RESTAURANTS : L.A. COOL, ITALIAN STYLE : At Ca’ Brea, the Customers and the Room May Be Upscale, but the Prices Are Refreshingly Low

Once upon a time, Italian food in America was what you ate when you didn’t have much money. You went to dark, square rooms where the ceiling was covered with dusty, straw-covered bottles of undrinkable wine, and the tables were covered with (slightly spotted) red-and-white-checked tablecloths. Meals began with big, balloony slices of bread, continued through spaghetti in red sauce and usually ended with something called spumoni.

Then Italian food in America changed and became what you ate only when you were on an expense account. You went to dark, elegant rooms where the ceiling was far away, and the tables were covered with crystal and cutlery so expensive that even rich people were tempted to steal it. Meals began with the owner coming out to tell you about the wonders that had just arrived from Italy--truffles, oil made from the olives of a single tree in Tuscany, 200-year-old balsamic vinegar. . . . The wine list weighed a ton. The word spaghetti did not appear on the menu.

When that fad faded, Italian food changed once again. Pasta became the rage; authentic became the buzzword. Italian food was what everybody ate--usually at small tables in cramped, noisy quarters. The food was good, the prices were high--and reservations were impossible to get. Then the recession came along, and now things have changed again. The most obvious harbinger of this change is Ca’ Brea--the offshoot of hot, hip Locanda Veneta--which opened a couple of months ago on the site of the old Robaire’s.

Locanda Veneta cultivates the casual--it’s an urban version of a beach shack, where rich people go to be unpretentious. It was put together on a tight budget, which is exactly what everybody in the Industry likes best about it. Antonio Tommasi’s food is very good, but the real charm of Locanda Veneta is that customers would feel out of place wearing anything less degage than jeans.

Ca’ Brea is more grown-up. It has a certain raffish elegance--a studied coolness that is L.A. at its best. There are dim lights, terra-cotta walls and large paintings; it has that moneyed air usually accomplished only by professional decorators. Sitting at the bar among the layers of people drinking martinis and Champagne as they wait for their tables, you see outfits of all kinds, from uptight business suits to nearly invisible miniskirts. If there is a difference between Ca’ Brea and Locanda, it’s that this place looks more upscale.

But then you sit down and look at the menu. And look again. The prices are shocking, but not in the way you’d expect: Osso buco is $10.50; a whole boneless chicken is $12.50; a salad of organic baby greens is $4.50. You could actually eat two courses here for $12. At this rate, Italian food could regain its reputation as the thing to eat on your first date.

Actually, it could be any date at all, any night of the week. Consider baked eggplant, once a solid staple on the spaghetti-and-meatballs circuit, where it was a greasy, gooey mass that was appealing only to the extraordinarily hungry. The clean, elegant version served here is totally different: Thin slices of eggplant are grilled, topped with a simple tomato sauce and a little bit of cheese and then quickly baked. When you take a bite, the slightly astringent flavor of eggplant is what you taste.

I can’t think of a dish I’ve had recently that I liked as much as the vongole grattinate al sapore di boleti-- a whole plate of tiny Manila clams, their tops removed, baked with bread crumbs, herbs and minuscule bits of porcini mushrooms. I was also taken with the roasted sausage made of chicken and pork. Served on a bed of Napa cabbage that’s been cooked until it’s caramelized, the rich sausage mingles with the sweet cabbage in a particularly attractive way.

I’ve been eating Tommasi’s food for years--he was at Rex, at the short-lived Excelsior, the even shorter-lived Pinafini and at Chianti before joining forces with Jean-Louis De Mori at Locanda Veneta--but at Ca’ Brea, he’s really hit his stride. Cooking affordable food seems to please him. I like all the appetizers--from the pile of sage-flavored beans topped with tiny, meaty ribs to the fresh asparagus served in soft billows of sauce made of fontina and Gorgonzola cheeses. The salad of radicchio and arugula is large and colorful, topped with generous shavings of Parmesan cheese.

Pasta is probably the least impressive course served here. The best of it is the extremely simple penne tossed in a light and pungent tomato sauce. The bigoletti (a Venetian specialty that is nothing more exotic than spaghetti tubes), served in a saffron-scented sauce of lobster, clams, scallops and porcini, is good--but for me, there are too many tastes clamoring for my attention. I did love the risotto--especially the tender little bits of potatoes mixed in with the rice--cooked with tomatoes and shrimp.

If you’re planning to eat just two courses, skip the pasta and move right on to the entrees: a huge osso buco in a hearty sauce; flattened chicken, grilled so that its skin is crisp and its flesh moist; delicious grilled lamb chops served with a compote of black truffles and wild mushrooms; an enormous serving of crisply roasted duck--a whole half-duck on a plate--with, thanks to a coat of honey and balsamic vinegar, a vaguely sweet-and-sour flavor. And, best of all perhaps, the frequent daily special: bronzino (Italian sea bass), perfectly grilled and served with fresh spinach and crisp bits of roasted potato.

Desserts--despite the fact that they are made by Michel Richard’s son Mike--are forgettable. Polenta and raisin cake is sweet and, well, strange. The apple-crumb tart is fine, but no more than that. And the creme caramel misses the point: What should be a dish about contrasting texture and flavor is just a medley of sweet softness--thick, sweet custard in thick, sweet caramel sauce.

By the time you get to dessert, however, you may well be too tired to go on. Just being here is exhausting. What with the bare walls, the open kitchen and the people standing three deep at the bar, the noise level inside Ca’ Brea hovers at a modest roar.

If we’re really lucky, the next time Italian restaurants undergo a change, it will be a quiet revolution.

Ca’ Brea, 346 S. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles; (213) 938-2863. Open for dinner Monday through Saturday; lunch served Monday through Friday. Full bar. Valet parking. Visa and MasterCard accepted. Dinner for 2, food only, $32-$68.

Food stylist: Alan Kuper