Anice Stellato has 2 rooms with low ceilings and lots of wood. A beautiful terrazzo floor is set against the wood carvings on the side panels and otherwise minimal decorations. The good sized tables are tended to by friendly servers, ours being the co-owner, and set with paper linens. There is a cozy and peaceful vibe to the place even though it was filled to capacity that night. They have a small menu that is presented in both Italian and English, but Italian seemed to be the main language I heard.
After ordering we all received an amuse bouche of fava beans, cardoon flan and Jerusalem artichoke chips. It was mildly flavored but tasty and the chips gave it the needed textural contrast.
For first plates we split the spaghetti with shrimp. It had a fabulous sauce on the perfectly cooked pasta but was a tough dish to eat. They did supply you with a shell cracker and hand wipe to aid you but as I didn’t want to risk red sauce all over me in the process I probably missed some scampi but was happy to feast on the pasta and savory sauce and the nice chunk of body meat.
Our friends had the octopus and chickpeas. The octopus had been cooked and then finished on the grill. It was tasty and chewy – a nice dish.
For second plates each couple split an order of deep fried fish and vegetables and a plate of seasonal vegetables. Unlike other orders of fritto misto I’ve had this contained a lot more vegetables than seafood. Of those, the pumpkin slices and onions were particularly tasty; there was a lot of treviso in the vegetable medley. The seafood was several small fish and squid. One order was plenty for two.
For dessert our friends enjoyed the tiramisu. We tried the cookies and sweet wine which came with a variety of crisp, short cookies to dip in the cool sweet wine. The cookies were all good and make for a sweet, light dessert fix. We also tried the Bonet al choccolato, which was a chocolate “pudding cake” sitting on lines of caramel and dusted with sugared hazelnuts. It was a sweet, heavy dessert fix and totally yummy. We downed all our sweets with a couple different glasses of grappa and Frankie passed out from the fumes! A totally fun dining experience was had by all. I thank and credit Marisa Convento of Venetian Dreams for her contribution of some photos and the video of Frankie as well as a map about the location of the best Prosecco producer.
