THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Restaurant L

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Restaurant L Restaurant Review:

Local department store Louis Boston has an image to maintain---and with noted but otherwise under-the-radar chef Pino Maffeo in the kitchen of its signature eatery, it's succeeding. Like the fashions in the showrooms beyond, the dining room is cool and sleek to the point of minimalism, with a sharp edge; so is Maffeo's now-Asian, now-Mediterranean, always progressive cuisine. Portions are as tiny as they are costly, but each little nibble goes a long, long way---tuna tartare, drizzled with soy zabaglione, mixes the raw, fermented and eggy notes to ultra-rich effect, with a separate dish of one chilled Japanese mountain peach acting as a contrasting relish. Barbecued baby-back pork ribs are deeply smoke-flavored; just a touch of green Thai adds a real kick. But our favorite is the applewood-grilled beef with four different salts; it seems gimmicky at first, but entirely unique flavors develop when you sprinkle a little of each salt---sea, smoked, kosher and truffled---on successive bites. Bostonians are lucky to have Maffeo; hopefully, they’ll realize it before it's too late.