A Neighborhood Bar in Coronado Becomes Stylish Italian Restaurant

The self-transformation of an old-fashioned neighborhood bar into a tony eatery isn’t quite as surprising as would be, say, the sudden decision of a punk guitarist to devote his life to the study of Mozartian nuances, but it is unusual.

The Secret Harbor in Coronado for years was the kind of neighborhood place at which regulars traded tall tales over a couple of cold ones. But management switched off the neon beer signs at the beginning of the year and reopened in mid-summer as Primavera, an upscale, uptown kind of restaurant with a formal mood and an especially attractive decor.

It is Italian, naturally--most new restaurants seem to be Italian these days, and Coronado certainly was in need of a good one--and the cooking generally ranges from satisfactory to rather nice.

Primavera means springtime, but the word also connotes renewal, which neatly sums up the transformation of a clubby, casual hangout into an establishment with deep banquettes upholstered in floral print, a menu that includes bresaola and bagna cauda and a maitre d’ who kisses women’s hands.

The selection of dishes seems largely pan-Italian, with a certain degree of emphasis on preparations from the provinces of Piedmont, Lombardy and Liguria--which is to say, with great caution, that there is some Northern Italian cooking. The term is these days enormously overworked, misused and misunderstood, and applied scattershot by many of the restaurateurs who know that dishes specified as “Northern” have snob appeal.

However, chef Luigi Tornatore (who cooked previously at Point Loma’s unassuming but delightful Michelangelo), does come from the North, and his menu offers several good renditions of that region’s specialties.

One of the best of these is bagna cauda , or “hot bath,” which is not mentioned by the menu but is available most days. Bagna cauda classically consists of olive oil and butter heated with anchovies and garlic, and is served as a fondue-like dip for bread and raw vegetables. Tornatore reverses the process by spooning a little of the mixture over a plate of grilled eggplant, slivered Parmesan and pungent sun-dried tomatoes, and the finished product ranks as a particularly elegant sort of antipasto.

There is a similar elegance to the caprese al prosciutto, which dresses up the now-typical presentation of sliced tomatoes layered with fresh mozzarella and basil leaves by adding strips of delicate cured ham to the plate. The light drizzle of olive oil that moistens the arrangement adds a good bit of flavor. (A similar dish, in which red onion stands in for the prosciutto, is presented as a salad.)

A third handsome appetizer, the bresaola con carciofini , pairs thin slices of the lovely, air-dried, cured beef called bresaola with baby artichokes, and it is indeed a luxurious combination. Other starters include the usual stuffed mushrooms and fried squid, and, less typically, a small filet of sole under a browned topping of Parmesan and white wine sauce. The minestrone seems done with a lighter hand than elsewhere, and the now almost ridiculously ubiquitous Caesar salad has a good, sharp bite to it. (The restaurant employs mustard in the dressing, which is against tradition and usually doesn’t work, but the other ingredients are balanced around it and this is, in fact, an excellent salad.)

The pasta list runs on rather enthusiastically with a roster of alternately creamy and pungent dishes, but pasta by and large does not seem the restaurant’s strongest suit. The list begins, unsurprisingly, with fettuccine primavera , the classic tangle of ribbon noodles, assorted vegetables and light cream sauce. It then pauses at gnochetti (small dumplings) in a shrimp-flavored cream sauce before plunging into such rustic and theoretically robust offerings as the spicy penne alla puttanesca , the very pungent vermicelli aromatici (the sauce includes garlic, mixed herbs, capers and anchovies) and rigatoni al Gorgonzola, rich with the musty snap of that most regal, Italian blue cheese.

The last two were sampled, and both seemed quite timid in their approach; the pasta used also was limp and flat-tasting, an unexpected circumstance in any Italian restaurant but especially in one of this pretension. More familiar choices include fettuccine alfredo, cannelloni, spinach lasagna and linguine in red and white clam sauces.

As an alternative to pasta, the menu offers a couple of risotti , the often elaborate rice stews that are, in fact, a trademark of some Northern Italian cooking, especially that of Milan. The risotto pescatore decorates the rice with a variety of shellfish.

Both seafoods and meats are, by and large, sauteed in the particularly satisfactory Italian manner that finishes them with a syrupy sauce of reduced pan juices and wine thickened with a bit of butter. Choices include scampi Primavera, or shrimp and mushrooms in an herbed wine sauce; sea bass livornese , which spices the sauce with capers and black olives; and chicken breasts and veal scallops finished in the Marsala, con melanzane (with eggplant) and Valdostana treatments. The chicken Valdostana was done with particular delicacy; a boned, lightly pounded breast was stuffed with prosciutto, sliced mushrooms and creamy Fontina cheese, dipped in flour and beaten egg, gilded in butter and moistened with the lightest of pan sauces.

The menu offers more steaks than usual--perhaps because of the large number of conventioneers attracted by Coronado’s resort hotels--and dresses them variously with Cognac sauce, an herbal marinade and a topping of sauteed onions, mushrooms and peppers. The sole lamb listing, slices of herb-marinated loin, is grilled, and, although a portion sampled came off well enough, the advertised herbal flavor was disappointingly meek.

A couple of daily specials usually complete the menu, but a highly touted lobster fra diavola was worth neither the kitchen’s nor the diner’s efforts, and it certainly was not worth the price. What should have been lobster cooked in a spicy tomato sauce was fresh lobster overcooked in a bland, chunky stew of tomatoes that had irritating bits of shell as one of its chief seasoners. This was served atop a great pile of overcooked, characterless fettuccine that should not have been allowed to pass through the kitchen door.

The dessert tray also needs a little attention. Its chief attraction, tirami-su , is turning up at so many ambitious Italian restaurants these days that a few alternatives from the vast Italian repertoire might find a surprisingly warm welcome. It is, however, a nicely composed dish (the English would call it a pudding) of liqueur-soaked ladyfingers topped with a sweetened mascarpone cheese and a heavy dusting of powdered chocolate.

PRIMAVERA

932 Orange Ave., Coronado

435-0454

Lunch served weekdays, dinner nightly.

Credit cards accepted.

Dinner for two, including a glass of house wine each, tax and tip, $40 to $75.