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Chef Michael Gucciardo and owner Giuseppe Pugliese prepare chicken Milanese, a breaded chicken cutlet pan fried and topped with fresh mozzarella, tomato basil salad and served with garlic toast.

Nico’s Ristorante and Cafe

Rating: 4 stars (out of 5)

• Menu: Authentic Neapolitan and Southern Italian preparations
• Where: 125 Campbell Ave., downtown Roanoke
• Price range: Lunch: $8-$14; Dinner: $13.95-$32
• Hours: 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and 5-10 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and 5-11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Closed Sunday and Monday.
• Soda products: Pepsi
• Alcohol? Beer, wine and cocktails
• Plastic? All major credit cards except Diners Club
• Smoking? No
• Wireless Internet? Not yet (but it’s in the city’s free WiFi zone)
• Takeout? Yes
• Delivery? No
• Patio seating? Not yet
• Reservations? Recommended
• Live music? 7-10 p.m. Wednesdays
• Catering? Yes
• Banquet space? Yes
• Kids menu and high chairs available.
• Quiet dining room except for recorded jazz and Italian classics.
• Call: (540) 342-4444

What the stars mean

• 5 stars Excellent. A one-of-a-kind experience.
• 4 Very good. Memorable menus accompanied by exciting environs and/or savvy service.
• 3 Good. Solid places that beckon with generally appealing cooking.
• 2 Just OK. A place not worth rushing back to. But, it might have something worth recommending: A view, a single dish, friendly service, lively scene.
• 1 Poor. Don’t waste your money here.

Owner Giuseppe (Joe) Pugliese opened Nico's Ristorante and Cafe in January in the space previously occupied by Italiano on Campbell Avenue near the Roanoke City Market. Pugliese, originally from New York, also owns Sal's Italian Ristorante & Pizzeria in Radford.

Michael Gucciardo, formerly of the Pine Tavern in Floyd, is the head chef at Nico's, and he's been listed as chef in the Radford restaurant, too.

THE VIBE

If there's such a thing as a cozy yet sophisticated and relaxing restaurant, Nico's is where you'll find it. Exposed brick walls glazed to give a perpetually shiny finish, dim candlelight and Big Band jazz and Sinatra classics piped over the intercom give the place a supper-club feel in the evening. It's a first-rate choice for lunch, too.

LUNCH

The casual menu features countless familiar favorites, such as the restaurant's special calzones and pizza (which you can build yourself). You'll also get salads, pastas, chicken Marsala, chicken Milanese, 10 sandwiches including the "real" sausage and pepper hero, and dessert accompanied by espresso served Southern Italian-style with a sliver of lemon peel.

Even though some of the lunch dishes are typical Italian fare, they taste more flavorful than ever at the hands of Gucciardo.

Mussels Posillipo, steamed in a savory garlic broth, along with a house salad and a few pieces of their good bread satisfied me.

The buffalo sandwich, definitely a knife-and-fork type because of the loose meat, featured seasoned ground buffalo stuffed in a tasty roll with tomato slices, lettuce and onion and accompanied by a side dish of balsamic-dressed roasted-potato salad.

Hearty, attractive and so good, rigatoni rustica combines sausage, salami, ricotta and Parmigiano and mozzarella cheeses tossed with the tubular pasta and baked in a light tomato sauce.

DINNER

The dinner menu repeats several of the lunch menu items, but these are served in larger portions. The dining experience expands with a typical Italian menu divided into antipasti, insalata, secondi (main courses, which include pasta, seafood, meats, game and chicken) and contorni (six vegetable side dishes).

Start off by sharing a generous hot or cold antipasto, the latter a mix of salami, prosciutto, sopressata, provolone, mozzarella, olives, roasted red peppers and artichoke hearts.

Golden, crispy and tender, a heap of fried calamari comes with a side of brightly seasoned marinara sauce. Five jumbo shrimp sauteed in olive oil with white wine and garlic as well as clams oreganata, a baked dish of well-seasoned breadcrumb-topped clams, are two other favorites of mine.

The Greek salad was made exactly the way it should be -- crisp romaine lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, kalamata olives, thinly sliced red onions and feta cheese, dressed with a balanced lemon-garlic dressing.

Seven small pizzas called pizzette -- each one made with a different and unusual topping -- plus a bruschetta featuring fresh mozzarella, tomatoes and basil tossed in olive oil with garlic crowning a thin-crust pizzette, are all listed on the appetizer menu.

Follow the openers with entrees of scallops Teresa, a marvelous dish of perfectly cooked, beautifully browned tender sea scallops in a citrus-caper-berry sauce served with risotto cakes; or spaghetti puttanesca, the traditional spaghetti dish sauced with a lusty blend of olives, capers, tomatoes and anchovies. Chicken scarpariello, another recommended dish, presents seared pieces of chicken accompanied with onions and herbs lightly seasoned with balsamic vinegar and served with a panzerotte, a large potato croquette stuffed with mozzarella and fried to a rich golden brown.

If you have room, there are house-made desserts: cheesecake, tiramisu and cannoli, a typically Sicilian dessert of gently sweetened ricotta cream filling a perfectly light crisp shell. El Palenque, the Mexican restaurant, prepares the tres leches cake and other desserts.

THE WINE LIST

With a limited but well-chosen selection of 12 reds and 10 whites, the wine list naturally emphasizes those from Italy with a few from California and Australia, plus one each from Germany, France, South Africa and Argentina. Bottles range in price from $25 to $67, the latter a Sonoma-Cutrer Les Pierres Chardonnay (2003), while wines by the glass cost $7 to $10.

NOT TO BE PICKY, BUT ...

A few items at Nico's require tweaking for improvement.

The hefty pieces of mozzarella and tomatoes made their costly bruschetta ($10.75) difficult to eat. More finely chopped ingredients would unite the chewy, tender crust with the topping, and they'd stand a better chance of arriving in the mouth together.

Melted mozzarella in a fried croquette usually strings out like telephone wires. The mozzarella was neither visible nor tasted in this panzerotte, which also contained a big chunk of unmashed potatoes.

As for desserts, the ricotta cream filling in the beautiful cannoli had a grainy texture. Although there are several methods for making tres leches cake, this version was nothing more than a piece of moistened cake. No sauce, no cream, no character.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Expect some of the most authentic, well-prepared Italian food in town, along with gracious, friendly (though sometimes too chatty) service. Nico's is one of our new dining destinations.