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Old world Italian on the front range

John Lehndorff, News Dining Critic

Published July 19, 2002 at midnight

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According to a recent Wall Street Journal story, large restaurant chains now own more than 50 percent of the nation's $269.4 billion dining market for the first time and are ''Wal-Mart-ing'' business steadily from the ''mom-and-pops.''

I present for your inspection two independent Denver-area food businesses that just might survive the trend. The first produces absolutely authentic Italian-American bread and fare. The second diligently delivers the best of real Italian light dining.

I found myself getting nostalgic as soon as I pulled up to Gargaro's Italian Bakery, tucked away in a little white house in an unlikely corner of Arvada. You can smell the yeast and flour in the parking lot.

Gargaro's is strictly takeout, with no seating. Put your order in at the counter and don't complain about the lack of air-conditioning - cold air ruins the bread. The bakery produces classic, wonderfully soft white Italian loaves. Soft but not mushy, with a thin, non-flaky crust, this is what Wonder Bread aspires to be.

This bread is ideal for making East Coast-style sandwiches, including a tendereggplant Parmigiana ($4.50), meatball with cheese and peppers ($4.50), cold tuna salad ($3.80) and cold-cut grinder ($4.50).

Half a loaf forms the crust of the memorable bread pizza ($5). Piled with stewed tomatoes, sausage, mushrooms and a load of high-quality mozzarella, it's oven-baked until toasty and gooey.

More dough envelops the zesty sausage and roasted chile calzone ($2.70) and is also used for the 8-inch pizzas ($5.85).

For dinner, the choices are fresh rigatoni ($6) or spaghetti ($5.75) with meatball or sausage, along with soup or salad and bread. The fresh rigatoni provides a milder taste and softer, dumpling-like chew experience from Italian-made dried pasta. It's drenched in Gargaro's oregano-infused, mild marinara sauce. The single big meatball is a classic Italian-American orb laced with herbs and breadcrumbs.

The house Italian salad ($2.85) dresses crisp iceberg lettuce, sliced Roma tomatoes, black olives, thin-sliced pepperoni and provolone in a simple olive oil dressing.

Don't miss the chicken soup ($3), a heartwarming elixir of fresh wagon-wheel macaroni, carrots and cuts of cooked celery in a rich, see-through broth with pieces of boiled chicken.

The bakery's array of goodies includes pizzelles ($3.25 dozen), biscotti ($1) and awesome cinnamon rolls($1.30). You can also take home a pound of fresh pasta ($2.50), a pound of fennel- and red pepper flake-spiced sausage ($3.25) and a loaf of bread ($1.50 regular, $1.60 twist, $3.25 garlic).

At Parisi Italian Market and Deli, the food and the philosophy are right off the boat from Italy, with no New World variations. There is a modest amount of seating, but a substantial part of the business is takeout pasta, sandwiches and pizza. You line up and order at the counter.

The express pastas ($6.99 penne, rigatoni or spaghetti; $7.99 gnocchi) are a real deal. During a lunch at Parisi, we enjoyed a distinctive spaghetti carbonara that tasted more like breakfast than lunch. Instead of a creamy sauce, egg and pieces of smoky pancetta were scrambled with spaghetti and sided with a salad of baby field greens.

On a return trip, we were completely wowed by some tender gnocchi tossed in a sinfully creamy gorgonzola cheese sauce with walnuts. Other pasta preparations included tomato and meat sauce, garlic with olive and red pepper, and creamy pesto.

The sandwich selection is equally pleasant. Sliced, house-baked focaccia rounds ($6.99) are filled with combinations such as prosciutto and the market's fabulous creamy fresh mozzarella.

Parisi's panini ($4.99 6-inch, $6.79 10-inch) earn my vote as some of the best sandwiches in the city. The Roma, for instance, layers a crusty Trompeau Bakery baguette with excellent shaved smoked ham, sweet capicolla, perfectly grilled marinated portabello, provolone cheese and grilled eggplant. Among the 13 sub sandwiches is the vegetarian combination of grilled eggplant, mozzarella, provolone and veggies.

Parisi's award-winning pizza ($13.89 14-inch, $12.89 14-inch take 'n' bake, $8.49 10-inch) is ''prepared the Italian way,'' as the menu notes. ''Order by name, not individual ingredients.'' Once you bite into one of these thin-crusted, chewy beauties, you'll never ask for a ''double-cheese pepperoni'' again. Excellent lightly herbed sauce with olive oil and stellar mozzarella makes an extraordinarily good - and good-looking - pizza pie.

There are 14 styles, including the margherita (tomato, fresh mozzarella and fresh basil), malalona (tomato, cheese, hot salami, sausage and prosciutto) and covaccino salmone (mascarpone, mozzarella, smoked salmon and arugula).

The deli counter is filled with sardines, olives, peppers and cheeses and house-made desserts, including a delicate panna cotta and espresso-spiked tiramisu.

With appealing destinations like Gargaro's and Parisi, it's pretty easy to make your own personal declaration of independence from the cookie-cutter chains.