In recent years, restaurateurs seem to have decided that the secret to success is to create restaurants where the food, and only the food, matters. Almost all of the recent hit restaurants that I've had the occasion to review favorably, even enthusiastically, for their food and drink have suffered from service that has ranged from amusing ineptitude to outright incompetence. And most of them have been ear-splittingly, nerve-janglingly loud - so loud that intimate conversation had to be shouted across the table to be heard at all. It doesn't have to be that way, and it isn't that way at one of the city's more venerable fine dining establishments, the Park Avenue Pub. Opened in 1973 by the late Ted Bunce and his wife, Lisa, the Park Ave Pub is everything that trendy restaurants are not. The dining room - even when filled to capacity - is hushed, the food is honest and straightforward, the service is flawless.

Park Ave Pub's eclectic dining room is wonderfully quiet - you can almost hear the silver sequins on the countless mobiles that hang from the ceiling clinking together in the breeze. Dim, warm lights; deep, high-backed banquettes; and a certain sense of isolation from the outside world all contribute to a feeling of repose and relaxation that you rarely find at other restaurants. Those same banquettes make the restaurant seem remarkably intimate, providing you and your companions privacy and relieving you of the burden of having to see and be seen that is often the subtext of a more trendy spot.

In many ways, this is your father's restaurant. You wouldn't be at all surprised to see Don and Betty Draper hanging out in the next booth tossing back old-fashioneds and Tom Collinses along with their oysters and shrimp cocktails. The menu is strictly mid-century American continental cuisine: high-end meat and potatoes with a bit of French and Italian influence thrown in for good measure. The most daring dish I encountered recently was a very good salad of grilled watermelon dressed with crumbled feta cheese and mint ($8). On another night the special salad incorporated the sweet-salty combination of grilled peaches and prosciutto ($8). For the most part, though, the menu sticks to the classics: seafood appetizers, Caesar salads, and an assortment of meat, chicken, fish, and pasta dishes. This is honest food that is absolutely true to the best tradition of continental cuisine. It is food without any surprises, but it's also food that never disappoints.

We started with drinks and oysters. While anyone can select a decent raw oyster and crack it open, it takes a bit of talent to do anything else with them. The Pub offers oysters on the half-shell, chicken fried, and grilled. The fried oysters ($9) were coated with a batter reminiscent of very good Southern-fried chicken and served with both cocktail and tartar sauces. Crispy outside, briny and tender within, a squirt of lemon added all the zip that they needed. The grilled oysters ($2 each), though, were astoundingly good and very simple. They were cracked open, topped with a dollop of basil butter, and then passed under the broiler for a couple of minutes to plump them up and marry the savory, sweet, and herbal flavors together in a harmonious whole.

The steaks and chops were all solidly prepared and nicely presented. Pork chops ($15) were paired with an agreeably bitter side of sautéed escarole and white beans along with garlic mashed potatoes and julienned vegetables. Generously portioned with an attractive sear on the surface, the pork was juicy and toothsome. The pool of porcini demi-glace in which it was served complemented the meat, and made an excellent gravy for the potatoes. The lamb chops ($19) were similarly very good. Two substantial chops were served with a dollop of tapenade along with garlic mash and sautéed green beans. Lamb is very easy to overcook, but the Pub gets it just right - medium rare with a beautiful char on the outside.

The Park Ave Pub's food is good verging on very good, but what sets this place apart from any of the countless other restaurants and country clubs that serve a similar menu is the service. The servers are and unfailingly kind and polite, and utterly unflappable. In an effort to see how restaurants will handle a demanding customer, I routinely ask to change tables, occasionally take drinks at the bar or at an outside table and then move over to the dining room for dinner, put in appetizer orders and then wait for a bit to put in the entrees, sometimes supplement my order after it has already gone in, and will often throw myself on the mercy of the wait staff and kitchen in regard to selecting wines and deciding between two different entrees. I did all of these things at the Park Ave Pub, and if any of it surprised or discomfited the wait staff or threw the kitchen off stride, I never knew about it.

Each course arrived looking and tasting as if it had been plated moments before rather than waiting for us to catch up. Our server actively encouraged us to take our time, to sit back and chat rather than pay attention to our menus, to linger over glasses of wine between courses, to dilly-dally over our decision whether or not to have dessert while she effortlessly took care of an entire dining room full of tables. Given the choice between a higher-priced entrée and a lower-priced one, our waiter actually encouraged us to get the lower-priced one. And when given the chance to sell us two glasses of wine - one with the appetizer and another with the entrée - our waiter suggested that he could help us select a single glass of wine that would complement both. The staff anticipated our every need, making it very easy to stay and order dessert, a glass of port, and another glass of wine rather than settling up and rushing home as so often happens. It was simply the best service I've had in Rochester, ever, and there's no question that I will be coming back for more soon.

Park Avenue Pub

650 Park Ave, 461-4140

Sun 5-9 p.m., Tue-Sat 5:30-9 p.m., Fri-Sat 5:30-10 p.m.