DUCK RAGU, TORTELLI AND CARPACCIO DI MANZO JUST MIGHT CLUE YOU IN THAT YOU'VE REACHED A LAND FAR, FAR AWAY

Joey Ivansco/STAFF (ENLARGE)
Scallops over chickpea puree
Joey Ivansco/STAFF (ENLARGE)
Carpaccio
Joey Ivansco/STAFF (ENLARGE)
Duck Ragu over tortelli
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SOMETHING HAPPENS TO Italian food when it comes to the United States. It loses its sincerity — and gains an attitude.

This can be good or bad, depending on how you look at it. It's good if you don't mind "cucina povera" being elevated to the sort of stuff Mario Batali might serve at the White House. It's bad if you understand that Italian food at its most extravagant is, by definition, neither elaborate nor fanciful.

Italian food is peasants' food, based on what's at hand, whether that's fresh tomatoes or hand-made tagliatelle. It's based on ingredients, and it's been that way for several hundred years. There is no slow food movement in Italy — all the food is slow food. Simple. Seasonal. Basic. Grounded.

On this side of the Atlantic, Italian restaurant food can be placed into two basic categories: the schlocky "gravy"-and-gooey-cheese kind (which has many fine attributes), or the higher brow efforts devoted to the many regions of the country shaped like a boot.

Antica Posta falls into the latter category, its menu focused on one of Italy's most famous regions — Toscana, or Tuscany. This western region just above Italy's "knee" is famous for lots more than books made into movies starring Diane Lane.

Tuscany's contributions to the culinary world are vast. This is where crostini was born. Finocchiona, the famed fennel-flavored salami, comes from Tuscany. Fagioli all'uccelletto — stewed cannellini beans — are a staple here. And then there's a little old wine called Chianti.

If it's been a while since you visited Antica Posta, it's time to go back. There's something miraculous about a restaurant that ages well. Especially an Italian restaurant.

Because here, the dishes on the menu appear like a gallery of old friends. Here is the duck ragu, this time over fat pillows of spinach-and-ricotta-stuffed tortelli, spruced up with a bit more vinegary flavor and less like a Bolognese sauce as it has been in the past. Here, too, is the carpaccio di manzo — a heap of arugula, chopped into a fine chiffonade and peppered with bits of tangy parmigiano and covered with a blanket of buttery raw meat.

The list goes on: fat seared sea scallops over a smooth, earthy puree of chickpeas have long been a favorite, as has the ribeye, served Piedmontese style, with the meat grilled, then sliced and fanned over a bed of nutty arugula.

Specials are usually reserved for veal and seafood, and rarely disappoint. Farfalle might be served with a wonderful mishmash of lobster meat and white wine; sea bass is often served well seasoned and whole, its crusty tail flopped over the edge of the plate. If you're lucky, you'll go on a night when the kitchen has fresh squash blossoms, puffy and deep fried to an ethereal perfection.

The restaurant's interior is as friendly as the menu, a cavernous house with warming colors and exposed wooden ceiling beams. On busy nights, the din still makes it difficult to hear. The comfortable, not-so-new-anymore bar area makes a pre-meal prosecco a must.

Owner Marco Betti's staff provides a yin yang of service. Always courteous, at busy times they can be slow and plodding; during lulls, they pay too much attention to you. They'll tell you the gelati is made inhouse (you'll suspect it isn't) and offer up the peppermill far too quickly. Frankly, all the desserts seem a little off, as if they've been sitting too long waiting for their place on the plate. The semifreddo has a flavor that hints freezer burn, and the tiramisu is the same ubiquitous concoction of soaked cake and cream found from here to Maine. I doubt this version shows up in Italy at all.

But in Tuscany, the meal would end with a fine Pecorino anyway. Antica Posta offers a Parmigiano-Reggiano. Order it and a frothy, well-made espresso. Sit back and breath in the aroma of cheese and coffee.

Take that, Diane Lane.

Antica Posta

Overall rating:
Food: Regional Italian from Tuscany
Service: Always friendly, usually formal, but not necessarily perfect
Setting: A small house remade, with a spacious bar area and intimate dining. Colors are rustic golds and reds, with exposed ceiling beams.
Address, telephone: 519 E. Paces Ferry Road, 404-262-7112
Hours: Open daily for dinner Sunday through Thursday from 5 to 10:30 p.m. and Friday and Saturday from 5 to 11 p.m.
Price range: $$$
Credit cards: Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Diners Club
Best dishes: carpaccio with arugula and Parmigiano, Piedmontese rib eye steak, duck ragu over spinach-and-ricotta tortelli, scallops over chickpea puree
Full bar: Yes; have a Bellini while you wait for your table.
Reservations: Recommended
Vegetarian selections: Mozzarella with tomatoes and arugula, tagliatelle with tomato sauce, spinach-and-ricotta ravioli
Children: Only in the early evening hours
Parking: Complementary valet
Wheelchair access: Yes
Smoking: No smoking
Noise level: Medium to high
Patio: No
Takeout: No phone orders, but walk-in orders welcome

KEY TO RATINGS
Outstanding: Sets the standard for fine dining in the region.
Excellent: One of the best in the Atlanta area.
Very good: Merits a drive if you're looking for this kind of dining.
Good: A worthy addition to its neighborhood, but food may be hit or miss.
Fair: The food is more miss than hit.
Restaurants that do not meet these criteria are rated Poor.

Pricing code: $$$$ means above $35; $$$ means $20-$35; $$ means $10-$20; $ means $10 or less. ® means reservations accepted.