Across the table from me, Rob was pleased by a crispy, capers-smothered veal sweetbread ($14.50) — singular rather than the plural of the description, but large — that was accompanied by a salad with purple potatoes, beets, and oyster mushrooms with a pomegranate gastrique. Happy boy.
Stuart was doubling up with the duck liver mousse ($6.75) and the ratatouille- and Gruyere-filled buckwheat crêpes ($8.25). The former was a cloud-like quasi-pate, accompanied by the slight tartness of pickled on-stem grapes and a side salad. The surprisingly light crepe, with a different, red-leaf-dominating salad, was bulging with vegetable goodies, properly sauteed and sauced.
As though rewarding us for our good taste in coming here, the house-made desserts were each exquisite. Well, I suppose I have to be fussy enough to note that the chocolate hazelnut ice cream ($2.50) was grainy — but the flavor was on the money. The ricotta-filled crepe ($6.50), smothered in fresh fruit that included blood oranges, was as fabulous as it sounds. And my four small dark-chocolate turtles ($4), with nuts and dried plum rather than caramel, were little wonders. That also comes in a half-portion. Indulge in four. You deserve them.
Bill Rodriguez can be reached at bill@billrod.com.
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Restaurant Reviews
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, France, Seafood, Bristol, bacon, food, Inez Storer, LE CENTRAL, LE CENTRAL, restaurants, clams, Less 
