| Food: 24.0 | Decor: 18.0 | Service: 19.0 | Cost: $30.0 |
"Very romantic" Italian "hideaway near the beach", this "good choice" is run by owners who "travel through Italy at least once a year looking for new recipes"; the result is "fabulous osso buco", the "best crème brûlée" and a cross-cultural winner: grilled shiitake mushrooms; singular caveat: limited beach town parking on weekends; best new feature: patio dining on the Promenade.
Cuisine: Italian (N & S)
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"IL
BOCCACCIO SPLENDIDLY AUTHENTIC"
BY MERRILL SHINDLERFor years, Il Boccaccio was the nice little Italian restaurant on Pier Avenue where grownups went to eat. While the beach crowd hit the local sushi bars and howled its way through the night at the multifarious bars and clubs, people who liked to hear each other talk went to Il Boccaccio for pasta and veal, with a nice bottle of Pinot Grigio on the side. It was, and it still is, a distinctly old-fashioned place, looking remarkably like the little restaurants found off the main squares in Florence, Rome and Venice, that guidebooks are always hinting are the hidden favorites of locals. Except that these days, it's run by a pair of cutting-edge restaurateurs, who know Italian food well, and who have managed a rather singular trick; they've maintained a delightfully old-fashioned feeling, while updating the menu with a minimum of shocks. Those who went there for osso buco, can still go there for osso buco. But for those of us who crave polenta, this is as good a place as you'll find anywhere in town. The folks responsible for the change, Carla Matra-Ugolini and Joe Venezia, last worked at the Santa Monica's I Cugini, a sort of Italian amusement park, complete with faux cracks on the chairs to make them seem long-aged and well-worn. They took over Il Boccaccio in December, quietly changing the menu to one of the most authentic around; it's even printed on the sort of thin (and often food stained) paper found in restaurants all over Italy. Though they probably didn't plan on it, even their waiters have an edge of Roman impatience; when I opted not to order a dessert after my waiter had recited the specials, he gave me a look that could curdle goat's milk. Fan of authenticity that I am, I just loved it. For those who can't quite make up their mind as to how to begin a meal here, there is (in the grand tradition) a non-self-service antipasto selection next to the bar, a good assortment of marinated and grilled vegetables that hit just the right series of grace notes. Indeed, the marinated mushrooms and various preparations of eggplant are irresistible. The Vegetable preparations at Il Boccaccio make it a great choice for vegetarians, who can luxuriate in the lovely melanzane agrodolce (a sort of sweet-and-sour eggplant, that has more to do with the Eastern European interpretation of sweet-and-sour than the usually cloying Chinese preparation of the same name - the name of the dish should be "subtly" sweet-and sour), the carciofi alla Romana (artichoke braised in olive oil and herbs), the several salads (nice Caesar made with radicchio), the minestrone soup flavored with a dollop of pesto sauce, the lasagna made with potatoes and pesto, ravioli di magro (which means "meatless") filled with chard, and much more, including a main course of grilled vegetables that's hard to beat for sheer purity of flavor. It's hard to resist. Some years ago, driving along the Adriatic coastline, I became obsessed with the many preparations of spaghetti (real spaghetti, not just a generic dish of any old pasta called spaghetti for the sake of the kids). I remember spending long happy lunches over virtual tureens full of perfectly cooked pasta mixed with just about every example of seafood the Adriatic has to offer. And it's an experience that came back to me at Il Boccaccio, where there's an entire section of the menu dedicated to "Pasta di Mare," wonderful dishes of spaghetti, tossed variously with tomatoes, olive oil, lots of garlic, squid, shrimp, scallops, clams, mussels and all of the above. On a chilly night, it's a wonderful dish. On a warm night, it's a wonderful dish. In other words, it's a dish for all seasons. The same serious approach that's taken to spaghetti with seafood is applied to risotto and polenta as well. There are five risotti, ranging from rice mixed with chicken livers up to a model with lots of clams and oodles of garlic. There are four polenta dishes; try the one with mushrooms and cheese, a wholly indulgent dish that's not for the diet wary;it's a dish for those who want to give their taste buds a treat that won't soon be forgotten. The place is doing everything right to capture the feel of an evening in Italy, short of hiring street urchins and hurdy gurdy players to entertain the happily assembled masses. The Daily Breeze /News -Pilot RAVE! Friday, January 20, 1995 |
