RESTAURANTS : NUOVO CHIANTI : A New Chef Perks Up a Venerable Ristorante and Its Lively Companion

Chianti is one restaurant that’s been out but never down; maybe that’s how you survive for more than half a century in this town.

Founded in 1938, Chianti Ristorante quickly became a celebrity favorite. The show folks loved the Italian food and the dark room with its murals, and probably they loved that deer’s head, or whatever it is, near the ceiling (I can’t quite tell from here--this is still a dark room). Chianti had off and on periods in the years that followed, but it hung on.

By the late ‘70s, when the L.A. restaurant scene started to grow fast, Chianti had settled into a dangerous phase of ponderous respectability. Then, depending on how you look at it, Chianti either joined the trend of opening younger, brighter, louder restaurants serving lighter, brighter and generally louder food or led the trend of established restaurants starting casual spinoffs. It hired a hot new chef named Celestino Drago, who opened Chianti Cucina in the Ristorante’s old kitchen space.

Drago, as everyone knows, went off to cook in a restaurant named Celestino’s and eventually opened his own place, Drago. The Cucina has continued bright and busy.

The same has not quite been true of Chianti Ristorante. Now that Melrose Avenue has become a fast-lane restaurant row, the Ristorante seems to have been left a bit in the dust. It recently hired another hot new chef, Fabio Flagiello, to revive itself once again. The 26-year-old Flagiello, who made a name for himself a couple of years ago for the unusual and inventive dishes he cooked at a Venice (as in California) restaurant named Capri, has added a number of new dishes to both menus, but mostly to the Ristorante’s, which needed him more.

Maybe this is why his additions to the Cucina menu don’t really stand out. The bruschetta tirolese is very nice--rough and peasanty slices of grilled whole-wheat bread topped with mozzarella and fried prosciutto, with olive oil, garlic and chopped tomatoes sprinkled all over the place, but it fits right in with Cucina old-timers like the roasted peppers with shiitake mushrooms and grilled bread.

Likewise the tonno tiepido , a salad of arugula and endive sprinkled with grated Parmesan and lemon vinaigrette (yes, it includes some slices of tepid--that is, seared--tuna). The lasagne al salmone has a light, clean taste, as you’d expect of a salmon lasagne in basil-lemon sauce, but Flagiello goes overboard on the spinach. He puts in so much green stuff that the pasta, fish and cheese keep sliding down the spinach mountain.

But in the Ristorante next door, tortino di polenta is a breath of fresh air. It’s a savory mass of grilled polenta slices and fontina cheese mixed with fresh baby artichokes and mushrooms, rich and oozing with fun. The tortino stands out against old Chianti appetizers such as the fried mozzarella, the fishy-tasting grilled mushrooms and the hackneyed selezione di antipasti di casa. To tell the truth, though, the old menu does contain some exciting starters, especially grilled eggplant filled with goat cheese and sun-dried tomatoes ( riccioli di melanzane ).

The pasta list, apart from some clinkers like the slightly gluey gnocchi, has been fairly interesting. Flagiello’s caramelle di aragosta consists of lobster wrapped in pasta to resemble old-fashioned paper-wrapped caramel candies. The lobster flavor is sweet and pure, and the creamy lettuce sauce is rich and tangy.

The meat entrees are where Chianti Ristorante’s menu needed the most work--and needs still more. The old Chianti is pretty much summed up in the saltimbocca con spinaci , where a light dish of veal scallops rolled up with prosciutto and sage has been turned into a heavy mass of meat and spinach under a layer of fatty brown gravy. The grills look promising, but I’ve gotten boar chops that were a little burnt, and the grilled filet ( tagliata al Brunello di Montalcino ) is, if really made with Brunello di Montalcino, a wasteful use of that expensive red wine. All the entrees, new or old, come with crema fritta , a fried slug of thickened milk with one or another sweet flavoring such as Grand Marnier.

In the midst of this heavy, old-fashioned fare, Flagiello’s osso buco di tacchino comes as a revelation. It really tastes like a good braised veal shank in tomato sauce, but it’s made with low-fat turkey drumsticks--only the thin leg bones give it away. It’s the second-cheapest of the meat entrees and hard to beat.

His fagottini di vitello saporiti probably does beat the turkey osso buco by a little. Here veal is stuffed with ricotta, spinach and wild mushrooms, rich and light and intriguing. And Flagiello has put a boneless duck breast on the menu, laced with honey and balsamic vinegar (more sweet than sour), that may not be as dramatic as the other dishes but at least has the virtue of lightness.

The waiter brings out a daily pastry selection at dessert time. Go for the tiramisu --it’s a big, light one with lots of fresh ladyfingers and a cheesier taste than most. The flourless chocolate cake offers a profound dose of chocolate, but the other desserts are not likely to be so remarkable: a small, round cheesecake (not overly sweet), a fresh fruit tart, a dryish pecan tart.

You’d still go to the Cucina for excitement, but Flagiello is definitely upgrading Chianti Ristorante. There’s some new wine in the old bottle.

Chianti Ristorante e Cucina, 7383 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles; (213) 653-8333. Lunch served in the Cucina Monday through Saturday. Dinner served nightly in the Cucina and the Ristorante. Full bar. Valet parking. All major credit cards accepted. Ristorante dinner for two, food only, $42-$67.