Just because it didn’t succeed as a magazine name is no reason not to call a restaurant " George. " Look at all the fun you can have identifying the famous Georges whose pictures are on the walls: Washington, Blanda, Brett, Bush, Bush again, Carlin, Carver, Clooney, Curious, Custer, Foreman, Gobel, Gorgeous, Hamilton IV, Jetson, of the Jungle, Patton, Ruth, Steinbrenner, and Stephanopoulos. I didn’t see but might have missed the late Boston housing activist Jorge Hernandez, country singer George Strait, .400-hitter George Sisler, and a few others. Boston restaurateur George Byers wasn’t a famous face, but he was a great chef here and on Cape Cod. Coffee Connection founder George Howell has certainly been a tastemaker. Then you can think about the foreign Georges not on the walls of the " American Tavern " — six kings of England, and such world-class Georges as singers Jorge Ben, Jorge Cafrune, and Boy George; writer George Eliot (a female George); Communist leaders Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej and Georgy Malenkov; conductor Georg Solti; politician David Lloyd George ... the list goes on. Well, a tavern needs some conversation pieces to attract a young crowd, and George is a dandy. We’ll be looking for more first-name restaurants in the future.

Meanwhile, a restaurant needs a menu theme, and George’s opening menu juggles two: an American comfort-food theme tied up with the name, and some fancy French ideas that came in with chef Al Soto, formerly of the much-praised Beacon Hill Bistro. (There is also a third theme of predictable bar snacks served at the roof-deck bar. The good news about the roof-deck bar is draft Sam Adams and Harpoon; the bad news is no dinner menu, cigar smoke, and on hot nights, the industrial sound of all the air conditioners on the block.)

We found plenty to like under either theme, but prices are also in the middle — uncomfortably expensive for comfort food; perhaps pinching the chef’s creativity on the French side.

We begin with fluffy rolls that reasonably combine bistro and tavern. But then we have an appetizer like " Wild Mushroom Soup with grilled ramps, sweet peas and toasted rosemary oil " ($7.50), featuring a single fresh morel, cut into rings, in a pool of brown soup with no apparent ramps or peas. It’s good mushroom soup, but not close to the small plate of gnocchi with cèpes and braised vegetables, full of highly flavored fresh porcini, from Soto’s Beacon Hill Bistro days.

However, a roasted-beet salad ($9.50) succeeds completely with nice wedges of yellow and red beets on a salad of dandelions and arugula, with a few wedges of tangerine, and a creamy dressing. And Soto does wonderful things with American standards. His barbecued beef spareribs ($9.50) are boneless slices of beef braised to an exquisite tenderness, in a spicy sauce, with a bit of potato salad and some cress in a mustard sauce. This isn’t what a lot of the country calls barbecue, but it is just like the slow-baked ribs that have always had a following in Boston, executed by a skilled chef. " Local Steamers " ($11) is another nice realization, with juicy clams, a cup of beer broth, a good Italian sausage, and a chunk of corn on the cob. The only pinch is that the portion is a mere six clams.

Soto hits well from both sides of his " Large Plates. " His " Beer braised pot roast " ($19) is a square chunk like the popular chef’s meat-loaf plates, but this is incredibly tender braised beef with a deep flavor you can’t get in meat loaf. Both the whipped potatoes and fresh summer vegetables are major upgrades over the 1950s versions. Baked rainbow trout ($18.50) gets a French-bistro treatment that’s surprisingly successful with a light fish. Soto starts with a fillet, adds a dark sauce savory with smoked bacon, puts it on a stuffing of chopped fish and kale, and decorates it with few pieces of gravy-absorbing potato. Baked bluefish ($17.50) was quite flavorful and fresh just before the local season, with sliced potatoes, sliced tomato (standing in for the grape tomatoes listed on the menu), and bright-green fresh fava beans.

Our only weakish entrée was " Crispy native Haddock and Chatham clams " ($18), mostly because it had too much batter. The fish inside was fresh-tasting and flaky, although the strips of belly clam were somewhat overdone. I did like the tarragon-mayonnaise dip and the crocklet of four-bean salad (pea beans, small red beans, green and yellow snap beans), which avoided the underdone " gringo-bean syndrome. " I also had a piece of grilled corn on the cob, which will be quite a treat once the corn gets sweeter.

The wine list is decent if not fabulous, and has some interesting choices by the glass. We had a bottle of Mondavi " Private Select " Pinot Noir ($6.50 glass/$22 bottle). The year turns out to be 2001, so the wine has a little oak aging, but its " Gulf Coast " designation indicates that it’s clearly a blend of varying lots — an excellent way to make useful and inexpensive wine. This pinot noir has a whiff of mixed fruit, almost enough acidity for the fish entrées, and that hint of oaky vanilla in the aftertaste. If George — do you suppose anyone named George is involved? — would chill it slightly, it would be the American answer to Beaujolais.

The desserts show more of the tavern/bistro conflict. If you want to do Durgin-Park, you do grape-nut pudding, Indian pudding, and coffee jelly. And for T.G.I. Friday’s, lots of ice cream. But if you want to do Bluestone Bistro, you have to dress up smaller bits of intensely flavored things. George is betting on an apple pie ($7.50) presented as a bistro-style cylinder tart, with good caramel sauce and excellent vanilla ice cream. That’s pretty good, but a " roasted pineapple sundae " ($7) is just ice cream on pineapple sauce, and disappointing at the price. Better to charge less and just have ice cream. Peach custard ($7.50) is actually crème brûlée, but it isn’t peach-flavored. There are peaches underneath it. Nah. And the all-important chocolate cake ($7.50) is not quite strong enough, despite a mocha frosting and chocolate ice cream. Better to cut a bigger piece of duller cake, or a smaller piece of more intense cake.

Service on an early evening was excellent, but the place didn’t really fill up until we were leaving at nine. The first-floor dining room has café windows opening onto the street, making it airy but noisy, and the background music inside is loud enough for foreground music. How can we play George trivia if we can’t hear each other?

Aside from the pictures of Georges, the large room is rather nondescript. It has TVs tuned to the Red Sox game. It will be interesting to see how George uses the second floor, which was an elegant dining room for several upscale restaurants.

Robert Nadeau can be reached at RobtNadeau@aol.com