The Boston Phoenix
July 27 - August 3, 2000

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Atara

A Brighton trattoria made over by its old chef

by Robert Nadeau

DINING OUT
Atara
1418 Comm Ave, Brighton
Open Mon and Tues, 5:30-10 p.m.; Wed and Thurs, 5:30-10:30 p.m.; Fri and Sat, 5:30-11 p.m.
AE, DC, Disc, MC, Visa
Beer and wine
(617) 566-5670
Sidewalk-level access

This used to be Uva, known for fairly priced fine wine and Mediterranean food. Now it has reopened as Atara (sounds like an import sedan, means "crown" in Hebrew) under the ownership of Uva's original chef from 1993, Larry Kessel. Restaurant history is speeding up. Kessel has had four (4) other jobs in between, making this his sixth Boston gig in seven years. The good news about this is that he has obviously has figured out what works -- Atara's opening menu has one of the highest hit/miss ratios ever. The question is whether he will stick with it this time. At least he won't have any creative differences with the boss.

He also won't have any problems with Uva's old customers, who can pick from one of the wine-friendliest menus around, or pick the wines first from a list entirely suited to contemporary bistro food. They'll be so wowed by the mod redesign, they might not notice that wine prices have crept up to the citywide norm.

On the other hand, the breadbasket has also kept pace. So you might consider skipping appetizers and just enjoying the black-olive rolls, the focaccia, and a good Italian loaf with butter and perhaps the first of your wine.

Or you could feed the French side of every wine lover's appetite with a daily soup like potato-leek ($5), made in the creamy, full-flavored old style. The quesadilla on our day ($6) was mostly cheddar, with bits of sweet corn. Marcia's chicken wings ($8.50) aren't as soy-salty or five-spicy as mine, but the mild cure they do have is ideal for wine, or you can dip them to get the Chinese flavor. Artichokes with goat-cheese dip ($7.50) sounds like a lot of work, but the artichokes are hearts worked into the dip along with chives, and what you dip is a buttery homemade cracker. The only work you have to do is to keep yourself from gobbling them all right away. Graham-cracker-crusted calamari sound horrid, but in fact the slight sweetness of the crackers complements the slight sweetness of truly fresh squid.

Among the main dishes, I was most impressed with grilled horseradish-crusted flank steak ($16.50). This is one of the last steaks that still has any flavor, but it's a challenge to the commercial kitchen to get it out rare enough that it doesn't toughen. Here, the horseradish sauce doesn't overpower, and the side dish of roasted potatoes evokes the French steak-and-fries without the grease.

Also for red-wine lovers is the veal meat loaf ($14.50). Veal loaves were the original American meat loaves, but their delicacy gave way to the mixed or all-beef loaves we remember from childhood. This time the veal is reinforced with an awful lot of portobello mushrooms in a little sauce, and the whole is served over broccoli rabe, with some dark gravy and mashed potatoes.

On the white-wine side, Kessel does a Maine lobster bolognese over bucatini ($19), and knows enough not to get too cute with it. The "bolognese" part refers to the typical meat sauce for spaghetti, not to anything they might try with an American lobster in Bologna. Bucatini are thick tube macaroni as long as spaghetti. I think they're right for richer sauces like this, where you don't want to pick up too much sauce per noodle. (I think fettuccine alfredo would be a lot easier to eat if it were made with bucatini.) The chef also doesn't get cute with a vegetable risotto featuring asiago cheese ($14). This is smooth risotto, not too creamy, but blessedly not crunchy either.

Roasted halibut ($18) reminded several New England fiftysomethings at our table of eating overcooked halibut on Fridays in the 1950s. Except the halibut at Atara was perfect. Who knew that if you cut it thicker, and don't broil it to death, halibut is flavorful and light -- a flaky white fish like cod or haddock, only better? The chef makes something almost Alsatian out of it by setting it on a bed of sautéed cabbage and carrots, with more of those roasted potatoes on the side. Pan-seared salmon ($18) has a bacon-flavored crust, a complementary tomato sauce (not a typical sauce on salmon, but very successful), some artichoke hearts, and a pretty cheese tuile on top.

Now, about that wine list. They've made an unusual arrangement, organizing wines by color, but then ranked from light to full-bodied. We started with a 1997 Liberty School chardonnay ($31) that had both lemony acidity and a nice flavor of vanilla oak: someone in California decided to go for the effect of Pouilly Fuissé. When that ran out we lightened up with an albariño, which is generally the work of someone in Spain going for the effect of a California sauvignon blanc. This one, Bourgans 1999, has the tartness, but also a lingering spicy flavor unusual in this wine.

Desserts at Atara are not the crown of the evening, but some are very good. The Atara banana split ($7.50) alternates chunks of grilled banana, scoops of very good vanilla ice cream, and slices of a crêpe filled with banana mousse, all in a very effective chocolate sauce. The "coffee and doughnuts" ($7.50) features fresh fried dough with a coffee cup full of fluffy coffee semifreddo -- closer to mousse than ice cream. You can dip, but it's been so long since anyone has had a fresh doughnut that the tendency is just to eat them up.

"Classic" crème brûlée ($7.50) falls short on the creaminess. A warm chocolate fondant cake ($7.50) is exactly what you expect. A plate of ice creams and sorbets ($7) had vanilla, chocolate, and banana for ice cream, and two scoops of raspberry sorbet. I approved.

Atara was designed by Daniel Reynolds, who also did Torch. As at Torch, some very nice details carry along a relatively inexpensive couple of rooms. Yellow paint and blond wood make a bright design; hard floors and full windows make it somewhat loud (planned drapes will help). Service at Atara is good, too. Our servers were enthusiastic about the food and knew the wines.

Robert Nadeau can be reached at robtnadeau@aol.com.


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