The new SoLita Las Olas sure looks South Beach chic. It's as much a bar as a restaurant, with two lounge areas and a living-room-style hangout with couches and love seats smack in the middle. There are tables for dinner too, but it's clear by the trip-hop bass thumping in the background that SoLita is going for style.

That's also evident from the slightly melancholy slogan on its website: "The perfect place to socialize or be romantic in an ambience reminiscent of more glamorous times."

There's no mention of food in that slogan, but at least according to a first taste of a few dishes recently, the menu is far from overlooked.

SoLita, an acronym for South of Little Italy, was opened by Steven Dapuzzo, a former Taverna Eros consultant, and Alan Myers, who spent ten years at Café

Martorano. Like Café Martorano, food is unquestionably home-style

Italian, with generous plates of pasta and an emphasis on things like

meatballs and ricotta. Not what you'd expect to find at a South

Beach-style venue.

Oddly, however, that mix seems to have

worked. On a recent Tuesday night, every seat was taken, and

Drakkar-wearing patrons were lined up at the hostess stand wondering

when a table would open up.

If

those guys in three-buttons-opened shirts ended up with a table, they'd

find a menu dominated by simple Italian classics, like cheese and

spinach ravioli and linguine with clams. We started with one of the

more unusual-sounding items, the "Italian poppers" ($8.50), small,

grilled peppers stuffed with fresh ricotta, herbs, and lemon. They were

nicely simple, but a bit hard to eat with the cheese spurting out from

the fat end.

The rigatoni was great, but it doesn't look much like South Beach.​ Instead, it's a great representation of that simple Sunday-dinner-style plate. It came with

two meatballs, a chunk of slow-braised pork, and a heap of nicely

seasoned ricotta. It was clear the place hasn't adopted South Beach

prices, though, considering that massive meal rang in at just $22.

Less

impressive, however, was the "classic parmigiana style" chicken with

fresh mozzarella. The chicken was pounded so thin that it's no surprise

it got a bit overcooked, and the breading lacked the crispy edges of

"classic" chicken Parmesan. Just the same, the red gravy, which also

appeared on the rigatoni, did impart the $20 dish with the flavors of a

well-seasoned sauce. Just get those edges crispy.

For a

month-old place, SoLita had a good command of service. A mistake on the

appetizer, for instance, was corrected not only by removing it from the

bill but also by the manager's comping our table a round of drinks.

It's

a good thing to get drinks comped at SoLita too, because that's the

only part of the menu that's South Beach-like, with glasses of wine

hovering around $13.

But judging from the turnout, patrons

aren't so worried about the drink prices. They're eating huge plates of

pasta and, apparently, reminiscing about "more glamorous times."

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SoLita

is located at 1032 E. Las Olas Blvd. in Fort Lauderdale. It opens at 5

p.m. and closes "when the party's over." Call 954-357-2616, or visit

solitalasolas.com.

• First Look