New Winter Menus at Vivo and Grillfire

Grillfire and Vivo, the restaurants at The Hotel at Arundel Preserve, are ringing in the holiday season with new menu offerings. Grillfire is introducing new starters, salads, and a surf and turf dish, and Vivo has added five new wood fired pizzas. I'm all over that buttermilk fried chicken and oysters dish with andouille gravy and creamed spinach and the burrata and pistachio pizza!

STARTERS
Flash Fried Chesapeake Oysters $12
“Rockefeller” with creamy spinach, gouda, caper butter and Pernod

SALADS
Roasted Beets, Arugula and Goat Cheese $10
Rainbow baby carrots and toasted walnuts with champagne-honey vinaigrette

GRILLFIRE FAVORITES
Add a side salad, Caesar or iceberg wedge, for $6
Baked Brie Chicken $24
Balsamic-cherry glaze, wild rice, grilled asparagus and butter-toasted walnuts

Braised Durham Ranch Bison Short Rib $26
Asparagus and onion “casserole,” charred fingerling potatoes and pan jus

SURF AND TURF
Includes one accompaniment. Add a side salad, Caesar or iceberg wedge, for $6
Ribs and Shrimp $25
Half-rack baby back ribs and chili-glazed jumbo shrimp

Buttermilk Fried Chicken and Oysters $24
Andouille gravy and creamed spinach

SANDWICHES
Seared Ahi Tuna Wrap $17
Tomato-jalapeno salsa, black beans, avocado, baby greens and wasabi mayo

VIVO PIZZAS
Prosciutto and Arugula $16
San Marzano tomatoes, oregano, basil and fresh mozzarella

Baby Clam Neapolitan $15
Garlic, lemon, mozzarella, Pecorino Romano, oregano and parsley

Burrata and Pistachio $15
Garlic, olive oil, Pecorino Romano, sopressata and crispy kale

Il Porco $14
Braised pork, housemade sausage, rapini, Pecorino Romano, provolone and taleggio

The Hotel at Arundel Preserve
7793-A Arundel Mills Blvd.
Hanover MD 21076
410-799-2883

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Happy Hour at George Martin's Grillfire

George Martin’s Grillfire Arundel (in The Hotel at Arundel Preserve, 7793-A Arundel Mills Blvd., Hanover MD 21076 [410] 799-2883) hosts happy hour every Monday through Friday from 4 to 7 p.m. Drink specials include: half-priced cocktails, $5 house wines, $4 draft beers and $3 domestic bottled beers. A special bar menu is also available including:

Japanese Peanuts $5 Edamame tossed in garlic and chili oil
Chicken Wings $5 Choice of: buffalo, chili glazed or teriyaki sauce
Turkey Chili Nachos $6
Chili Pop Shrimp $5
Plancha Fish Tacos $6 Shaved cabbage, pico de gallo, chipotle sour cream and lime
Slider of the Day $5
Lime Marinated Chicken Egg Rolls $7 With a spicy mango dip

For reservations or further information, call George Martin’s Grillfire Arundel at 410-799-2883 or visit www.grillfirearundel.com. Find the restaurant at www.facebook.com/GrillfireArundel or www.twitter.com/GeorgeMartinGrp.

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Weekly Promotions at Vivo Italian Kitchen & Wine Bar

Find our write-up of Vivo here.

Happy Hour - All day Monday, Tuesday-Friday 3 to 7pm, Saturday 4 to 7pm. Located at the bar or on the patio. Drink and appetizer specials, $20 for 1/2 liter of wine and a 2-topping pizza.

Wednesday Night - Flight Night and Tapas - $12 Wine Flights, $5 for each additional flight -- featuring small plate tapas pairings.

Movie Night - Every other Thursday Starting 7/31 - Enjoy classic Italian films and a 3-course prix fixe dinner. $35 including wine pairing. Each menu will carry a theme based on the evening's movie; the three courses include, Italian popcorn, salad, entree, dessert.

Movie Schedule:
7/31 - The Godfather
8/14 - The Big Night
8/28 - Cinema Paradiso
9/11 - Johnny Stecchino
9/25 - Godfather Part II
10/9 - 8 1/2
10/23 - Divorce Italian Style
11/6 - Godfather Part III

Friday - Lotsa Pasta - $25 per person with Endless Refills - Pick your Pasta, Pick your Sauce, Pick your Protein. Vivo salad and cannoli included.

