Critic's Review
This location was Josef's Table until they moved the operation to Boca Raton, In between sprung Liriano's, a place I never had any interest in trying. I checked to make sure that they were open for lunch and to check the menu; they're open but they don't have a lunch menu up. They have an image of tomato and mozzarella ruined by globs of balsamic, which was a bad sign. I contacted them to see if they had a lunch menu that was different from dinner, and they said that they had a lunch menu from 11am - 3pm.
I got here late; around 2:30pm, but still in time for lunch. I was the only customer in the restaurant. While some would argue that you don't get the proper impression of a busy restaurant in such a case, I believe the opposite. The service you get in an empty restaurant is a better indication of whether or not they know how to service a customer without the variable of possibly being overmatched or understaffed for a rush.
I thought about just getting some slices, but this is too far to drive for a slice. Their menu is standard pizzeria fare; the lunch menu says that a side salad and bread is included for 8.95, so it seemed like that was the say to go. I grabbed a table and I was given a lunch menu.
It's nicer than most pizzerias, with 90 seats all tolled.
Slices, meatball heros. Nothing any different here. So of course I went for the eggplant, because that's how you can tell what kind of restaurant it is. I ordered an iced tea (with extra lemon), which was delivered without sweeteners. Salad comes with "house" dressing as the only choice.
Not a bad sized salad, but sort of a kitchen sink presentation. A little bit of everything. This tells me that they have no conviction. Not a bad salad but just filler in reality.
I decided to add a splash of olive oil, at which point I noticed that they have private branded oil and vinegar, which probably means that they refill the bottles from a big can.
Usually only the big chains have their own oil. Someone is making some extra cash making labels.
Music playing was Italian; probably royalty free.
The main dish came out in less than 10 minutes.
If you read the site you know my feelings about skin on Eggplant Parm, but it's a choice and not necessarily a mistake. I prefer that they don't pour on the sawdust; there's sawdust on the table so I can do it myself. Once you grate hard cheese it degrades quickly, so I usually leave it off.
Bland pasta with bland, watery sauce rendered a pile of unappealing categories; the eggplant was unevenly breaded; when you cook almost anything in olive oil and cover it with mozzarella you have something that tastes pretty good.
About mid-way through I realized that I never got any bread; how can you forget the bread with just 1 customer in the dining room?
You can tell that whoever made this didn't grow up eating eggplant parm with a mom who knew how to cook. The second piece was mushy, and eggplant must never be mushy. Eggplant is a firm-flesh vegetable unless you ruin it.
Two guys came in for some takeout and the server girl because totally consumed, so she didn't notice that I was done eating and that my glass was empty. When she finally did start to come over I just made the "check please" signal and cashed out. I ended up leaving almost all of the pasta on the plate.
Conclusion
Vivace is a Pizzeria. I probably should have gotten slices, but they fooled me by opening in a restaurant. The way I was served, they didn't really seem to care if I ever came back; that and they don't even bother mentioning that they have a lunch menu makes me wonder who will open in the location next.
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