• Details: Beer, Wine, Romantic, All Ages, Brunch Weekend, Dinner
• Hours:
  Mon.-Thurs. 5:30-10 pm. Fri.-Sun. 5:30-11 pm
  Sunday brunch 10:30 am-2:30 pm

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Times Description

The restaurant's name -- Michael's on Naples Ristorante --sounds dubious, like the kind of place you might see showing up on British chef Gordon Ramsay's hit television series "Kitchen Nightmares." In fact, Ramsay did take in hand an Italian restaurant called Peter's on Long Island in one episode I saw (and he spent much of the show trying to get the principles of running a restaurant -- no eating in front of the clients, no spending thousands on an Armani suit when the kitchen badly needs a stove -- through Peter's thick head).

Michael's on Naples may have a similarly stubborn name, but the story is very different. Open since December [2007], this casual, sophisticated Italian is owned by first-time restaurateur Michael Dene -- who lives in Naples, the marina-rich neighborhood in Long Beach. And his namesake restaurant looks more to Italy for inspiration than Italian-American enclaves such as North Beach or Little Italy. The chef, Marco Cavuoto, is from Milan. Manager and sommelier Massimo Aronne is from Liguria. And the menu is classic Italian with bright Southern California notes.

The sleek, contemporary design is quiet and understated compared with the honky-tonk look of the rest of the 2nd Street restaurant row. Inside, would-be diners are crowded at the small granite-topped bar, sipping aperitifs as they wait for a table to open up. Why drive to West Hollywood, I hear one say, when I can walk to Michael's? Why, indeed. The walls are lined with roomy upholstered booths, the better to pile in with family and friends, and wavy glass lighting fixtures from the Italian company Artemide bathe the room in soft light.

S. Irene Virbila, 5/7/08