Padri is what might result if a Tuscan farmhouse were redone as a restaurant by a team of martini-drinking baby boomers.
It's the newest member of an Italian restaurant family that includes Il Moro, Locanda Veneto and Ca' Brea. But its tranquil Agoura Hills location makes it far closer to rural Tuscany than the others.
It's appropriately rustic, with a wood-beamed ceiling, straw-colored walls and raw wood tables. The martini-bar side, featuring a cozy brick fireplace and New Age music, is the ideal spot for hunkering down with a date and a cocktail--say, the Vertigo Lemon Drop: vodka and the juice of three lemons in a sugar-frosted glass.
This is a comforting restaurant. The noise level is tolerable and the room is bathed in soft amber light.
The food can also be comforting. Chef Saverio Posarelli trained at the celebrated Florence restaurant Cibreo, and he has solid experience around here as well.
He also has a vivid imagination. Classics such as spaghetti con pomodoro and osso buco share billing with innovations such as insalata di finocchi e rugola con filetti di aranci, a wild combination of sliced fennel, arugula, orange slices, shaved pecorino cheese and caramelized walnuts.
Modern Italian cooking is a new wrinkle for trendy Agoura Hills; I predict Padri will save the Beamers and Benzes in its valet parking section many trips to the Westside.
As at most upscale Italian restaurants, the appetizers and pastas seem to be the most interesting part of the meal. I loved ovaline di formaggio, which takes the cliche of warm goat cheese and turns it into something memorable. The chef wraps ovals of goat cheese in crisp pancetta bacon and serves a heap of perfectly sauteed Swiss chard on the side. It is simple perfection. Pancetta is also the star in spinaci con uovo in camicia, a deliciously rustic salad of baby spinach, grilled mushrooms and a warm poached egg, all in a warm balsamic vinaigrette.
But filetto crudo e affumicato, a thickly sliced carpaccio on arugula with rather a lot of dressing, is a nondescript effort. I didn't much care for the crab and shrimp cakes, either; these crocchette di gamberi e granchio were rubbery. But the bean stew that accompanied the cakes, made from cannelini and borlotti beans, was filling and satisfying.
I only tasted one soup, a minestrone made with black Tuscan cabbage, carrots and potatoes. It was hearty but bland.
