Rustic Italian entrees at Blue Bell's Radice.

Behind the prep counter in the dining room of the bright new Radice (722 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell, 610-272-5700) is an enormous wood-and-gas oven - more than seven feet wide.

Chef-partner Donna Ewanciw needs it because 80 percent of her food - rustic Italian small plates, entrees, and pizzas - comes out of it.

Radice ("rah-DEE-chay") opened last week at Village Square shopping center, replacing Bourbon. Ewanciw owns it with her longtime employers, Toto and Claire Schiavone of Moonstruck in Fox Chase, which was known as DiLullo's when she started 25 years ago.

Radice mixes white and yellows to achieve the refined yet casual look of a sunny Italian farmhouse, whose culinary philosophy is modeled on Toto Schiavone's farm village roots in Badolato on the Ionian Sea. (Radice means root.)

Wine list leans Italian. It's dinner only; lunch will start in September. A meal can be achieved by ordering several assaggi (small plates priced from $7 to $11), maybe a salad or soup, or through conventional entrees (pietanzi), from $17 to $27. Menu is at http://go.philly.com/radice.

Chef Adán Saavedra and wife-partner Barbara Cohan-Saavedra have moved their haute-Mexican restaurant, Paloma, into romantic quarters in South Philly (763 S. Eighth St., 215-928-9500), where Mezza Luna was for many years. The low-key Adán Saavedra, whose kitchen background includes Taquet, La Truffe, Ciboulette, Michels, and the Four Seasons, first won acclaim a decade ago on Castor Avenue near Oxford Circle. The Saavedras - she's a former U.S. attorney who whips up a mean dessert - have retained many of their old favorites, including his "crab cake" in a purse of phyllo as well as the wild-mushroom flan. It's BYOB for now. Entrees start at $22 and head up into the $30s. Menu is at http://go.philly.com/paloma.

Avril, which opened last August at 134 Bala Ave. in Bala Cynwyd, has tweaked its operation, expanding from a conventional BYOB dinner house into a more casual cafe, still with a Euro focus. Hours start at 7 a.m. Tuesdays to Saturdays with breakfast (crepes, omelets, quiche, challah French toast, etc.). Lunch brings soups, sandwiches, and a few specialties. There's afternoon tea. For dinner, which wraps at 9 p.m. (10 p.m. on Saturdays), chef Christian Gatti adds mussels, pastas, fish, steak, and chicken; entrees are a more wallet-friendly $18 to $22. Sunday brunch/lunch service runs from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. "Everything's been simplified," says Gatti's wife/co-owner, April Lisante.

Avenue Grill, inside the Crowne Plaza Hotel (4010 City Ave., 215-477-0200), renovated and eliminated vestiges of the old Holiday Inn. New general manager Russell Peskin, formerly of the Union League and Philmont Country Club, wants the eatery to assume the "local business meet-up" role of the former Adam's Mark down the road. Entrees range from $16 to $24; there's a $15.99 Friday lunch buffet; a $12.99 daily breakfast buffet; and a $23.95 all-you-can-eat prime rib special (including glass of wine) on Fridays.

Tom Konidaris, who in the spring switched out his Zesty's at 4382 Main St. in Manayunk in favor of a gastropub called Munk & Nunn, has revived the Zesty's brand and reintroduced some Greek dishes. The Munk & Nunn's/Zesty arrangement is similar to Bruce Cooper's side-by-side operations Jake's and Cooper's Brick-Oven Wine Bar across the street.