Innovative touches from the kitchen

These may be good places to conduct business, gather after work, or cavort on weekends. They make the waterfront feel like a more-established destination. And they are an update from Jimmy’s Harborside. But one would be hard-pressed to argue that they are innovative (Temazcal’s iPad menus notwithstanding). Sleek, shiny, and substantial, they are a far cry from the kind of small, independent restaurant that moves Boston’s food scene forward — the culinary counterpart to the companies the city hopes to woo in shaping the evolution of Boston business.

Still, innovation happens, sometimes in unlikely places. Case in point: 606 Congress, in the Renaissance Boston Waterfront, a Marriott hotel. An airy room with blue upholstery and wood finishes, it looks like a perfectly nice but generic hotel restaurant. Indeed, when the Globe reviewed it in 2009, the food was nothing to write home about.

Then, in November, the hotel brought on Rich Garcia as executive chef.

Garcia impressed when he was at Tastings Wine Bar & Bistro, an independently operated restaurant in Patriot Place, another unlikely setting. There, he made food that was both creative and comforting, dishes such as roasted vegetable hash with poached egg, macaroni and cheese studded with truffles, and braised pork shank with butter beans, bacon, gremolata, and almond milk foam. It was a pleasure to find him alongside the Bar Louies and Red Robins in Foxborough.