Salts

From the second the linen hits your lap to the last spoonful of velvety chocolate dessert soup, Salts is a downright lovely experience. Before that soup, though, comes everything else: the warm, chewy, promptly delivered potato bread, the educated and accommodating staff, the subdued yellow décor, and the daring and well-priced wine list. All of the above are mere groundwork for chef Steve Rosen's bold and delightful savories—the honey-seared salmon with chamomile and preserved lemons, for example. Or his roasted rabbit sausage with artichoke confit and fennel. It's like Mother always said: Eat your lavender-glazed duckling with rhubarb preserves, and then you can have dessert.