Restaurant Review: Vesta

Brunch may be the best meal ever created.  Literally, anything goes!  You want a gourmet Belgian waffle for brunch?  Sure.  Does your friend want a pizza for brunch?  Knock yourself out.  Does the hobo that followed you into the restaurant want cleaning solvent for brunch?  We can do that, but first call the police.

What's more is that brunch is specifically designed to be later in the day just so you can sleep off your hangover and then eat/drink off your hangover.  Not that I would ever drink to the point of getting hungover, of course.  But, the best part of brunch is that there are drinks created solely for the purpose of being imbibed during the day, so you don't look like a lush in front of your friends when you pound mimosas at noon.  You're just being classy...excessively classy.

This brings us to Vesta, a cozy "trattoria and wine bar" tucked neatly into one of the crannies of Astoria.  Vesta's ostensible expertise is brunch, although the dinner menu appears to be equally if not more impressive.  I had been hankering for some brunch food and decided that I had to find out if the hype behind Astoria's food scene was true.  It didn't hurt that the names of the menu items at Vesta were playful, like "A Warm Bankie" and "Hangover Pizza."  How could you possibly go wrong with either of those?

After being seated, we got the two items mentioned above.  The former is creamy polenta served with asparagus, mushrooms, fried eggs, and topped with truffle oil.  While this may seem gratuitously heavy, you have to remember that you did nine body shots of tequila off of a complete stranger last night, so this is medicine for the soul.  The Hangover Pizza, with its thin crunchy crust, is not as substantial, but it's topped with things that will also soak up those acetaldehydes, like potatoes, pancetta, sausage, and fried eggs.  Both were winners in my book, and the food was just enough for three (not hungover) people.  

Once I got home, I researched the name "Vesta" and found that the restaurant was named after the virgin Roman goddess of hearth, home, and family.  So that's cool, I guess.

You may have forgotten last night, but you won't forget this.

Verdict: 4.4 out of 5 hobos requesting cleaning solvents for brunch