WEST STOCKBRIDGE -- Caffe Pomo d'Oro has been quietly making friends among the breakfast, brunch and lunch crowd for nigh on 10 years.

The good coffees, berry pancakes made from scratch, unpretentious but uncompromising quality and the location -- in a wing of the West Stockbridge train station -- make it an attractive destination for a morning or midday restorative.

It amply fulfills chef-owner Scott Cole's vision of "a sweet spot, visually appealing, comfortable but unimposing."

But this summer, Cole decided to extend the café's hours into the evenings four days a week. And he brought in a kindred kitchen spirit, Kevin Scott from San Francisco, to do dinner.

The menu is deliberately limited to a handful of starters, a salad or two and three dinner choices that change by the week.

To my mind, a short bill of fare is a fine omen -- like the prix fixe menus scrawled on chalkboards in Europe only after the daily trip to the market has yielded up inspiration.

It is a good sign that what's on your plate gets there in a natural progression, from source to table, without doing time in the deep freeze.

Because I was dining with a group of friends, it also meant that we could sample practically

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everything offered.

While we were sorting out seating, our waitress arrived with a corkscrew and we unbagged our carry-in wine bottles. The café does not have a liquor license, but cheerfully accommodates importations. Indeed, stem glasses catching candlelight were the primary décor on the simply white-dressed tables.

Rather than divvying out who would order what appetizer, we ordered three and a salad, passing them around in happy succession. The different tastes, loosely linked by Mediterranean heritage, mingled well and were aptly accompanied by a half loaf of very good, hot bread and limpid gold olive oil.

The asparagus in the Risotto Asperigi ($9) was pencil thin, a tender counterpoint to arborio rice porridge scented with lemon and white wine.

Zuppa di Muscoli alla Livorno ($11) married plump sweet mussels with a bold herbed tomato broth and had goodly slabs of crisply toasted bread for absorbing the excess.

Best of all were the Gnocchi della Pomo d'Oro ($11), those beloved Italian potato dumplings that, when overprocessed, are pasty and cloddish, but when made with a sure hand are light and mouth-melting.

These were the real thing, set off by a superbly simple fresh tomato and butter sauce.

The first edge of our hunger allayed, we swiped our plates with bread and passed around the salad of locally grown baby arugula leaves, see-through-thin pear slices, gorgonzola cheese and toasted walnuts ($9). That harmony of mellow and pungent flavors matched the harmony of the room -- its earthy tiles, muted sage walls, ironwork fixtures and simple furniture.

A wall of shelves offered a tasteful array of imported condiments. One of the large many-paned windows held a few lovely pieces of Italian crockery and tall vases of blue globe thistles. The other let in a pewter cloudscape and a peep of moon.

"What do you think?" I asked, anticipating my friends' pleasure.

"It's like eating in someone's home," Amy said.

"Better than that," Eileen added.

"Someone's home in Europe," Marc contributed.

"In Tuscany," finished Tom.

Our waitress began serving the entrées with a quiet, slightly haphazard grace. She brought Filleti di Troto ($22), Porchetta Ascolana ($20) and the last helping of Pollo con Funghi ($18), for which we had providently put in our dibs upon arrival, having learned that there was only one left.

The trout dish featured two pale filets crossed over a somewhat salty puree of olives and celery root (celeriac) and covered with a thick sauce of leeks and fennel.

The flavors were well-balanced, but the presentation seemed bland in texture. With all three components soft, it cried out for a crunch of vegetable or the trout's own skin, nicely crisped.

The pork tenderloin was rolled with a spiral of herbs and pancetta (Italian bacon). More pancetta, sage and aromatic vegetables added depth to the cannelloni beans that accompanied. The latter, the chef told me, are just like those that every farmhouse granny in Tuscany has bubbling on her hearth.

The chicken, which we came squeaking-close to missing, was the most satisfying of all. Herbed chicken breast on a bed of field greens was covered with a king's ransom of succulent shiitake mushrooms, and the whole plate was surrounded by crisp, buttery medallions of potato so good that they briefly monopolized the table conversation.

This plate had the best interplay of flavors and colors, and one wished that the vegetable offerings ($4 each) of zucchini, carrots, fresh beans -- had been incorporated into the other entrée presentations, even at added cost, rather than sold a la carte.

On the side, they didn't have the same impact.

While we ate and talked, a flower farmer arrived with an unceremonious delivery of several tall buckets of glads, sedum, millet, shocking purple liatris and coneflowers.

Cardinal to the café's aesthetic is Scott Cole's insistence on using the best native produce, and he is an active player in the growing interconnection of Berk-shire farmers and restaurants.

By the time we finished admiring the extraordinary blooms, we realized that we were so replete with primi and secondi courses that dessert was out of the question, even for research's sake. (The strategy for another evening might be to have appetizers, salad, coffee and dessert.)

We took a lingering look at the homemade peach and berry pies, the brownies and lemon squares -- which we know are good from other visits -- and let discretion get the better of us for once.

Although dinner will be served only through Labor Day, daytime trade will continue, and Cole is concocting a series of themed dinners one Saturday a month through the year.

For those evenings, he plans to work with Danny May, proprietor of the neighboring wine shop and takeout business, La Bruschetta, to choose wines to accompany the regional dishes.

And he is definitely planning to be open for dinner again next summer -- another seasonal treat to look forward to in the Berkshires.


Restaurant Review

Caffe Pomo d'Oro, 6 Depot St., West Stockbridge, MA, 01266. Tel. (413) 232-4616

Style: Italian cafe.

Dress: Your call.

Hours: Breakfast/brunch: daily, 8 to noon; Lunch: daily, noon to 3; Dinner (through Labor Day only): Thursday to Sunday 6 to 10p.m. (Winter hours curtailed, but open all weekends. Call for information).

Prices: Breakfasts and lunches: $4.95 to $8.95; Dinners: starters -- $6 to $11; entrees -- $18 to $22; desserts -- $1.95 to $3.95.

Accessibility: Fully accessible.

Smoking: Not even on the deck.

Credit cards: Not accepted.

Liquor: Bring your own.

Reservations: Taken for dinner,

Specials: One Saturday a month, fixed-price, themed dinners to be announced.

Aug. 20, 2003