They like my style of Italian food. It's a style the folks at Oakmont evidently appreciate. Open just 10 weeks, Claudio's seems to have found favor with the residents, as I think it will with anyone who chooses to go. Grapes, the former restaurant at this spot, was a spinoff of Ca Bianca in Santa Rosa, and tried to present a more upscale kind of Italian cooking. Claudio's seems to have taken over the room with most of the furniture and d cor the same, except for a new, open kitchen where you can see the cooks through pass-through, gauzy curtains and valances at the large windows, and a metal, golden parrot sitting on a perch.
Linens cover the tables, but otherwise they're sparsely set with just salt and pepper shakers.
Soon after you're seated, a basket of bread and a bottle of Italian olive oil complete the table setting. Potted greens decorate the room, but no flowers. Claudio's is just now introducing a new wine list that features California and Italian wines at realistic prices. Cocktails are available from the full bar. The service was earnest but pro forma.