AT MICELI'S, THEY SING FOR YOUR SUPPER.

Byline: Larry Lipson Restaurant Critic

Carmen Miceli, a World War II hero with four Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star, opened the tiny Miceli's pizzeria in Hollywood on May 15, 1949, with his two brothers, Tony and Sam.

Back then most of his food items were well under $1 each.

Miceli's was a success and in 1954 another location made its debut on La Cienega Boulevard, the prime Restaurant Row in Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, the Hollywood Miceli's was visited over the years by many celebrities including Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe, Vic Damone and Pier Angeli, the Beatles, JFK and Robert Blake (before he became a regular at Vitello's).

At one point the Miceli family operated eight restaurants in the L.A. area, not all of them bearing the Miceli name.

It took more than 30 years from the inception of the Hollywood pizzeria before a diaper service establishment on the corner of Cahuenga Boulevard West and Regal Place in the Universal City area became a Miceli's.

On a recent evening three Lincoln Navigator stretch limousines pulled up to this Miceli's and some 60 Warner-AOL execs and employees spilled out to celebrate there.

A few nights before that, a group of people who had come from ``The Tonight Show'' on NBC were enjoying pizzas, pastas and the like in the same place. Among the celebrants was the singing group the Donnas, who had appeared on the show.

So there it sits today, 22 years old, a show-biz fave, now recognized as one of the most popular restaurants in the city.

Name: Miceli's

Address: 3655 Cahuenga Blvd. W., Los Angeles.

Phone: [phone] or [phone].

How long in business: Possibly L.A.'s oldest Italian restaurant that is still owned and operated by the same family, Miceli's opened its doors at 1646 N. Las Palmas St. on May 15, 1949. The Valley location for Miceli's, situated near Universal Studios and technically in Los Angeles, opened in October 1980.

Menu/cuisine changes: Basic, traditional Italian pizzas and pastas were primary in the original menu and still are today. The marinara and meat sauces have never changed. But along the way there have been several additions.

About eight to 10 years ago, mussels and clams showed up steamed as appetizers and as part of linguini pescatore, a popular seafood and pasta dish that also has scallops, shrimp, calamari and fish in it.

Bruschetta is about 3 years old at Miceli's and prosciutto and melon made its menu appearance some six years back.

Caesar salad was added in 1982 and a buffalo chicken pizza came aboard three years ago. A year before that a bacon and pineapple-topped pizza called ``The Hawaiian'' was introduced as a regular item.

A couple of pastas, vermicelli (also called angel hair) puttanesca and fettuccini carbonara, were listed as specialty dishes four or five years ago.

Decor/physical changes: The idea of making the Valley restaurant like an Italian courtyard with sections depicting scenes in different parts of Italy began when Miceli's on Cahuenga was founded. One of Carmen's sons, Jim, provided the stained glass windows. The colorful exterior and interior has undoubtedly played a major role in the restaurant's success.

Personnel changes: When Miceli's first started, everyone in the family had to learn how to flip a pizza. Sisters of Carmen, the late Angelina Indovina and Millie Benestanti, did much of the food preparation. Carmen's sons, Joe and Frank, run the Cahuenga restaurant, while Carmen can still, in his 80s, be found at the Hollywood Miceli's, usually at night when jazz is scheduled.

Recommended dishes: Pizzas, soups, vermicelli pomodoro or puttanesca.

Service quality: Servers and staffers are usually helpful and friendly, but sometimes rushed when the restaurant is packed on weekends. But don't forget, they often have vocal talents that compensate.

Pricing: Carmen's wife, Sylvia Miceli, remembers that pizzas sold for as low as 55 cents each at the original Hollywood location in the early '50s. She thinks the famous meatball sandwich (now $8) was only 35 cents.

Today, starters range from $3 for a cup of minestrone soup to $9 for steamed clams. Dinner pastas and entrees are ticketed from $9.50 to $17.50 and desserts are priced from $3.50 to $5.50.

Wine list/service: Co-owner Frank Miceli, who cooked with Claude Segal at Bistango and Wolfgang Puck at Spago, initiated a wine program at Miceli's Cahuenga location with a well-rounded wine list of more than 40 labels ($20 to $145) with 22 by the glass ($6 to $9.75). Italian bottlings of 14 prudently selected wines range from $20 to $85 each.

Policies worth mentioning: Miceli's on Cahuenga is famous for its servers-singers who perform pop to operatic arias at the drop of a napkin seven nights a week.

Reservations are accepted for parties of six or more. The restaurant is open for lunch on weekdays and dinner seven nights a week.

All major credit cards are honored.

Miscellaneous comments: Certainly not labeled as a great Italian restaurant in the alta cucina sense, Miceli's turns out its hearty, down-to-earth immigrant Italian fare with typical zest in a fun atmosphere.

This is really the food of the family matriarch, the late Maria Miceli, born in Monreale, Italy, who came to the United States with her husband and two daughters in 1921, settling in Chicago where their three sons were born.

A longtime North Hollywood resident, Maria Miceli started a pizza business initially in her Chicago home selling bread, pizza, lasagna and homemade sausage to her neighbors. This was where her children learned the food business.

She lived more than 100 years, celebrating her 100th birthday in Studio City in 1990.

Our latest ratings: Food: Two stars. Wine: Two and one half stars. Service: Three stars.

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Photo:

Linguini Pescatore is typical of the earthy Italian fare found at Miceli's, a popular L.A. mainstay.

Joe Binoya/Special to the Daily News