Plates get a new spin

Small plate restaurants make for the best dates: 1) they promote sharing and conversation, and 2) they make your brat look huge! Prepare for your date to become speechless, at Riffs.

The 90-seat Riffs serves up “liberal-sized appetizer portions” of American cuisine "with an international influence" in the former BookEnd Cafe space, now knick-knacked-out with found objects like a gigantic wheat cutter from Italy that looks like a yin yang, and a big ball of string, presumably used to entertain Andres Galarraga between courses.

Seafood shareables include corn/ crab fritters with chipotle aioli and burnt lime, cracker-meal-fried Delaware oysters with bacon & eggs/ horseradish/ burnt lemon, seared sea scallops plated with corned beef hash/ parsley/ lemon caper brown butter, and a clam and bacon pizza -- eat it all yourself, and you'll rightfully be called a shellfish pig.

For those looking to stay grounded, there are grilled ground lamb kebabs with harissa eggplant/ tzatziki/ Israeli salad, a pork scallopini saltimbocca with grilled portobello/ apricot mostardo, and a corn/ black bean relish with avocado mash, also a captivating dramedy about Korean war doctors who bravely dare to pay an extra $1.25 at Chipotle.

They've also got plenty of booze to complement the eats, including CO-centric taps like Great Divide's Hades & Titan IPA, plus Bristol Laughing Lab's Scottish Ale, all of which ironically promote sharing and conversation, despite doing nothing positive for your brat.