Bread Just Beginning Of Fine Dining At Assaggio

Restaurant review

XXX Assaggio Ristorante, 2010 Fourth Ave. ($$) Italian cuisine. Lunch ($5.95 to $10.95) 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Dinner ($6.95 to $16.95) 5 to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 5 to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Wine and beer. Nonsmoking area. Access for disabled. Major credit cards. Reservations and catering: 441-1399. -------------------------------------------------------------------

The passion at Assaggio Ristorante - the new Italian restaurant at the Claremont Hotel downtown - is almost thick enough to cut with a Parmesan knife.

Owners Mauro Golmarvi and Lorenzo Cianciusi are determined to give customers a good time, and mostly they succeed, serving boldly flavored food and wine in a pleasant atmosphere punctuated with laughter and smiles. Both have their roots in the Abruzzo region of central Italy near the Adriatic Sea. Some specialties are transplants from kitchens of their mothers, but the menus also reflect influences from several other regions of Italy.

We were seated for dinner at a table almost within reach and certainly within sight and smell of the antipasto table. Since it was calling our names, we decided it would make a good introduction to the talents of Assaggio's open kitchen. Our server arranged an assortment on plates. One order ($6.95) is ample for two people. Especially memorable were the polenta with capers, tiny green beans with cannellini beans in a marinade, and the smokey grilled slices of eggplant and zucchini.

Living on bread alone

A basket of Ciro's Bread from La Panzanella Bakery and a small bowl of herbed olive oil for dipping added to the pleasure of this antipasti course. Should have come with a warning label - "This Bread is Addictive." Brings to mind the legend that San Francisco has only one steak. It is passed around from restaurant to restaurant as diners send it back to the kitchen because they've filled up on sourdough bread.

But do save room for an entree. I enjoyed Agnello Osso Buco ($14.95), a hearty portion of falling-off-the-bone lamb shank simmered long and slow in a tomato and red wine sauce. The accompanying carrots could have been cooked a few minutes more, but it was a satisfying dish. My wife's Papardella Boscaiola ($9.95) was a generous meeting of the wide pasta with prosciutto, wild mushrooms, marsala and a touch of cream. Our friends, frequent visitors to Italy, gave good marks to the Veal Saltimbocca ($12.95), sauteed with prosciutto, sage and white wine butter sauce, and the Farfalle Uccelletto ($8.95), bow-tie pasta with chicken, zucchini, mushrooms, onions, white wine, cream and tomato.

A bottle of Poliziano Chianti from Siena ($21) complemented all the foods. Golmarvi, who runs the front of the house, is especially proud of Assaggio's wine list and eager to suggest what pairs best with your meals.

Cianciusi does most of the cooking, including the restaurant's signature dish, Pollo Mattone ($13.95), half a chicken roasted in a brick oven, served on a bed of bread with arugula, rosemary and a blanket of lemon wine sauce. But Golmarvi gets all due credit for making the Tiramisu ($3.95), artfully presented with the outlines of a fork and spoon dusted in cocoa on the serving late, and tasting as good as it looks. Other desserts, including a refreshing orange gelato stuffed in a tangerine shell, are imported from Italy.

Experienced partnership

Golmarvi and Cianciusi bring a combined 26 years of experience in the restaurant biz to their new partnership. They fell in love at first sight with their space for the 120-seat business. With 20-foot ceilings, it reminded them of venerable restaurants in Italy. Seven months of hard work resulted in the pleasant interior design. Wall paintings by Seattle artist Janice Warren, large arrangements of dried flowers and vases of fresh flowers on tables covered with butcher paper accent backgrounds of green and beige.

With few soft surfaces, sounds travel well here. The clatter of dishes falling on the checkerboard tile floor has been heard each visit, making me wonder if I was visiting a Greek restaurant, but one bite into a slice of the bubbly, crispy, chewy Pizza Capricciosa ($8.95) baked in the brick oven with prosciutto, capers, artichoke hearts, tomato and mozzarella, and my geography was intact.

Assaggio features two to four daily specials. Golmarvi walks to the Pike Place Market each morning to select fresh seafood.

The restaurant gets points in my book for designing a lunch menu very different from the dinner offerings. The Panini Anconetani ($5.95) is a masterpiece of a sandwich, grilled on special round crusty rolls from La Panzanella. It oozes with roasted eggplant, red peppers and garlic, tomato and arugula. Times staff reviewers make visits to restaurants anonymously and unannounced. They pay in full for all food, wines and services. When they interview members of the restaurants' management and staff, they do so only after the meals and the services have been appraised. They do not accept invitations to evaluate restaurants.