Everybody Comes Alive at Vivo Kitchen
A take out meal from Sewickley’s Vivo Kitchen
Of a normal evening, Sewickley’s Vivo Kitchen hums. Every seat is full and the room is alive with conversation. The staff, most of them familiar faces, mix drinks or shuttle from kitchen to table with the skill of seasoned professionals. The owners, Sam and Lori DiBattista, are everywhere, checking in with diners, looking over the food, pausing for a short conversation with friends. It doesn’t take long to see that the line between friend and customer is blurry: there are regulars here who settle in as if they were sitting down to eat with family.
All of the above happens with a sense of ease and calm. Even glimpses of life in the kitchen are serene and pristine. This does not happen by accident. As Sam tells it, it came from experience: “When we arrived in Sewickley with our restaurant, we opened with 40 reservations and ended up serving 120 people. We learned quickly that the food needed to be put out at a fast pace.” His menu is carefully designed to allow for a steady flow of service. It changes incrementally with the seasons, but favorites remain year round, sometimes for years at a time.
One example: the butter lettuce salad with truffle oil dressing. Denise Shirley, owner of the Gather boutique just a few doors down from Vivo admits that she orders it every time she goes. Sam also has a confession to make about the dish: it came about by accident. He was looking for a way to use up some Portuguese white truffles he’d purchased in bulk one fall. They found their way into a perennially popular salad that seems to be on the menu even when it’s not written there in black and white.
Another example is in the beef short rib with creamy polenta. Vivo habituée Debbie King says that the polenta is lighter and creamier than anything she’s been able to pull off in her kitchen, and the fork-tender beef makes a mouth-watering combination. “It’s probably our favorite dish,” she says.
Luckily for all of us, both of these dishes, as well as another consistent crowd favorite, the crispy garlic chicken, are on the current Vivo take out menu. The hum of a busy night is replaced with the chatter around your own dining table these days, but the food is just as good.
The photo of a Vivo take out meal which accompanies this article shows the crispy garlic chicken, the beef short rib, the butter lettuce salad with truffle oil, and the grilled shishito pepper appetizer. All of them were consumed with sheer delight. What you don’t see is the pile of homemade cannoli filled with pistachio ice cream because we would be embarrassed for you to know how many we ordered. And ate.
Sewickley resident Miles Smith shared with us his explanation for what makes Vivo such a community draw. “What I love about Vivo is the fact that their authentic passion for food is perfectly paired with their authentic passion for people. If Cheers and Top Chef had a baby, it would be Vivo.” He also added without a hint of irony: “The pork and chèvre meatballs with spicy pepper cream is my favorite dish. And their entire staff is my favorite drink.”
Visit the Vivo Kitchen website for their take out menu. Call 412.259.8945 to place an order.
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