Diavola
21021 Geyserville Ave.
Geyserville
(707) 814-0111
Italian Cuisine
Lunch and dinner daily
Entrées: $14-$26
Good wine and beer selection
Chef Dino Bugica has a life-long love of cooking, first learning from his Italian mother and grandmother, then traveling to Italy where he worked with Italian chefs. Lucky for us, he landed in Geyserville, first as a chef at Santi, then to open his own restaurant focusing on local foods made with time-tested recipes.
The space has exposed brick walls and an open kitchen with lots of bar seating, as well as a wood-fired oven. And while the selection of wine and beer is wide, there are also plenty of other choices, including Italian sodas.
We started with an Italian sparkling red and Chimay Premiere Red (Belgium). The food menu has all sorts of appetizers, salads, pastas, grilled items and pizzas (with an option for gluten-free crust at a nominal price).
All cured meats are done in house, and they’re something the restaurant is known for. So, of course, we started with salami and cheese plate (which changes daily). It was plentiful and included two types of cheese, crostini and four types of cured meats: pork liver terrine (great on the crostini with the cheese), head cheese marinated in red wine, calabrese with chile flakes (my favorite), soprasado (marinated in prosecco and garlic), and vincoco (pork shoulder). It was fun to mix and match things but also to taste them separately—each was divine.
The appetizer special was local, tender lamb meatballs with Middle Eastern spices and herbs, yogurt sauce and flatbread—with a nice kick in the very flavorful sauce. Fresh baby greens added a contrast to the spicy, earthy dish. The grilled Caesar salad had whole sections of leaves topped with classic dressing and shaved dry jack cheese and whole anchovies, with a smoky flavor and crostini slices.
We next enjoyed Pedroncelli “Friend White” blend (fruity, floral) and Sangiovese (peppery, spicy) with seafood ravioli (five squid ink pasta pillows stuffed with bacala and potato served with sliced fingerling potatoes, fresh greens, leeks and tomato in a creamy tomato sauce). The Diavola pizza had a perfectly cooked, thin crust and was topped with a delicious combination of sliced housemade meatballs, roasted red peppers, provolone, crushed pine nuts and raisins, topped with lots of fresh arugula.
A large French press of Blue Bottle Coffee Company coffee (rich and dark) went great with our desserts. The chocolate pistachio semifreddo came with strawberries, pink peppercorn and a pistachio/sea salt meringue and had housemade candied marshmallows and a scoop of sorbet. The mascarpone ricotta cannoli rolls (two) were creamy and rich with a dense filling inside the crisp shells, topped with chopped pistachios, sliced citrus and strawberries, with a bright lemon sorbet. Delicious!
