Vesuvio Bistro

Vesuvio Bistro is an authentic Italian restaurant that offers flavorful Italian dining. Dine with family and friends while enjoying the Italian traditions of food, friendship and hospitality. In the spirit of Italian culture, our dishes are created with the taste of authentic italian dining in mind. Dishes enjoyed for generations in villages throughout Italy inspire our menu, giving Vesuvio Bistro its authentic Italian fare. We continue to innovate and create recipes beyond our traditional style by adding new menu items inspired by Northern and Southern Italian cuisine. If you've eaten at Belle Arti in Hot Springs, or remember when there was a Belle Arti in Little Rock, you'll likely recognize the menu at Vesuvio Bistro. Chef Rosario Patti, who opened both restaurants, later selling the Hot Springs location to Penny and Joe Gargano, left Arkansas in the mid-'90s, opened a restaurant in New York and then moved to the opposite coast and opened a restaurant in Napa, Calif., which, of course, he named Belle Arti. Returning to the Natural State, he has opened an Italian restaurant in what used to be the lounge of the Best Western-Governors Inn on Merrill Drive in west Little Rock, which, to the best of our recollection, hasn't had a restaurant worth bragging about since it was the Lagniappe Inn.