ANGELO'S CIVITA FARNESE,

Loyalty is a beautiful thing. It's so thick at Angelo's Civita Farnese -- the red sauce institution on Atwells Avenue -- that you can taste it. Take that Italian-American lover boy in Michael Corrente's Federal Hill, for example. Where does he take the Brown hottie to impress her with aglio e olio? Angelo's? You bet. A civita is a public meeting place -- the Farnese in the eatery's name refers to the region outside Rome -- so the place is bound to be social. There certainly were plenty of kids around to keep the train chugging. Clearly, this is a family restaurant, and the regulars know to ask for children's menu items, such as the saucy "Italian hamburger" and chicken tenders. For the rest of us, there's no written menu, just letter-board lists of offerings. The priciest item is just $13.45, for a one-pound sirloin. There are also chops and cutlets for the teeth tingly, but most of the items are regulation Italian-American fare: Parmesans and pastas, sprinkled with a few less usual dishes, such as tripe ($4.25) and string bean salad ($2.90).

Full review.