Comments (0) Best Public SPQR - 2010
Café Bella Roma SPQR
1509 S. Robertson Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90035
310-277-7662
The "SPQR" in Café Bella Roma SPQR stands for Senatus Populusque Romanus, or, "the Senate and Roman People." It's that welcoming populist sentiment that fuels this Italian café bar, an intimate collection of highlights of the Roman café experience: romance, patience, languorous immersion in Italian cuisine. Highlights: cloud-soft and flavorful gnocchi, the deeply angelic tagliatelle al limone and the espresso that seems to never end in all its effervescent, nervous-system-goosing glory. During match season, they've got the Italian game on the TV and there's no shortage of yelling and fervid emotion for which Romans are so rightly notorious. Bring your wine, bring your lover — $4 corkage fee for one or the other, your choice — and the menu is extensive enough that you could order something new every evening of the week and still feel as though there were new frontiers left to explore. Best of all: It's that rare kind of Italian cuisine that doesn't leave you feeling heavy or weighted down, but nourished and improved. 1513 S. Robertson Blvd., W.L.A. (310) 277-7662, bellaromaspqr.sitesvp.com. —David Cotner
