Sometimes, words fail me. If I was a poet, I could compose a haiku extolling virtues of Chef Brent Williams' menu at the new Warfield's High Point and be done. Instead, I'm going to have to muddle on, marshalling inadequate words to describe dishes that are innovative, intriguing, and downright exciting.

Take the hot and cold foie gras, for instance (I would, given that it's sublime; $15). The menu describes it as served with brioche, "blackberry flavors," and peanut butter. Pretty simple, right? No. The cold foie gras is in the form of a chantilly creme - something between stiff whipped cream and mousse formed into a football-shaped quenelle and served atop a bed of "peanut butter" which is, the chef informed me, actually dehydrated peanut butter mixed with a tapioca extract to render it into something closely resembling coarse sand. Two thin, golden-brown slices of toasted brioche recline on top of the quenelle. To the right and left sides of the plate, more peanut butter (it reconstitutes in your mouth), and tiny jewel-like cubes of blackberry gelee. At the foot of the plate, a beautifully sauteed square of foie, sitting atop a deep-purple blackberry sauce studded with whole blackberries. Anywhere you start, the flavors are complex and wonderful, sometimes even surprising. Who would have thought that peanut butter, blackberry jam, and goose liver could possibly be so good together? Then again, is there anything that foie gras is bad with? Apparently not.

And this, dear reader, is only one dish on the menu at Warfield's High Point. Every single one of them is just as intricate and surprising. On my first visit, the chef sent out an amuse bouche nestled in a tablespoon: a tiny cylinder of watermelon with a citrus gel on top that looked like a dollop of amber. The flavors were intense and surprisingly big given that the dish was the size of a largish pencil eraser. Even more shocking was the amuse I received my second time around, a watermelon "sphere" that resembled nothing so much as a scarlet egg yolk surrounded by a thin line of 20-year-old balsamic vinegar. The flavor of summer lived in that little sphere, bursting out of the thin membrane that contained it and making me giggle like a kid.

Chef Williams will be the first to tell you that while watermelon spheres, popcorn foams, and cubes of blackberry gelee are fun accents, they don't carry a dish. Sound technique and attention to detail do that. And this is one chef who clearly has his technique down. Graduated 10 years ago from the Culinary Institute of America, Williams is a veteran of pretty much every kitchen of note in our area. He worked at the Lodge at Woodcliff, at Rio Bamba, and Max at Eastman Place, honing his skills. This is the first kitchen that he can call his own, and he and his sous chef, Jeremy Nucelli, have developed a menu with wide appeal. Based on classical cooking techniques combined with whimsical elements and artful presentation that play with your expectations and your tastebuds, it will make even the most jaded of diners sit up and take notice.

Perfectly executed classical technique rather than micro-gastronomic wizardry elevates Williams' chicken duo ($19) to one of the most exciting dishes on the menu. He confits a chicken breast (cooking it and preserving it in its own fat, along with just a bit of duck fat for flavor) and serves it with a single bone protruding to make it easy to pick up and gnaw on the tender, juicy meat. He then bones out a chicken thigh, leaving the skin intact, and forms it into a cylinder (a torchon) that he poaches and then roasts until the skin is golden brown and the meat fork tender.

These alone would be worth an ode, but the farro risotto underneath the chicken breast is stunningly good. Farro is a distant relative of wheat that is kept whole and cooked like arborio rice. Combining the buttery richness of good parmesan with the toothsome texture and buckwheat savor, the farro complements each bite of chicken. This is an excellent use of a grain that is devilishly difficult to cook well, and the mark of an accomplished and attentive chef. Note that indiscriminate dipping and mopping with Warfield's excellent bread, which is shipped daily up from Clifton Springs, is both condoned and encouraged, which is wonderful because the sweet and savory cherry gastrique that adorns the plate is too good to let even a drop escape.

I nearly forgot my manners when our skillful and attentive waitress put a plate containing three fat scallops ($28) in front of me on our first visit. Nestled into a bed of sweet corn among a handful of perfect-looking chanterelle mushrooms and cute, tightly rolled balls of spinach, the scallops were beautifully seared, buttery rich, and so tender that my fork slid right through them almost without resistance. A bacon foam adorned the plate, and one of the scallops was topped with a disc of crispy pancetta that added a welcome crunchy element to the dish.

In Clifton Springs, Warfield's is known for its desserts, and the new restaurant carries on that tradition of excellence. Clifton Springs offers old-school tableside desserts like bananas Foster and cherries jubilee. High Point brings a decidedly modern twist to the pastry chef's art. Again, poetry would be a great help in describing pastry chef David Baran's artful presentations. A single pistachio semifreddo dessert ($8) had several distinct and astounding elements: an intensely pistachio-colored semifreddo ensconced between two wafer-thin pistachio tuiles (think translucent, thin cookies); a second, smaller sandwich of thinly sliced rounds of carrot cake stuffed with a mascarpone cheese frosting and topped with a ball of carrot halwa; and three generous dots of coffee and pistachio puree topped with a roasted pistachio. These were good alone, but even better as a dip for either of the two sandwiches, or for the additional balls of halwa scattered about the plate.

Finally, do remember to turn the glossy, dark chocolate-covered caramels that come with your check upside down when you eat them: those tiny pink grains of sea salt on top make all the difference in the world.

To find Warfield's High Point in City Newspaper's online Restaurant Guide - including a map, user reviews, and more - click here.

Warfield's High Point

207 High Point Drive, Victor

425-2589, warfields.com

Tuesday-Saturday 5-9 p.m.