A Review of Elm, a Restaurant in New Canaan Lisa Wiltse for The New York Times SOFT EDGES Elm is owned by Brian Lewis, who is also the head chef. It opened in March, with simple color schemes. THERE was a lot of excitement before Elm opened on March 20 in New Canaan because the chef-owner, Brian Lewis, had teamed up with Richard Gere in a restaurant in Bedford, N.Y. It would be surprising if the new place could live up to such advance expectations. But Elm has done so - and then some - most of the time. First off, there is the look. Some of my friends find it stark and too plain for an expensive place. Others, like me, admire its clean-line simplicity: the soft tan-brown color scheme of the dining area, its roomlong banquette. The bar area has a warmer feel, with semicircular minibooths facing an extra-long pewter bar. There was no disagreement, though, about the food on my first visit. The offerings of the compact menu, which emphasizes the artisanal and the local, were as innovative as the menu's descriptions. At that first dinner, starters, pastas, entrees and desserts were uniformly exquisite. No single dish perched, Olympian fashion, above all others. But the crunchy bigeye tuna was superb, buttery with a crisp edge, served with sunchokes in a soy-butter caramelized sauce. Competing for appetizer honors was the Hudson Valley foie gras: two delicious large bites, sharply seared, with apricot marmalade spooned over them to provide a taste contrast, accompanied by beluga lentils and pata negra (more commonly known as jamon iberico or Iberian ham). Completely different but also satisfying was the citrus-cured Atlantic fluke, the fish enlivened by a lemon-accented yuzu kosho (yuzu-chili paste crusting), fennel and slightly bitter shiso. There are four house-made pastas on the menu. I opted for the soft farm-egg ravioli with sheep milk ricotta; each pasta pocket had a whole cooked egg inside, the dish cosseted by a brown butter sauce, the plate shared with burgundy spinach. The overall effect was subtle and savory. The other pastas we tried, lobster spaghetti alla chitarra and butternut squash agnolotti, were equally good. Then there were the entrees, each as gratifying as the next, whether the Four Story Hill Farm lamb (tender and rich in flavor), augmented by rhubarb, vanilla, porcini, fava beans and lovage, or Maine halibut in a vadouvan curry with companions of preserved Meyer lemon, cauliflower, almonds and red chard. My favorite was the Georges Bank sea scallops, three huge, glistening golden brown specimens, with riso venere (black rice), bacalao, ramps and picholine olive salsa verde. My enthusiasm was muted slightly on my second visit. Salsify and pata negra beignets lacked any sign of the ham or espelette pepper. The salsify was tasty, but not exceptional - deep fried vegetable sticks in a light batter, sparked by loops of lemon aioli. More appealing was the frutti di mare: a plate shared by two chilled Kumamoto oysters, delicate Nantucket Bay sushi-quality scallops tartare and tiny fried balls containing morsels of Osetra caviar. Fork-tender Muscovy duck was accessorized by vanilla-spiced quince, red Swiss chard, black olive and fregola (toasted, nutty pasta-like nuggets). Good as this dish was, it accentuated an Elm tendency to show off: too many secondary ingredients on a single plate, often upstaging the "star" or main attraction. The confit of Berkshire pork, consisting of a slab of pork belly and pork tenderloin with dribbles of smoked honey and walnut crumble, was a disappointment. Pork belly should be cooked so it almost dissolves on the tongue. This one was just a chunk of firm, unappetizing pork fat, and the tenderloin was hard and tough as well, with no evidence of slow-cooked confit coddling. The tastiest items on the plate were the sherry-soaked "drunken prunes" and pickled red pearl onions. A later visit was a return to the success of the first, beginning with an amuse bouche, a soupçon of creamy sunchoke soup, followed by "roots, shoots, fruits and leaves," a lovely salad with assorted crisp, paper-thin vegetables and fruits (beets, fennel, carrots, Gala apples, Bosc pears and Asian pears among them), a daub of goat cheese and just enough medjool dates to provide a gentle sweetness to the dish, echoed by a sweet-tart ice wine vinaigrette. Shiso-miso, another starter, consisted of tempura-battered shiso leaves with a miso-mayo dip. The batter was tempura-light and crisp, but over-salted.