Domenico Ristorante in Silver Lake grabs two gold stars

Brentwood is rife with Italian restaurants opened by Italian waiters who used to work somewhere else. Kiss. Kiss. Ciao. Add in a copycat menu of L.A. Italian dishes, preferably Tuscan-inspired, a celebrity or two disguised in scruffy attire: success, even in this cockamamie economy. Everybody loves pasta.

Silver Lake just got its own example of the genre when Domenico Ristorante moved into the former Michelangelo, which in turn moved farther east on Rowena Avenue to the site of a failed Mexican place. But restaurants playing musical chairs is a whole other story.

Domenico is named for Domenico Frasca, who grew up in the Naples area of Italy, worked in France and for the last decade was a waiter at Drago serving spaghetti bottarga and swordfish to Santa Monica Italophiles. But this 3-month-old ristorante has more going for it than the typical Brentwood Italian. It's small and cozy, has a sweet little sidewalk terrace, and a chef with initiative and spark. The menu has its hits and misses, but it's not the same old same-old. For that we can be grateful.

For the full review, dining information and a photo gallery, click here.

-- S. Irene Virbila

Photo credit: Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times