Cobb salad at Ritz-Carlton's 10 Arts a thing of beauty

Among the come-ons in these last desperate days of August, we are seeing tomato feasts and three-martini lunches, and last week something called "The Five Bite Lunch" surfaced at 10 Arts, the bistro behind the towering columns of the Ritz-Carlton, south of City Hall.

No harm in trying to jump-start the lunch trade. Lunch is a tricky business at the higher end at the end of summer, and the three-course menu that 10 Arts (home base of Top Chef star Jennifer "Chef Jen" Carroll, who's outta town until next month) has been offering wasn't exactly tearing down the house.

But here's the rub; the Five Biter isn't really a lunch. It's a mishmash off the cocktail menu, or something. First you get a heaping basket of warm soft-pretzel nuggets. This is a starter? Then a shot glass of corn chowder, hot and thick enough to cut the chill of late November. Then mini-sliders. I got a bland minced "lobster roll," and a tasty little cheeseburger. A bottle of Victory Pils (or 9.5 percent alcohol Golden Monkey). And to finish, a lush cream-filled chocolate cupcake - like who had room? - from pastry chef Monica Glass' estimable kitchen.

This isn't lunch! It's a $22 marketing gimmick that pays no attention to how foods fit together; that pays no heed to the balancing act that makes for an elegant midday meal.

Which brings me to the subject of today's lecture: On the very same menu at 10 Arts is an example of the opposite instinct - the Cobb salad, $14, which is what can happen when desperate measures produce an enduring classic. (One story about its creation is that Bob Cobb, the original manager of the Brown Derby restaurant, in 1937 invented the basic salad from leftovers in the cooler, adding the chicken, hard-cooked egg, and Roquefort - or was it bleu? - later as he reengineered it.)

The foundation, of course, is chopped romaine, avocado, celery, tomatoes, and strips of bacon. Put all together - the crisp greens and creamy avocado, the salty cheese and smoky bacon with the sliced chicken and juicy tomatoes - it is a meal of a salad, pleasing and harmonious; logical in structure, but offering lively flavor pairings (and more than carbs).

The venerable Cobb is frequently ruined (as is its cousin, the Caesar). The lettuce might be limp. The egg overcooked. The chicken rubbery. The bacon old. Or cold! The avocado discolored (as it was recently in the mammoth, filling tossed Cobb at Jones, the comfort-food spot).