Hamersley's Bistro (CLOSED)

With its sleek black light fixtures, white tablecloths, ceiling beams and creamy yellow walls, Gordon Hamersley's South End institution seems half French country cottage, half metropolitan boîte. Naturellement, the twain do indeed meet in the kitchen, where pickled fiddlehead ferns (a New England specialty in spring) might jazz up duck rillettes, and garlic soup comes spiked with curry and mint. The wine list plays it safe more often than not, but amid one too many cabs and chards there are some curios to be uncorked.