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Restaurant review

A little Italy on Main Street

Thanks to Bellini, diners don't have to leave downtown Dunedin to enjoy the pastas, wines, mushrooms and cheeses of the old country.

By CHRIS SHERMAN
Published May 12, 2005

DUNEDIN - I'm sure it's possible to have bad dining luck on Main Street - and there have been disappointments - but I keep running into winners. It's only natural that here is where the Pinellas Trail of Good Intentions should intersect with a Boulevard of Indulgence.

The newest reward for all that hiking and biking is Bellini, excess laid on thick as only Italians can do without seeming to worry about it. And other than price, you needn't either.

That true sensibility has been imported to our favorite quaint downtown in the persons of Ciro and Clarita Mancini. They installed themselves and their tastes for savory mushrooms and good cheeses in the extensive faux scenery of the former Olivia's right across Main from City Hall.

So the question "Do you make the pasta/ice cream/dessert here?" often gets a "No, it's imported."

While foreign no longer means better, if Mancini prefers his pasta, wines, mushrooms and cheeses from the old country, I'll go with him. (By the way, the fact that this is high quality and expensive cooking doesn't make it "northern Italian"; the Mancinis and chef are from Naples, in southern Italy.)

Bellini knows that Florida does produce some goodies like fresh herbs and tiny tomatoes. The kitchen puts them to good use in freshening tomato sauces and with imported milky moist chunks of mozzarella in a lush, refreshing hash of a Caprese salad.

So you'll find distinctive tastes and rarities from Italy sprinkled throughout the meal, like the richest and fruitiest olive oil set on a local table. The antipasta, for instance, includes fine salami, packed with flavor in the thinnest slices, luscious mortadella and longstem artichoke hearts, for me, the flower of Italian gourmet products.

These would be mere groceries if the kitchen didn't do so well by the fresh meats, fish and especially the sauces. Remarkably tender osso buco of baby veal shank came with a sunny red sauce of tomato, wine and exotic hints of cinnamon and nutmeg.

When I drifted into bigger-bucks entrees (there are plenty), the best feature of a $30 filet mignon was the trimmings, a velvety sauce packed with the most savory Italian mushrooms, from silky porcini to small cap chiodini. With white asparagus the size of birthday candles and branches of thyme and rosemary, I felt I was on a happy walk in the woods.

Bellini did as well with seafood. Red snapper was as good as in the bygone days before grouper madness, flaky white fish fired with fresh oregano and chopped tomato. Salmon, overcooked as usual by my lights, was rescued by a frothy sauce of sparkling wine and fresh berries (the menu had promised caviar, but the berries suited our tastes and the sauce as well).

Pasta here includes a dozen raviolis stuffed various ways and cloudy puffs of gnocchi sauced from red to bleu, but my interest was in flat noodles, fresh tagliatelle and broad pappardelle.

They call up the best simple combinations (with one scary choice of coconut saffron with shrimp and strawberries). The wide flat pappardelle with a few big shrimp, porcini, greens and a lemony sauce of garlic and white wine made a fine, light mix. The prawns were a bit overcooked and tired; my druthers would be grilled and heads-on.

While the bitter chocolate pyramid was too cold, trans-Atlantic flight never tasted as good as the cheesecake of mascarpone and ricotta or the strawberry torta shipped straight from Italy. Only espresso, thin and short of crema, was oddly out of synch.

I was happy with all the other trimmings. Service was fine until my second visit, when I had been spotted and it was too attentive. Good crusty bread and a smartly chosen wine list with good glasses of modest Montepulciano and polished new Valpolicella rounded out two pleasureable meals.

It adds up to an unusually rich and authentic taste of Italy, but it also has the distinct taste of a small town that likes its politics: The TV over the busy bar is tuned to the commission meeting.

I know I'd prefer to watch my government in action here - with a plate of mushroom ravioli in front of me.

Chris Sherman dines anonymously and unannounced. The St. Petersburg Times pays for all expenses. A restaurant's advertising has nothing to do with selection for a review or the assessment of its quality. Sherman can be reached at 727 893-8585 or sherman@sptimes.com

487 Main St., Dunedin

(727) 733-5449

Hours: 5 to 10 p.m. Monday-Saturday

Details: Credit cards accepted, wheelchair accessible, no smoking indoors, full bar, reservations suggested.

Prices: Appetizers, $6 to $18.95; entrees, $14.95 to $31.95.

Features: Outdoor seating.

[Last modified February 1, 2006, 12:02:18]