Caffè Casta Diva

Truly homemade pasta and superior ingredients make Stephen Vassalluzzo’s Caffè Casta Diva an Italian BYOB worth going to.

Though you’ve seen many of Vassalluzzo’s dishes at other ristoranti—calamari, roasted beets with Gorgonzola and walnuts, Caesar salad—his use of superior ingredients elevates them to a more distinctive plane. Scored and sauteed, the lemony squid was extra tender. Earthy, sweet Chioggia beets, an Italian heirloom, made the ubiquitous beet salad more interesting, their alternating red and white rings like an archer’s bullseye in a forest of bull’s blood baby greens. White anchovies—draped like tinsel over torn romaine—gave the Caesar its ocean-y brine.

Prima Diva [Philadelphia Weekly]