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 an insalata mista with beef bresola, carpaccio of portabella mushroom, house-cured olives, gorgonzola dolce and pepperoncini.

For those hankering for a more formal meal, the entrees can't be beat. The duck special with salty, crispy skin just may be the best duck you'll ever have. Other main-course offerings, such as the bone-in Angus beef rib-eye steak with chopped salad, crispy onion strings and gorgonzola dolce or the tandoori-spiced New Zealand rack of lamb with potato paneer, spring peas, mint oil, toasted cashews and fig preserve are mouthwatering repasts. And the lobster mac and cheese gives new meaning to gourmet comfort food.

For anyone looking to wrap up their meal with something sweet, the desserts are out of this world. A chocolate-banana tiramisu that is not too heavy and not too sweet is the perfect way to end your meal. So is the deconstructed pecan pie with vanilla ice cream that is a big plate of orgasmic yummy mush.

To say that you'll come out fat and happy after a meal at Ten Center Street would be an understatement. If I were on death row, this would be where I'd want my last meal to come from. To anyone looking for a culinary adventure that befits the style and uniqueness of the famous seaport of Newburyport, Mass., Ten Center Street is the restaurant to visit.

Learn more about this author, Paul Kerstein.
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