Review: The Food, Not the Setting, Impresses at Scene Restaurant & Lounge

Shrimp agnolotti, flattened pasta in a delicate, cedar-smoked shrimp broth with sweet English peas, is the kind of light, supple touch Staniford should use more of. Save the heavy-handedness for the ham, turkey and melted aged Gruyère "croque madame"-style sandwich on thick, fluffy bread with an over easy egg on top. It's perfectly cooked, perfectly satisfying, brunch-style richness.

Scene awkwardness is stark in the baked risotto, a cumbersome brick of starch and Parmesan with thin shims of crisped prosciutto, wild mushroom and basil striated into the block resting in a brisk Parmesan rind marinara. It looks like an upended layer cake. The veneer is scorched and stiff—crisped in some places—the interior gluey and compressed, with none of the loose creamy contentment that traditional risotto stirs. What might be an ingenious composition on paper doesn't translate all that well onto the plate.

For dessert a bowl of chocolate-covered grapes, dusted in powdered sugar, chopped mint between them, offered finger food as a finish.

Despite all of the facile impressions the name might evoke, Scene really has the makings of one. All it has to do is trim its sails a bit (shed those Food Network clips projected above the kitchen for one) and intensify the focus on the respectable service and Staniford's able craftsmanship. Because the real scene at Scene is on the plate, not in the garage.