Pictured: Baked littleneck clams. Photo courtesy of Mitchell's Food and Wine

In a cast-iron pan, baked littleneck clams gleam with maître d’hôtel butter, each shell heaped with golden garlic breadcrumbs. This is Mitchell’s Food and Wine, the Main St. restaurant that Chef Ryan Boeve and partner Mark Baldwin just opened in the former home of their Lucile Pizza and Wine Bar.

Sarasota diners have relished Boeve’s cooking for decades. Zoria’s menu trotted the globe, from plantain-crusted red snapper to togarashi-dusted yellowfin tuna. Pomona’s was French-inspired and fearless, with crispy sweetbreads and foie gras custard. For Mitchell’s, Boeve returns to that classical style, and for longtime fans, few openings this season promise more.

“I want the food to speak for itself,” Boeve says. Amongst the small plates, blue crab and avocado salad, dressed in Old Bay and bonito remoulade, glints with trout roe. Bibb lettuce cradles Key West shrimp scented with lemongrass and scattered with crushed macadamias, served with a lime-coconut XO. Prosciutto di Parma and rough-shaved Parmesan come with torn hunks of rosemary focaccia.

For mains, duck breast glistens in a dark cherry gastrique, its whole cherries spiced for fall, spilling into a mini potato gratin. The sea scallops are its opposite, delicate and bright with a grassy salsa verde and a whisper of lemon. Heartier appetites will find short rib brasato with cipollini onion jam and potato purée. Pizza remains for anyone who misses the old menu, one pie featuring fresh Lion’s Mane and brie.

The partners refreshed the small dining room with midcentury modern design, plus bits of personal nostalgia. Boeve wants “everyone involved.” Chefs carry plates to the tables and stay to chat, while the “front-of-house staff will know how to cook every dish on the menu.”

The name stays in the family. Mitchell was the surname of Boeve’s grandmother, Lucile, and his mother’s maiden name. Boeve carries it as a middle name, and so does his chef de cuisine: his son, Aaron.

Mitchell’s Food and Wine, Mon-Sun 4:30-9 pm, 1660 Main St., Sarasota, 941-951-9191, Instagram: @mitchells_srq.

Pictured: Baked littleneck clams. Photo courtesy of Mitchell's Food and Wine