Fellini’s Café brings a taste of Italy right to the heart of the main line. Located in Ardmore just a few minutes drive from Villanova’s campus, Fellini’s has been serving delicious Italian cuisine for almost five years. In an atmosphere of casual and cozy elegance, patrons are offered a number of delicious meals to choose from. Offering many dishes at college-level prices, the café is perfect for a cheap and entertaining evening.

The staff is the most entertaining aspect of the café. Discarding the more traditional means of a waiting list for seating its patrons, it instead relies on a helter-skelter mess which borders on chaos.

My date and I found ourselves practically fighting for a seat after we showed up a few minutes late for our reservation. While waiting, we detected the poor organization as we watched the host run back and forth between the two parts of the café, while mumbling to himself in a dialect that seemed to be half-Italian and half-English.

Noticing his feverishly unorganized pace we placed ourselves as close as we could to him and were quickly seated ahead of a few unfortunate souls who appeared to have been waiting slightly longer than us. Their protests were heard with sympathy from the host but nonetheless did not produce the desired table.

Once seated at our highly-sought after table, the meal became quite a pleasant experience. The café offers cozy warmth reminiscent of European establishments. The menu was extensive and presented a multitude of choices with many traditional Italian favorites. One of the nicest features of the menu is its affordability. Contrasted with the many expensive restaurants in the area, Fellini’s is a refreshing change. If you’re looking for a bottle of wine to complement your meal it should accompany you to the cafe as the establishment does not have a liquor license.

The “BYOB” component is in fact a microcosm of the entire Fellini’s experience. The beauty of the café is in its overall simplicity and wholesomeness. Whether it’s the rudimentary seating chart, the menu or the service, customers are treated as if they’re in a casual famigilia cena (an Italian family dinner) rather than dining out. It is a unique experience and one which will no doubt be remembered both fondly and with a laugh.