East End Eats: Boom Bistro

Ask anyone who lives within a moderate radius of Boom Bistro in Sag Harbor if they're heard of it, and they'll tell you that "heard" is the right word - every weekend this summer, Boom and its neighbor, Chili Peppers, have been a party hot spot, with models arriving in limousines, loud music, body painting, and noisy young patrons overflowing onto the street in the small hours.

On Fridays there are DJs and dancing, on Saturday there's live music, on Tuesdays you can join in the ballroom dancing and partake of a free buffet, and Wednesdays there's a hopping employees night.

But what about Sundays, when the weekend is over and the models have washed off the body paint and put themselves in cryonic suspension until the next weekend? We went along at 7:30 p.m. to see how Boom fared on a quiet glitz-free evening.

Harried Servers

Well, first of all, it wasn't quiet, which surprised us but surprised the wait staff much more. There were only two waiters, who were completely swamped, and I think I heard one say that there was only one chef on duty - if that's so, he must have been carried out on a stretcher at the end of the night.

Needless to say, this meant that the service was less than ideal, though heaven knows they were doing everything at a trot. Another thing - however much a waiter prides himself on his ability to remember orders, when there's a table of six, all choosing different things, it's not a bad idea to swallow one's pride and write it down.

"He'll get something wrong," we said, and he did.

Reasonable Wines

Boom has an interesting wine list, arranged by country. And while there is quite a high proportion of more expensive wines, they are fairly priced. An outstanding 1990 Chateau le Loup St. Emilion Grand Cru, as smooth as silk, seemed a bargain at $28.

But what is the rationale behind the music? For most of the evening it was operatic arias interspersed with those moldy oldies that only the Three Tenors sing - "O Sole Mio," "Funiculi, Funicula" - none of which you could hear properly, had you wished to do so, which is unlikely.

There is a popular outdoor eating area, from which you can see the masts of boats in the harbor if not the water itself, and a huge, barnlike interior with exposed trusses. The bar and lounge areas are jammed on happening nights but seem sadly bare on Sundays.

Appetizers range from $7 to $12 and everything we tried was excellent. The produce is very fresh, of good quality and carefully chosen, and the presentation is very pretty.

There were two fine carpaccios: a lustrous beef carpaccio with artichoke, onions, capers, and olive oil over which roughly grated Parmesan had been sprinkled, and also delicate slices of tuna, which were lightly seared on the outside.

The poached salmon terrine, held together with a light lemony aspic, was outstandingly good, as were the fricaseed escargots with mushrooms, which came in a featherlight pastry bubble.

Ups And Downs

We tried the mixed green salad with goat cheese, which was fresh and very carefully dressed, and the onion soup, which was a universal clone but, apart from being a little sweet, was fine.

But we didn't bat 1.000 on the entrees, which range in price from $15 to $29 with 65 percent being over $20.

The two fish dishes we tried, both as fresh as could be, passed with flying colors: A grilled sea bass fillet with fennel and tomato puree was cooked to the point of perfection, with the sharp accompanying flavors enhancing the subtle flavor of the fish. The salmon came crisply cooked in the merest suggestion of a coating of some sort - maybe just rolled in flour - without losing any of its moisture. The accompanying asparagus, peppers, and tapenade were not a success.

The roasted duck breast came with a lovely sauce of honey, pears, and spices, and the roast chicken could not be faulted - crispy skin, tender flesh, and an excellent sauce.

Surprise!

But the pastas were losers. A penne with eggplant, fresh tomato, herbs, and spicy tomato sauce was as dull as dishwater and the linguine frutti di mare was really nasty tasting and had to be sent back.

The desserts did not seem fresh and were all awful.

Having discussed the prices and decided that they were a little too high for what was offered - $15 for a burger, for example - along comes the bill. To our surprise, every Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday evening 50 percent is taken off the menu prices. Well, that perked us up.

At those prices, the meal was a bargain. In fact, while the last days of summer are here, you could hardly do better than to go early, choose carefully, and eat on the terrace on 50-percent-off nights. Unless, of course, you're a night life type, in which case you've probably been shoehorning your way through Boom Bistro's doors on Saturdays all summer long.

On the minus side, the big dining area was both stuffy and rather funereal (gemutlich is certainly not a word that comes to mind), the wait staff in a dither, particularly the man who hardly spoke English, and the food erratic - predominantly excellent but with irritating pockets of bad.