San Diego Spotlight : Panevino’s Special Touches Stand Out in Italian Crowd

At the Gaslamp Quarter’s new Osteria Panevino, the hostess, a plain-spoken transplant from New York’s Little Italy neighborhood, put the explosion of Italian eateries in the area in good perspective.

“If they open another Italian restaurant on this street,” she said, “they’re going to have to change the name to ‘Bolognese Boulevard.”’

It’s certainly true that the majority of openings these days, along the Gaslamp’s Fifth Avenue restaurant row and elsewhere around the county, seem to be Italian, but the saying that there’s always room at the top remains in force. Osteria Panevino (the name basically means “the guest house of bread and wine,” and the second word normally would be spelled “pan e vino”) may not be at the pinnacle of Italian cooking hereabouts, but there is much that is especially good. The odd thing about the new Italian houses is that, unlike other genres of restaurants (steakhouses, barbecue joints, and so forth), they mostly manage to present distinct styles, and this is true of Panevino. The menu is in some ways familiar, and in other ways novel, and a few of the dishes--notably the exceptional “focaccia” pizzas--seem to be site-specific and available nowhere else locally.

One especially attractive feature, copied directly from the standard practice of restaurants in Italy, is the specials list pre-printed with categories; the corresponding dishes of the day are themselves, of course, written in by hand. In other words, you can expect reliably that there will be a special carpaccio, mushroom dish, pasta (and also lasagna), game offering and so forth, in addition to the menu’s numerous standing items. There is even a different preparation of fresh cod every day. For us, this is a new way of offering foods, and it has definite attractions.

The brick walls, high ceilings and semi-open kitchen take advantage of the possibilities of the historic Llewelyn Building, erected in 1893 and listed as San Diego Historical Site No. 93. Panevino also has what may be the most uncomfortable restaurant chairs in the city, but at least some of them are on a fine sidewalk terrace from which it is a pleasure to watch the night-time crowds along Fifth Avenue.

The most attractive physical feature, however, is the small display kitchen ruled as a private province by Sicilian-born chef and co-owner Alessandro Minutella. A wooden table displays huge bowls of vegetable hors d’oeuvres, available singly or on a delightful plate called “ misto de terra ,” or, roughly, “mixed good things from the earth.” The choice usually includes an exceptional, delicately pungent caponata (an Italian-style ratatouille); ripe tomatoes stuffed with rice; grilled peppers; stuffed eggplant rolls and fresh artichoke hearts.

Minutella’s tiny domain also includes a wood-fired oven that he puts to fine use with the unusual stuffed pizzas, which he calls “focaccia,” a term other restaurants use to describe rustic bread heated with oil and herbs. These elegant pies consist of two very thin, very rich crusts, which sandwich such fillings as chopped tomatoes, onions and herbs, or radicchio with onions and smoked mozzarella. Light and delicious, these are served atop dressed salad greens, a practice that brings yet another welcome dimension to the plates. Minutella also offers several traditional pizzas, all fairly restrained in their toppings. Any of these makes a good shared starter but, of course, can easily serve as an entree.

The lunch and dinner menus are more than large enough, and the specials lists considerably expand the choices. Novelties include the mixed saute of fresh mushrooms, which may include Portobello, shiitake and oyster varieties, and the “salad” of quail, wild mushrooms and cubed polenta. Not really a salad, this warm dish has a light effect but a very rich flavor. The affetato misto , or plate of cured meats, specifies home-made sausages and includes strong sopressata salami and genuine Parma ham that has been sliced too thickly for its own good.

Minutella has a fondness for introducing green beans to a variety of entrees; he certainly cooks them well. They were woven into the lentils that formed a bed under one day’s special trout, a whole fish, perfectly sauteed and possessed of delicate flesh and flavor. The point of the beans here seemed to be to supply a crisp texture, while with the standing offering of braised lamb shank, served over stewed white beans, they seem more a traditional garnish. The lamb, a single shank, was meaty and juicy in its bath of tomatoed pan juices.

Other main choices include stuzzichini , or assorted stuffed meat rolls in tomato sauce; poached salmon filet with red and yellow peppers, pine nuts and white wine sauce, and grilled rib-eye steak, served over arugula and under a brandied cream sauce.

There are pastas, naturally, most of them a little off the beaten track. The bucatini amatriciana , a Roman classic, was fairly good, although the coarse onion-tomato-bacon sauce served over the hollow spaghetti missed the advertised but absent red pepper flakes. The daily lasagna frequently is stuffed with vegetables rather than meat sauce.

The dessert tray consists of Sicilian fantasies, all of them characteristically rich and many stuffed with custard or pastry cream. The pizza rustica (“country pie”) layers a bit of nutmeg-spiced cheese mixture between pastry layers, while the more French chocolate ganache torte seems mostly like solid chocolate and is rich, rich, rich. If you still have room for a few cookies with your cup of espresso, go ahead--they’re buttery and delicious.

OSTERIA PANEVINO 722 5th Ave., Gaslamp Quarter 595-7959 Lunch weekdays, dinner nightly Pastas and entrees $7.95 to $15.95. Dinner for two, including a glass of wine each, tax and tip, about $30 to $65. Credit cards accepted