DAVID NELSON ON RESTAURANTS : Menu of Many Choices Another Delight : Oven Gets You In; the Food Keeps You There

A miniature Mount St. Helens has erupted on Rosecrans Street.

But instead of raining disaster upon the surrounding Point Loma neighborhood, it has spread good cheer by spewing forth a bounty of delicious things to eat.

This mini-volcano, erected during months of hard work, affectionately is called “T.O.” by those who labored to build it. “T.O.” stands for “The Oven,” a massive, wood-burning furnace constructed from concrete, brick, sand and marble that dominates the kitchen at the new Blue Grotto restaurant.

The first of its kind in San Diego County (and a rarity in any region that lacks a significant Italian influence), this oven is the type favored by Neapolitan bakers because of the intense heat and natural wood smoke aroma it produces.

The Blue Grotto’s menu offers a fascinating, full-page explanation of the purpose and history of wood-burning ovens in general and The Oven in particular. The ancient Greeks apparently learned how to build this sort of oven from the Egyptians (a theory accepted by historians that seems entirely likely when one considers what master masons the pyramid-builders were), then spread this knowledge as they colonized the western Mediterranean (southern Italy was Greek long before it was Roman). While civilizations rose and collapsed, the wood-burning oven endured, and it remains today one of the most effective cooking devices.

The Blue Grotto’s oven, which took 123 days to build and was completed Jan. 31, required a prodigious amount of materials in its construction, including 393 concrete blocks, 982 fire bricks, 216 cubic feet of sand and 778 pounds of marble. With 7,560 square inches of baking surface, the oven supplies enough heat in one month to warm 100 average-sized homes for 10 years. It attains temperatures nearly twice as intense as those supplied by conventional pizza ovens, thus cooking foods at a speed so accelerated that it could be considered the ancients’ answer to the microwave.

Although pizza and bread might seem to be the primary products of such an oven, The Blue Grotto uses it in the preparation of a surprising number of dishes. And The Blue Grotto prepares a surprising number of dishes, evidently having adopted the stance that it will be all things to all people. Thus the menu, which comprises six full pages, offers a type of international smorgasbord that extends well beyond pizza and numerous Italian favorites to include specialties from the cuisines of Argentina, Spain, Greece, Mexico, France and the United States. The appetizer list alone runs to some two dozen items, and the entrees can be counted by the score.

In this age of specialization, The Blue Grotto seems ill-advised to attempt to cater to so many tastes. The sheer ambition of this menu is daunting, as is the effort of reading it, which is best approached with both a glass of wine and a determined attitude. But although it seems unlikely that one kitchen could produce uniformly successful versions of Spanish paella, Greek moussaka, Mexican carne asada tacos and French filet of sole, this kitchen tries, and what is amazing is that everything it produces does seem first rate. It simply was not possible, however, to sample more than a tiny percentage of the restaurant’s total offerings, and since the emphasis here certainly is Italian, only Italian dishes were ordered.

Should pizza be selected as the evening’s fare (and every first-time guest should indeed indulge in one of these superb creations), it is well to order the house antipasto as a first course. This plate of snacks is better assembled than most, and includes rich, toothsome meat rolls composed of layers of prosciutto, cappocollo and other cured meats wrapped around layers of cheese.

The selection of pizza toppings is as extensive as any offered in the city, extending even to such items as spinach and heart of palm. The menu also offers a Neapolitan specialty that includes ham, pimentos, olives, anchovies, eggs and Roquefort cheese. By sampling the basic tomato and cheese version, however, one can examine the subtle differences produced by the brick oven.

The differences between The Blue Grotto’s pizzas and those baked in conventional ovens by other quality pizzerias are not overwhelming, but they do exist. The cheese seems more melded to the crust (at these temperatures, the cheese really melts), and the various toppings also seem more fully cooked and tenderized by the heat. The crust nears perfection (unless one likes those thick, leaden crusts purveyed by the so-called “Chicago-style” houses); it is thin but beautifully puffed at the edges, and both tender and crisp. The dough also has a flavor that can be enjoyed on its own; it does not, as at some places, serve merely as a palette upon which other and stronger flavors are spread.

Regardless of whether one orders pizza, it can still be enjoyable to spend a moment watching the baker work the oven. As he periodically shuffles the pies with a long-handled paddle, he produces an image that fancifully reminds one of Vulcan forging thunderbolts at his smithy. And since the oven really is the focal point of this restaurant, the management does nothing to discourage patrons from examining it--from a safe distance, of course.

The Blue Grotto’s other Italian offerings derive from the old school and should seem quite familiar to the average guest. Tomato sauce dominates the pastas and turns up in many other dishes as well, among them the eggplant parmigiana, an unusually delicate rendition of an old favorite in which many paper-thin slices of sauteed eggplant are layered with cheese and marinara sauce. Veal also is featured and is very well handled; an order of scallopine alla Marsala was both quite tender and very nicely flavored.

When it set out to design an atmosphere, this restaurant’s management apparently decided that the oven and menu provided more than sufficient grandeur. Thus the lights are bright, the service cheerful but easy-going and the decor minimal (one nice touch is the mural of historic San Diego scenes that stretches around the top of the room). The dress code rivals the informality of the mood.

The Blue Grotto is not expensive, although certain items, such as the Maine lobsters (even these visit the oven) naturally cost more than the basic pizzas and pastas. Generally speaking, however, a couple should be able to dine here for $15 to $40, a cost that includes a glass of house wine each, tax and tip.

The Blue Grotto

1125 Rosecrans St., San Diego.

223-2553.

Dinner served 4 to 11 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. (Temporarily closed on Mondays.)

Credit cards accepted.