An old friend was back in town for a short while, so paying a visit to Adesso seemed in order. The restaurant was one of many that the shamelessly sybaritic foodie had introduced me to over the years, and he hadn’t been there for some time, busy as he’d been on the other side of the plate, proprietor-chef at his own place in the Azores.

As we passed the open kitchen, the scent of wood smoke and bacon greeted us like sucker punches. They could have billed us for the aromas as appetizers.

We were seated by the windows in the spot where, Stuart nostalgically recognized, a jasmine plant used to fragrantly thrive. These days, about the only greenery around is on a floor-to-ceiling mural covering a sidewall, palm trees bracketing a turquoise sea.

The sight is a vestige of the day when Adesso’s self-styled designation as a "California Café" was even more evident on the menu. This was back when fusion was novel instead of de rigueur, and wood-oven pizzas sought to emulate Spago rather than Federal Hill. (Just a few years ago, you could have beluga caviar sprinkled on your Adesso shrimp and salmon pizza for an extra $60. Nowadays, the most exotic pizza is lobster, and for $17.95, you’re also paying for the white truffle oil.)

In a nice touch, mixed peppercorns and rock salt are on the tables in grinders rather than shakers. (The tablecloth is genteel, but plasticized — not so nice to the touch.) A lengthy wine list has always been a feature here, for which Adesso has received its share of Wine Spectator awards. We found two exquisite offerings by the glass, a California merlot and a New Zealand sauvignon blanc. The waitstaff, elegant in their black vests, will help you with such decisions.

The Italian bread is dense and flavorful, yet even more so is Adesso’s intense olive oil, in a bottle on each table. An inquiry to the kitchen determined that it was Del Papa, from Italy. Considering the nominal cost per patron, it’s surprising that more upscale restaurants — or moderately priced ones, for that matter — don’t spring for such quality, trusting we’ll notice the difference.

We considered the lists of cold and hot appetizers, such as the kitchen-made mozzarella with plum tomatoes ($7.95) and the Cajun fried squid rings with tomatilla salsa ($8.95). I’d enjoyed the latter another time, as well as Adesso’s notch-above antipasto platter ($12.95). But we chose instead from the nine pizzas. The crust on our eggplant pizza ($13.95) was tasty, the tomato sauce bolstered by chopped tomatoes, and fresh basil was added after baking. We both wished that the main ingredient had been cooked separately to infuse some smokiness, which compliments eggplant so well.

There are 10 pastas on the menu, half fresh and half dry (listed as "Imported," which sounds much more appetizing). These include three angel hair pasta preparations, which I tried in prior visits to mixed success. We agreed that the fresh pappardelle with sirloin strips ($19.95) was an intriguing opportunity, and elected to share that and another main dish. The wide noodles were accompanied by pieces of asparagus and sautéed shallots, plus fat strips of portobello mushrooms, which went quite well with the tender beef. Most marvelous was the plentiful gravy, a rich veal stock and merlot reduction.

If you’re a student at nearby Brown and the ’rents are paying, you might pretend to consider the sirloin or filet mignon, each 40 bucks, if you want to be a wise guy. (Or if you are a wiseguy.) For a seafood mood, there is salmon with horseradish crust, tuna with sesame crust, or crustless scallops in ginger butter ($24.95 each). But the second dish that caught our eyes as a mutual favorite was the pan-roasted duck ($21.95). Within a halo of crisp green beans — well, haricots verts, in these surroundings — was a mound of mashed potatoes in a pool of gravy. Atop were slices of pink duck — cooked rare, as we’d ordered — under crisp skin. The potatoes were uneventful, but the gravy was flavorful.

Needless to say, we had no room for dessert. But Stuart, ever the sybarite, wanting to end with some treats for the eye as we’d started out with appetizing smells, asked to see the tray anyway. Such an array: warm chocolate truffle cake and crème brûlée. Cinnamon rice pudding adorned with fresh fruit, and — a favorite of regulars — torte mascarpone, whipped up with chocolate chips. Another day, perhaps.

There aren’t as many angel decorations at Adesso as I recall from earlier visits. But our meal was pleasant enough to indicate that they still hover in the kitchen over chef Javalit "Chou" Malakorn. A few days later, Stuart flew off with an extra smile of recollection and additional reason to move back to a town where dining out is a worthy avocation.

Bill Rodriguez can be reached at bill@billrod.com.