As far as I am concerned, if Italian food is good… you travel for it. With the endless options you can try with one of the best cuisines in the world, you might be surprised that there are good places that can provide such a treat for your palate that runs outside of New York City. Shocking, right? One of these places is called VB3, short for Villa Borghese, located right off The Path Train in Jersey City. When you can master a hard combination of exquisite Italian cuisine in a sports bar setting, you must be doing something right. And VB3 does that… and more.
At the helms of VB3 you will find executive chef Michael Colletti, who breeds quite the pedigree before joining this Jersey City establishment. Business partners with Top Chef legend and DC mainstay Spike Mendelsohn, Michael has competed on “Iron Chef America”, won Rachael Ray’s Burger Bash at the New York City Food & Wine Festival back to back and has even cooked for President & Mrs. Obama. Pretty impressive if I do say myself. Michael splits his time between VB3 and being the executive chef at The Hall South Beach, part of the JDV Hotels in Miami, Florida. For a guy as busy as he is, Michael definitely knows what he is doing when he is at VB3 as I quickly found out a couple of days ago.
As previously mentioned, VB3 is a mere block away from the Newport stop on The Path Train, with a great orange awning as you walk into the clean and beautifully lit establishment. It has a sports bar feel to it while inside, even having live music at certain parts of the week, but it doesn’t give off that cheesy type vibe that you get from other bars with simple formats (IE most of the places I go to in Hoboken). Instead, it is a relaxing and spacious environment to enjoy with your friends and family.
We have chosen what we think are the highlight dishes for you to try the next time you are at VB3. You can’t go to an Italian place without thinking about getting Pizza, and their Pulled Pork Pizza is simply the best choice out of all that is listed. Pizza is such a versatile product that you can pretty much put whatever you want on there, and I never thought of putting pulled pork as an option but I am now a converted fan into this tasty topping. The VB3 burger was also a fantastic choice to devour, as it comes with Certified Angus Beef, Char-Grilled and topped with Applewood Smoked Bacon, Provolone, and Egg, with Ramp Aoli Dressing. Delicious indeed.
Other notable options that we satisfied our taste buds with were their own line of meatballs donned as “Nona’s”, Brick Oven Chicken Wings, and Crab Mac N’ Cheese, pictured above. They have variety of menus available at your disposal, including lunch, dinner and a wonderful brunch menu that are changed seasonally. They also have a great Valentine’s Day menu going on for anyone that is still doing last minute bookings for Sunday. More information can be found here-
For anything about VB3, check out their site. Happy eating everyone!