Located on the street behind La Comer, beside its sister restaurant, Lateral is La Osteria. This Italian oriented restaurant has both indoor and outdoor seating, with a wood-fired oven outdoors for pizza and bakery items. The menu offers salads and appetizers to start including several fresh seafood items. The main courses range from hamburgers to steak, surf and turf, fish, and a few pasta dishes. The other side of the menu provides a list of the items available from the wood-fired oven including baked brie, a portobello mushroom and 13 different pizzas. There is a lot from which to choose.

We selected a table in the outside dining area as La Osteria also has live music several nights a week and we want to listen to the band. We ordered our drinks – Chardonnay for me and LimonadaMinerale for Beth. For appetizers, I choose the Baked Brie from the wood-fired oven and Beth asked for Caesar Salad with the fresh parmesan on the side. The baked brie came with a full garlic clove that had been cut in half and cooked in the oven and toasted fresh bread. It was amazing, and a great portion for two or more people. The dressing on the Caesar Salad was very good, and it was served with shaved cauliflower on the top. Again, the portion was big enough to share.

For main courses, I ordered the Truffled Linguine, which had zucchini and mushrooms in a truffle sauce. Beth ordered the Rigatoni Rose with Burrata Cheese. There was a very large piece of burrata on top of the rigatoni with a light rose sauce. We were not disappointed – the flavors were great – and a plate of fresh bread was provided to accompany the pasta.

During our meal, we greatly enjoyed the instrumental stylings of Mala Rumba – a four-piece band with two guitars, a flute and a percussionist. The lead guitarist was amazing. They offered a mixture of flamenco and Mexican stylings to a wide range of popular rock songs, as well as some traditional Mexican music. A great band that we look forward to seeing again.

Despite being full from our appetizers and main courses, we decided to try their desserts. The dessert menu a select of seven items including several sorbets, flan, a corn cake, a chocolate cake. Beth ordered the Green Apple Sorbet, and I selected the chocolate cake with ice cream. A very nice way to end our evening.

The food was very good, the service excellent, and all in a very pleasant environment with great music.