La Zingara in Palmer Lake is a perfect example of the old standby — that restaurant, more familiar than fancy — that you end up going to again and again because it is delicious but not too spendy, comfortable, and dependable enough that you know it will deliver for all those minor celebrations that punctuate life, even if the occasion is just that it is Friday and everyone likes to go out.“This is pretty much our go-to place,” a friend told me as we sat down near La Zingara’s fireplace. “It’s just easy and good.”He and his wife both love the pasta dishes and the servers never bat an eye when the kids order spaghetti and meatballs with the sauce in a separate bowl and the meatballs solo on their own saucer.La Zingara did not start out as a go-to place. Three years ago, it opened as a northern outpost of Old Colorado City’s popular Paravicini’s Italian Bistro, but it never quite attracted the crowds of Paravicini’s.“Palmer Lake has a different crowd,” said co-owner Ted Sexton. “It is both old and younger. There are more families. At Paravicini’s on a Saturday night you see lots of people on dates. You never see that here. So in Palmer Lake the owners started tweaking the menu to suit the customers. Families wanted pizza, they gave them pizza. The sales volume was not high enough for seafood items like lobster bisque and cod, so they gave them the hook. Finally, a year ago, the restaurant was so different that they realized it deserved a different name and La Zingara was born.The restaurant still boasts many of the dishes that make Paracicini’s one of the best Italian restaurants in town.The simple penne with vodka sauce ($10) is a case in point. The chef starts by sizzling thick chunks of salty prosciutto in a skillet with garlic and oil, then douses the pan with vodka, lets it simmer, and adds fresh, bright marinara and a generous pour of cream. The result is rich, complex and generous — a great meal for the price and one of the reasons Zingara is an old standby.Another is the linguini and clams ($17). Where most land-locked restaurants make this dish with canned clams in a sauce that relies on salt and garlic to give it heft, Zingara uses quarter-sized fresh East Coast clams.“That’s where all the flavor comes from,” said Sexton. “When you cook the fresh clams they open up and let out all their juices.”The result is a fantastic mix of white wine, garlic, red pepper and tender little clams ready to be plucked from their shells.Baked pasta fares well here, too. The hand-made ravioli ($12) come stuffed with four cheeses, topped with a steaming, hearty mantle of meaty Bolognese sauce, and crowned with a generous scoop of rich, creamy ricotta.The only speed bump we hit on the road to understanding why so many Palmer Lakers hold La Zingara in old standby esteem was the pizza. We ordered the Piccante ($8.75), which came topped with sausage and portobello mushrooms. The sausage was real coins of spicy Italian sausage cut in the back. The meaty chunks of portobello and thick, molten layer of mozzarella gave the pie real heft, but the crust had a dead sponginess I was sure came from a frozen, pre-made product.Sexton says no, the dough is hand-made. If so, it needs work.On the other hand, the tiramisu that followed for dessert was undoubtably fresh. Often restaurants get this treat in a frozen loaf, which is tasty, but not as tasty as La Zingara’s fluffly layers of sweet whipped cream and espresso-dipped lady fingers.As we scrapped the dish with our spoons, my friend admitted that in all his visits he had never ordered dessert, preferring to go to the ice cream shop across the street.But that may have to change now, he said.

La Zingara Italian Restaurant**** (Paravicini’s hot kid sister)Address: 75 Colorado 105, Palmer LakeContact: 481-2222, lazingarapalmerlake.comHours: 4:30-8:30 p.m. Sundays through Thursdays, 4:30-9 p.m. Fridays and SaturdaysEntrees: $8-$18Vegetarian: LotsAlcohol: Full barCredit cards: Yes

Restaurant manager Pierra Mailloux showed off the lasagna that’s on the menu at La Zingara, which opened in what was The Villa for many years in Palmer Lake. Photo by JERILEE BENNETT, THE GAZETTE