All' Angelo

At All' Angelo, a new Italian restaurant on Melrose Avenue just west of La Brea, the room is filled with so many familiar faces, it seems more like a reunion than a night out at a new ristorante. Center front is owner Stefano Ongaro, the energetic former maitre d' for Valentino, Enoteca Drago and, most recently, Il Grano. His partner and chef is Mirko Paderno, who cooked at Valentino, Dolce and Bridge. The maitre d' here is Ricardo Martinez, who used to announce each dish in Spago chef Lee Hefter's intricate tasting menu.

Ongaro has been scouting locations for a decade, but nothing suited until this Melrose Avenue address, a former Indian restaurant, turned up. Architect Osvaldo Maiozzi has given it a sleek modernist makeover with pale wood beams, Venetian glass sconces and a logical layout. All' Angelo (named for Ongaro's father) is an inviting and comfortable space — cozy, but not cramped.

The crowd — a mix of Italophiles and Italians in the wine business — is wildly sociable, rushing over to hug the waiters, exchange kisses with friends across the room, wave to an acquaintance. Meanwhile, the chef in a tall toque proudly shows off his gleaming red antique slicing machine, peeling slice after slice of prosciutto, salami and speck (smoked mountain ham) off the blade.

With a bottle of rosso from a wine list rich in Italian producers and vintages, including a selection of organic wines, a platter of salumi is a fine way to start a meal at this Italian upstart. Antipasti include Paderno's signature octopus carpaccio, the violet-edged round slices fitted together like a mosaic in St. Mark's Cathedral in Venice. Refined and rather formal dishes such as warm lobster salad or cauliflower timbale signal that All' Angelo is a ristorante and not a trattoria. Yet for the adventurous, the menu offers a rustic braised tripe on grilled polenta.

All around us, people are clinking glasses, laughing, sharing plates of pasta. What is it about Italian food that brings out exuberance? People who are normally reticent are suddenly talking with their hands. And habitually wan eaters find themselves ordering another plate of tortelli in wild mushroom sauce, or the supple ravioli stuffed with braised beef and leeks. The seafood primi are rich, the kind of thing you'd see at a restaurant on the Italian Riviera: pasta with spiny lobster, or clams and scorpion fish.

I watch a waiter deliver a whole grilled orata (sea bream) to another table. That's encouraging: Fish cooked on the bone always has more flavor. Branzino, though, is served as a filet in an aqua pazza, or "crazy water," of herbs and vegetables. And for this patch of cold weather, you can't go wrong with a mixed plate of veal, pork ribs and meaty sausage with braised Savoy cabbage. If you order a Barbera or Nebbiolo from the wine list to go with it, all the better.

With Pizzeria Mozza a little east, Cube and Mark Peel's about-to-open wine bar south on La Brea, could this neighborhood be the next Little Italy? Stay tuned.