Elvira

Niccolò Angius and his wife, chef Cesarina Mezzoni, opened this Roman osteria in a 1930s Ocean Beach building that once housed Thee Bungalow and then Bo-Beau Kitchen + Bar. The wood-paneled dining room has marble tabletops, and a private room off the kitchen is set up for family-style dinners. Executive chef Mezzoni built the menu around homemade pasta like tonnarelli cacio e pepe and bucatini all'amatriciana, plus a lamb cotoletta drawn from her family's butcher shop near Rome's Campo de' Fiori. Wine comes by the quarter, half, or full-liter carafe rather than the glass, following osteria tradition.