ANTONIO’S BACARO

5 Fairmount Ave., Hyde Park,

617-272-3028, www.antoniosbacaro.com

All major credit cards accepted. Wheelchair accessible.

Prices Appetizers $9-$18.

Entrees $9-$26. Desserts $5-$8.

Hours Tue-Thu 5-9:30 p.m.,

Fri-Sat 5-10:30 p.m.

Noise level Moderate

What to order Clams steamed in white wine, bigoli with anchovy and onion sauce, soppressata polenta, duck gnocchi, osso bucco

If you’ve ever walked the picturesque alleyways of Venice, where the past and present coexist and adventure beckons from around every corner, you’ve probably stopped into a bacaro — a small wine bar, where Venetians gather for a drink and a quick bite. Antonio’s Bacaro, which opened last June in Hyde Park’s Cleary Square, aims to re-create the experience, minus the airfare and jetlag.

With its high tin ceiling, oak wainscoting, red leatherette banquettes and chairs, marble tabletops and bar, and framed reproductions of early-20th-century Italian posters, the place looks the part. The steampunk clock sculpture behind the bar is by father-and-son Roslindale artists Martin and Michael Ulman. (Michael Ulman tricked out the vehicles in “Mad Max: Fury Road.’’)

At Antonio’s, there isn’t a gondolier or guidebook-toting tourist in sight. The clientele encompasses all ages and ethnicities; many guests, judging by their interactions with the staff, are regulars.

Owners Sonia and Joseph Garufi operate popular Sophia’s Grotto in Roslindale. “I own another restaurant that’s Southern Italian/Mediterranean, so I wanted to do something Northern, even though my family comes from the South,’’ explains Joe Garufi to an inquisitive customer. Antonio’s is named for the Garufis’ teenage son, Anthony. The chef happens to be another Anthony — Anthony Haley, a Johnson & Wales grad who most recently was kitchen manager at Legal Sea Foods in Charlestown.

Everywhere you eat in Italy, whether a restaurant or a private home, the central culinary aesthetic is “less is more.’’ Tamper with great ingredients as little as possible; treat them gently, with respect. And at Antonio’s Bacaro, the simplest dishes are the ones that stand out.

You can happily make a substantial meal of shared antipasti. A bowl of top neck clams, steamed open in white wine, speckled with bits of bacon, garlic, and tomato, conjures up memories of seaside dining on the Adriatic. There’s summery mintiness in the chopped lamb and cheese filling of arancini, deep-fried rice balls, presented in a pool of thick tomato sauce, liberally sprinkled with pecorino cheese.

Crusty-coated, fried balls of shredded salt cod really do melt in your mouth. They’re delicious dunked in artichoke aioli. Chunky sun-dried tomato pesto is a complementary accompaniment to golden fried calamari. The carpaccio is bare-bones: shaved tenderloin, Parmigiano, and arugula that’s been tossed in a bit of vinaigrette. It’s streamlined Italian fare at its best.

The menu describes the artichokes in the “grilled’’ artichoke salad as “roasted,’’ but actually they’re marinated. The eggplant in the artichoke salad is grilled — but it’s bitter, as if it hasn’t been salted and drained in advance of cooking. The Caprese salad isn’t a true Caprese (tomatoes, mozzarella, basil leaves, olive oil), although arugula, cherry tomatoes, mozzarella, basil oil, and balsamic reduction are a fine combination.

Risotto can be a temperamental dish. The mushroom version at Antonio’s Bacaro isn’t bad, although the rice is a few minutes overdone and consequently soft in the center. If Haley would skip the truffle oil, guests could better appreciate the nuances of the fresh mushrooms in this risotto. Polenta, the cornmeal-mush staple of Northern Italian cuisine, pops up all over the menu. Creamy polenta, topped with slices of soppressata and melted Fontina and Gorgonzola Dolce cheeses, is delectably similar to what Italians devour daily throughout the Veneto and neighboring Trentino-Alto Adige and Friuli-Venezia Giulia regions.

At Antonio’s, the price is certainly right. What you’d pay for an appetizer in the Seaport District will buy you an entrée in Hyde Park. With one exception, pastas are spot-on. Tagliatelle al ragu is a first-rate interpretation of Emilia-Romagna’s famous Bolognese sauce — veal, beef, pancetta, and tomatoes slow-simmered until they cling to every ribbon-wide egg noodle. Bigoli, the whole-wheat spaghetti popular in Venice, is topped with a classic Venetian anchovy and caramelized onion sauce, simultaneously salty and sweet. Toasted breadcrumbs would be a more-traditional topping than grated cheese.

I’d definitely return for the pillowy potato gnocchi, tossed in a luxuriously rich tomato sauce, studded with shards of braised duck and porcini. But house-made short-rib ravioli are a letdown. The flavorless filling lacks salt and pepper, and the overly thick pasta is undercooked and tough. The ravioli would be better served with some of the arancini's tomato sauce, as opposed to a swath of pureed pumpkin “cream’’ and a ladle of brown demi-glace.

Most dishes just don’t need that one last, extra ingredient. A superfluous espresso rub sidetracks an otherwise perfectly prepared, moist salmon steak with roasted sweet potatoes and Dijon-dressed arugula. A wonderfully juicy grilled chicken breast with asparagus and mashed potatoes drowns under too much balsamic glaze. If you have an 8-ounce filet mignon (only 26 bucks!) with mashed potatoes and broccolini, why garnish it with sweet hazelnut Frangelico compound butter? Likewise, figs contribute little to an already outstanding osso bucco veal shank, braised tender in tomato sauce, with a side of polenta.

Antonio’s has an all-Italian wine list, a local-meets-international beer selection (including Moretti on draft), and a selection of Venetian spritzes — the refreshing, effervescent libations of prosecco, an Italian aperitif like Aperol or Campari, and seltzer, over ice. For dessert, choose among gelato, house-filled cannoli, and dense, bittersweet chocolate-stout torta, slathered with honeyed mascarpone. I could detect no basil in the basil-blueberry coulis on the panna cotta.

The friendly waitstaff doesn’t always remember the particulars of service — i.e., share plates, serving spoons, clean utensils to replace dirty ones, a bowl for empty clamshells — but they rise to the occasion when it’s required. One recent night, an unexpected horde of hungry diners threatened to overwhelm the kitchen, but the staff rallied and everyone was fed with a minimum of delays. Our server later apologized for her lack of attention. She needn’t have. Antonio’s Bacaro is a work in progress, but the glass of spritz is decidedly half full.

ANTONIO’S BACARO

5 Fairmount Ave., Hyde Park, 617-272-3028, www.antoniosbacaro.com

All major credit cards accepted. Wheelchair accessible.

Prices Appetizers $9-$18. Entrees $9-$26. Desserts $5-$8.

Hours Tue-Thu 5-9:30 p.m., Fri-Sat 5-10:30 p.m.

Noise level Moderate

What to order Clams steamed in white wine, bigoli with anchovy and onion sauce, soppressata polenta, duck gnocchi, osso bucco

Mat Schaffer can be reached at matschaffer@yahoo.com