Big Business

Everything Rich Melman touches turns to gold. His wildly successful company, Lettuce Entertain You, known for outlandish, crowd-pleasing restaurant concepts, recently opened Maggiano’s Little Italy here. There were already six others--four in the Chicago area, one near Atlanta and one in McLean, Va.

Maybe you think an Italian restaurant from Chicago by way of the South sounds silly. Try getting a table here.

Maggiano’s has a huge free-standing building at the north edge of South Coast Plaza--a golden restaurant location if ever there was one. About a quarter of the interior is devoted to another of Melman’s concepts, the Corner Bakery. (More about that in another column.)

It was 5:30 p.m. on a rainy Monday when I first set foot in Maggiano’s, and the huge place was nearly full. As we were led to our table, we heard Sinatra crooning “New York, New York” in the background. It’s nonstop Ol’ Blue Eyes in this joint; you’d better not be a Tony Bennett fan.

The dining room is grand and handsome, with a dark, clubby feel. There are red booths and enormous pillars covered with head shots of minor celebrities. Every table has a red checkerboard tablecloth; potted ferns of bionic proportions add an almost tropical lushness.

As we were seated, someone passed our table with a giant platter of rosemary and garlic roasted chicken--six oversized pieces with a mouth-watering char to them. This, we were informed by our Energizer Bunny of a waitress, was a half-order. One of my friends joshed that the place was probably modeled after Carmine’s, a New York restaurant famous for big portions not worth finishing.

We laughed, but he was wrong. Yes, the portions are big at Maggiano’s, so big they border on the ridiculous, but I found myself liking several dishes. As soon as I stopped cursing myself for having ordered so much, that is.

Everyone gets a basket of fresh breads from the Corner Bakery: seeded rolls, focaccia, olive bread, chewy Italian bread and a few surprises, along with a plate of good-quality olive oil splashed with balsamic vinegar. A Manhattan arrived promptly, in a bucket glass so big it looked as if my friend had ordered a triple.

Our first appetizer, an artichoke stuffed with bread crumbs, was bland--three of us worked on it a little without finishing.

From that point, things improved sharply. The waitress told us the calamari was flown in from the East Coast and suggested we order it grilled, an option not on the menu. We took her advice and got a huge casserole filled with the best calamari I have ever tasted--tender blackened rings seared with garlic, lemon and parsley.

None of the other appetizers could hope to follow an act like that. There were pleasant mushroom ravioli, four pasta pillows about the size of paperback novels filled with a smooth mushroom paste and baked in a rich cream sauce. The roasted peppers and anchovy were greasy. The minestrone soup, with pasta and beans as well as vegetables, was thick and salty and tasted as if a few tablespoons of cheese had been ladled into it before serving.

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If the appetizers are big, the pasta portions are gargantuan. A half-order should satisfy three to four people. The spaghetti, in textbook marinara sauce, seemed starchy, but its NBA-sized meatball was properly dense and meaty. I didn’t care for the angel hair pasta with Coach Joey Z’s pomodoro, a slightly sour chopped tomato topping. But rigatoni DiGregorio took us by surprise: The chewy tube pasta with shredded chicken in mushroom Marsala cream sauce was delicious.

Among main dishes, that rosemary chicken we’d noticed is a flat-out bargain. A half-order would serve two, maybe three; the pieces are juicy, tender and perfectly roasted, with wonderfully crisp skin. Chicken Milanese, on the other hand, was a disappointingly soggy breaded cutlet, positively leaden. The veal scaloppine was nicely lemony, and the New York steak al forno was great--a beautiful 24-ounce hunk of steak charred on the outside and fork-tender in the middle.

Maggiano’s makes its own desserts--separate from the desserts sold in the Corner Bakery. My favorite was Nonna’s poundcake, butter-rich and served with good vanilla gelato, smooth chocolate sauce and caramelized bananas. Apple crostata is a round, flaky apple tart the size of a dinner plate, with ice cream and hot caramel sauce. I also liked Vera’s lemon cookies: six tart, soft, crescents brushed with see-through sugar frosting.

This is far from a perfect restaurant. Some dishes taste mass-produced, and the wine list needs drastic improvement. Still, there is no denying its energy, efficiency and sheer crowd appeal. Or the fact that, in a few months, Maggiano’s Little Italy has blown away most of its competition in South Coast Plaza.

Maggiano’s Little Italy is expensive. Appetizers are $2.95 to $11.95. Pastas are $7.95 to $14.95. Main dishes are $11.95 to $28.95.

BE THERE

Maggiano’s Little Italy, 3333 Bristol St., Costa Mesa. (714) 546-9550. 11:15 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11:15 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday-Saturday, noon-9 p.m. Sunday. All major cards.