No restaurant can be better than its executive chef. When Staccato at the Firehall lured James Malone to Bend for its November 2005 opening, it took the first big step toward the success it has experienced in its first two years of business.

Malone, who was raised in Spokane and once had a restaurant in its suburb of Liberty Lake, Wash., was working at Citronelle in Washington, D.C. — studying under famed chef Michel Richard — when he got a call from Susan Pasquetti asking him to apply for the Oregon job.

“I had put ads on the Internet and all over,” recalled Pasquetti, Staccato’s owner and general manager. “I talked to dozens and dozens of people, on the phone and via e-mail, from Hong Kong to Italy and all across the United States. When I spoke with James, I knew instantly that he would be the one. We had a great connection.”

Malone is now at home in the kitchen of one of downtown Bend’s most attractive restaurants: a brick firehouse that was built in 1920 and occupied by the city’s firefighters for 80 years. In a short time, he has established a well-deserved reputation for outstanding and creative Italian cuisine.

Wonderful dinner

When Pasquetti leased the old firehall, the building was bare. A thorough six-month renovation created a restaurant with a cozy entry parlor and four separate seating areas. Just inside Staccato’s entrance, tables sit beside windows that open wide for al fresco dining in summer. A step above is the bar area, with counter seats and additional high tables. To the west is a second dining room that can be used for private parties or overflow dining.

Classiest of all is the lovely fireplace room at the rear of the restaurant. Its red-brick walls and central fireplace, always ablaze at this time of year, make it a great place for intimate dining and special-occasion meals. It was here that I recently enjoyed one of the best meals I had in Bend all year.

Service can make or break a dining experience, of course. On this evening, my companion and I were served by Ron Lybeck, whom I consider to be the best server in town. A veteran of the New York restaurant scene and the former food-and-beverage manager at Broken Top, Lybeck is the consummate professional. He makes honest food recommendations from the menu, knows his wines intimately, and is impeccable in timing the delivery of dishes.

On Lybeck’s suggestion, we ordered a bottle of 2003 Allegrini Palazzo della Torre, a delicious and moderately priced red wine from the Veneto region of Italy.

As a first course, we had a bruschetta unlike any other in Central Oregon. Tuscan bread, rubbed with garlic and olive oil and roasted, was layered with prosciutto (cured ham), sliced Bartlett pears and creamy Cambazola cheese. It burst with flavor.

We next shared a Caesar roulade salad. Hearts of romaine lettuce were individually stuffed with goat cheese, wrapped and made to stand vertically on end. They were topped with a delicious Caesar dressing, rich in garlic and anchovy paste, and garnished with an ancho-parmesan tuile, a thin and cheesy cracker.

As an entrée, my friend ordered wild boar pappardelle. The wide, rippled noodles of the pasta — made in-house with chickpeas — were tossed with a ragout of braised boar, a wild relative of the pig. She found it saucy, savory, and ate every last bite.

I had a big bowl of cioppino, a seafood stew reputed to have originated in San Francisco’s Italian fishing community. The tomato broth was rife with mussels, clams, prawns, crab and fresh white fish.

It was seasoned perfectly, and the soup was so good. I was glad to have a side of garlic toast to lap up the dregs.

Cannolis made a nice dessert. The crispy pastry shells were dipped in chocolate, sprinkled with pistachios, and filled with mascarpone and ricotta cheeses, candied orange zest and chocolate chips. They were served with fresh fruit and strawberry sauce.

For a lighter meal, I enjoy sitting at Staccato’s bar, beside the 1920 fireman’s pole, still in its original position as specified by historic-preservation laws. The bar seats about a dozen, and the friendly bar staff is quick with a story and a smile.

One recent evening, I had a meal of soup and pasta. The soup “di giorno” was a cheesy cream of parsnip, topped with thin slices of duck, sprinkled with fresh thyme and drizzled with olive oil. It was a great starter for a cold December night.

Then I had capellini pomodoro with prawns. Capellini is a long, thin pasta noodle, similar to angel hair. Pomodoro is the Italian word for tomato. This garlicky dish was cooked with diced tomatoes, white wine and olive oil, tossed with fresh basil and Parmesan cheese and topped with a dozen-odd prawns, cooked perfectly.

I have also visited Staccato for Sunday brunch, the only meal served here beside the nightly dinners. I have been less impressed by brunch than by dinner.

