Taste: Reviews: Less Is More

From the hearth stoked with hickory, mahogany and fruitwood comes whole fish such as bronzino, head and tail intact, snow-white flesh bared by neat slashes in its crackling skin, picture-perfect as a still life, served simply with black olives and lemon wedges. Fat day-boat sea scallops, presented with a soft potato cake, absorb a subtle hint of smoke from the wood oven. Forever-changing steak entrées often spotlight less common cuts, such as hanger steak, grilled and cut into astonishingly tender rosy bites, topped with fried onion strings and marrow butter. A veal-stock reduction sauce and risotto dotted with English peas and fresh fava beans raise it from simple to sublime. Seared Alaskan salmon was a feast for the eyes, but the fillet’s too-rare center was more uncooked than undercooked.

Obsessive as he is about in-season ingredients, Nate Garyantes is enough of a businessman to keep his best-selling braised dishes on the menu year-round. I’m not about to chide him, because the short ribs simmered with sherry vinegar, veal stock, red wine and juniper berries are extraordinary at all times, and the leg of lamb, garnished with lemony goat yogurt and pistachios, isn’t far behind.

Several of the desserts are slipped into the wood-burning oven for a quick warm-up, not always with good results. The practice favors the irresistibly gooey chocolate tartlette and the campy s’mores, but it turned the lemon meringue tart filling nearly to liquid. I preferred the cold desserts, particularly the creamy, tangy mascarpone cheesecake.

There are other benefits to dining at 821, notably the absence of sales tax on the food and drink, valet parking for only $6, intriguing four- and six-course tasting menus, and monthly wine dinners. But perhaps the most compelling reason to go now is for bragging rights — to be able to say that you discovered Nate Garyantes before your restaurant tipster friends find out about him.

Scorecard
Food: B 
Service: B 
Atmosphere: B+
AVERAGE COST OF DINNER PER PERSON (with tip, without alcohol): $61
FOOD: Contemporary/seasonal, emphasizing regional products.
WINE LIST: International, though strongest in California bottles. Some bottles go for half price on Mondays and Tuesdays. Wine cellar available for private dining.
GET: Duck confit salad, spinach salad with gnocchi, whole fish with lemon and olives, grilled hanger steak with risotto, short ribs with smoked polenta, mascarpone cheesecake.
DON’T GET: Caesar salad. The potent flavors of cured white anchovies and house-smoked mozzarella taste like an argument.