It’s 8pm on a Monday, and Charlie Mellor is walking through Osteria Vibrato’s dining room, tapping a wine glass with his spoon to alert us all that the evening’s live pianist is about to begin. The full restaurant hushes and the music begins. Suddenly we are all transported. We’re not in Soho, London – we’re in New York in the 1950s, maybe.
Mid-century New York wasn’t the era Mellor (previously of The Laughing Heart) and his co-founder Cameron Dewar (ex Luca) intended to capture when they launched this new restaurant earlier this spring, but its warm old-fashioned hospitality, soundtracked by live music, certainly has that air.
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What Vibrato is actually billed as is an homage to traditional Italian restaurants, where simplicity reigns. The small space is very much no thrills. There are pressed white table cloths, but also a custom terrazzo floor and nostalgic-feeling rosewood veneer panels (which are quite New York in themselves). Servers are dressed impeccably but stop to chat. To call it osteria feels like an intentional downplay, but this isn’t the flashy high drama of other recent Italian openings in London.
Beyond ‘Italian,’ the menu (offered in both English and Italian) isn’t confined by location, with dishes jumping around the country, from Sicily right up to Piemonte. The antipasti section is big and varied – there’s frito misto; salt cold; crostinis; sweet, fatty sausage with plums. For the decision-phobic among us, there’s the mixed plate, which offers a small serving of a few dishes. (Mellor is known for his ability to pre-empt his guests’ needs and wants.)
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There’s the chance to go all-out with hearty entrees – the veal cutlet, maybe, a whole sole, or even the mixed grill – but it is possible to do Vibrato lightly with a few plates of pasta to share. Made in-house each day, these pastas favor simplicity, from a rustic courtyard ragu with tagliatelle to a ricotta tortelli.
Like the decor, Vibrato’s dishes aren’t clamoring to live up to lofty aesthetic heights. The white risotto, with its heady 30-month aged Parmigiano Reggiano, is especially unceremoniously plated, instead primed to be spooned up greedily.
There is some ceremony, though, mostly in the tableside olive oil pouring, with a different golden liquid paired with dishes. (A £3 – approx. $4 – fee is tacked on per person, intended to cover incidentals like this oil, your mineral water, some pillowy breads, and parmesan.)
Desserts are indulgent and thoughtful: amaretti biscuits are baked fresh to order, served too hot to touch, and showered in icing sugar, and creamy rhubarb sorbet comes with a big drizzle of fig-leaf liqueur.
Drinks are no second thought, either. The wine list is, obviously, mostly Italian, with a few French bottles thrown in for good measure. Some are from Mellor’s own personal collection; he has already expressed intent to store off-site to give guests access to a much larger catalog.
Before you get to those wines, though, scan your eyes over the cocktail list. Visiting on a Monday, I played it safe with a herby vermouth and tonic, but quickly got order envy after seeing the ice-cold Vibrato Martini poured at the table. For post- or pre-dinner, there’s a secretive little cocktail bar hiding toward the back of the restaurant, with just 12 seats and little standing room.
Back out the front door and into the April rain once more, London reminds me where I am. The little box of carefully wrapped leftover amaretti biscuits hiding in my bag kept my mini jaunt to Italy – via New York – going for a little while longer.
