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Friday, May 17, 2002

By Sarah Billingsley, Post-Gazette staff writer

Vivo is by people who love food, for people who love food.

	Danina Di Battista sets the tables at Vivo for the evening crowd. The Bellevue restaurant's front window is adorned with hanging dried flowers and herbs. (Robin Rombach, Post-Gazette)

The foods that come from chef and owner Sam DiBattista's kitchen are creations, not products, forged with insatiable curiosity, mastery and guts.

Because DiBattista's guiding principle is to buy what challenges him, on a daily basis, every plate bears an experiment.

People are interested. Our waiter, Martin, tells us that customers now come to Vivo from all over, not just from areas north of Bellevue.

Word gets around.

Sam's brother Emidio designed Vivo's interior; it's bluish, jazzy and conversational, with comfortable striped armchairs and marble-topped tables. The style is shabby chic. The lighting is twilight.

Vivo has a small verbal menu which changes daily. Though my exact meal may never be repeated, the flourish and personality on every plate is Vivo's constant beauty.

Escargot ($12), moored to bite-sized grilled polenta rounds, made garlicky mouthfuls, cushioned by the nutty flavor of semolina. Bruschetta of grilled asparagus and shaved white truffles, drizzled with intense 25-year-old balsamic vinegar ($13), was deliciously decadent and vegetal.

DiBattista treats meats with a practiced and insouciant hand. Veal chop with ground pistachios, balsamic vinegar and fresh figs ($40) was a delightful departure from the familiar. The floral graininess of figs gives barely-there texture to the tender veal.

Grilled cobia with pear compote matched the starchy tartness of pears to the lily-white moistness of the fish. On the plates, attractively scattered baby vegetables, mesclun greens and fingerling potatoes made a colorful polka-dot pattern.

Lori DiBattista, co-owner of Vivo and wife of Sam, makes the desserts. I expected blood orange cake ($6) to be dense and soaked in juice and grappa, but it was a gentle white cake with a sugary orange frosting, presented on a plate adorned with itty-bitty chocolate chips. Milky, simple homemade coconut gelato was phenomenal.

The final drops of your meal at Vivo are an on-the-house refresher, a bracing concoction of blood orange juice and grain alcohol. By the time you're sipping it, you've conversed with the chef, who visits all his tables. You're at the end of something you couldn't have expected.

Vivo
565 Lincoln Ave.
Bellevue
412-761-9500

Hours: Tuesdays through Saturdays 5-9 p.m. 36 seats; not wheelchair accessible; cash only.

The basics: BYOB; $5 per bottle corkage; reservations required.

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