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. My waiter needed three tries before he realized that when he removed my dishes with used utensils, I would need clean utensils to keep eating. I don't mind asking for a fork, but that's not attentive service, no matter how earnest the waiter.