By MERIDITH FORD
Journal Restaurant Critic

NEWPORT -- When Dan Puerini was 19, he borrowed some start-up cash from his mom and opened a restaurant. He had never trained to cook professionally, but he liked the kitchen and loved cooking.

That was 21 years ago. The restaurant he opened, Puerini's, has become a quiet testament to fine food and service, and a Newport favorite.

Puerini's is modest and unassuming -- a little like an English pub from the outside, inside warm and inviting.

Downstairs, the space is split between two small dining rooms divided by the kitchen and service areas. There are three rooms for dining upstairs, too.

Decor is minimal, with a hodgepodge of items. They range from a beautifully weathered butcher block, used to cut bread and dress salads, to symmetrically placed black-and-white photographs of Italy that line the center of the dining room's walls.

The tables are sleek stainless steel, dressed with thick butcher's paper. Each of the settings' bread plates rests atop a folded napkin so that the plate almost looks as if it will topple off the table. The end effect, though, is that of a neat little package waiting at each place setting for a prospective diner to unwrap.

I suppose Puerini's could be defined as an Italian restaurant, and certainly if you ask someone from Newport they'll tell you that. But Puerini's pushes the food envelope way beyond the expected.

The food here is fresh and regionally inspired -- although there seems to be no particular adherence to one specific region. While classics such as veal Marsala and fettucine alla bolognese are easy to find, they are interpreted by chef Kim Jensen with a great gentleness of hand. Dan Puerini still cooks occasionally, but now divides his time between Puerini's and a new venture, Pop, on Broadway in Newport.

Jensen, originally from Norway, has a subtle knack for allowing delicate flavors -- such as shallots, butter and white wine -- to share table space with the bolder flavors of garlic, tomatoes and capers.

Nowhere is this more evident than on a simple slice of garlic bread spread with the restaurant's house-made pesto -- a mind-melding mix of nutty pignoli flavor laced with garlic, basil and tart Parmesan cheese, served hot and toasty from the oven.

The pesto, as well as the tomato sauces and fresh-made pastas, are available at The Pasta Factory in Tiverton, owned by Puerini's sister, Karen Puerini-Razza and her husband Peter. They are sold at some local markets as well.

But if I had to choose just one thing from Puerini's menu (heaven forbid!), it would have to be the spinach pies. A perennial favorite of Puerini's customers, these fat little slices have an ethereally thin crust that is part pie crust, part pizza dough, and filled with a rich sauteed spinach concoction heavily seasoned with garlic, herbs and cheese.

In between pies and bread, something crunchy and green seemed overdue. Enter a Caesar salad, and all is right with the world.

As with so many things at Puerini's, the Caesar salad is different, and at first I didn't think I would like the subtle sweetness of the dressing -- I usually want it screaming of garlic and anchovies. Hints of both are there, certainly, amid the large shreds of romaine, but they are subdued by the sweetness of a honey-mustard flavor. In the end, I found myself using tufts of bread to sop up every drop.

Jensen's Nordic roots are evident in a dish of shrimp -- a special for the evening -- laced with capers and lightly tossed with a glint of cream and pungent stone-ground mustard, all over fettucine. It is fragrant and mouthwatering, and the shrimp burst with fresh-sea flavor.

There are no less than 11 veal dishes on Puerini's menu -- from aglio e olio to piccata with broad interpretations aimed to please. Vitello san fillipe does so. It's a thin, tender cutlet of veal sauteed with butter, mushrooms and -- here's the twist -- thinly sliced hot peppers. As good as they are together, the sauce here -- a sweet, tawny flavored Marsala sauce -- is incomparable.

Service at Puerini's is extremely informal, but prompt and polite -- our waitress seemed to have a vested interest in making us happy.

For dessert, she was pushing the house-made tiramisu, which I usually try to avoid because it is so ubiquitous on Italian menus throughout the state. But her accuracy with everything else made me finally give in.

First, though, there was a chocolate-orange mousse. Darkly layered with deep chocolate flavor, it suffered only from a texture that no mousse deserves: It was simply too thick and cold, as if it had been made too far in advance.

But despite my grousing, the tiramisu eventually made me blow my diet. It was luscious, but not too, too rich, with soft folds of coffee-laced cake between layers of creamy, tangy mascarpone.

Puerini's seems to quietly roll along, not expecting any formal accolades. After 21 years, the restaurant's track record speaks for itself.

Puerini's, 24 Memorial Boulevard West, Newport, 847-5506. Casual. No reservations. No smoking. Not wheelchair accessible. Open Sun-Thu for dinner from 5 to 9 p.m., Fri-Sat from 5 to 10 p.m. V, MC. No highchairs or booster seats. On-street parking. Appetizers, including salads and house-made polenta made daily, are $1.10 to $10.95. Entrees, including pasta dishes, are $12.95 to $19.95. Desserts are $2.95 to $6.95. The wine list is small, with a few interesting selections, particularly reds. Bottles range from $19 to $95.