Silver & Stone Restaurant and Wine Bar

Scallops, quail, French red wine and a blown cover in Georgetown

By Mike Sutter
AMERICAN-STATESMAN RESTAURANT CRITIC
Thursday, April 30, 2009

There's something about chef James Ramsey that makes you want to root for him, to see him succeed with his Silver & Stone Restaurant and Wine Bar in Georgetown. He came up from the line at McCormick & Schmick's after graduating from the Texas Culinary Academy in Austin, also armed with a degree in hotel and restaurant management from Texas Tech University. With startup help from his parents, he opened Silver & Stone in October 2008.

At 31 years old, Ramsey has paid his dues, and now he's back in the city where he went to high school, giving Georgetowners a quiet escape for serious-minded food on the fourth floor of the spanking-new Tamiro Plaza, just down the street from (and with a patio view of) the Williamson County Courthouse. And I respect him for cold-calling the office in March to tell me about Silver & Stone, then being unorthodox enough to walk right up to my table at the tail end of my anonymous visit to the restaurant a few weeks later.

Ramsey had figured out who I was, he said, in part by how I'd paced out the meal, by what I ordered and by a few of the questions put to the waiter by me and my guest, a serious man in the world of food and drink. Then there was the credit card. I usually pay with cash, but I didn't have enough on hand to cover the $200-plus tab, so out came the card with my name on it (I've heard of alias cards, but none of my card companies has).

As chagrined as I was to be called out, the recognition came too late for Ramsey to head off problems that undermined his place's high-end mission: a $14 seared scallop appetizer that came out close to cold, two over-reduced and ungarnished soups of squash and spiced lamb that warranted sending back, soggy flatbread at the base of a $17 duck pizza, a $9 bland throwback dessert of flamed cherries jubilee, d?cor that hovered between the fresh paint of spartan modernity and the disconnected adornments of a supper club, and service that was polite and sincere but not refined enough to support the price points.

I'll admit my expectations were high. Breezing through the menu online, I was drawn by descriptions like this: 'annato-rubbed halibut with a cilantro fum?,' 'venison medallions with a brandy peach gastrique,' 'swordfish brochette with lemon basil oil.' And the prices. With appetizers in the teens, an intermezzo section of cheeses and main courses unafraid to hit the high 20s and low 30s, I figured this guy had some chops to back them up.

And between the missteps, glimmers of possibility shone through. From an acrobatic wine list of more than 135 bottles, we found a serviceable Italian Bellerive prosecco ($37) to start, then a silky $45 Charles Joguet cabernet franc to carry the main courses. A grilled quail appetizer ($15) came with the small, nicely salted bird on a base of spicy venison sausage and spaetzle with the unexpected consistency of gnocchi, set off brightly by whole blackberries. A T-bone steak came out a perfect medium-rare, no small feat for a cut with a heat-conducting bone running through its core, but it lost beauty points for its spotty quadrillage (those seared grill-mark grids) and uninspired plating, resting on a shaggy brown bed of breaded potatoes and onions, offset only by a scoop of herbed butter.

The misfiring appetizers showed the barest glimmer of sparks: the three big scallops glistened with tangy grapefruit gastrique that lent welcome acidic counterpoint to an overly sweet Vidalia onion flan; the duck on the pizza was cooked just enough to allow a clean bite-through so that it didn't come off the slice in one big chunk, dragging melted cheese behind it. One main course, a $21 bone-in pork chop seared sweet and tender and served with perfumed, spicy saffron tamales, seemed the best expression of Silver & Stone's aspirations: creative cooking in a high-end setting.

Talking with chef Ramsey afterward (what was I supposed to do, run away?), I found out two things. One: that he was short his No. 2 man in the kitchen and a dishwasher that night. Those are the breaks. Two: that his best-seller is an $8 appetizer of black bean Alfredo nachos. What does that say? That customers are reluctant to pay entr?e prices for appetizers? That they want Mex-Italian fusion cooking? That if nachos are what people really want, then why is he bothering to put coquille St. Jacques on the menu? I don't know. Maybe Silver & Stone and Georgetown are still sizing each other up, trying to figure out what they can do for each other.

My hindsight is clouded by meeting James Ramsey, but I hope they can work it out.

msutter@statesman.com; 912-5902

Silver & Stone Restaurant

and Wine Bar

501 S. Austin Ave., Georgetown

512-868-0565

www.silverstonerestaurant.com

Hours: Lunch 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Mondays-Fridays. Dinner 5 to 10 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays, 5 to 11 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays. Sunday brunch 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Rating (fine dining):

Prices: Appetizers $8 (black bean Alfredo nachos) to $17 (duck flatbread). Soups and salads $4-$14. Main courses $17 (slow-roasted chicken) to $32 (beef filet).

Payment: All major cards.

Bar: Full bar service, with more than 40 beers and several dozen single-malt scotches, cognacs, brandies and blended scotches. Wine list has more than 135 bottles (starting at $19) and 60 by the glass ($5-$28), eight $21 four-wine flights plus ports and dessert wines.

Wheelchair access: Yes.