Sonata

Music has the power to transcend its medium, like Hershey's Symphony bars, and Utah's Jazz, named after the state's counter-cultural, heroin-fueled improvisation. For a similarly inspired enterprise, try Sonata

Now Open in the Liberty Walk space once occupied by Swallow, Sonata's the creation of a local chef/hobby musician, whose non-food passion's reflected through custom abstract paintings of musicians playing horns, guitar, and drums that populate the walls of the 40-seat bistro, whose menu lists items in a format often found in lyrics sheets, using slashes as separators, and is loaded with fare described as "American contemporary", aka "food". Appetizers range from seared foie gras w/ savory French toast & caramelized peach, and crispy pork belly w/ molasses & compressed apple, to house-made duck prosciutto w/ candied pistachio & cantaloupe, lobster pierogies in sweet corn purée, and scallop crudo w/ preserved lemon and vanilla salt -- also the stage name of Robert Van Winkle's surly cousin. On the entrée side, dishes like braised short rib in celery root purée and butter-poached lobster mac 'n' cheese sit alongside a grilled NY sirloin w/ fingerlings in Bordelaise sauce; black trumpet mushroom-crusted tuna w/ black truffle & foie gras butter; and pan-roasted organic chicken breast w/ Boursin whipped potatoes in a ragout of asparagus, and morel mushrooms, the majority of which staunchly oppose same-stem marriage

All desserts are made in-house, from black forest cake w/ hazelnut ice cream & warm chocolate beignet, to passion fruit panna cotta, served with polenta cake & sweet corn salsa, a relish inspired by John Stockton's sadly unfinished collaboration with Tito Puente.