Comfort foods in a cavernous space

Anthem is the product of one of these makeovers. Previously, Commonwealth Fish & Beer Co. filled the cavernous space a few blocks from North Station and the FleetCenter, seemingly a perfect fit for sports fans or rock concertgoers. Several months ago, the owners, the Briar Group, retrofitted it, lightly redoing the decor and bringing in Robert Fathman, chef of Azure, which they also own, to create a much different kind of menu.

Although Fathman describes the food as comfort, it's decidedly on the fancy end of comfort with such high-end ingredients as Woodbury's clams and Niman Ranch pork. Yet the menu covers many bases, from fried calamari and macaroni-and-cheese to medallions of monkfish with rock shrimp, at prices that stay under $20 for main dishes.

With its dark interior, high ceilings, and yawning space, Anthem can seem "dramatic," as general manager Robert George calls it in a phone interview -- or a little gloomy if the night is quiet. On a Sunday in December, it's the latter and the lack of activity seems to affect the few waitstaff, veritably sleepwalking through the evening.

A glass of soda is flat, and the wait for a replacement long. The roasted pumpkin soup is so sweet that it tastes as though pie filling had been melted into a bowl. Grilled white pizza has a soggy crust. A Cuban sandwich of pulled pork, ham, salami, and red pepper aioli is curiously tasteless.

But then other dishes swing the pendulum the other way. An appetizer of portobello mushrooms, shaved paper-thin like carpaccio, has a sparkle with plenty of garlic croutons and a shower of pecorino Romano. A saltshaker seems to have been let loose on top of a dish of pan-roasted salmon and lentils. But cod is perfectly fried, crisp, and greaseless with a creamy, moist interior. And the hush puppies with the fish and a creamy coleslaw are delicious.