Try the salumi, stay for secondi

“PROSCIUTTO di Parma, cacciatorini salame, speck from Alto Adige, duck prosciutto, coppa ... “ the waiter intones as he sets down a platter of salumi at the new All’ Angelo. I look down on rippled folds of cured meats, pink and white, some ribboned with delicious sweet pork fat, some suffused with smoke, a salame spiked with peppercorns and garlic. Now this, I’m thinking, looks like Italy, and I’m hungrier than I thought.

At the back of the dining room, the chef himself in a tall, white hat cuts the meats on a 1921 Berkel slicing machine by turning a silent flywheel. So thin you could practically read the Corriere della Serra newspaper through the slices, the ham almost melts on the tongue. With a basket of crusty bread, the platter is easily enough for four to share, and washed down with a crisp white from Friuli or a bright, juicy Barbera or Chianti, it’s a terrific way to start a meal at this 3-month-old spot.

All’ Angelo, which means “to the angel” in Italian, is the first restaurant from two Italian-born L.A. veterans. Stefano Ongaro, a former professional baseball pitcher in Verona, Italy, was a waiter and maitre d’ at Valentino for years before moving to Enoteca Drago and, most recently, Il Grano. He met chef Mirko Paderno at Valentino, where Paderno was sous chef.

Paderno later took the job as executive chef at Dolce, the first trendy Italian restaurant in town, and then at Bridge, another contender in that category. The 31-year-old has always turned out competent generic Italian cooking, but now, with his own place, he’s cooking with more focus and intensity. He’s finally gotten serious.

We each pick up the menu, then listen as the waiter tells us the night’s specials. That saffron cavatelli (ripple-edge pasta) with oxtail ragu sounds awfully good. So does the spaghetti alla chitarra (cut on a box strung with wires) with truffles, sausage and cream. The rest of the menu doesn’t read like your everyday Brentwood Italian either. Many dishes are from northern Italy, but there are also dishes from Naples or Sicily and places between.

Pasta makes the grade

IT’S no secret that pasta is the real test of any Italian kitchen. Here, potato tortelli are zigzagged squares with a high, plump filling of mushrooms and herbs, gently tossed in a savory mushroom sauce. The mushrooms are small, brown pioppini from Oregon, quickly sauteed and mounted with a little butter or olive oil. The flavors are direct and earthy, the pasta dough fine and tender. Ravioli al brasato is just as satisfying with its stuffing of braised beef, leeks and aged provolone.

Cavatelli, those curved, ribbed pasta ovals typically from Puglia, are cooked perfectly al dente and sauced with a chunky oxtail ragu, which makes an incredibly hearty pasta dish. If you order this one, you probably won’t want a main course. Fresh, springy spaghetti cut on the “chitarra,” or guitar, are tossed with lots of crumbled, sage-scented pork sausage and slivered black truffles, everything bound together with a little cream. The truffles come from Molise in the south of Italy. They don’t have much of a scent, and only a mild earthy quality, which is a disappointment.

When it comes to risotto, the chef has just one, a very classic saffron-tinged risotto embellished with bone marrow, which melts into the rice, adding its nourishing richness. To gild the lily, some osso buco sits on top, making the risotto virtually a main course, except that the proportions are reversed -- more rice than meat.

The service is warm and personable from veteran L.A. waiters who know what they’re doing. The water-pouring may get over-solicitous, but other than that, it’s smooth sailing under Ongaro’s direction. He too, has stepped up to the plate. At his own restaurant, he’s warmer and more personable than he’s ever seemed in any previous position. It’s good to be the boss.

He also gets to be the wine buyer, and has put together quite a good list of Italian and New World wines at a wide range of prices for such a young restaurant. He’s got older vintages too, and now the wine aficionados are starting to show up. And for novices, he’s serving more than 20 wines by the glass.

Some daring moves

ALL’ ANGELO is not an imposing restaurant, but neither was Valentino, nor, for that matter, Il Grano, when each of them opened. But it’s very comfortable -- and quiet enough to talk. Architect Osvaldo Maiozzi has transformed a former storefront Indian restaurant into an inviting contemporary space. The partners have invested in the bones of the place -- in handsome wood beams, lithe chocolate leather chairs, simple Murano glass light fixtures -- and in good stemware and decanters.

