Pasjoli

Dave Beran’s refined-yet-casual restaurant has gone through multiple iterations—all of which I found a little too expensive for what I received. This time around, however, the James Beard Award-winning chef has finally cracked the code on what it means to be a casual neighborhood restaurant with a streamlined, slightly more affordable menu that includes beef tartare, chicken liver mousse and cordon bleu chicken wings. The individually portioned French onion “souplette” is the perfect way to microdose a sweet-savory, gooey mix of Gruyere and caramelized onions before diving into a plate of steak frites with au poivre sauce or steamed mussels. For Pasjoli diehards (or those who just love a good European-style duck!), Beran also offers the restaurant’s signature duck for $350, whose drippings are pressed tableside and transformed into salad vinaigrette and duck leg confit to pair with your roasted duck breasts. The cocktails are equally well-considered; a few now come in a smaller $14 format that still left me feeling a little buzzed.