Fine restaurants pare down portions, prices, but keep the quality

When Small Plates opened in 2002 and debuted its menu of appetizer-sized portions, it was the first local restaurant to tap into what has become a national trend.

Now upper-case Small Plates has been joined by a lot of lower-case small plates as restaurants across the board are realizing that sharable appetizers, smaller portions and even half-pours of wine are not only appealing to a lot of diners, but are also a way to entice price-conscious customers through the doors during the economic downturn.

Happy hours, formerly the domain of cheese sticks and wing-dings, have gotten positively elegant in places like Fleming's Prime Steakhouse, where it's possible to make a dinner out of the cocktail hour offerings of such "appetizers" as prime sirloin burgers or jumbo lump crabcakes.

Roast, in the Westin Book Cadillac, is another restaurant with gentle prices for such worthwhile happy hour dishes as mac and goat cheese, hamburgers and tacos with the house-rotisseried "beast of the day."

Fleming's operating partner Peter Travis probably sums up the attitude of a lot of restaurateurs when he says "whether they want to spend a few bucks or a lot of bucks, we say come on in, we'd love to have you."

Fleming's will add a gourmet burger menu to its offerings on Sept. 1 -- and that's another trend that's taking hold around the country.

From Iridescence in Detroit to Bacco Ristorante in Southfield and Assaggi Mediterranean Bistro in Ferndale, high-end restaurants are reassessing their menus, with an eye on the right-hand column.

If $26 entrees are staying in the kitchen, perhaps half-portions will fly out at $13. And if $12 glasses of wine are being left on the shelf, perhaps a smaller serving at $6 will appeal.

Luciano Del Signore of Bacco Ristorante says his new price structure and smaller portions allow guests to have three courses for what they used to pay for an entree.

Or they may scale down to a shared appetizer and a relatively inexpensive pasta dish. He also notes that each entree includes all the elements of a meal, "a protein, two vegetables and a starch on each plate."

At Assaggi Mediterranean Bistro, the $13 meze platter of taboulee, roasted beets, olives, feta, stuffed grape leaves, hummus and yogurt sauce easily serves two, and some entrees may be had in two portion sizes. Instead of paying $26 for a full portion of Moroccan duck or $24 for almond-crusted rainbow trout, those who want a smaller portion can order them for $14 apiece.

Another restaurant adding half-portions to the menu is Salvatore Scallopini, says proprietor Larry Bongiovanni, who will offer, for instance, chicken Tosca in $14.95 and $8.95 servings, including a side of pasta, at his restaurants in Madison Heights, Grosse Pointe Woods and Flint.

Tasting menus that include three courses at a modest set price are also turning up as a hedge against the recession. At the rooftop Iridescence, where the price structure across the board has been reduced significantly, the best bet for those with an eye on that right-hand column is an elegant three-course array at $35. Wolfgang Puck Grille offers an appealing three courses at $29.

What it all boils down to is this: it's a good time to be a discerning diner, because the best part of the new attitude in restaurants is that quality is being emphasized along with price-awareness.

Josie Knapp of Assaggi sums it up well when she says, "The most important thing is quality and service, anything we can do above and beyond expectations. The one thing we don't do is gimmicks."

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