HOW HAUTE CUISINE SAVED BEANTOWN

And this is good old Boston, the home of the bean and the cod . . . .

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And it was fine.

It was fine if you liked beans and you liked cod and you didn’t mind predictability.

Because, after all, it was Boston, and it had so many other things to recommend it: Beacon Hill and the Back Bay and, some years, the Red Sox. Faneuil Hall and Quincy Market and the Freedom Trail. It was history and it was highbrow and if you happened to get hungry, the old standbys could provide sustenance. The town’s well-known eateries used longevity as their major attraction. “In business since . . . .” became the most significant criterion.

The Union Oyster House (open since 1826 and self-proclaimed oldest restaurant in the country) features tall wooden booths, boiled lobster and fresh shucked oysters. Durgin-Park (since 1827) serves the rowdy waterfront crowds pork and beans and meat and potatoes plunked down on communal tables. Locke-Ober (since 1875) is the exclusive, waxed mahogany and cigars Brahmin waterhole, where meat and potatoes morphed into filet mignon et pommes de terre. Jimmy’s Harborside (since 1927, a newcomer), a huge place at the edge of the bay, offers clam chowder, codfish cakes, lobster rolls, corn on the cob.

These restaurants of documented seniority pretty much covered the range of Boston dining. They kept up with the times, adding a fan here or an air conditioner there, but generally the fare remained the same. Customers went for it, confident that by now the kitchens had their acts down pat, dishing out exactly what one expected.

Then came the revolution.

Beginning in the mid-1960s, the blue sky behind Beacon Hill and the State House’s Golden Dome was replaced by skyscrapers. As the city’s skyline changed, so did its demographics. The influx of young technocrats of the new cyber-industries not only brought new money but also changes in the town’s social texture. The food scene followed the pattern: yuppies demanded more interesting food and a more interesting dining experience.

Chowder was out, pesto in.

A new generation of restaurateurs and chefs appeared: Jasper White, in his upscale Jasper’s, began serving New England food with imaginative class. Lydia Shire, now owner of the trendsetting Biba, took over the stoves at the new, modern Bostonian Hotel, putting a creative twist to hotel fare (and, incidentally, opening up the field to a slew of women chefs). Lucien Robert ensconced his Maison Robert in the vacated Old City Hall, serving real French food in elegant surroundings.

In 1976, for the bicentennial celebrations, civic leaders inaugurated the Faneuil Hall Marketplace. Architect Benjamin Thompson took three decrepit waterfront warehouses--standing like crumbling ships at a dock--and revived the brick and granite buildings as an elegant mall. This magnet attracted life back to the downtown restaurants.

From Romagnoli’s Table in the Marketplace just below ancient Durgin-Park, we could see the change and were happy to be part of it. (That business is now in the past.) We dispensed with marinara sauce and chicken cacciatore and attracted patrons with our then-unheard of carpaccio di carne, insalata caprese and daily homemade pastas. People came to us prepared to accept different fare, having seen it on “The Romagnoli’s Table” show on the same Boston station that launched Julia Child.

Unquestionably, Julia was one of the forces behind the change. In her warm and down-to-earth way, she helped people open their minds and palates. Unfamiliar, “foreign” food (and a sip of wine) ceased to be the abstruse domain of the hoity-toity and became an enjoyable, approachable element of daily life for hoi polloi. Quality triumphed over quantity. The once-ubiquitous “all you can eat” began to disappear from menus.

Even the North End’s clarion call of “mangia! mangia!” lost its appeal--and the sizable core of new restaurateurs/chefs spawned today’s generation of inventive cooks who laid out a new culinary landscape. (A few, alas, were even too inventive, especially in the presentation department and in the just-to-impress-you menu terminology: coulis, confit, rouille, ravigote, poussin . . . couldn’t we say it in English?) Today one would be hard put to find “pork ‘n beans” in Beantown; it’s much easier to encounter some of the best and most innovative food in the country. Boston chefs have finally made their mark on the national food scene, once the undisputed domain of Los Angeles and New York.

Many of the chefs we’ve met have much in common: they are in, or around, their mid-30s, knew they wanted to be chefs by age 10 and by their teens decided cooking was their mission. They have traveled extensively in the U.S., Europe and Asia, working here and there. They combine elements of their various culinary experiences into their preparations. And all have received awards and national recognition.

A parking crisis as well as ongoing, no-end-in-sight renovation--the “Big Dig” that is creating overpasses, bridges and tunnels through the downtown area--has motivated some chefs to flee to the suburbs. Their patrons have followed.

