<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2"> The name is perfect: tonic, the restaurant, brings much-needed culinary vigor to the dull end of Downtown where the new convention center rises, promising an upswing in business and interest.
It's not just Downtown that needs a place like tonic: Any Pittsburgh neighborhood would benefit from an infusion of the fresh, interesting food tonic serves, and the thoughtful design that simultaneously interacts with the busy corner and removes you from the din.
Moroccan shrimp are powdered with turmeric ($8) and flash-grilled to be slightly raw in the center. They are perfect: sweet, fleshy, tender and pink. A cold salad of spicy lime quinoa is the ideal accompaniment.
Seared tuna is shorthand for daring in this city ($8), though elsewhere it is rote. At tonic, it is unusually good. The strips are succulent, sprinkled with black sesame and served with a perfectly salty/sesame/soy seaweed salad. The ropy strands balance the tuna's butteriness.
Manint has a light hand with sesame oil, which is often overpowering. Here, used to its full potential, it adds a musky note to tuna and a starter of edemame and grilled shiitakes ($4). I loved the crunch of undissolved sea salt on the soft mushrooms and crisp pods.
Grilled, wheaty house-made flatbread -- similar to thin and chewy Middle East zatar -- is topped with tomato, basil, grilled eggplant and smoked provolone ($5) to create a smoky, rich fusion bruschetta. The kitchen makes warm herb-crusted chevre ($9) -- often so joyless -- sing with crisped, pert dill.</font>