Pomodoro Grill: After 15 years, a comfortable choice
Any restaurant that has been around for fifteen years clearly is doing a lot of things right, and the Pomodoro Grill has long had legions of beachside fans.
Since 1995, Peppy Amelio and family have been serving up Italian veal, chicken and seafood entrees (along with brick-oven pizzas) in an attractively decorated Tuscan trattoria located in the Atrium Building toward the southern end of Cardinal Drive.
In that time, they have outlasted several popular Italian restaurants including two on the barrier island, Monte’s and Ti Amo Sempre, and Stella’s over on the mainland.
But times change. Pomodoro, on the other hand, has changed very little. It remains a nice, comfortable trattoria where you can get old world seafood, veal, chicken and pasta dishes at a good price, but there is nothing new or exciting on the menu.
On a recent visit, my husband had the lone off-menu entrée we were offered that day – a veal imperiale ($21.95). I had the zuppa di pesce ($24.95) and our companion had the pasta imperial ($15.95).
The zuppa di pesce consisted of mussels, littleneck clams, shrimp, sea scallops and calamari sautéed in a “Fra Diavolo” tomato herb broth and served over linguini. The seafood was plentiful and cooked well, and the Fra Diavolo sauce was spicy – but not too spicy.
Our companion’s angel hair pasta, topped with fresh baby spinach sautéed with shallots and garlic, was finished in a sherry wine Pecorino Romano cheese cream sauce. There was nothing wrong with this dish, but the sauce was too heavy for my taste.
A similar imperiale sauce served over my husband’s veal scaloppini, however, totally overpowered the tender cutlet. On previous visits, we have enjoyed other veal preparations here -- veal marsalla, Picasso, picatta and “Nonno Antonio” – and if you like veal, we would recommend that you choose one of these scaloppinis over the imperiale.
If you have a hankering for the imperiale preparation, you might want to try it with the gamberoni, as we have on previous occasions. It works much better with shrimp.
On this visit, in an effort to save room for dessert, we decided to pass up the appetizers and started with the field greens-and-tomato salads which accompany each meal, while munching on Pomodoro’s addictive, olive-oil basted garlic knots (these surely are the best hot garlic rolls in town).
I had a tangy tomato basil vinaigrette dressing on my salad, while my husband opted for the creamy Vidalia onion Italian dressing. For an extra $1.25 each, both salads came with gorgonzola generously sprinkled on top.
In foregoing a first course, we passed up two of our longtime favorite appetizers— the pepperoni abbracciati alla Italiana, a very nice assortment of fire roasted color bell peppers marinated with extra virgin olive oil, capers, calamata olives and fresh herbs, and the prosciutto di Parma con grana, thin slices of a very tasty prosciutto di Parma topped with thin shavings of Parmesan cheese.
For dessert, we once again enjoyed Pomodoro’s delicious tiramisu ($5.25) served in a goblet, accompanied by espressos. The tiramisu is among the better of those found in Vero Beach.
Dinner for two, accompanied by a modest bottle of wine, typically comes to about $100 before taxes and tip. In addition to its colorful dining room, Pomodoro has an attractive outside garden that is perfect for dining al fresco (or enjoying a cappuccino after dinner) on a warm winter evening.
The bottom line here is that the Pomodoro Grill remains for the moment the best Italian dining choice if you don’t want to cross any bridges, but we simply can no longer honestly say it is in the top tier of Vero Italian restaurants.
I welcome your comments, and encourage you to send feedback to me at tina@verobeach32963.com.
The reviewer is a beachside resident who dines anonymously at restaurants at the expense of Vero Beach 32963.
Hours
Monday through Saturday, 5:30 pm to 9:30 pm
Bar
Beer and wine
Address (MAP)
3055 Cardinal Drive, Vero Beach, FL,
Telephone: (772) 234-1123
