TABLES FOR TWO.(Waverly Inn & Garden)(Restaurant review)

THE WAVERLY INN & GARDEN -- 16 Bank St. (212-243-7900)--This red brick town house was built in the eighteen-thirties. Before being reborn, last year, it was a low-key hangout beloved for its high-rolling Connect Four matches. For years, its denizens have reported sightings of an apparition, which, it is said, wears a top hat and causes fireplace logs to ignite spontaneously. In 1958, an ocelot named Lancelot appeared in the dining room, having supposedly jumped out of a nearby window and crawled through the restaurant's cellar grate.

Apocrypha abound, as ever--though lately, since the editor in chief of Vanity Fair, Graydon Carter, and several partners took over, they're of a less hoary variety. Did Ellen Barkin throw a drink at Ron Perelman? Does the truffled mac and cheese really cost fifty-five bucks? The lack of a functional reservations line would suggest that most of us will never get the chance to find out. But one of the place's pretensions is that it's anti-pretense; if you want a table, just walk up and ask. (Not that the famous people are subjected to this ritual.) And, so, sprinkled in ...