V2 Wine Bar Trattoria opens at downtown site

By Karl Henkel

khenkel@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Vernon Cesta’s Mahoning Valley-famous cuisine has officially come to Youngstown.

Cesta, who owns Vernon’s Caf in Niles, has opened his second restaurant, V2 Wine Bar Trattoria.

It’s located on the first floor of the Federal Building at the corner of West Federal and Phelps streets.

“It was just what we were looking for,” said Ed Moses, a partner along with Cesta, Cesta’s wife, Janeen, and the Gatta family, who bought the building through an auction in 2009. “We’re so proud of it.”

The menu at V2 features many of the standards from Vernon’s, such as the meatball salad, calamari and hot peppers and oil.

It also includes something that Moses said quickly could become a big hit: a handcrafted pizza that takes just three minutes to cook, thanks to an 800-degree stone hearth oven.

V2 also offers wine by the bottle and the glass. Initial prices range from $16 a bottle for a merlot or $175 for a cabernet sauvignon. Wine by the glass starts at $4.50.

V2 also offers many craft beers on tap, including Magic Hat, Yuengling, Rust Belt and Kentucky Bourbon Ale. It has 21 other craft brews available, along with 18 imports, a near-full slate of domestics and 11 specialty martinis.

Moses said V2 will have flex hours for the first couple of weeks. The restaurant will operate on a rough schedule of 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays and from 11 a.m. to about 1 a.m. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays and noon to 5 p.m. Sundays, though Moses said hours could expand based on demand.

Moses said he thinks V2 adds another element to the growing downtown strip, which will add a Joe Maxx Coffee in the coming weeks.

“The more, the better,” Moses said. “We’re all going to work together. It’s the only way it’s going to work.”