Sel de Mer

Chef/owner Jeff Slagg's first restaurant is pretty much handmade, with blue tin wainscoting, a bar of salvaged wood he crafted with a friend and cylindrical wooden lamps made by his roommate. What really shines here, though, is the ultra-fresh and well-prepared French-style seafood and kindly service. To start is a smoked trout salad with arugula and blood orange, and then it's onto mussels, steamers, clams, whole fish and beer-battered fish and chips. Slagg got his chops at Oceana, among other seafood specialists, and supplements his menu every night with whatever lovely fish he's found at the market. Garnishes like Burgundy lentils with caramelized onions also have French expressions.