While Stella Blu still seems to be finding its personality - the current vibe is a friendly hybrid of sophisticated yet approachable - tapas work well as a food concept there. Many patrons stop in for drinks at the restaurant's long granite bar, and tapas make a good accompaniment, much like the passed hors d'oeuvres at a nice cocktail party.
The tapas range widely, from homey to elegant. The lobster mac-n-cheese spring rolls ($11) are crunchy and surprisingly light, making a quirky but classy sidekick to a mixed drink.
The Stella fries ($6) are topped with manchego and cheddar cheeses and then baked until piping hot. These fries require a fork, both because of their temperature and because you find yourself wanting to scrape every last dribble of melted cheese out of the dish. Their flavor more than matched the caloric punch.
One of my personal favorites was the eggplant rollatini ($6), thinly sliced and breaded eggplant rolled around fresh ricotta and covered with marinara and sprightly green herbs. The result was a lovely balance of tart tomatoes and creamy cheese.
The albondigas ($8), a half-dozen hearty Spanish meatballs, came in a wonderfully sweet tomato-olive sauce. Served steaming hot in a crock, this was excellent cold-weather fare.
I'm a fan of fish tacos, and Stella Blu's rendition, if a tad pricey at $10, didn't disappoint. Slender fingers of fried fish are appealingly paired with crunchy, sweet corn, among other fillings. The tasty spears of fried fish are also available as stand-alone cod fritters ($4) served with a chipotle sauce.
An apple and fennel salad ($8) won points for presentation, arriving in an edible "bowl" made of two thin slices of cucumber encircling the greens. Packed with savory ingredients - Granny Smith apples, sliced fennel, arugula, cranberries, pumpkin seeds, and a cider vinaigrette drizzle - the salad itself somehow came across as less than the sum of its parts, just a bit lacking in pizzazz.
