A dining room gone rogue

Then there’s the name. One would expect it to pertain to the food. Yet there are no suggested matchups of dishes and wine, or appetizers and entrees, or anything of the sort. The name’s implications certainly aren’t amorous - the only hookups likely to happen in this setting would involve laptops. On a recent evening, the one other party in the dining room is a pair of businessmen tapping away. So why Pairings?

Where the decor has lost personality, the fare has gained it, explicitly. The restaurant has a tagline. It is: “Food & drink with personality.’’ Isn’t that the kind of thing people say when they’re trying to fix you up with a less-than-comely blind date? Except then there’s usually a modifying adjective. Pairings doesn’t even get a “great.’’ This could lead a diner to expectations, also not great.

But the food does have personality, much more than that at many new restaurants around town. It even has beauty, albeit an unconventional sort, with strange fashion choices made on the plate. Bean’s preparations are ambitious and eccentric and sometimes interesting and often unsuccessful, in part or in whole. But wow - it’s different from what he was doing at Bonfire. That menu offered nachos, tacos, steaks. This one involves dishes with six or seven different components sparring for attention, unexpected ingredient combinations (say, scallops, peanuts, pork, and peppadews), and emulsions in every shade of the rainbow, applied in dots, smears, and swirls.

Why take this direction? It’s a fascinating departure, but an awfully unusual one in these conservative, comfort-food times (though half the menu is small plates and nothing exceeds $30, right on trend). Has Bean gone rogue?