More recent arrivals include the Clay Market Caf , transplanted from Cambridge and with a more ambitious menu and exciting d cor. Madison s Dining and Diversions, after inauspicious beginnings, revamped its menu and is finally settling down. Opus Lounge is a good choice for light dinners and late-evening snacks. But the most anticipated restaurant has been Harvest, owned and operated by Tami Lax and Jeff Orr. Lax, once L Etoile s forager, runs the front of the house, leaving the cooking to Orr, also a L Etoile alum.
Harvest is still very much a work in progress.
A few weeks after their opening last fall, Lax and Orr added a weekday lunch to the dinner menu, then discontinued it right after Christmas with the promise to renew in the spring. Despite the apparent growing pains, Harvest has been well worth the wait. But you know Harvest works with the best locally produced ingredients, and cooks them in season with care, skill and imagination, even restraint. For Lax and Orr want their food to speak for itself. And they re willing to take chances and experiment.