Cassis

The space is pleasing. The food is startlingly good--primarily French, intensely-flavored. I'm a repeat customer, though I live within walking distance of several very good restaurants in Squirrel Hill & Pt. Breeze. There is no better unsweetened hot-bacon-themed salad than the one here. Every dish sings and zings with flavor, and no detail is overlooked: the carrots that garnish some dishes are blanched and then lightly pickled in a dill seed vinegar, for example, and the large fresh blackberries are marinaded in Cassis liqueur and then poured over and around a perfect pound cake with whipped cream for the signature dessert. There is richness in the homemade pastries (the Galette is a wonderfully buttery Parisian-style dough, not a Normandy-style buckwheat crepe) and in the unctuous stews that show up as specials. But it's not at all the "stuff stuff with heavy" cooking that "french food" may bring to mind. There are also some dishes that look more to the south, with goat cheese, roasted red peppers, etc. If I were planning a fancy dinner with a mix of vegetarian and carnivorous guests, Cassis would spring immediately to mind.