Restaurant: Hostaria del Piccolo

Location: 606 Broadway, Santa Monica, CA 90401. P: 310-393-6633

Date: August 27, 2011

Cuisine: Italian

Rating: Good new casual Italian

Hostaria del Piccolo is a casual new Italian with a Pasta/Pizza emphasis from the people that brought us Piccolo (my review here).

It’s located in a chic modern space at the corner of 6th and Broadway three blocks behind the Santa Monica Promenade.

The interior has a modern rustic quality.

And they have a lovely patio, which given that it was 5pm on an 85 degree perfect California August day totally ruled.

Given the weather, I decided to take a cue from my Italian friends and order a glass of Lambrusco Frizzante. Sparkling grape juice with a kick, what more can you ask for in the heat?

Very nice thick and buttery grissini.

The menu. Secondi are not numerous in quantity, but they have a lot of pizzas and a number of tasty sounding pastas.

“CANTALUPO  tuscan melon and Bresaola.” Artfully arranged!

“MESCOLATA organic greens, roasted tomatoes, sliced almonds.”

Rigatoni pomodoro for the boy.

“PAPPARDELLE tomato sauce, roasted eggplant, mozzarella di bufala.”

“SALSICCIA  tomato sauce, smoked mozzarella, sausage, bell peppers, Castelvetrano olives.” I actually ordered the FARCITA (which was a white prosciutto pizza) but he must have misheard me and anyway this was a tasty pizza. The sausage was very tender and flavorful. The crust was really yummy, and the whole thing not overly burnt like some wood oven pizzas are. If you want to see my Ultimate Homemade Pizza, click here.

“AGNELLO Marinated and grilled New Zealand lamb chops, roasted garlic sauce.” Very nice tender straight up grilled lamb chops. Bone gnawing good.

The dessert menu. We were full and didn’t order any.

But they brought my 2.75 year-old this ice cream cone as a freebee and he was mighty pleased.

Overall, Hostaria del Piccolo is a very nice new contemporary Italian, with a heavy pizza/pasta focus. This is sure to make it a crowd pleaser. They could use to beef up the variety of anti-pasta and secondi a bit, but what I had was very nice.

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The open kitchen inside.

Or for a legion of great eating in Italy itself, here.