Gusto Italian restaurant opens in old Lucky's Roadside with superb pizza and pasta.

Talk about a tasty problem to have.

As Gusto (899-5825) officially opens in the former Lucky's Roadside in Seaside, the biggest challenge will be tamping down excitement enough to let the service and execution find its rhythm. 

At Saturday night's soft opening, co-owner Denis Boaro was all smiles—and all about "taking it easy" so his team might get its legs beneath them.

Then he promptly served some of the handcrafted pizza and pasta that will be their calling cards, at price points that make a lot more sense for Seaside than what Lucky's was doing. (Pizzas start at $10, pastas at $12, salads at $6.)

Which now has me trying real hard to take it easy. 

In other words, the pizza and pastas are excellent.

We asked Boaro to lay his favorite dishes on us to go with the light Italian Chianti poured from those adorable mini carafes.

His choices numbered three:

1) A piatto del salumeriere, or charcuterie board ($16), with a fatty speck, lean salami and indulgent proscuitto, plus a tangy blue cheese, buttery brie and a sharper, harder cheese I forgot to ask about (but ate right up), all accompanied by chestnut honey, Chianti jelly and imported olives.

2) A tirolese ($16) pizza with Sam Marzano tomatoes, mozzarella, regal speck (aka Italian smoked ham), a touch of Gorgonzola and rich wild mushrooms. 

3) A classic spaghetti and meatballs ($12) with al dente noodles he twirled into the noodles for us gleefully at the pretty bar, earthy tomato sauce with braised sweet onions and huge spheres of hand-molded meat.

The pizza and the noodles have me beelining for more.

Really. I'm going back tonight. 

I know I predicted this place would be more than solid in a column I wrote when Boaro and company bought the place, "Happy Pie: A look at the promising Italian restaurant to supplant Lucky's Roadside in Seaside," but still.

The reasons that gave me that confidence remain: Boaro's background co-owning-and-operating the superb and hyper fresh Basil Seasonal Dining in Carmel, his friend and collaborator Michele Cremonese's gift for handmade pasta, the fact he's importing his hotel-restaurant-running parents from Italy to help with prep, Boaro's obsession with pizza, the wood-burning oven...

Eleven pizzas take over the center column of the menu and the heart of the place, a Margherita ($10), a bresaola ($14), a mortadella with arugula and pistachios ($13) and a four cheese ($12) with mozzarella, ricotta, gorgonzola and Parmesan among them.

All are done with house-made mozzarella, the aforementioned San Marzanos and organic Mulino Sobrino flour from Italy, in the Northern thin-crust style.

The pastas are eye-popping in the to-go case and on the plate, in 12 creative preparations I can't wait to try.

Take the Bigoli (named for Cremonese's pasta shop), with a duck ragout and "glazed" cipolline onions ($16).

The diverse ravioli rock everything from short rib in a porcini-marscapone sauce ($18) to butternut squash with brown butter and sage ($14) to artichoke and fontina with speck ($16).

There are also five salads, like the Italian chopped ($11), caprese ($12) and quinoa with green apple ($12).

The inside looks sharp, with new flooring, bold red colors, shiny draft beer taps and carefully arranged Italian and California wines.

Given the amount of money invested in Lucky's aggressive buildout, another major makeover so soon might seem counterintuitive, but it's key to Gusto establishing its own brand.

With these pizzas and pastas, I don't think they need to worry too much about that.

But nevertheless, it's early. So take it easy.