Chef Nick Morfogen has established 32 East as Atlantic Avenue's constant in Delray Beach. (Drew Angerer / The Post)

More about 32 East

I suspect the reason Delray Beach’s Atlantic Avenue is so beloved by restaurant-goers is that it’s always something of a work in progress. Each new season brings a host of changes to the downtown strip, with eateries opening and closing and cuisines coming in and out of fashion.

But if Atlantic Avenue has a constant, it’s chef Nick Morfogen’s 32 East. For 13 years, this stylish New American-themed restaurant has been a culinary stalwart, offering clever and creative food in a contemporary but unpretentious setting. Situated on the western edge of downtown — yes, at 32 E. Atlantic Ave. — it’s become both a gateway and a bar-setter for the rest of the street, sending the message that if a restaurant wants to succeed here, it had better be prepared to play on this level.

A couple of recent visits to 32 East found those high ideals still generally in place. True, the restaurant has its rough spots — and it’s possible the kitchen is no longer paying as close attention to every dish that makes its way to a diner’s table. But when 32 East clicks, it does so with a verve that few restaurants on Atlantic Avenue — or all of Palm Beach County — can match.

Certainly, 32 East continues to impress from a visual standpoint. The interior has a curious Napa-meets-Paris feel: Dark woods and a prominent bar area give it a manly American character. But checkerboard flooring and European posters give it the buzz of a bistro. Put it all together and you’re bound to feel welcome, especially if you settle in with a first-rate cocktail (try the Manhattan with brandy-soaked cherries, $12.50) or a bottle of wine from the plentiful but not overly intimidating list (my value-priced suggestion: a refreshing, off-dry Paul Blanck riesling from Alsace, $28).

Morfogen’s approach to food is in the cosmopolitan spirit of what you’d more likely find in bigger cities. (And Morfogen has cooked just about everywhere — from New York’s Le Cirque to Aspen’s Ajax Tavern.) There’s an emphasis on cuisines of all kinds — a little Italian here, a little Asian there — but fused with an American inventiveness. Fresh (and in a few instances, local) ingredients find their way to the table, too. Less adventurous diners might find the menu a bit far-reaching; 32 East is probably not the place to go if you just want a plain piece of fish. But the rest of us will appreciate the sense of invention, as best evidenced by the fact that the menu changes nightly.

Certainly, I appreciated a few brilliantly conceived starters that were based on more traditional dishes. Morfogen usually features sliders every night, but done in a lively, unexpected way, such as the homemade lamb sausage sliders with hot mustard, shaved fennel and marinated tomatoes ($9) I had one evening: Think a zesty, Middle Eastern meal as mini burger. Similarly, fish fingers ($10) were cleverly reinterpreted into something semi-Chinese, paired with a spicy blood orange “Kung Pao”-inspired sauce. (And before I forget, let me just add that fish was of the highest quality and the frying was dead-on, with the fingers emerging crispy and greaseless.)

At the same time, Morfogen isn’t afraid to bask in the glories of comfort food, albeit with a gourmet tweak or two. His cream of sweet corn and basil soup ($7) was autumn in a bowl — rich, creamy and satisfying, especially with the added salty notes of high-quality Nueske’s bacon and cheddar toast. I can’t think of a better soup I’ve had in the past year. For that matter, I can’t think of a better salad I’ve had than the one 32 East offered featuring pistachio- and honey-crusted pineapple spears with feta cheese, bibb lettuce and orange olive oil ($12) — like a Greek salad gone wildly tropical.

Entrées continue the playful mix of ideas and ingredients, though execution isn’t always on the mark. Sometimes, Morfogen hits a home run — say, a dish of organic Irish salmon done in a fall-inspired preparation with fingerling potatoes, caramelized root vegetables and a sherry wine-beef “jus” ($26). It’s as if Morfogen decided to create a beef stew around a piece of fish, perhaps knowing that the quality Irish salmon had an earthiness that lent itself to such a preparation. But at other times, Morfogen doesn’t see through every final detail: I loved a brine-cured pork tenderloin with cinnamon-spiced mashed yams ($26), but I would have loved it all the more if the yams didn’t have the overly processed consistency of baby food.

If the restaurant has a real problem right now, it’s desserts: Here’s where 32 East seems to run out of bold ideas — or simply run out of steam. I could be wrong, but the tart shell with the apple crumble tart I ordered on two occasions ($9) appeared to be commercially made (or, at the very least, it tasted like it). Other desserts sounded promising on paper but didn’t really deliver on the decadence or cleverness front: A chocolate pecan bar tasted like, well, a chocolate pecan bar, despite the frou-frou additions of orange crème Anglaise, caramel sauce and candied lemon.

Service is generally a strong point of 32 East. The wait staff gets the concept and gets the food (and wine): If you ask about a dish, you’ll get an intelligent answer instead of the generic “Everything is delicious” response that’s too often the norm. I could suggest that the bus boys fuss a little less over the table (there was a bit of hovering) and servers fuss a little more (there was too long a gap between entrée and dessert), but only the pickiest of diners would let such matters spoil an evening.

And that’s what dinner is at 32 East — not just a meal but an evening. Fortunately, it’s also not the most expensive evening. Morfogen’s mid-scale pricing (there are just a few entrées higher than $30) keeps 32 East more in the neighborhood restaurant vein than the special occasion one. But given what a great neighborhood Atlantic Avenue is, you might as well think of your meal as a night on the town.

R E V I E W
32 East

FOOD: A-
SERVICE: A-
ADDRESS: 32 E. Atlantic Ave., Delray Beach
TELEPHONE: (561) 276-7868
WEB SITE: www.32east.com
PRICE RANGE: Moderate to expensive
HOURS: 5:30 to 10 p.m., Sunday to Thursday; 5:30 to 11 p.m., Friday and Saturday.
CREDIT CARDS: Visa, MC, AmEx, Disc
RESERVATIONS: yes
WHEELCHAIR ACCESS: Yes