Sophisticated Italian food in a Kaimuki storefront

By Wanda A. Adams
Advertiser Food Editor

Waiter Marc Olivier explains the day's specials to a table full of diners. C&C's menu is worth exploring in depth, but even on weeknights, it's a good idea to make reservations well in advance. Photos by Rebecca Breyer • The Honolulu Advertiser

Executive chef Joey Julian has been on the job for four years. His signature dish is roasted pork chops with prosciutto.

C&C Pasta Co. 3605 Wai'alae Ave., Kaimuki Lunch: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays; Dinner 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays; to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 5 to 9 p.m. Sundays Closed Mondays The deli is open these hours and between lunch and dinner services. Reservations recommended; 732-5999 BYOB

On Fridays and Saturdays, they drift in to their reserved tables around 6:30, greeting owner Carla Magziar with hugs and chatter. On Sundays and weeknights, they come earlier for a casual dinner. The last Friday of the month is osso-buco night, and you'd better make a reservation.

In the course of the evening, executive chef Joey Julian emerges periodically to shake hands and talk story, checking on the reception of the specials.

All this can leave the newcomer a little in the dark.

I had decided to take a second look at C&C, which has been open for five years, because I'd heard there were changes — the deli is gone, someone told me; they've changed chefs or owners, someone else said. None of that is true. The restaurant began life as a deli with a few tables, but the process has been reversed, Magziar said, because that's what the customers wanted. The deli case is now in the kitchen, and the place seats 65. Chef Julian has been there four years.

Though I'd patronized the deli and had lunch there before, my reviewing visits saw me making some choices I might not have made if I'd known my way around. For example — and this sounds dumb, but it's what happened — at lunch on my own one day, I picked up the single, long page that is the menu, and was surprised to see only appetizers (including a salad and a soup of the day), beverages, desserts. Hmmm, I thought, appetizers for lunch, I'm game. Of course, I realized too late that the sandwiches and pasta — which I saw being served to tables around me — were listed on the other side.

In any case, I ordered the soup of the day, a flavorful and light spinach puree with a touch of creme fraiche ($9) and an appetizer that intrigued me, Parmigiano Gelato ($10.50) — a mound of unctuous cheese spread served with Tuscan-style bruschetta, pears poached in red wine, candied walnuts and over all, a delicate drizzle of honey. It is a dish Magziar tasted in Florence and determined to re-create, experimenting until she achieved the desired nutty flavor and sorbet-like texture using Parmesan rinds. As it's served, the diner is urged to spread the cheese generously on the crostini. Order this as an appetizer; as an entree, it's much too rich to get through completely but it will break your heart to leave any on the plate.

Fortunately, the dinner menu was much more self-explanatory, contained on a single, large page. The 40 or so dishes listed — appetizers, pasta, ravioli, gnocchi, risotto, entrees and desserts — plus daily soup, fish and risotto specials outlined orally, are the entirety of the menu. I heartily approve: Too-large menus are confusing, provoke indecision and suggest a whole lot of food sitting in warming trays.

Again, though, I could have used some help. My husband — wise man — chose the warm shrimp salad for a first course ($9) and linguine with clams as the entree ($17.50). The salad was a revelation: Guess what? It is possible for a restaurant to prepare shrimp without turning it into an impenetrable bundle of overcooked tissue! These little darlings lay languid and tender in a warm bath of lemon, olive oil and mint, with ricotta salata (a dry, sliceable ricotta with a nutty flavor), tomatoes and tender-crisp haricots vert. I love my husband, but I coveted that dish.

I am not overfond of clams, but he is, and he applied great gusto to his dish of al-dente linguine crowned with a ring of the succulent mollusks. I took a taste of the sauce and was rewarded by a salty-sweet burst of flavor.

Trying to experience as much of the menu as I could at a sitting, I chose a mixed antipasto plate ($13.50) and saw a flicker pass across the waiter's face.

I found out why he had hesitated when the plate arrived, burdened with an entire Italian picnic — slices of prosciutto the size of small platter, at least half a sliced melon, a large mound of mozzarella and tomato salad, mortadella and other cured meats and a slice of delicious frittata. Order this one for the group. (And waiter, please, if you think someone is making an ordering mistake, explain gently, so they know what they're getting into.)

My entree order had been predestined from the moment my eyes fell on the words "seared foie gras" — I looooove well-prepared foie gras. This proved to be a nice-size slice, perched on top of a perfectly roasted duck breast (crisp skin, moist flesh — very hard to achieve) and topped with an apple brandy and green peppercorn sauce ($25). The sauce oozed onto the base of mashed potatoes, and asparagus completed the dish.

I consider this well-rounded plate good value. There are a number of fine-dining restaurants where $25 (or more) gets you only the entree. I wish I'd had time to try the chef's signature dish, roasted pork chops with prosciutto ($27.50).

For dessert, bread pudding of the day (cinnamon and vanilla with gelato; $8) for my husband, and for me, Lemon Delicious, a dense lemon cake that's a Magziar family recipe ($7.50). Both were densely delicious.

As we left, the regulars were proliferating. Lucky folks. If one has the time and money to become a regular anywhere in Honolulu, C&C is a good choice — comfortable, welcoming and with very good food.

Reach Wanda Adams at 535-2412 or wadams@honoluluadvertiser.com.