On a recent Saturday, we tried one of the newer entrants on the Vero Beach restaurant scene, Stella’s Italian Bistro, which we hear was sold-out on many nights in its first season.

On this late May evening, the attractive restaurant – decorated with colorful paper stars -- was only about half-full. We were promptly shown to a nice table in a quiet corner, and the waiter quickly appeared to take a drink order.

The service at Stella’s was extremely attentive, and for an Italian bistro, we found the food surprisingly light as well as tasty. The soup of the day on this evening was pasta fagioli ($7.00), a menu item I find hard to resist. This traditional Italian white bean and pasta soup in its more robust incarnations can often leave you wishing you had not ordered an entrée, but Stella’s lighter formulation was superb and just right as an appetizer.

My companion’s appetizer was calamari fritti ($9.00) accompanied by batonnets of zucchini. The lightly breaded calamari came fried perfectly and the dish was served with both a homemade marina sauce (good) and a zesty garlic, lemon and mayonnaise sauce (better).

For a main course, I had the Gamberi Arrabbiata ($22.00) and my companion had the Vitello Saltimbocca ($24.00). The saltimbocca was again a very light and flavorful rendition of this traditional veal, prosciutto and fontana cheese dish, and is highly recommended.

But the sautéed shrimp dish – served with fresh garlic, pancetta and tomatoes served in a spicy pepperoncini sauce over linguini – was very hot! While the waiter mentioned that this was a spicy dish, I think a stronger caution would be appropriate. The shrimp were good, but this dish was very spicy.

For dessert, we tried at the waiter’s recommendation the Tiramisu. It was okay, but not as good as a recent Tiramisu we had at Monte’s. Dinner for two with a modest bottle of wine came to $102.