That's why I went to Gina's Ristorante (translation: "restaurant"). To satisfy a primal calling: fine Italian dining. The place has been there for years, but has stood vacant except for the occasional stiff-one being poured and the cold cuts served to the denizens of the bar like "Ice Station Zebra" serves up action.

But ever since chef Eddie Ribeiro bought the place, it's been restored to its old glory - kinda like the scary hotel in "The Shining" must appear in the on-season.

However, I should point out that I have no idea what the old glory of Gina's was because, to tell you the truth, I don't remember ever having been there. I must've driven by a million times, never really noticing it until now.

The experience must be equivalent to Bela Lugosi's character in "Plan 9 From Outer Space," stopping to smell the roses outside of his house minutes before he is ho-oribly killed. That's not to say that my demise is imminent (it is!), but rather to give you an analogy for my blind discovery of a restaurant that by all accounts is very good.

For appetizers we had the fried calamari ($4.50) and Eddie's fresh mozzarella ($4.95). It's prepared a little differently than your average cheese sticks. Eddie's is served with grilled eggplant, sliced tomatoes, fresh basil, and olive oil. The kicker, however, was the magnificent escargot (translation: "snails"). We had some salad, we had some soup. It was good, but if this is your thing, you should be going to the Souplantation, you nitwit.

"On to the entrees," I said as the rumblings from my stomach grew like a starving, man-eating polar bear that just had a taste of blood from the feast to come.

We had a couple of the veal dishes and although they were quite good, I'm going to climb up on my soapbox here for a minute and tell you all that while I am hardly a proponent of the animal rights movement, I do believe that if we (when I say "we," I mean all of us, humanity) could come together and collectively agree to not eat anymore veal, then maybe that would shut the animal rights people up once and for all.

Meaning no disrespect to those veal-lovers out there, I feel we as carnivores should do away with veal dishes - if for no other reason than you never get enough. Throughout all my years of dining I have never seen a veal dish which I would say even came close to being hearty.

Other dishes we tried were the Steak Sinatra ($12.95). This dish features strips of filet mignon with bell peppers, onions, tomato, white wine and marinara sauce.

"Hold up," says the observant reader. "Robert's argument against veal holds true with filet mignon, as well," claims the smartass. Not so, dillweed. Filet is merely the finest cut from a steer; one of the glorious fringe benefits of making Jumbo Jacks is filet mignon.

The best pasta dish we had was the Bianchi E Neri ($11.95). This is black and white spaghetti (a favorite amongst the law enforcement community) with shrimp and scallops in a lobster cream sauce. It was rich and definitely not for the dietician.

Gina's Ristorante is located at 843 E. Foothill Blvd., Upland, CA, 91786. Eddie's staff works Monday through Thursday, offering lunch from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and dinner from 4 to 9 p.m. Dinner only is served Friday and Saturday from 4 to 10 p.m., and Sunday from 4 to 9 p.m.

Rosemarie Ribeiro may be contacted at (909) 985-5074 to take your reservations for some of husband Eddie's fine dishes.

Robert Bledsoe is producer of the Inland Empire Television News' weekly "Restaurant Review" segment.