Primo Posto

“POSTO” MEANS PLACE IN ITALIAN, AND WHEN you sit down at Posto in Sherman Oaks, you’re placed, ensconced, settled for the evening, practically tucked in. The chairs, tables and banquettes are comfortable, the service quiet and careful, the noise level just above a murmur. The walls, with their discreet floral design, are an odd, faintly purplish shade of tan that casts a flattering glow (as you can check in the mirrors spotted here and there). For the past seven years, it has been the Valley’s place for a serious Italian dinner and, in this rackety restaurant era, even some quiet conversation.

Posto is owned by Piero Selvaggio, so it bears a certain resemblance to Selvaggio’s Valentino. The menu of carefully prepared rustic Italian dishes is based on high-quality ingredients, and the chef uses some of the same techniques favored at Valentino, such as grilling fowl in a wrapping of pancetta. But Posto sticks closer to the menu--you won’t find Selvaggio standing at your table, offering to create a special, extravagant meal just for you. And the wine list, though extensive, is nothing like the phone-book-sized volume at Valentino.

Posto has had just two chefs, Luciano Pellegrini and, as of this June, Steve Samson, a Valley boy who worked in two Michelin three-starred restaurants in Italy as well as at Valentino in Las Vegas. Samson has announced that he will introduce more homey dishes, particularly ones he learned from his Bologna-born mother. At the moment, the menu is still basically Pellegrini’s, with a few dishes showing Samson’s hand, such as the scallops (cape sante) and the veal ravioli.

The antipasti run to seafood. Those cape sante are four big, plush scallops resting on a layer of crisp, barely cooked asparagus, sliced very thin: a memorable combination of flavors and textures. Carpaccio di mare is a plate tiled with alternating slices of tangy, smoked tuna and swordfish and topped with baby mache. Posto shows how good a cliche dish such as calamari fritti can be in a light, tempura-like batter, though the fresh tomato sauce is a bit too tart.

Zuppa di cozze is scarcely a soup--it’s a lot of black mussels in a bit of garlicky tomato broth. The soup of the day tends to be a vegetable puree bound with just a little cream. How much you like the pumpkin soup depends on how much you like pumpkin, but it’s hard to imagine anybody being less than impressed with the tomato soup, a special, which is thick and startlingly red, a powerful statement of fresh tomato flavor.

Pasta has always been a specialty here, and it’s hard to imagine how the veal ravioli could be surpassed--they’re richly meaty, in a bit of veal reduction as sauce. But one night there is a special pasta with an entirely different charm: a delicate green fettuccine tossed with smoked salmon in cream sauce. At the end of each mouthful, the surprise kicks in--an exotic sting of Cinzano vermouth and pink peppercorns. In contrast, the gnocchi with black truffles and mushrooms is a one-note dish (the truffles are barely detectable). Garganelli, an unusually broad noodle of the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy that’s made by rolling pasta over a wooden comb, sometimes shows up as a special. On one occasion, it is served with a simple combination of tomatoes, onions, cream and prosciutto.

Meat dishes, typically served with steamed green and yellow string beans and strips of carrot,

are about equally divided between grilled and non-grilled items. The latter include tender, but perhaps too understated, pork tenderloin with slightly caramelized apple slices and raspberry vinegar. You might find venison in wine and fresh cherry sauce offered as a special, or a rather plain treatment of salmon in bread crumbs.

When you order a grilled item, you’re likely to find that it comes with an American-style baked potato (perhaps even with sour cream) and a “Tuscan barbecue sauce” that’s like a thin American barbecue sauce. It’s a bit odd but not offensive.

But none of the grilled items really need a sauce. Take the tender New York steak, or the veal chop that shows up on special: a big, juicy chop rubbed with herbs, grilled and set on a bed of arugula. The grilled duck breast has been marinated in aged balsamic vinegar and comes with a balsamic vinaigrette that gives it an agreeable hit of olive oil and thyme. The new chef apparently plans to grill quail al mattone (weighted down with a brick), but it would be a shame to lose the current grilled quail, a boneless breast rolled up in smoky bacon with garlic and parsley that tastes like a wonderful sausage.

Desserts include ultra-crisp cannoli, a luscious apple crostata (individual apple tart, served hot), a tiramisu layered like a napoleon and a hazelnut cake served warm with melting bits of chocolate inside. A couple of desserts seem overwrought--a sort of chocolate cupcake topped with caramelized banana slices and a fruit tart with a puzzling layer of chocolate ganache.

The wine list is reasonably priced, with an abundant selection of Italian wines that goes beyond the usual offerings.

When you need to be coddled and comforted, nothing does it like a sophisticated Italian restaurant. In the Valley, Posto is the place.

Posto

14928 Ventura Blvd.,

Sherman Oaks

(818) 784-4400

CUISINE: Rustic Italian

RATING: **

*

AMBIENCE: Serious-minded Italian love of food, understated elegance. SERVICE: Suave and unobtrusive. BEST DISHES: Tomato soup, carpaccio di mare, cape sante, fettuccine with salmon, veal ravioli, grilled bacon-wrapped quail, grilled duck breast, cannoli, apple crostata. Appetizers, $7 to $11. Main dishes, $13 to $25. Corkage, $7.50 weeknights, $15 Saturdays. WINE PICKS: 1996 Carmignano Tenuta Capezzana, 1996 Arnoldo Caprai Montefalco. FACTS: Lunch Friday. Dinner Monday through Saturday. Valet parking.

*

Rating is based on food, service and ambience, with price taken into account in relation to quality. ****: Outstanding on every level. ***: Excellent. **: Very good. *: Good. No star: Poor to satisfactory.