Comfort food is all well and good in a world aswarm with nostalgic baby boomers, but Blair’s Restaurant raises the bar with ingredients Mom never had access to, time she could ill afford to spare, and creativity that would have resulted in you being late for your piano lesson.

This is a warm and comfortable place, with candles in the bar and on the tables, modern art on the walls, arched doorways, walls painted brick-red, and a parquet floor in the main dining room. With solid service, nice neighborhood ambience and excellent food, this is the kind of place to show off for an out-of-town guest. Chef-owner Marshall Blair, who was chef de cuisine under Providence chef Michael Cimarusti when they both worked at the acclaimed Water Grill, sends out extremely appealing seafood, steak and vegetarian options. Options to start include shrimp cocktail adorned with two dill-deviled eggs, or a salad with perfectly roasted beets—both red and pink ones—arranged with avocado and a little golf ball of fried goat cheese. Braised Colorado short ribs were obviously cooked gently at low heat...all...day...long. It’s a fabulous main course, served on a bed of pleasantly grainy polenta and crowned with mushrooms. A pasta dish also required some work; the Italian sausage, made on site, is lean and flavorful without being heavily spiced, and is nestled in linguine with Jerusalem artichokes and roasted corn. We opted to share a most unique ice-cream sandwich for dessert: a delicate square of pistachio filo, a scoop of house-made blackberry sorbet, another layer of filo, and a dollop of creamy chocolate sorbet, with an elegant spill of chocolate sauce. Our only two objections involve the slightly steep prices for wines by the glass, and the fairly useless website. —Eric Noland