No less an arbiter of taste than James Oseland, editor-in-chief of Saveur magazine, has proclaimed Italian-American food one of this year's big trends. Who knew St. Louis was such a trendy food city?

We have dozens of Italian-American restaurants, ranging from cheapo mom-and-pop spaghetti houses to white-tablecloth establishments, with some doing a little of both. One of the leading practitioners of the style is Joe Sanfilippo, whose family has run restaurants on both sides of the river since 1979. His flagship J.F. Sanfilippo's has been a fixture on North Broadway downtown for more than 20 years. Late last year he opened a spinoff in the Chesterfield Valley, serving an abbreviated form of the downtown menu in a smaller space.

As might be expected in a "mini-me" restaurant, the new Filippo's Italian Kitchen isn't serving anything particularly innovative or unexpected. Nonetheless, Sanfilippo has successfully re-created the ambience and hospitality of his downtown place, in no small part because of his presence working the dining room, recognizing regulars and cultivating new ones.

With pasta entrees starting at $9 and main entrees ranging up to $35, Filippo's straddles the line between informal drop-in meals and gala celebrations. The word "provel" doesn't appear on the menu, and the restaurant generally pulls off everything quite well.

The half-dozen appetizers stick to simple approaches. I took some initial pause when the shrimp bianco and diavolo ($9) arrived with just two shrimp. As it turned out, however, they were butterflied and buried under their sauces, hiding the fact that they were somewhere between large and jumbo. The diavolo part was a full-tomato-flavored marinara sauce with an intermediate red-pepper kick, while the bianco was a brandy cream, labeled "Cajun" but less fiery than the marinara. The cream sauce was rich enough to fill out the dish and make the two shrimp sufficient as a portion.

The same marinara sauce showed up with spicy minimeatballs ($7), six multimeat meatballs with moist, soft and well-seasoned interiors and a touch of crusting on the outside. Calamari fritti ($9) had a moderate-size, tender portion of squid rings and tentacles, with a light gold, delicately sandy breading.

Toasted ravioli ($7) was competently prepared, eight pieces with a generous quantity of filling and a breading that was simultaneously crunchy and moist.

The tendency toward hot-pepper spicing continued with rigatoni Giuseppe ($14), with finely chopped seasoned red tomatoes carrying a touch of fire into a not-overly rich vodka cream sauce. The sauce on the linguine crema de mare ($19), however, was a little weak, with the advertised "touch of garlic" almost indiscernable and a cream sauce that nudged toward the watery side.

I'm not a big beef tenderloin fan except when it's well-sauced or -cheesed, and tenderloin palermitana ($27) did both, topping two medallions of approximately 4 ounces each with slices of eggplant, melted mozzarella, herbs and chopped tomatoes, essentially melding an eggplant Parmigiano onto a pair of filets.

Chilean sea bass ($35) was a grilled, roughly rectangular fillet of about 8 ounces topped with a "fresh Italian salsa" of tomatoes, olives, capers and lemon. The buttery fish was sufficiently full-bodied to stand up to the salty-tart combination of Mediterranean flavors, but even given the quality of the fish, $35 seemed a bit steep.

Several standard Italian desserts were offered, but a fried pastry called inis ($6.50) — essentially a custard-filled funnel cake without a hint of the greasiness associated with the carnival-midway version — was an excellent variation from the norm.

Service was excellent on one visit, a little clunky on the other, with bread service forgotten and green beans, the announced vegetable of the day, somehow morphing into asparagus by the time the entrees made it to the table.

The format of the space reminds me of what Roberto Zanti did with Roberto's in south St. Louis County, using a decorative wall behind the host's station to segregate the waiting area and dining area from the strip-mall parking lot view and create an illusion of a cozy, stand-alone setting.

When he announced the restaurant, Sanfilippo said that he wanted to bring his downtown experience closer to his customers who live in far west St. Louis County and St. Charles County. He has succeeded.

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Filippo's Italian Kitchen

Two stars (out of four) • Where 120 Chesterfield Valley Drive, Chesterfield • More info 636-536-6833, filipposstl.com, fb.com/filipposstl • Menu Higher-end Italian-American standards and house specialties plus moderately priced pasta • Hours Dinner Monday-Saturday

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