ASK BOSTON UNIVERSITY nutrition professor Joan Salge Blake and she’ll tell it to you straight: “Iceberg lettuce has a bad rep.”

Maybe it’s because it’s not as colorful as mesclun or as pretty as spinach. Maybe it’s because of the myth that iceberg lacks any nutritional value. (Not true, says Salge Blake. Iceberg is a good source of vitamin B.) More likely, though, it’s because many generations of foodies grew up with salads consisting, more or less, of these ingredients: the lettuce, a cherry tomato, a few rings of red onion, and a generous splash of Good Seasons Italian dressing.

Whatever the reason, for the past decade or so iceberg lettuce was happily forgotten by chefs and restaurantgoers alike when fancier, more exotic-looking meclun mixes became more widely available. While people were busy chomping on these nouveau greens for most of the ’90s, says Paul Hathaway, chef and partner at Washington Square Tavern in Brookline, they forgot one thing: how delicious iceberg can be. “It just makes such a refreshing salad,” says Hathaway. “It’s the perfect thing when you are in the mood for its comfort level — when you’re not trying to challenge your palate.”

It’s no surprise that iceberg has found its way back onto restaurant menus, given the resurgence of comfort food in American bars and bistros (not to mention steakhouses, where the iceberg salad originally found fame). But if you’re expecting a pile of iceberg’s mint-colored greens served in a patchwork wooden bowl, you’re out of luck. Today’s iceberg salads look more like works of art than like anything you’d find at Joe’s Truck Stop.

Hathaway, for example, serves his iceberg salad in the summer with heirloom tomatoes, smoked bacon, and blue cheese. He also says iceberg works best with Asian dishes: top it with anything spicy, garlicky, or salty, and the watery lettuce cuts into the sharp flavors nicely.

Or take the “Steak House Salad” ($7) that chef Gary Strack serves at his Cambridge restaurant, Central Kitchen: it’s a quarter-wedge of iceberg topped with hunks of blue cheese and heirloom tomatoes. Although Strack says he hates lettuce and salads (don’t ask), he also admits there is a small spot in his heart for iceberg. “It’s the crunch that I like,” he says.

Celebrity chef Jasper White, who offers an iceberg salad with cucumber and red onion at his Summer Shack in North Cambridge, probably has the best defense for iceberg: it’s the best sandwich lettuce. “Eating a BLT with any other lettuce is an affectation,” he says.

Unlike expensive mesclun mixes, iceberg checks in pretty cheap at grocery stores — a head of Foxy lettuce sells for around $2. But don’t think it’s all that easy to come by. Jasper White says he’s developed a whole new respect for the lettuce ever since he tried to grow it in his Lincoln garden a couple of summers ago. When the experiment failed, it added a little mystery to the previously mundane veggie.

“It was just an option that wasn’t available [in restaurants] for so long,” he says. “Iceberg was passé. It wasn’t hip. But it took a few brave souls to bring it back. I think it’s here to stay.”

? Washington Square Tavern, 714 Washington Street, Brookline, (617) 232-8989

? Central Kitchen, 567 Mass Ave, Cambridge, (617) 491-5599

? Jasper White’s Summer Shack, 149 Alewife Brook Parkway, Cambridge, (617) 576-2433

Issue Date: March 29-April 5, 2001