Gianni's Restaurant Tops In Food, Service

Gianni's Piccola Italia, 5030 Evergreen Way, Everett. 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Friday; 4 to 11 p.m. Saturday, Sunday. Italian wines and beer. Credit cards, checks accepted. Reservations recommended, especially on weekends. 252-2435.

-- EVERETT

It's refreshing to watch an earnest and independent restaurant such as Gianni's Piccola Italia survive Everett's identity crises and economic slumps over nearly nine years.

For a spell, Gianni's threw in the towel on lunch and served only dinner. Now that the restaurant has doubled its capacity with a recent expansion, lunch is back again and so are the many office workers.

The food and the service are tops, and the restaurant shows few signs of its previous incarnation as a Pizza Hut. The new back room is of particular note with its panoramic murals of Naples, Italy.

Lunches are mostly in the $6 to $8 range, but you can also have spaghetti with meat sauce for $5.50 or a 10-inch sausage pizza for $5.45.

The freshly made calzone ($7) has a breath of tomato sauce baked across its crust. The pizzalike turnover's filling, pesto, prosciutto, pancetta, ricotta and mozzarella, is rich and creamy with tiny bits of the spicy Italian meats.

Gnocchi (small flour and potato dumplings) and ravioli are made on the premises. They look like clouds enveloped in a full-bodied tomato meat sauce and topped with melted mozzarella ($7.50 ala carte, $8.50 dinner with soup and salad).

The penne alla carbonara ($7.50 ala carte, $8.50 dinner) is not too heavy on the cream, yet still hearty and rich with egg, and lots of coarsely ground pepper and smidgens of bacon.

Veal dinners include side orders of pasta along with bread, soup and salad. A companion and I opted for pasta dinners, which included a simple minestrone, a small loaf of dense and slightly crumbly Neapolitan white (not warmed), and a basic lettuce salad served after the main course. The gorgonzola Italian salad dressing was the better bet. The oil-and-vinegar Italian was somewhat harsh after such a mellow and satisfying meal.

For dessert we split an order of three profittaroli, tiny eclairs whose size belied their richness ($2.75). Our tab for two, including a glass of the robust Morasutti house red (an Italian merlot), a diet soda and two coffees with dessert, came to $27.51.

On a recent lunch, a friend and I sampled the calzone (enough for two meals) and linguine gamberi ($6 lunch, $8.25 dinner), tiny bay shrimp and noodles tossed with olive oil, garlic, white wine, tomato and basil. It had a bit too much oil, but otherwise was a nice dish.

Tops on my list of things to try are the pizzas, including the quattro stagione (four seasons), made with pesto, marinara, olive oil, garlic and mozzarella ($7 for 10 inches, $8 for 12).

Owners Gianni Mottola and John Oliver will hang an engraved nameplate over your favorite table if you become a regular. It's an old Neapolitan custom, said Mottola.

Better get in line, though. Despite the recent expansion, Gianni's has a waiting list for nameplates.

Restaurant reviews are a regular Wednesday feature of the Seattle Times Snohomish County section. Reviewers visit restaurants unannounced and pay in full for all their meals. When they interview members of the restaurant management and staff, they do so only after the meals and services have been appraised.