*Happy Hour* Vino Vino

At 1371 Grandview Avenue, adjoining it's parent restaurant, Figlio is Vino Vino Restaurant and Winebar. Opening at 5 pm Monday through Saturday, they offer a happy hour from 5 to 6 pm Monday through Friday. You'll want to be prompt, as the place fills up quickly with locals in the know of this little-advertized deal.

The Happy Hour includes food specials as well as $3 short pours of the house red or white wine and $4 Sophia Coppola Blanc de Blanc sparkling wine, which arrives in an adorable little pink can designed to make you smile (and if the can doesn't--the bubbly will.) There are also 'baby' martinis offered for $3 --be sure to ask for yours stirred and not shaken, or the seemingly oblivious bartender will shake it into a coma, leaving it half water and crushed ice. 

The food, simply put, is fantastic. The $3 happy hour food choices include your choice of a cup of the soup of the day, a 6" personal pizza, or your choice of several small salads. 

I ordered the Baby Wedge Salad which came topped with hard boiled egg, tasty little tomatoes and bacon. The dressing took this generally mundane hunk of iceberg to a new level. Not your typical mayonnaise-y blue cheese dressing which is often found suffocating salads of this type, Vino Vino topped it with a tangy, mustardy vinaigrette--the perfect compliment to the heavy egg and bacon and crisp lettuce.

The personal Pizza Margherita was good but nothing exceptional, with plenty of cheese, fresh basil and thinly sliced tomato. The Crab Cake (from the $4 menu, i think,) was very, very small, but was served with a delicious creamy tomato condiment that cooled my anger over the portion size slightly. It also came with a scoop of unsettlingly dry rice--I couldn't figure out why exactly, except to maybe bulk up the dish.

For $4, you could also order a mini Sirloin Burger with cole slaw and chips, Fish Tacos, or Fish Lettuce Wraps which consist of the Fish Tacos, in lettuce.

We strayed from the happy hour menu to sample the Baked Goat Cheese appetizer, a crisply coated round of goat cheese atop a mound of slightly sweet and herbaceous chunky tomato sauce. It was served with dressed greens and toasted bread points, drizzled with balsamic reduction. 

We were glad we strayed, and happier still when the asparagus bruschetta arrived--piled high with fontina, prosciutto, asparagus, and pickled red onion. It was $7 on the small plates menu, and worth every bite. 

Even with several regularly priced menu items, and two glasses of regularly priced (and full-sized) wine-- our bill came to just over $50 for 2. One could easily order a few of the tastier happy hour items, say, a pizza, a salad and a couple glasses of wine and walk out satisfied for under $20. If you miss happy hour, never fear: prices here are reasonable, the ambiance is classy, but inviting, and the food is delicious (the non-happy hour variety being exceptional.) Just remember to keep an eye on the bartender.