Antico Nuovo meets its destiny

Antico Nuovo (Larchmont)

RESTAURANTS • FOUND Table

Strip-mall fine dining is a long-held tradition in LA. Currently, no one does it better than Chad Colby. Tucked away on the border of Larchmont and Koreatown, Colby’s twice-reinvented debut restaurant Antico Nuovo launched in 2019, converted to a scrappy pizza takeout during the pandemic, then finally became the cozy farmhouse-style classic it was destined to be.

Pass through Antico Nuovo’s dining room on any given evening and notice a disc of golden focaccia present on nearly every table. This pane course, served alongside a litany of toppings — a generous squiggle of duck liver pate and saba syrup, an abundance of whipped ricotta drizzled in pistachio pesto — is so good it pulls diners to this unobtrusive gem on the outskirts.

Colby honed his hearth-style cooking at Mozza and Chi Spacca, and his devotion to rustic Italian tradition extends beyond the must-order bread. Handcrafted pastas are a true second course here, with smaller portions of beef-cheek pappardelle and lemon-ricotta tortelli that pave the way for larger mains, including lamb shoulder chops. The open-kitchen and substantial counter seating provide ample staging for the large-format proteins with an eye toward showmanship.

The finish is as simple as the start, a gob of honeycomb submerged in a tumbler full of freshly-churned vanilla ice cream. Bread and ice cream abound in this city, but Colby’s iterations feel as rare a pleasure as they are simple and deft. –Caitlin White

→ Antico Nuovo (Larchmont), 4653 Beverly Blvd. • Reserve.