Bites Nearby: Pane e Vino

It was just a mound of dirt in a part of Fairfax County he considered to be an “armpit.” But to David Abella, it was the perfect place to build the Italian restaurant he had always dreamed of.

Out of that dirt rose , which opened in January 2007 and appears to be the best known restaurant in up-and-coming Lorton Station Town Center. The Italian restaurant added a wine room at the end of 2008 and a wine bar late last year.

It was popular from the start. And even as neighboring restaurants were closing because of the poor  economy, Pane e Vino had to expand because customers were being turned away for lack of room.

The patriarch of Pane e Vino is Salvatore Li Rocchi, who owned a pizzeria in Brooklyn, N.Y., before moving to Northern Virginia in 1984 because it was quieter and safer for his children. But after just a year he returned to his native Italy, where he stayed until moving back to Virginia in 1997 to give his children a better future.  

The head chef is Antonino Di Nicola, also a Brooklyn native who also spent many years in Italy. His sister is married to Li Rocchi. The other family member in the business is Abella, who is Li Rocchi’s son-in-law. Abella is the general manager and handles the marketing, but this is his first stint in the restaurant business.  

Prior to opening Pane e Vino, Abella taught and coached basketball at Hayfield Secondary School. But he said he always loved food and wine and it was in the back of his mind to open a restaurant. Before he married in 2006, the family began scouting for sites for a restaurant. Eventually they came across what is now the Lorton Station Town Center. At the time it was just dirt, but Abella was adamant that they had found the right spot.

“I knew there was potential here,” he said. They signed the lease before any ground was broken. Staying within the family, Li Rocchi’s architect son, Rosario, designed the restaurant, incorporating scenes from the surrounding neighborhood as well as Italian renderings.

While other restaurants in Northern Virginia have not fared as well, Pane e Vino is growing, although the owners say business is not where they want it to be yet. But with the economy picking up and more jobs coming to nearby Fort Belvoir, they are looking forward to the future.

The restaurant’s name (which is Italian for bread and wine) was inspired by a religion class that Abella’s wife had taught. For that reason, Abella said he knew the name was “meant to be.”

The restaurant does more than just serve up traditional Sicilian fare to attract customers. There’s the gelato – 12 flavors, made on the premises by Li Rocchi. There’s the wine list with more than 100 offerings. Although the deli was closed to make room for the wine room, Pane e Vino still sells a wide variety of cheeses, cold cuts, cookies and pastries and its own line of organic olive oil. And regulars know to check out the weekly specials that are posted on the restaurant's website on Fridays; they know to rush in for the osso buco before it’s gone.

9020 Lorton Station Blvd., Suite E, 571-642-0605. Open daily for lunch and dinner, Sunday for brunch and dinner.  Prices: $9 for the least expensive dinner, Spaghetti della Casa, to $28 for Bistecca alla Fiorentina (Porterhouse steak in a light rosemary olive oil.)

Owners’ favorites: Abella would start with the Calamari Fritti or the Involtini alla Norma (baked eggplant stuffed with pasta and ricotta and topped with mozzarella cheese, then get a pizza made in a wood burning oven. Li Rocchi favors the Linguini con Vongole (little neck clams sautéed with herbs, choice of tomato sauce or white wine garlic sauce served over linguini pasta, topped off by a scoop of chocolate or pistachio gelato. And Chef Di Nicola, a “meat man” who likes his food simple, recommends the Arrosto Panato (veal chop breaded with parsley, garlic and olive oil.)