RESTAURANTS : THE NEW ITALIAN KID ON THE BLOCK

Despite Los Angeles’ Mediterranean climate and brilliant winter light, Italians never came here in the droves that went to San Francisco and New York. Most of our Italian restaurants were Americanized places-- red velvet venues where waiters had to be cautioned to leave the cinnamon off the cappuccino. In the last few years, though, that has changed and these days one has quite a choice of easygoing, spirited Italian restaurants. And now there’s yet another new boy on the block.

In fact, Primavera is on the corner of a block and the light floods into the airy black-and-white-tiled rooms. There are handsome black tables, high-tech black “chandeliers” and the ceiling of the glassed-in porch room is hung like a Mary Poppins set with colorful open parasols; yet Primavera doesn’t feel overdesigned at all. Was it this open atmosphere that led us to have such lively--and lengthy--meals each time we were there? Or was it simply that we couldn’t tear ourselves away from the baskets of good bread?

On our first visit there the generous waiter must have refilled the basket six times. “I know,” he commiserated, “I can’t stop eating it myself.” We wondered if they would institute a bread-limit policy, but he just laughed and brought us more. Made in the wood-burning pizza oven, the bread is actually pizza dough twisted into a long cruller, doused with olive oil and basil, baked and cut into 6-inch lengths. It is served, over and over again, fragrant and hot.

We did save room for other things and I’m glad of that. The menu is very simple but God is surely in the details here. The Bocconcini di Casa, a tasting selection of all the appetizers, was a delightful mix. Marinated roasted green peppers and eggplant were appropriately smoky, the melon of the prosciutto-and-melon team was ripe. The calamari was bathed in a dark red wine sauce, the rabbit with mustard and sage was tender, the grilled breast of chicken with gorgonzola and toasted pine nuts was playful and clear.

The severe jury of four ex-New Yorkers continued to eat the twisted bread while waiting for the next course to arrive. Could it be as good? It was. An artfully balanced pizza of forest mushrooms, goat cheese, prosciutto and red onions came with a nifty thin crust. The rack of lamb, perfumed with garlic and baked in the same wood oven as the pizza, was extraordinarily tender. The grilled chicken breast with rosemary was moist and the great orgy of angel hair pasta was tempered with a delicate pesto sauce.

The fourth member of the party had stopped eating bread a course ago. Having cased the dessert case upon entering, she was saving room for one of the glistening sweets. Well, they sure did look pretty, but our collective response was that they looked better than they tasted. All of the textures--from grainy cheesecake to dense crema caramela to the over-cinnamony cannoli--were off.

Primavera showed its colors again at lunch with a crisp foccaccia oozing with mozzarella, prosciutto, bell peppers and eggplant, as terrific as a sandwich can be. I am always on the lookout for the perfect grilled chicken salad (or one that lives up to the sublime orzo and chicken salad at the Museum Cafe on Columbus Avenue in New York) and am sorry to say I didn’t find it on Beverly Boulevard: the white-meat chicken was overcooked and needed a light hand of fresh herbs. The salads I tried--chilled asparagus with roasted pine nuts and a green salad with cauliflower and carrots--were not particularly distinctive but were certainly fresh.

This time the blueberry cheesecake was quite right, the creamy ricotta falling in the seductive middle ground between Jewish and Italian cheesecakes. Divine! If you remember your Mary Poppins, you may recall a giddy luncheon where the diners laughed so much they floated up to the ceiling, table in tow, and stayed there. There is something in the atmosphere at Primavera that makes me feel a bit this way. Or, once again, maybe it’s that bread.

Primavera, 8701 Beverly Blvd., West Hollywood, (213) 659-3051. Open for lunch Monday-Friday, 11:30-2:30; dinner Monday-Saturday, 6-11; closed Sundays. MasterCharge, Visa accepted. Dinner for two (food only), $25-$60.