Reviews

Dining Out

By Mary Furr

Some people are easily recognized by a single name like Garbo or Madonna. Capone is one of those whose name conjures legends of 1925 Chicago, where life was in the fast lane and restaurants offered great Italian food like the authentic dishes found at Capone's Pasta & Pizza on Beach Boulevard and Utica Street in Newland Center, Huntington Beach It's a minimalist place with dark red wood tables, ladder-back chairs, a banquette along one wall and a great wood-burning oven behind a used brick counter with tall stools. From the stools, you can watch owner and chef Dino Ferraro cooking up a storm of sauces, pasta and pizza. From nearly a dozen appetizers, we chose brushetta with shrimp ($5.95), four oblong pieces of Italian bread covered with thick green pesto, crushed basil, pine nuts, garlic and olive oil topped with tail-on shrimp. The contrast of crunchy bread with the freshness of the shellfish was good, but perhaps a little more olive oil could have been used. If you want to eat and do business or take lunch on the run, you can do it here. Chicken picatta (lunch $6.25, dinner $11.95) has chicken pieces sauteed with artichoke hearts in a lemon caper sauce. It's piquant and zesty, without the usual tomato, served over a choice of pasta. Capelli d'angelo, slender angel hair, worked well with the sauce, light with plenty of pasta surface to cling to.

The excellent sauce is also served with veal (lunch $8.95, dinner $11.95) -- a large cut goes well with spaghetti, a thicker pasta more typical of Italian cuisine -- a good dinner selection. Another favorite is ravioli con spinachi (lunch $6.25, dinner $12.95), which can be dressed up in various ways. Here there are jumbo ricotta and goat cheese-filled pasta pockets with the spinach in the sauce instead of in the ravioli. Diced tomato, mushrooms and carrots also flavor the light white sauce. Served in a hot shallow dish, it is excellent. There's no need for the pepper mill offered by the pleasant and watchful server, Josh Martinez.

Entrees include an excellent dinner salad of mixed greens, diced tomato, carrot, celery, black olive and pepperoncini. The salad comes with an olive oil and wine vinegar dressing, homemade like everything else here, including the soft twisted hot rolls that are served instead of bread sticks. Chef Dino says they're silly and not bread at all. If you're ready to die and go to dessert heaven, order the tiramisu ($4.50) -- two layers of cake soaked in espresso and Kahlua, powdered with cocoa and served in a dark pool that is the very essence of chocolate.

Lunch offers five sandwich varieties ($6.50). One was made of sausage, green pepper, onions and tomato sauce and had a top crust sprinkled with cheese, resembling a turnover -- almost like a calzone.

What's Italian without pizza? At Capone's, the crust is thin and crisp -- Chef Dino says he loves the sound of the crust as he cuts the pizza when it's just out of the wood-burning oven. Small (6 slices) of Capone's special ($8.95) is mildly spicy with the crisp, barely cooked onions and bell peppers and the works -- ham, pepperoni, mushrooms, smoked bacon with garlic, olive oil and fresh basil. There are also white and green pizzas, Hawaiian, Thai and Greek, smoked salmon and vegetarian. Your choice.

Dino says he bases his menu on Sicilian family recipes refined by his training at the Boston Culinary School. He's worked in restaurants since he was 14, so add experience to his qualifications. Now if he'd just bring in some potted plants and get a tape of Chicago-style jazz to replace the modern stuff, he'd warm my interior decorator's heart.

MARY FURR is the Independent restaurant critic.
If you have comments or suggestions for her, call (562) 493-5062.

Surprising New Favorite To Add To List

By John Reger

Usually everyone has their favorite when it comes to Italian restaurants. The neighborhood place is often the one people claim as the best. Maybe it is one they have a fond memory of or that serves a specialty dish.

I am always willing to add another favorite to my ever-growing list of Italian restaurants.

There is my first favorite, which is Micelli's in Hollywood. It is an old eatery that has Chianti bottles hanging from the ceiling and a piano player who is accompanied at times by waiters who take a break to serenade the crowd.

