Troquet

 We saw the writeup of Troquet (in the theater district) in the _Globe_
 a month or so ago, and thought it looked like a good possibility for a
 "special occasion" dinner, of which, by a fortunate coincidence, we
 had one coming up.

 The short answer: we were right.

 The "gimmick" here is that they have a substantial number (25-30, at a
 guess) of wines by the glass, and the menu is arranged with the wines
 in the middle, with the appetizers on the left and the entrees on the
 right, each one lined up with 3 or 4 wines that the chef recommends as
 good choices with the corresponding dish. In general each dish is
 matched with a single varietal. (They also have a separate list of
 bottles, which we didn't even look at.) You can get either a 2-ounce
 taste or a 4-ounce glass of any of the wines.

 This setup is good if (like us) you're moderately ignorant about wine,
 since it makes it easier to choose, assuming you trust the
 restaurant's recommendations (and I see no reason not to). I expect
 it's also nice for a more knowledgeable wine-drinker, who has a lot of
 choices available, and can mix and match to suit him/herself.

 But this is all secondary, right? What about the FOOD?

 We were very happy with everything that we ordered, and there were
 several other tempting choices on the menu. I'm not going to remember
 all the details here, but I'll do my best, John started with diver
 scallops in some sort of green pistou, which was accompanied by tiny
 very sweet fresh tomatoes. (Recommended wines: Chardonnay.) He was
 very happy with it (I tested it, and I also approve.) I had a salad
 described as "hazelnut chèvre tempura" (recommendation: sauvignon
 blanc), which I ordered in part because it didn't look like anything I
 was likely to find elsewhere. It turned out to be a fair-sized mound of
 chèvre enclosed in a crust of lightly-fried batter, topped with greens
 and chopped hazelnuts and surrounded with slices of red and golden
 beet, all in a light vinaigrette. Very nice, and not as filling as one
 might expect.

 John's entree was roast suckling pig with glazed root vegetables
 (cabernet sauvignon), a meltingly tender and richly-flavored hunk of
 pork. I was tempted by that, but settled instead on veal loin with
 porcini mushrooms (merlot). Nice pink tender slices of veal in (I
 presume) a red wine reduction; not a whole lot of vegetables (a bit of
 salsify, I think, and something pureed), but, well, my appetizer was a
 salad.

 Is there room for dessert? Yes there is. At our request they delayed
 taking our dessert order for a while -- we like to wait and let the
 meal settle. We split a chocolate fondant (to die for) and a frozen
 almond mousse sitting in a blueberry compote. The latter, although
 nice, was in my view a slight miscalculation: the mousse was very
 delicately flavored, and if you got it and the blueberries (or even
 their sauce) in the same mouthful, the berries dominated completely.

 Entree portions were modest in size -- not tiny by any means, but the
 people who think "value" is measured by how much they're paying per
 pound would be annoyed. Myself, I like not being served more food than
 I can comfortably eat.

 They also served very nice crusty rolls, one a time but as many as we
 wanted (that's so rare these days) -- it was nice to have half a roll
 left to soak up the extra sauce from my veal! Oh, and *unsalted*
 butter!

 The room is fairly small -- long and narrow -- and feels a bit
 cramped. We had a table right at the front window, facing out onto
 Boylston Street, which was nice because we were insulated from the
 rest of the room; I suspect that further back it could be a bit noisy,
 but we certainly had no difficulty in conducting a conversation, which
 can be a problem at an awful lot of restaurants these days. Service
 was good without being obtrusive (although they never filled water
 glasses -- fortunately we never emptied them); they had enough staff
 to cover what was essentially a full house the whole time we were
 there.

 One negative, which they really ought to fix: the nice artistic coffee
 cups whose handles are too small to get a finger through. I found that
 if I jammed my index finger against the hole and grasped firmly with
 thumb above and middle finger below I was able to hold my cup steady,
 but it didn't feel secure. I wish we had thought to mention this to
 the staff, just in case nobody else has.

 It's pricy, but I've been to significantly more expensive places, some
 of them nowhere near as good. Total for two appetizers, two entrees,
 four 4-ounce glasses of wine, two desserts, coffee and tea, tax and
 tip: [John, if you're reading this, avert your eyes]

 $170. I'd definitely go back.