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by CAROLINE BATES Lace curtains. Window boxes of mint, rosemary, and thyme. Inside, a riotous display of multi-colored peppers, tomatoes, and artichokes to greet us., and a whole turbot in a refrigerated glass case to entice us deeper into the agreeable little restaurant we are increasingly eager to explore. If it weren't for the street scene and the more-or-less-classical statue of David dressed in surfing shorts, Il Boccaccio could be any trattoria in any of scores of Italian villages. But we're half a block from the pier in Hermosa Beach, a funky southern California town that boogies on Friday and Saturday nights, and the last place anyone would look for a restaurant with a genuine Italian sensibility. We wouldn't be looking if owners Joe Venezia and Carla Matra-Ugolini hadn't mailed a notice of their new "mom and pop operation." Some mom and pop, these two. Venezia headed the kitchen at the Hotel Bel-Air for six years; turned i.Cugini in Santa Monica into a successful and credible Italian venture; and opened an Atlanta restaurant with Marcella Hazan, his mentor. Matra-Ugolini was general manager not only of i.Cugini but of Il Fornaio and Prego in Beverly Hills. Last winter they bought Il Boccaccio, keeping the name. Venezia procures ricotta and mascarpone from a local cheesemaker. On Fridays he shops at the farmers market in the lot behind the restaurant. They grow most of their herbs and vegetables themselves on a half acre of land in nearby Palos Verdes -- summer tomatoes and peppers and chard; autumn artichokes and cardoons and potatoes; and all sorts of greens, including more arugula than they can use. They even have olive trees, and reap a harvest from those, too. This straight-from-the-garden abundance gives Venezia's cooking an immediacy and freshness that few Los Angeles restaurants can match. It is the blackboard menu that we study intently this evening. (The printed menu--shades of i.Cugini!--runs to some fifty items, as though Venezia can't bear not to list everything he wants to cook for you. It is too long, but the blackboard choices are just right.) The waiter starts us off with toasts and heaps of minced olives and sun-sweetened tomatoes. Salmon "scottodito"-- cooked on its hot serving plate-with garlic sauce and a frizz of fried leeks is a stunning starter. Not far behind, fried zucchini flowers oozing Fontina cheese decorate a pool of red bell pepper sauce. Artichokes are braised and paired with chopped tomato and herbs on toasts, but they also turn up, preserved in honey and vinegar, as the oddly beguiling foil for prosciutto and fried polenta. The kitchen makes its own pasta, from forcemeat-stuffed cappelletti (served in brodo) and pappardelle (alla bolognese ) to tonnarelli (seductive with a creamy bacon and endive sauce; startling with a cantaloupe sauce--trust the chef). Two of us split the garganelli, hand shaped pasta quills with a duck and porcini ragu. An unusual winter squash (a farmers market find) grown by a Hungarian couple turns up in classic pumpkin ravioli with butter and sage. The ricotta, tomato, and mint filling for crespelle is light and delicate, though the crepes are a bit heavy. With the secondi, Venezia's talents shine. No one in Los Angeles serves a better rack of lamb than this, from three-month-old New Zealand lambs that taste like a meadow of herbs. The lamb and an equally impressive veal chop come with a delectable potato gratin and, in our case, a silky Corte S. Alda Amarone della Valpolicella '88 ($28) from the small wine list. Sautéed European turbot arrives in a brothy white-wine sauce with oranges and such flavorful garden picks as baby carrots, corn, green chard, and chervil. Salmon braised in Chianti, its sauce enriched with veal jus, is laid over chard and wreathed in perfect little vegetables. A refreshing lemon gelato, an intense chocolate pudding, and a sensational hot crisp apple tart are exclaimed over and shared. I'm enamored of the cenci--sugar-dusted ricotta fritters drizzled with honey, typically a Lenten treat--scattered like flowers on a plate of strawberries. Three
hours later we step into the fog of Pier Avenue and pass the
rocking music clubs and packed espresso bars. It's Hermosa Beach, all
right, but we're still in Italy. Il
Boccaccio |