Flash of fancy

Signs of gentrification are beginning to pop up in Forestville. It started four years ago when chef Tai Olesky opened Mosaic Restaurant & Wine Lounge.

When Olesky took over the building that housed the former kitschy Chez Marie, the property’s backyard was a weedy mess. Now its outdoor patio is possibly the prettiest commercial space in town. A wooden arbor supports a vigorous wisteria vine. Pretty green and red coleus adorn the cement and gravel floor. Green and red shiso, also known as perilla, echo the coleus’ color scheme amid glazed pots. Wooden tables with umbrellas are scattered among the plants.

Mosaic is on Front Street, the main drag, which now hosts the Quicksilver Mine Co. art gallery, named after the abandoned Great Eastern Quicksilver Mine on Sweetwater Springs Road in Guerneville. Across the alley from the gallery is the new Nightingale Bakery with a wood-fired, radiant-heat oven, built from plans designed by Alan Scott, who died last year at age 72. Scott lived in Petaluma and is the person most responsible for the return of the lost art of bread-baking to thousands of homes and small businesses across America.

But it’s Mosaic that has pried Forestville loose from the hamburgers at Carr’s Drive-In, pizza at Andorno’s Pizza, and the gloomy shots-and-beers ambiance of the Forestville Club.

However, gloomy could also describe the ambiance at Mosaic, as the main front dining room and several small dining areas, plus the small wine lounge in back, are dark, with low ceilings. One of the ceiling lights in the main dining room had burned out, showering our table with murk. There are candleholder wall sconces, but the candles weren’t lit, although tea lights on the bare wood tables were lit after dark, and each table had a small vase of fresh flowers. The effect is either cozy and intimate or lugubrious, depending on how you’re feeling. The contrast with the back patio couldn’t be greater.

Chef Olesky, a self-taught local guy, and Michael Adams, his sous chef, go out of their way to make sure their food is fancy — and accordingly expensive. Many restaurants in this area have experienced a significant fall-off in business, but on a recent Thursday night, Mosaic was booming, high prices or no. And the reason is Olesky’s brilliant flashes of gastronomical creativity.

For example, a special Mushroom Appetizer ($18 ***) included white beech mushrooms, trumpet royales and shiitakes sautéed in butter. The shiitakes are familiar, meaty mushrooms widely available these days, as are the slightly rubbery trumpet royales, but the white beech mushrooms — also known as alba clamshell — are the real prize in this group. These are highly esteemed in Japan and their clean, earthy aroma smells like a dream of walking through a long-abandoned forest. A touch of cilantro with its bright herbaceous flavor recalls the herbs that grow under the forest’s canopy. The plate also contains roasted sweet peppers and a slice of triple cream Brie.

Entrees are also pricey. Coffee Encrusted Filet Mignon (****) is $34 — but then, it couldn’t possibly have been better. The little bit of coffee flavor from the finely ground beans drained off to join with the chocolate-cabernet demiglace to make a mocha-wine sauce of infinite depth, and left a slightly crunchy coffee bean residue on the meat that gave a welcome crust to the soft and tender filet. Filet mignon can be so soft that it’s off-putting, but this piece of beef still had some substance. Mashed potatoes helped sop up the delicious sauce, and locally-grown mushrooms sautéed with Madeira and cream added even more interest, along with butter infused with Pt. Reyes blue cheese. Though the assemblage was busy, it worked.

Music on the sound system ran to some classics of the 1930s and 1940s. It was good to hear Fats Waller singing and playing, “Your Feets Too Big.”

The wine list is well chosen, but there aren’t many bargains. The 2006 Iron Horse “Wedding Cuvee” is $58, a 2006 Dr. Loosen Riesling is $42, a 2007 Dry Creek Vineyards “Heritage Vines” Zinfandel is $36, the 2006 Tandem “Sonoma Coast Sangiacomo Vineyard” Pinot Noir is $64, and the 2005 Lancaster Estate Cabernet is $125. Corkage is $15.

Service at Mosaic is top rate. Our very professional waiter did something I’d never seen before. He removed the foil capsule from the top of our bottle of wine, pulled the cork, then snugged the cork into the squashed down foil of the capsule and set it on the table by the bottle. The crumpled capsule prevented the cork from touching the table — a nice, sanitary touch in case we wanted to recork the bottle to take leftover wine home.

The food at Mosaic transcends any problems with atmosphere. A Sweet Potato Gnocchi ($15 ****) appetizer defines the word luscious. The rich gnocchi’s buttery sauce also enhanced a seasonal mix of apples and pumpkin, and to make sure you’re eating healthy, there’s a portion of baby lacinato (dinosaur) kale on the plate. In a bold, clever move, Olesky dusts his Pan-Seared Scallops ($15 ****) with fennel pollen collected when the local roadside fennel was flowering, and sets them in a liquid made of pomegranate juice flavored with molasses. To continue the deep sea theme, he makes a puree of locally-grown salsify (also known as the oyster plant for its reputed similarity to the taste of oysters), adds fried salsify chips and pairs this with the scallops.

A similar ability to wander successfully off the beaten track shows with the Roasted Beet Salad ($12 ***), which featured not only roasted beets, with their caramelized flavors, but also ruby red grapefruit segments, lavender flowers, crumbled fresh farmer cheese, and a pinot noir-verjus reduction for the dressing. A wonderfully refreshing and interesting salad.

The catch of the day was Ling Cod ($32 **½), cooked hard enough to produce dry, crunchy edges and paired with garnet sweet potatoes, braised leeks and more red grapefruit segments. Pansotti ($21 ***) was a nightly special. This large, stuffed, pinked-edged ravioli, a specialty of Liguria in northwestern Italy, was stuffed with ricotta, mascarpone and mozzarella and sautéed, then served with a beautiful, fresh-tasting tomato sauce, and with roasted carrots and corn kernels — the perfect dish for a late October dinner.

Desserts, by Christian Andersen, ranged from an excellent Flan ($9 ***) served with sugary persimmon slices to a rather strange Baklava with Champagne Poached Pear ($9 **). The baklava was more a sandwich of ground nuts and sweetmeats than the well-layered confection we’re used to. Calling the dessert baklava raises expectations that are dashed when the chef deviates from the standard. I’m all for deviation from the norm, but then re-name it something else.

To sum up: Pretty much fabulous food and superb service in a rather ordinary indoor setting.

Jeff Cox writes a weekly restaurant review for the Sonoma Living section. He can be reached at jeffcox@sonic.net.