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Lentini’s dining room may feel like an expensively renovated corner diner, with a mahogany bar, frosted glass Murano Italo-modernist sconces and chandeliers, and a Euro love-schlock soundtrack—but the loyal neighborhood regulars adore it all. Chef and co-owner Giuseppe Lentini, who manned the burners at upscale Elio’s for 19 years, delivers incongruously simple, seasonal fare from all regions of Italy. Pastas are refreshingly uncomplicated, garlic and olive oil are abundant, and tomato sauces—made from San Marzano tomatoes from Naples—are concentrated and intense. Meats are deftly handled, if traditional. When tiny lentils, imported from Pantelleria, near Sicily, aren’t available, Lenticchie, a warm salad of lentils, goat cheese, and beets, comes off the menu—but when they’re in, it’s worth ordering. The same goes for summer squash blossoms, stuffed with mozzarella and fried into airy golden puffs. Carciofi ripieni, halved artichokes sautéed until crisp and surrounded by a couli of fava beans and stuffed with pan-seared shrimp and scallops, is splendid. Impressively, Lentini has more than 200 mostly Italian wines. Tiramisù, made in individual servings, is so uncommonly light, it might make you a regular, too. — Colleen McKinney

Lentini is also host to a Tini, a tiny raw-and-martini bar within the restaurant

Carciofi ripieni, $13; Lenticchie, $10; tiramisu, $8