GILDED PLEASURE

[September 21st, 2005] The darkness is what hits you first. Walk into the Gilt Club and a sexy, silky darkness envelops you-it would evoke an old-school steak house, were the decor not so au courant. You notice the bar next, with its long, curvy top, then the dining room to your right, painted crimson and gold and hung with agreeably bizarre chandeliers by local sculptor Matt Proctor. The high-backed banquettes and booths seem to promise cozy exclusivity, the curtains blocking all exterior light so that 5 pm is indistinguishable from 2 am-when the late-night kitchen finally closes.

The Club opened last month, the brainchild of husband-and-wife restaurateurs Jamie Dunn and Cyndi Challacombe, a pair of Chicago transplants who hired Bay Area chef Paul Irving to create a seasonal menu of American cuisine with a dash of decadence. In Gilt's generously portioned Caesar salad ($8), each romaine leaf was lavished with the eponymous dressing, grana padano cheese complementing the anchovies. Dungeness-crab meat enlivened a white-corn soup ($7), its mild kick courtesy of roasted green chiles. Carnivores will enjoy the sirloin tartare ($10), lightly charred and served with avocado and a seared scallop.

Main courses include an Angus hamburger ($12) with homemade mango-pepper-infused ketchup and a naughty slice of Gruyère. The accompanying pommes frites are long, thin and flat-out addictive, and can be ordered as a side dish to any entree for $4. Perhaps owing to the chef's roots in California cuisine, the grilled-pork medallions ($19) are served in vertical presentation. The meat, complemented by a peach-cherry salsa, could have been more tender. But the risotto ($17) is the equal or better of risotti offered at Higgins, Lucy's Table and Bluehour. Balsamic grilled radicchio acts as a nicely bitter riposte to the dish's top notes of caramelized apples and onions. Toasted walnuts add crunch, and Oregon bleu cheese tops the whole affair with velvet creaminess. This intercourse among tart, mild, sharp and sweet does not plateau after several bites, as is so often the case with risotto; instead, the last forkful is as bracing as the first.

Desserts are not nearly so luxurious: Skip the disappointingly one-note chocolate cake ($7) for a plate of fromage blanc ($7) with roasted figs and honey.

Service is friendly-waiters shake specialty cocktails tableside and are well-versed in the generous wine list-but the aural ambience needs work. Apparently the satellite Muzak has been set to shuffle channels: During the course of a single meal, the speakers projected a hodgepodge of Madonna, Ray Charles, Dionne Warwick and Styx's "Domo Arigato, Mister Roboto!" For the love of God, someone decide on a musical signature (I suggest chill/downtempo) and stick with it.

Sonic schizophrenia aside, the Gilt Club team has obviously worked hard to create an integrated experience of decor and cuisine. Some well-placed tweaking can ensure that this sophisticated, intimate space will evolve into more than just a guilty pleasure.