Bistro 7

But there's nothing so rare anymore about a chic little BYOB with creative food and a commitment to sustainable local ingredients. So many good ones have opened in the last few years, the city has shifted into a hoarding mode, hungrily embracing these affordable little storefront eateries as fast as they can open.

Perhaps we can never get enough of a good thing like this. But there will be a process of natural selection. The more the scene matures with sophisticated new BYOs like Marigold Kitchen, Pumpkin, Funky Lil' Kitchen, and Cafe Fresko, the harder it will be for the others to stand apart.

Bistro 7 appears to be one of the others, a perfectly fine acquisition for the neighborhood, but not exciting enough - at least, not yet - for a special trip from afar. The most novel thing about this four-month-old bistro, perhaps, is that it sits near Second Street and Market like an oasis for thoughtful dining in the heart of Old City's ever pulsing DJ party zone. There are other food-centric destinations here, of course, such as Fork, Farmacia, Chloe and Ristorante Panorama. But as the neighborhood's residential population prepares to explode a la condo, Old City will need more places that cater to the locals and not just the clubbing crowd.

Bistro 7 feels like that kind of space, an unpretentious 42 seater that achieves a sense of style with the simplicity of minimalist green walls, an exposed air duct, and a small open kitchen at the rear. With a soft glow from votives flickering on the windowsill and dangling lights shaped like chef hats, the old Blue in Green room (now just green)is as welcoming as ever. The service staff also seems to know its stuff, taking care of the room with warmth and grace.

The food has potential, too. Chef-owner Michael O'Halloran, a Fork veteran who was recently executive chef at the White Dog Cafe, presents a weekly-changing contemporary menu that is strong on seasonal ingredients and appealing combinations.

Tender little clams bask in a basil-scented broth that sets the earthy spice of chorizo sausage against the sweet burst of fresh peas. Deftly cooked rings of soft calamari tangle with toothsome Tuscan white beans sparked with lemon oil and marjoram. The five-spice crusted duck breast was another highlight, the juicy meat seared with a peppery anise rub that gave the duck a crackling spark of texture and fragrance. A garnish of nutty red jasmine rice stir-fried with cashews was a winning final touch.

O'Halloran knows how to create dishes that exude billows of aroma, seducing the table with the perfume of brown butter and sage, the bright freshness of herbs warming in hot broth, or the fermented tang of caraway seared onto the crust of sweet scallops.

Frustratingly often, though, those aromas weren't followed by the satisfaction of full, round flavors when I took a bite. Underseasoning was just one of a long list of little flubs that tripped up some promising dishes.

The potato gnocchi were admirably light, but so big and undersalted that all you could taste were their starchy interiors - not the sweet roasted squash or sauteed black trumpet mushrooms that garnished them in separate versions.

I loved the curried scent of the Vietnamese sweet potato fritters studded with shrimp, but the texture of the fried cakes was off - too soggy when they should have been crisp. Same problem for the rib-eye steak. The meat from Nimancq Ranch had an excellent beefy tenderness, but the gray exterior lacked the caramelized sear that turns a good steak great.

The braised chicken came in a satisfying North African stew redolent of tomatoes, green olives and preserved lemon. But the chicken itself had been cooked to the point where it was dry inside.

I appreciate the creative thought O'Halloran dedicates to his food. Some dishes, though, were still a couple of small steps removed from full success. The timbale of tuna tartare over rice with creamed avocado and salmon roe was a clever deconstruction of a tuna roll. But the ingredients were off-balance, with an overly thick pillar of rice that dulled the luxurious mouth feel of tartare and made the portion of tuna feel skimpy.

A classic pairing of sweet beets and salty blue cheese was neat recast in the form of a terrine, but the potential for visual impact was wasted - the layers of golden beet and white fennel were stained completely scarlet by the other layers of red beet. The delicately built terrine also fell apart when eaten with the hard chunks of blue cheese. It would have been better as a creamy sauce.

The bacon-wrapped tenderloin was another dish that nailed the right flavors, but suffered from weak composition. Every time I went to slice a medallion of meat, it sank deep into a brothy bowl of black-eyed peas. Those black eyed peas, studded with nuggets of bacon and ribboned with frilly green kale, were a far better match for the delicacy of two crisply fried fillets of fresh trout.

O'Halloran goes to the trouble of baking his own bread, and though it seems remarkably close to a standard baguette to merit the effort, the sourdough slices do add a certain value to an otherwise plain plate of cheeses, which were good enough to be called "artisan," but unexciting on the whole.

For once, I preferred the sweet desserts to the cheese. The chocolate pot de creme (on its better night) was exceptionally rich and creamy, with a subtle tweak of malt to give it a Whopper finish. A jiggly dome of buttermilk panna cotta paired nicely with the simple burst of fresh berries. And jasmine rice pudding offered a pleasantly exotic undertone of creamy coconut and caramel.

It's a shame that so many details seem to still be holding this appealing bistro back, but they're small enough to be easily remedied. With a little more time, it may even grow to become buzz-worthy.