Bar Mezzana

Bar Mezzana is the type of ground-floor restaurant that every condo developer dreams of having as a sales tool—a venue that can genuinely increase property values while also serving the surrounding community and the entire city. It offers a bar with appetizers that are filling enough to create a meal for a reasonable price, generously portioned entrées and a dining area that seems safe, energetic, and open to people of all ages (if not many income levels). It's also assisting in the definition of a neighborhood that's just getting started: the enormous Ink Block development between Chinatown and the South End, which was mostly conceived by developers.

Bar Mezzana is gold-plated in ways other than real estate. He's blending Menton's skill and immaculate presentation with rustic Italian food that he appears to have intuitively comprehended, much as Barbara Lynch did at Galleria Italiana and subsequently No. 9. Desserts are mostly gelato-based and minimal, but pastry chef Christina Larson makes a beautifully crisp crostata dough, a cross between pie crust and shortbread—with crunchy sugar on top. It’s so good you won’t really care what the featured fruit is ($10).

Location: 360 Harrison Ave, Boston, MA 02118

Website: www.barmezzana.com