San Diego Spotlight : Informal and Innovative, Tomatos Proves Vine Choice

Tomatos grows where the buffalo once roamed--even though this location near Rosecrans and Sports Arena Boulevard never has been fertile soil for restaurants.

Other than the spelling of the name, which defies all accepted versions and confounds efforts at grammatical sentence constructions (should it be “Tomatos grow” or “Tomatos grows”?), the important details of this new eatery are easy to swallow. The informal but innovative menu pays fine attention to starters and substitutes pastas, often substantial, for formal entrees, while the wine list is unusually well chosen for so laid-back a place and the service more than rises to the occasion.

This particular location, in a thoroughly commercial neighborhood, has not been kind to restaurateurs. Some years ago, the Grosvenor family, proprietors of the adjacent Grosvenor Inn and landlords of the restaurant property, opened Judson’s, which in short order became both notable and notorious for a menu of alligator, rattlesnake, buffalo, domesticated lion and other uncommon game.

Animal activists predictably went ballistic, while among diners, a market for these unusual meats failed to materialize. The result was the transition to an entirely ordinary Mexican place named Dos Amigos. That restaurant now is gone, replaced, in largely rebuilt and completely redecorated quarters, by the first West Coast outpost of a partnership that operates a couple of mid-range eateries in New Haven, Conn. (home not just to Yale but, by reasonably well-established tradition, to the first lunch counter in America to serve a hamburger sandwich).

The relationship with the neighboring motel requires Tomatos to serve a standard tourist breakfast menu, but the emphasis at lunch and dinner is on la cucina italiana in a form rather different from anything yet seen here. (Of course, with the proliferation of Italian restaurants, we may soon be confronted by Tibetan-style Roman cuisine, but we’ll cross that Rubicon when we come to it.) The decor, if contemporary and well-done, also is rather stark.

Partners Larry Cupida and Patricia Camerone said they trust music and athletic events at the nearby Sports Arena to deliver a steady clientele similar to the one they claim for their New Haven establishments, both of which are named Hot Tomatos. Cupida said “Hot” was dropped from the title of the San Diego establishment in consideration of the possibility that prospective clientele might expect a Mexican menu.

Interestingly enough, Cupida added that one of the greatest challenges he has encountered here is the hard water, “Which is hell to make bread and pizza dough with. We had to adapt our recipes to the San Diego water, because they can’t be 96% right, they have to be 100%.”

Dough turns up repeatedly, on a separate pizza list that offers several standards and several unusual offerings (the Milano pie with broccoli and other veggies, the Venezia model with shrimp, clams and squid), as an excellent individual loaf of garlic bread that is stuffed with seasonings and glazed with a thin layer of melted cheese, and as a toasted base for the tasty shrimp and scallop bruschetta . This last, a rather complicated dish, tops grilled, garlic-brushed bread slices with unusually tender shellfish and bits of roasted pepper in a light cream sauce flavored with Marsala. It makes a terrific starter.

The appetizer list in fact reads well from start to finish. The slices of pork tenderloin, stuffed with prosciutto and cheese, roasted and placed over a bed of arugula-based pesto, are savory and make a good lead-in to a vegetarian pasta; the saute of wild mushrooms, competently handled and garnished with orange slices and fresh arugula, is utterly unusual as well as quite light and refreshing. Unsampled options include a plate of roasted peppers in raspberry vinaigrette (a combination that frankly sounds unlikely); tuna carpaccio, for those who like the idea of Italian sushi; a plate of grilled vegetables basted with herbed oil and the “pasta pillows,” a ravioli-like creations stuffed with a rather fun-sounding blend of ricotta cheese and sweet potato puree.

Salads include arrangements of greenery, a lavish assortment of Italian meats and cheeses over lettuce and a Tuscan-style white bean salad dressed with roasted garlic and an herbed cheese dressing.

The rest of the menu is taken up by 21 pastas, the bulk of them unusual, although the list begins recognizably with fettuccine in marinara sauce. Also familiar, the fettuccine bolognese is topped by a rather good, meaty version of this classic sauce, so lightly touched by cream that you barely notice the addition but generously flavored with the aromatic carrots, celery and onion that distinguish every good sauce bolognese . Tomatos uses spinach noodles, which work perfectly well in this context.

Less familiar are such things as the giambatto , or spinach fettuccine garnished with a piquant and savory stew of minced chicken, sausage, roast pork, cherry peppers and fennel, the whole flavored with rosemary, and the chicken Giovanni, or pasta with chunks of breast, roasted peppers and broccoli in a thin but richly flavored Gorgonzola cream. Both are quite nice.

It is easier to regard many combinations as stews or sautes garnished with noodles, rather than as pastas in the classic Italian sense, which generally means lightly sauced; be that as it may, the choice extends to pennoni , or macaroni with artichoke hearts, peppers, mushrooms and cream, and fettuccine with salmon in a dilled cream sauce. The “devil’s hair” is a rare pasta creation in that it includes vinegar (in this day and age this naturally is fancy, musky balsamic vinegar) as an accent to the garnish of black olives, sun dried tomatoes, scallions and forest mushrooms.

Tomatos is notable for its insistence on preparing everything freshly, from bread and pasta doughs to desserts. In the sweet category, the choices are tiramisu , the locally ubiquitous pudding of whipped mascarpone cheese with thin layers of cake and chocolate and coffee flavorings, and a dense chocolate cake. Both are good, neither is exceptional.

TOMATOS

3111 Sports Arena Blvd., San Diego

226-2046

Breakfast, lunch and dinner daily

Pastas cost $6.95 to $11.95; dinner

for two, including a glass of wine each,

tax and tip, about $30 to $55

Credit cards accepted