LENOX

Lenox may be a dining mecca in the Berkshires, but a good sushi restaurant was clearly missing.

No longer.

Fin Sushi & Sake Bar has taken over the space formerly occupied by the Village Snack Shop, and, after magical makeover (thanks to architect Frank Macioge), those of us needing a sushi fix now have a beautiful new venue.

Any Berkshire foodie knows the name Macioge. The family owns (wholly or partially) three Berkshire restaurants: Bistro Zinc and Betty's Pizza Shack here and Pearl's in Great Barrington.

They're a remarkable family who have all contributed their talents.

Father Frank is the architect; mother Judith Gordon does the flowers (here, at Fin, a simple arrangement using a handful of chrysanthemums); son Nick is now a sushi chef, and son Jason is the hands-on restaurateur.

And that's just the immediate family.

Kristen Macioge, Nick's wife, painted the fabulous fish watercolors, sandwiched between glass, that decorate the walls. Their son, the 4-year-old Reid, is already a food critic who declared that he prefers the fare across the street at Uncle Jason's Betty's Pizza Shack.

I hope Reid won't mind, critic to critic, if I disagree.

Nick

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Macioge and Sean Boyle (formerly of Bistro Zinc) took a five-day intensive course at the California Sushi Academy in order to become certified sushi chefs ready to take on any tuna, yellow tail, or mackerel placed before them.

"Go home and practice, practice, practice. In two weeks, you'll be fine," they were told.

And that was exactly what they did. But it took more than two weeks. In fact, all winter they prepared dinner, twice a week, for a lucky (my word) group of friends, trying out different dishes, finding the best rice and learning about the practical intricacies of the cuisine.

The menu at Fin is varied but not overwhelming. Tuna, salmon and yellow tail are the most popular choices (for sushi and sashimi) but there are plenty of choices for the more adventurous -- eel (barbecued), scallop, sea urchin roe, and fluke -- to name but a few.

Modern-day Western sushi is a lot about concoctions through which chefs can express their own personalities. Many American sushi restaurants like to "Ameri-canize" their maki rolls, which is why you see labels like California roll (crab, avocado, cucumber), Boston roll (prawn tempura, to-biko, cucumber, avocado, lettuce) or Philadelphia -- an invention made with Philadelphia cream cheese.

Fin's nod to this trend is the Santa Monica roll -- an in-side-out California roll (rice on the outside) dipped in tempura and fried.

Basically however, the menu is pretty traditional Japan-ese.

You can begin your meal with a bowl of miso soup. Their mix of salt, tofu and mashed, fermented soy bean in a liquid stock had a subtle and delicate flavor and was only slightly warmed.

Too hot for soup? Try a salad. The calamari salad contrasted a crispy calamari over baby arugula with a sweet chili vinaigrette. The result was mouthwateringly good.

The sushi, sashimi and rolls comprise the majority of the menu. If you're still not sure about the Japanese vocabulary, Fin's menu tells you what's what.

Sushi is fish over rice, sa-shimi has no rice. Maki rolls are wrapped with nori (black seaweed) and everything else is self explanatory.

If you sit at the bar, which in a sushi restaurant is the equivalent of dining at the Formica counter of your local diner, you can chat with the chefs, find out the latest gossip, and see exactly what's happening to your dinner.

Nick, Sean and the third chef Donato Cruz are only too happy to chat. They're just grateful to be out of the hot kitchen, so to speak, and slicing and dicing in front of an audience in the air-conditioned space.

The fish is fresh -- much of it shipped by Fed-Ex -- and, unlike most sushi that is served in supermarkets and other restaurants, it is wild rather than farmed.

The yellow tail (hamachi) is farmed, but in cold water which, I'm told, makes a difference.

One of my favorites was the dragon roll -- eel, shrimp and avocado.

There's something very sensual about combining the fresh smooth avocado with the warmed crispness of the fish.

Fin is not just about raw fish. The beef negamaki appetizer was delicious. It was a bite-size morsel of seared London broil, sliced paper-thin and wrapped around a "squirtable" scallion.

It's not pretty to eat but the taste's terrific. (Note: It's part of the Japanese dining etiquette to take two bites for each sushi, sashimi or roll, but if you apply this rule to the negamaki, the scallion will inevitably go flying across the table or into your lap. )

Another table favorite was the okonomiyaki, a Japanese pancake with cabbage and jalapeno, top-ped with mayonnaise, Japan-ese ketchup, nori and bonito flake, It's a great creation that is flavorful and can be made to suit anyone's preferences with pork, lobster, shrimp or vegetarian.

Nick Macioge calls this "Japan-ese comfort food. It's so good, it tastes like junk food."

Not everything was successful. The chicken teriyaki entree was creatively plated but dry and tough. Disappointing too were the crisped soft-shell crab rolls that were basically bland.

Order their original deep-fried banana for dessert and you will leave a very happy camper. This is a thousand times better than a more typical dessert often served in Japanese restaurants -- fried ice cream.

A banana, berries, pastry cream and shredded coconut are rolled in tempura, wrapped in rice paper and quickly fried until the banana is slightly warmed and then drizzled with ganache chocolate. I believe the word to describe this, is "yum."

Fin does not take reservations and occupies a small space. Since it is still new and relatively unknown, seating is not a major concern; the turnover is relatively quick.

When word gets around that this place is hot, however, its small space might be a problem.

On the other hand, the restaurant is user-friendly, casual and comfortable and if it were bigger, it might lose that ambiance.


Restaurant Review

Fin Sushi & Sake Bar, 27 Housatonic St., Lenox. Tel. 413-637-9171 Style: Japanese

Dress: Casual

Prices: Chef's choice: Deluxe, $50; Super Deluxe, $75; Killer Deluxe $100 per person. Sushi (two pieces) -- $4.50 to $7. Sashimi (four pieces) -- $9 to $16. Maki rolls (six) -- $4 to $9. Fat rolls: $8 to $15. Appetizers: $3.50 to $10. Salads, soup and noodles: $3.50 to$12. Entrees: $12 to $23.

Smoking: No smoking

Hours: Lunch: Friday and Saturday only: noon to 2. Dinner: Sunday to Thursday: 5:30 to 10. Friday and Saturday: 5:30 to 10:30.

Reservations: None accepted

Credit cards: All major

Handicapped accessible

Noise level: moderate

August 18, 2004