Looking at the notes I took at Ferré in Dallas, I seem to have written the word “cool” a lot. The decor at this new uptown spot mixes a cool, contemporary loft look and angular motifs from the thirties through the fifties (the light fixtures look as if they came from a Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers movie). The music runs to cool, understated modern jazz. The decidedly cool food is twenty-first-century Italian. I loved the cappuccino al pomodoro, not coffee but a gorgeously fresh puréed-tomato soup with a cap of frothed milk, served in an oversized cup. A pristine salad of field greens and cannellini beans was encircled by crisp grilled shrimp on aromatic skewers of fresh rosemary. For dessert, nothing would do but a martini glass filled with seasonal berries on lemon sorbet. It was—of course—way cool.
