Late night eating in Portland just got a lot better. Meet Vignola. The Italian-inspired Old Port restaurant serves dinner seven nights a week until midnight and cocktails until close. And unlike most late night grub, Vignola serves up affordable dishes guaranteed to satisfy even the foodies in your entourage.
Vignola offers a cheese menu ($5 per cheese or $16 for 4), including selections from Maine, Italy and France. Cheese plates are served with fruit mostardo, apricots in moscata and spiced nuts.
Other antipasti dishes are perfect for sharing, and all are priced between $6 and $13. You can score a hearth-oven baked pizza for $12 or less. (Note: These puppies are big enough to split two ways.) Check out the fresh mozzarella, truffled cheese and Pio Tosini prosciutto pie. Mucho tasty.
Vignola’s d?cor is part hip, part quaint. Ivy trimmed windows look out onto Wharf Street and the dining room is a mix of exposed piping, wicker chairs and leather bar stools. And the place is lit by art deco-inspired fixtures made out of wine bottles.
Speaking of spirits, Vignola has an interesting selection of cocktails, such as the Very Berry martini ($10), served with a booze-saturated blackberry. Vignola also has an extensive wine and beer list.
Vignola is owned by Dan Kary and Michelle Mazur-Kary, the proprietors of the nearby eatery, Cinque Terre. The Karys also operate an organic farm, which supplies some of the restaurant’s produce. The rest comes from local purveyors like Freeport-based Laughing Stock Farm, Sunset Acres Farm, Mainly Poultry, Upstream Fishing and Grand View Farm.
Good booze, good grub and a social conscience: Vignola is a welcome addition to Portland’s food scene.