Back in "the good old days," dining at a country club was always something special. These days, dining at a Denny's is often more exciting.

The good old days are back at Ives Hill Country Club in Watertown. The clubhouse has been completely renovated with a lounge area totally separate from the dining area, each able to accommodate about 70 guests.

And there's a new chef who's gonna give some other restaurants a run for their money. Watertown native Geoff Puccia is back in town after 10 years cooking down South, most recently at the upscale Frankie's Italian Grille in Charlotte, N.C.

Geoff's menu is simple yet subtly sophisticated with a twist of Italian. A half-dozen appetizers and barely a dozen entrées allow the kitchen to prepare and present dishes that not only look great, but are flavorful and imaginative.

Light jazz played from the ceiling speakers at the ideal volume. White and black tablecloths and black napkins further added to the ambiance.

Appetizers are priced right, $7.95 to $9.95, with portion sizes that would suffice for a light dinner.

Bruschetta is a new adventure wherever you go. It's basically toasted garlic bread, topped with chopped tomatoes with varying amounts of onion, garlic, herbs and sometimes cheese.

Geoff keeps his simple, using fresh, bright red Roma tomatoes, good-quality olive oil and fresh basil. If there was onion or garlic in there, you certainly couldn't see it. No melted cheese on top, for sure. And it was served on wonderful hard-crusted ciabatta rolls, halved and lightly toasted, that soaked up all the good stuff.

Caprese and summer seem to go together. This version was especially inventive. Thick rounds of tomato were topped with similar-sized slices of mozzarella and chiffonade of fresh basil, served over a bed of excellent pesto and drizzled with a balsamic reduction.

Bacon-wrapped scallops used good-sized scallops and just the right amount of crisp bacon to not overpower the fish. It was finished with wild honey, a new twist that worked well.

I had the mussels, which were the usual overflowing plateful. They were perfectly steamed in white wine until they opened but didn't toughen. I couldn't wait to get down to the garlic butter herb sauce underneath that was more like a magnificent soup made with fish stock.

Appetizers we didn't get to try are five-spiced calamari served with a fresh tomato dipping sauce, coconut-battered shrimp with an orange marmalade sauce and jumbo shrimp cocktail with house-made cocktail sauce.

We did see the shrimp at the next table, and they sure looked good.

Salads, house or Caesar, come with entrées. The Caesar was a little dry for our liking — all we could taste was romaine and freshly grated parm. But the house salad was exceptional — field greens, pieces of those beautiful Roma tomatoes, pitted kalamata olives and a marvelous balsamic vinaigrette.

Fettuccini con salcicia ($16.95) bows to Geoff's Italian heritage with his house-made sweet sausage in Alfredo sauce served over fettuccini noodles. We loved the sausage — finely ground pork and the classic spices, no doubt an old family recipe. We could have used a touch more of the creamy Alfredo.

Top quality veal is expensive, so many restaurants will serve less than the best. Not so at Ives Hill. The veal in its veal Parmesan ($18.95) is tender, thinly pounded, lightly breaded, topped with a tasty light tomato sauce and melted provolone and served over linguini. A good-sized portion, too.

Chicken parm is also available, priced at $16.95. Or you can get grilled chicken and Utica greens for $17.95. More about Utica greens in a minute.

Blackened honey salmon ($20.95) was a neat dish. Again, quality makes the difference. A beautiful piece of Atlantic salmon was lightly rubbed with Cajun seasoning and caramelized honey, broiled and served over a bed of lemon spinach. The honey, the lemon and the liquid from the spinach made for a tasty sauce underneath.

Other seafood choices are sushi-grade seared tuna ($23.95), served over a bed of snap peas and linguini with clams, and mussels ($20.95) in a spicy white clam sauce.

A good steak always seems like the country club thing to do, and Geoff has three top-quality prime steaks on the menu: a 16-ounce New York strip ($29.95), an 18-ounce French cut bone-in rib-eye ($27.95) and an 8-ounce center-cut filet mignon that bears a market price of $35 to $39.

Pricey? Not really. Prime is the top-of-the-line U.S. Department of Agriculture beef grade, available only to select restaurants and specialty butcher shops. You have to try it once to appreciate it.

The prime strip ($29.95) was a stunning steak, perfectly marbled throughout and grilled just short of medium-rare, which I liked. It was served with a baked potato (no foil) and Utica greens.

While it sounds like the name of a golf course, Utica greens is a slightly spicy vegetable sauté. It's made with wilted escarole, cherry peppers, prosciutto or cappicola, olive oil, Parmesan and bread crumbs. It's found in many Italian restaurants and homes in and around Utica.

Desserts ranked right up there with the rest of our meal.

I'm a sucker for cannoli, especially when I know there's an Italian cooking in the kitchen. The crunchy commercial cannolo shell was just fine, nice and crisp because the homemade ricotta filling is piped in just before serving. Orange zest scattered over and around the cannolo was a nice touch.

Equally nice was the ricotta cheesecake, rich and smooth, not grainy like some that we've tasted. Brownie à la mode had two enormous hunks of sambuca brownie on a plate, leaving very little room for the vanilla ice cream.

Dinner for four, including two glasses of wine at $6.50 each, came to $161 before tip.

The wine we sampled was from California's Bonterra vineyards, which produce their product from organically grown grapes. The chardonnay was fruit-forward with hints of vanilla; the merlot had tastes of berries and coffee with a slight nuttiness. Bonterra wines are the official wines of the PGA.

Alana's service was personable and attentive. She's more often a bartender than a waitress at the club, so if she didn't know the answer to our food questions, she'd make a quick trip to the kitchen to find out.

She served the right food to the right person every time. I asked her how she did that. "It's my job," she replied.

The restaurant at Ives Hill Country Club will be open year-round. If you're into food that's several steps above the rest, be sure to put it on your list.

TIDBITS

Survey time. Do you like baked potato in a restaurant served wrapped in foil or not? Send me an e-mail: wsiebel@wdt.net

Ives Hill Country Club

435 Flower Ave. W.

Watertown

782-1771

Serving dinner 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

Pub menu available all other times.

APPETIZER PICKS: They were all very good, but the Caprese was really outstanding, sliced tomato and mozzarella served over a bed of pesto, drizzled with a balsamic reduction.

ENTRÉE PICKS: Broiled Cajun honey salmon, veal Parmesan, any steak — they're all USDA prime. Be sure to try the Utica greens.

DESSERT PICKS: Ricotta cheesecake, cannoli with house-made ricotta filling.

RATING: 4 and one-half forks.