Walking into Gracie’s is like venturing into a surprise birthday party: a warm room glowing with candles and tiny oil lamps, glittering with golden stars, glinting from reflections in small mirrors. The soft light that suffuses the room seeps into you, making visitors feel pampered from that very first moment.

" Are we three for dinner? " the waitress asked as she showed us to our table, maintaining the inclusive pronoun in a quite charming and completely Gallic fashion throughout the meal. After assuring us that the water is filtered at Gracie’s and answering our many questions about menu items, she brought us piping hot rolls for our bread plates, along with a super-fruity olive oil. The house-made rolls were scrumptious and the oil tasted as though it might have been pressed in the kitchen that afternoon.

As we perused the menu, out waitress arrived with a lagniappe from the kitchen: bite-size portions of beef tartar with parsley-flavored oil for my tablemates and a sample of delectable pear nectar for me. These taste-awakeners were followed by the first course we chose, a " cheese tasting with treats and surprises " ($11). We’d passed up three soups, two salads, two duck dishes, and calamari to arrive at the cheese plate, but it was worth every minute of our decision-making time.

Served on a large white plate — the better to create a colorful canvas — were three French cheeses: a Roquefort bleu, a chèvre, and a Reblochon, made, respectively, from sheep, goat, and cow’s milk. They were each delightful, the Roquefort tangy and salty, the chèvre characteristically tart-sweet, the Reblochon creamy and slightly herby. Accenting the flavors of the cheeses were tiny soupçons of candied hazelnuts, fresh rhubarb jam, pomegranate and pumpkin seeds, braised cranberries and kumquats, a fresh fig, and dustings of carrot, beet, and vanilla powders. The variations on savory and sweet themes on the tongue seemed infinite.

For entrées, Bill chose the lamb loin ($26), our friend Baiba opted for the monkfish ($24), and I, with a more meager appetite, ordered the day boat scallops ($11) from the first course selection. We were each as happy as a proverbial clam. Bill’s lamb, imported from Colorado, was grilled medium-rare to his liking. The dish was accompanied by autumn vegetables, including broccoli, cauliflower, tiny red onions, and halved white radishes. On a large square plate, the lamb sat atop the veggies in one corner, and diagonally across was a parsnip-shaped display of yummy parsnip puree.

For variation, Baiba’s plate was an oval, the roasted monkfish perched on the same vegetable melange, with the addition of braised endive and tiny red bliss potatoes. A smoked bacon sauce surrounded the whole. We all sampled the monkfish and loved its firm flesh, reminiscent of lobster meat, as our knowledgeable waitress had suggested.

To keep things interesting, my scallops were served in a large white bowl, three fat, expertly seared scallops with a tasty butternut squash puree underneath and a pumpkinseed oil emulsion frothing around them. This was the perfect amount for me, as I can seldom eat more than three scallops anyway, and being so plump, they were quite filling.

Not filling enough to preclude dessert, however. Especially once I began to read through the intriguing selections: poached pears with honey-ginger ice cream and a black pepper syrup; a Napoleon of caramelized apples, pastry and caramel ice cream; chocolate pudding cake with a hazelnut praline; a vanilla bean crème brûlée; and, my choice, an " autumn custard tasting. " All desserts are $8, unless you’d like the cheese tasting for your final course, at $11.

The autumn custards were pumpkin, coffee-ginger, and chocolate-hazelnut. The latter was a luscious pot-de-crème, the coffee and pumpkin were both baked, with a thin brûlée coating on top. These were so delicious and satisfying, it was like eating the warm filling your mom’s making for your birthday cake before she can spread it between the layers. Which brings me full circle to the special feeling you get at Gracie’s — they really care what you’re eating and what you’re experiencing at their restaurant.

The wine list at Gracie’s is a comprehensive but careful selection of reds, whites, and sparkling wines, from the usual suspects — Sonoma, Napa, Italy, France, Australia — but also reaching toward Oregon, New Zealand, Germany, and even Long Island. There’s an intimate bar area separated by a knotty pine room divider (even more space for candles and stars along its top edge). The apricot-colored walls above the pine panels on other sides of the room enhance the warmth of the space.

Owner Ellen Gracyalny and executive chef Champe Speidel have combined their talents to make Gracie’s welcoming and wonderful. The not quite over-the-top décor, with its star theme carried through so thoroughly, seems appropriate for the food that emerges from the kitchen. Forget Michelin’s three stars, the restaurant seems to say, the sky’s the limit for our customers.