30 Years Young

“Thirty years!” Piero Selvaggio says to a guest, shaking his head. “This year is Valentino’s 30th birthday. I am old, and this place is ancient!” he adds with a rueful groan. In fact, the Sicily-born restaurateur doesn’t look a day over 40, and in a city where it’s hard to name more than a handful of good restaurants over a decade old, Valentino continues to have quite a run. It’s a movie with a happy ending for the charismatic Selvaggio, who came to California to study and ended up proprietor of a renowned Italian restaurant that he named for silent film star Rudolph Valentino.

Today Selvaggio is as famous in Italy as he is in the States, a familiar figure at every important wine and food event, with Valentino perhaps best known for its splendid Italian wine list.

Not bad for a place that started out as a beer joint with food. In 1972, Selvaggio and his then-partner Gianni Paoletti saved enough to buy the restaurant and began working the tables themselves. Like some of the biggest stars in the Michelin firmament, Valentino evolved from modest beginnings. Bit by bit through the years, Selvaggio has added rooms, redecorated and redefined his restaurant. The look is more stolid than elegant, but I doubt many people notice as they are swept off their feet by the effusive welcome.

For the past 16 years, Angelo Auriana, a native of Bergamo in northern Italy, has been executive chef. In the early days, Valentino turned out the generic Italian fare typical of the ‘70s in Los Angeles. But Selvaggio, himself not a chef, decided to go beyond the predictable, helping revolutionize Italian cuisine here.

Selvaggio was also one of the first Italian restaurateurs in this country to look beyond the cliche of straw-wrapped Chianti flasks to explore the entire palette of Italian wines. In the last couple of decades, as Italian winemakers have made tremendous strides, Selvaggio has been right there, encouraging, buying and broadcasting the news.

Today his 200,000-bottle cellar is arguably the best in the world for Italian wines, put together by someone absolutely passionate about wine. It includes not only Tuscany and Piedmont, the two best regions for Italian reds, but also cutting-edge wines from all over Italy. Now that the south of Italy is producing some extraordinary bottles, Valentino is the champion and showcase for these little-known producers. At the same time, the list is deep in older vintages from heavy hitters such as Angelo Gaja, Tignanello and Sassacaia.

Dining at Valentino always is suffused with a sense of occasion, from the ceremonious greeting at the door to the lingering arrivederci. Selvaggio’s genius is his warmth and charm, in the way he makes each guest feel they have his entire attention for the time they are there. That may be why few, with the exception of first-time diners, consult the printed menu. It seems almost rude not to put yourself in the hands of Selvaggio and his capable staff. Everything conspires to seduce you into ordering what Valentino does best, the extravaganza menu, a series of little courses that can be tailored to the night, the wines and the whims of either the customer or the chef.

The chef may send out a dainty portion of grilled, sweet cuttlefish on a yellow pepper puree or a beguiling taste of pesciolini fritti, fried whitebait with a squeeze of lemon to tempt you. Somehow, before you know it, everyone at the table has jettisoned any ideas of ordering a la carte. The sommelier, resplendent in double-breasted jacket with satin lapels, white pique shirt and burgundy bow tie is at the table suggesting a new white from Friuli or Alto Adige. Or something made from an antique grape that would be hard to find in any wine dictionary. Moderation? Not tonight.

On my last visit, the meal began with a few spoonfuls of earthy cannellini bean soup garnished with ochre sea urchin and San Marzano tomatoes framed in a white porcelain bowl. It turns out sea urchin and beans are made for each other. Then came a small portion of farro salad. That’s the ancient grain from Tuscany, nut brown and chewy, lightly dressed and topped with snowy white lump of crab meat from Australia. It was inscribed with a swirl of 25-year-old mahogany aceto balsamico with enough acidity to balance its sweetness.

Twice a week, seafood arrives directly from the Mediterranean. That’s when you might be plied with a minimalist composition of scorpionfish and monkfish with musky porcini mushrooms from Italy. The pasta might be an Abruzzese dish of fedelini (thin noodles) sauced in the fragrant, garlicky juices of a fish ragu. The fresh seafood is one reason why wine buffs and bon vivants like to show up for Friday lunch, a leisurely meal for which Auriana does some of his most inspired cooking.

While initially modeling Valentino after such restaurants as San Domenico in Imola, Italy, which get raves from the French Michelin, Selvaggio has belatedly come to appreciate regional cuisine, the cooking of the heart, as he puts it. Yet he’s got a chef who, in truth, seems more interested in elegantly minimalist contemporary cuisine in the style of Gualtiero Marchesi (the first three-star Michelin chef in Italy). This creates a conflict, but also a dialogue, and out of this has come some of the most engaging cooking I’ve had at Valentino in a while. Now even the bland molded vegetable purees that are a hallmark of fancy Italian cuisine taste bolder. I’m thinking of the artichoke tortino, which can taste like baby food but here has the full flavor of the artichoke. And a miniature thin-crusted tart filled with raschera cheese under a blizzard of fresh white truffle shavings does justice to Alba’s famous fungi.

The kitchen is turning out more soulful pastas, too. Selvaggio is enthusiastic about an artisanal pasta producer he’s found in Torre Annunziata, south of Naples. One of the antique pasta shapes there is candele, tall tubes of pasta the size of church tapers. Auriana cuts them in four and serves them with a sauce of San Marzano tomatoes grown in the volcanic soil of Mt. Vesuvius and some tender burrata cheese made just that morning. Nothing could be simpler. Nothing could be tastier. The same goes for Latini spaghetti, from another artisanal pasta maker, served with spring onions and pungent pecorino Romano.

Now, along with the predictable venison or veal chop, you can get something as interesting as wild rabbit with snails and rosemary, a wonderfully earthy dish for red wine. If my recent meals are anything to go by, Valentino is continuing to evolve. That being said, the normal main courses (those on the menu) can be dull--for example, a filet mignon of Piedmontese beef that’s both too tender and without much flavor, or pigeon in a sticky-sweet fig and honey sauce. These verge on generic restaurant food that you could find anywhere in the world. When it comes to the finale, you may be happier with the well-edited cheese plates than most of the uninspired--though technically well-executed--desserts. Instead, live a little and order a glass of glorious vin santo from Tuscany or any of the other unique Italian dessert wines on the list.

Valentino may have the best service in all of Southern California. Under the direction of maitre d’ Giuseppe Mollica, it has not only a clockwork precision but a warmth and thoughtfulness that’s notably missing from many high-end restaurants. It’s to Selvaggio’s credit that Valentino has become a beloved institution where a long list of loyal customers celebrate birthdays, anniversaries and the important occasions in life. It’s even more beautiful that, at 30 years of age, Valentino has found the cuisine of the heart.

Valentino

3115 Pico Blvd.

Santa Monica

(310) 829-4313

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: ***

AMBIENCE: Six dining rooms, including a private wine room, and a couple of secluded nooks.

SERVICE: Extremely professional and accommodating.

BEST DISHES: Prosciutto di Carpegna, smoked swordfish carpaccio with Sicilian caponata, any of the risotti or pastas, the extravaganza menu. Appetizers, $10 to $14. Pastas, $16 to $18. Main courses, $24 to $32. Menu extravaganza, $85 per person. Corkage, $25.

WINE PICKS: 1998 Miani Tocai Friulano, Friuli, Italy; 1997 Fontodi Flaccianello, Tuscany, Italy.

FACTS: Dinner Monday through Saturday. Lunch Friday. Valet parking. 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.