That place is special to me because my parents went there when they first moved to California from Buffalo, N.Y., in the early '60s. With little money, it was a treat for them to go there. They exposed my brother and I to it when we were old enough to understand why it is so special.

Now that I have lived in the Huntington Beach area for five years, I have my favorites here as well. Mangia Mangia on Goldenwest Street is one that springs to mind, and Mama D's in Newport Beach is another.

When I walked into Capone's I wasn't expecting to put them on my list. I hadn't heard much about the place and had actually walked in on a whim.

Owner Dino Ferraro opened the restaurant in 2000 with the idea of it becoming an Italian and French bistro.

The Italian won out and is now the dominant fare on both the lunch and dinner menus.

One of the things I liked immediately about the restaurant was that the lunch and dinner menus are different. Lunch is not just a pared-down version of dinner. Capone's offerings are almost entirely dissimilar, and that can be good and bad.

It is good because of the variety, but bad because if you like something at lunch, it isn't available for dinner.

A perfect example is the black tiger shrimp: five pieces of shrimp grilled then sautéed with garlic, white wine and pesto, served atop a slice of lemon.

It is an explosion of taste and one of the best appetizers I have had all year. The shrimp is firm and soaks up the sauce. What sauce was left, I attacked with the piece of ciabatta bread brought earlier to my table.

As I was looking at the dinner menu, the charming Diana, my server, pointed out an appetizer she liked even better than the one I just had. The scampi di parma is shrimp wrapped in prosciutto and sautéed with a garlic and lemon cream sauce.

I got the feeling you wouldn't even have to be a regular to coax Diana or one of the other staff to make you something at lunch that is normally served at dinner. She was very helpful and sincere.

For my main course I got tube pasta with green and red peppers, red onions, marinara sauce and Italian sausage. The meat was overpoweringly good.

As I scanned the dinner menu I made mental notes of all the entrees I wanted to try, including the cioppino, osso buco and the chicken Marsala. If they are as good as what I had for lunch, and I would be stunned if they weren't, I will have a new favorite Italian restaurant to put on my list.

John Reger

Take a Seat at Capone's Cucina

By Bill Borden

What's on the menu: Whatever your classic Italian palate is crying out for, Capone's has it and it's delicious. The pasta selection is wide and creative.

Choose from staples such as Spaghetti Bolognese, Ravioli, Linguini and Lasagna or go for the more epicurean Fettuccini Salmone, Penne con Petite Di Pollo or Farfalle O'Sole Mio.

The cozy spot in Newland Center will serve up your choice of eight delicious salads or six different and tasty Antipasti Appetizers. Capone's also offers a good selection of fish, chicken, veal and beef dishes.

In addition to its veal parmegiana and picatta, Capone's serves Osso Bucco Dello Chef – "veal shank baked in hearty red sauce, served over penne pasta."

Recommendations: On my last visit, I enjoyed the classic Spaghetti Bolognese with a house salad. The homemade meat sauce here rivals any other in Orange County. It has an authentically robust flavor without any one overpowering ingredient.

Yes, you can taste the quality and artistic expertise with which the tomatoes, garlic, onion, basil, and other spices are combined, but the overall taste is what counts here.

We also enjoyed the Pasta Fagioli soup with a side salad for a light dinner. The spumoni in a dark chocolate shell and a cup of hearty coffee is the perfect way to finish up your Capone's Cucina experience.

Whatever you have here, have it with lots of Capone's fresh baked bread. Prepared continuously throughout the day, the loaf that will be on your table just came out of the oven.

What makes this place unique: Although the selection, quality and service at Capone's are all above the mark, the restaurant succeeds in maintaining an informal and friendly atmosphere.

There is nothing pretentious about Capone's. Our waiter, Jose, helped us have not only an excellent dinner, but a good time as well.

In addition to its sit-down restaurant, Capone's will prepare pasta, panini, salad, meat balls or other popular meals for a group at your home or office.

Bill Borden