Kent Rathbun (Abacus, Jasper’s, etc.) calls his Blue Plate Kitchen a celebration of the entire cooking process, from the harvest all the way through to the licked-clean plate. Relish the Dr. Pepper-mopped rotisserie chicken. Or those fine Brussels sprouts with apple-smoked bacon (there was a time we hid these behind the vacuum tubes in the B&W TV to avoid their nutritious goodness).

Get in there on BBQ Monday and choose from a trio of smoked meats—beef brisket, pork, and turkey—and mix and match to your ticker’s contentedness with a side of housemade fresh cornbread. Housemade potato chips are irresistible things: crisp, thin, bronzed, sodden with just the right amount of fat, and well dusted in salt. It’s not all comfy grub though. The seafood coleslaw grabs at haute with both fists: a handsome towering mound of shredded Napa and red cabbage, red onion, carrot, tortilla strips, and cheese with halved shrimp hooks and bits of crab and lobster meat smothered in cilantro-lime vinaigrette.

The space is handsome with linoleum tile floors, resplendent stone and wood surfaces, simple wood and metal chairs surrounding even simpler wood tables, and plasma TV-sized mirrors emblazoning the soffits above the open kitchen. A gas-fired hearth in the foyer anchors a seating area with small tables hewn from logs and a stack of wood near the host stand—dazzling rusticity. Wonder what magic they can work with lima beans...