Luna Rocks

Starters possessed the right stuff too. Pasta e fagioli boasted a hammy broth bumped with bacon, pork, and white beans. Margherita pizza pleased via a thin, floppy crust savorily slathered with the proper proportion of sauce to cheese. Carpaccios are auspiciously augmented, the aged beef version dressed with artichokes, arugula, and Parmesan cheese, while a Siciliana version of eggplant Parmesan brought delicate slices bubbling with tomato sauce and pecked with Pecorino cheese. Fried calamari rings arrived golden brown with tentacles and zucchini sticks mixed in, and meaty leaves of a whole artichoke were deliciously threaded with bread crumbs, garlic, and olive oil — simple, unpretentious, and even better with a squeeze of lemon.

A fresh napoleon of flaky puff pastry leaking runny vanilla pastry cream proved a hit at our table, as did a chocolate-coated ball of tortoni with marzipan-enhanced pistachio ice cream center. Neither had been our first choice, nor was the ricotta cheesecake, which was a bit on the dry side. Our two requested desserts had, in fact, been unavailable, which led to the waiter sincerely apologizing and then the manager coming over to apologize and eventually desserts being offered on the house. Luna's modus operandi: Keep the customer satisfied. The staff here does this as well as anyone — and as smoothly and naturally as the moon passing through Earth's penumbral shadow.