WHERE: 20 Gemmill Lane

OPENING: Mid November

Chef David Almany has quit his job as head chef of Osteria Mozza in Marina Bay Sands after five years and is opening an Italian-American restaurant at the current premises of Luke's Oyster Bar & Chop House. Luke's chef-owner Travis Masiero will move his restaurant next door, and is a partner in Angeleno.

The restaurant is named for the inhabitants of Los Angeles. Almany, 30, and another chef with whom he will run the restaurant, are both from the City of Angels.

Although neither of them are Italian, they have spent years cooking Italian food and it is that cuisine's unfussy style and use of top-notch produce that they will bring to their restaurant.

It will serve Italian food with an American sensibility, says Masiero.

For Almany, this means peoplefriendly, comfort food without the fancy plating with tweezers.

"The food will taste deeply Italian, it will be honest cooking," he says.

Signature dishes include carpaccio sliced thinly from American ribeye steaks, eggplant parmigiana and veal parmigiana made with pounded-out veal chops.

The restaurant will also have a wood grill for steaks and chops and the chef intends to make all the pasta in-house.

Almany plans to bring in tomatoes and other produce from California.

"I think this will separate me from everybody else," he says, adding that the bounty from the United States will likely cost four times what similar produce from elsewhere will cost.

"But once people taste a Delicata squash from California glazed in brown butter as a side dish, they'll understand why it costs $20."

Lunches are expected to cost $30 to $60 a person, and dinner will be $100 to $150 a person.

Construction work begins in October, once Luke's is settled in next door, and the restaurant will be the last on the stretch to open.

"We're saving the best for last," the chef says.