The Italian food gods have smiled down on Agoura Hills. They’ve sent us Giuseppe Bellisario and Nick Andrisiano, co-owners of Grissini Ristorante Italiano. In the Agoura Hills Town Center just east of Reyes Adobe on Agoura Road, Grissini (Italian for breadstick), is a standout. 

Tucked into a far corner of the center, the restaurant is beautifully decorated in soft shades of burgundy and gold, with a handpainted Tuscan mural lending the dining room a comfortable yet elegant ambience.

The bar area is comfortable and stylish and offers a separate TV, DVD and music system. It’s ideal for a birthday party, rehearsal dinner or other special occasion. A banquet room seats up to 60.

With wines, cheeses, sorbets, gelato and dry goods imported weekly from Italy, there is indeed truth to the phrase on the front cover of the menu: “From Rome to you with Love.” Bellisario began his lifelong love of food working in his mother’s restaurant in Gallipoli, Italy.

Bellisario furthered his culinary education in France before working in both the kitchen and the dining room of a cruise ship for almost a decade. Aboard the ship he met and fell in love with a passenger named Barbara, who became his wife, the mother of his four children and the reason he moved to California.

“Every place you go, you learn something,” Bellisario says with a heavy Italian accent. “Music and food have a lot in common that way. You are never going to know it all; you keep learning and learning.” Settling into life in California, he continued to learn at the acclaimed Bel-Air Hotel and at Scandia Restaurant. 

With the encouragement of studio executives he met at Scandia, Bellisario opened his own restaurant, “Giuseppe’s.” Frequented by Laurence Olivier and Frank Sinatra, it became a regular hangout for fabled Hollywood power lunches.

“We’d set them up in the kitchen so they’d have privacy,” Bellisario said. “They loved it.” He went on to open four more restaurants before retiring. 

Though he and his wife enjoyed retirement and traveling, it wasn’t long before he became a bit restless.

“It was actually my wife and daughter who found this place,” Bellisario said, looking around the now fully renovated restaurant. “She told me I would love this location, and I did.

“I never put anything on the menu that I don’t like,” said the proud owner of the restaurant, which opened Dec. 1, 2008. Based on this statement, it’s clear that he likes fresh, peakof-the-season food, creatively prepared.  

For an entree tailored especially for them, diners may select a favorite fresh, filled or dry pasta and pair it with a homemade sauce—tomato- , vegetable- , seafood- or creambased. Prices range from $11.95 to $17.95.

Prepared main courses, featuring chicken, veal, beef and fish are priced between $15.95 and $32, with most not more than $18.50. Of these offerings, the pollo Cipriani ($15.95) is delicious. Tender chicken breast with diced tomatoes and artichoke heart is prepared with white wine and served with roasted potatoes and seasonal vegetables. Soups, salads, paninis, pizzas and calzone are also offered on the dinner menu.

The lunch menu features chicken and fish entrees, pizzas and paninis, but the real stars are the restaurant’s 23 (yes, really, 23) fresh salads. Not to be missed is the chopped salad Italiana ($12.50). Lettuce, garbanzo beans, mozzarella, tomatoes and turkey or salami (or a combination of both) is served in an edible foccacia bowl. It’s bursting with flavor and lighter than many Italian chopped salads.

Another favorite salad is the savory strawberry chicken salad ($12.50), organic baby greens with strawberries, green apples, roasted walnuts, goat cheese and breast of chicken served with a blackberry balsamic vinaigrette. And a third is the carpaccio di pera ($12), prepared with thinly sliced pears, garden greens, honey roasted walnuts and crumbles of gorgonzola cheese, served with a honey-balsamic vinaigrette.   

The wine list is large and fairly priced, featuring wines from Italy, California, France and Australia. A full bar menu will be available in the coming weeks, and happy hour starts at 5 p.m.

Classic Italian desserts such as tiramisu, panna cotta and cannoli are offered as the grand finale, along with a wide variety of sorbets and gelatos imported from Italy.    

Perhaps it’s the well-appointed decor and ambience that make dining at Grissini such a pleasant experience. Or maybe it’s the presence of the gracious Giuseppe Bellisario, the consummate professional, who along with his staff is inviting and attentive to guests. Quite possibly it’s the fresh, authentic cuisine that makes it so memorable.

Pleasant, enjoyable, memorable—Grissini!