Enoteca Drago

Wine is sold by the glass in the convivial Enoteca Drago in Beverly Hills, which offers bite-size treats suitable for a wine bar as well as a full dinner menu.

In Rome, I'm fascinated by how many wine bars have opened up recently around my old neighborhood, Campo dei Fiori. They're very different from the wine bars that cropped up in the '80s when Italians began to explore wines beyond their own immediate region. At that time, Supertuscans were big, Barolos too, but also pricey French wines, and even the first influx of California boutique wines. Salumi (sliced cured meats) and cheeses were served as a matter of course. But now Roman wine bars seem to be as much about the food as about the Sangiovese or Nebbiolo. They're great places to pick up a casual bite and try the latest vintage.

Celestino Drago, the silver-haired proprietor of Santa Monica's long-running Italian restaurant Drago, has picked up on the idea with Enoteca Drago, which opened recently next door to Il Pastaio, his Beverly Hills pasta cafe. He's taken the Italian tradition of enoteche and fused it with L.A.'s fascination with small plates.

Despite Italy's reputation for abbondanza, Italian cuisine is perfectly adapted to the idea of small plates. After all, Venice has its cichetti, the little bites offered at bars to go with a glass of Soave or Valpolicella. Tuscany has its pinzimonio (raw vegetables dipped in virgin olive oil) and crostini. The fact is, most Italians wouldn't think of drinking without eating, even it it's just a slice of salame or a few olives and some bread. Los Angeles and the enoteca, or wine bar, seem like an inspired match -- with Celestino Drago as matchmaker.

Mushroom ravioli with foie gras and black truffle sauce.

Drago, who, with and without his younger brothers Calogero, Tanino and Giacomino, has opened a slew of Italian restaurants in this area over the years, has completely transformed the huge former La Scala space with an ivory-glazed Venetian arched ceiling, a long bar with a convivial atmosphere and a flat-screen TV. In addition to banquettes and cozy booths, there's a communal table at the very front of the restaurant. I haven't seen an empty chair there yet.

It might look rather plain if it weren't for the handblown glass chandeliers in a riot of colors and the display of breads from Drago's Culver City bakery, Dolce Forno.

Those too cavalier to call for a reservation linger at the front door, which gives them ample time to peruse the wine list. Bottles of Vermentino and Sicilian Chardonnay, Aglianico and Barbera stand shoulder to shoulder on the shelves. The hosts and waiters all look familiar; they've worked at Valentino or Spago or Drago and every other busy place in town. So service is mostly crisp and professional, occasionally with a heavy Italian shtick.

Hold the cocktails. Enoteca Drago is an opportunity to explore the latest wines from the top established and up-and-coming Italian producers. Not ready to take the Italian section of the master sommelier exam? Don't worry. Sommelier Jeff Morgenthal will come over and discuss the possibilities. He has an easy manner, honed at Gary Danko in San Francisco. Every time I've been in, I discover that he's reshuffled the selections in his list of 50 wines by the glass or carafe, slipping in his latest finds and newest passions along with the old reliable favorites.

Some people just want a taste. Morgenthal offers 2½ ounces, 6 ounces or a quartino, about a third of a bottle. He'll pour a taste or a full glass, whatever suits. He also offers flights of wines for wine buffs who want to compare, sip and contemplate.

Wine ordered, it's time to consider the food, and here's where it get confusing. There are two menus: the enoteca menu of small plates and then a separate and quite extensive lunch or dinner menu. It's as if Drago, who has built his restaurant group on catering to his clients' every whim, is hedging his bets. You can also mix and match, starting with a few items from the enoteca menu, then moving onto something from the regular menu.

Although the downstairs dining room can be boisterous, upstairs you can have a quiet conversation over dinner.

Of course, arancini di riso, one of Drago's signature appetizers, is featured on the enoteca menu. The arancini are basically rice croquettes shaped into triangles with a delicious savory meat, pea and mozzarella filling tucked in at the very center of each. I love the fried olives too, which have a meat and herb stuffing. Baccalà mantecata from Northern Italy, salt cod whipped with cream, is served very cold on warm triangles of polenta. It would be a very credible version if it weren't so cold.

It's disappointing, though, that you can't get some great salumi or a plate of regional Italian cheeses on the enoteca menu, or any of the simple dishes made with great products you'd find in Italian enoteche. Instead, Drago and his chef Stefan Richter, a Finn who grew up in Germany and who was sous-chef at Bacara Resort in Santa Barbara, offer fancy preparations and dishes that are just smaller portions of fussy restaurant fare.

A plate of monkfish and salmon carpaccio is laid out like the overlapping petals of a peony. Pasta comes in an oval bowl with a porcelain lid. It's as if Drago can't decide whether he's going for formal three-star ristorante or for homey trattoria/wine bar.

Even the pizza seems over-elaborate. In one version, thinly sliced eggplant adorns a layer of tomato sauce, but the cheese, shavings of baked ricotta, isn't integrated into the pizza. It's added after the thin crust is baked -- fashionable, but not that satisfying. A more traditional Margherita fares much better. Something called La Bomba is a giant puffed-up calzone, with a rich cheese and tomato filling that stiffens as it cools. It's tasty, but definitely to share.

Mini mushroom ravioli, though, are awfully seductive, despite the needless frills of foie gras and black truffle sauce. (It's not truffle season, and what are truffles doing on an enoteca menu?) Risotto with red wine and leeks is a good choice too.

Downstairs, it's always a mad scene at Enoteca Drago. What is it about Italian food that gets people so animated? Everybody talks louder, waves hands around. Even late at night, as at Mastro's and Spago down the street, the place is full of life.

Sometimes, though, you may want to have a quiet conversation over dinner. In that case, ask to be seated upstairs, where there's a smaller dining room. One night, two of us did just that. We also ordered off the more formal restaurant menu and had the best meal I'd had yet. Spaghetti cacio pepe is a Southern Italian classic, one of those ingenious simple pasta dishes devised by country cooks to use the few ingredients that they had. It's just spaghetti, in this case Latini-brand spaghetti extruded from brass dies, cooked perfectly al dente and sauced simply with pecorino Romano (that's the cacio), lots of freshly ground black pepper, salt and a knob of butter. Drago's version was dead-on. Sardinian couscous was interesting too, more like pasta pearls than true North African couscous, tossed in a fresh, light tomato sauce with a slab of burrata, that creamy mozzarella-like cheese, melting in the middle.

Though Drago has closed his Italian steakhouse in West Hollywood, he still gets lean Piedmontese beef raised in this country. Bistecca di bue Piemontese alla Fiorentina for two is terrific, with great flavor and a texture that's more like grass-fed beef than the heavily marbled slabs steakhouses serve. It comes with haricot vert and a very sweet braised red cabbage that doesn't quite make sense with the beef.

Desserts are nothing special. Save those calories for a handcrafted sweet wine, such as a late-harvest Malvasia or a Vecchio Samperi from Sicily.

Open from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily, Enoteca Drago is there when you feel like eating and drinking Italian. If you can't find a table, there's always space at the bar. Though simpler, gutsier dishes would make the place more authentic, Celestino Drago has a different idea, and who can argue with success?