RESTAURANTS : A WARM SLICE OF ITALY ON THE 2ND FLOOR

If someone tells you about a great restaurant in his neighborhood, the tip generally is not trustworthy. Everything tastes better when it’s close to home, and people will make extraordinary concessions for a restaurant that they can get to without getting into the car.

So each time someone told me about the wonderful new restaurant on Beverly Boulevard, I always asked where the person lived. None lived near Pane Caldo; in fact, nobody seems to live on that stretch of Beverly near Robertson that bristles with decorators in the daytime, only to become almost eerily deserted in the evening. When you leave the bright warmth of the restaurant after dinner, you have the feeling of walking out of a warm haven into very chilly air.

Warmth is what most characterizes the most unpretentious restaurant to open in Los Angeles in quite some time. Pane Caldo is tucked among a jumble of antique shops on the second floor of a pleasantly airy building. You walk past showrooms filled with ancient ornate furniture into a room that is blessedly underdone. There is a quick impression of crowded tables, a few modest plants, a fast flash of the dessert display and then you are quickly captivated by the view of the hills. Somehow glitz city seems to fade into the background; the buzz of conversation is so intense that you are immediately transported to an Italian cafe.

Everything about Pane Caldo reminds you of Italy. Silvio de Mori strolls casually around his restaurant, taking orders, giving advice, generally jollying things along. The charming service is occasionally rather slow, but when the food arrives, you immediately understand why it took so long. One evening we had six different entrees on the table, and each was garnished differently. This in a restaurant so reasonable that you will feel you are in Europe and the beneficiary of a favorable exchange rate. When was the last time you looked at a menu and saw penne alla bolognese for $4.40 or poll o al forno for $5.60?

“To have good dishes with second-quality ingredients, you must be a very, very good chef,” says De Mori, “but it’s so easy to have good food with good ingredients.” And this food is good. Appetizers are in the antipasto mode--plates of fresh imported mozzarella, bresaola, the wonderful, almost perfumed dried beef of Italy and platters of smoked fish. (The menu modestly describes the smoked Danish eel as “just fabulous.”) There is something called focaccia pomodoro mozzarella, warm homemade Tuscan bread slathered with olive oil and stuffed with melted mozzarella and raw tomatoes, that should not be missed. It is one of the most deliciously comforting foods I have ever eaten.

The pasta here is a delight. From orecchiette (“little ears”) with broccoli and garlic that was a special one day at lunch, to spinach tortelloni with butter and sage, to an intriguing tagliatelle alla vigliaca made with chopped vegetables and hot peppers, I haven’t had one that wasn’t wonderful. There is a single risotto listed on the menu; the plump little grains of rice taste delicious in their richly shrimpy broth, but the dish does not have the creamy solidity of a true risotto. Pizzas (and there are many) are mildly disappointing. The little plate-sized pizzas are made with good ingredients, but the crusts are thin and so crisp that they crackle when you bite into them. And the toppings lack the clean authority of the other dishes. There are good sandwiches, served at lunch, made with the wonderful focaccia bread, and there are a number of very generous salads served in big glass bowls. (I would avoid the salad with warm tuscan beans, which tends to be on the mushy side.)

But it is the entrees that really shine at Pane Caldo. The kitchen understands veal, cooking it with a sensitive hand. Thin scallops arrive in clear, understated sauces that enhance the subtley of the meat. There is an entirely simple scallop of veal served au naturale-- that arrives sharing the plate with some quickly cooked leaves of fresh spinach sprinkled with fresh lemon juice.

The kitchen also does wonderful things with fish. A bright coral piece of salmon is plunked down in a pool of fresh tomato sauce, the flavors so entirely compatible that you wonder why salmon and tomatoes are so rarely paired. A mixed fish platter offers many different kinds of fish, each perfectly cooked, entwined with vegetables and presented in a rich, buttery (but not creamy) sauce. Osso bucco arrives with a sauce of pureed vegetables, sitting next to some spicy, tomato-drenched pieces of squash. The salmon is garnished with thin rounds of crispy, butter-drenched potatoes, while baked chicken (the sole disaster I have had here) is matched with overcooked peas and carrots and delightful potatoes au gratin.

This is cooking of such finesse, such simplicity, that it is a shame that there is not a single dessert to match it. The desserts, which have names like “Bongo,” all tend to be slightly awkward, as if to underline the general Italian contempt for sweets at the end of dinner. Have an espresso, and try to encourage the management to start serving fruit and cheese.

There is one odd thing about Pane Caldo. Although the restaurant serves beer and Italian wine at lunchtime, the license expires at 6 p.m., and at night the strongest drink available is tea. Surely a restaurant of this quality deserves the chance to serve wine with dinner; after all, it’s not as if there were a lot of neighbors next door to object to the noise.

Pane Caldo Bistrot, 8840 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, 274-0916. Open Monday-Saturday, 11:30-3:30 and 5:30-10. All major credit cards accepted. Dinner for 2, $20-$50 (food only).