Si, si, si to Sapphire

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THREE STARS

SPANISH

$$

Sapphire Kitchen and Bar

1625 Queen Anne Ave. N.

Reservations: 206-281-1931

Hours: Dinner served 5:30 p.m.-10:30 p.m. Sunday-Wednesday, 5:30-11 p.m. Thursday-Saturday. Sunday brunch served 10 a.m.-2:30 p.m.

Prices: Dinner: starters $5-$10, entrees $10-$22

Parking: On-street

Full bar / All major credit cards / No obstacles to access / Smoking in bar only

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Sexy little Sapphire, the crown jewel of over-caffeinated Queen Anne, has it all: a great bar, excellent Sunday brunch and chef Leonard Ruiz Rede, whose house-baked breads and impressive desserts are worth a walk, in the rain, up the Counterbalance.

Rede's dinner menu bows to Spain and North Africa, borrows freely from France and Italy, changes with frequency, and offers the big plate/little plate concept to allow for grazing or gorging, depending on your appetite and mood.

It's all about mood here, where the walls wear a palette of Paul Bowlesian colors, heavy on the sapphire blue, adding to a mod-Moroccan motif, as do the ceiling mosaic and pasha's-shmatte throw pillows meant for booth-dwellers' comfort. The wooden booths coupled with cement floors and a lack of table linen make for hard surfaces and a fashionable din, while the warm glow from flickering votive candles illuminate the small bar and fewer than a dozen tables. Laced with saffron and cumin, even the air at Sapphire conspires to transport you to a more exotic locale.

Uptight denizens of Upper Queen Anne should cop no attitude regarding the intricate tattoos, black-leather pants or other curve-enhancing attire worn by the sultry serving staff. These are women wise and worldly, who will lead you not into temptation - unless you let them, of course.

If they're tempting with a wedge of truffle-like chocolate layered with hazelnuts and bathed in raspberry sauce ($7), let them. If they're suggesting that the Sapphire salad ($6) with its tart apple, Manchego cheese and citrus vinaigrette is nothing short of marvelous, they tell you no lie. When they point out that the Algerian chicken ($15) is a juicy joint of breast and winglet grilled to savory succulence - take them at their word. And if it's "Wine Table Tuesday," well . . .

Bending her long lithe frame in half - the better to introduce a bottle of Coteaux du Languedoc ($16) - our waitress brandished a special Tuesday-night menu, an invitation to forgo the standard bill of fare and explore five courses built to match the meaty red wine in her hand. At $16 for the entree, with $12 more covering appetizer, soup, salad and dessert, this Tuesday-night gig is a steal - and an ideal way to sample a new wine and chef Rede's wares.

Another splendid sampler is his Chef's Platter ($10), an assortment of "tapas, antipasti and salads" listed on the regular menu. Among the half-dozen treats offered on one visit were roasted citrus-steeped beets, spicy marinated olives and ripe Gorgonzola - which we spread on the proffered crostini. I failed to envision the Spanish flatbread coca del dia as pita gone pizza, but that's what came to mind, and mouth, when the house-baked round ($6) arrived simply dressed with tomato, roasted peppers and melted cheese.

Bread and cheese star again in the panzanella salad ($8). A mix of balsamic-tossed greens, this Italian favorite took the Olympic gold with its ripe heirloom tomatoes, fresh basil, crusty homemade croutons and enough fresh mozzarella to call it a meal. Good thing we shared. Otherwise we may not have had room for an excellent half-rack of lamb ($22), five chops marinated in a heady mix of (count 'em) 17 spices whose top note was cumin. One spice was clearly missing from this dish: salt, to bring out the flavor of the buttery flageolet beans that escorted it. Easily remedied.

I can see clearly why two Spanish classics - mussels Catalan ($9) and seafood paella ($16 or $26 for two) - are among the most popular dishes on the menu. The mussels, steamed with sherry and romesco sauce (an almond-thickened, red bell-pepper paste), translate as a soulful stew. The paella, liberally studded with prawns, sea scallops, mussels and chorizo, features saffron-scented rice cooked just so. Too bad then, that the mussels were having an off night, shy of the peak of freshness, when I came calling.

Rede, along with co-owners Courtney Clarke and Mark and Ann Edmison, have put their jewel on Queen Anne's crown. Inviting and informal, it's everything a neighborhood kitchen and bar should be.