Today’s column represents the first time I have traveled outside of Athens and Hocking County to review a restaurant, though if the meal I enjoyed was any indication, it certainly won’t be the last.
Located at the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers, Marietta was the first permanent American settlement in the lands that would eventually become Ohio, being founded nine years before Athens.
In a somewhat bittersweet turn of fate, the founders of Marietta decided to name the new city in honor of Marie Antoinette to pay tribute to France’s aid during the American Revolution. A year after Marietta’s founding, France would undergo its own revolution that would see Marie Antoinette and her husband, Louis XVI, deposed.
The banks of the Ohio River remain home to significant heavy industry, with numerous factories dotting the region. However, in recent years Marietta has built up a thriving tourism industry focused on its historic downtown and its status as a port city for riverboat cruises.
Unsurprisingly, the city is now home to numerous restaurants and shops that cater to both locals and tourists. Some popular dining spots in Marietta include Boat House BBQ, The Original Pizza Place and the Riverfront Bar & Grill, located at the historic Lafayette Hotel.
One of Marietta’s most popular restaurants is located on the other bank of the Ohio River, in the neighboring town of Williamstown, West Virginia. DaVinci’s Restaurant, located at 215 Highland Ave., has served up Italian American favorites to hungry diners since it opened in 1980.
Much as I would like to take credit for discovering this restaurant, it was my parents who discovered DaVinci’s Restaurant during a day trip to Marietta and told me about it. As such, I feel it is only fair that I dedicate this column to them.
In my review of Voltolini’s, I discussed how there was a certain style of “fauxthentic” Italian restaurant that was all the rage back in the day but gradually fell out of favor as diners became more sophisticated.
In that column, I worry that I came off as dismissive or as though I disliked this style of Italian restaurant. However, nothing could be further from the truth.
I think many of us with Italian American heritage have fond memories of dining at such places with family and friends. To this day, my family still looks back fondly on our meals at Teo’s Mia Roma, a gloriously kitschy Italian restaurant in Seattle that has sadly closed its doors.
If you have never dined at such a restaurant but are familiar with the hit HBO crime drama “The Sopranos,” this style of Italian restaurant was spoofed by Artie Bucco and Nuovo Vesuvio.
DaVinci’s Restaurant embodies that unusual blend of kitsch and glamor that restaurants like Teo’s Mia Roma are famous for, with thick, plush carpet, low lighting and bottles of wine lining the walls.
If Voltolini’s was an attempt to break the mold and try something different with a spaghetti Western-theme, then DaVinci’s is the mold.
I arrived at around 5:30 p.m. on a Friday and was told it would be a 35-40 minute wait for a table, a testament to the restaurant’s popularity. Thankfully, this proved to be pessimistic on the restaurant’s part and I was able to be seated in around 18-20 minutes.
DaVinci’s Restaurant can seat around 650 people according to the restaurant’s website. The restaurant has multiple dining rooms done in various styles – some that are more elegant and others that are more casual – offering diners an eclectic dining experience.
After my long drive from Athens, I decided to start out simple with a Caesar salad and some bruschetta. I also went ahead and ordered myself a glass of Front Porch White Zinfandel from California off the restaurant’s comprehensive wine menu.
Perhaps the first thing that I noticed about the Caesar salad I received was the incredibly generous helping of grated Parmesan cheese I received. In fact, I was actually somewhat taken aback by how much there was!
Fortunately, the Parmesan did not overpower the other ingredients of my Caesar salad. The croutons, which are made fresh in-house, were buttery, airy and well-toasted. Meanwhile, the Caesar dressing was creamy, flavorful and delightfully savory.
My bruschetta was hot and fresh out of the oven, featuring thin slices of finely-toasted baguette brushed with oil and spices, including fresh basil. The bruschetta also came with a medley of cubed mozzarella cheese, tomato and more fresh basil.
The bread was crisp and had a slight olive oil flavor, though the main flavor I tasted was the flavor of the fresh basil, which was incredibly fragrant and intense. The diced tomatoes were cool and refreshing, pairing nicely with the creamy mozzarella and the fresh basil.
The Zinfandel was light and fruity with notes of strawberry, peach, orange and honey and had a good mouthfeel. If you are not a fan of full-bodied wines or wines that taste strongly of alcohol, but also do not want a wine that is excessively sweet, I cannot recommend this wine enough.
While I considered a variety of different pasta dishes, I eventually settled on the fettuccine Alfredo. My eyes turned out to be bigger than my stomach, because I went and ordered a dinner-sized portion rather than the smaller lunch-sized portion.
In hindsight, I would’ve been better served ordering a smaller portion. As I have said in the past, Alfredo at restaurants can either be relatively light and easy on the stomach or incredibly rich and decadent.
The Alfredo sauce at DaVinci’s Restaurant definitely falls into the latter category, as I found myself somewhat overwhelmed by the sauce’s richness. I had to pace myself and take small bites to allow myself to truly savor my meal.
Thankfully, this gave me a chance to appreciate the care that had been placed into cooking the pasta. All pasta at DaVinci’s Restaurant is cooked al dente before being finished in the oven, so there is no risk of receiving an overcooked and mushy plate of pasta.
DaVinci’s has an extensive dessert menu, though after my Alfredo I wondered if I would even have room to enjoy one. In the end, I went with a delightfully delicate limoncello cake that was so light and airy I was surprised it didn’t float off my plate.
It had a lovely creamy, citrusy flavor and was garnished with whipped cream rosettes and white chocolate shavings on top. The cake was smooth and creamy, almost as though it was made of custard. I’ve never seen a fork pass through a slice of cake so easily before!
In total, I spent $49.17 on my meal, which I thought was pretty reasonable for the amount of food I ordered and the quality of the food I received. I had fully expected to pay around $10-15 more for my meal before the check arrived.
DaVinci’s Restaurant is open Wednesday-Saturday from 10:30 a.m.-9 p.m. and on Sunday from 11:00 a.m.-8 p.m. To contact DaVinci’s Restaurant, call 304-375-3633.
Dining and Cooking