*** - Three Stars

 Address: 247 South 1st., nr. Roebling St. (Williamsburg)

Phone: (718)218-8047

Cuisine: American

Vibe: Timeless neighborhood haunt

Occasion: Group dinner; Date; Bar bites.

Hours: Seven days a week. Dinner, Sun-Thu, 6p.m.-11p.m., Fri & Sat, 6p.m.-12a.m.

Don't Miss Dish: House-smoked sturgeon; Duck confit; Meatloaf;

Average Price: Appetizers, $15 ; Entrees,$20 ;Dessert, $9.

Reservations: Reservations recommended.

 

Capsule: A neigborhood restaurant worth venturing out of your own for in Williamsburg.

Have you ever envied a neighborhood for their restaurants?  I have. There are so many great places to live in New York with so menu great restaurants.  But if I ever mustered up the courage to search for a new apartment and pack boxes, I'd head to Williamsburg.  That's where Brooklyn's dining scene really was born.  Places like Stone Rose, Peter Luger, and have been around forever, but places like Dumont & Dressler changed the Brooklyn dining landscape forever.  Chef Cal Elliot was instrumental at both spots.

Rye is Cal Elliot's first solo effort, but you can tell he's a veteran in the kitchen.  He's implemented a wonderful American menu with equal parts refined and retro touches. You'll order the chicken, but what you'll get is a deftly roasted chicken, or a finely charred, sliced steak flavored with red wine for two that fed four, crispy fries, and homemade cinnamon donuts for desserts.  

Rye is a real neighborhood restaurant, the kind every neighborhood should have.  It's one of those rare spots where you can't make up your mind because there's so many great dishes on the menu.  It;s the kind of place you could just order a great burger or an ambitious meal.  It's the kind of place where you hope your table's not quite ready, so you can linger at their handsome, oak bar for a little longer and order a proper Hemingway Daiquiri with just the right doses of bitters, orange and whiskey, or a classic Southside.  The dining room looks like something from the early 1900's -- a saloon of sorts with  dim bare bulb lighting, a tin ceiling,  and wood floors.  There's not a stich of artwork on the walls, no clever distractions -- a restaurant where blackberries on the table seem entirely out of place. 

Most of the food is excellent, but Cal Elliot is especially gifted with duck.  I recommend you try the entree-sized appetizer of sliced duck coupled with a unique roasted red pepper and chutney and couscous, or a sweet duck confit served on the bone with shards of pecorino, wild mushrooms, and precious nibbles of gnocchi.   I've never referred to a meatloaf as magnificent, but this one was -- a moist, sweet, unctuous mix of pork, veal, and short ribs, sided by a stack of  onion rings.   

The table favorite was pulled pork sandwich, piled with sweet shreds of meat, cole slaw, and pickles -- a salty, sweet, fatty, and crusty combination.  But my favorite is the house-smoked sturgeon poised over scalloped potatoes mingled with bacon and horseradish.   The only dishes that missed were a wild striped bass in a watery saffron broth with listless cockles and an artichoke fricassee that paled in comparison to the rest of the menu.

The dessert menu is concise, but just as outstanding as the rest of the menu.   I loved the steamed lemon cake with a fragrant Chantilly sauce and fresh mixed berries that didn't seem remotely out of place, even in the dead of winter.   There's also one of those old school, wonderfully moist, chocolate cakes paired with a light vanilla ice cream as well as warm, crusty cinnamon donuts. 

Cal Elliot has mastered the art of understated yet elegant retro cuisine.  We could all use a restaurant like Rye around the corner. 

Good meat, well-aged ambience

• Cuisine: Northern European
• Vibe: Victorian barroom
• Occasion: Neighborhood dining; bar bites; meat cravings.
• Don't Miss: Daily punch, herb and Gruyere spaetzle, Vesper Brett, Prime Meats burger.
• Price: Appetizers, $9; entrees, $13; dessert, $5.
• Reservations: No reservations accepted. Cash only.
• Phone: (718) 254-0327
• Location: 465 Court St., at Luquer St., Brooklyn

Remember when Sam the butcher used to make house calls to the Bradys?

The Brady-era butcher shops were different from earlier ones. Through the end of the 19th century, most New York butcher shops were owned by Central European immigrants. They didn't just sell ground meat, tenderloins and pork chops. They also sold sausages, spaetzle and sauerkraut.

