Sampling: cicheti

Fegato grasso for two (Credit: Shane Redsar)

Another year, another it’s-sexy-cuz-it’s-portion-controlled small plates menu, right?

Well, not exactly. This one is not served in a lounge. It doesn’t involve seared ahi or mac n’ cheese, and it’s mercifully not called “tapas,” or “tapas-style” or some variation thereof. The name is far cuter than that.

All’Angelo—the only Los Angeles restaurant to be named one of Esquire’s “best new restaurants in America, 2007” (thank you very much)—is offering cicheti, Venetian-style appetizers that reflect the eating culture of owner Stefano Ongaro’s hometown. In Venice, cicheti are essentially bar snacks: piles and platters of cheese and calamari and marinated seafood and olives and cold cuts piled atop counters, awaiting early evening pub-crawlers. You’d eat—usually with a toothpick—drink a mite of bianco or rosso, then move on for more cicheti grubbage.

On Melrose, “cichetti”—the restaurant uses a variant spelling—is a more refined affair. While there’s a small bar in the back, don’t expect a buffet spread on top. (We also think it's best to leave your toothpick in your back pocket.) Available in the sparse yet elegant dining room during regular dinner service from Monday to Thursday, the menu consists of nine selections ranging from $6 to $10 a pop. And, in some cases, the portion is practically a single pop in the mouth.

But sharing petite morsels makes for intimate dining. Marinated salmon carpaccio topped with caviar arrives on a tiny plate—the sliver can be easily dissected for you and your dining companion. In fact, many of the dishes come in twos: two meatballs with a pair of grilled polenta triangles; two pieces of spongy bread accompany a fantastic stew of baby octopus; and crostini, or square-shaped toasts, smeared with the richest stuff on earth—so don't even think about gluttonously eating both of them. Seared bone marrow, which is unexpectedly paired with dark chocolate on one crostino, is only outdone by a too-generous wedge of fegato grasso (foie gras) and shave of black truffle on another. So decadent and utterly sexy—think of it as a little culinary foreplay before getting to the braised pork belly.

Jiyeon Yoo is Restaurants editor for Metromix Los Angeles.