Every time I walk down a street in New York, almost anywhere, I can look up and suddenly be astonished by a building I've passed a hundred times and never really noticed suddenly transformed into a thing of great beauty. This is the case with an edifice on lower Madison Avenue that houses Country restaurant. Lyrically lighted from the outside, the early 20th century Beaux Arts building is a graceful period piece called the Carlton Hotel, which had grown considerably shabby over the years, now impeccably renovated by David Rockwell.

Inside, save for original mosaic tile floors and an extraordinary 1911 Tiffany glass skylight unexpectedly uncovered during construction, all is a marvel of sophisticated new restaurant design, from the dark wood of the downstairs Café and the shadowy lighted lounge, up a truly grand staircase and glass catwalk to a superbly decorated dining room with an open kitchen and Champagne Bar. The wood mouldings and coffered ceiling have a magnifence softened by glowing ceiling light thrown by huge square lampshades. The tablesettings are superb, including a lovely little candle that casts an intimate light, and they have a rolling silver cart for service of cheeses. Chairs have soft, embracing arms; every comfort seems thought through.

This is all quite an undertaking for Chef-partner Geoffrey Zakarian, whose Town restaurant, now five years old, is Country's uptown corollary. I liked the food at Town when it opened and still do, though I always found the subterranean room sterile and the noise level dreadful. The upstairs restaurant at Country is a night-and-day difference, a warm, airy, beautifully glowing restaurant with perfect lighting for every complexion, playing softly on the fine linens, silverware, and glassware set upon the tables. The service staff is highly professional and well dressed, the winelist first class (and decently priced), and the fixed menu price is very right for this kind of countrified haute cuisine: $85 for four courses. And, you are welcomed with a glass of Champagne and amuses.

Zakarian has a fine record, having worked at the original Le Cirque, then as exec chef at `21' Club. Next was another pair of numbers--the trendy "44" at the Royalton Hotel--followed by a stint at Blue Door at the Delano Hotel in Miami, then he returned to NYC to head the kitchen at steaks-and-chops venue Patroon, before opening Town in 2001. In each case the food was always good, sometimes quite refined within its genre, but I feel at Country Zakarian is cooking with a passion I have not previously tasted. Indeed, Country is clearly one of the best restaurants to open in New York in the last year and a testament to how fine design and highly personalized cuisine can coalesce into something new, even when a jaded gourmand thinks he's seen it all.

I have not yet dined at the Café downstairs, but it's nice you can have a casual breakfast, lunch or dinner there, with items like French Toast stuffed with fig jam and hazelnut butter; country biscuits and smoked ham slathered with South Carolina spiced currant jelly; steak frites; skate wing with roasted artichokes, cherries and arugula; and lacquered ribs with grits topped with smoked pork.

Upstairs the food gets far more sophisticated but shares a certain scrumptious sensibility that buoys the restaurant's name admirably. You begin with several choices of breads, but it's not easy to get past some yeasty, soft rolls, described as Parker House rolls but somewhat closer to monkey bread. By whatever name, they are addictive as heaven.

I like the specific size of the menu: four first courses, and five each of middle and main courses, with six desserts, and cheese. I wanted to order everything, and, since there were four of us one night, we almost did, beginning with a lustrous velouté of crèpes with a kind of marmalade made from the mushrooms, a sautéed soft and buttery egg, and equally buttery toasted brioche--a perfect portmanteau dish between late winter and early spring.

There was also simply seared, very tender squid with a spicy Basque piperade and herbs, dressed with fine olive oil, and a dodine (like a galantine) of foie gras and pigeon that was both earthy and silky, served with mâche salad, roasted apple, and a touch of assertive mustard jam that brought the whole dish together. Even a plate of lettuces and shaved winter vegetables showed that Zakarian is putting as much thought into salad as everything else; he livens it up with a walnut and blood orange vinaigrette.

Among the second courses I loved a rich torte of duck with bitter endive and a duck ham salad. Truffle-roasted sweetbreads were good and meaty, nicely seared, and served with potato fondant, hearts of Romaine lettuce, and cheese-rich pommes aligot. A red mullet, juicy and not too fishy, came with melted fennel and black olives--the "country" here was obviously Provence--and there was much to love about a recommended warm vegetable fricassée with a purée of truffles and delicious citrus sabayon.

I haven't had better spit-roasted chicken (one of the specialties) than the succulent golden beauty at Country, with salty, textured Swiss chard and artichokes, proving again that chicken can be among the most sublime of ingredients. So, too, Berkshire pork had the right amount of fat to make it very juicy, served with potato gnocchi and both raw and cooked mushrooms. If you favor seafood, there are two options on the main course menu --Dover sole with celeriac cream, hazelnuts, and "yellow wine," a lovely coalescence of flavors and textures. Lobster comes with salsify, chanterelles, and black truffles--a dish that would easily cost in excess of $100 in Paris; here it is part of the four-course menu. And if you want to eat very heartily, by all means opt for the grilled prime rib of beef, a generous slab done impeccably to your taste and served with tiny ricotta ravioli and a classic daube sauce of beef juices and red wine. In any steakhouse in NYC that dish would cost you $45 alone.

And you get dessert--or you might select from a very fine array of ripe cheeses deftly and efficiently served at the table. I am quite the wide-eyed child when it comes to fluffy, white oeufs à la neige, otherwise known as "floating island," light meringues with crème anglaise and a citrus salad and orange sorbet to boot. A pear and walnut tart comes with a cheesecake mousse and pear granité, all thanks to pastry chef Craig Harzewski.

your list of new restaurants to visit. And if you live in NYC, you may want to take all your out-of-town friends here to show them a very good time. And if you don't get out much at all but crave the kind of food I've just described, you may buy a copy of Zakarian's first cookbook--Geoffrey Zakarian's Town and Country.