New and Improved

David’s reinvents itself

By Joan Lang

David’s Creative Cuisine, 22 Monument Square, Portland, 773-4340, Lunch, M-F 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m., Dinner, 7 nights a week, 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., All major credit cards, Full bar

DAVID’S DAVID: Chef-owner Turin shows off a new dish.

Anyone who hasn’t been to David’s since it moved to Monument Square owes himself a visit. Remember David’s on Middle Street? Those pricey

five-course meals and that sedate, dressed-up dining room? The classical music and starched white tablecloths?

Well, that was then, this is now.

Chef-owner David Turin has turned this six-year-old restaurant on its ear, in a new neighborhood with a brand-new attitude. Walk into David’s now and the first thing you feel is energy. This is a sleek, urban bistro, complete with neon sign and tall plate-glass windows overlooking the square, lofty ceilings, and front-and-center exhibition kitchen. The walls are exposed brick, the floors old tile, and there’s a long, stylish bar dispensing champagne by the glass and swanky specialty martinis like the Blue Moon (with blue Curacao) and the Florida Road Trip (with Grand Marnier and a splash of lime juice).

“In the old place, the atmosphere was so formal that people were afraid to laugh,” says Turin. “Now it’s lively and fun and exciting.”

Turin made the move to smaller quarters for economic reasons, but he also took the opportunity to reinvent himself. The old David’s was big and unwieldy, with a formal downstairs dining room, an upstairs pub, and even a pizzeria called Turino’s next door. The menu was a long list of ambitious, double-digit spesh-she-al-it-tees, of no particular provenance — duck confit tartlette with goat cheese and raspberry vinaigrette, jerked mahi mahi with spicy sweet potato pancakes — unless you were in the pizzeria, of course, which most people didn’t know was related.

“We didn’t even know who we were, much less our customers,” says Turin.

Now rechristened David’s Creative Cuisine, the restaurant takes all the best, most successful elements of the old operation and combines them in a simplified, casual, very user-friendly way. The menu is much-abbreviated, touting The Tease (appetizers), The Fresh (salads), The Feast (main courses), and The Edge (gourmet pizzas). The wine list is small, but there are a number of worthwhile options under $20, as well as about a dozen by-the-glass selections.

It’s all very flexible. You can have a pizza and a salad, or share a few apps and a main with a couple of different wines by the glass. There’s even a short-list of simply grilled meats and fishes, available in both full and half portions — great for noshers, lunchers, dieters, and light eaters. You can eat at the bar over some drinks or in the whimsical front room under the giant clock or the intimate little banquetted back room — there’s even a few primo stools at the kitchen counter.

As for the food, well, it’s just a lot more approachable than in the old digs: clam chowder with bacon and fresh thyme, Caesar salad, applewood grilled salmon, pepper-crusted filet mignon. Flavors are bold and assertive — if not always in perfect balance — and there’s a great deal of attention to texture and presentation. An arugula and goat-cheese salad, for instance, is dressed with piquant roasted peppers and garnished with a storm of crispy, deep-fried wonton shreds.

Mushroom lovers would do well to start with the Portabello Bianco pizza, topped with a king’s ransom of sautéed portabello mushrooms, Madeira, caramelized onion and garlic, and Parmesan cream on a springy crust that’s been gently crisped in the stone pizza oven. In fact, it’s not a bad idea at all to order any of the pizzas the moment you sit down, to share in lieu of an appetizer.

I liked the pepper-crusted rare tuna: sushi-grade tuna packed with cracked black pepper, briefly charred and chilled, then fanned out over a bed of soft, sesame-flavored soba noodles, and garnished with shards of frizzled leek and scallion. This nearly raw fish is not for everyone, to be sure, but the waiter did warn me. More mainstream is the cinnamon grilled pork chops: flavorful, still-moist hunks of boneless pork served with an applely tasting sauce and a great mound of deliciously rich garlic mashed potatoes.

The desserts — The Finish, in new-David’s-speak — are worth the price of admission. They’re all homemade, and include such interesting choices as warm caramelized bread pudding with maple ginger sauce, and a comforting apple-and-berry crisp. The sour-cream-intensive cheesecake of the day (chocolate-coconut, when I had it) is smooth and luscious, but the hands-down winner would have to be the homemade cannoli with ricotta cheese and white chocolate, which aren’t stuffed until you say so. They’re warm, crisp and creamy, and not at all too sweet.

Joan Lang can be reached at joanmlang@aol.com.