A couple of Sundays ago, a companion and I dropped by in late morning. Her classic eggs Benedict — served on an English muffin with Canadian bacon and hollandaise sauce — should not have been a difficult dish to make, but the eggs were poached until little yolk ran.

The same was true of my spicy Italian sausage and potato sauté. Had I known, I would have specified that my fried eggs — laid atop a bed of roasted red potatoes with caramelized onions — be cooked over easy. Instead, they were over hard.

A favorite of brunch visitors, said Pasquetti, is the Northwest beef tenderloin topped with a poached egg, Bordelaise and Hollandaise sauces. I’ll put that on my list for the next time around. And I’ll let the server know how I want my egg cooked.

J.J. Anderson, Staccato’s assistant manager and Pasquetti’s son, was coaching basketball in Florida (today he is coach of the Mountain View High School girls’ varsity team) when his mother approached him in 2004 about jointly operating a business.

“We put our heads together, and our ideas evolved into opening a restaurant,” recalled Pasquetti, whose background had been in contracting. Together with her husband, Ray Pasquetti, who came out of retirement to assist, they found the downtown space and worked for half a year to get it ready before opening.

“When we started talking about doing it,” Susan Pasquetti recalled, “we asked people what kind of restaurant they’d like to see, and without exception, they told us they wanted to see a good Italian restaurant.”

Malone was the glue that pulled it all together.

“We have a unique collaboration at the restaurant,” Pasquetti said. “From the very beginning, (Malone) and I have talked and planned, day after day after day. Everything that he does in the kitchen is shared. If we talk about a new menu idea, we sit down and chat about it. He creates the dish, and we taste it and talk together about it.

“We also talk together about what happens in the front of the house. It works because of the importance to me that kitchen and front-of-house combine to make the flow nicer, to make the restaurant a nicer place to dine and to work.”

When Staccato opened, it was planned as a lunch and dinner restaurant. Lunches didn’t find consistent patronage, however, so Staccato cut back to dinners and Sunday brunches. “It was very spotty in terms of the regularity of people coming in,” Pasquetti said. “We may revisit lunches down the road.”

RECENT REVIEWS

Cascade Lakes Brewing Company Lodge (B). The building is handsome and spacious, but food offerings are inconsistent and service is more off than on. Burgers are excellent, especially when enjoyed with the company’s own beer. Open 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day; bar open until midnight Sunday through Thursday, 1 a.m. Friday and Saturday. 1441 S.W. Chandler Ave., Bend; 388-4998, www.cascadelakes.com

Meadows At The Lodge (B). The Sunriver Lodge offers a grand stage for dining, with picture windows that offer views of the Cascades by day, a lighted woodland by night. The Pacific Northwest dishes are good, but are not always what the overpriced menu describes. 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day. Sunriver Lodge, 1 Center Drive, Sunriver. 593-3740, www.sunriver-resort.com

Demetri’s Greek American Cusina (B+). Bend’s only authentic Greek restaurant has drawn regulars for seven years despite an off-the-beaten-track, east-side location. The cuisine is light and flavorful, rich with herbs and spices. Lunch 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday to Friday, dinner 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesday to Friday, noon to 9 p.m. Saturday. 425 Windy Knolls Drive, Bend. 318-0111

Marz Bistro (A-). A great choice if you want a good dinner but have no idea what kind of meal you want, Marz offers sophisticated comfort food with a range of international influences. Service is relaxed but friendly and efficient. Open 5 p.m. to close every day. 163 N.W. Minnesota Ave., Bend. 389-2025

STACCATO AT THE FIREHALL

Location: 5 N.W. Minnesota Ave., Bend

Hours: 4 p.m. to close Monday to Saturday (dinner served beginning at 5:30 p.m.); 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. to close Sunday.

Price range: Appetizers $8-$11, pastas $17-$25, entrees $22-34; brunch $9-$15.

Credit cards: American Express, MasterCard, Visa

Children’s menu: Yes

Alcoholic beverages: Full bar

Reservations: Recommended

Contact: 312-3100, www.staccatosfirehall.com

SCORECARD

OVERALL: A

Food: A-. Wonderful gourmet Italian dishes and great salads. Brunches could be better.

Service: A. When the best server in town is on your staff, it’s hard to go wrong.

Atmosphere: A. A beautiful renovation of a historic 1920 firehouse.

Value: A. A wide range of prices will satisfy any budget.