Restaurant: Calavino's Oakhurst

Calavino's occupies the "spot of death" in Oakhurst formerly occupied by the Oakhurst Grill, Melton's App & Tap, and a few other places I forget. However, Oakhurst/Decatur is short on a decent Italian place (Figo Pasta does not qualify) so I hope it will enjoy a longer tenure than some of the previous tenants.

We (2 of us) walked into this place on a Friday evening at about 8:30p without a reservation (which, considering they dont list a phone number on their website, could be hard to make). We waited about 20 minutes for a table, but they have a little 'lounge" area next to the bar and the hostess stopped by to get us drinks, so it wasn't bad. The bar was pretty lively, they were playing that Feist cd, and the lighting in the restaurant was right, meaning somewhat dim. I'm touchy on lighting and ATL restaurants tend to overlight.

We were seated in a nice booth by the window and our server came over promptly. The staff of this place is a trip - they are outrageous, funny, and welcoming. They clearly love operating their place, which is great to see, and the manager and the chef are out on the floor interacting with the patrons. It's a great vibe.

To start, we had a poached pear salad with endive and gorgonzola and an artichoke scampi in a white wine and caper sauce. We're a sucker for ordering things with capers. Though the pear was one of the smaller specimens we've seen, the salad was great.

For the main courses, we had lamb loin over risotto and green beans, and the lasagna bolognese. We were big fans of the lamb loin, and even bigger fans of the risotto it was served on - it was unbelievably creamy and delicious, so much so that we speculated a non-parm-reg cheese may have been used to augment it. When we suggested this to the chef, he feigned indignation, and let us know this was not the case (though there was an extra ingredient added we will soon try in our home risotto repetoire).

For dessert we had a great raspberry chocolate mousse.

In all: if you're in the Decatur/Oakhurst area and looking for Italian, give this place a try - good food, good wine and beer list, and a really fun staff give it a great personality, and hopefully, a shot at longevity in this location. We're going back.

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