Venetian Moon
Martinis are back in a big way, but for about 25 years they've been drawing customers from all over Massachusetts at Venetian Moon in Reading.
This is a stylish two level restaurant. Upstairs, there’s high ceilings, it's real bright. Downstairs, it's dimmer, ceilings are much lower, it's a lot more intimate and sexy.
Lisa Carvallo is the owner, and when it comes to pasta and martinis, she knows how to shake it til you can't take it.
“Venetian Moon is a restaurant with a lot of personality. It has energy, great food, a fun martini menu, and an atmosphere that feel special without feeling really formal.”
“We have primarily Italian dishes. Some are traditional and some are original. Some we put a unique spin on them. We also have prime steaks, great seafood selection and some chops, and some great desserts as well.”
Whether you're drinking a gin or a vodka martini, I think you want to have some food to go along with that alcohol, so appetizers here are a must.
If you want to stick with the classics, get the arancini. The chefs change the flavor every week, right now it's sausage, peppers and onions. It's like Fenway Park meets Italian food. And for flavor, it's a home run.
If you're going to get just one appetizer, I'd recommend the Chicken Carmine.
Invented by Lisa's dad, it's six ounces of grilled chicken stuffed with figs and feta and wrapped in prosciutto, perfect for two people to split and so substantial it almost could be an entree for one.
“The fig is that sweetness, but then the prosciutto gives it the saltiness, and then you get the creaminess from the Alfredo. It's just overwhelming, overstimulating. It's amazing. It's a perfect forkful when you bite it and you drag it through the cream sauce, and you have the feta and the prosciutto and the fig…It's just a symphony.”
The tortellini al forno is a beautiful dish. It's a tri-colored tortellini stuffed with cheese, then they bake it with mozzarella over it and a basil cream sauce.
“When you dig into it. It's just cheesy and almost like a comfort food. It's really delicious.”
If you're in the mood for chicken, I recommend this. It's grilled chicken over pasta with a homemade pesto sauce featuring toasted pine nuts and garlic.
“The brightness from the pesto is really delicious, and then you mix it with the nuttiness and the toasted pine nuts. It's really great. It's a great combination.”
The braised pappardelle ragu features beef and pork simmered for hours and hours. I mean, this is as comforting as it gets.
“We start by raising beef and pork in a demi glaze with some Cabernet, and it simmers for a few hours. We break it apart, and then we toss it into a nice, firm pappardelle with a little bit of San Marzano tomato sauce. The depth of flavor is just incredible. You can just smell it. It's really delicious. The meat is really tender, just falls apart and it's rich and savory.”
“It's really one of my favorite dishes.”
The seafood comes in fresh here almost every day.
I definitely recommend the scallops. They're big and they're seared, and you can really taste the ocean in every bite. The risotto comes with a prosciutto mixed into the risotto. That's a little different. And my taste buds loved the change of pace.
“The pan seared scallops are finished with some parmesan cheese so it's an earthy flavor from the mushrooms and a salty flavor from the prosciutto. It's finished with a balsamic reduction. So it gives you that little bit of sweetness at the end. So if you love scallops and you love risotto, this is a dish for you.”
If you don't mind your food being photographed. Get the tomahawk. It is 22oz and there is just a lot of flavor here.
“When the servers walk through the dining room with the tomahawk steak, it's really a head turner. Right when it hits this table, the phones come out immediately, and everyone just loves taking a picture of it. So every time you take a bite of that tomahawk steak, you get a little bit of that caramelized onion.”
“It's really delicious. Our signature vanilla bean balsamic reduction sauce pairs really well with it. They dip their fork in it. They're testing the water and then they're like, yeah, this is great. And they might pour it on their whole entire steak. It's incredible.”
Venetian Moon offers to build your own espresso martini with three categories of add ons. One is a liqueur, the other is the rim, the third is choosing a drizzle. So there's hundreds of combinations. You could come here for many moons and never try the same one.
“So we started the build your own espresso martini a couple of years ago, when people liked having choices in their espresso martini other than just a darker light. And people really loved it. So we came up with this build your own espresso. It has over 600 combinations right now.”
“People come from the martinis and they stay because the food's great, the staff is wonderful and the atmosphere is really energetic.”
A stylish restaurant in the suburbs with Italian food, steaks and martinis was way ahead of its time 25 years ago, so I really have to tip the purple cap to Venetian Moon in Reading.
