In 1999, From the Boot, an unpretentious Italian BYOB restaurant, opened at 517 Germantown Pike in the Shoppers World shopping center in Lafayette Hill. It started as a small takeout counter before expanding into a full-service restaurant with 56 seats. There are also two other From the Boot restaurants in the Whitpain Shopping Center in Blue Bell and at 110 E. Butler Pike in Ambler.

In July of this year, after 27 years, the original From the Boot restaurant closed its doors and moved down the road to the Shops of Lafayette Hill at 400-404 Germantown Pike in Whitemarsh Township. The new restaurant is located next to Wawa and was formerly home to Roxy Drug Store, along with an adjacent dental office.

There is no doubt that From the Boot has a formula that works, especially in these inflationary times when food prices seem to go up every time you shop. You can get an ample entree at From the Boot in the mid-$20s and will probably have food left over for a meal the next day. And of course, the fact that you can bring your own wine is a significant money-saver. They do provide “ice buckets,” but they are the modern kind with ice only at the bottom, and they don’t work very well.

During our recent visit the complimentary warm rolls were absolutely wonderful. A house salad ($10) had a delightful house vinaigrette dressing but was almost all Romaine lettuce and very little of the other items listed on the menu.

An entree of salmon puttanesca ($31) was absolutely sublime, suffused with juicy flavor and enhanced by the classic puttanesca sauce usually made with olives, capers, diced tomatoes, anchovies, garlic and olive oil. The word “puttana” means a woman of ill repute in Italian, and there has always been controversy as to why that word is applied to this sauce, but there should be no controversy as to how toothsome it is.

A dessert of tiramisu, the iconic no-bake Italian dessert made of coffee-soaked ladyfingers layered with a rich marriage of whipped egg yolks, sugar and mascarpone cheese, ($6) was heavenly.

Our server, Mack, was a charming young man who could be in shampoo commercials because of his blazing red hair. A runner, name unknown, was also a very pleasant young man.

There are 107 customer reviews of From the Boot on tripadvisor.com, with an average score of 4.2 out of 5 and ranked number one out of 11 restaurants in Lafayette Hill.

Similarly, on yelp.com, Helene L. of Lafayette Hill writes, “The food, the service and the ambiance are great. Their new location is beautiful. Love this restaurant.” 5 stars

April D. of Lafayette Hill writes, “Love the ambiance of the new location. The food is so good, and the staff is amazing. The Dom Diavolo pizza is a must try!” 5 stars

The one criticism some reviewers seem to have, with which I agree, has to do with the noise. One customer offered: “The new restaurant looks very nice inside … but the very high ceiling makes the acoustics extremely loud. Only four of us at a table, and it was almost impossible to hear anything each other was saying.”

In fairness to From the Boot, I know I am an outlier on this issue. Most restaurants these days are very noisy and deliberately do not cater to old people like us. No less a person than Stephen Starr, one of the most successful restaurateurs in the country who owns 19 upscale restaurants in Philadelphia and 24 others in six other cities, including Paris, France, told me in an interview several years ago that those of us over 65 who enjoy quiet restaurants are “dinosaurs.”

“My restaurants are deliberately designed to appeal to young professionals,” he added, They “want to see and be seen. What you call noise I call buzz. Young professionals want to be in crowded restaurants with lots of buzz. It means that they have arrived. They are with the beautiful people. Their grandfathers might want a quiet restaurant, but they do not.”

For more information, visit fromthebootlh.com. Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com.