Prime Meats, a new restaurant in Carroll Gardens, honors the tradition. In fact, the restaurant was inspired by a German butcher-shop sign from the 1880s that hung on Flatbush Ave. The weathered sign now hangs behind a handsome wood bar at Prime Meats, which also belongs to another era. The barkeeps, with suspenders, vests and curled mustaches, serve period cocktails like daiquiris, Manhattans and Applejack Sazeracs. They really get into character, according to owners Frank Falcinelli, Frank Castronovo and Greg Fanslau.

The only thing that really gives away our era is the Grateful Dead music playing in the background. The long, narrow barroom is outfitted with a creamy tin ceiling, dark wood booths and romantic lighting. There's also an outdoor dining area with potted baby basil plants on the tables and backyard lights overhead. Upstairs is a butcher department where the chefs cure their own meats and make their own outstanding pickles and sauerkraut.

The menu revolves around Northern European dishes, like spaetzle, braised cabbage and bratwurst. The best way to sample the charcuterie is to order the Vesper Brett, a generous spread of bacon, “gourmet bologna” and a terrific farmer's sausage that has a pâté-like texture. They also bake their breads in-house, including a soft Bavarian pretzel served with the weisswurst - an unusually tender white sausage made with pork, veal and parsley.

• Cuisine: Mexican
• Vibe: Laid-back chic
• Occasion: Group dinner, communal dining, neighborhood bites
• Don't Miss: Tacos de suadero, enchiladas de mole, churros
• Price: Appetizers, $8; entrées, $14; desserts, $4.50
• Reservations: Accepted only for six or more
• Phone: (718) 782-8171
• Location: 372 Graham Ave., between Skillman Ave. and Conselyea St., Brooklyn

It's hard to find a good black mole sauce, but Garcia's is phenomenally flavorful. It's a 37-ingredient mole that requires its own chef and includes six types of chiles, Mexican chocolate, almonds and cinnamon. I highly recommend the enchiladas de mole - moist chicken bathing in smoky-sweet sauce, rolled up in a thick tortilla and crowned with crema fresca, avocado, onion and sesame seeds. There's also $7 tamale trio with shredded chicken and black mole wrapped in a corn husk.

There are a few hiccups on the menu. Skip the ceviches, both were ruined by a watery tomato salsa. The grilled whole snapper was dry and poorly matched with a lump of guacamole and a cold cactus salad. And all three salads arrived way overdressed.

There's a small but well-edited wine list and a great Michelada, a lime-spiked beer served in a spice-rimmed glass.

For dessert, I love the churros, which come with a rich chocolate and milky caramel dipping sauce. There's also homemade strawberry ice pops spiced with chile de arbol, and cinnamon-flavored horchata.

Mesa Coyoacan's been open only a month, and it's already crowded with repeat customers. We have tons of great ethnic food in New York. But to be honest, we could use a few more good Mexican restaurants like this one.

• Cuisine: Mediterranean
• Vibe: Subterranean sanctuary.
• Occasion: Romantic date, group dinner, preconcert bites.
• Don't Miss: Roasted poussin, braised lamb shank
• Price: Appetizers, $8; entrees, $16; dessert; $5.
• Reservations: Accepted
• Phone: (718) 599-0069
• Location: 345 Grand St. between Marcy & Havemeyer Aves, Brooklyn.

I'm not big on atmosphere. I'm the type who prefers phenomenal food to phenomenal décor. I'd take a great steak over a great scene any day. But even I was put off by the grungy entryway to Vutera, a restaurant that opened in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a few months ago.

Open the door, and you're standing in a dark hallway with a whole mess of concert posters taped to the walls. Just ahead, there's another door with two hand-scrawled signs in light boxes hanging over it. The sign with the arrow pointing right reads: "For Drinks or Music." That takes you to Rose Live Music, a bare-bones bar where alternative Brooklyn bands perform most nights. The sign with the arrow pointing left - the one that says, "For Food" - that's the one you want to follow.

Down an uneven flight of stairs and past a bodega-type ATM is Vutera. Wandering into Vutera is like one of those great "Alice in Wonderland" falling- down-the-rabbit-hole moments. Suddenly, you're in this subterranean sanctuary with low-wood beam ceilings, vintage wine crates along one wall, stone along another. Colorful tulips, old-fashioned candlestick holders, granny plates, dish towel napkins and mismatched chairs and silverware at every table.

