Long Island Restaurants

Mosaic

Many small delights make up Mosaic, a whimsical and ambitious take on new American cooking.

The 30-seater has barely enough room to contain the imaginative kitchen's parade of the contemporary, the traditional, and whatever is tonight's inspiration.

It's a cheerful rebuke to the risk-averse, tweaking the familiar and moving into entertaining territory. There are misses along the way. But chefs Jonathan Contes and Tate Morris, formerly of nearby Mirabelle, ensure Mosaic never is dull.

The dining room is pretty restrained, a neutral palette highlighted with spare but distinctive black-and-white photos of city scenes. The look is downtown unadorned.

So you focus immediately on the "chilled duck tasting," a clever and flavorful still-life plate with rosy, charred strips of breast meat, a terrine of duck liver, rillettes from duck leg and a little cup of jellied consomme, complemented by grilled bread and fig spread. In every way, this is a mouthful.

Cranberry-and-olive relish accents the gravlax of ocean trout, a diverting production finished with cucumber creamed celery root. The house's Caesar salad is a witty update, adding pear wrapped with silver-white anchovy, shallots, and a Parmesan crouton.

The content of a savory turkey stuffing is the base of a bracing soup, elegant little sweet potato latkes on the side. Mosaic's gutsy variation on gumbo is thick and stewy, spiked with andouille sausage and root vegetables.

"Banana walnut soup, truffle preserved forest mushrooms, camembert, cinnamon toast" describes but doesn't quite summarize the sweet-and-earthy starter, where some flavors collide but each is good.

The riff on spanakopita, the Greek phyllo-and-spinach pie, contains blue cheese, pecans, a balsamic vinegar-onion puree and dill crème fraîche. Still, it's on the dry side.

"Melted lamb shank" also is overcooked, but boosted by an onion-and-dried fruit cannelloni and roasted beet chutney. The grilled ribeye steak, tender and juicy, has a tangy blue cheese coating. Smoked pork loin, with grilled pork belly, caraway-seasoned plantain dumplings and cabbage, fights any winter chill.

Roast cod materializes with almond-anise milk, "red grape salsa crudo," ricotta gnocco and over-orchestration. Sunflower-crusted king salmon, with saffron potato, sunchoke, lemon and vanilla bouillon, similarly keeps upping the ante, but wins.

A parchment bag of caramelized sea scallops with pumpkin curry and eggplant, plus an orange-pepper dipping sauce, is harmonious and fun. Butternut squash pasta, however, can be heavy going, with mushrooms, brussel sprouts and sundried tomato-Parmesan cream.

Desserts are led by the smile of "cheesecake deconstructed," an artful conceit with fruit; and the red wine-preserved pear with a brown sugar cake and crème fraîche. A wooden box of L.A. Burdick's celebrated chocolates pristinely fits in. And you'll enjoy the plate of Constant Bliss, Ayrshire cow's milk cheese, with candied pistachios and mustard fruits.

Of course, there's more.

Reviewed by Peter M. Gianotti, 2/5/06.

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