Riverstone’s Vine & Olive provides sister cafe close by with Vicino Neapolitan Style Pizza | Foods News | Spokane | The Pacific Northwest Inlander

Pizza has returned to Coeur d’Alene’s Riverstone intricate in an unintended pandemic expansion.

Vicino, which indicates “close by” in Italian, is the sister restaurant to Vine & Olive, also in Riverstone. Vine & Olive’s dining space was closed due to Idaho’s keep-home purchase, suggests operator Naomi Boutz, who opened the restaurant in January 2018.

“I was beyond mentally drained,” states Boutz, who provides she experienced been open up to someday beginning a second cafe, yet not for the duration of a pandemic. She blanched when Vine & Olive government chef Josh Pebbles instructed she look into the previous Bullman’s Pizza place.

But the seed, as soon as planted, took root as Boutz investigated the strategy. Pizza has fared superior than most cafe ideas throughout the pandemic as takeout continues to gain market share, she understood. Riverstone will get good foot site visitors, she posited, and Vicino’s could echo Vine & Olive’s soulful strategy, which include a stellar wine list.

“When I identified myself obtaining up at 6 am to study possible names for the new cafe, I knew it would be a go,” states Boutz.

Her ace-in-the-hole: Vine & Olive’s chef Pebbles, who the moment worked in Italy, as nicely as in a bona fide Italian kitchen area stateside, where by he uncovered “the significance of the protein, hydration, ash degrees and fermenting time to arrive up with a certainly fantastic dough for Neapolita-design pizza,” he states.

The dough is the blank canvas for Pebbles’ creations, from the Margherita ($15) with San Marzano tomatoes to the Bianco ($16) with white sauce, Castelvetrano olives, potato and two cheeses to the Parma ($17) with prosciutto, mascarpone crème, arugula, balsamic reduction and pecorino. The Speck and Peach ($18) attributes house-produced pork belly, well known in northeastern Italy, where Pebbles apprenticed at the Michelin-starred, 300-12 months-aged restaurant Hosteria Giusti.

Pebbles additional a number of appetizers, from his residence-made meatballs ($9) and fried calamari ($11) to a number of salads, like the radicchio with shaved celery, pears and candied nuts ($7/$12) and the Caesar created piquant with the addition of capers ($7/$11).

Sommelier Krista French constructed Vicino’s wine collection to pair properly with the food items, of course, but also to introduce diners to new producers and grapes, she suggests. French focused on southern Italian wines, ultimately symbolizing all of Italy, from Sicily to Tuscany and Piedmont. She just lately extra the rustic Aquila del Torre Refosco ($32/bottle), for instance, from an historic grape range indigenous to Friuli, Italy.

“My hope is that our attendees will uncover wines that are intriguing and at the identical time won’t split the financial institution,” states French, who ideas to insert Northwest wines showcasing Italian grapes.

Stylistically, Vicino is yin to Vine & Olive’s yang, with a vibrant farmhouse sense — white walls and ceilings accented by an older wooden ground and flat black seating — when compared with Vine & Olive’s gray and earth tones. On the walls are assorted pizza peels, the outsized picket spatulas that enable the pizza to be slid into and, extra importantly, retrieved from a scorching scorching oven, as very well as photos from Boutz’s travels in Italy. ♦

Vicino Neapolitan Style Pizza • 2385 N. Outdated Mill Loop, Coeur d’Alene • Open up Solar-Thu 11 am-9 pm, Fri-Sat 11 am-10 pm • vicinopizza.com • 208-758-7997

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