Best of all are the exquisite baby vegetables that come with the bass, just in time for the new season. Tiny carrots, pearl onions, haricots verts and pencil spears of asparagus, lightly tossed in a garlic-butter sauce, make for an elegant yet very Northwest dish. The thin and delectable slices are draped over creamy mashed potatoes surrounded by very slender broccolini, which have the pungent flavor of broccoli rabe. The entire ensemble is set off by a delicate pinot noir sauce. If French touches are evident in the menu, so are German, though perhaps Alsatian is more like it.
Pork chops arrive moist and smoky, bedded on braised red cabbage and mashed yams.
Permeated by maple syrup and a dusting of cinnamon, this sweet dish also takes on overtones of Vermont. A couple of items need work. Beef braised with Guinness comes together nicely, the long-simmered meat gaining the proper texture in the dark stout. On a recent visit the oddest dish of all was a duck special. The dessert list is brief.