MAURICE

MAURICE Restaurant Review:

Bright, white MAURICE is like a good friend's kitchen where you can hang out all day and enjoy coffee and fragrant buttery pastries. It is part country French, part Swedish with its "fika," or coffee break menu, and even a bit Spanish with "fer vermut" references to vermouth. Pastries are meticulously prepared and inventive, featuring currant and rosemary scones, light beneath a sugar glaze, and similarly subtle anisette and chocolate brioche rolls. The popular black pepper cheesecake bears a subtle heat and floats above a semi-sweet rye cookie crust. Savory items are prepared with as much care and aesthetic sense as the sweets. Lunch is served after 11 a.m. with choices such as pigeon bisteeya, radishes with butter, Norwegian meatballs, and "tarragon and grapefruit kissed" gravlax. Flaky-crusted quiche has a creamy filling in unusual, delicate flavors, perhaps mushroom, chèvre and elderberry. Beverages include curated offerings of coffee, tea, wine, beer and vermouth. The eating area is very small, as are the tables, so plan to enjoy your snack or meal with a special friend.