When I say they are trying to hard to be creative, it's easiest to describe by the difference between Flyte and Watermark. At Watermark, the menu has a graceful logic. It consists of simple ingredients that just make sense, once plated they need no explanation because they are what they seem and are exquisite. At Flyte, the ingredients are exotic, foraged, and rare. they tasted fine, but needed some explanation as to why they were there - why they were paired together.
We were treated to an amuse bouche of chilled broccoli cream soup and complementary champagne for our anniversary. The soup was fine, sweet and creamy, bit left a strange aftertaste that was not quite so pleasant.
We started our meal with an appetizer -- pork belly with a fried green tomato. Both were good, not great, and the tomato lacked the delicateness of many ""lesser"" restaurants. The fact that for $12 we received a single slice of tomato and a 1 inch cube of bacon fat (ooops pork belly) left me wondering if our meal would be a full serving. One usually expects an appetizer to be sharable without splitting a serving.
Our entree's were also good but not great. I had the filet, served with a vegetable medley of fingerling potatoes, broccoli, mushrooms a onions. The beef lacked any beefiness, especially considering that it was supposed to be locally grown pasture raised beef - usually marked by a robust flavor. This beef, while cooked perfectly and quite tender, lacked flavor of any sort. Even after brushing the sauce on the plate, there was very little to taste. The vegetables were better, although a tin serving with 3-4 of each - broccoli spears, fingerling potatoes, onions, and mushrooms.
My wife's plate of salmon was better. The fish was cooked nicely, although the salmon she made earlier int eh week had more flavor and better. The fried polenta was delicious and I got in trouble for sampling more of it than I was offered. The collards were good as well. Not overcooked like so many meat and three's. The other vegetables, including fern-heads, were good but the fern-heads didn't belong and seemed as if the chef had been waiting for an opportunity to serve them and finally settled on this plate.
I won't say we were disappointed, but we weren't blown away either - especially for the money. Compared to Watermark, Saffire, and Red Pony it doesn't really earn the right to charge the prices it does.
Pros: Good food, good service
Cons: extremely small portions, trying to hard to be creative
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