Start your next lunch or dinner at Coco Osteria with formaggio and Salumi Misti platters – that’s assorted Italian cheeses and cold cuts – and a basket of fresh-baked bread.

COCO OSTERIA Location: 214 N. Tryon St. in the Hearst Tower Plaza Phone: 704-344-8878. Fax: 704-344-9909. Details:No smoking, separate bar with beer and wine only, takeout available, patio dining. Will validate parking in the Hearst Tower deck accessible off Sixth Street. Prices: Dinner, $5-$15; lunch, $3-$13. Hours: Lunch – Monday-Friday, 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m.; Dinner – Monday-Thursday, 5-10:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 5-11:30 p.m.

Augusto Conte has done it again. His just opened Coco Osteria, Uptown in the Hearst Tower Plaza, makes for a trio of Charlotte restaurants he now owns. At Coco Osteria look for the same fine Italian fare you’ve come to love at Luce and Toscana, with a menu of antipasto, pastas and heartier entrées. With its scaled-down price structure, it’s perfect when destination dining is not your plan for the evening.

An osteria is Tuscany’s answer to a neighborhood bistro. On several recent trips to Italy, Conte traveled through Tuscany researching osterias, sometimes also called trattorias, nestled into the Tuscan countryside.

He found that osterias are known for reasonable prices on both food and wine. They offer what some would consider a limited menu, featuring Italian standards and homemade favorites. To keep prices affordable, the menu features simple Tuscan fare like antipasto, pastas, meat, lamb and chicken. No seafood, because it’s just too expensive in that region.

The menu at Coco echoes the offerings at many Tuscany osterias. For dinner, select from a choice of starters: A cheese plate antipasto or an assortment of Italian-style cold cuts, a trio of soups and a house salad. The cheeses are all hard cheeses, all Italian and all delicious. The assortment, available in a large or small platter, includes two types of pecorino, a Parmigiano- Reggiano, a truffled cheese and a Provolone. The Italian cold cuts, or Salumi Misti, also are offered in small or large plates and the assortment includes two types of prosciutto, salami, sopressata, mortadella and capicollo. The small platter is plenty for two to share. For a meal itself, either cheese or cold cuts accompanied by the crisp, green house salad, dressed in light vinaigrette, would be quite satisfying.

Soups are classic: A vegetable soup, a bread and tomato soup and Pasta e Fagioli, the well-known pasta and bean soup. Pastas run the gamut. Choose from spinach and ricotta ravioli in rich, tomato meat sauce to gnocchi, or potato dumplings, with homemade tomato sauce to tagliatelle pasta in a light cream sauce spotted with fresh asparagus and mushroom. We keep looking for one pasta we like better than the others, and the winner remains a toss up.

Second plates are the kitchen’s heartier selections. Spezzatino di Carne con Patate, or beef and potato stew, and the Stracotto al Chianti, or slow-cooked, Tuscan-style pot roast, are both big sellers, despite the heat of summer. The tasty Stingo D’Agnello in Tegame, or braised lamb shank, literally falls off the bone and the oven-roasted rabbit with sage, garlic, rosemary and potatoes, or Coniglio Arrosto con Patate, is another winner.

As a lagniappe (an unexpected something extra) to the menu, try sides of Eggplant Parmesan, sautéed string beans with carrots and onions, oven-roasted potatoes with Pecorino cheese and sautéed spinach. Desserts vary daily. We enjoyed a light ricotta cheesecake and a plate of classic biscotti marinated in wine. Both made for a sweet ending to a fabulous meal.

Coco’s menu will change only two or three times a year. Executive chef David Lopez will work with Conte, manager Aaron Ward, and general manager David Weil to keep offerings authentically and simply Tuscan.

The dining space at Coco is small – only 40 seats or so – yet a high ceiling paired with two windowed walls, one facing Tryon Street the other looking out onto the Hearst Plaza, give the place an open, airy feel. Seating is comfortable and, surprisingly, not cramped. Because of its size, the dining room is no-smoking, and Coco accepts no reservations. Instead there is a call-ahead system. If you call 15 minutes or so before you arrive, they will hold a table if one is available. If not, the next available table will be yours.

You won’t be surprised at the upscale interiors with innovative lighting, woodwork and a warm and comfortable use of glass and mirror. They follow in the footprints of what Conte has done both at Toscana and Luce.

You may be surprised at the reasonable dinner menu prices – nothing over $15 – and delighted as we were, to find that the same menu is offered at lunch, except for the rabbit and lamb, in the same portion sizes with nothing priced over $13.

The wine list, exclusively Italian and American, boasts 50-60 bottles, all with reasonable price tags, with more than half of the collection in the $20-$30 a bottle range. Just under a dozen top-notch wines by the glass are all $5.50-$6.

You might also be wondering about the logo at Coco Osteria. A unicorn seems an unlikely symbol for a Charlotte’s newest Italian bistro, but not so when you hear the story behind the name. In the Tuscan town of Siena, there is an annual horse competition dating back to medieval times called Il Palio. The race is held in the Piazza del Campo, a large and beautiful historic square around which some 17 different neighborhoods called contradas were built. Each contrada has a different logo. The riders who compete in Il Palio are called fantino, and as a part of the pageantry of the competition they sport the logo of their contrada. The unicorn is the logo of one of the 17 contradas.

A year or so ago, as Conte toured osterias and trattorias in Siena and the rest of Tuscany, he happened into one decorated with horse and race paraphernalia. It seems that the Coco, or cook, at this particular osteria was once a fantino, and the unicorn was the symbol of his contrada. He gave a copy of the logo to Conte saying that if he were to open an osteria in America he should use this symbol for good luck. So far, it seems to be working like a charm.

Desserts at Coco vary, but this rich blend of puff pastry, custard and dark chocolate called Toscanella is available daily.

Well-known Charlotte restaurant critic, food writer, cooking instructor and connoisseur of food and wine, Heidi Edidin writes "Charlotte Weekly: Culinary Corner," a restaurant review or food feature that appears weekly. Contact Heidi with questions and restaurant, food or story ideas by email at heidi@thecharlotteweekly.com.

CW photos by Melissa Cherry.

This article first appeared in "South Charlotte Weekly" on July 9, 2004. "The Charlotte Weekly" is a free, locally owned, independent newspaper that's "About the Community, For the Community," available every Thursday in North and South Charlotte and Uptown.

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