Dress for success

It’s an unlikely idea in an unlikely place that might catch on for Coeur d’Alene-area diners who believe the art of fine dining should indeed include dressing up (and should also exclude children). After all, new owner Rocco Zito went all out to dress up a former diner on Sherman Avenue’s less-than-glamorous eastern fringes and turn it into MY PLACE.

New is a warm brown exterior, with chic wood seating and dimmed lighting inside, linens and candlelight, a wine list. My Place emphasizes northern Italian but is still eclectic, notes Chef Frank Ciccone, formerly of the Wine Cellar and Sandpoint’s Café Trinity.

My Place is reminiscent of the Wine Cellar, in fact, with a smattering of pastas, seafood, meat options yet — unlike most fine dining establishments — My Place serves breakfast: Amoretto French toast and three eggs cooked-to-order ($8), Prosciutto Eggs Florentine ($9.50) or a cheesy frittata ($9.50).

The lunch menu (served from 11 am-2 pm) includes a variety of pasta dishes — gnocchi, linguine, rigatoni, fettuccine — with your choice of sauce, including a lightly spiced clam sauce and zesty puttanesca ($7-$10). Including soup or salad and choice of parmesan or fried potatoes or pasta salad, lunch offerings are as generously portioned as dinner. Try the Italian BLT with pancetta, spinach and aioli on French bread ($11).

For dinner, salad and vegetable is included in such entrées as Cordon Bleu ($22) or the seafood combo of prawns, scallops, salmon, calamari, spinach and roasted tomatoes over angel hair or fettuccine ($22).

Fridays and Saturdays are “couples” nights, with female diners receiving a red rose and live music in the background. Who knows? Your amorous feelings might even extend to the Lovers Plate: two 10-ounce steaks, with two 6-ounce Australian lobster tails ($90, or $120 with wine pairings).

Open just over a month, My Place has generated a buzz around town that has been mixed and — prompted by a Coeur d’Alene Press article in which Zito proclaims, “It ain’t IHOP” — very vocal.

The bloglist that ensued is an amusing diversion from the real issue: How’s the food?

See for yourself, but remember: Leave your flip-flops and T-shirts at home (with the kids) for weekend dinners. — CARRIE SCOZZARO

My Place, 1801 Sherman Ave., Coeur d’Alene, is open daily 6 am–2 pm for breakfast and lunch, Fri-Sat 6-9 pm for dinner only, with reservations recommended. Call (208) 665-2277.