DeLucas Make an Uptown Move With ‘New Gourmet’ Little Italy

There is a temptation to regard the city’s myriad restaurant locations as pieces of an immense jigsaw puzzle that can never be completed because the pieces are always in motion.

Restaurants open and close and sometimes change addresses, but, generally speaking, once a building or storefront has housed an eatery, it is likely to continue in that function. Simple economics dictates this because the investment in kitchen equipment is immense, and most leases specify that any equipment bolted to the floor or otherwise installed becomes the property of the landlord should the tenant decamp.

A few pieces in the Italian quadrant of the puzzle were set in motion when Stephen Zolezzi decided to move his popular Stefano’s from its landmark University Avenue site to grander quarters a few blocks south on 5th Avenue. This left the heart-of-Hillcrest building free for another tenant, an opening filled by the arrival of the DeLuca family’s Little Italy.

This is not just any old Little Italy, mind you, but, according to the DeLucas, the “new gourmet” Little Italy, a description that distinguishes this place from the family’s original restaurant of the same name. That restaurant, also on University Avenue but about four miles east, has been around for a quarter of a century and has long been famed for its pizza, calzone and simple pastas.

This trinity of foods appears on the new Little Italy menu, but the main emphasis is on relatively elaborate preparations of veal, chicken and seafood, as well as pastas that extend beyond the usual spaghetti, etc., in red sauce. Appetizers and desserts also are more imaginative and ambitious.

In fact, it seems that the new location in every way reflects a conscious move “uptown.” The service is far more formal than at the usual family-style Italian restaurant--waiters even wrap a bottle of Chianti classico in a white napkin before pouring it, just as at the grandest places--and the decor and lighting seem inclined toward relaxation and romance. Little Italy is a nice-looking place, but it inherited one problem from Stefano’s: Because the restaurant is small, the tables are jammed together, especially in the center of the dining room. The banquettes that line either wall definitely are the most comfortable dining places.

The menu also echoes Stefano’s somewhat, in that it offers pastas and main courses both a la carte and, for an extra $2, with soup or salad. Given Little Italy’s appetizer selections, however, it seems just as well to skip the soup-salad option and choose instead a plate of funghi trifolati (mushrooms sauteed to a rich, smooth finish) or calamari fritti (tiny baby squid rolled in flour and plunged in hot oil until they acquire a sweet, nutty flavor). A typically simple choice that makes a pleasant starter is the plate of thick, juicy tomato slices alternated with squares of creamy mozzarella cheese.

The pasta selection is fancier than that offered by the average spaghetti house, although it could not be called adventurous. Fettucine gratinate (the word is the same as the French “au gratin,” and means baked until a crust forms) finds long, slender egg noodles baked in a sauce of cream and fontina cheese; the same noodles are offered with a dressing of cream, mushrooms and peas, and under a coating of tomato-enriched meat sauce. The cannelloni rose well above the norm, and were notable for the strong nutmeg accent that seasoned the rich blend of meats and cheeses used to stuff the large pasta tubes.

The entree list travels a well-worn path that includes veal in the parmigiana, Marsala, piccata and Fiorentina (creamed spinach makes a bed for the sauteed meat) styles; chicken cacciatore, and sauteed shrimp finished either with garlic butter or tomato sauce. A few less common choices expand this list, however, including chicken alla diavola, seasoned with hot peppers and guaranteed by the menu to be a “hot number”; calamari Napoletana, in which baby squid arrive in a fragrant bath of white wine plus tomatoes flavored with garlic and parsley, and the frittata , or baked omelet, of the day.

The braciolone, a staple of Sicilian home cooking that few restaurants serve, was prepared most credibly, the pinwheels of meat cut from a highly seasoned “jelly roll” of beef that had been braised until it became meltingly tender. A heavy coating of spicy tomato sauce completed the serving.

There was no opportunity to try the calzone, which are rounds of pizza dough rolled around any sort of filling and shaped like giant turnovers. The choices include calzone stuffed with mixed cheeses, with meats and cheeses, with vegetables, and the interesting-sounding “Orazio’s loaf,” which contains Canadian bacon and provolone cheese.

The dessert tray offers a mix of home-prepared and catered pastries, cakes and cheesecakes, several of which simply do not look worth the calories. The wonderfully fat, homemade cannoli are the exception, however. The immense, crisp, sweet pastry shells are crammed to overflowing with a smooth, nicely spiced and sweetened ricotta cheese mixture.

LITTLE ITALY

530 University Ave., San Diego

291-8919

Meals served 11 a.m.-11 p.m. daily.

Credit cards accepted.

Dinner for two, with a moderate bottle of wine, tax and tip, $25 to $40.