Here are some notable arrivals that we sampled in Boston’s new gastronomic landscape, in random order:

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Joseph and Maria Cerqueira’s ATASCA, in Cambridge, reflects the influx of restaurants with native chefs who are producing real ethnic dishes instead of the hybrid concoctions popular only a short time ago. Barely a year old, Atasca already has enough followers to fill its 80 seats. The lunch crowd is drawn from the nearby ultramodern Kendall Square business community. At dinner, food aficionados and patrons of the Kendall art movie theaters take over. The food, which compares with the best in Portugal, is prepared with dedication by Portuguese-born Joseph. The bacalhau (salt cod) makes its noble appearance in bacalhau de Cebolada (onions, roast peppers, fried potatoes, $14.95); bacalhau a Lagareiro (grilled, drizzled with olive oil and garlic, $14.95); caldeirada de bacalhau (traditional codfish stew, $14.95). “A Portuguese table without bacalhau,” Joseph says, “is like Rome without a pope.”

Also notable are caldeirada de peixe (a stew of many different fish, $15.95) and caldeirada de marisco (a stew of many different shellfish, $21.95). “Portugal is ocean, and so is Boston,” Joseph says. But his menu offers more than fish. Included, too, are beef, veal, pork, chicken, linguica and chourico dishes. Closing a meal are cheeses from the Azores ($5) with Porto and Madeira wines, and many delicious desserts, led by pudim da casa, a lemon and Port wine custard with caramel sauce ($3). The room is welcoming, full of light and decorated with original Portuguese ceramics and artifacts. The full bar counter is covered in classic azulejo tiles.

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Wendy Saver and David Rockwood opened EMMA’S about six years ago on Huron Avenue in Cambridge. The hole-in-the-wall, five counter-seat pizzeria quickly became a neighborhood affair for a who’s who of Cambridge. Emma’s pizzas went home with cellist Yo-Yo Ma, former Gov. William F. Weld and attorney Alan Dershowitz. Pizzas flew out of the oven and into Boston Magazine’s “The Best of Boston” for four years in a row. And deservedly so. A year ago Emma’s moved to its current location at Kendall Square, with an open kitchen and seating for 35.

“We have re-created the old neighborhood feeling and many old friends have followed us here,” Saver says. While she charms the front of the house, chef Rockwood mans the ovens, and, with a few other cooks, creates the pizzas that bring people in. “Our crust is very thin, almost a cracker,” Rockwood says. “And all our sauces are our own creation. We do not own a can opener.” Everything is homemade. Even the smoked ingredients are prepared on the premises. Of the 10 pizzas on the menu, the bestsellers include ones made of roasted red peppers and the baby spinach pie--each of which comes with fresh rosemary sauce, among other choices. The 16-inch pizzas range from $11 to $18. For an extra charge, diners can design their own pizzas, choosing from a list of toppings. Beer and wine are available.

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It used to be that one went “out to eat.” Now it is more fashionable (and expensive) to go out for “a dining experience” that combines decor, atmosphere, creative food and a good dash of trendiness. Some food writers have called Radius the most “New York” of Boston’s restaurants, presumably the supreme compliment, given that this city was once considered a culinary backwater. Located in the heart of downtown, this 2-year-old establishment combines modern cuisine with elegant decor, a perfect place to socialize for the fashionable business district crowd. Owners Christopher Myers and chef Michael Schlow call their design scheme “Greco-Asian”--a circular room dominated by an Art-Deco carved stucco ceiling with red geometric panels surrounding the tables. They pride themselves on making every detail important, from the specially made British silverware, to the exclusive design of china and crystal, to the ceramic bowls for sinks in the restrooms.

Michael Schlow’s food philosophy is consistent with his sense of design: He hates taste clutter on a plate. He wants, he says, “a carrot to taste like a carrot and a potato like a potato.” He is fastidiously attentive to how food is presented on a plate: only a few simple ingredients, perfectly in tune with each other.

A sampling of first courses: bluefin tuna with Fuji apple, persimmon, fennel emulsion and soy ($15); thinly sliced octopus and white bean salad ($15); torchon of French foie gras ($18). Signature entrees include roasted sweetbreads, Madeira sauce and mustard oil ($28); pan-seared European turbot, truffled potato gnocchi ($34); New Zealand venison medallions, Brussels sprouts, Bosc pears and Port ($36).

The desserts and the impeccable service stand up to Schlow and Myers’ motto: “We strive to do the best we are capable of, in all fields of our hospitality.” They are succeeding, elegantly and tastefully, at lunch and dinner. Reservations are necessary, but there is an area set aside for walk-in singles or couples.

