Ron Samuelson and Ann Mellen, owners of nearby M’s Pub, opened Vivace in 1993. Bobby Mekiney is the executive chef. Mike Johnson is the sous chef. Caryl Dumaine is the pastry chef. Other chefs rotate between M’s and Vivace.
Focus groups, customer comment cards and dishes piloted as specials at M’s in recent months helped fuel the recent changes, which Mekiney said have been in the works since August 2008. “We brought in a lot of people who know the business,” Mekiney said. “We said: ‘We need to make our food fit our customer and also fit the room. We have to consider economy and the dollar.’ We consider it more of a relaunch than a menu change.”
Vivace boasts a big, Italian-heavy wine list. Organized from light to bold, it offers lots from the Tuscany, Piedmont and Veneto regions. A recent retooling added a few more California varietals by the bottle and glass. The really big Italian reds (amarone, barolo, brunello, barbaresco) are only available by the bottle.
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