Hamilton bistro offers exotic dishes

Blue Smoke Bar and Grill
15 Walnut Road, Hamilton
978-468-2400
Open Sunday through Thursday, 11:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m.
Reservations accepted
All major credit cards
Accessible to the handicapped

Do reality-TV chef competitions make your mouth water, even though you have no idea what cucumber spaghetti, Meyer lemon gremolata, or pineapple piquillo pepper relish actually tastes like? Well, you can find out at Blue Smoke, a casually chic new bistro tucked into a suburban Hamilton shopping center.

Trendy is the word to describe the menu here - even the physical menu. One side of the single massive sheet is covered with an arty photograph of curling smoke. The other side is loaded with tiny type listing all kinds of exotica, from red shiso to three-lily polenta.

"This menu has a dazzle factor, but I'm not sure I'm smart enough to understand it," said one of our group of five.

Blue Smoke, which opened two months ago, is the brainchild of Hamilton chef Jeff Cala, and its busy menu, nook-filled interior, and informal vibe reminded us of his popular Gloucester restaurant, Alchemy.

Arriving on a busy Friday evening, we were seated on banquettes at a table facing the well-stocked, well-attended bar. Wooden latticework screens gave us privacy without making us feel isolated from the scene, which was lively and youngish.

We were off to a good start with a medley of unfamiliar appetizers, including portobello mushrooms with truffle cheese baked in the open kitchen's large wood-fired oven and served with an unusual garlic-mint vinaigrette ($11) and a plate of yummy crab fritters with chipotle maple syrup ($10). A mushroom and root-vegetable cake, pan-seared with shaved fennel and smoked tomato chutney ($9), was both tasty and nutritious (doesn't everyone need more parsnips?), though it could have used some crunch.

Our elegantly assembled salads were all half-portions ($9, or $16 full) yet plenty big enough. Each was loaded with goodies such as wild mushrooms, sun-dried cranberries, candied walnuts, and - our favorite - warm goat-cheese croutons. An organic rainbow-beet salad ($13) was a dramatic mini-mountain of beet slices interspersed with layers of "crispy" truffle cheese, although the texture of the cheese was more oily than crisp.

An appetizer that was delightfully crisp was the four-cheese pizza ($10), a flavorful thin-crust pie lightly seasoned with garlic custard and basil.

An entree of wood-roasted organic chicken with orecchiette, or ear-shaped, pasta ($17 half, $24 full) was a delicious blend of ingredients that included olives, asparagus, and pancetta, or Italian spiced bacon.

Less successful, to our palates, was the lobster and shrimp scampi ($18 half, $26 full). The chunks of lobster were chewy, as if overcooked, and the pasta had a mouth-puckering sourness that reminded us of Buffalo wings.

A half-rack of barbecued baby back ribs ($13) was spicy but a bit tough, and dry rather than succulent. Even more disappointing was the house-smoked American Kobe beef brisket ($16). In Japan, where it can cost hundreds of dollars a pound, Kobe beef is prized for its tenderness and flavor. Blue Smoke's version was tender enough but bland and so fatty that we could only eat part of it.

Blue Smoke is certainly stylish, but more attention to detail would help it deliver on what its ambitious menu promises.

COCO McCABE AND DOUG STEWART