Hermosa hideout: La Campagna

 
 

La Campagna chef Manny Cervantes with servers Danae lester and Selah Pacheco.

My wife often wishes she had a secret decoder ring – a mythical object that tells you what people really mean instead of what they say. I want one with a restaurant menu app – it tells you what chefs think you already know about their cooking. There are so many regional styles, so many dishes with similar names, that just knowing what something is called often isn’t enough. You often have to know what someone is trying to do to know if they’re doing it right.

I could have used that little tool at the new La Campagna restaurant in Hermosa, located beneath Banzai Beach on Hermosa Avenue. This location has been a revolving door for restaurants. Within the last two years it has hosted a coffeehouse, a Balkan grill that opened and closed randomly, and a high-end Italian restaurant with an impressive menu but no customers. All fought a fundamental fact – the site is hard to see from the street, and frequently looks closed since the blinds are down in the afternoon and early evening to avoid the sun’s glare.

Once you find the place and come inside, it’s a pretty room, though the romantic atmosphere is marred by TVs at both ends (luckily with the sound off). The menu is a straightforward list of pizzas, pastas, and Southern Italian specialties, though the pricing is odd. Dishes like spaghetti with tomatoes and basil are priced almost the same as items that use more expensive ingredients. A simple vegetarian pasta was $12. Handmade pasta with spinach, scallops, and shrimp was $14, and rack of lamb was $18 – an unusually narrow spread. Roasted chicken was $15, steak stuffed with cheese and prosciutto was $19, and individual pizzas were either $11 or $12, no matter what was on them. It was an interesting pricing strategy, and I’m sure there is a plan behind it but can’t guess what it is.

We started with salads, one Caesar and one pear, gorgonzola, apple, and arugula, both $9.95. They were good-sized, appropriate to split between two people, and excellent. The Caesar was creamy with a subtle use of anchovy and garlic and plenty of cheese, needing only a dash of pepper to make the balance to my preference. There was none on the table, but our server brought a shaker. A grinder would have been appreciated, but this is a minor quibble. The pear and gorgonzola was perfect just as it was, and even someone who doesn’t usually like blue cheese praised it highly.

We enjoyed the salads along with glasses of A Mano Primitivo, a rustic Italian wine similar to Zinfandel. The wine list here is short, heavily Italian, and fairly priced. We also had warm bread, olive on the first visit and a standard baguette on the second. It would be nice to have a choice since some people love olives, others can’t stand them.

Over the course of the two visits, we tried two pizzas and five pastas. I ordered orecchiete Pugliese, discs of pasta with sausage and peppers, while my companions had seafood pasta with spinach, spaghetti and meatballs, a three-cheese pizza, and lasagna. My freshly made pasta had been tossed with a fruity, subtly herbed tomato sauce and a modest portion of sausage and peppers – the way they actually make this dish in Italy, where the meat and vegetables are a flavoring rather than an equal partner. It’s not the meat-heavy, bell pepper drenched style usually found in LA, and those expecting a blast of garlic and a pound of pork might find it bland. I liked it all the better for the authenticity, the chance to taste real handmade pasta with subtle, blended flavors.

This subtlety was repeated. The seafood pasta with spinach was a particular standout, a special that deserves to be a regular. Spaghetti and meatballs – another daily special – was the most robust item of the day, but the sauce wasn’t the thick, tomato-heavy standard. Vegetables had been chopped in and simmered down, and you could taste the onions and seasoning in the meatballs.

The most unusual item was the lasagna, which was made in the Genoese style, with noodles thin as crepes, layered with a mild meat, cheese, and vegetable mix. It was so different from the usual red sauce and heavy cheese lasagna that the person who ordered it actually wondered if there had been a mistake. It was understandable. It’s lasagna as served in Northern Italy, not Naples or Sicily, and it’s tasty but very different from what most people expect. This is the kind of thing that should be explained on the menu, but rarely is.

The pizza Bianco was the only item that arrived exactly as expected, and it was excellent, possibly the best I’ve had in the South Bay. The crust was the key, crisp like the best Italian country bread, with a soft, risen interior, and topped with a modest portion of good cheeses. It was an ample portion for one person, and so good that I returned a few days later to try another pizza. This time I chose the one topped with pancetta, sausage, salami, and mozzarella, a hearty item that emphasized the intense cured flavors of the meats. It confirmed my evaluation – this is the pizza for people who are really seeking the best in the area. I was slightly less impressed with the dish my companion ordered, bucatini alla amatriciana, spaghetti with tomato, hot peppers, and bacon. In this case the sauce was delicious, but not as described. I could only discern the barest touch of hot peppers. Pancetta, yes, and a nice herbed tomato sauce with garlic and onion, but only a hint of hot.

Chef Manny used to work at Il Bocaccio, and in his new establishment he is making some wonderful food, but descriptions that would let people know what they will actually get are lacking. If you know real Italian food and are looking for it, if you order what sounds interesting and trust the chef’s skill, or if you have that decoder that will tell you what everything really is, you can find much to love here. And if you find the decoder, please let me know where I can get one, because it’s a tool I find myself wanting almost every day.

La Campagna is at 934 Hermosa Avenue in Hermosa Beach. Open daily, dinner only. Street parking or free parking below the restaurant. Wine and beer served, corkage $10. Some vegetarian options. (310)-374-3747. ER

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