Restaurant review: The Patio at 15 Church

Chairs recline you comfortably, eclectic, hip music floats in the air and smiling staff proffer one of the area's fiercest cocktail lists.

[...] it's Executive Chef Brady Duhame who's injecting humor and a relaxed beachside feel to the high-end summer scene.

Since Brian Bowden, formerly in charge of the kitchen at Mingle on the Avenue in Saratoga, is capably manning the pass inside 15 Church, Duhame can go out to the sandbox to play.

There are slightly fuzzy plans to have the patio open May to November, give or take, so the outdoor space leans on 15 Church's ample wine list, curated by Jonathan Stewart, and popular items from inside — ricotta gnocchi, veal chop and the Brady burger — before taking a headlong leap into summer.

In a nod to Duhame's coastal stints in Chatham, Martha's Vineyard, Nantucket and Boston, the menu is loaded with a raw bar, crispy oysters, fried Ipswich clams and battered fish and chips — the sort of seaside staples that taste best straight from a beachside shack.

Plump crispy oyster wraps ($16) are light saltwater bursts, piquant with spicy remoulade and cooled off with celeriac slaw and a pile of leafy Bibb-lettuce bunting.

The stone fruit salad ($14) — so-named to give the kitchen maximum latitude at the farmer's market — is a painterly showcase: A softly grilled nectarine spills molten Gorgonzola cheese over speck ribbons and arugula shiny from its marvelously retro Madeira-sherry vinaigrette.

On the patio it's all about looks: A red snapper special ($40) in all its intact glory rests upright on a wooden board as though immobilized in Pompeii's volcanic ash.

Pillowy fillets, splayed open along the spine, wear jeweled slivers of cilantro, spring onions, lemongrass, jalapeno and pink-edged circles of radish like tiny colorful scales.