Chef Dave’s is a classic restaurant with just enough twists

In which to: Chef Dave’s, a bistro-esque restaurant that opened in Could at Chestnut Hill’s The Road.

Why: Eponymous chef David Welch homes a traditional American-design restaurant within a diminutive place. Chef Dave’s seats about 35, furthermore a several tables on the patio you can see into the kitchen, the place Welch is at get the job done. The menu is stocked with crab cakes, Caesar salad, fish, pricy cuts of meat. The frisson lies in the touches: duck wings as a substitute of hen, served jerk-type with cilantro pesto a za’atar crust for the rack of lamb harissa glaze on a Kurobuta pork chop particular. This feels like a bistro, but it eats like the town’s tiniest chophouse.

The backstory: Welch bought his start as a banker, then learned his love of foods. He’s been in the organization for 30 yrs, investing time at Formaggio’s and as a personal chef, between other gigs. He started out Formaggio’s well-liked sidewalk barbecue. An appetizer of smoked ribs on this menu feels like a vestige of that time.

What to try to eat: If there is a signature dish listed here, it is the lemon roasted 50 %-hen, produced to purchase. That offers you 20 minutes or so to sip a cocktail and tuck into grilled Southwestern shrimp, all those duck wings, or a eco-friendly salad with fennel, beets, and pepitas though you wait. The chook will come juicy and golden-skinned, flecked with contemporary herbs, around slim-sliced roast potatoes with haricots verts. This is the place Chef Dave’s isn’t a chophouse: sides are likely to come with the dish (despite the fact that you can buy a couple of, like truffle fries, a la carte). Pan-seared halibut will come with wilted spinach, cherry blossom soy, and Thai basil. Curry-crusted salmon capabilities infant bok choy. The 8-ounce primary filet, the 14-ounce prime strip, and the 22-ounce key ribeye all occur with some variation on a topic of potatoes and/or environmentally friendly vegetable — possibly horseradish Yukon mash, it’s possible grilled asparagus. There’s a blue cheese burger with fries, and for vegetarians a attractive mountain of pasta pomodoro. Desserts tend to come in a topic of chocolate mousse, layered with chocolate sponge cake or loaded with strawberries and coated in ganache.

What to drink: To my eye, the bar is the position to sit at Chef Dave’s. It is a classy spot with a marble leading and a entire view of the open up kitchen area. (Significantly less nightclubby track record tunes could possibly go well with the position better.) “I’m Antonio,” the bartender suggests warmly to his patrons, then would make them some thing from the cocktail checklist, which echoes the menu in tone. These are classics we know and love — the daiquiri, the Outdated Fashioned, the mojito, the Manhattan. (I was so joyful to see a Sidecar, probably my initially preferred cocktail.) But an Aperol Twist contains aloe vera, and there’s the curveball Mot Chaud: vodka infused with mirepoix, lime, maraschino, cucumber, and spices. It tastes like a Bloody Mary crossed with a gimlet: Unusual but great! Wine by the glass and bottle hits the notes you’d count on for the food items and the mood, with some high-quality higher-conclude options.

The takeaway: Chef Dave’s functions a common restaurant menu, an intimate room, and parking — a magic formulation for quite a few diners.

3C Boylston St., Chestnut Hill, 617-396-8489, www.chefdaves.com. Appetizers $14-$19, entrees $22-$75, desserts $12.

---

Devra First can be reached at [email protected]. Observe her on Twitter @devrafirst.