With only about an hour to eat on a Thursday night in Northampton and with only minor appetites, my 15-year-old son Elliot and I decided to stop in at Spoleto, a longtime dining venue in the heart of downtown.

Spoleto, located at 50 Main St., is part of the dining empire of Claudio Guerra which also includes Pizza Paradisio and Mama Iguana’s in the same downtown, has long been a reliable and sometimes even stellar place to get dinner.

(spoletorestaurants.com, 413-586-6313. The Web site says more than 25 years in business. Is it possible it has been that long?)

Typically, I go with my adult friends and sit at the bar. Spoleto has some fabulous bartenders and the bar is a great spot for people watching. If it’s not a weekend night and filled with out-of-towners, I often run into people I know there.

Some of the things I love about the Spoleto bar:
--Lots of fresh squeezed lime juice in the Margaritas.
--The bowls of roasted olives.
--The crusty sourdough bread served warm in baskets.
--Good selection of wines by the glass.

But coming into Spoleto with a 15-year-old is different experience. The manager firmly told us that my son would not be allowed at the bar under any circumstances. So even though we were just planning to order appetizers, we sat at a very nice table. (In warmer weather, the tables outside are some of the best seats in town.)

I picked crab cakes ($8.95) and a house salad ($4.95) with the balsamic vinaigrette. Spoleto has always put chick peas on their salads creating dueling textures with the greens. The crab cakes, with a light remoulade sauce on top, were less inspired. While there was a sweet and interesting red, carrot and orange zest slaw in the middle, the crab cakes did not appear to be made on site.

They were crispy on the outside with a fish-stick style coating which didn’t impress me, but the inside was typical of a decent crab cake. A delicate crab taste, but nothing that would knock your socks off. They were small, fat and tall, if it’s possible for a crab cake to be all three of those things.

The bread was impressive as always, but my son also ordered the mozzarella-stuffed bread ($6.95) as his appetizer. I was a bit surprised to find the bread was very different (and frankly not as tasty) from the bread served plain. It was more of a store-bought bland baguette instead of the crusty sourdough. It wasn’t overly garlicky and it had generous portions of cheese between each slice. Still, the bread was missing something.

I was sorry I didn’t have the appetite for my favorite Spoleto main dish, the chicken rollatini ($17.95), which is chicken breasts pounded thin and rolled around cheese, sweet Italian sausage and asparagus in a sweet mushroom and shallot Marsala wine sauce. It comes with penne pasta and sautéed vegetables.

Another favorite appetizer, the Gorgonzola garlic bread ($6.95), has long been my favorite and I remember it was always the best deal at the now-gone Taste of Northampton because the price was right and it was easy to eat standing up. I haven’t had it lately, but I noticed on the menu they have added roasted red peppers on top. It sounds like a great addition to an already pungently cheesy and garlicky treat.