The word on Via Via was that it was the first Boston location for a small chain of Rhode Island–style pizza parlors with wood-fired ovens. I would have left that to the " On the Cheap " department, but Rhode Island pizza can be very special, and I thought maybe these guys were going to give Bertucci’s some competition. The place does wood-rotisserie chicken, so when I walked in, it smelled like a barbecue joint. You may notice that " On the Cheap " never does barbecue. That’s not because they wouldn’t like to. It’s because the " Dining Out " column considers barbecue to be a Sacred Trust. But then I noticed that half the menu at Via Via is Middle Eastern food, incredibly cheap. And it's a semi-cafeteria, where you go up and order at the counter. Should it go to " On the Cheap " after all?
Not after the first taste, it shouldn’t. " On the Cheap " is about eating cheap. Eating food this good is " Dining Out, " even if you don’t pay that much. And anyway, this is going to be a trend. This mixture of terrific pizza, terrific Italian food, terrific Middle Eastern food, low prices, and fast service is going to change everything in Boston. It should at least bring a measure of stability to a space that has gobbled up a Thai place, two Italian restaurants, Lotfi Saibi’s brilliant Felucca, and a very nice American bistro I can’t even remember the name of.
What’s left has enough of a Mediterranean vibe to accommodate falafel and pizza in a big room with yellow swirled walls, brick wainscoting, a tile floor, well-spaced café tables, and the tunes of a dreadful Kenny G tape. And although you order at the counter, servers will bring your food to the table — and wrap up the inevitable doggy bag, because some things are large and filling.
The pizzas — 21 kinds, or make-your-own combination — are both large and filling. We had a shrimp-and-pesto-sauce pie ($10.95 for the 10-inch/$17.50 for the 16-inch), and it’s filling because there’s enough mozzarella to glue on an awful lot of shrimp. The crust is thin, crispy, and tender — a very addictive combination. The pesto is very impressive for March.
The grape leaves ($4.45) are fabulous. They’re thin rolls — so the sour grape-leaf flavor is prominent — served hot with a cold dip of cucumber yogurt, and there is just a hint of spice in the rice filling. A falafel pocket ($4.99) is really a wrap, but who notices when you get four large patties of fried chick peas, green with herbs, and surrounded with just a bit of garlic dressing and salad?
On the baba ghanoosh salad ($4.95), the eggplant purée is in a fresh style with the natural eggplant flavor forward, served with a nice salad picked up with a dab of parsley-rich tabouleh. They should sell the tabouleh on its own. The real news for salads, though, is the addictive " Via Via Salad " ($6.25). This is spinach, with goat cheese somehow cut into tiny dice, sliced up dates, a good ration of pine nuts, and a surprisingly effective creamy mustard-seed dressing.
Meat lasagna ($8.99) is a best buy. It’s about a six-inch square, but the big news is this: a lot of meat, beautifully made thin pasta layers, and just enough cheese not to be moussaka. It comes with restaurant garlic bread. Add a salad, and you’re fed for several days.
The rotisserie chicken ($6.49 half chicken/$10.99 whole) is good enough to build a restaurant around. I’m not going to guess what the marinade is. Well, I’ll guess that there’s some oil, because it catches the wood smoke nicely. It reminds me of the early Afghan-American grilled chicken in New York, a refugee niche-market specialty that might have reached Boston if Boston Chicken/Market hadn’t screwed things up. (Now all the Afghan chicken grillers in New York are probably trying to run the Ministry of Commerce in Kabul — another tragedy of globalization.) The oven-roasted potatoes with my chicken were underdone, not a serious problem.
Via Via also serves some very competent random deli fare. Fried calamari ($7.95) are very fresh and sweet, on a bed of underdone (and unsalted) French fries. It’s very rare to get great French fries with fried seafood, because the oil temperatures are different. I think the menu’s claim of using pure vegetable oil is valid, as all the fried food I tried was very clean-tasting. Mozzarella sticks ($5.45) should do the local kids nicely; they’re crisp outside, gooey inside. The salami sandwich ($5.45) is all-beef salami, which could be a Muslim thing, and it just tastes better. The lobster roll ($8.95) is lobster salad, but very high-quality stuff with clear lobster flavor.
Another surprise is the excellent desserts. I didn’t try the baklava, but a kind of rolled-up-phyllo cigar (75 cents) is sweet and buttery in the same way, in a small enough portion to enjoy without guilt. Tiramisu ($3.50) — creamy and solid, with well-integrated flavors of coffee and chocolate — engendered enough guilt for the whole table. There is a very handsome espresso machine on the counter, but I don’t think it’s quite operative yet.
The drinks for now are fountain sodas and a goodly assortment of bottles at regular retail, like SoBe ($1.85), Snapple ($1.50), and water ($1.25). So far, the crowd includes locals and some obviously delighted families of Middle Eastern or South Asian origin. That’s going to expand, because this place has terrific food, great hours, and great tone.
According to a waiter, Via Via’s owner is part Italian, part Egyptian (I’ll be godfather to the children if I can stay for the food!), and the cooks are from all over the Mediterranean. So what we have here is an incredibly good pizza/lasagna joint, inside of which is a fine Middle Eastern restaurant trying to get out. These guys don’t seem to have an angle. They just aim to please at an attractive price. Their aim is true.
Robert Nadeau can be reached at RobtNadeau@aol.com
