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Brunch: Via’s Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes from Via on Shrewsbury Street in Worcester, MA

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes from Via on Shrewsbury Street in Worcester, MA

The back patio at Via is a fantastic location for a nice Sunday brunch on a nice day. Am awning keeps the sun out of your face while still enjoying the outdoors, and if it gets chilly, there are heat lamps above to warm you up a bit.

The brunch menu had a nice mix of breakfast, lunch and dinner items, providing lots of options for everyone.

Being brunch, a refreshing cocktail was in order. I had the Easy Like Sunday Morning with small batch bourbon, peach liqueur, house made sour mix and fresh lemon. This was light and refreshing, like a bourbon mimosa. Maybe a little sweet for evening, but perfect for brunch.

I started with an order of the House made Zeppole, small Italian donuts fried to order and tossed with cinnamon sugar. This came as an order of seven, munchkin sized, warm donut balls coated with cinnamon sugar. These were light and tasty, not too heavy, and delicious. An order is perfect for two, but too much for one person as an appetizer.

For my “entree” I had the Lemon Ricotta Pancakes with Lavender butter, served with local maple syrup. This came as two medium to large pancakes with fresh cut strawberries, a little powdered sugar and a small tureen of a light maple syrup. The pancakes were lemony, but not overpowering and the ricotta in the batter gave them wonderful texture and made them much more filling than expected making the portion size actually on the large side. The balance of the lavender butter, lemon, strawberry and pancake itself was perfect. The maple syrup was light, not too sweet or sticky, and a perfect complement to the pancakes making an overall wonderful dish.

When I have something so sweet for breakfast/brunch, I usually like to end the meal with toast or english muffin so I also had the Tuscan Toast with whipped butter. This came as three fairly large pieces of Italian bread and more than enough butter. The butter was whipped perfectly and the Italian bread couldn’t have been toasted any better.

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Sautéed Mussels from Chioda’s Trattoria

Sautéed Mussels from Chioda's Trattoria on Franklin Street in Worcester

Sautéed Mussels from Chioda's Trattoria on Franklin Street in Worcester

The next stop for our Foodies group was to Chioda’s Trattoria on Franklin Street. A small neighborhood restaurant tucked away off of Shrewsbury Street with a quaint atmosphere and what seemed to be regulars filling up the tables on a Tuesday night. I scanned the menu and came up with two dishes to complete my main meal, the Sautéed Mussels in garlic, olive oil and white wine sauce ($9.00) and the Caprese Salad, sliced tomato, fresh mozzarella, basil, with a drizzle of olive oil ($10.00).

The chatter around our table was which meal to order and how fairly priced everything was (they all looked fantastic) they offered specials on a black board and have a $10.00 menu, good from Monday-Thursday; great deal! It was enjoyable to watch all the pasta dishes arrive on large plates heaped with food.

My meal arrived, the mussels were piled high in a huge plate; there were so many I was sharing with my friends. The sauce definitely made the mussels, the garlic and white wine sauce was delicious, a heavy flavor of garlic coupled with white wine creating a perfect soupy broth to marinate my mussels in as well as dip my bread. My only complaint, unfortunately, my mussels were a touch overcooked. The Caprese Salad was large with ripe tomatoes and huge pieces of mozzarella with just a drizzle of olive oil, it was delicious, sometimes I find the mozzarella to be small and thinly sliced, but not here! I would order both again. We finished off our meal with a cannoli. We were informed that the filling was homemade. The cannoli was large, oozing with ricotta; the filling was one of the best homemade fillings I have ever had. I can’t wait to go back and try more items on the menu, not only did everything look fabulous their prices were great!  I would recommend going here for a great authentic Italian meal, off the beaten path, truly a hidden gem in Worcester!