Really, the only thing Rose Live Music and Vutera have in common is the same entrance and owners. Brother-and-sister team Carlo & Gina Vutera started serving no-frills food in what they used to call the "restaurant downstairs" about a year ago.

Now it's Vutera. They serve striped bass with sauteed mustard greens, pine nuts, and Meyer lemons shipped from the the chef's mother's house in California. Molly Del Monte, the chef, used to work at Little Giant and Savoy, two well-liked restaurants in downtown Manhattan....

At Vutera, she makes Mediterranean cuisine in the basement of a bar, in a kitchen with no gas. Del Monte makes the most of the four electric stoves. I'm not sure how she manages to pull off such a crispy-skinned poussin with cremini mushrooms, and crispy spaetzle squiggles. Or how she can cook the bavette steak to a perfect medium rare - just as I ordered - and still have time to feed the rest of the guests, all on four electric stoves. The table favorite was a tender, red wine-braised lamb shank with baby carrots and polenta.

But twice I tried the parsnip gnocchi, and twice it was a bust. It sounded good - homemade gnocchi with beet green "pesto," shiitake mushrooms and Valdeon blue cheese. No dice. The gnocchi arrived undercooked in a curiously bland "pesto," made from sauteed beet stems, beet greens, pine nuts and caramelized onions. And the Spanish mackerel escabeche was pickled to death by much too much grapefruit, salt, cumin, coriander and pickled onions.

As for dessert, the apple tart was dry and the almond panna cotta sour, but there's a terrific cheese selection. So do what the Italians do and order cheese and wine to finish. I like when a restaurant features wine by the glass, quartino or bottle, and Vutera offers its entire wine list by all three. My favorites: a spunky 2007 Domaine de la Pepiere Muscadet and a 2006 Aldo Marenco Dolcetto.

There's a lot of neighborhoods and a lot of restaurants, but I live in midtown Manhattan and I'll be back to Vutera.

524 Court St., at Huntington St., Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn,
(718) 852-6872

CUISINE: American comfort food
VIBE: Country B&B
OCCASION: Casual date, bar bites, kid-friendly family dinner
DON'T-MISS DISHES :Maple- and bacon-roasted almonds, delicata squash tart, duck meatloaf
AVERAGE PRICE: Appetizers, $8; entrées, $16; dessert, $7.
RESERVATIONS: Accepted for parties of four or more

Owner Doug Crowell named his new restaurant in Carroll Gardens after a shallow strait that runs between Governors Island and Brooklyn.

Once upon a time, farmers used to walk their cattle across this strait during low tides. That was more than a hundred years ago, but I imagine that back then a corner restaurant might have looked like Buttermilk Channel.

A single candle flickers in every window, and a clunky wood dresser stands along the edge of the room. Wooden pews from a church down the street serve as benches against one wall, and a long, reclaimed communal table is in the center of it all. At Buttermilk Channel, you feel like you're eating at a small-town bed-and-breakfast.

Crowell is thinking seriously about what neighborhood really means, which is smart these days.

Buttermilk Channel's all about Brooklyn: 15 Brooklyn beers, breads, bratwurst, ice cream, cider, mozzarella, and even a 2005 Merlot called Brooklyn Oenology. And Buttermilk Channel caters to everyone in the neighborhood - vegetarians, locavores, hipsters and hipsters with children.

The food is straightforward American bistro cooking. Not what you'd expect from a chef, Ryan Angulo, who came from the Stanton Social and David Burke & Donatella, two trendy Manhattan restaurants.

The kinds of places that think straightforward means Kobe-beef pigs in a blanket and truffle fries. Who comforts themselves with caviar in times like these?

At Buttermilk Channel, comfort food means grilled bacon, a big burger, a Niman Ranch flap steak and meatloaf. It also means duck meatloaf on a lily pad of creamed spinach, topped with onion rings.

This is a great example of the new world of meatloaf, where the most basic and often dreaded home cooking turns into something splendid. A lot of people think you can make a really good meatloaf by jazzing up the extras, but Angulo knows it's about the quality of the meat.

This is where you see the subtlety of making familiar foods with superior ingredients and a little imagination. You end up with foods that taste close to home, only better, like buttermilk fried chicken - punctuated by pepper - accompanied by a cheddar waffle and winter-vegetable slaw.