Saturday - Family Style Italian Seafood Bake - $55 serves 2-3 people. Includes Caesar salad, Italian seafood bake from our stone hearth oven (3 oz salmon, 8 clams, 10 black mussels, 4 jumbo shrimp, 4 oz calamari, 1 soft shell crab, 3 ears of corn, 4 oz red potatoes, all roasted in Pinot Grigio, San Marzano tomatoes, toasted oregano, fresh basil, and extra virgin olive oil). Plus a dessert sampler of cannoli, tiramisu and gelato.

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Vivo Italian Kitchen & Wine Bar

If you've heard mention of "West County" recently and wasn't sure what it referred to, it's the western part of Anne Arundel County, which includes Hanover, Odenton, and Fort Meade. Not exactly the most glamorous area, unless you consider the fastest growing part of West County, Hanover's Arundel Mills development. In addition to the mall and Maryland Live! casino, Arundel Mills now boasts plenty of new housing and amenities. One of the newest communities in the development is Arundel Preserve. Just off 295 on Arundel Mills Boulevard, the Preserve is home to the swank new Hotel at Arundel Preserve and its two restaurants by New York restaurateur George Martin, Vivo and Grillfire.

Mr Minx and I were invited to taste some of Vivo's offerings at a recent media dinner. We started out with a few appetizers for the table before ordering entrees of our own.

Charcuterie plate with Sopressata, proscuitto, bresaola, gorgonzola, provolone, and taleggio,
with marinated olives, toasted stone oven flatbreads, and fig jam

We started out with a generous charcuterie plate featuring three Italian meats and three Italian cheeses, a nice combination of salty, savory, and creamy, punctuated by a sweet fig jam and olives. With a bottle of wine, it could make a nice meal in itself. And it was served on a gorgeous slab of burl wood that sadly was too large to fit in my purse....

Margherita pizza

We also sampled one of the restaurant's dozen pizzas, made in the Wood Stone oven visible just beyond the window into the open kitchen. In addition to the classic Margherita and white pizzas, Vivo has creative variations like crab imperial with mascarpone and a red pepper aioli, and proscuitto & pear with gorgonzola dolce. Yes, please!

Spinach arancini 

We also received a sampling of Vivo's arancini, which our host, Diane, says is the best she's had since her trip to Italy. The generously-sized balls of risotto and spinach were indeed quite nice, creamy and piping hot inside, with a delicate crust that was just barely able to hold in the molten rice.

Bucatini Carbonara with peas and a soft cooked egg

When Mr Minx, aka Mr Pasta, saw that Vivo offered one of his favorite pasta preparations, pasta Carbonara, he had to order it. The house-made bucatini was coated in a rich and cheesy sauce studded with bits of pancetta and peas and topped with a soft cooked egg. It was decadently delicious.

Pork shank osso buco with rosemary potatoes and tomato pan gravy

I opted to avoid pasta and chose a meat entree that came with potatoes, just to be different. While osso buco is traditionally made with veal shank, pork shank works just as well. The one I received was gargantuan, and the spoon-tender meat was glazed with a sheen of tomato gravy and a sprinkle of herbs. The potatoes were darkly roasted and had a mild rosemary flavor that did not detract from the lusciousness of the meat.

Chicken Parmesan, without the cheese

Other dishes at our table include chicken Parmesan, which our tiny host ordered without cheese because she's afraid of getting fat like me. (I'm happy to eat her cheese for her.) The breast cutlets were thin and crispy, and I liked that the breading wasn't over-seasoned.

Bucatini with lobster and shrimp

Another tablemate had the bucatini in a creamy sauce flavored with Chardonnay and thyme and studded with bits of lobster and shrimp. After tasting it, I almost regretted my decision not to order pasta, because it was delicious, with a nice brininess from the seafood. Vivo makes all of its pasta (except the linguine) in-house, from gnocchi to ravioli to rigatoni, using their fancy imported pasta machine. 

Despite being stuffed, we also sampled a trio of the restaurant's desserts, including a lovely light tiramisu served in a jar and garnished with a crisp biscotto. While cute, the jar lid was heavy and made the container a little tipsy.

...a moist olive oil cake topped with fig jam and vanilla ice cream...

...and crisp miniature cannoli stuffed with Nutella-infused ricotta.

Despite trying several dishes, we really tasted only a small selection of the goodies Vivo has to offer. We can hardly wait to go back and try the crispy Parmesan polenta, lobster risotto, malfadine Bolognese, rockfish and baby clams Livornese, and some of the more non-traditional pizzas. But first, we have to check out Grillfire, the George Martin restaurant across the lobby, which seems to have a pretty rocking happy hour....

Vivo Italian Kitchen & Wine Bar
7793-B Arundel Mills Blvd
Hanover, MD 21076
(410) 799-7440
http://www.vivotrattoria.com/





Posted on Minxeats.com.