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La Boîte en Bois certainly lives up to its name, which implies cozy rusticity. The restaurant uses every square foot of space and can feel a bit cramped. The dark wooden ceiling beams, walls textured with horizontal strips of straw-like material, and antique prints and implements provide a calming counterbalance that seems to put the older Lincoln Center crowd at ease. The cuisine similarly comforts with French bistro classics like pâté du chef. Appetizers tend to be rich, hearty, and complex. The homemade duck liver assemblage is festooned with whimsical confetti of gherkins, aspic cubes, and bits of chives. There's also warm garlic sausage with lentils, seafood crêpe with shrimp sauce, and angel hair pasta with snail ragout and Roquefort cheese. The entrecote au poivre, an ordinary shell steak, is transformed by an amazing cracked pepper-loaded cognac sauce—silky with cream and butter, hearty from beef broth, and savory from the liquor and pepper. The accompanying butter-bathed green beans and sweet potato purée are likewise irresistible. The pot au feu de poisson is a masterwork: monkfish, cod, salmon, scallops, shrimp, baby mussels, potatoes and carrots that harmoniously bask in a wine and herb-infused broth. Roast chicken, sautéed calf's liver, and lamb stew with coriander also entice. Familiarity can sometimes breed contentment. — Michael Anstendig

Pâté du chef, $8; pot au feu de poisson la boîte en bois, $26.50; entrecote du poivre, $27.50