Pesce Seafood Bar

• 2227 Polk Street
  tel. 415 928-8025
  Open Sunday through Thursday from 5 to 10 p.m.
  Friday and Saturday from 5 to 11 p.m.
  Moderate.

Would I go back? Can't wait; to try more little dishes with different glasses of wine.

I approach seafood in restaurants with caution. All too often I am disappointed because it simply isn't fresh enough. But recently I discovered Pesce, a two year old restaurant on Polk Street.

Six months ago, Italian chef, Ruggero Gadaldi, who also operates Antica Trattoria down the street, transformed two year old Pesce into a Venetian-style ciccheti bar. "Ciccheti" is the local Venetian word for "small bite," and since Venice is enrobed by the sea, it comes as no surprise that these little plates feature all sorts of seafood, fresh and cured. Since the best seafood I've ever eaten was served to me in Italy, where straightforward presentations celebrate the pure flavor of an absolutely pristine product, I harbored hopes about this place. The menu of small, interesting dishes at Pesce reminded me of happy experiences overseas so I finally took the chance. Now Pesce has become one of the few restaurants in town that I trust to handle fish.

A long zinc bar stretches down the center of Pesce's one narrow room, with tiny butcher- paper covered tables scattered at the front and back. Dark wood panelled walls and a white tile floor evoke similar operations in Venice. A row of fifties-style lamps hang from the high ceiling over the bar giving the room a gentle retro look.

When a platter of house smoked fish ($12) arrived on my first visit, I knew I was in for something good. The satiny smoked salmon, sturgeon and trout were moist and dewy, sliced to order, and neither over- smoked nor over-cured. The generous portion came with shredded romaine in a piquant vinaigrette, a pile of thinly sliced red onions and capers, slices of baguette, and a superfluous mound of whipped cream cheese. Then, a deep pottery bowl of fennel and arugula salad, enough for three, topped with shaved parmesan ($6) in a clean oil and vinegar dressing, prepared our palates for the hot ciccette to follow.

The waiter steered us to squid ink risotto ($9), properly chewy rice tinted black with briny ink. The sutble squid flavor built slowly as we ate, but the dish was immediately enlivened by sweet, fire licked, grilled calamari arranged on top and lemon zest folded into the rice. It's deservedly a signature dish.

Lovers of hearty stews will appreciate a casserole of velvety salt cod and big, creamy borlotti beans in a spicy tomato sauce ($8). Again, balance and technical know-how gave this earthy dish its charm. The beans and the cod spoke to each other--two similar textures with quietly different flavors in a bright field of tomato sauce..

Any pasta with Pesce's perfectly constructed sauce of olive oil, white wine, garlic and parsley will be delicious. Now, during Dungeness crab season, you can have linguine in this sauce, interwoven with luxuriously big hunks of shelled crabmeat. My mouth waters just thinking about it.

On another visit, when I sat alone at the bar, I received gracious treatment from both a dapper maitre d' in suspenders, who knew the many wines by the glass, and a barman, who had informed opinions about the menu. I ordered a blackboard special of grilled, boned, sardines ($9) on a bed of fregole, big round toasted semolina couscous from Sardinia, in a winey tomato sauce. I loved the super-fresh sardines and the saucy fregole, but the broken shelled- clams that were part of the sauce represented the only seafood I've had here that wasn't perfect. Grilled sardines are so divine they should be served naked on a plate anyway.

My neighbor at the bar offered me a taste of roasted pumpkin gently scented with rosemary and topped with toasted almonds ($4), a preparation that demonstrates Italian culinary simplicity at its best.

And then my Sicilian swordfish rolls ($9) arrived, two thin slices of swordfish rolled around a moist, herby, breadcrumb stuffing, topped with a big dollop of green olive and caper relish. I've had this dish in Sicily about a dozen times, and Pesce's is better. Pesce's Sicilian style sauteed spinach with plump golden raisins and pine nuts ($4), adeptly accompanied the swordfish rolls.

Part of the fun of eating here is drinking several tasty wines with the different dishes. All the wines are reasonably priced by both glass and bottle which encourages experimentation. I would always begin with a glass of Muller Thurgau, 2001 La Vis, Maso Roncador ($7), a wine from Trentino, that smells like a haunting bouquet of flowers but finishes dry. It's one of the loveliest wines I know. The red list offers up a lush, fruity Carmignano Barco Reale, 2001, from Capezzana ($7.50), an estate in Tuscany, which also produces a first rate olive oil.

For dessert, the sgroppino ($6), a slush of fresh lemon ice with vodka and sparkling prosecco will send you out of the restaurant tipsy, especially after exploring the excellent wine list.

This thoroughly professional little place is a gem, well worth the aggravation of figuring out where to park anywhere near this popular stretch of Polk street, currently filled with good restaurants. The reworked Pesce is certainly one of the best.

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