10 ‘perfect’ dishes: This new Coral Gables restaurant goes all in on a tasting menu

Chefs find inspiration for their creations in infinite ways.

Michael Bolen, owner of the new Lion & The Rambler restaurant in Coral Gables, found his while waiting in line for a Publix sub.

Stocked next to the deli counter were Zapp’s Voodoo Chips, a snack he had never tried. When he did, he loved them beyond all reason.

Now, as he opens his first restaurant in the former space of Giorgio Rapicavoli’s Eating House, Bolen has reimagined his Voodoo Chip obsession into Pommes Souffle, one of the 10 items on his carefully curated tasting menu. To be sure, this is a more sophisticated potato, stuffed with homemade crème fraiche and seasoned with a barbecue rub on the outside. But its roots lie back in that bag at the grocery store.

Such lighthearted, nostalgic influences are the backbone of Lion & The Rambler, which Bolen sees as a relaxed and unpretentious restaurant, “no clouds of this and gardens of that.”

“We’re going to have sophisticated food,” he says, “but when guests sit down, I want them to have fun.”

The tasting menu is the menu — it’s your only choice, the only thing to order. Bring your curiosity and a sense of adventure.

The culinary journey begins with the Pommes Souffle, segues into such delicacies as trout roe with crème fraiche and nori; tuna with blood orange and furikake; boniato with orange and macadamia; and New York strip with charred onion and watercress. A homemade Twinkie — the king of all Twinkies, really — is your dessert, stuffed with what you think of as cream but is really a shockingly complicated sesame amazake, a sweet Japanese drink made from fermented rice.

Bolen, who lives in the Gables and did his culinary training at Sel de la Terre and L’Espalier in Boston and Mister A’s in San Diego, says the 42-seat restaurant has long been his dream.

“It’s the chef’s dream, to do a tasting menu,” he says. “The idea is we’re going to serve 10 things and make them perfect. Sometimes, when you start adding more dishes and end up with 20 or 30 dishes, you lose that concentration. We wanted to focus on doing a perfect meal.”

Making the perfect meal puts a lot of pressure on a chef, but Bolen, who is the sole owner, says he’s up to the task: “I like the pressure. I love being in the kitchen when it’s 8 on Friday night, and you’re slammed. I’m completely OK with it.”

The menu is likely to change over time, depending on what’s fresh and available, he says, but he knows that a few items will become staples. He doesn’t expect to see Pommes Souffle or the Twinkie coming off the menu any time soon.

Lion & the Rambler

Where: 804 Ponce de Leon Blvd., Coral Gables

Opening: June 15

Price: $120 per tasting menu; $30 for supplement of Regiis Ova caviar; $55 for wine/sake pairing.

Reservations: Resy

For more information: www.lionandtherambler.com; 305-603-7612