Super duper Italian Super duper Italian (November 18, 2005)

After all these years, Frankie, Johnnie & Luigi Too still has the magic touch

By Elaine M. Rowland

While it may seem like Italian food is available everywhere, especially when even non-Italian restaurants serve crowd-pleasers like pasta or pizza, that doesn't mean what you'll find is necessarily traditional or tasty. Actually, it's hard to find good, classic Italian cuisine; especially slow-cook dishes like osso bucco or lasagna. So when I saw how many Italian and Italian-American favorites were on the menu at Frankie, Johnnie & Luigi Too, I didn't know where to start ordering.

Surrounded by red-checked tablecloths, with Rat Packers crooning "you're so super duper," in the background, you might find the ambience to be a bit tongue-in-cheek. But the nearly half-century-old Frankie, Johnnie & Luigi Too takes its business seriously, providing plenty of good food in a fun setting with the kind of service that makes you feel welcome and cared for. The come-one, come-all attitude attracts people on dates as well as people with kids, and among the outdoor covered patio, bar area, and choice of dining rooms, there's a place for everyone to feel comfortable.

We first stopped by for lunch, which begins with fresh sourdough (strangely, not Italian) bread and nicely herbed butter. I ordered salmon crostini ($5.95), a plate of three toast slices (crostini) and fresh tomatoes, with what looks like tuna salad. It's actually a fresh poached salmon spread with, among other things, mascarpone cheese and chopped red onion, and it blows away any and all tuna salads I've had. The salmon and creamy cheese were nicely counterbalanced by the pungent red onion. Along with the mixed greens and balsamic vinaigrette on the plate, it was the kind of sophisticated appetizer you won't find at the airport Sbarro's.

Chicken parmigiana ($10.95, lunch), a pair of pounded, sauteed chicken breast slices topped with mozzarella and marinara sauce, is served with spaghetti marinara and fresh zucchini here. It was a mixed bag: The parmesan-dusted zucchini was cooked tender-firm, but the spaghetti was past al dente, the marinara was a little runny and over-garlicked, and the chicken wasn't terribly tender. However, the minestrone that came with the meal was more like old-fashioned minestrone than I've encountered in a long while -- a hearty base with chunks of potato, onion and carrot, as well as tortellini and kidney beans. It was a real stick-to-your-ribs kind of soup, and very good.

The tortellini pomodoro alfredo ($8.95, lunch) was even better. With its tender, cheese-filled pasta in a tomato cream sauce with basil and chunks of fresh tomato, this dish had subtleties the marinara lacked on that visit. The good-sized portion was enough for lunch and then some.

There's an interesting range of drinks to accompany the food, such as wines by the glass, sodas ($1.95), Italian sodas (made with Torani syrup), lemonade ($2.50), Italian coffees, and iced coffee specialties. We followed lunch with a cappuccino ($2.95) and a caffe latte ($2.95). Both were well made -- with steamed milk, cinnamon and chocolate -- and delivered hot. By then, we were way too full for dessert.

Returning on a busy weekday night to Frankie, Johnnie & Luigi Too, I saw the Atkins diet has clearly lost its allure in Mountain View. We started off with sausage bread ($5.95), even though we had a basket of fresh sourdough and herby butter in front of us. We felt compelled to try this curious combination of mozzarella and fennel-laden Italian sausage (from the owner's family business, New York Sausage Co.) baked into bread, sliced and served with marinara sauce. On this visit, the marinara was much livelier, thicker and better. Not surprisingly, the appetizer tastes a lot like a pizza, albeit less greasy, but just as addictive and just as filling. One order could satisfy two people until entrees arrive.

Nonetheless, we ordered a second appetizer, the sauteed mushrooms ($5.95), a medium-sized bowl of whole, button mushrooms with green onions in a heavy butter-basil cream sauce. It also has a stunning amount of garlic. The sauce might have benefited from cooking longer to mellow and meld the flavors, but it was still good, and very nice atop the sourdough.

In pursuit of more mushrooms, we ordered the mostacioli di bari ($13.95), penne pasta with very tender filet mignon pieces and button mushrooms in a gorgonzola and brandy cream sauce. This one was very popular at our table. A really nice dish that kept the cheese in check, it had a luscious sauce you'd want to dip still more bread into.

Philly natives ordering the stromboli pizza ($14.95, small) might think they're getting a calzone, but this one's a 12-inch pie with a thin, crunchy brick-oven-like crust. It's topped with sausage, mushrooms, pepperoni, salami, and a zesty sauce, and for a small charge you can add more ingredients like black olives ($1.50). The result is a satisfying, high-quality pizza with a hand-tossed crust, also available for takeout. (The entire menu, also on their Web site, is available for takeout.)

I should mention here that if we'd managed to finish every dish we'd ordered, instead of wrapping part of the meal to go, I'd have missed out on dessert-again. The half-dozen choices for dessert include tiramisu and New York-style cheesecake, but we ordered the "personal-size" "Dutch" apple pie ($4.95) and pecan pie ($4.95) a la mode. This apple pie includes blueberries and tasted all right, but the crust was too soft, as if it had been microwaved, and the damp oven-browned crumble top wasn't crumbly. The pecan pie was better, though also quirky. Loaded with pecans, it's like a nice crust full of candied pecans, rather than the gooey, crunchy pecan pie you might be accustomed to.

Pies aside, I like Frankie, Johnnie & Luigi Too. The place offers many dishes I either haven't found elsewhere, or haven't enjoyed as much elsewhere, so I'm looking forward to trying more on the menu. Combined with friendly atmosphere and old-fashioned good service, FJL has made a regular out of me.

Frankie, Johnnie & Luigi Too
939 W. El Camino Real (between S. Shoreline and Castro), Mountain View;
(650) 967-5384;
http://fjlmountainview.com
Hours: 11 a.m. to midnight Monday through Thursday,
11 a.m. to 1 a.m. Friday, 11:30 a.m. to 1 a.m. Saturday,
and 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday

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