The Blacksmith Shop

In Truro, summer dining that meets winter standards

by Robert Nadeau

DINING OUT

The Blacksmith Shop (508) 349-6554 17 Truro Center Road (Route 6A), Truro Open (spring hours) Mon and Thurs-Sat, 5-10 p.m.; and Sun, 8 a.m.-1 p.m. and 5-10 p.m. AE, MC, Visa Full bar Street-level access via sandy parking lot

My general rule is not to review summer-resort restaurants in any month without an "r" in it. This isn't mainly because I like to eat oysters by the sea. More to the point is that all but the very best summer restaurants are completely unreliable from year to year. A restaurant strong enough to open in April may, if producing fine food in April, be reviewed for that season. But even then, at any level much below Chillingsworth, in Brewster , summer restaurants are likely to be, well, summer restaurants -- overpriced, overly eclectic, overly ambitious, undersupplied, understaffed, undertrained, and, in general, underachieving. Pick your favorite local clam shack and pizza joint, and stick with them.

However, I have been watching the Blacksmith Shop Restaurant, in Truro, for a few years. Not all its years, since it is older than I am, but for the past few, as it has quietly moved up to contend with the best Provincetown restaurants. Two dinners at the end of April have me convinced that it is now as good as or better than comparably priced bistros in Boston and Cambridge. The kitchen is taking full advantage of the local fishing fleet and aquaculture, and there is a focus to the daily menus. Even the bread is warm, fresh (both nights, so it wasn't just luck), and crusty.

To start with the seafood, a special on seared scallops ($17.50) was simply the best seafood platter of any kind that I've had this year. They were small sea scallops, with all the flavor of "diver scallops" and some of the sweetness of Cape bay scallops. The underlayer was sliced portobello mushrooms, green apple, and spinach cooked to a full, buttery flavor, all resting in a "curry emulsion sauce." This sauce was deceptively clear, like the "water sauces" of chef Charles Draghi at Marcuccio's, but it packed a full flavor of South Indian curry, like a rasam or sambhar dish. Few kitchens in Boston can deliver such defined flavors in main ingredients, and few of their sauces surprise so pleasantly.

Equally impressive was a more familiar dish of pan-seared sole ($14) with mashed potatoes and a roasted-vegetable garnish of Brussels sprouts, green beans, and cauliflower. This is obviously a less challenging menu staple, as the flatfish was dredged in a little flour, and some buttered bread crumbs glorified the vegetables. But again, each ingredient had its own character, and the roasted vegetables were a confident step forward from the usual sauté.

A crab-cake appetizer ($7) also bet on the seafood, to the extent that the large burger-shaped patty tended to fall apart for lack of a binding ingredient. The sea-crab flavor was there, and an excellent black-bean salsa provided all the complementary cilantro and garlic one might want. If you didn't like those flavors, you could wipe them out with a chipotle mayonnaise, deceptively white for how spicy and smoky it tasted. Clam chowder ($3) is a big bowl, and would have been a big bargain if not for a simple error, the use of mealy, dissolving russet potatoes instead of the waxy kind. Mussel and fennel soup with summer squash, a daily special, made good use of the season's plump and yummy mussels in a delicious broth. An appetizer that will be imitated elsewhere was the artichoke misto ($5.50), deep-fried nuggets of artichoke hearts with a lemony "aïoli" that downplayed the usual garlic for a mayonnaise-plus effect.

Diners who don't want to experiment will not be disappointed with the gigantic seafood fra diavolo dinner special (market price, recently $24), served over al dente linguine. Diners who do want to venture will follow the chef into some Moroccan ideas. Although not everything on this list was perfect, the idea of exploring one exotic cuisine at a time provided a focus that most summer restaurants lack badly. Moroccan spring rolls ($7) are more like egg rolls, with the North African element being a lot of cinnamon. The dip was an apple chutney, which was a good straddle between duck sauce and the cinnamon-chicken flavor of the spring rolls. This wasn't a great fusion, but it was fun.

Chicken tagine was served under a real, conical tagine. The chicken was quite tender and juicy, and both it and the couscous with pine nuts underneath were heavily flavored with fresh lemon. An authentic tagine would be more complex and stew-like, but fresh lemon is a wonderful flavor if you're having only one. Monkfish merguez ($17) took a North African lamb sausage and coupled it with spinach, potatoes, and a local fish in a way that is more typical of Provincetown Portuguese food than anything from North Africa. The monkfish was two handsome chunks, and the sausage -- likely homemade -- was cleaner-tasting than any real merguez I've had in Paris, but the combination is not so divinely ordained as chorizo and clams.

The Blacksmith Shop has accumulated some very nice wines and serves several by the glass, including three fine chardonnays and a lively Trefethen riesling ($6.50) from California. Vintage years are listed for all, a nicety not widely observed these days.

Desserts are really a treat. The chef has figured out a way to make apricot soufflés ($6) in advance so that they can be displayed on the dessert tray and served without pre-ordering. I believe the trick is to use all egg whites for what is really a soft meringue; it's a very refreshing dessert. The crème brûlée ($6) is notable for a true cream flavor, with no apparent custard, and so much burnt sugar on top that it tastes not unlike campfire marshmallows!

An apple-cranberry crisp ($6) was served in a parfait glass with whipped cream, bringing some elegance to this wholesome dessert. Cheesecake ($7) is livened up with a toasted-pecan crust and swirls of mixed berries. It is the heavy kind, perhaps in honor of the New Yorkers who summer on the lower Cape.

Service at the Blacksmith Shop is sometimes very helpful, but it did lag when the room filled up on a Friday night. The kitchen ran out of things, which could be early-season uncertainty, or just the word-of-mouth getting ahead of last year's experience. The restaurant is situated in a couple of informal rooms, with an active bar next door. It's hard to tell that these much-renovated spaces were once the eponymous smithy, but we are reminded by some black iron lamps and primitive tools, along with whimsical sculptures and found objects. Christmas lights on the ceilings are festive without being overtly Italian-American, and a CD of cha-cha music behind dinner was festive without being overtly camp. The Blacksmith Shop pays subtle homage to many Lower Cape themes without overstating anything, and I am not overstating the outstanding flavors, either.

Robert Nadeau can be reached at robtnadeau@aol.com.

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