Calvino’s Is Cute and Trendy on The Surface, But The Service and Cuisine are Slow and Uninspiring

Valentine’s Day definitely requires a couple to go out for dinner someplace fancy-ish to celebrate their love, which I’m sure is buried somewhere in the rules of The Valentine’s Day handbook. So not one to break a rule, David and I clichéd it up and got out of our pjs and into something semi presentable and went out to dinner.

We chose Calvino’s a small, charming looking place nestled in the Cricket West Shopping Center on W. Central Ave. I had high expectations, this place was recommended to us by a couple of people.

Walking in, we saw the inside was indeed quite small. To the left was a small dining area as well as their in house wine store. I learned that every month they host a wine tasting that’s usually on a Saturday, from 3-5pm. They typically offer 6-7 wines & gourmet appetizers that are kept secret until the time of serving.

To the right of the entrance were steep stairs leading up to the loft/balcony area. We were greeted by the hostess and I told her we had a reservation under my name. Then the weirdest thing happened, she turned her back to us for a good 2–3 minutes and didn’t say anything. She kept glancing up at the loft, no doubt trying to figure out where to put us, though if I had a reservation, I’m not quite sure what there was to think about. It was just odd she didn’t say anything that entire time. 2 -3 minutes seems like forever when no one is talking.

Finally, she guided us upstairs. The stairs were quite narrow and steep. We saw later on that the servers constantly go up and down those steps while carrying orders. I couldn’t help but think that was impressive, but also a little dangerous.

The loft area was cute and cozy. We were seated at a table to the far left by the wall. I noticed the table was quite small but didn’t mind too much. It was intimate.

We had arrived at a good time, there were only a couple of other people there. Our waitress came over, and we put our drink order in. I ordered a glass of Chianti ($8.00), thinking the red would go well with the Italian food. David ordered a Yuengling ($3.00).

We looked over the menu for a few minutes before we both decided on a Stromboli. They seemed to be a popular menu item, and Stromboli is just a fun word to say.

I got The Godfather ($10.25) which was stuffed with sausage, capicola, Canadian bacon, and cheddar. David decided on a non-complicated meatball ($10.25) which has mozzarella cheese, spinach, herbs, red pepper and spicy sausage meatballs.

We had our drinks, put in our order, and we settled into a nice conversation. Then, after a while, we were painfully aware of the minutes going by. We had been waiting about 30 minutes before they brought us our basket of bread.

The nuggets of bread were covered in oil and Parmesan cheese. They looked good. However, I bit into one and all I tasted was bitter garlic. David didn’t have an issue with them, so maybe I ate the bad one of the bunch. I tried another, and I thought they were a little dry and unfortunately all I could still taste was garlic. Some marinara sauce served with them could’ve gone a long way.

It would be another 40 minutes before we would receive our Stromboli. If they had come much later, David probably would’ve turned into the Hulk. He was pretty hangry.

My Godfather Stromboli was rather good, I mainly just tasted the ham and the cheddar cheese. It was salty and savory. I did get that satisfying cheese pull when I broke off the pieces. However, I was a little underwhelmed. Taste and look wise, I feel like I could’ve gotten this at any pizza chain. It was basically an elevated Hot Pocket.

David’s Meatball Stromboli tasted better than mine. I think because it just had those traditional pizza flavors. You can’t go wrong with hearty meat and cheese. His was a little spicy, which I liked.

With the basket of bread and entrées and drinks, the small table that I thought was intimate was now overly crowded, and I had to be careful not to spill anything off the table.

I only had a couple pieces of my Stromboli, and I took the rest home. I was too tired to eat anymore.

Overall, Calvino’s is a cute place, but the Stromboli is pretty basic. Would we have fared better by getting something else off the menu? Who knows.

How slow the service was is a bit of a mystery to me. When we arrived, there were not a lot of people there. The place started filling up towards the end of our meal. They could’ve been short-staffed like so many other restaurants, I suppose. I’ll probably give it another chance when it’s not a holiday and see if anything is different. On this Valentine’s Day, however, I didn’t feel the love from Calvino’s.