OUR REVIEW OF THE LODGE AT BAYOU BEND

Question: When is a landmark restaurant not a landmark restaurant? Answer: When it’s actually a landmark restaurant location.

All of our standard assumptions about restaurant identity got a swift kick recently when the wild game eatery known for 30 years as Rainbow Lodge hoofed it across town to the location long associated with Old French La Tour d’Argent. That, we suppose, makes it a beloved local landmark inside a beloved local landmark, a fact worth pondering all by itself. But the best news among all these musical forks is the new restaurant that has risen where Rainbow Lodge used to be, a stylish yet totally comfortable food and wine emporium on the banks of Buffalo Bayou called The Lodge at Bayou Bend.

For all but the hunters in any crowd, the most welcome change in these nature-blessed digs is that Rainbow Lodge took all those sad-eyed game heads with it. In times past, they seemed to not only fill every inch of wall but clutter the very airspace with their crazy quilt of lifeless horns and antlers. More than a few customers complained the animals were “looking at them” in a really unfriendly way, accusing them no doubt of taking part in the slaughter. The new, cleaner décor suffers from no such angst: it’s a kind of upscale Colorado-Meets-Wyoming residence built of dark wood and windows, the glass not only inviting in the gracefully illuminated trees at night but making the whole feeling one of Big Sky Country.

This sea change on the bayou started with the decision of longtime property owner Fred Welling to ask his high-profile tenant to move so he could create a restaurant that he and his son Derek could actually form. Once the move was accomplished, and rumors that the beloved building was being torn down to build a highrise quashed, the Wellings could set out on a path to make their personal vision stick. The gardens have been manicured yet still feel strikingly wild for being a few steps off Memorial so close to downtown. Lights, pools, fountains and pathways have been added or improved, showing the family’s cards a little when it comes to becoming a top-shelf weddings venue.

And best of all, a team has been built around the last great chef at the old Rainbow Lodge, a guy who enjoys cooking wild game but by no means wishes to be typecast. Matt Maroni serves a substantial list of red meats at The Lodge, but it’s clear when he’s talking to you tableside that his heart is in the more complex and personal constructions. Some of those are seriously good, while others feature a touch of whimsy – a facet seldom seen in Big Meat dining palaces. The result is a light and creative touch that surprises as often as it fascinates.

Appetizers, for instance, are billed as Palate Teasers and include both an excellent crab cake with tomato confit, poached red onion, crispy artichoke and fennel buttermilk aioli and a smile-to-your-lips little platter called the Lobster Trio. Besides your basic lobster claw with an apple-vanilla gastrique, this joyride takes in a salty-sweet lobster “club sandwich” and a lush lobster truffle “cappuccino.” As we say, the whole thing is as much about smiling as eating. Another must-have starter is the grilled quail breast, which seems simple enough - until you Deep South it with cheddar biscuit, braised greens and a hollandaise kicked up with jalapeno duck sausage.

Almost in answer to anyone trapped in a Rainbow Lodge time warp, The Lodge serves some serious seafood entrees – not just the mandatory things old-fashioned steakhouses put on the menu. And while Maroni is ever-quick to use words like “easy” and “simple,” his dishes can have a whole lot shaking, as it were. Yellowfin tuna, for instance, is barely seared, but then labor-intensively outfitted with yellow pepper aioli, sprout leaves, sweet onion rings, golden potato and olive vinaigrette. Even better, we think, is the pan-roasted grouper with a savory fricasee of veal sweetbreads, trumpet royale mushrooms, several purees involving root vegetables – and then, from out of nowhere, razor clams. Of course, some might shout “overkill!” by this point. But Maroni has convinced us he has a deft hand with these mixtures, and we are inclined to trust him. Certainly, anyone relishing every morsel of his Harris Ranch beef tenderloin with truffle potato emulsion, wild mushroom ragout, a fluffy-soft poached egg and herb bordelaise would let the chef choose the entrée and probably the entire menu from this day forward.

Nigerian-born pastry chef Edet Okon seems to blend the best of Paris with the best of Vienna whenever he comes out to play. Desserts are satisfying yet not particularly gargantuan, the pastry guy following Maroni’s lead in preferring many perfect little pleasures to a single big and heavy one. A recent threesome of Okon’s best desserts included a priceless strawberry “fraisier” blending mousse with maybe souflee glace, another dish of the world’s smallest raspberry jellyrolls (no, that’s not what they’re called, but it’s what they are – Guinness Book, take note!) and yet another soft, delicate, air-whipped confection rolled in and around crunch-happy pistachios.

In the dining room, where all these goods things find their resolution, each meal is the province of GM Jason Morgan and especially of wine steward extraordinaire David Orchard. Having handpicked the wines on the Lodge’s list, Orchard can give you all the detail you want on any bottle, half-bottle or glass – he’s like a delightfully obsessed baseball commentator, full of oenological batting averages and ERAs - along with dead-on suggestions for pairings. Considering the number of tracks some of Maroni’s dishes run on, this is a great service to have. The next time you try choosing a wine to go with jalapeno duck sausage hollandaise, you’ll have some appreciation of Orchard’s mastery.