Old favorite gets new home, panache

By Alison Arnett, Globe Staff, 10/16/2003

One of the most appealing aspects of dining in Boston is its localness. Although some national chains such as McCormick and Schmick's and Cheesecake Factory have opened here in recent years, they don't dominate the scene as chains have in some other large cities. Instead, individual chefs do. Here, a chef can open up a little spot, build up a fan base and then move to a larger location, trusting that the clientele will follow. It gives eating in Boston a story line, a personality.

Perdix, which chef Tim Partridge and his wife, Nini Diana, first opened several years ago in Jamaica Plain, quickly outgrew its tiny, 10-table space as adherents of Partridge's gutsy New American food returned again and again. In mid-August, he reopened Perdix in the space that had been Truc.

Now, with more than twice the space and a pleasing redo of the interior in a sort of warm toast color, Perdix seems to be off to a rousing start, with tables filled on the nights visited and a buzz around town.

That's not to say there aren't early growing pains. We arrive for a Friday evening reservation and are ushered into the greenhouse space at the back of the restaurant. It's pleasant to gaze out at the little rock garden, but very dim. As we try to decipher the menu, the waitress comes by to fill the water glasses, but seems completely preoccupied with three other tables in the room. No questions about what we'd like to drink, no listing of specials, actually no service at all for a long 25 minutes or so as she supplies the men next to us with a flashlight after they complain, takes orders from other tables and serves other diners.

Finally, she comes over and apologizes, saying that she can tell we're upset, and promises to "make it up to us." After that the service is friendly and competent, as it is on a subsequent visit.

Perdix's cuisine shows more panache, with only a few clunkers. Partridge's strength is still in his vivid flavors and a late-summer salad of grilled figs served with chunks of crisp prosciutto and a citrusy vinaigrette illustrates that. A beet soup wears its scarlet hue proudly and its thick, borscht-like texture and true vegetal taste ushers in the feeling of autumn.

Partridge has always had an affinity for seafood, after years at the East Coast Grill & Raw Bar in Cambridge and at the Back Eddy in Westport. Sometimes he uses it whimsically, in an appetizer of a nori roll stuffed with tuna, scallions, and radishes that has been flash-fried. It's a crunchy little surprise in the mouth, albeit one that could have used a little more punch in the soy-ginger sauce. Another appetizer of king salmon tartare, pretty pearls of raw pink fish molded into a round cake, is topped with a thin layer of tapenade. The color of the chopped olives, darkish gray, is a little disconcerting at first but the salty, strong taste nicely counterpoints the salmon.

On this concise menu, with six entrees listed, it pays to listen well to the specials. One evening we taste roasted cod with chanterelles, sweet corn and tomato jam, perfectly pleasant but rather mundane. A special of monkfish with cipollini onions and roasted tomatoes blows that away, its sauce studded with sauteed tiny shrimp bringing out the best in the fish.

Each evening the menu lists "today's steak with whatever Tim wants." I theorize that something about the clever, offhandedness of that phrase draws diners like moths to flames because on each visit, my companions fought to have it. One evening, it's a good cut of meat with crunchy, thin green beans and a potato pancake. Another time, the beef is a little too fatty, but the accompanying green beans in a spicy, pepper-laced relish are delicious. Partridge also shows affinity for pork with a thick chop that has been brined into tenderness and is served over slightly vanilla-scented sweet potaotes. Prunes and sugared walnuts add more sweetness, and slivers of endive offer a contrast. It's a hearty and appealing dish.

The fare can get heavy in the starch category. Bucatini with poached tuna, capers, anchovies, and tomatoes sounds like a lively dish but is too same-same after a couple of bites. And fried clam bellies, along with steamed clams and chunks of sausage, overwhelm risotto, giving the whole dish a leaden quality.

Perdix has a succinct but interesting wine list, and the wait staff seems well versed and competent about suggesting wines.

Desserts fall into the homey category, a fine thing when the choice is a plum cake, full of juicy fruit, topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. But a pumpkin bread pudding tilts over into mostly bread with very little pumpkin flavor. And apple cake is really a muffin, again lacking enough fruit to distinguish it from a sweet breakfast treat.

Perdix won its first fame as a distinctly neighborhood restaurant. In this new, somewhat more upscale neighborhood and with the strongest dishes in his repertoire, Partridge looks poised to become this neighborhood's darling, too.