There's cauliflower and apple soup garnished with bacon and croutons, baby back ribs scented with anise and cinnamon, and roasted leg of lamb on Tuesdays.

Not many restaurants list nuts on the menu, but these aren't just any almonds. These come roasted with chunks of bacon, bacon fat and maple syrup. The chef's squash tart looks like a savory Slinky - rings of skin-on delicata squash topped with a sweet, homemade ricotta. This is the best dish on the menu.

Just don't order fish. The herb-crusted hake was practically raw, and the bacon-wrapped trout tasted like, guess what, bacon. You might want to skip the kale and endive salad seized by way too much anchovy dressing.

After all that comfort food, how about a comfort-food dessert - Doug's pecan-pie sundae or the clown sundae? The clown sundae's made with organic Blue Marble ice cream from Boerum Hill, a homemade cone and M&Ms. It's on the kids' menu, but you can have one too.

Starting a chowder trend in Park Slope

833 Union St., near Seventh Ave., (718) 857-8828. Mon.-Thur., 5 p.m.-10 p.m.; Fri & Sat., 5 p.m.-10:30 p.m.

CUISINE: Contemporary American
VIBE: Domesticated firehouse
OCCASION: Casual date, group dinner
DON'T-MISS DISH: Crab chowder, sweet potato tortellini, Greek yogurt cheesecake
AVERAGE PRICE: Appetizers, $10; entrees, $21; dessert, $7
RESERVATIONS: Accepted

Eating the crab chowder at Bussaco makes me wonder why chowder isn't more popular. Was there a chowder trend? Did I miss it? Why don't we have one now? After all, it's a good time for one. The economy sucks and the weather is starting to suck, too.

Just imagine - a cold evening, a warm restaurant and a hot bowl of chowder, the white not the red. And what makes it even cozier is that you're seated in a roomy banquette at Bussaco, a converted firehouse in Park Slope. Bussaco's chowder is not your average bowl of chowder. It's fancy.

That's what you get when a chef who trained at Le Bernardin makes chowder. It's got tons of sweet, fresh blue crab meat. Most chefs use flour to thicken the broth. Not Matthew Schaefer. His chowder is more of a creamy consommé made with celery, chives, shallots, bacon and potatoes.

Instead of oyster crackers, he serves tapioca chips dusted in Old Bay seasoning. The crab chowder is all you need to order. Not that it's the only thing worth ordering at Bussaco.

What makes this menu interesting is that Schaefer serves only food that he really likes to eat - Mom's sauerkraut, homemade gravlax, Yorkshire pudding and fried chicken. If you can't make it to Roscoe's Chicken n' Waffles in Los Angeles, try the fried chicken and waffles at Bussaco, also one of Schaefer's favorite dishes. His version is poussin - baby chicken - and vanilla-scented waffles topped with caramelized apple-onion butter.

It's likely to be one of your favorite dishes, too. So is "the freshest mozzarella." It isn't really mozzarella until you ask for it. After you order, Schaefer drops curds into hot, salted water and out comes "the freshest mozzarella." And then, he turns it into an autumn cheese plate by adding diced delicata squash, candied pecans and sweet dumpling squash puree.

There are a few dishes on the menu that I'd stay away from. The pastrami duck breast came out practically uncooked and unpastrami-ed. The slow roast pork and crispy pork cracklings tasted like unbarbecued barbecue - no sauce, no flavor, really.

I really hope Bussaco can grow into this wonderful room, which manages to be elegant without being fussy. The tables are generously spaced - you have room to eat, room to think, room to talk.

One thing's for sure: This is a Brooklyn-centric restaurant. The long, communal table in the bar is made from an oak that once grew in Prospect Park, the coffee comes from Beford-Stuyvesant, the ale comes from Red Hook, and the chef and the pastry chef come from the borough, too.

The pastry chef's name is Deborah Snyder, who learned her trade at Judson Grill. There's a wonderful maple crème caramel that tastes just like crème brulée without the burnt sugar top.

Refreshing and light aren't words you associate with cheesecake. Except here. Snyder makes a Greek yogurt cheesecake, flecked with vanilla and a perfect finish to a bowl of chowder.

Hard times call for hard liquor. And Southern cooking at Char No. 4.

