Ellington

Description

The one-page dinner menu lists a soup of the day, two salads, focaccia, three pastas (fettuccine, vermicelli, penne) available with any of six sauces, and 14 main courses. That's plenty of Italian-focused variety, but not the befuddling overdose purveyed on the multi-page menus of some restaurants. Commendable pastas include the Penne Barlogie, featuring spinach in a garlic-boosted sauce with tomatoes. Good bets among main courses are the Italian Sausage, slightly spicy slices in a marinara sauce infused with peppers and onions, and the Tortellini Carbonara, circular pasta stuffed with three cheeses and served in a cream sauce with prosciutto and mushrooms. Among top-flight desserts are Italian Cake, Tiramisu and Cheesecake.
Mood: Cafe Prego's several small dining rooms are decorated with a flea market's worth of kitschy junque. The objects range from a giant M&M candy wearing sunglasses and playing a saxophone to a framed 1934 newspaper with the headline "Vote Communist." Proprietor Jacqueline Petit knows how to make customers feel at ease. Seating two diners on a recent evening at a window table in the front dining room, she joked, "This will give you a river view - of the Kavanaugh River." She pointed to the stream of traffic flowing along busy Kavanaugh Boulevard.
- Jack Schnedler