Florian Proves Three’s Still a Charm

When you find the perfect small Italian restaurant, you never want it to change. It almost always does. The food at tiny Locanda Veneta, for instance, went through brief ups and downs after chef Antonio Tomassi and partner Jean-Louis De Mori opened a second restaurant, Ca’ Brea. Now they’ve opened a third restaurant, Florian, and plan to open a fourth and fifth in the next few months. Scene watchers have been wondering: How can they maintain quality?

At Florian, probably named after Venice’s famous Florian cafe on the Piazza San Marco, Tomassi and DeMori didn’t have to worry about remodeling--they moved into the low-slung space just recently vacated by Tryst without changing much more than the paint. But they did apparently realize that they would need a good chef to hold things together in the kitchen. Fabio Flagiello has done terrific food at Chianti and Capri, and his menu at Florian is promising: osso buco with soft polenta, tagliatelle tossed with lentils and beans, a grilled beef filet topped with porcini mushrooms. On a slow weekday night, Flagiello’s food was very good. This isn’t to say that there won’t be rough spots, especially once the room fills up. But so far, the third Tomassi-De Mori venture seems charmed.

* Florian, 401 N. La Cienega Blvd., Los Angeles, (310) 289-1600. Pasta and entrees $8.25-$17.50.