Beverly Hills’ Madeo Arrives to Fill Italian Eatery Void

Word of San Diego’s acute and alarming shortage of Italian restaurants has gone up the coast, across the continent and even across the seas.

In the spirit of pure charity, out-of-town restaurateurs lately have responded to our desperate situation by opening or planning major new Italian eateries downtown, including the Beverly Hills-based Madeo, which brought the aromas of fine, fresh seafood to the Emerald Shapery Center about a month ago; the New York-based Sfuzzi, which debuted Monday in the Gaslamp Quarter, and Bice, the newest offspring of a Milan restaurant that operates several upscale establishments in this country and will fire its wood-burning oven in late February to coincide with the opening of the Paladion specialty shopping center.

Madeo, the smallest and perhaps most formal of these three chains, has just the two locations but does not seem shy of ambition, since it occupies a great deal of expensively decorated space off the lobby of the office building side of the octagonal-towered Emerald center. While not properly a part of the adjacent Pan Pacific Hotel, a relationship exists; a glass wall in the principal dining room overlooks the hotel lobby, and the restaurant serves both lunch and dinner every day, which is unusual for an establishment of this class, but necessary when the needs of hotel patrons are entered into the equation.

Stylish if a bit cold in appearance, Madeo may be said to have the “look” that evidently is required of contemporary, luxury-class Italian restaurants. Some of the ultra-modern, high-tech design trends coming from Milan are especially noticeable in the front room, which also hosts the bar; a short stroll down the elaborately inlaid wood walkway between the wine bins and the kitchen leads to the smaller, more elegant back room. The modern look is softened by the sprays of orchids that bloom on every table, and the service experienced on two recent visits was faultless.

The menu writers chose the increasingly familiar pan-Italian idiom currently supplanting the spaghetti-ravioli-lasagna lists that not so long ago represented Italian dining in this city. The remarkable thing about these sophisticated menus--among other establishments that cook in the same direction are Prego, Piatti, Sante, Il Fornaio and Tutto Mare--is that, although they share a tone, they manage to offer distinctly different dishes. Through these lists, Italian cooking is beginning to reveal to local diners the sense of infinite variety embodied by Chinese cuisine. But a certain addiction to arugula and spinach may make Madeo unique.

A tasty example of this ability to ring changes on the familiar is the appetizer of calamari affogati , or “smothered squid,” which drowns the tiny, lightly sauteed, remarkably tender specimens in a broth-like tomato sauce appealingly flavored with fresh sage (most unusual with seafood, and very good) and oregano. The sauce, while innocent of butter, has a buttery quality. Other seafood starters, some large enough to constitute a principal plate, include the salad-like gamberoni Madeo, or steamed shrimp with radishes, tomatoes and lettuce; the crespelle , crepes stuffed with smoked salmon and cream sauce, and the entree-sized fagioli e aragosta , a salad of canellini beans and lobster dressed with minced parsley, olive oil and lemon juice.

The cook who adds the lemon juice and oil to the greenery must have wonderfully steady hands and an expert eye because the astringency ratio seems consistently perfect. This was evident in the soft-tart balance of the chopped arugula that formed a handsome coronet over a plate of shaved slices of bresaola , the buttery, air-cured beef that is a specialty of Italy’s Alpine regions. The balance again was perfect in the charming carciofi e parmigiano , a soup plate filled with crunchy, thinly sliced fresh artichoke hearts hidden from view by thin sheets of Parmesan.

A specialties page encompasses several departments of the menu (salads, pastas and entrees) and does not, in truth, seem more interesting than the other pages. Choices here include the mare caldo , or an assortment of steamed seafood dressed with olive oil; oven-roasted Maine lobster; ravioli stuffed with sea bass; sliced New York sirloin sprinkled with olive oil and fresh aromatic herbs, and the bistecca fiorentina , a thick, grilled T-bone steak, served for a minimum of two and priced by the pound.

Among pastas are spaghetti with lobster in spicy tomato sauce; three styles of gnocchi; macaroni with cream sauce and shredded radicchio; farfalle (“butterflies”) with salmon, vodka and cream, and the engaging rigatoni boscaiola , which tosses the grooved pasta tubes with porcini mushrooms, peas, thinly sliced zucchini and a moderately seasoned tomato sauce. Tasty on its own, it also presents a fine vegetarian option.

The kitchen sometimes offers a pasta special; this recently was spaghetti tossed simply with olive oil and garlic, and edged in the bowl with fresh scallops on the half-shell. The scallops--which major domo Armando Binanti, a familiar face from other major Italian eateries, insisted came from San Diego waters--were utterly unusual and in flavor and consistency seemed a cross between mussels and oysters.

The entree list divides evenly between meat and seafood. Besides several steaks, there are a breaded veal chop; the nodino al burro e salvia , a grilled veal chop of utterly buttery tenderness, wonderfully flavored with fresh sage and browned butter, and several styles of veal scallops, including in a light, tart, very finely flavored lemon sauce.

The fish list offers sauteed shrimp in a creamy lemon and orange sauce, grilled salmon with lemon sauce, grilled Dover sole with lemon and olive oil and, again off the beaten track, boiled sea bass garnished with arugula and a sauce of brown olives. The swordfish alla checca was simple but quite handsome, the thick, moist, lightly-crusted steak sided with a surprisingly flavorful checca garnish of chopped fresh tomatoes and basil. Indifferently sauteed spinach and oven-roasted cubed potatoes flavored with rosemary fill out most entree plates.

The kitchen sends out an elaborate pastry cart of large tarts and tortes; notable are the tarta della nona , of pastry cream, chocolate and pine nuts, and the suave pear tart baked in a rich, short crust.

The menu repeats from lunch to dinner, when it is priced 10% to 20% higher. This restaurant is expensive; at dinner, appetizers run from $5 to $10 and pastas from $10 to $16, while most entrees are in the $20 range.

MADEO

Emerald Shapery Center, 402 W. Broadway, San Diego / 239-5888

Lunch and dinner daily

Pastas and entrees cost $10 to $22; dinner for two, including a glass of wine each, tax and tip, about $40 to $85

Credit cards accepted