Serious Steak

Andre's Steakhouse is one of the premier restaurants in this part of Southwest Florida for high-quality, grain-fed, dry-aged, marbled beef prepared to perfection. And the service is first-rate. Our German waiter, brisk and pleasant Hermann, orchestrated the entire meal like a maestro.

Established in 1993, Andre's (with branches in Naples, Fort Lauderdale and Marco Island) is owned by Andre Cottoloni. He worked at New York's Peter Luger Steak House, founded in 1887, for a decade before bringing the concept to Florida. Peter Luger's established the menu and ambience for a specific kind of American steak palace that is no-nonsense, dark and staffed by male waiters in black bow ties and white bistro aprons. Luger and Andre's are the total opposites of the modern, attractive, female-friendly steak house that new chain restaurants such as Fleming's are testing. It's tradition versus innovation.

At the flagship restaurant near downtown Naples, Andre's steak experience unfolds in a humble, low-ceiling building carved into a bar to the left of the entrance and two rectangular side-by-side dining rooms to the right. Expect bare wood tables, cloth napkins, utilitarian chairs and bad lighting. The interior is a decorator's challenge, but patrons don't seem to notice. People come here for the meat. And 80 percent of Andre's customers are regulars.

The Wine Spectator award-winning wine list is long and distinguished; the menu is short and focused. Order a filet mignon, a porterhouse or T-bone. All the steaks are about $30 and can be prepared for one, two or more. The meat arrives at the table silky-looking, sizzling with butter and already sliced into medallions. Your waiter serves from an oval platter that has been positioned to tilt on a down-turned saucer so that the steak juices collect at one end of the platter and can be neatly spooned out. This is a technique worth trying at home. Side dishes are served family style and will be plated by your waiter. No steak sauce on the table and no ketchup. You won't need either. The Andre's steak is just fine as cooked by chef Ban Granville, who has been with the restaurant for nine years.

Sides, à la carte and about $7, include creamed (just barely) fresh spinach, fried onion rings that are skinny and limp but tasty and sweet sautéed mushrooms, and mashed, baked, fried or German potatoes (the house specialty). They're like hash browns gone to heaven. Besides steak, one could select lamb chops, veal chops, broiled chicken, fresh catch or lobster. Appetizers include the usual shrimp cocktail or sliced tomatoes and raw onions, but also the unexpected marinated herring or skinless sardines. The salad you want to try is the house chopped mélange that includes shrimp and small chunks of crisp Canadian bacon. It's served family style with a sauceboat of house dressing and a bowl of crumbled bleu cheese on the side.

Not all the desserts are house-made, but the strudel is, and it's certainly worth sampling. Waiter Hermann, who was a pastry chef in his native country, often makes the cherry apple strudel himself. Other worthy choices are key lime pie, pecan pie, chocolate mousse cake, New York-style cheesecake and cream puffs puddled in chocolate sauce.

Despite the lack of concern about the décor of the dining rooms, Andre doesn't want diners to forget for a moment where they are. The dinner plates are emblazoned with the restaurant's logo, and the oversized wineglasses are similarly embossed with the Andre's name and crest. The menu features a drawing of Andre. For the owner, this is a public commitment to his culinary concept. Diners just need to remember that Andre's stands for A-plus food and A-plus service.

Andre's Steakhouse 2800 Tamiami Trail N., Naples. 263-5851. Dinner: Daily from 5-9 p.m. Credit cards. Reservations suggested. Parking in lot on premises. Wheelchair accessible.

Just when you conclude that naples cannot possibly support one more Italian restaurant, another pops up. Ristorante d'Angeli is the newest to open its doors on Fifth Avenue South. Maybe it's the name of this city that makes us seem so Italian-eatery-friendly to restaurateurs, whether they intend to cook southern Italian style or not.

Ristorante d'Angeli is notable for a wide-ranging menu that offers Italian dishes from all regions of that nation and some that are more common to this one. D'Angeli is a fine choice if your dining party is large, because the kitchen's reach is broad and deep enough to satisfy even those guests who aren't partial to pasta or a traditional tomato sauce. Chef will grill you a sirloin steak any way to like it for $22.75. Offerings are printed in Italian with descriptions in English; and the fare is organized for the practical American diner into categories rather than a series of courses the way it would be in Italy.

