Laurel Restaurant and Bar’s executive chef, Fabrice Poigin, displays the Niman Ranch pork chop. (photo/alandeckerphoto.com)

When Laurel Restaurant and Bar opened in 1995, I just couldn’t get enough of it. I thought it was a lovely room, lovely in the way a dining room at any Four Seasons Hotel is lovely. Not my style, but lovely. I thought the food under Doug Organ was for the most part exceptional and that the below street-level dining room, where one could catch no more than a glimpse of businessmen’s trousers and shoes walking by the windows, had a big-city feel.

It was great, it ran its course, and in the end probably didn’t receive all the love it should have from its owner. Now that chapter is over. Laurel is lucky — most restaurants don’t get a second chance to be great.

Chapter Two. Veteran restaurateur Tracy Borkum took a bold step when she reopened the doors at Laurel Restaurant and Bar last month. While she kept the name, she pretty much pitched everything else.

The dining room is Kate Spade meets Calvin Klein. Chartreuse, houndstooth check, bucket chairs snug up to white crisply starched table linens, while red vinyl-looking ice buckets pepper the room. Liberal is the use of bold black, white, green and “lipstick” red masculine booths tailored in charcoal gray wool pinstripe fabric. Running your hands along the wool-cloaked booth feels a lot like running your hands down the lapel of a man in a perfect fitting suit — the room is sexy.

Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda would look at home bellied up to the long white coriander bar, drinking “up-drinks” and looking beautiful under the buttery lighting of Swarovski chandeliers. Did I mention the room is sexy?

The cuisine, under the direction of executive chef Fabrice Poigin and sous chef Amy Di Biase is a provocative modern take on traditional French and Mediterranean cuisine with an occasional Asian accent.

The menu is divided into two sections: grazing and traditional dining. The grazing menu is a wonderful selection of small plates made for tasting and table sharing while the traditional menu is composed of first and second courses for individual dining.

The grazing menu is well composed. Tempura rock shrimp with soba noodles, a tasting of housemade sausage, steamed black mussels in lemongrass broth and the Vietnamese crepe are all interesting choices. I happen to be both a bolognese nut and a gnocchi nut so the “Braised Lamb Bolognese” ($12) folded into housemade gnocchi tickled me pink. The dish is finished with a Parmesan cream sauce that adds an element of richness (as if soft, pillowy gnocchi is not enough).

Admittedly not a dish for everyone, I also adored the “Crispy Veal Sweetbreads” ($10). They are crumb coated and quickly fried, topped with what Poigin calls “pancetta dust” (finely chopped and fried pancetta), served in a long, skinny rectangular plate (the kind one might serve olives in) lined in nothing more than a thin layer of cream sauce.

On the flip side, I highly recommend the “Kurobuta Pork Belly” ($13). Braised and served with hon shimeji mushrooms (an oyster-like mushroom) and pearl tomatoes in a richly flavored mushroom broth with hot mustard, this dish is so good you’ll refuse to share.

Entrées range from $19 for the Wild Mushroom Ravioli to $42 for a 16-ounce “Angus Dry Aged Rib of Roast Beef.” Having learned long ago that if a Frenchman offers you duck confit, you’re a fool not to order it, I did. It was served over warm white lentils with dandelion greens and red pearl onions and it was fabulous.

Desserts are housemade and stand up to the quality and care of the earlier courses. Do indulge in the fig and anis bread pudding, it comes with three pichets of sauces to play with and makes for a fabulous finish.

— Terryl Gavre