A simple menu in a dramatic space

Statues lit by spotlights adorn the wall above the kitchen at Da Vinci where the atmosphere is part museum, part theme park. (WIQAN ANG FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE)

An early taste of what's new on the restaurant scene

It takes nerve to name your new Italian restaurant Da Vinci. You aim for being the Louvre and you end up a film by Ron Howard set in the Louvre. This is not blockbuster dining, but dining at Da Vinci feels like eating on the premises of a blockbuster. The concept is high. So are the sculptures and vases that line the perimeter. Look up. In each spotlighted niche, a bronze-ish Roman bust. It raises a serious question: Who'll do the dusting here?

The armchairs and divan separating the bar from the dining room contribute a stagy air that the two giant bottles of Querceto Chianti on a cabinet nearby do nothing to dispel. The fake books - "Gone With the Wind," "Moby-Dick" - stuck between the wine are just as huge. The edition of Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea" is bulked up enough to qualify for Mitchell Report consideration. Yes, at Da Vinci even the literature comes in magnums.

The restaurant teeters between tacky and tasteful. The large fancy clock tells the wrong time. There are crates above the wide-screen kitchen window that read "Da Vinci," in case you've forgotten where you've come. You feel the urge to check your dates to make sure they haven't turned into props, too.

Some of that theatricality makes its way to the service. Recently, a young waiter clasped his hands when he spoke. His diction was unusually crisp. His manner was slightly formal. And he never made a mistake. If you appeared to be craning toward the bar for a baseball score, he offered to tell you what it was. Most important: The 2005 Tocai Fruilano he recommended is still greatly appreciated. So are several things on the dining menu. Prosciutto and fontina hugged asparagus until the stalks took on a momentarily new flavor. Ordinarily, an arugula salad is nothing to brag about, but this one generously manages to make vinaigrette the star.

A juicy duck breast was paired with a not-so-juicy leg and served with roasted potato wedges and some kind of pureed orange marsala. The promised gorgonzola was just a sad, flat little block that seemed to belong to some other meal. The owner of the mahi mahi - from a tasting menu - was underwhelmed. Meanwhile, the pork Milanese provoked a philosophical discussion: When something is pounded, breaded, and gently fried does it matter what it is? Probably not. The Milanese was renamed pork pizza and a good time was had by all.

Eventually, Wioletta Zywina dropped in to see how things were going. Zywina co-owns Da Vinci with Shingara "Peppino" Singh, who was visible through the kitchen window. She's from Poland. He's from India via Germany. And they worked together at La Campania in Waltham. Zywina explained the Da Vinci mission - who needs big, heavy pasta dishes, anymore? We do it nice and easy. She put it more eloquently. But either way, it explains why, say, the solid rigatoni bolognese is served in such a small bowl. Nice. Easy. Imagine how much more interesting dinner here would be without the theme park.

Da Vinci Ristorante, 162 Columbus Ave. 617-350-0007. www.davincibston.com. Entrees: $23-$34; wines by the glass: $7-$15.