DINING RECAP

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Scout is not in a hotel, though it is a hotel restaurant.

The principal personalities at Scout have hotel experience deep in their blood. Chef Michael Semancik previously led the kitchen at the Mansion on Forsyth Park in Savannah. Manager Chris Martha studied hotel restaurant management at Penn State, not to mention his years of experience with Hyatt and others since. Nate Shuman, a bartender who previously mixed drinks in the basement of the Georgian Terrace hotel, has lent his talents to the beverage program here.

Like a hotel, though, it can feel a little impersonal. The menu is vaguely Southern. One of the dangers of pleasing everyone is that it leaves precious little time for personality.

French fries are pleasantly crisp and salty. Cauliflower florets are fried in a Pabst Blue Ribbon batter and served with horseradishspiked sour cream. A salad of local lettuces is topped with a pleasantly sweet crumble of pecan brittle.

But these rather average small plates obscure much more interesting food, like the Angels on Horseback, a dish of warm, buttery oysters and bacon lardons over a slab of toasted brioche. It is a comfort dish of notable vintage, the kind of thing that a student of classic menus might know, and the rendition that Semancik is putting out of his kitchen is top-notch.

CONTRIBUTED BY MIA YAKEL Scout’s Angels on Horseback is composed of shucked oysters, smoked bacon and grilled brioche.