Dining Spotlight: Circa offers Sunday sampling that defies time

Time flies when you're having fine French dishes. It's not a controversial notion, I know, but I was genuinely surprised at how easily two hours disappeared when we went Downtown to Circa on Sunday to try the five-part tasting menu -- called Très Franais! -- that chef John Bragg offers on a night when many restaurants are closed.

Photos by Ben FantSpecial to The Commercial Appeal

Chef John Bragg garnishes a dish before it goes to the dining room at Circa, on South Main.

The New York strip on Circa's regular menu is served "Oscar-style," with crabmeat and hollandaise.

The built-in wine racks in Circa's dining room provide storage for bottles as well as privacy for diners.

Maybe it was the fact that we began with soupe à l'oignon and ended with tarte tatin, but my dinner at Circa reminded me of a couple of months I spent in Paris, when the people I knew there were all going to La Varenne cooking school, and I got to go along on their nighttime reconnaissance. We would sit down to a table at 8 or 9 p.m., and three hours would pass before we got up again. Ingeniously presented original dishes -- our language skills weren't the best, and we sometimes got surprises -- or French classics that were perfectly rendered (as they are at Circa, too) arrived at regular intervals. We

never skipped a course. We talked about the food, but not only. We gossiped about the other La Varenne students, what we'd seen on the streets, read in the Herald Tribune.

The five-course meal chef Bragg is offering on Sundays through October is the 14th tasting menu he's put together in the past year. It starts with his excellent onion soup, a classic version with a fine beef broth, croutons and a soft cap of hot Gruyère, which he paired with another classic of its type, the 2005 Chateau Graville-Lacoste, a refreshingly steely Graves.

And it inspires free-form conversation, just like those meals I remember from Paris.

My friend and I were talking about the election and our favorite op-ed columnists when a small mound of roasted potatoes arrived, bedded in goat cheese with a hint of bacon, and encircled by a balsamic vinegar reduction so dark, I thought at first it was chocolate sauce. This delicious warm potato salad, a petatou, came with a pleasant chardonnay, the 2006 Louis Jadot Pouilly-Fuissé.

We had moved on to the global economy just about the time several generous slices of juicy pork tenderloin arrived in a rich gravy studded with big cloves of roasted garlic, and accompanied by a sturdy grenache-syrah blend, a Verget du Sud Vin de Pays 2003. Our plates were clean white surfaces when the server came to clear away the course. The menu says these are tasting portions, but they seemed more generous than that term implies.

We had gotten to our personal economies when the salmon and spinach in puff pastry arrived with crisp greens that looked just like the ones I got Saturday morning at Memphis Farmers Market. A pleasant Beaujolais -- the 2005 Michel Chignard Fleurie -- arrived at the same time.

And by the time we got to the subject of our children, a dense apple tart with a scoop of extremely rich and creamy vanilla ice cream and a fringe of crème Anglaise and strawberry sauce was delivered. With it was a lustrous golden Sauternes, a 2003 Chateau Roumieu-Lacoste, that tasted of honey and jam.

We walked around a few minutes after dinner to admire the space, which is long and narrow, divided by partitions of blond wood with wavy cutouts that provide privacy for all the tables, but don't make you feel isolated. The design suggests a wine cellar, made warm and stylish by the contours and honey-colored wood. It's not surprising that it's winning design awards, most recently in the September issue of Architectural Record magazine.

Considering that the food is fairly flawless, the wines are good to excellent, and the service is fluid, this is a bargain at $65 ($45 without the wine). The regular Circa menu is also available on Sunday nights, but why struggle with choices when an expert has already composed a meal for you?

Bragg plans to offer a holiday version of the tasting menu in November.

--Peggy Burch: 529-2392

Circa

Address: 119 S. Main

Telephone: (901) 522-1488

Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday; 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday; 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday.

Price: $$$$

No smoking.

Handicapped access: Yes

Alcoholic beverages: Full bar.

Don't miss: The "Circa Sundays" tasting menu.

What's hot: Chef John Bragg's renditions of classic French dishes.

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