They’re ready to be busy, and they are on weekends. The restaurant is open six days a week for dinner and five for lunch, a grueling schedule. But on some evenings, only a handful of guests have sought out the restaurant on this down-market stretch of Melrose Avenue just west of La Brea. The crowd that dines at Valentino or Bridge could be shy about going east of La Cienega Boulevard, I don’t know. I’d hate to think the address is working against All’ Angelo. But then again, Valentino didn’t have such a hot location when it opened either. Somebody has to be a pioneer. Table 8, after all, is only a few blocks west, underneath a tattoo parlor.

The address is not All’ Angelo’s only bold move. How about trippa alla Parmigiana as an antipasto? Tripe? my friend Jimmy asks, nervously, hoping, I guess, that he heard wrong. “I’ve never had it in my life.” But he does. Here, it’s a slow-simmered dish of soft, plush tripe in tomato, white wine and garlic. Served with grilled gold polenta, the casserole, at the last minute, gets a dusting of Parmigiano.

The octopus carpaccio Paderno introduced at Bridge is on the menu here too: thin rounds of violet-edged octopus tentacle laid out on the plate like a fabulous mosaic. The flavor is delicate, enhanced with a flurry of baby greens and halved cherry tomatoes. Roasted quail makes another appealing antipasto with sauteed pioppini mushrooms. The quail itself is juicy and flavorful, wonderful against the rich, foresty taste of the mushrooms.

The kitchen doesn’t get too elaborate with the main courses, which is a good thing. There are a couple of excellent fish dishes. One is fillet of branzino, or Mediterranean striped bass, in aqua pazza, “crazy water.” Around Naples, that means the fish is poached in a tomato water with lemon leaves, garlic and white wine. It’s full of flavor, yet light.

The other is the whole grilled orata, or sea bream. Cooked on the bone (and filleted by the waiter), it’s more flavorful than a fillet would be. All it needs is a thin thread of olive oil and a sprinkling of salt. Meaty Gaeta olives, fingerling potatoes and roasted tomatoes are the accompaniments.

Heartier appetites may head straight to the misto costolette -- a plate of veal and pork ribs served with a rustic pork sausage and ribbons of Savoy cabbage braised to a soft, tasty mush. The best main course on the menu may be roasted guinea hen stuffed with sausage, cut into medallions and served with a luscious potato “lasagna,” basically a potato gratin.

Just warming up

OCCASIONALLY, in the early days on a busy night, the kitchen lost its focus and main courses came out looking like something dished up in a cafeteria, messy and unappealing. That was then.

Even desserts at All’ Angelo are a cut above those at most Italian restaurants.

There’s a wonderful polenta pudding laced with lemon and served warm. An outstanding panna cotta, fragile and shivery just as it should be, is decorated with blood orange segments. Another good choice is an ice cream sandwich made with vanilla gelato and shortbread pastry called sbrisolona.

Cap off the evening with a short, dark espresso or a glass of Moscato and it’s a perfect slice of la dolce vita.

virbila@latimes.com

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All’ Angelo

Rating: ** 1/2

Location: 7166 Melrose Ave.,

Los Angeles, (323) 933-9540.

Ambience: Sophisticated Melrose Avenue Italian restaurant owned by former Valentino maitre d’ Stefano Ongaro and former Bridge

and Dolce chef Mirko

Paderno.

Service: Courteous and professional, sometimes overzealous.

Price: Antipasti, $10 to $20; primi, $17 to $30; main courses, $25 to $36; desserts, $7 to $11.

Best dishes: Octopus carpaccio, platter of salumi, trippa alla Parmigiana, potato tortelli with mushrooms, cavatelli pasta with oxtail ragu, stuffed guinea hen, branzino in aqua pazza (Mediterranean striped bass poached in tomato-wine water), whole grilled orata, polenta pudding with lemon, panna cotta with blood oranges.

Wine list: Excellent Italian-dominated list that covers the length and breadth of Italy, plus more than 20 wines

by the glass. Corkage fee, $20.

Best table: A corner spot or a seat at the bar.

Details: Open for lunch from noon to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and for dinner from 6 to 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday. Beer and wine. Valet parking, $5.

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.