Go through your mail

THE recent economic kick in the gut seems to have affected just about everyone. Even those who didn't have anything to lose in the stock market, and haven't yet seen any change in their paychecks, are tightening their belts as they await the next piece of economic bad news. For me, that means dining out a few less times a week, and trying to find way to save a few bucks on those nights I do.

As part of my quest for ways to indulge my food habit a bit more economically, I recently found myself flipping through a collection of restaurant discount coupons sent to me in the mail. One in particular caught my eye -- a new tapas restaurant on the west side called Café Deia. It drew my attention because a few weeks earlier I'd seen the name scribbled down on a piece of paper in the office of my friend and colleague Robin Leach. When I'd asked about it, he told me he hadn't tried it yet but the chef, Christophe Bonnegrace (formerly of Little Buddha and Bleu Gourmet), was an old friend. I've dined at several places Robin has recommended in the past, but his "rich and famous" tastes rarely lend themselves to clipping coupons. Clearly, this opportunity was too good to pass up.

Deia is a quaint little restaurant tucked into a massive shopping center on the corner of West Flamingo Road and Grand Canyon Drive. Inspired by the village of Deia on the island of Majorca, it has a warm, inviting vibe that make it perfect for either a casually romantic meal or a long afternoon of drinking and dining with a large group of close friends.

While far too many local tapas restaurants pride themselves on the size of their menus, Bonnegrace has taken the opposite approach. His menu is extremely manageable, although each of the dishes features extraordinary attention to detail. It offers four soups ($5 each), including French onion, gazpacho and a soup of the day. There are a half -dozen salads such as spinach with poached shrimp, zucchini, garlic and lemon sauce ($8) or taboule with parsley, mint tomato and red onion ($7). And three different versions of the traditional Spanish rice dish paella are available ($11-$15).

The 11 cold tapas are generally pretty simple, like melon and imported San Danielle prosciutto ($7), hummus ($4), olive and tomato bruschetta with garlic, basil and balsamic vinegar ($4), or shrimp ceviche with avocado, cucumber, red onions and chilies ($9). The 18 hot tapas are a bit more adventurous. You'll find choices such as shrimp in a spicy sauce of garlic, red chilies and white wine ($10), mushrooms stuffed with chorizo ($4), a Spanish omelet called tortilla Espenola made with vegetables and chorizo ($4), and chicken drumsticks deep fried and tossed in honey Dijon mustard sauce ($5).

The soups, salad and tapas offerings are diverse enough to wonder why the menu offers anything else. Nonetheless, it also lists a half dozen gourmet thin-crust pizzas ($11-$15). A bit more out of sync with the rest of the menu are the five hamburger options ($9-$11).

In typical tapas style, my wife and I sat down and slowly ordered a few dishes at a time until we were satisfied. Among the first things to completely knock us out was the Mallorcan soup, a delicious concoction of pork, vegetables and crusty bread with just the slightest touch of broth ($5). The menu describes it as the only soup you can eat with a fork, and it's correct. But we were equally blown away by the seafood paella ($15) and the bacon-wrapped figs ($7). I was personally just a little disappointed with the albondigas ($5), but only because the meatballs were done in a traditional Mediterranean style and a lot more dense than the Mexican version I've grown to love. Nonetheless, there was no denying the perfection of their accompanying spicy tomato sauce.

Sauces, it turns out, are where this chef excels. The two greatest dishes of our night were the imported black Mediterranean mussels in garlic and white wine ($9), and the tiger shrimp marinated in garlic and olive oil and sautéed in white wine and parsley ($10). In both cases, the sauces were so amazing I found myself repeatedly asking for more bread to soak up every last drop.

As a rule, the service at Deia was very good, although my waiter did forget to deliver our order of olive tapenade ($4). But we had more than enough food, so it was forgivable.

Deia is one of the best new restaurants I've discovered in a while, with or without a coupon. But I highly encourage them to keep lending potential customers a hand during these tough times.