Gathering Round the Fire

From outside, the room is magnetic: bright and bustling, all blond wood and mirrors. But when you’re in it, you find yourself looking through more plate-glass windows into the display kitchen, where Spark Woodfire Cooking is consuming mass quantities of olive wood and mesquite. The fascination there is a brawny, highly machined rotisserie with huge chickens twirling away on it, a real Terminator of a rotisserie.

Danilo Terribili clearly believes in sparks and wood fires. He has transferred chef Luca Sterpetti from his West Hollywood restaurant, Alto Palato, to this brand-new Studio City spot, where nearly everything is baked, roasted or grilled on wood. The idea is far from new, but Spark Woodfire has a winning enthusiasm about it.

On opening week, it had the usual kinks--the waiters were wobbly on the menu, a lot of the dishes were coming to the tables lukewarm. This wasn’t a big problem with the grilled polenta with Gorgonzola and arugula salad, but a Cheddar-spiked American corn bread did suffer. No problem with the ribollita, a a particularly thick and beany version of this rustic Italian soup.

The cracker-crust pizzas include one topped with goat cheese and good smoked salmon. Apart from those monster chickens, the rotisserie turns out a meaty, garlicky leg of pork. The usual steaks and fish are cooked on the wood grill, which also finishes off a finely textured, unexciting Italian meatloaf (polpettone). And there are baked pastas, such as a delicious, buttery roll-up of spinach and ricotta (rotolo di spinaci), like a slice of green- and white-flecked jelly roll.

The full bar features a pear cider and “wine flights” (tasting samples), and there’s a blackboard listing a couple of daily desserts, if wood smoke doesn’t satisfy all your needs.

BE THERE

Spark Woodfire Cooking, 11801 Ventura Blvd., Studio City; (818) 623-8883. Open for lunch and dinner daily. Dinner for two, food only, $32-$68. Valet and street parking.