Dining Out
By Anne DesBrisay

Search for fall yields valley treasures.

In a restless search for fall in the valley, we agree to settle for a fine place in which to dicuss the lack of it. We find the colour we seek at Bistro 54, a new restaurant in the old town of Perth that seems off to a nice start. The look of this small Italian restaurant suggests a tight budget. Wallpaper rolls (emptied, cut, painted and applied to plywood) stand in (fairly convincingly) as the red clay tiles of an Italian roof. Tables are spread with red-and-white check cloths, arranged the length of the long, thin bar and scattered in front of the open kitchen. They've furthered a trattoria-ish mood with paint and rough plaster, candles, boisterous Italian music and homey service.

There's nothing you haven't heard of on the starter menu: prosciutto and melon, antipasto mista, bruschetta, smoked salmon, sauteed shimp. But hidden among the ubiquitous caprese and Caesar salads is the "insalata 54," a plate of thinly sliced raw fennel scattered over thick slices of orange, scattered with red onion and black olives, and treated, with a citrus dressing that wakes it all up.

A full page of pasta dishes is followed with a shorter one of veal, fish and various ways with chicken, at their best when the kitchen is at its gutsiest.

The Caesar has enough garlic and anchovies to ward off all manner of things. The tomato salad is deliciously indelicate. It arrives as rounds of thickly cut autumn treasures, with chunks of mild, moist bocconcini cheese on a green bed of roughly chopped basil, the whole anointed liberally with good balsamic and quality oil.

The penne arrabiatta is pepper-spiked, tomato-based and fiery. The amatriciana has good kick too, its sauce robust with rough chunks of tomato, sweet onion and good prosciutto. Lots of flavour and fragrance in the spaghetti al vento: anchovies and garlic, peppers and olives give oomph and a significant fishy flavour to the oily broth that moistens the perfectly al dente pasta equipped with clams, shimp, mussels, scallops and squid. With the exception of the soft scallops, the seafood is mostly overdone, but not unforgivingly so.

The exception to the gutsy rule is with the fish of the day (the now omnipresent tilapia, replacing the once ubiquitous sea bass). The tilapia is delicate, finished, with a pan full of butter-browned pine nuts, brightened with lemon juice: lots of lemon juice. Sauteed garlic spinach, red jacket potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower round out the plate.

The kitchen buys good-quality veal and knows how to cook it. The scallopini alia puttanesca is deliciously tender meat, its sauce earthy, with bite.

With this good food comes a wine list of chiefly Italian offerings with a smattering of new world wines.

The tiramisu is excellent. Other desserts are brought in.