There are about a half-dozen appetizers, including calamari and carpaccio, as well as trendy surprises such as crispy polenta topped with homemade meat sauce. A fragrant and tasty presentation of fresh steamed mussels, bathed in a pesto sauce with garlic and wine, is a hit at $8.25. The mussel dish is a traditional way to begin a long and leisurely Italian meal.

Salads include the traditional caesar in addition to tossed greens of radicchio and arugula or a seafood entry that combines steamed scallops, shrimp, mussels and clams in a vinaigrette over a bed of mixed greens for $9.75.

Meat and seafood entrées average about $22 and pasta dishes about $15. Additionally there are two risotto offerings, one with shrimp, the other with porcini mushrooms, both at $16.75. There's a wide offering of veal dishes (six of them) as well as chicken, steak and fish. Sides include sautéed spinach, wild mushrooms in garlic oil, or garlic mashed potatoes.

Desserts or dolci run through the usual crème brûlée and tiramisu as well as a homemade gelato, which is denser than American-style ice cream. But a better choice might be the apple pie, a customary dessert in Italy. It's made here the way it is there. Apple slices are placed in the center of a circle of dough, the size determined by the number to be fed. The dough is folded toward the middle and crimped. Then it's baked. The pies at d'Angeli are individual-serving size and capped with vanilla gelato. Quite delicious, and they come to the table warm at $5.75 apiece.

The extensive wine list includes many vintages served by the glass in the $8 to $10 range. If you're going to do several courses, wine by the glass is an excellent option.

This chic urban gathering place has low lighting and an intimate arrangement of tables around a U-shaped bar that separates the two indoor dining areas. Expect white tablecloths, linen napkins and candlelight and background music. Your silverware will be changed between courses, and the wait staff is formal and European. If you want to smoke, this restaurant understands and accommodates. Cigars are sold at the bar, and outdoor tables are set up on the loggia facing Fifth Avenue. The management even provides ashtrays and red books of matches. Even if you don't smoke, the matches are a nice souvenir of a good meal and a pleasant time at this grown-up, downtown restaurant.

Ristorante d'Angeli 466 Fifth Ave. S., Naples. 262-1920. Lunch and dinner. Credit cards. Reservations accepted. Gratuity of 18 percent added for parties of six or more. Street parking or public lots. Wheelchair accessible.

CHEF CENTRAL

A classically trained French baker and pastry chef, 30-year-old Stephan Henwood owns Sucrée Salée, a French bakery that has ex-panded over the past five years and two different locations to include a choice selection of pâté, European wines and cheeses, and custom epicurean gift baskets besides locally famous breakfast treats and fancy desserts. Now Henwood conducts weekly cooking demonstrations, sharing some of his favorite recipes and trade secrets with the public. He especially treasures his poached pears because, he says, the dessert looks glamorous but takes less than 30 minutes to make. All of the ingredients are available in the supermarket.

"This is a subtle dessert. You don't recognize each of the flavors in the first or second bite," he says. "You have little surprises along the way, which is the best part of enjoying this fruit dessert. In France, we would have it in the fall of the year." For an accompanying dessert wine, chef Henwood recommends Prosecco Frizzante Dolce, a dry sparkling wine from Italy. Serve it chilled.

Poached Pears with Chocolate and Cinnamon (serves four)

4 medium pears, peeled except for 1/2-inch around the stem
4 sheets of phyllo dough
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup melted sweet butter
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 teaspoons cinnamon sugar
1/2 quart water
2 cups sugar
1/2 vanilla bean

Boil cream and ground cinnamon until cream foams up. Mix well with chocolate chips in separate bowl and set aside resulting chocolate cream. Bring water, sugar and vanilla bean to a boil. Poach peeled pears in sugar water for three to four minutes, then slice vertically and remove the core with a melon baller.

Use one sheet of phyllo dough per pear. Lay dough flat, brush the entire sheet with melted butter and dust with cinnamon sugar. Fold dough in half, butter side in. Brush one-half only of the half sheet and dust with cinnamon sugar. Fold in half again.