196 Smith St., between Baltic & Warren Sts.; (718) 643-2106.

Sun.-Thurs., 6 p.m.-midnight; Fri.-Sat., 6 p.m.-1 a.m.

CUISINE: Southern comfort food
VIBE: Hip house of whisky
OCCASION: Destination dining, group dinner
DON'T-MISS DISH: Crispy cheddar curds, sage pork sausage, smoked honey glazed chicken
AVERAGE PRICE: Appetizers, $8; entrées, $16; dessert, $9
RESERVATIONS: Accepted

How many bourbons can you name? Do you know the difference between rye and Scotch? Is there really a Scotch named Compass Box Vatted Grain Hedonism? For the answers to these questions, visit Char No. 4 on Smith St. in Brooklyn.

Be prepared to drink. A lot.

I thought I knew a thing or two about bourbon until I sat at the bar.

It's a glowing shrine to all grains distilled and barrel-aged. The walnut shelves are lined with obscure bottles - a Black Wax wheated bourbon from Maker's Mark made exclusively for the Japanese market, a Hirsch 22 Rye, and a Classic Cask 15 Year traditional mash-bill bourbon that costs $100 an ounce.

Each bottle rests on a tiny white light that illuminates the liquid within. If after a few glasses the light fixtures hanging from the ceiling begin to look like barrels, it's not because you're drunk. "Each one is the exact dimensions of a standard American oak barrel," Michael Tsoumpas says, "36 inches high, 24 inches wide."

He's the co-owner of Char No. 4 and the obsessive genius behind what is, after all, an interactive whisky museum in Carroll Gardens. When you drink at the bar, you're drinking from Tsoumpas' personal collection.

There are more than 300 bottles to choose from, nearly half of them American whiskies. "Think of whisky as a genus," Tsoumpas explains. "Bourbon is just a species of whisky. So is Scotch and rye."

I liked his explanation, but me, I'm more of a hands-on learner. I had never tasted a Suntory 12 Year, a Japanese whisky, before the bartender steered me to it. It's smoky, spicy, sweet, smooth and only $6 an ounce. The Georgia Moon - a corn whisky aged less than 30 days and bottled in a Mason jar - tastes like sweet vodka. Not bad for $3 an ounce.

When times are tough, drink cheap whisky. There is an alternative theory: When times are tough, drink the best whisky you can afford.

You're going to need a little food to soak up all that alcohol. The chef at Char No. 4 is Matt Greco, a Texan who was the sous chef at Café Gray and A Voce. His Southern-inflected menu is as serious as the whisky list. He cures his own bacon in-house and serves it over black eyed peas, roasted red peppers and pearl onions.

Lots of chefs make their own pork sausage. But what Greco does with his is wonderful. (I want you to think with your tongue here.) Snappy casing, aromatic sage, plump filling, Swiss chard sautéed with onion purée and prunes, and the whole thing finished with fresh scallions and bits of fried pork skin - Southern comfort food with a sophisticated, urban spin. (By the way, Southern Comfort isn't whisky. It's a liqueur.)

What Greco is thinking about isn't just flavor, it's texture. That's why he uses panko to coat his deep-fried cheddar curds - "the best fried cheese ever," said a friend. And what about the house-cured lamb pastrami with pickled onion and coriander aioli? Or the grits mixed with rock shrimp, dried sweet corn, garlic and nutmeg? His roasted chicken is irresistible - lacquered in caramel, honey and malt vinegar.

Not a whisky drinker?

Char No. 4 might make you one.

La Superior

295 Berry St., near S. Second St., Brooklyn, (718) 388-5988. Mon.-Thu. 12:30 p.m.-midnight, Fri.-Sun, 12:30 p.m. - 2 a.m.

Cuisine: Mexican street food
Vibe: Dingy taqueria
Occasion: Destination dining
Don't miss dish: Mushroom quesadillas, enchiladas suizas
Average price: Appetizers, $4; entries $10.
Reservations: No reservations, cash only, BYOB.

To say La Superior is understated is an understatement. "Do you think this is it?" a friend said nervously. We were standing outside a dingy storefront on an empty street in Williamsburg. "It must be," I answered cheerily. "I need a cocktail," she grumbled as she followed me through the door.

I didn't have the heart to tell her that the restaurant doesn't have a liquor license. The dining room at La Superior looks like a diner on its last legs. The table settings are disposable - red and blue plastic plates, flimsy plastic cups, and supermarket napkins in plastic napkin holders that might've been stolen from a Midwest Sunday dinner.

