Sarai and José Navarette are the new owners of the Via Veneto Restaurant in Mount Vernon’s Hollin Hall Shopping Center. The name, ambience and menu won’t change, news welcomed by many loyal locals. In late July, owner Kathy Mack announced that she had sold the beloved eatery to the Navarettes, the owners of Roseina’s next door.
The Mack family has provided many delicious meals and a friendly local gathering spot for 40 years. It’s “bittersweet,” Mack posted. “Via Veneto is in good hands. I’m so excited about this transition.” In an interview, she added, “They are going to be wonderful. They want to keep the legacy. I’m honored they want to keep it the way it is.”
Sarai expressed “our respect for what the Macks built. We value what’s been entrusted to us,” she emphasized. Her husband, José, has what Sarai calls a “natural inclination” as a restaurateur. “He loves to cook.” Sarai manages the administrative tasks.
While the basic menu will change little, the pair has added two new dinner specials: baked salmon with mashed potatoes and asparagus, and slow-cooked boneless short rib in a brown sauce. “Some people want something new,” she said. Favorites include lasagna, spaghetti carbonara and fettuccine Alfredo. The most popular dishes are pizza and penne alla Lenzi, Sarai said.
Maria Bonilla, Via Veneto’s head cook for the past 40 years, prepared many authentic Italian dishes. “She’s like my family,” Mack commented. Bonilla retired, but she will do one-on-one training for the new owners.
The Navarettes have perked the place up with a new carpet, new tiles in the reception area, freshly painted walls, a new music system and remodeled restrooms.
Mount Vernonite Laurie Cherlock dined there on Aug. 20 and applauded: “We recognized our friendly server, Reina, and enjoyed the same Tuesday- Wednesday specials that we've always had. It’s such a relief to find a place that has given us delight on numerous occasions is still welcoming us with warmth, delicious food, plus the same excellent service we'd come to depend on from its former owner. It continues to be a neighborhood gem.”
Kate Morosoff offered, “Our recent lunch was not quite up to the standards set by the previous owners, but I understand the new owners are working hard on getting going. My expectation is that they will be able to make the place a success.”
The Navarettes bought Roseina’s carryout in 2021 from Uffe and Joy Mikkelsen. They’ve made no major changes in that menu either and say that jerk chicken is their customers’ most popular choice.
Forty Plus Years of History
Two sisters, the late Marisa Fleck, Kathy Mack’s mother, and Guiliana Austin took over the restaurant in 1984. In 2020, Kathy bought it from Guiliana. Before 1984, it was called Taste of Italy.
“V V,” as locals call it, has had a devoted following. A reviewer named Rick G. from Phoenix wrote on Yelp, “This is a quaint, very small, typical old country type bistro brought lovingly to Northern Virginia.”
The Navarretes, who came to the U.S. from El Salvador in the early 1990s, live in Woodbridge, have been married 24 years and have two children, ages 17 and 21.
Looking back, Mack summarized, “It’s been a wonderful ride, 40 years of wonderful memories.” Many locals agree and will be reassured by Sarai’s closing comment: “Our lives are committed to this.”
