The Roman god of expansion seems to be visiting New York this winter. For several years, Tarallucci e Vino has been serving excellent coffee and panini in the East Village. Now the owners have created a larger, more comprehensive restaurant with the same name, off Union Square. The new spot offers something for all: a wine bar up front, with 16 by-the-glass choices; coffee; pastry; and panini. Up a short flight of stairs is a handsome white-on-white room where more serious diners can partake in assaggi (small plates) with an Abruzzan flair, as well as a gorgeous bounty of cheeses and meats.

Honorable mention goes to another newcomer, Giorgione 508, an offshoot of Giorgio DeLuca’s (of Dean & DeLuca) restaurant Giorgione. The new Giorgione 508 is a multipurpose venture where tables for dinner share space with a breakfast counter, a wine bar, and shelves of canned and boxed groceries.

Tarallucci evenhandedly accommodates snacking or dedicated eating: While one table’s occupants linger over several bottles of wine, the neighboring table can turn over three or four parties of snackers in quick succession. Twenty or so Italian and Spanish cheeses come in build-your-own sets of three ($12) or five ($19). Each cheese comes with a little flavor complement: A darkly tangy lambrusco jelly accompanies the wonderful, runny Robiola di Bosco, for example, and an Ibores goat cheese is set off by creamy, beautifully fragrant lavender honey.

The cooked small plates run large: Two of them make up a reasonably substantial meal. Start with scrippelle ‘mbusse,a bowl of light, pure-tasting hen broth ($9) in which three eggy, Parmesan-filled crepes float. Flourbased goods are a specialty: Even the hearty, juicy lamb chop ($14) is breaded before being fried. Panzarotti ($7) are zeppole-esque fried dumplings, doughy and light, stuffed with morsels of ham and mozzarella. A dish of fregnacce sheet pasta immersed in duck ragu ($12) is wonderful, with the intensely earthy, livery flavor of the meat sauce set off by the mild fresh pasta. Farrotto ($12), in which barley-like grains of farro are enriched with creamy asparagus puree, offers a lighter, keener alternative.

A bounty of mostly Italian wines – 16 by the glass, including a sparkling lambrusco ($9/$36) from Bisini Gambetti – provide capable support. A wide range of varietals – torrontes, Muller-Thurgau, blackish aglianico – keeps the palate jumping. Desserts (all $9) excel too: a basket of hot lemony doughnuts, a “tropical” mini-cake of pineapple and ricotta, and an ever-changing array of excellent gelati.

Giorgione 508 has much more gloss, with high-design silver-ish tabletops and menus with all lowercased words. Seats are fewer and the experience is more focused – with a smaller menu – than at Tarallucci e Vino. Grouping the food into courses – soups, antipasti, pastas, grill-fare, sides – while keeping portions petite, makes it possible to enjoy either a parade of small plates and Italian wines or a traditional serial meal in miniature.

The DeLuca founder clearly has access to superior ingredients: Not just the lush green olive oil poured at the table and sold by the bottle up front, but also every element of the cooking, which is slotted together in precious arrangements by chef Alex Schindler. A couple of seasonal soups (both $5) exemplify that hearty elegance. A ribollita, with Tuscan beans and a tomato-beef broth thickened by bread, and a sweet, rich puree of roasted tomatoes that’s drizzled with pesto for a salty accent.

The priciest of the meat courses is “two chops” ($16): two tiny lamb chops, stunningly tender beneath their grill-crossed crusts, adorned with a single sliced Brussels sprout. Pastas are similarly pygmified. Paccheri ($11) see a preparation similar to Tarallucci’s duck fregnacce: The wide, collapsed tubes of pasta – just a couple of them – are near-smothered with a sweet, darkly porky braise of pork shoulder and onions. A “side” of lentils ($5) is actually more substantial than much of the menu. Olive oil and hunks of bacon give the attractively plump and discrete pulses formidable smoky flavor. For dessert, slices of apple are coated in a thickly puffy batter and fried; the hot fritters, crusted in sugar and dipped in whipped cream, give the meal a light finish.

This winter, downtown has lucked into two charming casual Italian spots of impressively high caliber. Both are offshoots of existing ventures, and both serve dinner almost as an afterthought, behind a facade of coffee and takeout. If Tarallucci e Vino is ultimately more vigorous and substantial, and Giorgione 508 a bit more professional, both provide cozy, affordable ways to eat very well.

Tarallucci e Vino, 15 E. 18th St., between Broadway and Fifth Avenue, 212-228-5400.

Giorgione 508, 508 Greenwich St., near Spring Street, 212-219-2444.