Our waiter Danny - who is also the bartender - handed us two menus. "This is the real one and that's a photocopy," he grumbled. "We had problems with the printer." Both were illegible, salsa-stained sheets of paper. The only words we could make out were guacamole, tacos and calle - in other words, street food. Luckily, that's all you need to know.

We started with the guacamole. What most restaurants serve has no more taste than green sour cream. But this is more like avocado ceviche - diced onions and tomatoes, cilantro, and Haas avocados from Michoacán, Mexico. It tasted unbelievably fresh, as if it had been made two seconds before it reached the table.

The tortilla chips are just as good. And the quesadilla might be the best five bucks you can spend on food. Especially the mushroom quesadilla crowned with a flurry of Oaxaca cheese and Mexican crema. I ordered the enchiladas suizas - so-called because the topping supposedly looks like the Swiss Alps. It really resembles gentle swells in a tomatillo sea and it tastes like the Mexican equivalent of béchamel sauce.

The pork taco isn't as simple as it sounds. It's actually pork confit accented with a hint of orange. The shrimp tacos are ablaze in a fiery chipotle sauce. I advise pairing either of these with the cactus tacos, which are filled coarse, cool pieces of nopal cactus topped with aged cheese. La Superior also serves an off-the-cob side of corn in a plastic cup - a savory parfait layered with Oaxaca cheese and homemade mayonnaise.

For now, bring your own tequila. Danny will mix it with agua de limo - made with boiled limes, skin and all - or a berry red juice made from prickly pear. This is sublime Mexican street food with the luxury of a roof and a scattering of small tables.

The General Greene

229 DeKalb Ave., near Clermont Ave., Brooklyn, (718) 222-1510.
5 p.m.-11 p.m., Thu., 5 p.m.-midnight, Fri-Sat., 5 p.m.-1 a.m., Closed Mond.
Cuisine: New American
Vibe: Lively neighborhood haunt
Occasion: Casual bite
Don't miss dish: Radishes with sea salt and anchovies, chocolate chip cookies.
Average price: Appetizers, $6; entrees, $10; dessert, $7.
Reservations: Accepted for six or more.

The General Greene in Fort Greene is nearly as budget-friendly as La Superior. But the food's not nearly as good. Never mind the crowd waiting to get in. They don't know what they're waiting for.

Dishes come out of the kitchen helter skelter, all at once - as if the servers had somewhere better to be. It's a small-plate menu that provides no structure for the meal. The appetizers could be entrees. The entrees could be hors d'oeuvres. Some food is well-prepared, like radishes with sea salt and chopped anchovies.

But some is downright dangerous. The red mullet is so bony it should've come with a warning label. The grilled shrimp are so overcooked they became one with their shells. Perhaps the best thing on the menu is the chocolate chip cookies, which have a surprisingly salty crunch. Order one as an appetizer.

605 Carlton Ave., at St. Marks Ave., Brooklyn (718) 942-4255
Tues.-Sun., 5:30 p.m.-midnight; Fri.-Sat., 5:30-1a.m; closed Mondays.
CUISINE Modern American cuisine
VIBE Romantic neighborhood haunt
OCCASION Intimate date; neighborhood dining
DON’T MISS DISH Spinach salad; seared diver scallops; lemon almond pound cake
PRICE Appetizers, $8-$12; entrees, $14-$29; dessert, $8-$10
RESERVATIONS For parties of six or more

It's 1 a.m., do you know where your chef is? If you're a regular at James you do. He's on the roof in his garden, among his herbs, weeding, watering, unwinding. It's the end of a long night in the kitchen at the corner of 605 Carlton Ave. and St. Marks Avenue in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.

Bryan Calvert, the chef, has a short commute. He lives just above the restaurant and just beneath his rooftop garden - 600 square feet of mint, sage, rosemary, thyme, chamomile, oregano, lovage, lavender and basil. Sooner or later, they make their way downstairs. Some go to the oven, to the grill, into the drinks, and others simply perfume the room.

In other restaurants, such a wealth of herbs could mean a plateful of shrubs, a culinary potpourri. But in Calvert's kitchen, each herb plays the part he assigns it. The rosemary never upstages the lamb. The lovage never outshines the potatoes

Calvert's a talented young chef. He worked at Union Pacific and Bouley before becoming a private chef for Annie Liebovitz. But at James, he's created a genuine, neighborhood restaurant.

