Not just another trattoria

NOBODY slips into La Botte unnoticed or unannounced. As you skip down the three or four steps to the entrance, Stefano de Lorenzo, one of the owners, will be spreading the door wide, leaning outside to shout, “Buona sera, signori” and as you step inside, a chorus of “buona sera, buona sera, signori” comes from the assembled hostesses, waiters -- from the sound of it, the entire restaurant.

The effect is like the first time I ducked my head under the curtain at a sushi place in Tokyo and received a rousing welcome from the sushi chefs. De Lorenzo and chef and co-owner Antonio Mure are smart enough to have picked up on the sushi thing, adapting it as part of their quirky Italian shtick. Some people, especially fellow Italians, may find it just too much, but others, my mother, for example, love it. Before she’d taken a bite, she was ready to come back anytime, she told me.

La Botte is a step up for De Lorenzo and Mure, who started out together with the charming Piccolo Cipriani, half a block from Venice Beach, a space so small, you could practically see every move the chef made in the tiny kitchen. Sometimes when it was busy, he’d step out from behind the counter to deliver the dishes to the tables himself. It had, and still has, a wonderfully improvised feel that fits right in with Venice bohemia.

To turn a space in an office building at the corner of 7th and Santa Monica into something that evokes Italy, the two and their partners had to spend some big money. They’ve built the entire restaurant around the theme of wine. When you call to make a reservation, the message proudly points out that this is “the very first restaurant in a wine barrel.” Old wine staves pave the floor, sections of wine boxes are mounted on the walls and at the very back of the dining room, a handsome wine rack wraps around two walls.

They’ve gone from trattoria in Piccolo to ristorante in one big step. And for the most part, they’re pulling it off. If Angeleno dining habits are any guide, there can never be too many Italian restaurants. Just ask Brentwood diners.

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A northern flavor

DE LORENZO and Mure have been smarter than most, though. Their menu is not just a copy of every other Italian restaurant on the block. For one thing, these guys come from the north of Italy, from the skiing area in the Dolomites, and so La Botte’s menu reflects a northern Italian bias -- but truly northern, not just Tuscany. We’re talking the Veneto and the Alto Adige, and some dishes rarely seen in these parts.

The antipasti and first courses are where to find most of them. Take, for example, duck prosciutto, which comes from the Jewish tradition of northern Italy. Jews couldn’t eat pork, so they made their own goose and duck prosciutto. Here, it’s the raw-cured duck breast, thinly sliced and drizzled with a Gorgonzola sauce, which adds a little spunk to the mild, rich taste of the duck breast. There’s also a hearty mountain dish of grilled polenta topped with a meaty portobello mushroom cap and more of that unctuous Gorgonzola.

Beef carpaccio? Not on this menu. Instead, the chef roasts filet mignon to the rare side of medium rare, cuts it in thin slices, and arranges them on the plate like the petals of a flower. The beef is incredibly tender, adorned with a swatch of greens. He also does a crudo of raw baby artichokes and celery cut razor thin and drenched in a light olive oil and lemon. The celery adds a bright, grassy taste that complements the artichoke.

Pastas vary from the usual too. The minute I spotted cappelletti al Lambrusco, I had to order it. I’ve really enjoyed the version I had in Modena, dosed with enough Lambrusco to turn the broth a deep wine color. La Botte’s cappelletti are similar to tortellini, with a finely minced stuffing, but the broth lacks richness and intensity and there’s only enough wine to give it a slight blush. It could be that’s the style in the chef’s region.

One night a special ravioli, little packets with zigzagged edges, with a filling of duck, cabbage and a touch of foie gras, is absolutely terrific. The pasta is supple, and the flavors of the cabbage with the roast duck are wonderful together. The ravioli are simply tossed in a little butter and sage. Another time the special was raviolini del plin, postage stamp-sized ravioli stuffed with fonduta, fontina melted in milk, a dish that’s a favorite in Piedmont where, in season, it’s covered in a blizzard of shaved white truffles. I opted not to get the truffles, but even without such adornment, these agnolotti are delicious. It’s sort of like fondue dressed up as a pasta.

I brought my nephew one night and he already knew what he wanted before he opened the menu. Say what? He’d checked the restaurant out online, where they have the menus and wine list posted. Lobster ravioli intrigued him. I don’t know that I’ve ever had a great version. It’s one of those fancy dishes that spell grande ristorante and involves making a lobster reduction for the sauce. Here, as in every other version I’ve tasted, it’s all too rich and cloying.

The kitchen does have a tendency to over-sauce the noodles. When most of his customers expect it that way, it’s hard for a cook to resist for long. But almost every pasta dish here would be better if the chef would make it the way he would in Italy. I don’t understand the logic. Americans inevitably fall in love with the food there. Why wouldn’t they want pasta made the same way here?

