Lovingly cooked dishes in historic setting

Martha's Stone Soup at the Tavern

Old Sandwich Road in Plymouth dwindles into a dirt way surrounded by woods. Beside it stands an old tavern, built in 1792, that was once a place weary travelers stopped on their way to the Cape. Over the years it became just another dilapidated house, sitting in a field where you'd sometimes see deer in the summer twilight. But it glows again with hospitality.

The tavern is now Martha's Stone Soup at the Tavern, and it's a welcome arrival. Just about everyone in the area has been waiting for Martha Stone to open another restaurant. Her former establishment - the popular Martha's Galley in North Plymouth - closed at the end of 2005, and as word of her new restaurant plan spread, regulars have been asking when the doors would open.

The high-tech kitchen gleams like the bridge of a starship. You may notice a slight ripple in the space-time continuum when a server moves from the kitchen into the dining room, which has wide floorboards, hewn beams, a tin ceiling, and a fireplace. The public area of Stone Soup is like a home. Stone had a great time shopping for mismatched chairs and dinnerware.

There are some old favorites from Martha's Galley on the menu. There is the penne pasta in a cream sauce with gorgonzola, grapes, and walnuts ($13) that has comforted me in times of tribulation. And the scallops in ginger wine sauce ($19) that I recall so fondly.

But I had no trouble deciding on a special of coq au vin ($15). The version at Stone Soup is redolent of smoky bacon, red wine, onions, and stewed chicken, and the aroma bowled me over when the server entered the room.

Another meal started with borsht ($4), resplendent with beets piled in julienne throughout the ruby liquid and crowned with a dollop of sour cream. This is a dish of such varied interpretation, there's no definitive style. Stone's is based on beef broth enriched with butter and made delicately sweet by the beets. The borsht was a perfect starter for a lunch on a cold December day.

These days crème brûlée is well nigh ubiquitous, but you'll never find a better version than at Stone Soup ($6). The custard is satiny and exquisitely flavored with vanilla, and the sugar crust shatters perfectly under the spoon. It's made by Teresa Keough, who does all the pastries and desserts.

The last time I was there, snow filled the surrounding forest and lay across the fields. My wife enjoyed sautéed chicken livers ($14), which melted in the mouth. With all the hoopla about duck and goose liver, we sometimes forget how delicious the livers of plain old chickens can be, especially from the pan of a chef like Stone.

I was tempted by the cassoulet ($23) on the specials menu, which I often enjoyed at the old restaurant. I chose instead a loin of veal ($36) that was crusted with corn meal, pan roasted, finished in a butter sauce with fresh minced sage, and topped with garlic cloves that had been simmered in balsamic vinegar with a touch of molasses added at the end for extra sweetness. It was marvelously tender and accompanied by flavors that made it a perfect meal for a wintry day.

The Stone Soup wine cellar is still evolving. At recent count there were 18 reds, 15 whites, and one dessert wine, but this number is likely to increase as Stone fills the 700 spaces she has for bottles of wine. She often gets particular wines to go with the week's specials.

Besides lunch and dinner, Stone Soup features tea. The serving of what is known as high tea includes three-tiered serving dishes holding savories and sweets ($19).

Best among them is a thin slice of toasted French bread topped with Stone's chicken liver pâté and garnished with capers, a fragment of cornichon, and a dot of grainy mustard. There are little cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off that are very English, extremely civilized, and much tastier than you might expect.

Other sandwiches are made with high quality smoked salmon, and balls of pâté choux contain curried chicken salad with white grapes. I recommend the lemon squares, and the rich cranberry scones, which are served with Devon cream so thick you might at first confuse it with whipped butter.

There's a lovely selection of teas. I enjoyed Margaret's Hope Darjeeling ($4), but on another visit I chose a sparkling wine, Zinck Cremant D'Alsace ($36) that was silver and steely rather than golden and toasty. It made a lovely accompaniment to the savories and was suitable to be sipped with the sweets.

At Stone Soup you're surrounded by an aura of genuine good feeling you seldom find in a restaurant. Warm welcome is expressed by the decor, the people who greet you, and the lovingly cooked food.

RICHMOND TALBOT