Refined on Fillmore

Desserts are a more successful blending of down-home and uptown. A delightful light and airy sweet-potato soufflé comes with a syrupy relish of three different-colored cubed potatoes (the purple, we're told, comes from Okinawa). Warm sugar-dusted beignets ooze chocolate and are paired with a tiny glass of refreshing coffee soda. An individual banana cream pie, careful layerings of rich custard, diced banana, and cream on a flaky pastry disc, is dressed with an irresistible lime-caramel sauce. The chocolate trio includes candylike chocolate–peanut butter crunch, a dainty chocolate streusel tart, and orange-chocolate sorbet. Sorbet and petits fours didn't catch our eye on the menu, but a glimpse of the tempting array nestled in a nine-compartment square dish that passed our table guaranteed that we'd order some on a return visit.

That might be for Saturday or Sunday brunch, a recent addition featuring eggs, pancakes, French toast, and Hangtown Fry; or on a visit to 1300's inviting L-shaped lounge, visible from the dining room through a glass wall, which features elegant living-room decor. There are exceedingly comfortable nailhead-trimmed wing chairs, deep leather-upholstered couches, and coffee and side tables for your drinks or even dinner.

On Sunday nights (and occasionally others), a jazz trio plays standards and new tunes in front of the photo-covered back wall. Billie Holiday, Sammy Davis Jr., and many others glow in sepia tones; two slideshow frames feature a changing array of album covers and old playbills. Here the façade of the Fillmore Theater eternally offers Gene Tierney in Belle Starr and Irene Dunne in Penny Serenade. And in the mild and kind illumination of lights made from stacked old-fashioned glass globes hand-painted with flowers, we lingered after dinner, creating and preserving a few memories of our own.

1300 on Fillmore