Italian restaurant Vivo Osteria opens in Glen Cove

Seems as if there’s always been an Italian restaurant in the Glen Cove space next to Cove’s Discount Wine & Liquors on Glen Avenue — Don Lorenzo’s, Il Forno and La Terranova among them. Now an ambitious new eatery, Vivo Osteria, has moved in with a chef-owner who has cooked at a Michelin-starred restaurant in Italy’s Piemonte (Guido da Costigliole) and worked in management at Fresh Direct in Queens.

Vivo’s Benedetto Marotta describes his new place as a “modern Italian tavern with a big emphasis on local products.” The roomy restaurant comprises two dining rooms and, at the entrance, a large bar-lounge area with a wood-burning oven built during the Il Forno era and subsequently hidden behind curtains at Don Lorenzo’s. Marotta’s renovation includes reclaimed wood, light fixtures made from wine bottles and terra-cotta tiles.

On the menu: starters ($9 to $13) include cuttlefish with tomatoes, olives and lemon; beef carpaccio with radishes, arugula, truffled pecorino and limoncello; roasted beets with arugula, raspberry and Gorgonzola fondue; polenta-dusted calamari with a cherry-pepper relish.

Among mains ($18 to $34) are cavatelli with butternut squash, spinach and ricotta salata; broccoli-rabe-stuffed pepper-crusted pork loin with roasted garlic cream and potato galette; “pollo Italamerico” crusted with Parmesan-panko and fresh fettuccine alla vodka; “frutti di mare” with calamari, cockles, mussels, shrimp and San Marzano tomatoes, and wood-roasted cod with farro and caponata.

Also out of the wood-burning oven: pizzas ($12 to $15) including Valdostana (mozzarella, Fontina and ham), cipollina (onion jam, goat cheese and pancetta) and Palermo (sausage and roasted peppers).

Vivo Osteria, 242 Glen Cove Ave., Glen Cove, 516-801-1450