When Saul and Lisa Bolton chose a spot in Boerum Hill for their first restaurant, their friends called them crazy.

The Smith Street space--a former soup shop--seemed all wrong for showcasing the high-profile training Saul Bolton had received at Bouley and Le Bernardin. But the couple's goal wasn't to replicate those grand dining rooms. Instead, they made the restaurant an extension of themselves: attentive but unfussy, familiar but formal.

Ten years later, Saul is equal parts neighborhood fixture and dining destination, anchored by remarkably consistent seasonal food and a staff that sticks around.

Bolton recently paired carrots with the perfumey notes of coriander in a velvety chilled soup ($15) topped with crunchy carrot chips. And a seafood chowder ($16) shirks any relation to the oft-encountered gloop: Instead, Manila clams, shrimp, mussels and bacon swam in a diaphanous broth speckled with herbs.

Veal sweetbreads ($29) regularly frequent the restaurant's highly seasonal menu: In one rendition, they appeared pan-roasted on a chickpea puree with a hint of cumin, accompanied by raw radish slices, sheep's-milk yogurt and a dusting of pimentón.

Having seen Saul through 10 years of trials and triumphs, Bolton will be spending the next several months in a new kitchen: The Vanderbilt, a contemporary American gastropub in Prospect Heights, which is scheduled to open in October.

Saul, 140 Smith St. (between Dean and Bergen sts.); 718-935-9844 or saulrestaurant.com