Palo Santo.(restaurant)(Product/service evaluation)

Tucked in the middle of a mostly residential block in Park Slope, this polished new restaurant feels so of a piece with its neighborhood it's as though it sprang up fully formed. An evening's meal, in its fresh simplicity, might have had its origins in the nearby Co-op: there's a crisp chayote salad, with tart, juicy grapefruit; wahoo with a roasted plantain, served in its blackened skin; a satisfying chicken mole. The staff is warm and casual, and the experience is pleasing, though not exactly transcendent--it'd be easy to write off Palo Santo as a place to go when you aren't up for a culinary challenge. But everything is not as it seems. In the same way that the familiar lines of the restaurant's brownstone building are offset by an intricately curlicued wrought-iron railing, the regular menu provides a stage for the tasting menu, which offers rigorously constructed dishes that use ordinary ingredients to surprising effect.

The nine or so courses take in a wide variety of heat and texture: on a recent evening, they included delicate grilled trout, set on top of radishes, green beans, and purple potatoes; braised pork shank, soft and steeped in wine; a superb strawberry-rhubarb crisp, with a slightly salty crumble on top, tempering the ripe sweetness of the fruit. Jacques Gautier, the chef and owner, ...