Want a quick Italian lesson? Melograno means pomegranate in Italian.
Melograno also means excellent Italian food in a cozy little storefront on otherwise garish Hollywood Blvd.
The warm, gauzy lighting welcomes you to the narrow dining room and lovely little adjoining patio.  Chef Alberto Lazzarino (formerly of Il Moro and Cheebo) has created a menu of fresh organic ingredients in unusual combinations inspired by the cuisine of his native Piemonte in northern.
Start with the charred beef carpaccio drizzled with “tonnata,” or tuna, sauce, whose delicate flavors are exquisitely light and balanced.
The artichoke heart salad with lemon dressing and parmesan cheese is also lively and bright. Definitely try one of the pastas like the homemade gnocchi flavored with nettle (it tastes very…green, is the word for it) and sautéed in heavenly sage butter, or the more robust and slightly briny papardella with lobster, saffron, fennel and assorted cherry tomatoes.
If you only have one thing to eat, though, make sure it is the pork chop, which is almost certainly the best in the city. Prepared with a cherry-juniper-port glaze over a creamy Yukon gold potato mash, the chop is as succulent and juicy as a beef tenderloin, and the portion size is hearty.
There were a few specials the night we were there, including a tomato tartar over a slightly smoky fennel salad garnished with purple basil that featured an assortment of colorful heirloom varieties.
The special main course was a Cornish game hen in pomegranate sauce, which was a nice mix of gamy poultry and spring fruit.
Desserts like the Bunet, a kind of thick, cooled chocolate mousse strongly infused with amaretto; and the special Meyer’s lemon torte made with mascarpone cheese provide rich options for every palate.
Be sure to ask for some help with the extensive Italian wine menu from the Sardinian sommelier, Giuseppe Cusso, so he can help you choose which organic or bio-dynamic varietal they stock is the right choice for you.