HANDS UP, NAPKIN TUCKED IN.

Byline: Larry Lipson Restaurant Critic

Are you ready for pizzas named Tommy Gun and Lucky Luciano Inc.?

I've tried both of them at the new Cops & Robbers Pasta Co. in Toluca Lake, a bright and inviting pizza and pasta place - with a Prohibition-era theme - that ironically had not yet been approved to sell beer and wine while under my anonymous scrutiny.

Thankfully, this is no old-fashioned, red sauce Italian pizzeria, though if it were true to its themed time frame, it would be.

The pastas come up nicely al dente (to the tooth) in the authentic Italian fashion. And the pizzas, especially the thin-crust-regular-dough choices, display requisite crunch and all-around freshness.

Soups, both pasta e fagioli ($3.69) and minestrone di verdura ($3.49), are nicely presented in large white bowls, and in generous enough portions to satisfy the largest of appetites.

The former uses white beans effectively and the latter offers chunky fresh vegetables with herbs, both having the same small gemelli-style (short twisted strands) pieces.

Seasoning in these soups is restrained to the point of blandness. But this need not be considered a negative, because it allows individual palates to be satisfied by adding the desired amount of salt, pepper, pepper flakes and/or grated cheese from the condiments on hand on each table.

Pastas ordered at the first visit were the wide ribbon type called pappardelle ($8.95) that the Cops and Robbers' kitchen pairs very effectively with mushrooms and a creamy pink sauce, and rigatoni alla Bolognese ($7.95).

This standard rigatoni pasta dish passed my personal Bolognese test.

I always look for strongish meat flavors in a Bolognese sauce as well as a lack of irritating chemical tastes that pop up in too many versions of this sauce.

This was verified at a second visit when gnocchi ($7.45) with meat sauce was tried.

However, this time the sauce was several degrees more gratifying than the pasta.

On the initial occasion, the large, tubular, ridged rigatoni pasta arrived hot and al dente, a perfect companion to the thick sauce that it held in its ridges.

But the gnocchi, made with potato flour (as it should be), possessed a heaviness and pastiness in each bite that tended to make the eating of this dish more work than enjoyment.

I prefer my potato flour pillows puffier and as feathery-light as possible.

However, a dish of spaghetti with crab ($13.99) that same time was absolutely delightful. Cooked with a dash of white wine and served with a light pink sauce, the spaghetti was texture perfect, came up steaming hot and had tasty specks of crabmeat adhering to seemingly every pasta strand.

In addition to spaghetti, pappardelle, rigatoni and gnocchi, the pasta list includes penne, farfalla, fusilli, linguini, angel hair, ravioli, manicotti, tortellini and lasagna.

Mixtures of various vegetables, chicken, meatballs, bacon, eggs, clams, salmon and shrimp keep the Cops & Robbers' pastas from being boring.

As do the pizzas.

The Tommy Gun ($7.99) arrives topped carefully with minimum mozzarella and tomato sauce plus a scattering of fresh tomato, daubs of goat cheese, a few sweet red pepper strips and a sprinkling of Japanese eggplant chunks. A good choice.

Heartier is the Lucky Luciano Inc. ($8.49). This comes caped with a melange of Italian sausage, fresh tomato and marinated olives over the mozzarella and tomato sauce layers.

Though the pizzas here have a variety of intelligently selected toppings, they aren't overdone. There's admirable restraint.

A good pizza should really be a snack or an appetizer, not an entire meal.

At least, that's how Italians in Italy view pizzas.

Of course there has to be at least one oddball.

Here it's the Capone's Valentine's Day Special pizza ($7.99) topped with diced Roma tomatoes, onions, basil, garlic, olive oil and ... gemelli pasta!

Pasta on pizza?

Why not?

COPS & ROBBERS PASTA CO.

Where: 10057 Riverside Drive, Toluca Lake.

When: Open for lunch, dinner and snacks from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily.

Recommended items: Soups, rigatoni alla Bolognese, spaghetti alla crab, pappardelle with mushroom sauce, thin-crusted pizzas with various toppings.

How much: Starters from $3.49 to $4.25, pizzas from $7 to $11, pastas from $6.25 to $14, desserts from $2.75 to $4.25. Beer and wine license pending. All major credit cards.

Reservations: Not taken. First come, first served. Call [phone].

Our rating: Three stars for food; three stars for service.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1) Lance Benshoof tosses a future Tommy Gun pizza - or is it a Lucky Luciano? - at Cops & Robbers Pasta Co.

(2) The Toluca Lake restaurant offers Penne Primavera.

(3) Linguini and White Clam Sauce entices.

John Kennedy/Special to the Daily News