Vittorio’s, Amityville: Solid lunch, Vero news

Solid lunch at Vittorio’s, one of the South Shore’s most dependable spots. The place is clean as a whistle, staff is unfailingly friendly, food is well prepared and fairly priced.

Not that a solid lunch can't be an occasion for splitting hairs.

My pal’s seafood salad (calamari, shrimp, scallops and mussels) was perfectly cooked and beautifully presented, but suffered from a surfeit of dressing, leaving a pool of olive oil in the bowl (excellent oil, though.) The celery-phobe in me was happy to learn that a lobster roll special was made only with lobster meat and dill-inflected mayonnaise. The salad was delicious, but I had to fight with the tough ciabatta roll to get at it. Really, a cheap, toasted, buttered hot-dog bun is the best vehicle for a lobster roll. Same problem afflicted my friend’s fine burger: a too-hearty roll. Bring on the Martin’s potato bun! (We are women of simple tastes, lazy jaws.)

Unequivocally good: French fries, coleslaw, my side salad dressed simply with lemon and more of that good, peppery olive oil.

Vittorio’s owner, Michael Esposito, also owns Vero, the Italian restaurant just a few doors down that was closed by a fire in May 2011. Vero’s talented chef, Massimo Fedozzi, has been overseeing Vittorio’s kitchen since the fire, but we’ve been anxiously awaiting the reopening of what was, for the six months it was open, one of the best Italian restaurants on Long Island.

Esposito stopped by our table and reported that he expects Vero to reopen sometime in October. Fedozzi, whom I know, said that the menu would be pretty much as it was before, with some intriguing additions to the salumi offerings. On his crostini, Fedozzi plans to serve, among other things, nduja, a spicy, spreadable pork sausage from Calabria, and lardo, cured pork fatback.

Hey, if anyone can get Amityville diners to order lard on toast, it’s Massimo Fedozzi.

Vittorio’s is at 184 Broadway, Amityville, 631-264-3333.

Seafood salad at Vittorio's