Super dishes in place of superstition

On a recent evening at the bar, an expense accounter is foisting carpaccio on a colleague. “You have to taste this food,’’ he says. “It’s as good as Mistral!’’ Beside them sits a regular, eating solo with a magazine in his new canteen. Coombs says he wants Deuxave to fill a void for residents looking for less-expensive options than, say, Clio. “We aim to be the Oleana or Craigie on Main of Back Bay,’’ he told the Globe in June.

Sound ambitious? You may know Coombs from Dorchester’s dbar, his first venture with Piccini, where he serves upscale comfort food. Or you may know him from TV — he was a contestant on the Food Network show “Chopped.’’ Before that, he was at Troquet, Aujourd’hui, the Inn at Little Washington in Virginia, Nantucket’s Topper’s at the Wauwinet, and Blue Ginger. Somewhere in there, he went to the Culinary Institute of America. He is 26. Yes, he is ambitious, and his dishes show it.

Is there a better canvas for culinary ambition than duck? So much can be done with a bird. At Deuxave, they butcher them in house — 10 cases a week, Coombs says later by phone. They use every bit. Necks and giblets are roasted for stock, fat is rendered for frying. The legs become confit you dream about, served in duck jus enriched with the birds’ livers, along with white beans, cranberry coulis, and herb salad.