Primo Very

There are no checkered cloths on the tables and no dusty Chianti bottles on the walls, but if you’ve ever pined for the sort of old-fashioned, family-run Italian restaurant that warms your heart along with your stomach, go to Caffe Piemonte.

Don’t get me wrong; we’re not talking spaghetti and meatballs here. This place serves sophisticated Northern Italian cuisine rendered with a feather-light touch, and it isn’t cheap. Still, the Ravetto brothers--Giovanni, the waiter, host and owner, and Luigi, the chef--have a way of treating their customers like family.

They opened Caffe Piemonte nine years ago in Orange and moved to their current Tustin location in Larwin Square three years ago. Their enthusiasm for their cuisine is contagious. Not sure what wine to order? Giovanni will pour you a splash or two until you find something you like. Any questions about the food? They’ll be answered with passionate explanations of how it’s prepared.

The small, brightly lit space is a fashionably disorienting combination of Danish and industrial-chic design, with pine trellises suspended beneath the open ceiling; the service is efficient but comfortably casual. And while the sprawling menu would seem to promise inconsistent quality, this kitchen is focused.

The antipasti are rather steeply priced, running $12 to $16--about as much as many of the pasta entrees. But the portions are generally large enough to provide more than a taste for a party of four.

And most are wonderful. If you’re eating light, the marinated grilled vegetables are good and fresh, with just the right amount of snap. The veal carpaccio, sprinkled with capers and shaved Parmesan, gets a tangy boost of olive oil and lemon juice. (On the other hand, the tuna carpaccio is insipid and a bit mealy.)

I don’t care whether you were once traumatized by some horror movie about a giant squid; you must try the calamari saltati alla marinara. The chunky tomato sauce, spiked with olives, oregano and basil, carries just enough of an echo of the seafood to highlight the tender rings of sauteed calamari without overpowering them.

You’d think the same sauce would do equally well for shrimp, but Piemonte doesn’t take that easy approach. The gamberetti all’ agrodolce arrive in a tangy tomato sauce gracefully poised between the acidity of balsamic vinegar and the sweetness of white wine. The additional grace notes of pistachio nuts and arugula are delightful.

There are quite a number of interesting sauces here, many of them accented by capers, basil and olives. Cappesante alla provinciale--sweet, buttery little scallops--are complemented by a thin, rust-colored tomato and white wine sauce.

Rounding out the hot appetizers is polenta alla Piemontese, cubes of firm polenta covered in a creamy Fontina cheese sauce. Here I must give our table’s polenta maven her due: “Too salty,” she complained. “The polenta should be creamier.” But the rest of us decided it made us long for the Italian grandmother we never had.

This would be the same grandma who, when we had the sniffles, would bring us stracciatella alla Romana in bed. It might remind you of Chinese egg drop soup, but made with chicken, Parmesan and parsley huddled together in a delicious chicken broth streaked with egg. On the other hand, Minestrone dell’ ortolano, a melange of vegetables in a light, clear chicken broth, though well-prepared, is so plain it verges on the ordinary.

Tagliolini (made on the premises, like all the pastas here) comes in a mild Bolognese sauce made with ground veal as the only meat; it blessedly doesn’t interfere with your appreciation of the silky, seductive pasta. The linguine al pesto is outstanding too, in a superbly emulsified sauce accented with pine nuts and garlic.

Possibly the best thing I’ve had here (it’s not on the regular menu but frequently appears on special) is ravioli stuffed with minced pheasant and porcini mushroom paste, in a sharp wine reduction sauce. Riding shotgun and adding excitement are bits of homemade sausage. Another house specialty is the aromatic osso buco, the braised veal shank infused with a light tomato-enriched wine reduction sauce.

The flavorful lobster and crab filling of ravioli d’aragosto is rather dense; this is one filling that ought to be lightened with a touch of filler. But overall, Piemonte’s seafood pastas are a good bet. Linguine alla pescatora comes in a light tomato sauce that takes on the sweetness of the green-lipped New Zealand mussels, and seafood lovers will find the grandly named sinfonia alla pizzaiola resplendent with swordfish, salmon, shrimp and halibut in a tomato, olive and caper sauce.

Dessert gets high marks too. Try begni, custard-filled pastry puffs drizzled with a dark chocolate syrup, and tartufo de gelato, a ball of dense Italian ice cream in a shell of chocolate.

Piemonte is on the expensive side. Antipasti run $12 to $16, entrees $13 to $28 and desserts $7.

BE THERE

Caffe Piemonte, 498 E. 1st St., Tustin. (714) 544-8072. Open for lunch Tuesday-Friday, 11 a.m.-2 p.m.; for dinner Tuesday-Saturday, 5-9 p.m. Closed Sunday and Monday.