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Lucy’s
A low-fat restaurant that shows promise, but could be a little more tasty
BY ROBERT NADEAU

 Lucy’s
(617) 232-LUCY
242 Harvard Street, Brookline
Open Tue–Fri, 5–10 p.m., and Sat–Sun, 9 a.m.–2 p.m. and 5–10 p.m.
MC, Vi
Full bar
No valet parking
Sidewalk-level access

Lucy’s is an American bistro that has taken over the spot of the lamented Zaatar’s Oven, a space dominated by a wood-fired pizza oven. The servers at Lucy’s are instructed to warn you that the restaurant cooks with broths, juices, and vinegars instead of butter and oils. The oven factor leads to a menu full of the dishes that were popular at Zaatar’s, such as flatbread pizzas and roasted entrŽes. The no-oil factor produces a menu full of the choices dieters have to search out elsewhere: salads, steamed mussels, non-cream-based soups, roasted and grilled fish and meats, lots of vegetables, and sorbets and seasonal fruits for dessert. But the no-oil factor also makes some of these dishes even more dietetic because they don’t taste very good.

There are some successes, including all the desserts we tried, and the Òno-fry French fries.Ó Someone here knows fruits and vegetables, and will really go to town next summer. The flaws of some dishes would not be hard to fix: a little sprayed-on virgin olive oil would assure caramelization instead of char on dishes made in the wood oven without seriously compromising the concept. Optional mozzarella cheese would add fat and flavor without technically using oil or butter. Alternatively, a larger investment in the kitchen could produce real spa food based on top-flight produce, technical wizardry, and visual flair. But they would have to charge more and would probably lose the friendliness of the present concept.

You know you’re not in Kansas anymore when the breadbasket comes around. A server offers you a choice of seven-grain, French, or country loaf. There is no butter. There is no olive oil. There is a cruet of balsamic vinegar. You are going to soak your one piece of bread in vinegar. This is surprisingly good with the seven-grain, where it brings up the sweetness of the heavy loaf. I found it had a neutral effect on the country loaf, and was not quite right with the French bread.

Real appetizers might well start with the Òcreamless corn and clam chowderÓ ($6). This is a well-made soup with real clam-broth flavor, not much corn in my bowl, but a nice combination of sweet potatoes and tomatoes, and enough chopped clams for every spoonful. ÒSeasonal all-vegetable soupÓ ($6) is always vegan. One night it was a very enjoyable tomato bisque enhanced with roasted red pepper and vinegar; another visit brought a bowl of Òwhite bean chili,Ó actually undercooked white beans with whole peppercorns and few vegetables. Given that it had sage and other Italian-type flavorings, rather than the cumin-garlic-oregano enhancements of chili, it was not described properly. But with better-cooked white beans (and maybe a little pasta), it would have been a fine vegan soup.

Chopped salad on fresh flatbread ($8) was my first test of the oven. The fan of sliced flatbreads had puffed up a little, but they were still too heavy and had a flavor of charred toast. A commercial pita (no added fat) reheated in the oven would have been better. The salad part is mostly white beans, better cooked than the ones in the soup, but rather flavorless. Virgin olive oil is out, but how about vinegar, onions, and herbs?

The flatbread problem is also noticeable on ÒThe Green ThumbÓ pizza ($8). The crust is thin, but whole-wheat and apparently unleavened. A hard and tasteless cracker. The topping on the green thumb — arugula, ricotta, Òhothouse tomatoes,Ó and onion — is good stuff, and would be better only if the onions really were caramelized — no small trick without at least a film of surface oil. Maybe an alternate white-bread pizza crust would be a good idea. After all, Lucy’s menu already makes token concessions to the unhealthy: a pizza with three kinds of meat on top, another with lots of mozzarella; lamb chops; a sirloin burger.

Among the entrŽes, you can do a lot worse than wood-oven-roasted local cod ($16). The portion is modest, but the fish is good, the roasting isn’t too extreme, and the underlying steamed vegetables (broccoli, carrots, and bok choy) are very good with balsamic vinegar. The parsnip mash is good by itself. I’m not so sure about the Òbutter-freeÓ garlic mashed potatoes on the herb-roasted half-chicken ($15) and other entrŽes: they’re pretty tasteless unless you really work in the head of roasted garlic that comes on top. How about yogurt, buttermilk, or celery root to get a livelier no-butter mash? The chicken itself is quite a tasty little bird, and nicely seasoned. The underlying carrots are good, but this is where those broths could have been reduced for a real no-butter sauce with character.

The Òno-fry French friesÓ ($3 as a side dish, but included with some entrŽes) are the best of the potato ideas. They’re baked fries, with some salt. The ketchup is good, but could be doctored with herbs and vinegars. Grilled shrimp ($19) with citrus-infused vinegar are fatally compromised by the no-oil grill work. Here the char dominates all six pieces. The accompanying root vegetables are good, especially the rutabaga and white turnip, and the quinoa salad is very good.

The wine list at Lucy’s is quite good. I had the Pine Ridge chenin blanc/viognier ($7 glass/$32 bottle), an off-dry white with spectacular fruit. On the red side, the 2001 Australian merlot from Barwang ($6/$28) is full fruit, but the six-months-older Chilean merlot from Montes ($7.50/$33) is two levels better — well structured, with overtones of cocoa. Water is served in large cobalt-blue goblets, and refilled well. (Eight glasses a day, dieters!) Coffee and decaf are excellent. Tea is served as a metal pot of hot water with a selection of bags. If you move quickly and get the bag into the pot, it will brew.

Desserts were a high point of both dinners. The simple bowl of the freshest seasonal fruits ($5) is just that. What fruits are in season in December, anywhere? Bartlett pears, which need a little storage to ripen. Granny Smith apples, likewise. Hothouse strawberries and blueberries. Big seedless red and green grapes. The low-fat double-chocolate cheesecake ($7) is ricotta-based. The chocolate is a layer of cake underneath the ricotta, and not very powerful. For that you need the individual flourless chocolate torte ($7), which is dietetic mostly in the sense of being fairly small.

Service at Lucy’s is quite good, but the kitchen doesn’t push food out rapidly, and there are pauses. The background jazz is easier to hear in the dining room, which is also less drafty. There is some I Love Lucy memorabilia at the entrance and in the women’s bathroom. The guys’ bathroom gets the sports heroes. Lucy’s has the menu that lots of people, and not just women, are always looking for. A little looser execution is all it needs.

Robert Nadeau can be reached at RobtNadeau@aol.com

Issue Date: December 12 - 19, 2002
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