Atmosphere

Food ***1/2 (3 1/2 stars) Service *** (3 stars) Atmosphere *** (3 stars) With the arrival of a new executive chef, Michael Costa, and a change of direction for the menu, Pazo is now the restaurant it was meant to be. The space always seemed too grand, the wine list too informed and the food too ambitious for Pazo to be a glorified tapas bar. Some regulars must have agreed, because apparently they requested entrees as well as small plates. The restaurant obliged, and now you have your choice.

Food *** (3 stars) Service ** (2 1/2 stars) Atmosphere ** (2 1/2 stars) Sometimes restaurants have to reinvent themselves to stay in the public eye. We haven't heard much from the Brass Elephant lately, but now with a couple of changes this Mount Vernon fixture has gotten a new lease on life. The most obvious change is the Brass Elephant's new executive chef, Andrew Maggitti. He's created an entertaining menu of mostly Italian dishes (the Maryland crab cakes being the obvious exception)

Food *** (3 stars) Service *** (3 stars) Atmosphere *** (3 stars) Naming your restaurant after one ingredient can be a dangerous thing. As appealing as it might seem, it does limit the chef unless the ingredient is something commonly used in both sweet and savory dishes, such as, say, butter. Vasilios Keramidas and the Kali's Restaurant Group decided to take the chance. But when they opened their patisserie and bistro to complement their fine dining and midprice options (Kali's Court and Mezze)

Food *** (3 stars) Service *** (3 stars) Atmosphere *** (3 stars) The news that Michael Tabrizi is back with Tabrizi's in the Harborview complex means something to Baltimoreans who have been around for a while. They remember his first wonderful Mediterranean restaurant of the same name, a cozy spot in Federal Hill where Corks is now. It closed over a decade ago. I expected more buzz about the reopening, but the lack of it may be because Tabrizi's has arrived in the shadow of a much showier new restaurant.

Food *** (3 stars) Service *** (3 stars) Atmosphere *** (3 stars) If anyone can resurrect Pazza Luna, it will be Riccardo Bosio, whose other restaurant is Sotto Sopra, the stylish Italian ristorante on North Charles Street. Pazza Luna shouldn't need resurrecting. It was a cozy, successful little Locust Point eating place until its owner, Kim Acton, decided to retire. The next owners, Dennis and Sandy Stallings, tried to keep things just the same. They were well-meaning but never seemed to have her magic touch, and the place closed.

Food *** (3 stars) Service *** (3 stars) Atmosphere *** (3 stars) The restaurant that's currently the buzz in Annapolis is Osteria 177, a new place on Main Street that bills itself as "the evolution of Italian-Mediterranean cuisine." It has all the right ingredients, starting with the high-style dining room. Check out the huge crystal chandeliers juxtaposed with industrial-look exposed pipes, the futuristic chairs that seem to be metal but are actually vinyl, the deep red walls decorated with contemporary art. All this in a space that was previously a steak house, a Burger King, a drugstore, and I don't know what else.

Food ***1/2 (3 1/2 stars) Service *** (3 stars) Atmosphere *** (3 stars) Baltimoreans who love good food had reason to worry about Abacrombie. Until previous owner/chef Sonny Sweetman left for greener pastures, it was one of our premier restaurants. After the restaurant and the bed and breakfast that housed it were sold, the dining room had a couple of false starts and then finally closed -- perhaps forever, it seemed. But then a good thing happened. Jerry Pellegrino, owner of Corks in Federal Hill, took over the restaurant.

Food *** 1/2 (3 1/2 stars) Service *** (3 stars) Atmosphere *** (3 stars) As chancy as the restaurant business is, some owners seem to know how to succeed, even where others have failed. And it's not always about finding a winning formula and repeating it. One of the best examples I can think of is the Karzai brothers, who own three very different eat ing places in Baltimore. Their first, the Helmand, is an inexpensive Afghan restaurant. Tapas Teatro, next to the Charles Theatre, specializes in trendy small plates but can be pricey.

Food *** (3 stars) Service *** (3 stars) Atmosphere *** (3 stars) When restaurant owners open new places, I like to go back and see what's happening with the first restaurant. Sometimes it suffers from neglect. But the Carlyle Club, Baltimore's only upscale Lebanese restaurant, seems to be reinvigorated by the attention its new sibling, the Spice Company in the Colonnade, is getting. The Carlyle is actually the second restaurant of brothers Kehar and Binda Singh. (The first is the nearby Ambassador.

LINDA CHAVEZ did the stand-up thing yesterday by stepping away from her nomination as secretary of labor. Her confirmation was doomed by the ABC news revelation that she sheltered and gave money to an illegal immigrant who did household chores. Her continued presence would have been a distraction to President-elect George W. Bush, who has other issues that need his attention. Now, Mr. Bush has a chance to pick someone who more closely resembles the administration he talked about during the campaign: a compassionate, govern-from-the-center team that doesn't include ideologues.