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CLIO is set in an intimate space that seats 65 diners within the elegantly renovated Hotel Eliot at the edge of Back Bay. If you are looking for a relaxed, comfortably elegant and serious place to eat, this is it. Customers are the mature, established, international set. Admitting that his kitchen has been compared to a laboratory, chef/owner Ken Oringer combines experimental balancing of tastes with gastronomic artistry, creating extraordinarily innovative dishes. His inventiveness shows from the start with his nonalcoholic “martini” aperitif of filtered clear essence of tomato served with a few floating drops of basil oil in a chilled martini glass. It sounds the “A” for the symphony to follow.

Oringer changes his menu daily, rotating in signature dishes, including such first courses as lacquered foie gras with sweet and sour lemon and bee pollen ($20); a “sandwich” of foie gras, crunchy potato and Medjool dates ($20); cassolette of Maine lobster, with sea urchin and black truffles ($18). Entrees include butter-basted lobster, chanterelles and “Vin Jaune D’Arbois” ($36); and roasted Muscovy duck with black radish confit and fresh chestnuts ($36). Clio serves only breakfast and dinner. Valet parking is available, and reservations are a must.

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No. 9 PARK chef/owner Barbara Lynch, after having served as a sous-chef, co-chef and chef in some of the most refined restaurants in Boston, achieved three years ago what she knew she would accomplish since childhood. When this location--9 Park St.--became available, she grabbed it. Near the State House and with a view of the Boston Common just out its windows, it is, we think, one of the best in town.

The restaurant is divided into three areas, each open to the other: a bar/bistro at the entrance, a back room that can also be reserved for private parties and the main room. The 95-seat place strikes a happy balance between atmosphere, decor and food. “European Country Refined”--as Lynch defines her food--is actually uniquely her own, served on classy china and crystal by a phalanx of well-trained, attentive servers. The wine list is impressive and eclectic, ranging from the exclusive house wines, an Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir from California at $38 a bottle, to a 1997 Dujac Clos de la Roche Burgundy at $285 a bottle.

Lynch changes the menu monthly. Recent first courses: crab and apple fondue, poached apples, brioche croutons ($15); prune-stuffed gnocchi, seared foie gras, Vin Santo glaze ($17); squab lasagna, sweet potato bechamel, white truffle butter ($15).

Dinner entrees: pheasant ballotine, confit leg, chanterelle flan, chestnut cream ($32); crispy duck a l’orange, kumquat jam, fennel salad, potatoes Robuchon ($28).

No. 9 Park also has a lunch menu, which is smaller and less high-flying. Lynch plans to expand upstairs in the old building, affording her more windows with a view. Reservations should be made about a week in advance.

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We approached our dinner at BLUE GINGER in Wellesley with trepidation, considering that its chef/owner, Ming Tsai, is a celebrity (extrovert Food Network chef and cookbook author) who has been written about by a newsstand-worth of magazines and newspapers. We feared an encounter with a pompous foodie who spouts the latest culinary buzz words. We have met our fair share of them.

We found not only exquisite food, but also a friendly, down-to-earth and anything-but-pretentious Ming. In fact, he likes to label his food “East-West” and not “fusion,” a term that too frequently leads to con-fusion, he says. Ming is the American-born son of Chinese parents. He became interested in cooking by helping out in his mother’s Chinese restaurant in Dayton, Ohio, where he grew up. He studied mechanical engineering at Yale, but couldn’t adjust to being out of the kitchen. So he took off for Paris, where he began to combine his knowledge of Eastern food with his newly acquired knowledge of French cuisine, and then cooked in San Francisco and Santa Fe. Determined to own his own place, with wife Polly, he settled on Wellesley, an affluent suburb close enough to Boston (a 25-minute drive) but far enough from its established Chinatown. We sampled all of Ming’s signature dishes and as many others as we could manage. In every dish, Eastern and Western ingredients and techniques were matched so skillfully that it seemed as if they had always been meant for each other.

Notable appetizers include foie gras-shiitake shumai, with Sauternes-shallot broth ($12); garlic-ginger yukiguni maitake mushroom with scallion oil ($10); crispy tuna-cucumber roll with wasabi-soy oil and cucumber vinaigrette ($12); crab and Brie cheese rangoons with sweet-and-sour cranberry chutney ($12). Some of our favorite entrees are sake-miso marinated Chilean sea bass with wasabi oil and soy syrup, served with vegetarian soba noodle sushi ($27); seared scallops with roasted garlic-butternut squash risotto ($26); garlic-black pepper lobster with lemongrass fried rice ($28); mustard seed-crusted beef tenderloin with garlic scallion mashed potatoes ($26). There are six entries on the dessert list, all sinfully rich at $8.

The long and wide-ranging wine list shows, like the food, careful choice and dedication. Ming suggests a 1999 Alsatian white Gewurztraminer at $30 a bottle because its sweet-spicy flavor goes well with Asian food. His list also offers a number of Australian wines, including a 1996 Armstrong Shiraz at $102 a bottle.

