SoLita Las Olas

Critic's Review

Solita has left the building and the people who own Big City Tavern and Rocco's tacos will be taking over the space. The SoLita people are operating the restaurants in the Atlantic Hotel. Solita's attempt at creating a club/restaurant fell short; it was a thing for a short while but it got old quickly.

Review 3/18/11

Solita is a swanky restaurant at the location formerly occupied by Mark's Las Olas. SoLita, which is short for "South of Little Italy", brings the cuisine of Michael Roselli (formerly of Martorano's) and several other Marterano's former staffers.

SoLita aspires to be more than just a restaurant; the large bar area and lounge elevates it to a restaurant within a club. The music is loud, and gets louder late night. The bar area has an urban feel; they call it the "Violetta Enoteca" (Violet Wine Shop), and its adorned with black granite, stone-look slab ceiling panels and crystal fixtures. With all the expense, I can't answer why they didn't go for a nice edge on the bar; it seems a bit sharp. The shades of purple look gray in the dark; the bartender's purple corsets are more noticable. Numerous flat panel TVs have the games on, but they're not in the way. People don't come here to watch sports.

Solita inside

They have an extensive wine menu but only a few by the glass. I prefer Italian Reds, and the choice is limited to Rocco Delle Macie Chianti Classico ($10). $16 is too much for Tan Label, which has been wholly mediocre this century.

The menu is simple southern Italian; Meatballs, Eggplant, and even Poppers. They also have stuffed peppers ($12), which are served open faced (I call it smashed) and stuffed with sausage and a cheesy tomato sauce. They are delicious however I would have preferred that they remove the stems; its dark and biting into a stem isn't a positive experience.

One night when I was just in for a drink I decided to have dinner; unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me and my iPhone is useless in a dark place like Solita. I started out with some bread; a mini loaf that was so hot I had to throw it back into the basket after grabbing it. The dip setup they give you has red pepper and parmesan, olive oil and way too much balsamic; I would have had her skip the balsamic if I was paying attention. The bread is a good crusty one; the loaf is the equivalent of about 3 thick slices of italian bread.

I was pretty hungry and I opted for the bone-in veal chop parmesan. The menu they have on their web site (and hence the one we have here) is out of date; It's $29; a bit steep for Veal Parm, but the way they make it with a veal chop seemed like it might be worth it. I'd made veal parm with a veal loin chop once for myself and it was crazy good. So I was excited to see what this thing was like.

It came out way too fast; maybe 5 minutes. But man was this thing huge. It had the standard big rib bone and it filled an entire large dinner place, and is covered with a thin layer of mozzarella cheese and a chunky tomato sauce with a lot of fresh basil.

It's served completely ala carte; no pasta. Most Italian restaurants serve pasta with everything. I didn't really need it with the huge chop, but it does pair nicely with some penne or linguine.

I ate about half the chop, which is more than you'd get at most places. While it was good, it just wasn't as good as it could be. As I said, the chop came out too fast, as if they pre-make them and just heat them up with sauce and cheese. When you cook veal in olive oil and garlic it gets an intense taste, but there was none of that with this chop. And the sauce wasn't great; it seemed like pureed tomatoes with a ton of basil; good but I prefer when its sweetened with some onions and garlic.

I made the leftover chop by sauting it with garlic and olive oil, and adding a quick sauce I made with garlic, onions, diced tomatoes and Gia Russa Tomato basil and some additional whole milk mozzarella and linguine, and it was fantastic. When the leftovers are better than the original meal, there's something a bit wrong.

I've been to Solita on a couple of recent Thursdays and a Saturday, and I'd have to say that Solita has already lost some of its luster. There was little evidence of the "beautiful people" crowd that assembled here when they first opened. There's never a problem getting a seat at the bar. There was a group of 50-somethings making a lot of noise on my last visit; the sight of a 55yo man dancing on the bar is a far cry from the 23yo girls on Rocco's bar down the road.