RESTAURANTS : The Guy Can’t Help It

Piero Selvaggio is a restaurateur who loves to lavish what he calls “little surprises” on his customers--a few shavings of white truffles here, a porcini mushroom or two or three there, and always generous pours of the finest extra virgin olive oils.

So imagine what it’s like for him to open a new restaurant during a recession, at a time when people want simple food, comfort food--inexpensive food. This is not what Selvaggio is best known for. At his long-established showcase restaurant, Valentino in Santa Monica, you can eat the best in Italian luxury food and drink--and often pay luxury prices. But Posto, Selvaggio’s first restaurant in the San Fernando Valley, was not designed to be a Valentino clone. On the menu, Posto has a subtitle: “A Restaurant of Simplicity and Good Things.”

This means that for the first time, Selvaggio is running a restaurant with grill food. Of course, the steaks are done Florentine style, the chops come with an herb infusion and the grilled sausage is homemade. Selvaggio, it seems, can’t help himself--the little surprises still turn up.

Mushroom-barley soup, for instance, is made with porcini and chicken meatballs. For the roasted tuna, Selvaggio provided his chef, Luciano Pellegrini, with giant capers from an island off the south of Italy. And for wine lovers, Selvaggio put together a wonderful list filled with unusual bargains.

* Posto, 14928 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks, (818) 784-4400 . Entrees $9-$19.50.