La Bella Vita aims to share Italian superior life

When Chuck Konner was 22 and dwelling briefly on St. Thomas, he noticed La Bella Vita, a 44-foot two-masted sailboat, glide majestically earlier the island.

“It implies the good lifetime, the amazing life,” Konner claims of the boat’s Italian title. “And ever since then, I’ve normally preferred an Italian restaurant named La Bella Vita.”

Now, Konner and his companions — Mike DiSabato and Dana Heilman — have just that with La Bella Vita Kitchen area and Bar in Orleans, which opened in June.

“It’s a mix of Italian from the north and south of the state,” DiSabato states of the cuisine. “We do the tomato sauces and the olive oil and cheese sauces. We call it Cape Cod Italian because we check out to integrate regional ingredients with dishes like clams linguine and cioppino (seafood stew).”

Most days, La Bella Vita features a specialty pizza, such as the recent $15 meatball and parmesan. [Mike DiSabato]

DiSabato handles La Bella Vita’s spirits and social media (labellavitaorleans.com, la_bella_vita_orleans on Instagram and https://www.facebook.com/labellavitaorleans). He produces specialty cocktails everyday, together with a the latest Maple Pecan Outdated Fashioned sells $20 bottles of limoncello do-it-yourself with natural and organic lemons and buys a extensive assortment of wines that are available for $20 every single on both of those La Bella Vita’s dine-in and takeout menus.

The menu also has a $60 supper-for-two menu, as properly as topic evenings and pizza. Most entrees on the normal menu operate in the reduced to mid-$20 range.

The La Bella Vita crew shared a vision but could not have known it would get there on the troubled sea of a pandemic that has swamped numerous longtime eateries.

In 2019, the partners began renovating the vacant developing that when housed The Academy Grille. Konner claims between $600,000 and $700,000 went into the challenge that included gutting the place and adding windows to make a much more open up, airier main dining place, along with a lesser, far more intimate dining space in the again.

“We simply call it the mafia dining space ’cause it’s tucked away out of sight,” Konner states with a chuckle.

Connecting the two dining rooms is a bar with a door primary out to a front patio/deck.

“It (the patio) was meant to be a lounge in which men and women could go to and get pleasure from a cocktail even though waiting for their table. Definitely, that did not materialize,” DiSabato suggests, referring to point out COVID-19 regulations that shut bars and restricted gatherings.

That outside space proved a conserving grace mainly because it could be made use of as a substitute for outside the house dining — which, with takeout, was all the condition allowed in mid-June and which proceeds to be well-liked now.

The associates had the deck outfitted with roll-up plastic home windows to offer far better air circulation.

“We have adequate home for all the tables, 7 tables, to be 10 feet aside. We have a propane heater on each and every table additionally 3 greater (heaters) and it’s a very good detail for the reason that 70 to 80 percent of persons nevertheless want to eat outdoors,” DiSabato suggests.

The only downside, DiSabato claims, is that La Bella Vita’s propane monthly bill runs $2,000 or so for each thirty day period.

With the state’s new laws limiting occupancy to 25 % of ability, Konner says La Bella Vita has 15 seats inside and 15 exterior. But the restaurateurs say they assist how Gov. Charlie Baker and his group are managing the pandemic.

“The community health and fitness section has finished an incredible position,” Konner says. “I would have to applaud them.”

Constraints have been the mother of creation at La Bella Vita. On the eve of the original launch in March, Baker restricted places to eat to consider-out only.

“We didn’t want to open up a model new typical Italian restaurant with get-out only so we resolved to hold out as prolonged as we could pay for to,” Konner claims.

La Bella Vita opened June 8, the very first day that the condition authorized outside the house eating. It continues to be open up day by day for indoor eating and takeout.

The three partners have worked in Cape places to eat for lots of several years. DiSabato took a route numerous do, beginning as a dishwasher and working his way up by means of the ranks at various destinations before becoming a bartender. Konner owns Rock Harbor Grill in Orleans and co-owns Grill 43 in Yarmouth Port. Heilman, who was not at the interview, owned many spots of Roo Bar restaurants a 10 years in the past, as perfectly as becoming a co-operator at the former Harry’s Blues Bar in Hyannis.

Konner and DiSabato expressed gratitude for the clients who help them, which include just one loved ones that arrived again a few nights in a row.

The restaurant’s social media reminds buyers that La Bella Vita complies with all point out guidelines, which include demanding masks and sanitizing tables involving customers.

As La Bella Vita sails into the second 50 % of its very first year, Konner advises attendees: “Don’t be worried of us or any restaurant. We are performing anything we know of to continue to keep our clients protected.”

La Bella Vita Kitchen and Bar

2 Academy Generate, Orleans

774-316-4454 labellavitaorleans.com

Several hours: 4:30 to 8:30 p.m. each day