This doesn't necessarily mean the food is modest. I adored several things on the menu. The sautéed skate is elegant, a golden fan that conceals perfectly lovaged potatoes surrounded by a tangy caper and sherry sauce. There's no better canvas for fresh herbs than a blank chicken. And the roast chicken at James is a minor masterpiece, crispy, tinged with lemon thyme served over couscous.

Let me say a word in praise of the shrimp - or really in praise of the sunchoke puree beneath them. I could've eaten the puree without the shrimp. It was nutty, sweet, and it had taken a hint from the garlic confit. And that spinach salad - it was an anthology of textures. Chewy nubs of roasted, marinated shiitake mushrooms, toasted pine nuts, and crunchy bits of parmesan tuille, dressed in a balsamic vinaigrette.

Where there was trouble, it had less to do with the dishes themselves than with their temperature. What should've been hot - sautéed brook trout - came out room temperature. What should've been room temperature came out frigid, which is not the way you want your heirloom tomatoes to arrive. This may be nothing more than a growing pain, something that will be worked out.

One thing is already perfect, the feel of the room, the sense of invitation. The neighborhood is quickly figuring this out. The bar is a block party of sorts, a gathering of neighbors - a hipster couple, a young man in a Florent T-shirt, a businessman with a glass of red wine in one hand and his briefcase in another. They come for the tin ceiling and the wide mahogany bar as much as they do for the James' Revenge, made with rye, bitters, Cointreau and fresh kumquat juice.

This is a bar I'd like to call home. I'd park myself and order what should be Calvert's signature dessert - a char-grilled slab of lemon almond pound cake with homemade rhubarb sorbet. If we were all really lucky, we'd all live right around the corner from a place like James.

A block north of Bedford Ave. in Williamsburg, old women sit in lawn chairs along the sidewalk, fanning themselves with the crossword puzzle. Kids play catch in the middle of the street. A cyclist stops to high-five a friend through the large open window of a restaurant.

It's a new spot, open only since December, but already it seems to belong to the old neighborhood. It's called Miranda. Inside, the tables are set with dishtowel napkins and grandmother china.

Most nights, the co-owner, Mauricio Miranda, greets you at the door. And if he's not there to greet you, you might want to come back another night. That's how much difference his presence makes. The other co-owner is Miranda's fiancée, Sasha Rodriguez, who is the chef. She and Miranda met at Verbena, a defunct Italian restaurant near Gramercy Park. He was a server and she was a line cook. Together, at Miranda, they make a perfect marriage of Mexican and Italian food.

It's interesting to see how naturally the ingredients of those two cuisines can be wedded. Instead of risotto, there's Mexican rice, as wonderfully glutinous but flavored with tomato and cumin.

These combinations completely transform familiar dishes. You order the garganelli, and out comes a dish that looks like baked ziti. It's every bit as fulfilling but a hundred times better. What makes the difference is tangy chunks of longaniza sausage.

Or take the arancini. You expect it to be made with ground veal or beef, but instead it's studded with spheres of chorizo and served over a garlicky tomato fonduta.

Eat a few of these dishes and you begin to realize how close the connection between Italian and Mexican cuisine really is. Sometimes, there's only one ingredient of separation.

The food here is neighborhood food, comfort food, every-night food - but with a twist. A perfect example is the chicken soup. It gets a spicy kick of habanero chili and a nudge of lime. The pork tenderloin feels almost pleasingly wintry, except for the mole verde sauce, which is really a bright taste of summer. A special of fluke, baked in parchment paper, is a delicate fillet balanced on a sticky mound of Mexican rice, julienned zucchini and a beet leaf that tastes unmistakably of the earth.

When Mauricio stops by the table, he is usually brimming with excitement. Sometimes, he's showing off a bottle from his interesting collection of wines, many from small or organic producers. (I liked the Torrontes 2006 and the Alentex rosé.)

Sometimes, he's proudly presenting his small mounds of hibiscus leaves - jamaica (ha-MIKE-uh) - from his grandmother's garden in southern Mexico. It appears in a drink called Kika - a blend of homemade jamaica syrup, port and prosecco that looks and tastes like a fizzy Kool-Aid cocktail.