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Overall rating:

There are really only two types of restaurants in the world, no matter what the pundits cry to the contrary:

Becky Stein/special (ENLARGE)
The dining room at Lola Bellini Bar & Restaurant
Becky Stein/special (ENLARGE)
The antipasti selections include caponata, caramelized fennel, olive oil poached tuna
Becky Stein/special (ENLARGE)
The lemon sole served at Lola Bellini.
Becky Stein/special (ENLARGE)
Some of the selections from the bar.
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1) Restaurants about food, or 2) restaurants about scene.

Restaurateur-cum-showman Tom Catherall is a magician when it comes to the latter. At it again, this time the patriarch of Here to Serve Restaurants (Twist, Shout, Strip, Posh, among others) has seemingly pulled out all the stops for his first Italian venue, Lola Bellini Bar & Restaurant.

A Buckhead beauty, she is as comely as she sounds, with a grand dining room designed by the Johnson Studio highlighted by walnut-colored peek-a-boo wood slats that grace the walls and ceilings and lots of oversized candles overhead and between banquettes.

These, along with giant red light shades, bring warmth to the large dining room that sits prettily next to the bar, where bellinis — the bubbly libation of sparkling wine and white peach puree — flow freely. Adjacent is a sweeping antipasto station, a sort of bowls-on-ice show of the day's offerings.

The menu is as much American as it is Italian, but few have ever faulted Catherall for being overly authentic. Of course there are steaks. Of course there is fish. Everything is just disguised in an Italian accent: strip steak served with puttanesca sauce; scampi served with white beans, pancetta and arugula.

The "Lolita" section of the menu is a nice, light idea — each entree is 600 calories — but the cut-up mess of rubbery chicken and spongy carrots on my plate was worse than what I might get from a cheap TV dinner, and costs a lot more.

Better to stick with chef Martin Burge's interesting mix of American and Italian influences at the antipasti bar, and worry about calories at the gym another day. Burge, whose greatest claim to fame prior to Lola is that he worked for legendary Gotham Bar and Grill in New York, makes a mean caponata, that saucy Sicilian mix of tomatoes and eggplant. It tastes laced with hints of curry and nutmeg and is as perfect eaten alone as it is smeared on anything within arm's reach. But tuna poached in olive oil is best — a light little fricassee of fish mixed with crunchy celery, capers and earthy white beans. Caramelized fennel is simple and understated, a perfect pairing with a flittery light-and-eggy fritatta. There's nothing new or exceptional about the salumi and cheese offerings, but they add meaty pith to this happy mix of starters.

Pizzas are fun, just the right size for a small crowd and come with a choice of wheat or white crust, which is fired from the oven and nicely crisped around the edges with a doughy softness toward the center. Along with the antipasti, the pies are a good way to enjoy Lola.

Advancing on to other areas can be risky. Other than an exceptional piece of roasted branzino (European sea bass), succulent and sexy with a splashy showing of fennel, there are dangerous dips in the road — lemon sole with tomatoes and olives is overcooked to the point of deconstruction, and the steaks, which take up too much of the menu, are entirely unremarkable. A showy dessert cart is a kitchy catch, but one cart for a room this large is not enough — one evening we waited for almost 25 minutes for it to arrive. Meanwhile we tried to sip limoncello, but tasting more like lemonade, it left us completely disheartened. Skip all the flashy frou-frou and have someone grab you an offering of the gelati cones served in a sushi hand roll rack; scrumptious and playful, they'll put the punch back in your party.

It's actually service issues more than anything that make Lola just another one of Catherall's pretty maids in a restaurant row. Busy and frantic, the servers often have the look of deer stuck in headlights, especially if you ask them a question they can't answer, like "why do you decant ALL your bottles of red wine?" At least one waiter answered honestly by saying "I have no idea."

Does it matter? Lola is about the arrant see-and be-scene so common in Atlanta. And ringleader to the last, Catherall knows how to attract the Buckhead babe crowd that lingers here even after the last bellini has been poured.

Food: Italian
Service: Spotty and lacking confidence
Address, telephone: 3280 Peachtree Road NW (inside the Terminus 100 Building), 404-892-9292
Price range: $$$
Credit cards: Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover
Hours of operation: Open for lunch and dinner Monday from 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday from 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., Friday 11:30 a.m. to midnight. Open for dinner Saturday 6 p.m. to midnight and Sunday 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Best dishes: Antipasti selections of caponata, caramelized fennel, olive oil poached tuna; mushroom and white truffle oil pizza, roasted branzino
Vegetarian selections: Antipasti selections, various pizzas, insalata Caprese
Children: Appropriate for lunch or early evenings
Parking: Validated parking inside the Terminus 100 Building or $5 valet
Reservations: Yes
Wheelchair access: Yes
Smoking: Outdoor, non-eating areas only, like the outdoor fireplace
Noise level: High
Patio: Yes, and it's heated
Takeout: Yes
Website: www.heretoserverestaurants.com

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 may be rated Poor.

Pricing code: $$$$$ means more than $75; $$$$ means $75 and less; $$$ means $50 and less; $$ means $25 and less; $ means $15 and less. (The price code represents a meal for one that includes appetizer, entree and dessert without including tax, tip and cocktails.)