photo:B.A. Nilsson

Oasis in Chain Country
By B.A. Nilsson

Park 54

54 Clifton Country Road, Clifton Park, 688-1548. Serving dinner Tue-Sun from 4:30. AE, D, MC, V.

Cuisine: innovative American

Entrée price range: $16 (steamed salmon) to $34 (grilled veal chop)

Ambiance: elegant

If this were a movie, we’d begin with a close up of an entrée plate, wisps of steam rising from the artfully arranged fish and vegetables, the camera following the plate as it travels, in a server’s hand, from kitchen to dining room. As the camera pulls back, we can see the high, dark walls of a restaurant dining room, large windows giving a view of the lighted malls and manses of Clifton Park.

The green and orange of asparagus spears and carrot slices gives vibrance to the image, radiant against the white of the plate. We now see some of the customers, looking handsome at their windowside tables, pale yellow window drapes adding swaths of color behind them. Conversation is murmured, punctuated by shotgun blasts of laughter from the bar, the nervous sound of people trying to unwrap themselves from the workday.

The Gospel According to Clifton Park is, of course, work, a religious force that persuades people to live in the soulless developments of the town with almost no sidewalks, where they’re surrounded by seemingly every chain store and restaurant known to man. Since this building opened in 1997 (as the Conservatory Grill), it has been a succession of independently owned restaurants.

Mike Pietrocola, who renamed and reopened the restaurant on Valentine’s Day, wants to stake his own independent stand against the chains, and couldn’t have picked a more auspicious location. The place is not only tastefully redecorated but also acoustically improved so that it’s no longer the echo chamber that used to drive me and so many others crazy.

We caught them at the tail end of an early menu, a nice two-page listing of everything you need to inspire a nicely arranged meal. Although in real life, my family is increasingly foregoing the appetizer-entrée route, we splurge on your behalf, and thus it was that I confronted a plate of sliced meats—the salumi platter ($12)—that presented three contrasting flavors. First and best was the duck prosciutto, made by Pietrocola himself. Duck meat is flavorful enough to stand up to many variations, and this method of curing it brings out its richness. Likewise, the dry-cured pork shoulder known as coppa had a nice bite and landed differently on the tongue. And some slices of spicy sopresatta rounded it all out, complemented by Dijon mustard, cornichons and pickled pearl onions.

The plate shared a handful of baby greens with the diver scallops appetizer ($10), featuring two plump, perfectly seared scallops resting atop swirls of crimson beet-flavored vinaigrette and a yellow pepper-based ketchup. Take the first bite solo, then experiment with the dressings (scallops are also available as a $22 entrée).

Butternut squash soup ($5) couldn’t be more seasonal or more deftly seasoned, emphasizing the sweetness and the earthiness of the meat, set off with a dollop of crème fraîche.

Crabmeat figures in a pair of appetizers: a crab cake with chipotle aïoli ($9) and a crab tower ($12) that turns the meat into a salad and accompanies it with cucumber and avocado.

Salad is an à la carte item, and there are two: a bibb lettuce creation with olives ($5) and a chop salad combining greens and celery with avocado, peppers and blue cheese crumbles ($6).

Back to that entrée we left in midair. It’s an order of sea bass wrapped in potato ($22), and artfully wrapped it is, the thin-sliced tuber a tasty glove, hiding sprigs of fresh thyme and, of course, the fish itself, moist and delicious. And it sits atop slices of braised fennel, giving the fish a whiff of that licorice-like flavor—and leaving the fennel itself to be enjoyed alongside the asparagus and carrots.

The plate is drizzled with a light sauce that gently suggests its origins in a more robustly flavored red wine—a syrah, in fact. This is characteristic of Pietrocola’s sauces. The roasted pork ($19), a meat that’s brined before it hits the oven, is served with its own juice, reduced and scented with thyme, and it’s fascinating in its lightness, making it a complement to the meat but by no means a crutch. The meat itself is surprisingly moist and tender, set off by apple slices roasted alongside. As if that’s not enough, potatoes au gratin and Brussels sprouts finish the dish, making an art out of comfort food.

The menu includes a couple of steak preparations, steamed salmon, duckling, and a clams and mussels combo. Chicken, too: roasted garlic glazed free-range chicken ($22) that puts a half bird in front of you and gives it a lemon-garlic glaze and accompanying asparagus and rice (a mix of white and wild).

The new menu adds a few old favorites from Pietrocola’s earlier, eponymous restaurant in Schenectady, items like an appetizer of tortellini and prosciutto ($7) and such entrées as veal with three cheeses (it comes bubbling out as you slice into the meat, $18) and chicken and shrimp with prosciutto over gnocchi in a Marsala cream sauce ($20). Because there’s a generous selection of wine, both in bottles and by the glass, the new menu suggests wine pairings as well.

Mike’s wife, Deena, runs the floor, supervising a young, enthusiastic crew. “We’re all still learning,” she assured me when I grumped that the person delivering our plates shouldn’t be asking who gets what. I have confidence in her ability to get what she needs out of her staff.

Look for the outdoor deck to open for dining, with its own pub menu, as the weather warms; meanwhile, there’s a companionable bar on the premises for socializing. Having this restaurant back at the top of its game is a wonderful thing; to have Mike Pietrocola back in the business is better still.

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