Boston Herald
September 5, 2003
Review by Mat Schaffer

Monday the best way to start week

Susan Regis is Boston's least-known famous chef. She's never sought celebrity, even after being named the James Beard Foundation's 1998 American Express Best Chef: Northeast (she was co-chef at Biba at the time). Regis has never hawked a cookbook, hosted a TV show, courted the attention of national periodicals and/or wanted to see her mug in the gossip columns. She apparently finds contentment doing what she does so well - cook. These days you'll find her in the kitchen of the Monday Club Bar at UpStairs on the Square.

UpStairs on the Square, successor to the popular UpStairs at the Pudding (cast out of its original digs by Harvard in 2001), is actually two restaurants. There's the third-floor Soiree Room, where chef Amanda Lydon serves a continental-influenced, fine-dining menu in elegant, powder-puff-pink digs. Two floors down, there's the Monday Club Bar, where Regis - a redheaded dervish who spots me moments after I walk through the door - offers less formal, less expensive fare in a more relaxed environment. Here, you can enjoy some of the most innovative eats in town - without breaking the bank or having to dress up.
Dinner is one deliciously original surprise after another. A wild salmon salad ($14) - the fish laid over snap peas, pea puree and greens tossed in a vinaigrette of cucumber, red onion, dill and basil - is as delectable as it is colorful. You'll slurp up every last garlicky drop of the savory drippings of pan-roasted clams ($14), strewn with homemade chorizo, chickpeas and slivered jalapenos.

Break the yolk of the poached egg that sits atop warm endive salad ($12) and mix with the endive, diced bacon, roquefort cheese and croutons. You'll be rewarded with a creamy, crunchy, altogether satisfying, comfy combo. Alternate spoonfuls of velvety, cilantro-tart, avocado gazpacho ($8) with bites of souffle-soft, steamed sweet corn tamale.

The easy accessibility of these dishes belies the time and effort behind them. Regis pairs lemony tempura of sole ($13) with panko-dusted, fried green tomatoes and sauce gribiche, a tartar saucelike emulsion of eggs, cornichons and capers. At first glance, everything is straightforward and simple - but stop and consider the labor that goes into each individual element. If there's such a thing as casual haute cuisine, this is it.

How else to describe ``grilled cheese of the day'' with tomato soup ($11), a sandwich of melty sheep's milk fromage and fresh figs between slices of grilled, buttered brioche? The accompanying soup of tomatoes, tomatoes and only tomatoes is a celebration of summer. Seafood lovers will flip for the citrusy verve of lemon zest-rubbed grilled swordfish ($23) over toasted bread ``salsa'' of croutons, chopped lemons and green olives - like a panzanella with 'tude.

I can't remember two meals as refreshingly fun. Lavender butter and honey perfume the moist meat of roasted organic chicken ($21), with lentils so tender they fall apart on the fork. Whole-milk ricotta risotto - the consistency of silky rice pudding - is a scrumptiously rich companion for vin santo sherry-flamed rabbit ($24), stuffed with carrots, currants and biscotti crumbs. It's heavenly.

Both UpStairs restaurants share the same intimidatingly long, Italo-centric wine list. That means when Wine Director Shane Lessard is off, drinkers feel cast adrift - despite well-intentioned suggestions from the friendly wait staff. With fish - especially the lemon swordfish - try the grapefruit accents of a 2002 Chateau Graville-Lacoste Graves ($36). The burnt sugary beetiness of a '01 Librandi Ciro Rosso ($28) hits the spot with the chicken and rabbit.

Pastry chef Dina Sonenshein's desserts ($7) - such as chocolate-Grand Marnier pot de creme, lemon mascarpone cheesecake and angel food cake with berries and Devon cream - are tasty and technically perfect. But desserts lack the creative pizazz of the dishes that precede them and can't hold their own with the bar's whimsical setting.

Designed by co-owner Deborah Hughes, the Monday Club Bar looks like a Fruit Loopsy Pee-wee's Playhouse. It's a kicky kaleidoscope of bright colors, wacky chandeliers, mobiles, mirrors and a zebra-striped carpet - an Alice in Wonderland atmosphere where everything on the table demands, ``Eat me!''

It's an invitation you can't refuse. Regis' cooking is as passionate as it is imaginative. If food can be said to fly off the plate with sheer exuberance then Regis' food is up, up and away out of this world.

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