Of the reasons to open a restaurant, there’s perhaps none more appealing than the hope that your eatery will become a community touchstone, a gathering place for the neighbors, a hospitable, comfortable place for families or friends to chill out, sip wine and share well-prepared, unpretentious food.
Bella Bistro, on Ralston Road in Arvada, is exactly this kind of friendly, welcoming restaurant, and in its nearly two years in business, it has scored enough devoted fans to keep it humming the five nights a week it’s open, plus lunches and brunches.
Bella’s room is small, divided nearly in half between the kitchen and the dining area. Separate bar and patio areas mean that even on crowded nights, there’s generally a spot to wedge yourself in. Space is not ample, but that’s part of the conceit here; crowdedness leads to liveliness, and if you suffer bumping elbows for the sake of a wallow in this happy pool, well, worse fates are imaginable.
To offer descriptions and assessments of most of Bella Bistro’s dishes would be a futile activity and a waste of space — this place changes its menu, almost completely, every single day.
Lucky are the patrons who come on pasta night, and even luckier still are those who order the pasta carbonara, cooked al dente and proficiently tossed with egg, parmesan cheese, delicate pancetta and a faint kiss of garlic.
On another night, you might encounter a plate of carefully seared scallops with an asparagus risotto. Or a rosemary-roasted lamb rack, tender and meaty. But don’t count on it; very little hangs around on the menu for too long. One thing you can count on: Whatever the ingredient is, it will be generally well-shepherded through the kitchen.
There are a few constants at Bella. Pizza, for one. Like every pizza in town, this one is challenged by vagaries of temperature (if you don’t eat it fast, it’ll go soggy), but the crust, yeasty and well-formed dough, holds its toppings where they belong. As to those toppings, some are safer than others. The margherita works for me, but if you’re a truffled-lobster-loving fancy-pants, Bella Bistro waves your flag, too.
Salads, also always on the menu, are carefully attended to here, not clumsily overdressed or overseasoned, especially the savory Greek salad with its crisp, cool lettuce and salty feta and olives. Pair this with a glass of verdicchio from the happily compact wine list.
All plates set forth at Bella Bistro are not perfect, however. As the place gets busier, seasonings get sloppier and cooking times get overlooked. One pork tenderloin was overdone to the point of dryness; another dish of seafood pasta suffered from rubbery prawns. But imperfections are the exception, not the rule, and in an atmosphere as genial as this, relatively forgivable.
The servers, like the cooks, are occasionally overtaxed during the busiest hours, and the resulting front-of- house choreography is not always seamless. Orders occasionally go misplaced, glasses unfilled and so forth. But staffers are energetic, personable and well-cast (because staffing a restaurant is, after all, an exercise in casting), and certainly in line with the vision of a busy neighborhood bistro.
Bella Bistro also throws pizzas and builds salads and sandwiches for lunch (standout sandwich: bison pastrami with Russian dressing on a pretzel roll), and packs ’em in on Sundays for apple Dutch babies and a regal, nap-inducing steak-and-eggs dish with gnocchi and sauteed greens.
Chef/owner Shelly Steinhaus is a talented cook, but she’s an even more talented neighborhood restaurateur. Arvadans are lucky to have her in their midst.
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Bella Bistro
Contemporary. 7702 Ralston Road, Arvada, 303-358-7253
** RATING | (Very Good)
Atmosphere: Casual room, open kitchen, lovely patio.
Service: Friendly and professional, if sometimes overbusy.
Wine: Easily navigated list.
Plates: Salads $7-$10. Main dishes $12 and up.
Hours: Tuesday-Friday, 11 a.m.- 2 p.m. Dinner Tuesday-Saturday from 5 p.m. Sunday brunch, 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Closed Monday.
Details: Parking lot. Wheelchair accessible. Happy Hour. Cooking classes.
Three visits.
Our star system:
****: Exceptional
***: Great
**: Very Good
*: Good
