
DATE: Sunday, April 20, 1997                TAG: 9704170048

SECTION: FLAVOR                  PAGE: F1   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Restaurant Review 

SOURCE: BY M.F. ONDERDONK RESTAURANT CRITIC

LENGTH: 102 lines

REVAMPED SAGE'S IN VIRGINIA BEACH IS BETTER THAN EVER

THE GLAMOROUS whoosh of opening has evaporated out the kitchen door. And though Sage's is less than 2 years old, everything's changed, including the ownership of this bistro in the upscale Thoroughgood section of Virginia Beach, near tony Church Point.

Proprietor Tom Franco has built up a reputation for performing tableside handstands for favored customers. And although you'll sometimes see him upside down, Franco has shown singular good taste - and good sense - in bringing in executive chef Robert Holt, who has revamped the Sage's menu.

The menu still features contemporary American cuisine, but it's more modestly conceived and includes a bill of price-friendly sandwiches and pastas. This new menu is at once less ambitious and more accomplished than that of Pat Galliardi, who opened Sage's in the summer of 1995 for then-owner Jahn Summs.

Galliardi headed into history last autumn, making for Chicago and a post at Charlie Trotter's renowned restaurant. And Summs sold to Franco, who also owns restaurants on the Outer Banks and in Colorado.

As to the upshot of all this, the food at Sage's has noticeably improved. Heading the bill of mid-priced dinner fare are soups and salads, such as a homey 10-bean soup with herbed polenta and warmed mozzarella, a chicken Caesar and mixed greens with ginger-soy vinaigrette.

Salad's superfluous when one of the more substantial starters is ordered, as these are garnished with a generous flutter of mesclun greens.

Salmon gravlax - think slices of translucent dill-flavor - come on thick-cut bread, smoke-infused from a brief encounter with the grill. Wee crabcakes are tasty and sparked by capers, if a little long on the claw meat.

Chicken satay is a single, elegantly skewered strip of breast, though short on the promised peanut/banana sauce. Just seared around the edges, tuna sashimi comes in big, thin, dark-red slices - tasty, provided one can out-wrestle the presentation, with its squiggled wasabi cream and awkward little dish of soy sauce.

Marinated loin of lamb, flavorful and roasted perfect medium rare, is outstanding among the entrees. It's accompanied by so-called garlic mashers which are very light (and might even be considered innocuous).

Likewise sided is the tender and juicy Delmonico steak (ordered rare and, again, perfectly cooked on the night we sampled it) and crisp-skinned roast chicken, with pan gravy sweentened with brown sugar. (Unfortunately, this sauce overwhelmed the dish's scattering of costly shiitake mushrooms.)

Also perfectly turned out was a pan-roasted fillet of red snapper, though an overabundance of macque choux (roasted corn and red peppers - a Cajun dish literally translated as ``fake cabbage'') turned this into something of a two-note entree.

Only shrimp and scallops with pasta bow ties was a disappointment among the dishes we sampled on our two visits. On the night we ordered it, both varieties of shellfish were overcooked and the sauce was bland, tasting of bottled calm juice.

The wine list is a deft selection, frankly biased in California's favor, with some interesting labels from France and elsewhere. The Fortant de France cabernet is grassy - a by-the-glass selection that should be skipped. Erath pinot noir, a $20 selection from Oregon, was rather light and gamay-like. The slightly more expensive Acacia, Saintsbury and Schug pinots are all worth the price difference - though we noted with interest that the Schug sells for $5 more at Sage's than at another bistro on the Southside.

There are eight desserts, all made in-house. Bypassing such temptations as chocolate pecan pie, caramel cheesecake and butterscotch apple crisp, we went for a bittersweet chocolate truffle torte. And we enjoyed it, wriggling deeper into our seats, finishing the last of the Acacia. MEMO: Reviews are based on two unannounced visits by a party of two or

three, unless otherwise noted. The Virginian-Pilot pays for the

reviewer's meal and those of the guests. Previous restaurant reviews are

available on the Fun page of Pilot Online at http://www.pilotonline.com/ ILLUSTRATION: ROY A. BAHLS

Sage's Bistro

1658 Pleasure House Road, Virginia Beach, 460-1691

FOOD *** Out of five

SERVICE ***

AMBIENCE ***

OVERALL ***

ROY A. BAHLS

The new menu at Sage's Bistro, in the Thoroughgood section of

Virginia Beach, still features contemporary American cuisine, but