PHOTO: B.A. Nilsson

Intimate Attention

Lanci’s Ristorante

68 Putnam St., Saratoga Springs, 581-1973. Serving dinner Wed-Sun from 5 PM. AE, D, MC. V.

Cuisine: gourmet Italian

Entrée price range: $19 (fettuccine Bolognese)

Ambiance: very intimate

By B.A. Nilsson

With eight tables sharing space with the stoves, Lanci’s fills quickly; with a welcoming, family run ambiance, it tends to stay filled. Having heard many enthusiastic reports about the place, I made a couple of unsuccessful incursions during the preceding months and gave up last August, when it was perpetually full. And then I was in Saratoga one chilly evening earlier this month, looking for a meal, and saw empty tables through Lanci’s window.

In short order, my family was installed at one of them. What turns out to be one of the restaurant’s greatest assets initially proved frustrating: The two servers were so busy with other customers—not only serving them but also chatting with them and, in one case, getting editorial help with some written material—that we were seated and then, it seemed, forgotten.

I wasn’t aggrieved as much as I was jealous, knowing that few can offer snappier pointers than I—but, of course, I was dining anonymously. Which ultimately didn’t matter. Once we fell into the service queue, so to speak, we were never neglected.

And it’s not the kind of place where you maintain much anonymity for long. If you initially aren’t conversing with neighboring tables, you’ll be drawn into it once chef-owner John Lanci emerges to check on the food he prepared for you.

He and his wife, Cathy, opened the place over a year ago as a complete change of career. John learned his craft in the best of all schools: the family kitchen, where a family heritage was celebrated in the daily cuisine. He then enhanced that knowledge with formal training.

Duck around to the other side of a partition at one side of the dining room and you’ll see the “line”: stoves, salamander, prep table. And more likely than not, John wielding skillets or dressing plates.

As it turned out, the servers are siblings, next-generation Lancis: son Matthew, who guided us through our meal, adds a sound knowledge of wine to his familiarity with the cuisine.

The menu changes regularly so it can remain a snapshot of what’s fresh and what’s captured the chef’s imagination. For example: A lamb shank ($22) was offered the night I visited, making its debut in this recipe. Although it had been braised to a fare-thee-well, ossobuco style, it was served dry and with a crust of a variety of herbs. Even better, it perched atop a bed of risotto nicely flavored with parmesan cheese.

You don’t expect to find tender shank meat under that crust, so it’s a delightful and surprising experience working your way through the meat, as tender as it gets but with some flavorful crunch to it. With such rich risotto beneath it, I never missed the sauce that otherwise might have enhanced it.

It wasn’t the entrée I ordered. My daughter often charges me with choosing for her, and I chose ossobuco Milanese ($24) to give her another perspective on veal. But the presentation—again, of braised shanks, this time very much in a sauce—had a kind of Three Mile Island look, with twin towers of veal bone dominating the dish.

And it wasn’t just the unfamiliar appearance. When I pointed out that those bones, topped with a garlicky gremolata, contained marrow she was expected to eat, she pretty much willed my plate of lamb to apparate in front of her.

No complaints from me. Anything cooked that slowly draws in flavor against which the flashier meats can’t compete. Creamy polenta is served alongside; like risotto, it’s not only a treat in itself but also a vehicle for whatever sauce may be near.

With no chicken on the menu, my wife was forced to choose one of a pair of pasta dishes. Penne Norma ($19) adds grilled eggplant to the macaroni tubes, finishing the dish in a simple-seeming tomato sauce (chunks of the fresh stuff) with ricotta adding a bright, sweet finish to the dish.

Any of these would be enough to satisfy a reasonable appetite, a condition with which I remain unfamiliar. A pair of salads is tempting, but we selected three of the four hot appetizers. Contorni ($7) is described as sautéed greens, but it’s one of those deceptive items that turns out to be much more, a good-sized serving of garlic and crunch. Equally simple-seeming is the artichoke dish, carciofi ($7), which presents a trio of big, fresh hearts sautéed with garlic and topped with sage.

How did mother do it? Gnocchia alla Nonna ($9) answers that question with handmade potato dumplings served in a chicken liver-scented tomato sauce. Again, deceptively simple but teeming with unusual and very satisfying flavor.

Cathy Lanci is responsible for those desserts that aren’t imported, and her panna cotta ($7) was a definitive version of the compote that does for cream what flan does for eggs, topped with exquisite chestnut honey. Limoncello tartufo ($6) puts the tangy liquor flavor in the center of a ball of vanilla gelato, itself coated with lemon sprinkles. Both desserts made their way around the table frequently as we quarreled over ownership.

By which time we were on a first-name basis with our server, the chef, and the folks sitting nearby. It’s a social as well as gastronomic commitment to dine here, and it’s well worth it.

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