PHOTO: B.A. Nilsson

All Grown Up

Chianti il Ristoranti

208 South Broadway, Saratoga Springs, 580-0025. Serving dinner daily from 5:30. AE, D, MC, V.

Cuisine: eclectic Italian

Entrée price range: $9 (pasta in tomato sauce) to $32 (16-oz. filet mignon)

Ambiance: artistic

By B.A. Nilsson

The new kid on the block is now almost 10, and 10-year-olds rarely remain cute. Since opening Chianti il Ristoranti a decade ago, owner David Zecchini has added two more Saratoga Springs restaurants, one of which, Il Forno Toscano, perseveres. Chianti, meanwhile, peers from its nicely landscaped corner at the south end of the village, murmuring a reminder that it’s still offering a style of Italian cookery that was trendsetting for the area when it first appeared and remains no less appealing.

There’s the food, of course, upon which we’ll dwell. But beyond that, and enhancing the dining experience, is the rambunctious charm of the place. Long gone are any traces of its former incarnation, which was as far from fine dining as it’s possible to get. What begins as a series of outdoor sculptures continues inside the restaurant as an almost kinetic decor, with hanging sculptures, shelves of glassware, exotic lighting, and a formal but comfortable array of tables and chairs.

Zecchini designed and helped build it this way, and it’s just intrusive enough to remind you that you’re dining in no ordinary place. So settle in, order a glass of prosecco, and have a look at the menu. Perhaps you’ll start with some raw beef.

They bill it as “Chianti’s Famous Carpaccio,” and present it three different ways ($13-$14). It’s filet mignon sliced so thin you can see through it, arrayed with a variety of complementary items. There’s also a tuna carpaccio (tonno, $14). If, like me, you’re indecisive, order the trittico ($23), and get an entrée-sized platter of the three beef presentations.

One of which (Cipriani) pairs it with grana padano, a classic Italian parmigiana-like cheese, adding capers and olive oil. The meat is so pliable it’s almost like an aspic, so I availed myself of my favorite dining tool—my fingers—to bunch it against some of that cheese en route to the palate. Carciofi adds goat cheese and artichoke hearts; gorgonzola complemented the Chianti version. It’s not only a bouquet of fantastic flavors but also a handsome-looking serving, arriving on a large silver salver.

Does it bother you to have a small amount of fuss at tableside as the courses arrive? Not me: At least, not when it’s clearly in celebration of good food. And so the mozzarella di bufala ($16) arrived with a flourish, a simple combo of tomatoes and cheese, but the tomatoes glowed red and the cheese was made with buffalo milk, with a resultant extra graininess and more pungent flavor than its bovine cousin.

Other appetizers include bruschetta (of course), calamari, shrimp with cannellini beans, and other bean, vegetable and/or seafood dishes ($7 to $16), many of which are combined on the antipasto platter for two ($20).

Salads include creative uses of cheese and fruit, including the one we sampled: valtellina ($11), which presents air-dried beef (bresaolo) alongside gorgonzola and candied apple slices, a strategy not unlike the carpaccio and just as successful.

Chef Fabrizio Bazzani, a native of Verona, is committed to keeping the menu interesting and the standards high. He and his crew work in a presentation kitchen which I never remember to sit near—but that’s because you can sit on the outdoor patio or, as we did recently, in a room near the front decorated with copper and glass.

Bazzani’s entrées are listed in the classic style, with pasta, risotto and meat dishes listed separately. If you’re going to dine correctly, which is to say ravenously, you would follow your starter with a pasta or rice dish, and add an entrée on top of that.

This we did not do. It’s an evening-long enterprise, in my experience, that also calls for more wine than I thought prudent to consume.

But we sampled one of each. The pasta dish was a special: rabbit tossed with fettuccine ($17) in a buttery sauce that included spicy red peppercorns. What an undervalued meat! It has the sweetness that chicken brings to a pasta dish, but with a heartier foundation—which was why my daughter leaped at the chance to order it.

Risotto scoglio ($20) is a creamy stew of thirsty arborio kernels, swollen into flavorful tenderness, finished with crabmeat and shrimp and a touch of tomato. Unlike its Big Night counterpart, the meat was easy to find and delicious.

We rounded it out with another special, osso buco ($27), made my favorite way: with a big shank of lamb, braised to a pliant finish that absorbed a wealth of flavors en route and topped with a gremolata version that give it a citrusy-garlic tang.

Like the room, like the restaurant, each plate looked like a work of art and, just as colors and textures combine to make the surroundings more appealing, so did the flavors and textures of the food.

Sure, you’ll still hear Zecchini singing like a madman as he makes his way through the dining rooms, accosting the customers with his oddball wit—but that’s part of the personality of the restaurant. It’s immensely reassuring to see that the standards set nearly a decade ago still prevail in this hotly competitive town.

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