The town of Deland is set on the bank of the St. Johns River, between Orlando and Daytona Beach – located in Florida’s Fun Coast Region. One could not expect to come across genuine Italian food in Deland; however, there is a restaurant in the region that provides the dishes and ambiance that would make you sense you were within Old World Italy.
Giovanni’s La Dolce Vita is a family-owned informal eating restaurant (owned by the Bordenga family) found on US Highways 17/92 at the southern end of Deland, nearing the boundary with Orange City. The restaurant presents Italian cuisine, dedicated to Sicilian style food.
When you enter the restaurant, you will discover the dining area outlined with both open dining tables along with private booths, so you can pick either for your dining experience. Private rooms can be obtained if you are seeking to host a private party.
Giovanni’s menu is packed with genuine, traditional style Italian cuisine. The eatery features a lunch menu, which provides appetizers, such as fried calamari, fried zucchini, mozzarella sticks, mussels marinara, and garlic bread. Soup-and-salad is a popular option, offering alternatives such as pasta fagioli soup, Caesar salad, blue cheese salad, anti-pasta salad, chef salad, Mediterranean salad, grilled chicken salad, and others. Hot and cold sub sandwiches are another staple offered for lunch, with the half-pound “Gio Burger” exhibited as the signature sandwich. Additional sandwich offerings include meatball parmigiana, sausage parmigiana, and for vegetarians, eggplant parmigiana.
The dinner menu at Giovanni’s offers a more substantial selection of choices, starting with appetizers (shrimp cocktail, stuffed mushrooms, clams casino, clams oreganate, scungilli, garlic bread, and jalapeno poppers), salads, ribeye steaks (steak antonio, steak pizzaiola, broiled steak, and steak a padella), chicken (chicken parmigiana, chicken Giovanni, chicken cacciatore, chicken marsala, chicken francese, chicken picante, and chicken broccoli), veal (veal cutlet parmigiana, veal francese, veal marsala, veal sorrentino, veal picante, veal giovanni), seafood (shrimp francese, broiled stuffed shrimp, shrimp scampi, fried shrimp, shrimp Capri, shrimp marsala, broiled or fried scallops, broiled or fried flounder, broiled red snapper almondine, seafood Capri, broiled or fried seafood combo). Dinner meals are served with a pasta dish, such as ziti or angel hair, or vegetables, a salad and dinner rolls. Vegetarians may choose from a selection of pastas with either eggplant parmigiana or stuffed eggplant.
A pizza menu is available for either lunch or dinner, with some specialized toppings, such as chicken and banana peppers, chicken and broccoli alfredo, broccoli alfredo, shrimp marinara, and veggie pizza. White pizzas with no tomato sauce are available, with optional spinach or broccoli toppings. Calzones and Stombolis are other choices included with the pizza menu. Refreshments provided consist of coffee, hot tea or iced tea, soda pop, espresso, or cappuccino. Dessert options include cannoli, spumoni, tiramisu, cheese cake, and other various cakes.
The restaurant is closed on Mondays, and is open for lunch, served from 11:30am – 2:00pm, Tuesday through Friday; Dinner is served from 4pm to 9pm, extended to 10pm on Friday and Saturday. Prices are in the Low-Moderate range. Cash and Credit Cards are accepted for payment. Carry out/take away is available.
Giovanni’s La Dolce Vita was chosen for the 2011 Best of Deland Award in the Restaurants category by the U.S. Commerce Association (USCA). The restaurant is ranked 15th in popularity (out of 84 restaurants) in Deland, in Tripadvisor.
Giovanni’s La Dolce Vita Ristorante
1498 South Woodland Blvd.
Deland, Florida
Phone: 386-736-3155
Sources:
http://wikitravel.org/en/DeLand
http://giosladolcevita.com/