New Angeli, New Dishes

“A taste as old as water.”

That’s how Lawrence Durrell described the flavor of olives. Eating the baked Moroccan olives served as an appetizer at the new Trattoria Angeli, 11651 Santa Monica Blvd., West Los Angeles, (213) 478-1191, made me think of that. These were plump and soft and wonderfully bitter, and the memory remained in my mouth long after the olives had been eaten.

The olives are just one of the new dishes served at the just-opened Westside sibling of the Melrose Avenue restaurant. The new restaurant, like the old one, is a bold architectural statement. This one, however, is larger and calmer, made more for conversation. The kitchen here is hidden behind glass, but you can watch as the dishes that made the original Angeli one of the hottest tickets in town--the salads, the simple pasta dishes, the roast chicken--are cooked up. There is, of course, the same superb pizza.

But the focus here is on new dishes: platters of simply grilled vegetables to begin with, new pizza and pasta concoctions, a bowl of fish soup filled with clean, clear flavors. And although this is more of a dinner house than a pizza parlor, prices are only slightly higher than they are on Melrose.