Reinventing Hugo’s

New owner and chef rock the house

By Joan Lang

NEW HU’: Rob Evans and Nancy Pugh.

I don’t use the word “yummy” very often. Writing about food for the past 15 years, I’m always on the lookout for new ways to say delicious, but “yummy”

is one of those words that gets ripped out almost involuntarily, more like an expletive than a vocabulary choice. My husband’s the same way — more the type of guy to use the Brooklyn Alphabet than some Barbie-doll word like “yummy.” But when we rolled out of Hugo’s after dinner last night, we looked at each other and said, “Wow, that was yummy!”

The meal the week before was equally fabulous. The new chef-owner of Hugo’s, you see, really knows how to cook. Rob Evans and his fiancée and partner, Nancy Pugh, may have just taken over this longtime Portland favorite several weeks ago, but they’re already well on their way to changing the way people think about “local food.” Lobster, yes, but slow-roasted in the tail and served with a saffron lobster-stock reduction. Cod, sure — seared and bedded on a bacon-flecked hash of brussels sprouts and potatoes. And the blueberries are turned into a sorbet that appears between courses of a show-stopping six-course Taste of Maine menu.

Evans has cooked at some of the top restaurants in the country, including The Inn at Little Washington in Washington, Virginia, and The French Laundry in Yountville, California. Well-traveled food lovers will recognize some of the techniques popularized by Thomas Keller at The French Laundry, where all the meals are a well-constructed progression of as many as eight or nine small courses.

Evans has learned his lessons well, producing some of the best food I’ve tasted in this state. He is a master of nuanced, balanced flavors, of intriguing textures and intelligent combinations of ingredients. He wields all the instruments of a classical, professional kitchen: the tamis and the whisk, the sauté pan and the stockpot. His sauces are out of this world.

Make no mistake, however: for some folks, this kind of food will be out of the envelope entirely. Anyone looking for a lobster dinner or “just a steak” should go elsewhere. The portions are rather small, and the presentations can be a bit precious — Evans’s food would be perfectly at home in New York or San Francisco or any other big city. And it will cost two people a good $100 to dine properly here; by that I mean an appetizer and an entrée and dessert, along with a bottle of wine.

An appetizer of parsnip “angolotti” [sic] is absolutely smashing, the soft pillows of delicate pasta enfolding sweet-tasting caramelized parsnip puree in a buttery, sage-scented broth with the crunch of toasted hazelnuts. Sweetbreads, crisply sautéed and satisfying, are served over a flavorful savory bread pudding, redolent of rosemary. Hugo’s Chicken Salad unfolds and delights, bite after bite: chopped frisee greens mixed with dicings of chicken confit and smoky bacon, topped with a poached egg. The egg yolk runs into the salad and mixes with the subtle dressing, adding richness and savor. More than most of the dishes, I wish this one were just a little bit bigger.

Between appetizer and entrée comes a little freebie; when we were there a tiny bowl of gorgeously made leek-and-potato soup, elevated to the heights with an aromatic drizzle of truffle oil. In fact, the only clinker in two meals was a Shiitake Mushroom Terrine, layers of roasted mushrooms, wrapped in Romaine lettuce and chilled, then sliced and served in an almost laughably small portion — the germ of an interesting idea is there, but it needs more work.

Not so the delicious duck confit on a bed of creamy white beans and fall vegetables, soothing and fabulously flavorful. Something called Beef, Beef, & Beef may sound like a conceit but it’s not, rather a toothsome trio of rare-seared tenderloin, gently braised beef cheek (rich and gelatinous, like shortribs) and a sensationally beefy-tasting veal demi glace, all served over potato puree so creamy that it has to have been made by hand, pushed through a food mill or sieve to make it smooth as silk.

That Slow Roasted Lobster Tail will change the way you think about lobster, having been ever-so-gently roasted in butter in a slow oven, producing remarkably tender, moist results. By comparison, the Crispy Seared Atlantic Cod is almost austere, but still a wonderment of different tastes and textures — crisp and soft, smoky and comforting.

Considering there’s no pastry chef, the desserts are nothing short of miraculous, and all made in house with the exception of an otherwise lovely chocolate ganache torte. Panna cotta (Italian for “cooked cream”) is a trembling, mousselike dream of chocolate under a cloud of whipped cream. Crème Chantilly with fresh raspberries is boozily Grand Marnier’d and topped with a crisp nut tuille. But do not pass up the wonderful Lemon Thyme Crème Brule, with its perfect texture and haunting herbal flavor.

One only wishes the service was as up to snuff. There is confusion about reservations, delays until visitations (although the kitchen stays on cue), bread that never appears, a general lack of polish. And just to be peevish, the bread service needs work, too. Evans makes his own good Irish Soda Bread, but it’s not the right vehicle for mopping up all those wonderful sauces, and once we got a basket with two tiny slices, stale at the edges.

But Hugo’s is a work in progress, and I’d be surprised if such things didn’t improve. Starting on a shoestring, Pugh and Evans have left much of the original restaurant intact, buying only top-of-the-line Riedel wine glasses and some nice new china to start. They have many plans, though. In the next few weeks, expect stylish new chairs to replace the tacky stacking banquet numbers, and an enlarged new bar with its own menu of half-portions and other small plates. The wine list, serviceable but small now, will be enlarged. And on Sundays, the new owners promise special wine dinners in league with The Clown. And Evans hopes to keep pushing the creative envelope with his menu. All I can is yummy.

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