La Bottega has a menu to please any lover of European cuisine

Just over 20 years ago, Stephen and Elisabetta Virion opened a deli-style restaurant in Vail Village with 15 seats. Over the years, La Bottega has evolved into full Italian restaurant with space to welcome 150 guests.

With the gradual growth of the establishment, La Bottega’s menu has continued to evolve from sandwiches and pizzas to more and more gourmet, showcasing additions like foie gras and caviar and a full special menu featuring Italian winter truffles.
La Bottega has had a strong following from the beginning, and longtime guests have started to bring their children and grandchildren, year after year. It’s all about family — and a whole lot of flavor.

This is the spot in Vail Village where you can still order a casual (and delicious) takeaway cheesesteak or settle in on the outdoor patio or dining room for an upscale meal.

“We started out as a more casual sandwich place,” Stephen explains. “The first day we opened we had a line going around the corner of people waiting to get in. We became famous for cheesesteaks, which we still have on the menu.”

Don’t miss out on trying a cheesesteak, and in the winter you may even want to get the Wagyu version with foie gras mousse, buffalo mozzarella and Italian winter truffles.

But beyond that East Coast-inspired signature sandwich, La Bottega has a menu to please any lover of European cuisine. Stephen has trained as a chef and spent time cooking in many destinations throughout the world, from New York and Chicago to Paris, Vienna and Zurich. Stephen has a specific fondness for the Italian region of Tuscany, where most of his food at La Bottega draws its influence.

Elisabetta has developed the wine list to include an array of choices by the bottle and an impressive selection by the glass.
“We have a lot of single-vineyard boutique wines that are not really available many places,” she explains.

Try a plate of the authentic carbonara with pancetta, garlic, egg and parmesan with a glass of Barolo, an order of house-made ravioli or the cedar-planked salmon with grilled vegetables and basil oil.

“What we hear from a lot of our guests is that we are one of the most consistent restaurants in Vail,” says Stephen. “Our food tastes the same as it did a decade ago; it’s the fact that my wife and I are here every day and we pay attention to detail.”

via:: Vail Daily