Marcello's La Sirena

La Sirena has been in West Palm Beach since 1986.  Mind blowing to me.  I remember when they opened, assuming the old Sportsman's Inn (a pizza joint) on South Dixie Highway.  Very near my old neighborhood.  I was still in high school, and I lived close enough to walk to the restaurant.  I did not make it there until the 1990s, when I occasionally had enough money to enjoy a nice meal.  I joined my wife for our ninth anniversary celebration last month.

Marcello's parents opened the restaurant, and he and his family continue the tradition today.  Surely they are doing something right to sustain three decades of service.  I believe the key is simplicity.  Simple elegance. Oh, the Northern Italian menu offerings are diverse and the wine menu is the most comprehensive I've ever seen.  A single decorated dining room with a bar on the east end.  The outstanding wait staff are impeccably dressed, and wear red sneakers.  This a trademark that, to me, announces that while you are enjoying the privilege of dining in an upscale, highly regarded restaurant, you're on the west side of the bridge, dear.  It's perfect.

I began with the spinaci salad, perfectly sized with just the right amount of walnuts and goat cheese.  My entree was the Costoletta di Vitello Sirena - breaded veal chop pounded and topped with arugula.  No frills, and delightful.  My wife ordered the Penne Aumm, Aumm, a delicious pasta dish with eggplant and mozzerella.

 Dessert was a Tartufo - a hard chocolate shell filled with pistachio ice cream.  Yes, heavenly.

La Sirena's atmosphere is very homey.  I've never felt airs, or some desperate attempt at being posh.  It's very European, and its clientele is always similarly heterogeneous.  When I dined this past May I had this pleasant sort of feeling overcome me.  We were mere blocks from my grandmother and grandfather's old house, the one they bought in 1972 after moving from Brooklyn.  I grew up having made from scratch, simple but delectable meals there.  Not a hint of pretension, ever.  La Sirena is certainly a more formal and stylish place but the warmth is similar.  Both my grandparents have passed and their house has long since been sold, but being close by felt somewhat natural, organic.  Retro, of course. Very pleasing.

La Sirena is closed for the summer but will reopen for the new season, their thirty fourth, on September fifth.

Marcello's La Sirena

6316 South Dixie Highway

West Palm Beach, FL  33405

(561) 585-3128

www.lasirenaonline.com