Been There, Ate That

Red cedar-planked salmon, a tender fillet glazed with balsamic vinegar and topped with chopped bacon, proved the best of Sage's seafood options. Like the pork chop, this was straightforward and good. It came with rice and a vegetable medley, sides that were remarkable only because they weren't mashed potatoes and a vegetable medley. The pork chop, meat loaf and ribs all came with mashed potatoes — very good mashed potatoes, yes, intensely buttery, but I couldn't help wondering if their ubiquity was more about making life easier on the kitchen than about sending out the best plates possible.

Desserts are striking, owing to their size: very, very small. Your server will bring a tray with six shot glasses, each filled with a different dessert. You choose however many you like at $1.95 each, and the server takes each dessert (about "four adult bites," one server said) off the tray for you. The selection changes daily. I tried pecan pie, peach cobbler, key lime pie and bread pudding. I liked the key lime pie best, because it seemed most representative of a real slice of key lime pie: tart and sweet and custardy. The pecan pie, on the other hand, made me wish for more pecans than this format can offer.

Table service was good — one server impressed me by asking how I wanted my salmon done, not a common question at casual restaurants — but the kitchen seemed to struggle with crowds. The first time I ordered the ribs, they were served barely warm. On a Saturday evening, we were told our wait would be 45 minutes. No big deal. But when I checked in with the hostess 45 minutes later, she told me our wait would now be two hours. I didn't believe this. I asked another staffer for an explanation. Turns out the kitchen had asked the hostess to stop seating people because they couldn't keep up. We wound up eating at the bar.

The fact that Sage has such crowds to handle suggests it has bright future. And I have no doubt it will overcome many of these initial problems. When you aim for what people already know and love, you don't have that much ground to make up.