REVIEW: Class and cleverness define The Standard

 The elegant actor David Niven looms over The Standard's bar

GUILDERLAND, NY -- The Capital Region can be a pretty insular place, especially when it comes to the restaurant scene.

Local backers are easily welcomed. Newcomers have to prove themselves.

Enter The Standard, an elegant 1950s/'60s-style restaurant and cocktail lounge tucked into a corner of Crossgates Mall that once had been home to the Bugaboo Creek steakhouse and its mechanical talking moose.

Judging by the steady stream of patrons, The Standard has lived up to the promise of offering a specific sort of cuisine in a very specific style of atmosphere made when it opened in December.
The owners, the Serroukas family, also have a '50s-era roadhouse named the Coyote Grill in Poughkeepsie, two different Art Deco-style Eveready diners -- in Brewster and Hyde Park, Double O Grills in Rhinebeck and Wappinger Falls, and the Rolling Rock Café in Kingston. Each is a testament to very specific design to bring out a very specific mood.

At The Standard, huge blowups of black-and-white photos of such Hollywood icons as David Niven, Audrey Hepburn, Jayne Mansfield, Mickey Rooney, Frank Sinatra, Lauren Bacall and many others, create an instant connection to the period. That is further balanced by the leather-upholstered banquettes, the geometric designs on floors, walls and columns, soft lighting from numerous oversized shaded chandeliers. It's a place that puts you into a clean, attractive modern version of a high society cocktail lounge of New York City's and Hollywood's Golden Age.

The Standard experience, however, is not limited to atmosphere. Beginning with a pleasant greeting and immediate seating by the hostess to the informative, attentive service from Laurena, we enjoyed the experience.

The wine list offers 25 different labels by the glass. From the cocktail menu, Constant Companion and I enjoyed a modern Premium Margartita with Cuervo Gold Tequila, fresh lime and a float of Grand Marnier, and a Classic Martini with Bombay Sapphire gin and bleu-cheese stuffed olives.

And, the cuisine is just as broad.

I began my venture into The Standard's menu with the filet mignon carpaccio ($9.95): cloud-light, paper-thin slices of the raw beef topped with a large -- perhaps even too large -- mound of peppery arugula with black olives, Coach Farms tangy goat cheese and generous shavings of Parmesan cheese.

Constant Companion was nearly done in by a more-than-generous roasted beet and goat cheese salad ($8.95) -- a platter piled high with mixed greens, crisp asparagus spears, fresh roasted beets, the same Coach Farms goat cheese and a sprinkle of candied pecans, a combination that provided complementing bites of crisp, sweet and tangy.

I follwed my carpaccio with the sesame-crusted tuna entree ($20.95), a generous cut of ahi coated with seeds, pan seared rare, and served with bright green bok choy, grilled red onion, steamed white rice and succulent fried plantain chips, along with a papaya-mango salsa. Fresh, bold flavors that dared my taste buds not to be impressed. They were, with every bite.

Companion's filet mignon ($23.95) could not have been cooked any closer to the requested medium rare, charred nicely on the outside and still pink and oozing with juices inside. The beef was sided with mashed redskin potatoes and sauteed asparagas (the latter $5.95 extra). Both were good, but mashed potatoes of the '50s and '60s were of the smooth, creamy variety, not the "smashed" potatoes too many places serve these days.

After such generous dishes, we decided to split a dessert, in this case the Towering Chocolate Layer Cake ($5.95): a rich choclolate mousse layered between layers of dense chocolate cake, covered with a drizzle of chocolate ganache. Delicious!

Our bill, before tip, was $122, including tax.

NOTES ON NAPKINS: The Standard is open weekdays from 11 a.m. to midnight, and weekends until 1 a.m. Online reservations and ordering are available. Phone: (518) 452-7007. ... You can get a look at the lunch, dinner and beverage menus by clicking here. ... The Crossgates Mall location is off the Adirondack Northway (I-87) at Exit 1 and Western Avenue.