I recall wincing in empathy last summer after noticing that another Italian restaurant had opened on Federal Hill. I could as easily have saluted. Getting coals to Newcastle has nothing on bringing osso buco to Atwells Avenue (and arranging for valet parking space to boot). I have friends north of Boston who pass by that town's North End, the self-proclaimed hub of the Italian-American universe, when they want primo pasta.

The name Pane e Vino says it all. If you serve the best bread you can find and the best wine, everything else follows. It's ironic that with the excellent Italian bakeries on the Hill, this place gets its Italian bread from Olga's Cup & Saucer across town, but this is just evidence that this restaurant doesn't rely on the obvious. As for the wine, there are scores to choose from by the bottle -- all Italian, of course -- and an even two-dozen by the glass. Proprietor Joe Dequattro used to work for Martinetti as a wine consultant, so we're in safe hands.

The décor is attractive without being ostentatious. Flowers on every table, but they are buds or small blossoms with baby's breath. Potted plants are on banquette dividers in the front room, along with tall tangles of vines in vases set in niches in the textured peach-colored stucco walls. A back dining room has a cozy fireplace and a mural of the Bay of Naples.

The Neapolitan-oriented menu explains why only a single soup is offered: traditional pasta e fagioli ($6.95), pricey and not particularly special, but authentico, sprinkled with bits of pancetta and with a rich, flavorful broth. In the basket with that chewy Olga's bread come some shards of tasty Sicilian flatbread, called carta di musica for the melodies it will play in your mouth. The olive oil poured into your saucer, by the way, is richly flavorful, even without the fresh oregano cut into it with a flourish.

In addition to the signature soup, we were attracted to an off-the-beaten menu item among the antipasti: scamorza affumicata alla griglia ($7.95). It's a mouthful in more than one way, three thick slabs of smoky Scamorza cheese, grilled and placed over a sauce that is essence of tomato, with not much done to a pool of crushed, slightly acidic San Marzanos. It's a mouth-watering combination. By the way, for Official State Appetizer fans, the Pane e Vino version of calamari ($8.95) is pan sautéed for variety.

The rest of the offerings are eight pastas and an equal number of everything else. As the menu puts it: "Carne, Pesce, Eccetera . . . " Since the "Farinacei" listing was given such weight, I had to choose from there. Among the polenta, gnocchi, and obligatory linguine and littlenecks, the item that popped out was the last one, agnolotti at tartufo ($17.95). I'm so glad that I picked it. Three enormous half-moon pastas were filled with chopped portobello mushrooms and topped with a perfect accompaniment: a cream sauce sprinkled with walnuts and earthy with truffle oil. It tasted as richly rewarding as it sounds.

The "eccetera" ranges from seafood and braised lamb shank to beef tenderloin. Johnnie, though, couldn't resist choosing one of the specials of the evening. The fresh and perfectly cooked shelled lobster ($25.95) spilled out of its puff pastry along with the delicate Champagne cream sauce it was swimming in. The asparagus-length green beans stretched out alongside were crisp and flavorsome. We asked and learned that the dish had been served only once since the restaurant opened. I can't help but think it could become a favorite as a regular item.

Save room for dessert. Our helpful waiter, Michael, recommended his favorite: Tortina di cioccolato ($8.50). Out of the drum-shaped, fist-sized chocolate cake flowed both dark and milk chocolate lava, to double the sense of excess. Atop were two intensely flavored scoops of mixed-berry gelato. Coincidentally, Johnnie chose a dish of assorted gelati ($5.95). I guessed that they were made in the kitchen, because the flavors, from vanilla and hazelnut to chocolate, were so fresh and so strong. Why reinvent the wheel when Bindi, the Milanese dessert purveyor, is rolling them out like this?

Well, if it's possible to have too much of a good thing, this doesn't seem to apply to Italian restaurants. This place likes going that extra step -- crumb-scraping mid-meal, chef Kevin Di Libero and sous chef Erin Armour answering questions about their dishes, at www.panevino.net. Owner Dequattro was in on setting up Caffé Itri in Cranston and 1200 Ocean Grill in Narragansett, both excellent restaurants, so the high standards of Pane e Vino shouldn't be a surprise.

Bill Rodriguez can be reached at billrod@reporters.net.

Issue Date: February 28 - March 6, 2003