Rough Sailing at Regatta on Ocean

Three or four years ago, it was hard to predict what would happen next on the Los Angeles restaurant scene. Upscale Cuban cuisine? Commuting French chefs? Mediterranean cooking? More bar & grill American?

Unfortunately, the recession has since tempered the more outlandish and chancy culinary impulses. And the public, too, leaned toward easier, safer food. What this seems to have led to is not just a trend but a glut of contemporary Italian restaurants.

Don’t get me wrong. I don’t dislike contemporary Italian food. I love it. But not with the same rabid infatuation I once had, back when I tasted my first bufala mozzarella, my first risotto, my first bitter greens. These days, I love Italian food the way I love the familiar, which means that my affection has taken on a necessary degree of enlarged tolerance, even endurance. Meanwhile, new Italian cucinas , ristorantes and osterias open weekly.

Which leads us to Regatta, an Italian restaurant on Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica. Sitting on the patio there, overlooking the busy street, the ocean and the Santa Monica Pier, I had a sense of deja vu and some sadness. The last time I sat on that patio, it was in a restaurant called Opera, which had a fatally eclectic menu full of food I’d never heard of, much of it surprising and quite delicious. I still remember a fish escabeche with grape leaves in it, and a warm wedge of brioche in cream for dessert. Opera didn’t last for numerous reasons, not all of them culinary, and today the menu one gets at Regatta is similar to many one sees all around town: pizza, pasta, insalata , etc.

At noon one day, three of us are among the first lunch customers in the large dining room. It’s nice to be so close to the ocean, in that great clean, yellow autumn sunlight. Filled up, this place would look and feel like a loud, clattery Mediterranean seaside cafe, but today it feels off-season and somehow forlorn. A few other customers eventually wander in.

The walls are daubed a fleshy pink. A single painting of ruins in a strange rosy light hangs on the wall. We are given a basket of good warm bread, a pool of garlic and rosemary-scented olive oil. From the first greeting, the service at Regatta is friendly, attentive and otherwise impeccable.

At lunch that day, the food is adequate. I quite like Regatta’s version of involtini : mozzarella and prosciutto wrapped in a lettuce or spinach leaf and grilled. And the salad with radicchio, endive and walnuts is perfectly fine.

I am delighted with a big bowl of spaghettini alla rape , thin spaghetti topped with slices of fresh garlic, broth, and wonderfully bitter rapini . I also am surprised and pleased with the day’s risotto made with asparagus and sun-dried tomatoes--the asparagus is crisp and fresh, and the tomatoes are not overwhelming. A hefty slice of grilled tuna, however, is sadly overcooked. Moderately pricey, moderately tasty, Regatta is a fine spot for lunch.

Dinner on a Saturday night is another story. Although the service is as prompt and present as ever, the gap between the price and the quality of the food widens into an abyss. We might not be the first persons to notice this, for there are customers only on the patio and at the bar; the large, inside hall is utterly empty.

Tonight, the carpaccio is average. Another appetizer of flavorless shrimp and unevenly cooked green beans comes with a bright orange brandy sauce of no discernible flavor. Our hopes flare up with the Caesar salad, which is a good, zesty traditional version. But then my pasta sampler comes; it offers unexceptional penne with fresh tomato sauce, gluey farfalle carbonara and an equally gluey pesto sauce on undercooked ravioli.

My friend’s lamb chops keep him eating a little longer; the mint sauce is light and subtle. The accompanying vegetables, waffle-cut, are either frozen or cut and leached of flavor to precisely resemble frozen vegetables. But whatever else might be said about this dinner, it is not worth $70.

Italian food is largely simple, expressive food. Originally, it was a rustic, homemade cuisine that depended on sunny, well-tended gardens, neighborhood olive crops and a bountiful local market. These days in Los Angeles, Italian cooking is a multimillion-dollar business with new investors jumping in daily. Precisely because the food is so expressive, it’s not surprising that at some restaurants, like Regatta, the profit motive is almost all one can taste.

Regatta, 1551 Ocean Ave., Santa Monica, (310) 393-9224. Open daily for lunch and dinner. Full bar. All major credit cards. Valet parking. Dinner for two, food only, $40-$65.