by Paul Kerstein

Created on: March 25, 2009   Last Updated: November 02, 2009

If you haven't eaten at Ten Center Street in Newburyport, Mass., it's time to visit and make this your new favorite restaurant.

Ten Center Street offers sumptuous culinary delights by Executive Chef Harley Smith, along with some wicked seasonal and imaginative cocktails. Nestled within Newburyport's historic downtown neighborhood, the restaurant is just a couple of blocks from Newburyport Harbor. It's a real treat to walk to and from dinner while enjoying summer breezes off the Atlantic and the Merrimack River Basin.

When you arrive at Ten Center Street, you'll be seated in either the cozy old New England bar with working fireplace or upstairs in the loft or in the more formal dining room.

As a guest, you'll be pleased if you check out the restaurant's small but diverse wine list, which is put together and continuously updated to pair with menu items. You'll find well-known and appreciated wines from France, California, Italy and elsewhere, as well as bottles from lesser-known vineyards that are often just as good, if not better. On one visit, I was surprised to find a sublime pinot noir from Gundlach Bundschu, a creative winery that takes an unconventional attitude toward the wine industry and has won numerous awards. A special golf clap goes out to the sommelier.

The appetizer menu contains sushi; oysters; steak tartare; soft cheeses; fried cinnamon bread and creamy fluff; lobster wasabi shumai with lemongrass chili sauce, pickled cucumber and toasted cashews; and Hudson Valley foie gras Monte Cristo with wild Maine blueberry preserves leaving you with a mouthwatering dilemma: What do you order?

On a good evening, you may even be lucky enough to be "gifted" with an amuse bouche from the chef. Something like a maple carrot puree is sure to warm your tastebuds for what is to follow.

If tapas is your thing, go for the roasted seasonal wild mushrooms over a creamy herb polenta with truffle oil and shaved asiago; the roasted Fuji apple with a brulee of Hudson Valley foie gras stuffed with duck confit, pinenut spinach and cider horseradish demi; and the ham and four-cheese tortellini antipasto salad with proscuitto, olives, artichokes, bell peppers and Parmesan dressing are sure to knock your socks off. That's just a sampling of their tapas offerings.

You can also get a second course if you want to go for more than tapas but less than a formal meal. On one visit, my party enjoyed a sushi roll of miso-marinated organic salmon sashimi with Hawaiian poke salad and

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