Like most of the vanguard restaurants, Blue Ginger offers a chef’s sampling: a menu of five to seven minimal tastings, each accompanied by a wine if desired. One of the things we like most is the quiet atmosphere. Ming paid a lot of attention to soundproofing, making it one of the few Boston restaurants where you can actually carry on a conversation. The room is elegantly simple with subtle Oriental touches, the service knowledgeable, attentive and friendly. The open kitchen, with a full complement of busy chefs and sous-chefs under Ming’s orchestration, runs almost half the length of the restaurant, which seats 120. Reservations, especially on weekends, must be made weeks in advance. On weekdays a couple can take a chance, but not at peak hours.

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After all of that upscale dining, we discovered that old-fashioned baked beans, cod cakes and corn on the cob can still be found in Boston. Specifically, at JASPER WHITE’S SUMMER SHACK (a misnomer because it is open year-round and isn’t a shack). Eighteen years ago, White’s previous restaurant, Jasper’s, was one of the first in the new trend of upscale Boston eateries. He closed it six years ago, opening his down-to-earth establishment last May. He said that he spent 20-some years fussing over four-star food, but this restaurant was in his heart all the time.

Jasper White’s Summer Shack is in Cambridge, at the Red Line subway’s last stop, Alewife station, 15 minutes from downtown Boston. It seats 350 customers at long communal, paper-covered tables, has “the best raw bar in town” (at least four kinds of fresh oysters), a full bar lounge that can be used for private parties and encourages the presence of big families, with balloons for the kids and lots of noise. It has an enormous open kitchen with specially designed steam kettles capable of preparing Jasper’s clam bakes (lobster, clams, mussels, sausages, corn on the cob)--100 at a time, he says. Jasper’s motto is “simple but the best,” and that concept is certainly borne out in the samplings we tried. His signature pan-roasted lobster, flamed with bourbon and finished with chervil and chives, comes from the old restaurant; the rest of the long menu is masterfully cooked, classic, simple New England food. It is all good, enticing and fun. Prices are slightly upward of moderate.

Guidebook

Boston Sans Beans

PRICES: Restaurant prices are for dinner for two, food only, except where otherwise noted.

GETTING THERE: American, Delta and United airlines fly to Boston nonstop; US Airways, Northwest Airlines and America West Airlines fly direct; Continental Airlines offers connecting flights.

WHERE TO EAT: Atasca, 50 Hampshire St., Cambridge, tel. (617) 621-6991. Atasca can be reached in two subway stops or a five-minute taxi ride from downtown Boston; it is the same distance and time if you are coming from the other direction, Cambridge’s hub, Harvard Square. Metered parking on street. $50.

Emma’s, 40 Hampshire St., Cambridge, tel. (617) 864-8534. Like its neighbor Atasca, Emma’s can be reached easily from downtown Boston or Cambridge’s Harvard Square. Metered parking on street. $20-$25.

Radius, 8 High St., Boston, tel. (617) 426-1234. Valet parking is available for dinner, or take the Green Line subway to Park Street or the Red Line to South Station. Three-course dinner, $110-$140. Sampler six-course Chef’s Menu, $85 per person; with selected wines for each course, $130. Sampler nine-course Grand Luxe Menu, $125 per person; with selected wines for each course, $200.

Clio, 370A Commonwealth Ave., Boston, tel. (617) 536-7200. Valet parking is available, or take the Green Line to the Hynes Convention Center/ICA stop. $110-150. Chef’s tasting menu, $95-$125 per person.

No.9 Park, 9 Park St., Boston, tel. (617) 742-9991. Valet parking, or take the Green or Red Lines to Park Street. $100-$150.

Blue Ginger, 583 Washington St., Wellesley, tel. (781) 283-5790. Street parking is available. $90-$110.

Jasper White’s Summer Shack, 149 Alewife Brook Parkway, Cambridge, tel. (617) 520-9500. Lot parking is available, or take the Red Line to Alewife stop. $50.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau, Two Copley Place, Suite 105, Boston, Mass., 02116-6501, tel. (888) SEE BOSTON, fax (617) 424-7664, www.bostonusa.com. Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism, 10 Park Plaza, Suite 4510, Boston, Mass., 02116, tel. (800) 227-MASS, (800) 447-MASS (brochures only) or (617) 973-8500, fax (617) 973-8525, www.massvacation.com.

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Franco Romagnoli, a former restaurateur, is the author of eight cookbooks. His wife, Gwen, is an attorney and freelance writer. They are frequent contributors to The Times’ Sunday Travel Section.