First-rate fare

Checking out in advance the new Luxe Bar & Grill online, I found reviewers happy to discover a meal for less than $10 in Birmingham. True, two of the Luxe's burgers and four salads are less than $10, but most glasses of wine are in double digits and entrées range from $16 to $29. If you order more than one item, you're not likely to emerge feeling you've pulled a fast one on the management.

You will emerge well-fed, though. The Bongiovanni family (also owners of the Salvatore Scallopini chain) serves first-rate food and delicious drinks, and the place was packed both times I visited, even on a Monday evening.

It's a multigenerational crowd, with enthusiastic young drinkers in the bar area making for formidable noise levels there. The place is good-looking, with two skylights in the dining room, big windows and a wall decorated with the now-omnipresent random assortment of interesting objects, including advertising logos. (Cremo Pop? Will folks 80 years in the future find the golden arches quaint?) Outdoor seating on Old Woodward will be very popular — seven months from now.

Most dishes at the Luxe are classics (Caesar salad, burgers, club sandwich) or familiar from tens of thousands of menus (wings, chili, fried fish with fries). That description would make me stop reading, but it's misleading. The kitchen offers not so much twists on old favorites as just really, really good versions thereof.

And besides serving high-quality meals, says Joe Bongiovanni, the family's goal was to "create a craft bar." To that end they look back to some classic cocktails ($6-$15) — a Sidecar, a Pink Lady, a Pimm's Cup — and use a lot of absinthe.

I tried a Pousse Café, a layered drink consisting of five liqueurs — Curaçao (clear, from bitter citrus peel), Blue Curaçao, Maraschino (clear, flavored like the cherry of the same name), crème de menthe (green, mint) and crème de cacao (chocolate) — plus cognac and grenadine (a reddish fruit-juice syrup).

It was gorgeous, the bands of jewel-like colors resting gently atop one another — this drink is neither shaken nor stirred. The flavors I tasted were, in this order, cognac, mint, chocolate, cherries. A silly novelty, yes, but entertaining.

My companion ordered Death at Dusk, consisting of fizzy Prosecco (a Champagne substitute), absinthe (anise-flavored to the initiated, tastes like licorice if you're not), and crème de violette (yes, it supposedly tastes of violets, but I found it more like cherries). A bonus is that your server will give you the rest of the small Prosecco bottle to keep topping up with.

Wine and beer lists are also ample, the beers featuring Michigan craft brews but ranging as far as Sri Lanka, and the wines going for $28-$80 a bottle. I liked my glass of tart, bright Malbec from Argentina. Bongiovanni says he's seen people "eating a $10 burger next to a $50-$60 bottle of wine, so there are some oxymorons in there, but we like them."

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