It’s a little slice of Italy

IN this kind of weather, grabbing a bite at the beach sounds like just the ticket -- something casual and Italian maybe. And if it’s in Hermosa Beach, all the better. With its quaint downtown and wide, sandy stretch of beach, Hermosa is the quintessential Southern California beach town.

Let’s face it, though: It’s never been a big food destination. But when I heard from an Italian friend that a new Italian restaurant and enoteca called La Sosta had sailed into town, I listened up, especially when he happened to mention the owner’s mother was cooking while she trained a chef for her son.

By the time I got to La Sosta, though, the mother had already gone back home and the chef, who had worked with her for six years in Italy, was on his own.

When we pulled up in front, I immediately recognized the sweet little free-standing building: I’d been here during several previous, mostly Italian incarnations. What’s different about this one is that owner Luca Manderino is playing up the idea of enoteca, or “wine library.” He’s put together a very good list of Italian wines for these parts, and if you order a cutting board of salumi and cheeses to go with a bottle of Barbera or Sangiovese, you could spend a happy couple of hours here.

The selection changes all the time, and the meats, such as prosciutto, bresaola and speck (smoked mountain ham), are all sliced on a gleaming meat slicer Manderino imported from Italy. It’s absolutely silent and a marvel of ingeniousness. He chooses interesting Italian cheeses too, not just the usual pecorino and Parmigiano but examples from regions all over Italy.

The salt breeze plays with the curtains. And as you sip a Barbera and nibble on cheese and bread, a little prosciutto or salame, La Sosta feels a little like an enoteca in Viareggio or Venice, anywhere close to the sea. If you stick with that plan, you’ll have a fine time at La Sosta.

Delve further into the menu and you could be disappointed. It may be that I hit the restaurant on a bad night, but the rest of the food -- even the pasta, much of which is Venetian-inspired -- wasn’t compelling enough that I’d be racing back anytime soon. But for where it is, I suppose it’s a welcome addition to the limited dining scene. I’m hoping the chef is simply getting his sea legs, so to speak.

I would, however, order dessert, and I would make it tiramisu. This is one place where it really tastes as if it’s made with mascarpone instead of the whipped cream many kitchens try to pass off as mascarpone. It’s not too sweet, just seductively creamy, laced with espresso and powdered cocoa and just the thing to sustain a drive back to the hinterlands far from that salt-laden breeze.

*

La Sosta

Where: 2700 Manhattan Ave., Hermosa Beach

When: 6 to 11 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays. Full bar. Street parking.

Cost: Appetizers, $11 to $14; pastas, $14 to $25; main courses, $30 to $40; desserts, $8. Cutting board for two, $22.

Info: (310) 318-1556