The News Sun Gabriel's gives'em something to talk about January 20, 2000

Ruth Reichl, Gourmet magazine editor and former New York Times dining critic, has discussed restaurants as a special kind of theater.

On one hand, the essay pointed out, from staging to service an operation should be designed to send the "audience" home with something to talk about. However, the piece continued, more and more these days the real drama can be found right on the plate where food dominates the show.

Gabriel's in Highwood merits appreciative applause on both counts. Almost unobtrusively located on Green Bay Road, it demonstrates the difference when all aspects of a restaurant happily converge.

Creator, director and choreographer of the production is Gabriel Viti. Long on culinary credentials, inventive in melding classic Italian and French cooking, demanding of detail, effervescent of personality, he makes it all work smoothly. Every night, Viti is everywhere - from greeting customers at the door to monitoring service at each table to shuffling staff to working the kitchen.

Viti's background includes graduation from the Culinary Institute of America, study with formidable chefs in France, Italy and Switzerland and a two-year stint as head chef at Carlos', the much heralded Highland Park restaurant that's within a five-minute walk of his current operation, opened in 1993.

The décor at Gabriel's is considerable more subdued than its owner but reflects his European approach to a restaurant. It's quietly elegant and warm. Yet the atmosphere is that of bistro buzz. The open kitchen adds to the ambience. Beautifully tiled with (what else?) food patterns, it shows off the energetic staff of more than a half dozen who turn out the food efficiently.

Few places can even approach the almost impeccable service. Busboys there are better trained than most waiters anywhere. There's a constant changing of silverware and plates and refilling of glasses. The waiters are not only knowledgeably helpful but not condescending, as is often the case in higher-price restaurants.

A critic once said of Viti that his style is so smooth that it's easy to overlook the complexity of his work. That proved correct. While the menu is comparatively limited in the number of offerings, each seems to contain a subtle variation of ingredient combination, sauce or presentation.

Examples would be a dinner for four that was almost equally divided between the restaurant's Italian and French approaches.

The appetizers were these: A wild mushrooms soup with chicken stock, heavy cream and diced tomato that had a depth of both flavor and consistently. A carpaccio (thin sliced beef tenderloin) with a piquant sauce. A steamed artichoke, fanned is a striking pattern accompanied with a grainy mustard. A salmon pastrami with a vinaigrette sprinkled over the slightly bitter green arugula.

The entrees were divided between Italian and French. The Italian were pastas - one a tortellini wrapped around a spinach-ricotta pancetta mixture, the other linguine with an abundance of gulf shrimp and asparagus. The first was mapped with a white garlic sauce, the second a Mediterranean style herb-tomato sauce.

More French was the grilled veal porterhouse steak in a garlic-parsley-butter sauce. It came with more pommes fries (the thinnest fried potatoes possible) than anyone can eat. The roasted rack of lamb with a thyme sauce could not have been more melt-away tender. With it came a larger than normal diced ratatouille with more body and flavor than usually expected. Both dishes arrives as desired, thanks to the waiter's information that the kitchen prepares meat one level of doneness below the normal request.

Overall, the menu provides choice with interesting seafood dishes such as sea bass cooked in parchment with a lemon-herb sauce, whole roasted trout wrapped in pancetta, and Alaskan salmon with scallion sauce. Other entrees include grilled New York strip steak and a roasted capon for the more traditional eaters.

Desserts at Gabriel's do not disappoint either in eye-pleasing presentation or tastiness. A white chocolate mousse with berries, the profiteroles with caramel ice cream, and the flourless chocolate cake with crème anglaise are all excellent choices. The layered tiramisu is another not to miss.

Prices at the restaurant may seem steep to many. It'll probably cost about $50 per person (which makes the chef's choice menu of appetizer, pasta, entrée and dessert for $45 a good buy). But value should not be measured in price but on what's received for the amount. On that basis, it's worthwhile.

One of the most overused phrases in restaurant reviewing is "dining experience." Yet there are legitimate places where that correctly applies.