La Dolce Vita

La Vita Loca

The Rat Pack’s Go-To Italian Joint, Reborn

None 6 Photos La Dolce Vita
Regrets, you’ve had a few.

For instance. You totally regret that you were planning to eat something other than a ciabatta burger at Sinatra’s old haunt tonight.

Regrets, you now have one fewer.

Meet the new La Dolce Vita, the cosmetically enhanced reboot of the Rat Pack’s favorite Italian restaurant, now soft-open and officially reopening Thursday.

If the guys were still around, they’d recognize the exposed brick, mirrored walls and photos of Gable and Cooper you’ll still see when you walk in. Nobody went crazy with bottle-service birdcages or a mechanical donkey or anything.

But there are some elegant 2013-friendly changes: a shiny brass bar covered in herbs for your drinks. A white crown-molded ceiling. A distinct lack of teal. The nice kind of change. The much-needed kind.

You’ll obviously want to commandeer the red leather Sinatra booth—it’s got a placard on it. Can’t miss it. That’s where you’ll get going on LDV Old Fashioneds (now with muddled blackberries and blood-orange bitters) and the new fontina burger on ciabatta. Or pasta, of course, like housemade linguini with littlenecks.

After a few LDVs, you could almost believe that’s the Rat Pack you see coming through the front door.

Nope. 2013. Probably the Jonas Brothers.

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