Lewes treasure shines with sublime simplicity

08/12/2005

Out in the vacationland chaos of Del. 1, the restaurants are a brassy bunch, the kind of rude neighbors who boast their dining prowess with neon shouts. In Rehoboth Beach, restaurants show a more subtle allure, baiting vacationers with flash, and glitter, and high-dollar menus posted proudly by the door.

Lewes, on the other hand, has always had a secretive sort of personality. The best places here are often tucked in shyly next to the bric-a-brac shops, or lie with a deceptive humility in old houses. They're sometimes hidden in the farthest reaches of a bar filled with beer-and-a-shot boaters, or put just across the canal that slips through town.

In Lewes, restaurants demand to be discovered to be enjoyed. It seems right in this old pirate town that treasures sometimes hide just around the next corner.

Turn toward the water at King's ice-cream shop, and you might see a gem yourself. It's just a meander or two off Second Street, looking like another store, and marked minimally with a sign of vague implications: Café Azafrán. The snug fit inside the graceful old building affirms its "café" notions -- this dining room will never be the place to find elbow room, and the shaded patio offers sea air by the lungful, so long as your highly cologned neighbor is downwind.

Café Azafrán also shows that, just like its bragging Del. 1 neighbors, signs can be deceiving. The menu proclaims Mediterranean destinations, though it's a voyage that lists discernably toward Spain, in both the dishes and the wine list full of intriguing Spanish libations. And if this is a simple cafe, then let all cafes soothe us like this: First, a glass of sparkling, soft and cool Spanish cava wine to lift expectations. Next, some pleasant agony over chef Mark Steele's tapa-style appetizers, all deceptively simple and thoroughly classy.

Wedges of warm, chewy flatbread are piled with a romesco salsa made with richly roasted tomatoes and peppers, the sexy smoke of paprika and the silky lubrication of top-shelf olive oil ($7.50). A goat cheese bruschetta special ($8) brings an unforgettable contrast of fine, creamy cheese lathered softly on just-charred slices of ciabatta bread.

In simplicity, we can find life's purest beauty. That beauty sometimes brings mystery -- it's hard to imagine why anyone should order a green bean appetizer, until Steele brings out their buttery, crisp beauty by picking them fresh, cooking them enough to bring out sweet flavor, and joining them with creamy Gorgonzola cheese and hazelnuts ($7). Even though the menu's straightforward fried calamari ($9) may arrive a little short on crunch, its partner of garlic mayonnaise delivers a well-crafted punch.

With his menu, Steele shows Lewes how seemingly humble ingredients can possess a simple nobility, an assertive personality and a subtle elegance. There is plenty of spice in the seafood tarragona entree ($25), but it's spice that has been coaxed into the dish, making it easier to coax out the subtle flavors. Notes of smoked paprika and saffron hint at a bouillabaisse, and juicy nuggets of shellfish bring briny goodness, but it is the subtle depth of the broth that brings thoughts of beauty.

In Steele's mind, such Mediterranean beauty seems to always appear secretively -- composed boldly, but with that sly hint of shyness that makes us love them more. Entrees follow the plot: Medallions of lamb ($22) get a char on the grill and a bed of aromatic demiglace -- a little pile of chopped olive tapenade on the side of the plate lifts each bite into a sweet, salty, meaty-rich goodness. Yellowfin tuna ($23) is pleasing, even if it gets too little help from a roasted tomato basil butter -- it's the superbly cooked fish that carries the dish.

There are times Steele's dishes fall shy of the allure they seek, but it's never by much -- a roasted vegetable tapa is garlicky and good, but delivers too little brilliance besides irressistible fried zucchini blossoms stuffed with ricotta, pecorino, herbs and serrano ham. Sometimes, a good dish is betrayed a bit by unremarkable ingredients -- the grilled flatiron steak ($25) is too gristly for its tasteful topping of mushrooms, Gorgonzola and wine demiglace.

There's more of Steele's subtle beach beauty in an entree special of fettuccini and tender veal scallops ($24), regally attired in lump crab, pecorino cheese and a rich porcini cream sauce. There's plenty more lush presence in the desserts, especially a cool, creamy and thoroughly naughty semifreddo -- a softly frozen custard flavored with amaretto and cognac -- and the crema Catalan, a silky Spanish-style crème brûlée.

These days, that kind of allure can be hard to find. Leave it to Lewes to show us where it went.