Quality Close to Home

Restaurateur Tom Sweet compares his new Westlake restaurant, Mandevilla, to establishments found in small villages all over Europe.

“You find really excellent restaurants in out-of-the-way places in Europe, out of the big city,” said Sweet, who co-owns the upscale Mandevilla with executive chef Nick Blinoff. “You can find world-class restaurants tucked away.”

Sweet and Blinoff expect their establishment, which opened in late January, to be one of those highly regarded locations on the outskirts of a metropolitan area--in this case not Paris or Rome but Los Angeles.

And the business partners said they believe discriminating Ventura County restaurant-goers who traditionally would drive to L.A. will relish the opportunity to stay close to home.

“For the most part, the type of food you find in this area you could find anywhere in the country,” Blinoff said. “The niche we are trying to fill is trying to be a neighborhood restaurant that people will be able to call their special spot. I do believe that a lot of people in this area do drive through the [San Fernando] Valley to get to a certain type of restaurant they are looking for.”

Sweet and Blinoff have been working together for about six years, Blinoff serving as executive chef at Sweet’s upscale Los Angeles establishment Ca’ Brea. Sweet also is the owner of L.A.’s Locanda Veneta and formerly Ca’ Del Sole.

While Ca’ Brea and Veneta are distinctly Italian, Mandevilla is harder to pin down.

“It’s a little bit difficult to put into a nutshell the type of food we’ll have,” Blinoff said. “Through an evolution, I’ve come up with describing it as a blend of contemporary and classical continental cuisine which happens, through my background, to have an Italian slant.”

Mandevilla’s dinner menu includes a list of starters featuring onion soup ($4.95), Bluepoint oysters on the half-shell with sherry vinegar and horseradish ($6.50 half-dozen, $12.50 dozen), Manila clams steamed in a garlic broth or red Thai curry broth ($8.95), and crab cakes with a chipotle chili cream and black bean sauce ($8.50).

The pasta selection includes rigatoni with sausage, bell peppers and spicy tomato sauce ($10.95); farfalle with smoked salmon, green peas and mascarpone cheese ($11.95); and risotto with chicken, sauteed mushrooms and Parmesan cheese ($12.95).

Entree selection includes poached Atlantic salmon with Vermouth-tarragon sauce ($17.95), rack of New Zealand lamb with roasted garlic-rosemary jus ($18.50), hash brown scallops with smoked tomato coulis ($17.95), roasted breast of duck with cranberry-orange glaze ($17.95) and veal scallopini with lemon-thyme jus ($16.95).

Mandevilla, which seats 65 inside and about 45 more on the patio, also offers a selection of pizzas and salad entrees.

* Mandevilla, 951 S. Westlake Blvd., former site of Viva La Pasta. Open Monday-Friday for lunch and nightly for dinner. (805) 497-8482.

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If Mandevilla is the new kid the block, Boccaccio’s in Westlake Village is the granddad. The French-Italian fine dining establishment will celebrate its 30th birthday in August.

The keys to the restaurant’s longevity, said owner Victor Colucci, are maintaining high standards in all areas of service and keeping up with the times.

“We’ve kept the place up physically and foodwise. We’ve got cutting-edge stuff; we don’t have an old-fashioned menu,” Colucci said. “Every few years we remodel, redecorate or something. You have to do that. You don’t want to get seedy or old-fashioned. And the proof is in the pudding--we’re seeing our third generation of customers.”

As always, Colucci is gearing up for a busy Valentine’s Day evening. He’s already booked about half of the 300 maximum dinner reservations for the night. That night, Boccaccio’s will prepare a modified version of its usual menu.

* Boccaccio’s, 32123 W. Lindero Canyon Road. (818) 889-8300.

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Our life philosophy: If there’s good chocolate to be had, have it. If there’s good bread to be had, grab off a hunk with gusto. And if there’s both good chocolate and good bread in one place, travel as far as necessary to get there.

On Tuesday, one need not travel far to find quality bread, chocolate and even wine when Santa Barbara’s Aficionado European Bakery hosts a tasting event that should please many palates.

Imagine a petit four consisting of English white bread--a sweet-tasting bread made with egg and cream with mascarpone cheese on top, topped with a ganache (a rich chocolate icing). That will be just one of the elaborate treats created for the occasion.

“We will be pairing chocolate and bread,” said Kersh Ruhl, manager of Aficionado. “We’ll be doing some different, creative petits fours and fondues with different nut breads.”

Breads, of course, will be provided by the bakery, with the chocolate courtesy of Santa Barbara chocolate maker Carmela Herron, and the wine from Santa Barbara Winery. Aficionado also will unveil its newest product, a chocolate bread stick--twisted pastry dough dipped in chocolate.

* Aficionado European Bakery, 10 E. Carrillo St., Santa Barbara. Free tasting Tuesday, 5:15-8 p.m. (805) 963-8404.