Virtù Honest Craft is Italian Like No Other
Virtù Honest Craft
Chef Gio Osso has been expanding, contracting, and expanding again in the Valley for quite a while now (I still miss going to Nico in downtown Gilbert), but it all started at Virtù, in its cozy nook/patio next to that so small it’s barely there hotel, Bespoke Inn. And for me, the most memorable thing was ordering that crazy octopus appetizer. I’d had octopus before, but always in things—I could never really see it for what it was. Then boom, there’s a beautiful looking plate of octopus-looking octopus leg bits, and it was delicious. For a moment, I felt like I was on the Mediterranean.
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Virtù Honest Craft is a nice dinner spot in Old Town Scottsdale, attached to the tiny Bespoke Inn. Grab a reservation and dress like you’re going on a nice first date.
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Virtù Honest Craft Has 4 Yumpoints
MAR 5, 2024 / BETTY HURD
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If you’re lodging at the Bespoke Inn, one of the most special features of this boutique hotel is Virtu Honest Craft. When you read the reviews of this place, nearly every comment raves about how this restaurant provided one of the best meals of their lives. This is the perfect place to treat yourself to a gourmet, coursed meal in a quaint environment.
FEB 13, 2024 / NIKKI BUCHANAN AND CHRIS MALLOY
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Tucked inside the charming Bespoke Inn, chef-owner Gio Osso’s tiny, intimate Virtù turns out exceptional modern Italian food, including fabulous crudo, grilled octopus two ways (one prep involves Calabrian butter, the other burnt orange sherry glaze), and obscenely rich asparagus with feta crumbles, bacon candy, foie gras hollandaise, and an oozy duck egg. For a splurge, consider a multi-course price-fixe dinner for six ($150 per person), centered upon smoked and roasted suckling pig — which requires 72 hours notice. Everything else is a la carte. For dessert, affogato or an amari from Virtù’s vast selection satisfies. In good weather, the charming patio is the place to be.
FEB 1, 2024
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Gio Osso's Italian food isn't afraid to reach beyond the boot, or even beyond the Mediterranean. His frequently changing menu has offered rib-eye with chimichurri and smoked swordfish belly with chorizo. But the bulk of the plates at this white-tablecloth restaurant on the edge of downtown Scottsdale are anchored in far southern Italy, though filtered through the New Jersey native's learned, slightly playful culinary mind. There are handmade pastas and hand-shaped gnocchi. There are ingredients such as Italian green barba di frate, tender and wild under crisp-skinned branzino. There are flights of obscure, ferocious amari. There are Calabrian chiles, blood-red egg yolks given by chickens fed red peppers, and bowls of pork ragu utterly astounding and wholly comforting in their long-stewed, homey depths. Virtu is a place for patrons who prefer more formal dining, who think they've eaten all the Italian food there is, or who simply want a reliably damn good meal.
MAR 6, 2023 / NIKKI BUCHANAN
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Chef Gio Osso has opened three restaurants over the past decade, but tiny, upscale Virtu, tucked away in the Bespoke Inn, remains the mothership as well as the stage for Osso’s elegant, showy spin on modern Italian. Since the pandemic, the restaurant has moved to a three-course prix fixe menu, which changes often (sometimes daily), but two dishes that seldom, if ever, leave are Osso’s famously tender octopus, laved in Calabrian chile butter, and his thoroughly decadent asparagus, served with an oozy duck egg, bacon candy, feta crumbles, and foie gras hollandaise. Main courses — seared tuna, smoked duck, grilled lamb chops, and the like — are every bit as enticing. Be sure to have an after-dinner amaro from the city’s best selection, and ask for a table on the lush, tiered patio.
APR 18, 2023 / NIKKI BUCHANAN, JAMIE KILLIN, AND RUDRI PATEL
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Tucked away in the Bespoke Inn, Virtu is not only one of the most charming restaurants in Old Town Scottsdale but also one of its best. Chef-owner and James Beard award nominee Gio Osso turns out elevated Italian food from a three-course, prix fixe menu highlighting handmade pasta, octopus anointed with Calabrese chile butter, and insanely rich asparagus, adorned with bacon candy, a duck egg, and foie gras hollandaise. The modern, minimalist (and decidedly tiny) interior has its charms, but most people gravitate to the cozy, plant-filled patio, strung with lights and presided over by a graceful old tree. In good weather (fall through spring), that same tree offers dappled shade for brunches offered every weekend.