Cote de boeuf for two is always a favorite in French restaurants. Mure has borrowed that idea with his roasted veal shank for two. Order it and you’ll be the envy of the dining room as the waiter wheels over one of the wine barrels standing at attention against the walls. The chef bounds out of the kitchen, and using the barrel as a serving platform, carves the meat off the bone. The veal shank could serve more than two easily, so come hungry. Along with the tender, slow-cooked veal, you get little roast potatoes and, I think, broccoli rabe.

I was also happy to see the classic Roman dish coda alla vaccinara -- braised oxtail -- on the menu. This is so much better than osso buco, I don’t know why every Italian restaurant isn’t making it. The meat has a deep beefy flavor and a slightly gelatinous quality near the bone. I’ve also had an excellent venison chop and on another occasion a thick, juicy veal chop, both served with a saffron risotto cake crunchy at the edges.

Branzino (Mediterranean striped bass) cooked under sea salt is also served table-side, with or without the head, as you like. Some people don’t want the fish staring at them while they eat it, but Italians know that seeing the fish with the head on is the only way to tell whether it’s really fresh or not. And they’ll fight over who gets the eyeball or the cheeks. The fish itself is very plain and cooking it under salt helps retain the moisture. The sauce is olive oil, lemon and capers, a classic that never goes out of style.

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Heavy hitters

ANYBODY who loves Italian wines will immediately head for the wine rack to inspect the bottles on display, many with impressive pedigrees. There’s Sassicaia, Tignanello, Gaja’s single vineyard Barbarescos, and in more than one vintage. But if you don’t want to spend a bundle, finding an interesting Italian wine to drink for less than $50 or $60 is harder than it should be. I pored over the list one night and finally spotted a Morellino di Scansano, a Tuscan red from an up-and-coming undervalued area near the coast, for $30, only to be informed, quite graciously by the waiter, that it was a half bottle. I borrowed a flashlight and spent some more time going over the list, ending up, after all that effort, with the same wine I’d ordered the visit before and one of the few real bargains on the list: a Chianti Senesi from Castello di Farnatella. In almost every category there’s one wine at a relatively reasonable price, then the choices quickly jump to $80 or $100 or more. Valentino’s wine list, in contrast, offers many more affordable bottles.

Wine lovers will be well aware of -- and unhappy about -- the high markups. When they learn the restaurant is one of the very few in Los Angeles that does not allow patrons to bring wines from their own cellar and pay a corkage fee, they may decide to go elsewhere. La Botte’s stubborn policy of high markups and no corkage could turn more people off than turn them on to Italian wines.

A couple of desserts round off the experience at La Botte in style. One night, pastiera napoletana had just come out of the oven. Still slightly warm, the wedge of ricotta cake scented with rose water and flavored with orange zest could have come from any pasticceria in Naples, it’s that authentic-tasting. Tiramisu wins me over too. It’s not too sweet -- mostly mascarpone, not just whipped cream, and you can taste the espresso and bitter cocoa. It’s almost a sin to have either of these without an espresso.

I love the fact that La Botte is serving such idiosyncratic and regional dishes along with familiar favorites. Prices, though, almost ensure it has to be a special-occasion restaurant, and for that, the kitchen has to deliver consistently, which wasn’t the case. On occasion, a chop was overcooked or a salad was overdressed or the service was pretentious or seemed too scripted.

And for a restaurant built around wine, its wine policy couldn’t be more unfriendly to wine lovers. I think it’s a mistake. If the wines were priced more reasonably, it’d no doubt sell more. That would be more truly welcoming than all the buona seras in the world.

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La Botte

Rating: **

Location: 620 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica; (310) 576-3072; www.LaBotteSantaMonica.com.

Ambience: Dark, romantic Italian restaurant with low ceilings, a cozy atmosphere and a decor built around wine, with old wine staves on the floor and wine barrels used as serving tables.

Service: Varies from stiff and scripted to indulgent.

Price: Appetizers, $9 to $16; pasta, $15 to $19; main courses, $24 to $60; desserts, $8.

Best dishes: Raw artichoke and celery salad, thinly sliced filet mignon with mustard sauce, cappelletti al Lambrusco, polpettine with onion confit, grilled polenta with Gorgonzola and portobello mushroom, ravioli with duck and cabbage, venison chop with Moscato sauce, roasted veal shank for two, pastiera napoletana, tiramisu.

Wine list: Big on pricey Italians and multiple vintages, but not enough interesting choices, even Chiantis, less than $50. Seven wines by the glass. No brought-in wine allowed.

Best table: One at the far end of the room, where it’s quieter.

Details: Open for lunch 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays through Fridays; dinner from 5:30 to 10:30 p.m. nightly. Beer and wine. Valet parking, $6.

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.