On the surface, Luce would appear to have a lot going for it. The warmly contemporary dining space is one of the city’s most pleasant (though we fail to get the trippy-drippy red candles in actual raffia-wrapped Chianti bottles), with views to a shade-dappled dining patio and reassuring walls of wine to suggest long evenings well-spent. The menu, “a contemporary twist on Italian,” even reads well. Butternut squash ravioli, brined lamb scottadito…Okay, not wildly contemporary.

Which is part of the problem: it’s hard to get inventive when the basics haven’t been totally mastered. We would enjoy a generous appetizer order of crisply fried arancini if the mozzarella-stuffed rice balls were served in a Bolognese sauce with any depth or roundness. Butternut squash soup raises hopes with its subtle spicing. But then they’re dashed by pollo alla valdostana, a dish that delivers both too little and too much—way too much penne in an indifferent marinara, and a dry chicken breast with tough prosciutto, elastic fontina, and a mushroom demi-glace that is merely sautéed mushrooms. The wall o’ wine that justifies “Enoteca” does provide some good bottles, but the selection could be broader.