RESTAURANTS : Trilussa and Its Customers: That’s Amore

In Valentino and Rex il Ristorante, Los Angeles diners can get a pretty good approximation of the best of Italy’s high cuisine. Locanda Veneta and Angeli Caffe (though it’s run by an American) are good examples of Italy’s small, sophisticated caffes-- places that in Italy would be tucked away on some obscure, narrow alleyway. We’ve also got more than our share of average Italian restaurants.

What we don’t have a lot of are Italian hangouts, places to linger with a pizza and a glass of Valpolicella--places like Trilussa, a new restaurant in Beverly Hills. Most of the tables at Trilussa are set close to one of the restaurant’s several open French doors--you feel as if you’re sitting in an outdoor cafe, with a good view of the passers-by.

Trilussa’s staff is Italian and so, it seems, are most of the customers. You get the feeling that most of them have been to Trilussa’s original restaurants in Rome--Cica Cica Boom (a restaurant and disco) and Domino Pizza (no relation to the American chain).

On the menu are pizzas, pastas and different kinds of bruschetta, foccacia and crostini-- you get plenty of starch. There are also a few chicken, beef and fish dishes, but mostly people who eat here stick to the more casual dishes.

It’s all likable food with no pretensions. It’s not, for instance, as delicious as the pizza and pasta at Pazzeria, the other great Italian hangout in town . . . but Trilussa does have a crooner who knows how to make “Danny Boy” sound like “That’s Amore.”

* Trilussa, 9601 Brighton Way, Beverly Hills, (213) 859-0067. Entrees $6.95-$15.50