You’d think that a good restaurant’s magic wouldn’t scale up very well into multiple locations. Yet sometimes it does. We wouldn’t have checked out Carrabba’s Italian Grill, a nationwide chain, if it hadn’t been recommended — on several counts — by an Italian-American friend and her husband, who know every local Italian restaurant worth its rotary cheese grater.

A good first-time dining experience is like a first date. Several ingredients have to come together, or the pitter-pat you hear will be from your impatiently strumming fingers. But the best restaurants can bottle the lightning. The Capital Grille started out in Providence and now stuffs suits from DC to Denver. Napa Valley Grille’s local incarnation continues to prove itself, as recently described on these pages.

Carrabba’s was busy when we came on a weeknight, so the din we encountered is probably typical, despite the carpeting and acoustic ceiling tile. Blow-ups of family photos on the rose stucco walls – a little girl on a pony, old country faces — make a homey declaration of the restaurant’s origins. You might know founders Johnny Carrabba and Damian Mandola from their cooking show, Cucina Sicilia, on PBS.

The wide kitchen is not only open to view, there are stools at two counters for those who want to observe — no hiding the sausage-making here. Faux grape arbors rise above booths, hinting at a concern about wine. There are almost three-dozen, nearly all of which are available by the glass. The two $5.50 per glass house wines are from low-price bottles, not jugs: Bolla pinot grigio and Scarlatta Montepulciano d’Abruzzo.

Our friends were impressed at the training of the serving staff. So were we. Not only did our server promptly turn down the music on request — a speaker was blaring right above our table — but the manager came over later to see if it was low enough.

The waiter personalized the menu by anticipating concerns and noting some of his favorite items. For example, he mentioned that the eggplant Parmesan had baked, rather than batter-fried, rounds of the vegetable, a method that some might not prefer. When I ordered a bowl of soup to share, instead of a cup, he suggested the smaller portion, pointing out, on the next table, that it was large enough to come in a bowl. Since we had already ordered a sizeable appetizer, his suggestion seemed to be helpful instead of one of those tip-boosting ploys that can inspire rolling eyes.

That soup was a special of the day, Sicilian chicken ($2.99/$4.49), a slightly cayenne-hot concoction. Honestly, it was better than my Sicilian grandmother’s. Not only did it have plenty of chicken that wasn’t stewed to rooster toughness, its tubular ditalini pasta was added just before serving, so that it remained al dente! Not a trivial touch.

The best appetizer choice has to be their antipasti platter ($8.99). No, it’s not the usual cold cuts on lettuce, but rather three of the other starters on the menu, in shareable quantities. The bruschetta of the day — chopped tomatoes atop a pesto spread — was accompanied by three wide, fried mozzarella "sticks," aromatic with Italian seasoning, plus a pile of fried calamari. The squid wasn’t as greaseless as Johnnie prefers, but I liked the texture contrast of the thin, crisp coating, which was probably accomplished with egg white. A delicious marinara, there for the mozzarella, also worked for the squid.

All of the above, plus a dense Italian bread served with herbed olive oil, put us in a fine mood for our main courses. Half of the eight wood-grill items are chicken, but what appealed to me was the Spiedino di mare ($15.99). Besides being one of the recommendations that brought us to Carrabba’s, it is also a favorite of our waiter. Sea scallops and shrimp, four each, are coated with seasoned breadcrumbs before being grilled, and then served under a tasty lemon-butter sauce. The shrimp were quite flavorful.

The menu said the dish came with a choice of vegetable of the day, garlic mashed potatoes, spaghetti with tomato sauce, or fettuccine Alfredo. That sounded like one side to me, but apparently it meant two, because a cup of the above-mentioned soup was included, as well as the fettuccine with a creamy but not cloying sauce, a perfect complement to the lemony topping on the seafood.

Across from me, a big bowl of rigatoni Martino ($11.99) was being enjoyed, even though Johnnie ordered it without its usual grilled chicken. Tossed with mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes in a pink tomato sauce, the entree was topped with scallions and shavings of hard ricotta salata cheese. I certainly stabbed up more tastes than I needed for professional reasons.

Since the Houston-born Carrabba’s has spinoffs coast to coast, in places where tiramisú is synonymous with Italian dessert, that dish is available to cap your meal. Passing it up and a Kahlua-anointed chocolate brownie, we chose another kitchen-made item whose description sounds like an English trifle. The "Dessert Rosa" ($4.99) is very much that, a slice of buttery yellow sheet cake layered with bananas, pineapple, strawberries, vanilla pudding, and whipped cream. It’s delicious. You’ll think you died and went to Taormina.

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