By Kimberly Shurig
What makes Ventura’s OffShore café feel like a favorite neighborhood restaurant?
It’s Fancy and delicious without being pompous and uncomfortable. Regulars know to arrive early, before the start of happy hour for a position at the bar and counting heads to make sure they’ll get a seat for their family and friends. In conversations about food the media often ignores the locals, many of whom also work in our food worlds. These are the foodies I enjoy talking to, our city’s public service employees, casino workers , chefs, etc. Ventura’s Offshore is a true neighborhood gathering place.
What I really love is the warm welcome at the door and the service by experienced Bartenders Paul McLaughlin and Lisa Marinelli and servers, Adele and Patty, they embrace hospitality and make you feel happily at home. Ventura’s Offshore has become one of my go-to places when I want to entertain people in a homey but Sunday-best ambiance with good, dependable service, tasty cocktails, fine wine and at moderate prices. It’s consistent, and there are few places that can make that claim in our local restaurant scene, especially in this price bracket. If a more refined date night or dinner with the parents is in order, this family owned restaurant that’s comfortable, stylish, excels in food, wine, cocktails and service at a moderate price is perfect for those occasions too.
Nearly everything at the restaurant, run by the Ventura family for more than two decades, is wonderful and well-considered, from the smallest touch of service to the most labor-intensive entree. The kitchen sources organic and local ingredients whenever possible.
The interior is impossibly cozy, exposed brick, comfortable booths and wood furniture with a vintage fireplace, making you feel as though you’ve stepped into someone’s well-appointed home. In the evening the table tops are lit by votive candles, making it an intimate spot to nosh on their signature upscale comfort food.
Meatballs have found a place on most menus today, but the ones here rise to the top. Ventura’s Offshore serves up three generously sized meatballs which are made fresh in-house, drenched in tasty marinara sauce placed in between mini slider buns are phenomenal. It’s comfort food of the highest order.
Desserts are the usual tiramisu and cheesecake but the dessert that caught my attention and taste buds was the peach cobbler (fruit cobbler changes depending on the season) served warm in a cast iron skillet topped with vanilla ice cream. This dessert is outrageously tasty and our server, Patty, who recommended it, said she often takes a piece home at the end of the night and reheats it for breakfast. Of course you know I did too.
Ventura’s is a family-owned Italian-American restaurant that’s comfortable, stylish and excels in regional Italian food, wine, cocktails and service at moderate prices. There’s every reason to make this one of your go-to places for entertaining friends, family or just yourself.
Ventura’s Offshore Cafe
2015 Shore Road . (609) 641-5158
Hours: open 7 days a week 11am -1am
Italian Happy Hour nightly from 4PM-6PM with half-price appetizers on selected menu
Sunday Funday: Half-price Appetizers all day
Credit cards: All major cards accepted
www.Venturascafe.com
