Vaso's Mediterranean Bistro, by the Owners of Vaso's Kitchen in the Former Bistrot Lafayette Space at 1118 King St, Old Town Alexandria

[jandres374]

Vaso's is opening a 2nd location soon.

"Vaso's Kitchen Preparing New King Street Location" by Drew Hansen on patch.com

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[sorry about the tweets guys; I hadn't had my coffee yet.] 

(Glad you had such a nice time, SeanMike - nobody deserves one more than my good friend.)

[goldenticket]

Opening a 2nd location soon.

"Vaso's Kitchen Preparing New King Street Location" by Drew Hansen on patch.com

The sign in the window at 1118 King Street said "open", as I drove by this morning.  I'll have to take a walk and investigate.

[Bart]

After getting shut out at Bastille on Friday night, my wife and I drove up King Street looking for some place to grab quick bite and got a bit of a surprise when we saw the sign for Vaso's.  I knew they were opening a second location, I just didn't pay attention to where it was.

It has quite a different vibe from the original location which to me seems very mom-and-pop/family owned and very casual.  It reminds me of the opposite of a lot of DC restaurants.   This one is a much sleeker, maybe hipper, certainly more upscale looking and feeling.  People were very nicely dressed and it had the feel of a downtown place.

It's very small downstairs - probably about the same size as the original location - and very loud.  VERY loud.  When given a choice between the main room or the back hallway, we picked the back hallway because the front room was so loud.  It was a nice little area, but there's a lot of traffic as it's the route to and from the kitchen.  All in all, I prefer the look and feel of the original place to the new one because the original seems like a one of kind place, where the new one seems very similar to 100 other places in the area.

We weren't very hungry so we just got a bottle of wine (!) and a Greek sampler appetizer plate.  They had a bunch of Greek wines on the list and all of them were very reasonably priced.  The sampler plate was very good with the usual suspects being represented.  It wasn't as refined or subtle or layered as what you'd get at Kapnos, but it hit the spot.

The waiter told us they have been open since November and that Chef Vaso is spending his time here in the new location.

They also had an upstairs area with a band playing but we didn't go up there (too beat).

The new location is closer to my home so we'll probably hit this one more than the original, but all things being equal, I like the feeling of the original place better.

[levjn]

Has anyone been to the King Street bistro location lately?  (Side note - it took me a while to find this as it wasn't listed in the Dining Guide under Old Town... rather here under multiple locations.  My understanding is that these are actually 2 different restaurants with 2 different menus/styles, etc.? The bistro on King more upscale and the old location more "homestyle"?  Shouldn't they then be listed as 2 separate places - Vaso's Kitchen on Powhatan and Vaso's Mediterranean Bistro on King? Their website for the latter doesn't even mention the "kitchen" location?  http://www.vasosonking.com )  :-) 

[DonRocks]

Has anyone been to the King Street bistro location lately?  (Side note - it took me a while to find this as it wasn't listed in the Dining Guide under Old Town... rather here under multiple locations.  My understanding is that these are actually 2 different restaurants with 2 different menus/styles, etc.? The bistro on King more upscale and the old location more "homestyle"?  Shouldn't they then be listed as 2 separate places - Vaso's Kitchen on Powhatan and Vaso's Mediterranean Bistro on King? Their website for the latter doesn't even mention the "kitchen" location?  http://www.vasosonking.com )  :-) 

[Consider it done. ]

I find the phenomenon interesting of the Virginia-based half-Greek, half-Italian restaurant, and this follows strongly in that tradition.