Vyne Restaurant & Bar: Fine Dining Meets Comfort Classics in Middlebury

With new executive chef James Piccolo on board, you’ll certainly see plenty of Italian comfort sprinkled about the menu like this fusilli alla vodka with crispy chicken cutlet as an add on if you desire.

Unless you live near or in Middlebury, there’s a very real chance you’ve never dined there.

Ask a few guys who now work in Middlebury at Vyne Restaurant & Bar and they’ll tell you that before they got there, they hadn’t either.

“I had never even heard of Middlebury and I spent a lot of my life in Hartford,” says Vyne’s general manager Justin Morales.  

Vyne’s large space doesn’t only include the restaurant, but two event spaces where they host lots of weddings and any private function you’d like. When the snows clears, the outdoor patio is the place to dine al fresco with a scene that’s got a waterfall and stream.

Morales (left) and Piccolo are part of Vyne’s revamp and hope you make your next dinner date with them in Middlebury.

On weekends especially, Vyne has been quite the scene in the main dining room and in the bar area.

What Morales, an industry veteran both behind the bar and as a GM (and most recently of Fire by Forge), and executive chef James Piccolo are doing in this part of Connecticut is putting their stamp on a restaurant idea that began many years ago as a small cafe inside of a furniture store, Middlebury Consignment.

In 2018, just a stone’s throw away from his furniture store, Dr. Dean Yimoyines opened Vyne with a cuisine influenced by his father, Constantine’s New Haven restaurant, Les Shaw’s, and its Mediterranean flavors.

Up front, one of the cocktail specials was a orange-coffee-chocolate old fashioned made with Morales’ own brand of bourbon, Up n’ Down

One of the popular shareables are crispy brussels sprouts w/maple-bacon aioli, gorzonzola, crunchy bits of prosciutto and hot honey.

French onion soup - gruyere, provolone, crostini

But what was new eight years ago, can be new again in the present. And that’s the approach that both Morales and Piccolo, whose resume includes Mercado in Southbury, Quattro Osteria in Newtown, and most notably, he ran the kitchens for Mario Batali and Joe and Lidia Bastianich at Tarry Lodge.

“Before this, I was at Mercado with Market Hospitality Group for a few years,” Piccolo says. “I applied here and the owners saw that I worked for Tarry Lodge in Port Chester, Westport, and New Haven for 13 years.”

Already impressed with Piccolo’s credentials, the Yimoyines Family wanted to see chef’s skill in action.

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“My audition was like an hour-long Iron Chef episode and tasting,” Piccolo continues. “I made homemade pasta dough before, brought that with me, and made egg yolk raviolo, then scallops with couscous, grilled pineapple with burrata.”

Now hired, Piccolo only had one issue…the menu before he got there had some Asian flavors mixed in that was this odd sort of fusion thing going on.

“I told them, if I come in, I’m not cooking this—my training is Italian, but I also do whatever I feel, like I lived in Montauk for six years, so I always say that seafood is my favorite thing to cook because it’s so versatile,” Piccolo says. “They told me to do whatever I have to do and that I have complete creative control. I’m happy here.”

Pork scarpariello - bone-in chop, sweet + spicy peppers, sweet sausage, broccoli rabe, roasted potatoes

Wellington special - filet mignon and mushroom duxelle wrapped in puff pastry, demi glace, potato puree, roasted carrots

Described by Piccolo as modern Mediterranean that leans Italian, it should be no surprise that Vyne’s new chapter and revitalized menu flaunts plenty of Italian comfort with meatballs, fried calamari with both spicy marinara and lemon-caper aioli for dipping, bowls of fresh pasta, old school parms, and something he brings with him everywhere he goes, a hearty bowl of mussels with either garlic parmesan cream sauce or spicy tomato broth.

As for the Mediterranean, expect grilled octopus with crispy potatoes and chorizo, lemon pepper swordfish, and lamb chops with butternut squash, pomegranate, pine nuts, and peppadew aioli.

“It’s all about good ingredients and seasonal, so I still go to the Westport Farmers Market because I think it’s the best one we have in this state,” Piccolo says. “What’s popular? The pork chop scarp—it’s got heat and I’m not afraid of spicy. There were no pastas on the menu when I started, so I created a whole pasta program here based on my relationship with Durante’s Pasta in West Haven. The black spaghetti (shrimp fra diavolo, fennel, chorizo) is always my favorite because it’s got heat.”

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And as for the “whatever he feels” additions to the menu, you’ll see some French, too, in a cheesy, rich onion soup with soaked crostini, steak frites, and a recent special in the classic British dish using French techniques, beef wellington.

“It was my first time doing it, but it’s all timing, down to a science,” Piccolo explains. “You go a minute over, it’s overcooked. A minute under, it’s raw. This one will be perfect temperature. I have a set it and forget it mentality. You don’t have to keep looking at it, touching it, playing with it. If you touch it too much, now you’ve extended the time and you have no reference as to how much heat it has.”

But Piccolo isn’t doing it all by himself.

Chocolate - raspberry crème brûlée

Banoffe - layered salted caramel and bananas, vanilla pudding, chocolate ganache, Oreo crust

All the cakes, custards, tarts, pies, and other sweet endings are made in-house by pastry chef Leena Bernardo. And the bar program gets an assist from their GM’s bartending expertise, so you’ll see more of a craft cocktail approach, some of which use Morales’ own brand of bourbon, Up n’ Down.

Cocktails aside, you’ll see Vyne’s stamp on the drink list. A bunch of wines are from the family’s vineyard, Tranquillity Vineyard & Winery, located nearby, and some of their craft beer selection is brewed onsite at their brewpub, Brewbury, just a 60 second walk away on the same lot as Vyne.

The Yimoyines Family, Piccolo, and Morales are setting out to make Vyne a destination dining experience. Increasingly busy services and more people buzzing about the food and hospitality prove they’re well on their way to doing so.

1365 Whitmore Road, 2nd Floor, Middlebury
203.518.4000, vynerestaurant.com