A New Villa Nova, Just Like in the Good Old Days

NEWPORT BEACH —  Villa Nova, a Pacific Coast Highway landmark for decades, reopened late last summer after having been gutted by a kitchen fire in September 1995.

The restaurant has a lot of history. Actor Allen Dale (born Alfred DiLisio in Abruzzi, Italy) opened it on the Sunset Strip in 1933. It moved to Newport Beach in 1967. After Dale’s death several years ago, his wife, Charlotte, and son, Jim, carried on until they had to declare bankruptcy, selling the place to Andy Crean in 1993.

After the fire, people wondered if Villa Nova was gone forever, but Crean has gamely resurrected this fantasy-like structure.

Today the exterior could be described as a Disneyland version of a Florentine palazzo, a magical kingdom of pastels, plaster turrets and fresco walls. Inside are trompe-l’oeil murals of Italian street scenes and gaudy stained-glass windows.

The foyer walls are plastered with menus from the restaurant’s halcyon days and old celebrity head shots: June Allyson, Robert Stack, Joey Bishop. There is a snazzy cigar lounge upstairs, along with a few small, private dining rooms. Downstairs, the main dining room houses a piano bar and is a low-ceilinged, dimly lit space where the best tables and booths face directly onto Newport Harbor.

Even if you don’t fancy the gaudy exterior, Villa Nova’s dark, clubby interior makes it just about the best-looking place on this stretch of Coast Highway. Locals obviously agree; the restaurant has been full every time I’ve visited.

I would like to see some of the food modernized, but perhaps the new ownership thinks that would dilute the nostalgia. Longtime chef Sonny Mergenthaler is still in charge, and the menu has scarcely changed during his tenure. How else would you explain mushroom and chicken liver trifolate--doughy pasta shells smothered in mushrooms, whole chicken livers, garlic, tomatoes and white wine? The dish is flavorful, but you’d need the appetite of a longshoreman to do it justice.

Some things never change. Five years ago, I ordered a bowl of pasta e fagioli at Villa Nova and got a watery bean soup with no pasta. Last week, the exact same thing happened, and when I mentioned it to the waiter, he returned with a new bowl, this time with a little elbow macaroni lurking at the bottom. Oh, well.

But you won’t go wrong starting with carpaccio con grana, which is delicious, razor-thin slices of raw steak topped with capers, olive oil and chunks of imported Parmesan cheese.

Another good beginning is antipasto misto with mozzarella: cold cuts, marinated vegetables, slices of cheese, the cold eggplant dip caponata and a retro-style hunk of fried mozzarella in a rich marinara sauce.

The pastas, fresh and cooked al dente, are often overwhelmed by the sauces. Paglia e fieno (literally, “straw and hay”) is green and white fettuccine mingled with mushrooms, prosciutto and fresh peas, but it comes with too much thick cream sauce.

But the Neapolitan classic tagliatelle alla puttanesca isn’t bad, if you insist on the optional capers and anchovies, which give needed zest to the fresh tomato, garlic and olive sauce. One of the best pastas is the simple spaghetti al Bolognese, the sauce a meaty, sweetly spiced veal ragu.

Entrees tend to heavy. The osso buco is a rich baked veal shank brimming with marrow. Then there is the famous piatto Villa Nova, introduced in 1936 by then chef Wally Gentile. This is a classic veal scaloppine, with a topping of eggplant, tomato sauce and melted mozzarella cheese, served with a side of spaghetti. It’s ponderous in the extreme and has earned a rest.

I regret to say that the one heavy entree I always liked at Villa Nova, a sausage-stuffed veal roll called braciole, is no longer on the menu. The chef had problems with it, I was told.

Otherwise, all the old-timers are present and accounted for: sausage and peppers, chicken cacciatore and veal scaloppine for every occasion--Marsala, Milanese and more than a half dozen others. Seafood lovers can order dishes such as scampi pizzaiola or a fresh salmon filet baked with (too much) white wine sauce with fresh dill and lime butter, or swordfish piccata.

The desserts are rich and comforting. I recommend the cannoli (a fried pastry filled with sweetened ricotta and bits of chocolate) and the made-on-premises ice cream biscuit tortoni, rum-flavored and rich with fruit and nuts. The restaurant also makes cheesecakes, creamy ones with delicate crumb crusts, in flavors such as lemon, raspberry and chocolate hazelnut.

You can follow up by ordering from the extensive list of grappas, cognacs, Portos and other dessert wines, found on the same menu page as the desserts. The rear section of the menu is an extensive wine list, but use caution when ordering Italian wines because the vintages are often not those listed. A rare wine list of vintage Bordeaux is available on request, one more way that history surfaces in here.

Villa Nova is high-end moderate to expensive. Antipasti are $4.75 to $9.95. Pastas are $9.50 to $26.50. Secondi piatti are $13.95 to $28.95.

* VILLA NOVA

* 3131 W. Coast Highway, Newport Beach.

* (714) 642-7880.

* Open 4 p.m.-1 a.m. Monday-Saturday, noon-midnight Sunday.

* All major cards.