Alex Azzam was born in England and studied cooking at the renowned Le Cordon Bleu in Paris. His resume reads like a diplomat's passport: Eastern Europe, Egypt, Tunisia, Cyprus, Italy, Spain and, for the past several years, the United States. Most recently, he was chef/proprietor of the now-shuttered Ciao! Osteria in Apex, whose menu was a travelogue of the Italian segment of his culinary wanderings.
618 Bistro, which Azzam opened in November, offers a much broader sampling of the chef's travels. In the space of about a dozen small plate offerings and a like number of large plates, the chef proposes to lead us on a globetrotting adventure from Japanese sushi to Mediterranean olive hummus with spicy Bulgarian feta. Unfortunately, the tour guide too often loses his way.
The journey gets off to a promising start with buttery petals of house-smoked salmon paired with a salad of grilled romaine in a peppercorn mango vinaigrette. Then the tour boat promptly runs aground with miniature "crispy" crab cakes that are neither crispy nor particularly generous with the crabmeat.
Calamari are more deserving of their "crispy" adjective in the menu description, if only marginally so. Szechwan duck breast, tender and redolent of Asian spices, is a rewarding small plate destination, if you don't mind the canned Mandarin orange segments in the accompanying iceberg lettuce salad.
Navigating the waters of the large plate offering is likewise tricky. Take a detour around the black cod skordalia, which features fish so overcooked that even the attractive ribbon of zucchini in which it's wrapped can't save it. The accompanying mashed fingerling potatoes, Azzam's contemporary riff on skordalia, are tasty enough, though their flavor bears no resemblance to the Greek dish that inspired them.
I'd sail on by the Thai steamed seafood, too, which serves up a generous enough portion of clams, mussels and shrimp (though the shrimp are overcooked) and noodles (good, but not the "udon noodles" that the menu promises) in a broth that's redolent of ginger, but otherwise not particularly Thai.
Head to shore
You're better off going ashore, where the ports of call include penne tapenade with smoked roasted chicken in olive paste and ricotta sauce, grilled hanger steak with a raspberry peppercorn demi-glace and a distinctive graham cracker-breaded veal pané.
The five-spice ginger lamb rack is OK but, as guide books would put it, hardly worth a detour. The rack is a generous four bones, and the organic Colorado lamb is tasty without being gamy. Be advised, though, that it can be chewy, especially if you order it rare. And don't even bother putting your fork into the accompanying risotto, which is cooked to such a dense mass that it's hardly identifiable as risotto.
A worthier destination, if you're in the mood for lamb, is the lamb burger with raisin chutney. Though it's billed as 8 ounces and listed under the large plates heading, it's small enough to allow for a guilt-free side trip to the pastry cart. House-made desserts, according to our server, include tiramisu and a bread pudding whose flavor is classic but whose texture leans more toward pudding than bread.
The wine list is modest in length but varied, and it includes a commendable number of offbeat selections. A handful of bottled beers is offered, as are house specialty cocktails such as the Indian Summer Martini (Maker's Mark bourbon, sherry, pomegranate juice and a squeeze of lemon).
Located in the new Marketplace at Lake Boone shopping center, 618 Bistro is laid out in a strikingly unusual L shape, divided into a long, narrow main dining room with a view of the open kitchen and a larger area serving as a combination dining room and lounge. The chic contemporary decor, done in rich shades of red, black and dusty rose, sets an urbane mood that's well-suited to the menu.
If only the menu lived up to its part of the bargain. Alex Azzam is certainly capable of better, as he demonstrated convincingly at Ciao! Osteria. It's tempting to wonder how much time the chef is actually spending in the kitchen. Or maybe he's already got his sights set on another destination.
