. This ristorante is superb.
So, Let's rate it!
Our rating system is structured within four primary categories: Atmosphere, Food, Lunch Bargain, and Service. We base our scores out of a possible ten points per category--typical stuff, we know. But this is where our ratings diverge! Sure, we count up the numbers, but they don't have so much to do with the restaurant's overall score. That, friends, is our pride and joy: a celebrity tribute, where we define a restaurant's personality with a famous person's name. Cool, huh? Ya, we know.
Have you checked out their website? Take a look and you'll get a casual glance at the environment that Vetro's has worked hard to establish. In three words: comfort in luxury. You can take your gilded ottomans, your fancy cast iron lawn chairs, and throw 'em out the window. Vetro 1925 looks fancy, but more importantly feels cozy. From the outside, you might miss the depth of the dining room, literally (the room extends beyond the bar and opens serenely into a dining area) and figuratively. Don't be threatened by elegance, friends. Take a seat, eat, be content.
During lunch hours, there's a nice buzz--an amalgamation of conversation, soft music, the scurrying feet of servers—yet never obtrusive. You look to your right and see half a dozen reflections of yourself in their chandelier. You look to your left and find that you're counting the vintage on their stacks and stacks of wine bottles, while admiring just how amazing their bar looks. You're sitting at a white-clothed booth or a table or the bar, and shocked that you don't feel cramped in the slightest. There's some funky feng shui science going on, and you're cool with it. SCORE 9/10
Bathrooms
We believe bathrooms are crucial enough to be a subcategory of Atmosphere, deserving of its own score. We'll keep this simple. Harvey says, "for Vetro's bathroom score, see our previous rating of Savoy Tea Co."
Far and away, this has been the finest food we've tried since entertaining the idea of a food blog. We'd heard the whispers about Vetro's lunch special, the local buzz of excited diners. Every rumor was true, and then some. Though everything on their surprisingly wide lunch menu sounded delicious, the three of us decided on the Business Lunch. Because eating is our business. And business is good.
Before the true eating commenced, let us mention the bread. Warm, soft, dotted with peppery herbs, this bread was perfectly bite-sized and got our mouths watering...
...For The Business Lunch, a three course meal that makes you question every dull turkey sandwich you've brownbagged to work. It begins with a choice: an introductory Caesar salad with house-made dressing, dried capers, and cute little croutons (Harvey and Mike scarfed this down like true businessmen) OR Vetro's soup of the day. In this case, a minestrone soup, which Qi described as having, "a balanced flavor, not too strong, not too light, which complemented the texture of crunchy corn and soft pasta, giving delicious contrast to the other vegetables and herbs." Qi's a poet and didn't know it.
Business Lunch entrees are served on a rotating menu, and our choices were between Bolognese or Vetro's self-styled meatloaf. Qi's Bolognese was "pasta cooked just right. Lighter than other Bolognese I've tried, but not without weight. The tomatoes were the main flavor, but the meaty sauce also lingered in my mouth." Harvey and Mike, ever connected at the hip, enjoyed the Meatloaf. Served on a bed of roasted potatoes, this meatloaf is not what your Mom cooked. Unless your Mom is a 5 star chef, in which case, sorry. It was a layering of velvety beef, veal, and pork, wrapped in a ribbon of cured meat, which our server aptly explained as being, "an assortment of Mortadella, Bologna, and other Italian cured meats." Know what the inside of a Little Debbie Swiss Cake looks like? Take out all the chocolate and cream filling, add meaty goodness, and Voila! You have Vetro's meatloaf.
Our Business Lunch concluded with a single dessert, the Panna Cotta. OMG :-) !!. Yes, the taste of this little gelatin mold has reduced us to teenage text-talk. Heaven isn't served on large plates; that'd be too much for our puny human mouths to handle. Rather it's served petite, with sweet cream and tart blackberries, just enough to blow our minds. SCORE 9/10
As we've said, Vetro 1925 has a wide lunch menu, with many of its dishes priced at $8 to $10. For the quality of food, that's an absolute steal! But An Englishman, a Chinese Man, and an Indian know a real bargain. Why get one course for $10, when you can get three courses for $15? And so we did. Magnificently done, Vetro! We're confident that a lunch menu such as this will surely bring in plenty of business. SCORE 8/10
The lunch crowd at Vetro's was never huge, but it was consistent. For every table that left, another took its place. Between a bartender, a hostess, and two servers, that could spell disaster. But not for this staff. What you can expect at Vetro 1925's is speedy efficiency. Glasses were never empty for long, food was always on the move. Our meals (Remember, there were three courses) were served in a combined 45 minutes! Unfathomable! Our server was supremely knowledgable; not once did he have to consult the cooks to answer our questions. And each of the two servers helped out their comrade, a tag team tango. They were so efficient that you forgot that they were there, until you needed them. SCORE 10/10
This was a tough one for us. Vetro 1925 is unlike any Italian restaurant you would expect in Arkansas. Manhattan, Los Angeles, Chicago. There, Vetro's might take its place on any one of the swanky street corners. But in Fayetteville, it reigns at the peak of a very exclusive group. The rest of that group we have yet to find. What celebrity exudes trendiness, elegance befitting metropolitan tastes, yet humble enough to seem the girl next door? Ladies and gents, Vetro 1925 receives the overall score of...