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THE FREE LANCE-STAR
oPALESCENCE hadn't been open a week before people started telling me about the new place with a strange name and out-of-this-world food.
The restaurant fills Roma 52's old space, on the corner of William and Charles streets. But word was that its new owners had given it a chic update in appearance and a night-and-day overhaul of the menu.
So I eagerly went for dinner in only its third week of operation and returned for lunch this week, the restaurant's fourth.
Contrasting experiences reminded me that it takes any new, independently owned restaurant a little while to work out the kinks.
Dinner was just about perfect, with food, service and atmosphere beyond what one might expect from a place where several evening entrees are in the $10 to $12 range. (The highest-priced is a $19 steak, less than top prices at many restaurants of comparable ambition and tone.)
But lunch was marred by problems that suggest Opalescence hasn't fully hit its stride--slow service, a forgotten appetizer and a main course served cold.
On the plus side, Opalescence has more promise than just about any new nonchain restaurant I've reviewed in the past year or so.
Despite its subterranean setting, this tastefully redecorated space exudes warmth and intimacy. And from the first bites of the appetizers, it was clear that the owner-chef obviously has a creative touch, an eye for quality and a passion for food.
A salad of mixed greens, roasted red peppers and slices of fresh mozzarella ($6) worked on the eye and the palate, its colors promising a zest the peppers, especially, delivered.
At the same time, the vivid bowl of tomato-basil soup ($5) that appeared across the table was unlike any I'd ever tried--tangy, slightly spicy and dotted with chunks of shrimp.
Pasta dishes at Opalescence are served with all manner of good-sounding things, so tantalizingly described it's hard to choose---wild mushrooms, prosciutto, tomatoes and rosemary cream sauce, for one, and buccatini with scallops, sun-dried tomato and basil with roasted-garlic sauce for another. But a rigatoni dish ($11) was this night's choice. Perfectly cooked pasta came tossed with chunks of good sausage, tender mushrooms and sweet peppers, in a broth reminiscent of the delicious soup.
And the New York strip steak ($19) was exquisite, an ample juicy cut seared on the outside and just pink inside as ordered, with a marsala-based sauce. Traces of the sauce added character to the garlicky sauteed spinach and fluffy mashed potatoes that rounded out the plate.
A dessert called "chocolate pyramid" ($7) was practically a sculpture, whose illusory solidity gave way under the fork to the lightest, fluffiest chocolate mousse. In the center is a creamy white chocolate filling. As pleasing as this all was, though, I have to say I find it startling to pay $7 for any dessert not accompanied by a platter of ingots and precious gems.
Still, that was a wonderful meal, with everything delivered and whisked away by an efficient if taciturn server.
Our less-pleasing lunch didn't start badly. The server, a different one this time, was knowledgeable about several specials and promptly took our appetizer order for fried calamari with marinara ($7) and our request for coffee. But she soon seemed overwhelmed as the sole caretaker of several tables inside and out, and things went downhill.
The coffee arrived, freshly brewed but accompanied only by an apology--there was no milk or half-and-half. (Eventually, heavy cream was substituted to good effect.)
A promised basket of bread, fresh from the oven, materialized in the fullness of time, after we asked about it. The appetizer, though, never arrived.
An entree of a chicken breast panini with basil aioli ($8) was delicious, its hearty focaccia bursting at the seams with the tender seasoned meat, fresh greens and ripe tomatoes. An orzo salad with red peppers made a nice side, though the "warm goat cheese" promised on the menu was absent.
The other entree, veal tortellini, would have been wonderful had it been warm. As it was, the thin, flavorful veal strips were barely room temperature, the accompanying prosciutto-flavored cream sauce no warmer.
Desserts of Key lime pie and a beautiful and sweet-tart "passionberry mousse" ($6 each) lifted our spirits at the end of the meal.
There were enough pluses to keep us from leaving disappointed, and we agreed we'd give lunch at Opalescence another try sometime soon.
To reach LAURA MOYER: 540/374-5417 lmoyer@freelancestar.com