There's excitement in Bella Vista

The crisply roasted poussin was another delicate treat, the partially boned leg and breast elegantly stuffed with the braised greens of tiny beets. A spectacular loin of veal was one of the heartier entrees, the grass-fed Pennsylvania meat served with creamy cannellini beans and a bagna cauda anchovy dip typical of Italy's Piedmont region.

Burke's risottos are also impressively authentic - soupy in the Venetian style, with a lightness that focuses delicate flavors.

The oyster-prosecco risotto is the essence of luxury in rice. But risi e bisi has garden soul, the sauce greened with pea-pod juice, then accented by a smoky quenelle of whipped-cream "gelato" infused with bacon.

It isn't the only savory flavor to be spun like dessert. A creamy whip of Delice de Bourgogne cheese, piped into a cone-shaped tuile and scattered with nuts, was one of the most clever composed cheese courses I've seen.

But then, James also has plenty of actual sweets worth tasting. There are splendid house-churned ice creams (cardamom with orange-glazed apricots; salted caramel with cocoa nibs), a warm almond cake topped with funky brown ale sabayon, and a molten torte that oozed frothy chestnut cream instead of the typical chocolate.

My favorite, though, was the "honeyed cream," an airy cloud of meringue infused with raw honey whose ethereal richness was cut by the sweet-tart spark of sliced rhubarb poached in ginger.

Call it dessert umami, or just plain yummy. James serves it with style.