It's restaurant week!! I'm always so jealous of the DC restaurant week that my family gets to go to each year... but finally Rochester has one! Although not well advertised John heard about it and promptly sent me the website last week. After scanning the different options Beth and I decided to hit up Pane Vino for their restaurant week lunch special.


Set Price: $20.09 for two
plus tax and tip

Includes choice of Salad or Soup / Panini or Pizza / and a glass of wine (or soda if you are like me and can't drink wine at lunch because you wont be productive at work the rest of the day... lol... yup I'm a lightweight).

How amazing is that deal?? There are a bunch of places participating. Some deals are amazing, others... not so great. Make sure to check out all the details before you decide where to go :)

As for the atmosphere... It has a high class feel to it, but at least at lunch time didn't seem overly pretentious. There is a well stocked bar when you first walk in with plenty of space if there is a wait for dinner (which it sounds like there normally is). The floors are this really cool old old super wide wood with rope linning the cracks between the boards. Large windows line one full wall of the eating area looking out onto the river, lending a nice view and good light. The crowd leans to the older side, when we arrived we were the only ladies in the entire place (male server, and all older business men dining). By the time we left it was mostly business men in their late 40's early 50's and a table of salt and pepper ladies with one older gentleman (what's going on there??). Beth and I (both in our 20's) were a bit out of place, but the server sure seemed to be happy to see us :D

OK onto the chow!
Beth started with the Pane Vino Salad, it had an amazing Balsamic Vinaigrette and was HUGE. I went with the Lentil Soup which unfortunately (for Beth) was not vegetarian so she couldn't try any. Turns out it was spiked with bacon - YUM, the chef was a bit heavy handed with the salt, but otherwise the flavors were amazing.


For our main dishes we both chose pizza. Beth went with the Vegetable pizza (minus the cheese) Roasted peppers, broccoli, artichokes, & mozzarella. I went for the Chef Special of the day: Feta cheese, a garlic oil sauce, artichokes, tomatoes and spinach. It was heavy on the garlic (totally a good thing in my mind) but also a bit heavy on the salt (not so good)... but otherwise very flavorful. The crust was a grilled pita which made for a wonderfully crisp crust.


The specials go through Sunday so if you live in Rochester make sure to check out somewhere new!