Dining review -- Kathy Mader

I haven’t been to Spaghetti Bender in Newport Beach for probably 20

years, and honest to goodness -- good being the operative word -- I don’t

know why.

You don’t have to dress up. You don’t have to make reservations. You

don’t have to pay too much. And it serves some darn good home-style,

neighborhood Italian cooking.

Spaghetti Bender, located among surf shops, burger stands and a liquor

store on Coast Highway, is easy to miss if you are not looking for it.

But once you see it, you wonder how you could have ever missed it. It’s

been there since 1969.

Painted to look like a rustic Italian villa, Spaghetti Bender is a

family business through and through. And if you are not family, you stay

until you are. Chef Alfonso Gomez and manager Janie Whorton have been

with the restaurant for more than 20 years each and “are instrumental in

its success and consistency,” said owner Joyce Hoskinson.

The family, as well as the staff, seem to take a lot of pride in the

restaurant, and besides that, it seems like a fun place to work. It is

decorated with classic red-and-white checked tablecloths, highlighted

with white lights around the windows. You get the sense you are in

someone’s house.

Hoskinson’s mother, Ailie Pasini, opened the restaurant while her

husband, Lorenzo, was out cooking on ships for the U.S. Merchant Marine,

stealing a few of his family recipes in the process.

The restaurant business continues to run in the family, with Joyce’s

son Michael bringing Spaghetti Bender into the 21st century. The restaurant is now developing its own Web page.

The food, however, remains the same. And that is the restaurant’s No.

1 goal, Joyce said, even though it wasn’t always easy.

The restaurant started out too poor to advertise, but word of mouth

has kept it in business. In fact, another restaurant is in the works.

The menu can make all your Italian food dreams come true, loaded with

all the neighborhood favorites. You won’t find those California

influences like barbecue chicken pizza here. This is the stuff of sausage

and peppers and vats of various time-honored sauces, such as Alfredo,

Bolognese (meat sauce) and marinara.

Everything you associate with authentic Italian food is here:

tortellini, manicotti, chicken parmigiana ($10.75 a la carte or $16.75

for dinner), linguine with clams, and o7 penne puttanesca f7 ($8.75 a

la carte or $14.75 for dinner), a spicy dish with garlic, olives and

pepper.

At first glance at the menu, I was a bit taken aback as the complete

dinners are a full $6 more than the a la carte items. How could this be?

But once my tureen of soup -- two to three bowls at least -- and my

extra-large tossed salad arrived, it made sense. I relaxed and started

in, big time.

The homemade minestrone was loaded with beans and pasta and all sorts

of veggies, a vegetarian paradise. Brian was thrilled with not one hint

of stewed tomato in it; this soup gets the flavor from the beans and

broth and is pretty hardy. Throw in a little of that toasty garlic bread

and it’s a meal.

“Papa’s world-famous house dressing” on the salad, a sort of creamy

Italian, was very good. In fact, the soup, salad and garlic bread is all

you need. But as I often say, much to the dismay of my belly, you’ve got

to make it hurt.

We tried the fried mozzarella, very fairly priced at $6 because it is

huge and the very real deal. No preformed, prepackaged cubes, but a hefty

slab of cheese, fried crispy in the garlic bread crumbs and drenched in a

tangy, tasty tomato sauce.

While all the food is good, this is the dish that will bring us back

again and again. Nobody makes it like this anymore. My mouth is watering

just thinking about it.

Gnocchi is always sort of a telltale dish for me. This potato/pasta

dumpling is sticky business, literally. They take a long time to make by

hand, so most restaurants just buy theirs frozen or air-sealed from pasta

distributors.

And if you cook the gnocchi 30 seconds too long or 30 seconds too

short, it is either gummy or pasty, or both. Believe me, I know.

Spaghetti Bender makes its gnocchi fresh daily. And this stuff is good.

Brian went traditional, with the spaghetti and meatballs ($7.50 a la

carte or $13.50 for dinner), because if you don’t do that right, you can

forget the rest. The results? Brian has suggested we go there twice since

last week’s visit.

The best thing about Spaghetti Bender is that you feel liked you

walked into an old friend’s house, sat down at grandma’s table and she

threw together “a little something special.” How’s that for a family

neighborhood restaurant?

* KATHY MADER’s dining reviews appear every other Thursday.

FYI

* What: Spaghetti Bender

* Where: 6204 West Coast Highway, Newport Beach

* Hours: 5 to 10 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays and 5 to 11 p.m.

Fridays and Saturdays

* Cost: Moderate

* Information: (714) 645-0651

* Web site: o7 https://www.spaghettibender.comf7 .