Bar Italia

Very pleasantly surprised by their quality and great service. Got drinks within 5 minutes and appetizers within ten. The only drawback was the narrow menu. I can’t give an Italian restaurant without veal parmagiana a 5. However their short rib and spaghetti bolognese was superb.
Nice to go into SE FL Italian joint where the average age is below 74. Very nice ambience with excellent music.

With a name like Bar Italia the menu offerings were somewhat different than I had expected. They don’t have any veal or eggplant dishes and no anchovies. Though they have a number of other dishes, the menu seemed to me rather abbreviated and on the night I was there, a Monday, no specials.
I ordered their Caesar, $ 12, which came with full wedge of artisan romaine cut in have, covered with a dressing, some croutons and a rather small amount of very thinly shaved parmesan. It certainly wasn’t the classical Caesar one normally things of and though good enough the problem with having been stock like of romaine cut in half with the dressing dabbled on top, most of the romaine leafs remain uncoated of dressing.
For my entrée I ordered their «Giant Diver Scallops,» $ 28, wrapped with prosciutto over a cannellini bean salad with mushrooms drizzled with truffle oil. When served it came with three diver scallops and though large, nothing I would term as «giant,» and though the mushrooms may or may not have been «wild» looked and tasted to me more like button types. Though tasty, nothing I thought unique or impressive.
The restaurant itself is new, everything sparklingly clean and I was more than pleased with the service I was given. On the downside, however, the acoustics aren’t that good and would think might be really bad when crowded. Indeed when I was there were two misbehaving unsupervised little brat children that did more than drown out the background music and could only bring to my mind the famous words of W. C. Fields when asked how he like children, responded: «Preferably broiled.»
Another thing I found rather different was that though they have a big parking lot, weren’t at all busy, parking was by valet only. Valet might have been alright except for the fact that when I got back into my car it overwhelmingly reeked with what hit me, not as being the cologne of a male valet, but more the perfume of a women. I didn’t think much of it until I joined some friends later for a drink and one of them remarked: «Phew! You smell just like my ex-​wife.» Oddly enough I must have had the same valet as Unilocaler Nikki H. who not only remarked of the same thing, but got a headache from it, which I totally believe.
Overall, Bar Italia is a nice place, the food is average good, but with so many Italian restaurants in the area, some of them really excellent, the best I can say is «Meh, I’ve had better.»

New restaurant. .decided to check it out. Was a little annoyed that valet wa