Road Eats

Inhabit the Winds

By G.A. Benton

REBECCA ZIMMER PHOTO

A swarm of questions would blink in my brain that perfect summer evening like the squadrons of fireflies flashing throughout the night. Most queries were answered easily, but one still haunts me.

This all started on a breezy, one-hour cruise to Yellow Springs to visit a restaurant I've loved for years called the Winds Cafe and Bakery.

These questions — and some of their answers — flared like carnival lights: Had the spirited village become a ghost town now that Antioch College was closed down? (No.) Was the Winds Cafe really that great? (Yes.) Or do I romanticize this place? (Yes, again.) How much of that duck fat am I going to eat? (All of it.) And how can I not mention him? (I'll return to this later.)

If you've never been to the Winds, stop reading immediately and jump into your car, because it's wonderful. Open since the late '70s, the Winds was local and seasonal long before they were such trendy buzzwords.

It's a small restaurant, and show-up-in-jeans-or-shorts casual. But the cuisine — which focuses on creatively getting the most out of great fresh ingredients, belies this informality.

Artsy and funky, with a good touch of country inn thrown in, the Winds allows folksy, quilty fabric art to share wall space with edgier, painted, more "courant" stuff. A handsome wood-planked floor supports simple, well-used wooden chairs and tables, and a couple of stage-set-like partial walls carve up the otherwise rectangular space.

REBECCA ZIMMER PHOTO

Even before ordering, the Winds exceeds the overall performance of too many other eateries with its delicious gratis olives marinated in orange (brings out their fruitiness), three kinds of Winds-baked bread and two kinds of butter.

But of course, order I did. My dining partner and I took advantage of the Winds' generous policy of serving reduced-cost, half-sized portions and their smartly manageable handful of featured seasonal wines sold at nice prices (like a bottle of 2006 Fattoria Laila — a floral, golden verdicchio with a surprisingly substantial, soft body and an exceedingly crisp finish — a steal at $21; and an opulent and spicy 2006 Hendry Napa Valley Pinot Noir, $18 per quartino).

Foodwise, we dug Panko-Crusted Oysters with an anchovy aioli and raved over smoky Nueske bacon crisply broiled and loosely cordoned around "first of the season" figs with a dab of melted goat cheese ($11). That marvelous starter was chewy, creamy, salty, sweet and just the right amount of gamey.

REBECCA ZIMMER PHOTO

The rhythmically named Tomatomania salad ($6 with dinner) was a gleaming red rush of mixed local tomatoes encircling super-fresh dark lettuces. It was given more richness and texture from pine nuts and tossed in a lemony, cheese-leaning but refreshingly uncreamy dressing.

The likewise lemony Caesar ($6 with dinner) was also relatively light and earned distinction from its tangle of caper berries, sublime homemade crouton "wedges," white anchovies and shards of manchego cheese.

With its tender, juicy pink meat fanned out and its fat aromatically, complexly dry-rubbed and crusted, we devoured every nuanced ounce of the La Belle Farms Magret Duck ($24). The waterfowl came banked against a monstrous mass of mashed sweet potatoes chunky with Nueske bacon. Alleviating some of the richness was an unexpectedly tart, smoky tomatillo sauce for the duck and fresh lime juice worked into the spuds.

A nifty Stacked Enchilada ($20) combined toasted corn wrappers with summertime veggies treated with firm respect, plus jack cheese and a brazenly bracing, spicy-hot mole rojo. It was served with sides of chili-heat-leavening rice made lively and green with parsley and cilantro and an obviously just-off-the-cob sweet white corn salad.

As I turn toward dessert, let me return to the nagging question of "mentioning him." There's a limelight-shunning national celebrity known to frequent the Winds. He was there when I was, looking thin and vulnerable in his jeans and T-shirt. And even though he clearly wanted to be left alone, he kindly allowed me to chat him up a bit.

Later, as I finished off my Gateau Allard — a "cake" made out of local early raspberries, baked-here decrusted sourdough bread and a sour cream-based icing — I thought of him again. You see, that dessert was like his comedy: it was honest, brilliantly constructed and never bothered to sugar-coat any of its tartness — whether you like that sort of thing or not. Without question, I found it to be fresh and utterly delicious.

June 26, 2008

Copyright ? 2008 Columbus Alive, Inc. All rights reserved.