In the surrounding area you can't throw a stone without hitting an Italian Restaurant/Pizza place; they're everywhere. After trying a few over the years we have our favorite, however, because we had a special coupon to try F&A's we decided to break tradition and come in last weekend to celebrate a late Valentine's Day someplace new.

Very early in the evening, even for a Friday, the small bar was packed. The dining room only had a few tables, but filled up as the evening progressed. As we had never been here before, we decided to take it easy, have some drinks, and decompress. The drinks are fantastic, and the service was attentive. The food portions are outrageously huge, and although they don't make their own pasta on site, the Gnocchi my wife had was perfectly cooked and very tasty.

It sounds like you enjoyed it so why didn't you give them "5 Stars"? Really, it's just about preference. If you read any of the in depth reviews, most of the locals really like F&A's. We were just not overly impressed.

One of the appetizers we ordered was a meat and cheese sampler. This item should be a home run anywhere you go and is very telling of the quality of the ingredients that the establishment uses. Needless to say, this was below the par of their other items and isn't your normal charcuterie. If this hadn't been a special occasion we would have left after this course and gone somewhere else.

Although service was excellent, well spaced, not overbearing, and the server was very attentive, even when the place filled up, he had no wine knowledge. I asked some basic questions about wine that he couldn't answer off the small but very typical wine menu. If you're going to carry full bottles of wine, all of your servers need to know the difference between the wines, and proper wine service techniques.

We took four desserts home with us (overkill I know) to sample as we watched a movie we had been saving from home. Only the very high end places we've visited, that have a Pastry Chef on staff, seem to have decent desserts. Not a single reasonably priced restaurant we've visited in the area has made from scratch, superior desserts. This was no exception.

We're in our fifties, so we're certainly not "kids" but we don't listen to elevator music as a form of entertainment. Not very many places have live music around us. Maybe it's the talent pool, or maybe, just like this review, it's because everyone has an opinion, and it's impossible to make everyone happy. I don't know, but I'm glad we were on the way out as the pianist fired up his Roland.

Just my 1.5 cents.